Magnificent News: Eat Voraciously | Budget Week Day 2: Cucina povera

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Here's what's for dinner tonight.

By G. Daniela Galarza

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Budget Week Day 2: Cucina povera

Welcome back to Budget Week. It's Day 2, and in case you missed me yesterday, this week, I'm featuring recipes that can be made for under $2 per serving*.

I thought it might be worth talking about the Italian concept of cucina povera. It literally translates to poverty cuisine, and it can be strictly defined as a collection of recipes developed ages ago that eliminate food waste, are efficient with energy usage, are hearty and full of flavor, and, crucially, cost very little to make.

Some of these are well-known, like ribollita or other soups thickened with stale bread. Others are more niche. "There's an amazing one from Molise, which is a rural region in Southern Italy with maybe 300,000 residents," cookbook author Katie Parla tells me by phone from Rome. "One of the classic dishes is pizz' e foje, which is stale polenta that you fry with bitter greens like chicories, garlic, chiles and so much oil. It's super simple, but delicious."

Parla — whose next book, "Food of the Italian Islands," will be released in March — notes that ingredients like pasta and black pepper, which feature prominently in tonight's recipe for a riff on pasta alla gricia, would never be found among traditional cucina povera recipes. "Pasta and offal dishes are sometimes characterized as cucina povera, but that's not always the case," Parla says, "because the innards weren't relegated to impoverished tables — recipes for offal appeared in cookbooks, so we know the nobility was eating like this, too. And pasta wasn't a daily meal until the mid-20th century."

The recipes that comprise traditional cucina povera are location-specific, having been developed by cooks in the Italian countryside with easy access to cheap and plentiful olive oil, lard, polenta and fresh produce. They aren't necessarily inexpensive for, say, a downtown D.C. resident like myself to make. At my local markets, olive oil is quite expensive, and a package of pasta is cheaper than a canister of cornmeal. The reason we're having pasta tonight is because I think it's helpful to think of cucina povera as a cooking theory instead of a collection of recipes. Instead of making a traditional cucina povera recipe, think about the strategies that these inventive Italian cooks referred to when developing their recipes:

Waste not, want not: Like Depression-era recipes in the United States, the recipes of cucina povera demand that nothing goes to waste. Even the dregs from a can of tomatoes could flavor a simple soup of bread and greens.
Energy efficiency: Back when the community oven was fired up only once a week, it was filled with everyone's dough, and once those loaves were finished baking, the residual heat was used to cook other food.
Using every bit: Bones become stock and soup, flavored with vegetable scraps and the rind of parmesan.
Relying on what's at hand: Ingredients that were plentiful, such as olive oil and polenta, were used more liberally to add heartiness to simple dishes.

💸 Tonight's recipe cost me a total of $7.52, or $1.25 per person for 6 people. 💸

*The majority of Americans purchase the majority of their food at their nearest grocery store. All of the shopping for this week's Eat Voraciously recipes was done the week of Sept. 5, 2022, at a Safeway grocery store in downtown Washington, D.C. Store discounts and coupons were used when applicable and available. Safeway is a subsidiary of Albertsons, which is the second-largest grocery chain in North America.

Cooking oil, salt, pepper and optional ingredients were omitted from the cost of these recipes.

Today's recipe

Photos by Tom McCorkle for The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post

Pasta Alla Gricia (Cheesy Pasta With Bacon and Kale)

This is a riff on traditional pasta alla gricia that's a bit more streamlined and just as satisfying.

Find substitution suggestions and other tips below the recipe.

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Servings: 4 to 6
Active time: 15 mins
Total time: 40 mins

Ingredients

Fine salt, optional
1 pound spaghetti
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling the pasta
8 ounces bacon, guanciale or pancetta, cut into 3/4-inch cubes or strips
10 1/2 ounces curly kale, stems removed, chopped or torn into bite-size pieces
1 cup (3 1/2 ounces) finely grated pecorino Romano cheese or parmesan cheese
Freshly ground black pepper

Steps

1. Bring a large pot filled with 2 quarts of water to a boil. Add salt, if desired. Cook the pasta in the boiling water for 7 minutes, or about 4 minutes less than the package instructions indicate.

2. When the pasta is cooked, drain, reserving 1 1/2 cups of the cooking water. Drizzle the drained pasta with olive oil. Use tongs or a wooden spoon to toss and coat the pasta with the oil.

3. Dry the pot with a kitchen towel and set it over medium heat. Add the 1 tablespoon of oil and heat until shimmering. Add the bacon and cook, stirring frequently, until the fat is mostly rendered, about 5 minutes. If bits of meat are sticking to the bottom of the pot, add a splash of pasta water and use a wooden spoon to loosen them.

4. Add the kale and cook, stirring, until it wilts and starts to brown in spots, 3 to 4 minutes.

5. Reduce the heat to low. Fluff the cooked pasta with a fork and then add it, the cheese and 1 cup of the reserved pasta water to the pot. Stir vigorously until the cheese melts and transforms into a creamy sauce that coats the pasta, 4 to 5 minutes. If the sauce is too thick or dry, add more pasta water, 2 tablespoons at a time, until it reaches the desired consistency. Taste and season with pepper, as desired. Transfer to a large, shallow bowl and serve family-style.

Recipe adapted from "Keeping It Simple: Easy Weeknight One-Pot Recipes," by Yasmin Fahr (Hardie Grant Books, 2019). Tested by Ann Maloney.

Nutrition information per serving, based on 6: Calories: 570; Total Fat: 24 g; Saturated Fat: 9 g; Cholesterol: 40 mg; Sodium: 520 mg; Carbohydrates: 61 g; Protein: 23 g.

Substitution suggestions + other tips and ideas:

This isn't a classic pasta alla gricia by any means — think of it as an adaptation, and then use that to free you to make any adjustments you'd like.
Spaghetti tends to be the least expensive pasta shape at most grocers >> but feel free to use any long pasta you have in your pantry.
To make this meatless (and less expensive!) >> toss in a can (drained and rinsed) of chickpeas, either stirred in with the sauce, or crisped up and added at the end.
Kale too pricey? >> Grab any dark leafy green or even broccoli.
Pecorino tends to be less spendy than parmesan >> but even cheddar would work fine here.
You'll likely have some leftover kale and bacon. Save them for tomorrow's dinner!