I’ve been waiting for the ultimate expression of the newstalgia craze to surface. And I think I’ve found it: It’s a 3-ingredient recipe with a 1-ingredient update… And of course, Italian Food Guru Stanley Tucci is behind it!
Stanley Tucci’s newstalgized Pastina Classica: Three ingredients, infinite pleasure!
There’s no mystery to this creamy, cheesy dish. And no set ‘must-be measured’ ingredient amounts. Or cooking times. Or anything, really…
You are the secret ingredient!
Just pull all the necessities out of your pantry – 99 percent of you will already have them all on hand – and go!
The finished dish is actually very similar to Fettuccine Alfredo. And will remind you of an Orzo-based ‘faux-Risotto’. But it’s got a unique texture, a rich, creamy flavour and a homey character that’ll make you think you’re breakfasting in a rural Italian B&B…
What is it, already!?
Newstalgia is all about resurrecting an old standard faovurite, and updating it with a twist that the Younger Gens will be drawn to. And I was reading, just the other day, that Fettuccine Alfredo is considered passé by the Gen Zers. Though it’s still a classic, a go-to side for many another Italian Main, and a unique pleasure for folks who like their exotic dining experiences to be simple, elegant and uncomplicated…
In essence Tucci’s Pastina Classica is just what the name implies: Pastina is literally Italian for ‘Little Pasta’, of which the diminutive pasta shape of the same name is the preferred type for this recipe. But you can make it with the aforementioned Orzo, Stelline, Ditalini, Couscous or even Orecchietti.
(The recipe appears in full at the bottom of the page at the link in the previous paragraph. Just keep scrolling until you hit the appropriate sub-heading.)
What’s the update?
It’s the pasta, of course. And it makes all the difference to this dish. Really. Makes it an all-new mouth-feel experience, in fact.
Hint: Make sure you follow Tucci’s detailed – but still simple – instructions for preparing this delicate dish to the letter. There’s an unwritten rule for acing ‘simple elegance’ in Italian or French dishes: the fewer the ingredients, the greater the care that’s needed to produce the optimum result.
But there’s another item I consider a major update.That’s the genuine, grated, Parmigiano Regiano. It makes a world of difference if you spend a little more of your precious food budget on some authen-tic prime-aged Parmigiano. Parm that’s been pre-grated, factory-processed or leftover-already-grated from even a day or two ago is just not in the same league.
Introducing…
The author of the source post that inspired my post is Bailey Fink, a Younger Gens type who is officially identified as a News Editor as well as contributor to Allrecipes.com.
She almost sounds like an newstal-gized version of me! Our tastes and preferences in a wide variety of foods correspond pretty closely – so closely that I have to wonder if we’re somehow related….
I’ll be keeping an eye out for her byline at Allrecipes.co in future. And I have a feeling you’ll be hearing more from and about her in this space as time goes by!
My take
Do make this simple, elegant, gently updated dish, and enjoy it as soon as you have an excuse to fit it into your meal plan!
~ Maggie J.