Don’t be a stranger to Spaghetti Collins

Food: Recipe – Spaghetti Collins

When you’re feeling like a noodle, Pascale Manale’s Spaghetti Collins will be your friend for life — onions, garlic and all

By Louise Crosby

If some of us are suffering from a certain end-of-winter, when-will-it-ever-feel-like-spring malaise, our usual enthusiasm for cooking, or doing much of anything for that matter, might possibly be lacking. Day after day of cold and rain, snow still on the ground, and the promise of another polar vortex bearing down – in April, of all months – can get a person down. Let’s just get take-out, we say to ourselves, sinking back into the pillows with our book.

Well, here’s a simple and delicious pasta dish that should get us back into the kitchen. It’s called Spaghetti Collins and it comes from Pascal’s Manale restaurant in New Orleans, named after a friend of the owner. The recipe is included in Saveur: The New Classics Cookbook, put out by the editors of Saveur magazine. You can make it in no time and with only a few ingredients: six bunches of scallions; garlic; white wine; chicken or veal stock; olive oil; butter and Parmigiano-reggiano cheese. My only change to the recipe was to include chicken stock as an alternative to veal stock, since it’s probably easier to round up, and easy is what we’re looking for right about now.

Scallions, also known as spring onions, don’t usually take centre stage in a dish, but here they are the main attraction, seducing us with their sweet, oniony taste and their bright green colour. The butter and cheese add a delicious, satisfying richness. This is a dish you will probably make over and over again, and not just on cold, grey days.

Spaghetti Collins

⅓ cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
6 bunches scallions, trimmed and chopped
⅓ cup white wine
½ cup veal or chicken stock
4 tablespoons butter
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
1 pound cooked spaghetti
Parmigiano-Reggiano

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, scallions, and white wine. Cook until soft, 2-3 minutes; then add stock and butter. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until sauce is creamy, 1-2 minutes.
Toss with cooked spaghetti, and sprinkle with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Serves: 6

For more delicious recipes from Louise Crosby, click here or visit KitchenonFourth.com