A goto dish

Pork chops, tomatoes and pasta
Burkinis, green flared hipsters and Iberian ancestry

I've looked back on my World Cup posts, yes I do read my own posts, unfortunately much like text messages it's usually after I've pressed the send button. Reading those posts it strikes me that I have a handful of goto dishes, dishes who's origin are lost in time but are easy, tasty and, well, goto. I'm waiting for one such dish to cook as I write.

It is quite by chance that I rediscovered the draft of an unpublished blog I had been working on over a year ago. The blog was based around a conversation over a sandwich lunch with a couple of old work colleagues. The focus of the conversation was supposed to be Nigella's then, latest offering, Nigellissima. Unfortunately being of the female variety my colleagues seemed more inclined to discuss her burkini. Not having a clue what this was all about I decided to concentrate on my sandwich and give it a Google when I got home (the burkini that is, not my sandwich).

Despite once being the proud owner of green flared hipsters and a purple Ben Sherman shirt with collars long enough to protect my nipples, I cannot by any stretch of the imagination be classed as a 'dedicated follower of fashion'. I do though like to think of myself as pretty broad minded, even so I'm not broad minded enough to find the pictures of Nigella in her burkini acceptable. To be honest I found them quite disturbing and having re-googled I still do!

Before we get too engrossed in Nigella's fashion faux pas or for that matter mine, what about Nigellissima. My friends and I, in common with more knowledgable commentators are of the opinion that not only was the burkini a step too far, but so was Nigellissima. Stop teeth sucking, I'm normally a great fan of the curvy goddess, after all, having studied every episode of every previous series, I've come to the conclusion that she knows I'm watching and can't resist flirting with me. Unfortunately flirting is not enough to mitigate her latest offering in which a lot of the dishes seem to have come completely off the rails.

It was part way through episode 5 that I finally had enough. Risottata!

I have no issue with risottata in principle and it may well be that 'this way of cooking pasta is all the rage in Italy right now' as she informs us, but somehow I doubt it. I cannot imagine the Carluccio's or the Contaldo's of this world going down this route, but I may be wrong. However cooking pasta or noodles in sauce or stock along with the other ingredients as opposed to cooking in boiling water then mixing it with a sauce is not a new concept. The Spanish have been cooking their version of pasta, which they call fideos, this way for quite sometime, even introducing it to Mexico during their little administrative spell there.

Unwittingly, the goto dish gently bubbling away on my stove uses the cooking pasta in sauce technique. I don't claim my dish is Spanish in origin, indeed, I don't claim anything about it. As we have said, the origins of most good goto dishes are lost in time, and this one is no exception. I don't even have a written recipe for it, so it may have metamorphosed over the years. My dish goes under the rather unassuming name of Pork chops with pasta.

My Pork chops with pasta recipe, predates the arrival of pasta of any other type than spaghetti on these shores. It comes from a time when pork chops were cut in line with the rib bone and were allowed to have a slice of kidney attached but let's not just bemoan modern butchery what about the breeders. The first instruction in my pork chop recipe was, if memory serves me rightly, remove the rind and some of the fat from the chop and render it down in a frying or sauté pan. No chance of that with my pork chop. Between the rind and the flesh was the merest millimetre of fat. This poor pig had given it's life, and death, for my culinary enjoyment, the least we could do is let the beast have a layer of fat to keep it warm (and for me to enjoy). To quote Julia Child 'Fat gives things flavour'. Being an America she actually said flavor. She probably pronounced basil, bayzzel, and we can only guess what she would have made of yogurt.

Julia was two or three years younger than our own Fanny Cradock. She was certainly less scary and most certainly more humorous than Fanny who made 'Cruella de Vil' seem lovable. One of the many great quotes attributed to Julia was 'Always remember: If you're alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. Who's going to know?'. This always reminds me of the time Judy my chocolate Labrador licked the Turkey while it was resting on the work top prior to being taken through to the table for Christmas lunch. Nobody ever knew, it was one of many little secrets between the two of us. However when she managed to surreptitiously lick a potato crisp being waved about by a guy holding court in a Lake District pub, I felt obliged to confess on her behalf. Fortunately for the two of us he took it in good humour, in fact, again if memory serves me rightly, he bought her a packet of plain of her own. I think she would have preferred cheese and onion!

As mentioned earlier, the first stage in preparing Pork chops with pasta was originally to remove the rind and some of the fat from the chops and render it down, unless you have a chop from a 'fat pig' probably best to go for a splash of olive oil. Brown your chops on both sides and don't forget the fleshy and hopefully fatty edge. Unless you have asbestos fingers use you tongs to hold the chops on their edge. Be patient and roll your cops slowly backwards and forward so that all of the edge starts to crisp up. When browned and looking yummy pop them on a plate and leave them somewhere to keep warm.

Add another glug of oil to the pan and slowly cook through and colour up some sliced onion. Again take a bit of time over this. One (of many) of my pet hates are recipes that start 'fry the onions for a few minutes until soft'. Onions take time and will respond to a bit of love and attention - love your onions and they'll love you back.

Once the onions are nicely coloured and are giving off that hunger inducing fried onion aroma add a tin of chopped tomatoes and give it a stir. Tinned tomatoes are a great ingredient but don't skimp on them. My chopped tomatoes of choice are Tuscan and canned by a company that's being preserving them this way since 1856. The juice in these tomatoes is thick and saucy but even so it is worth adding a good pinch of sugar.

Now is time to add the pasta. Originally this was spaghetti and to be honest I haven't found a pasta shape or type that works better but it's your choice. The trick is to break the pasta into short lengths, about 1" or if you are metric minded 2.54 centimetres. One of the easiest, and least messy ways to do this is to wrap a bundle of spaghetti in a clean tea towel and do a little thumb action. Add the broken pasta to the pan and give a little stir to coat with the tomato then snuggle the chops into the sauce, and don't forget to add any juices left on the plate.

Cover and let it all bubble away gently till the chops are cooked through and the is pasta cooked and tender, no al dente here. We are talking probably 30 to 40 minutes but keep an eye on it and add a little water if it is looking a bit dry, but not too much, the finished dish should not be quite forkable. If you are really lucky, when cooked, you'll find a little crusty bit on the base of the pan, not dissimilar to the socarrat on the base of a paella. This is cook's perks!

Paella, socarrat, fideos, a lot of Spanish reference here. Could it really be my Pork chops with pasta has Iberian ancestry or could it just be a tasty, filling one pot, from the days when students were poor and only had access to a shared Baby Belling?