ROUSES_MarApr2019_Magazine-R

photo by Romney Caruso

PASTaLAYA

by David W. Brown

If King Solomon wrote a cookbook, there would be a picture of pastalaya on its cover. You want pasta? And you want jamba- laya? Pastalaya it is! No one even bothered thinking up a new name, like “Creole linguini” or “Cajun cavatelli.” They went for the portmanteau and called it a day. But what is this creature, really, this pastalaya? Enemy of all that is good and normal? Look, I grew up in Gonzales, Louisiana — the self-proclaimed jambalaya capital of the world! At the annual jambalaya festival, the use of pasta is a disqualifier. Go rice, or go home. But when it is done right, perhaps the wisdom of the recipe becomes apparent. Perhaps rice has been coasting all these years, with the vegetables and seasoning doing all the important work. “Pastalaya is basically the exact same thing as jambalaya, only with pasta instead of rice,” says Marc Ardoin, the corporate chef for Rouses Markets. Assuming that Gordon Ramsay is not joining you for dinner, you don’t even have to make the pasta fresh. Just grab a bag from the store shelf and chuck it in the basket (though you might want to avoid making eye contact with fellow shoppers). The best pasta to use for a dish like this is bowtie or penne — something with shape. Like its rice-based counterpart, there are two types of pastalaya: brown and red. Look, I’m not here to judge. If you prefer red jamba/ pastalaya, that’s fine, but just be aware that you are the only person

who likes it. And every time you cook it for your friends, they like you less and less. They are talking about you behind your back on Face- book. And, serve it one more time, and they will become actively hostile, if not outright enemies. (Not judging.) When preparing the dish, Ardoin recommends the use of a nice cast-iron pot or something oven-safe with a heavy bottom to it. “You want the heat to be evenly distributed across the bottom of the pot,” he says. Thin cookware might lead to the dish heating more in some places than others, leading to burning. The first step in the prepara- tion is to render your sausage. Cook it low and slow until the fat starts lightly sizzling and melts away from the meat. (If you would also like to use pulled pork in your dish, heat it at the same time.) If pig isn’t enough and you are using all God’s creatures in this dish, pull the sausage from the pot once rendered and add your chicken, cooking it in the pork fat. If you have a favorite Creole seasoning, here’s the time to break it out. (Ardoin recommends Paul Prudhom- me’s seasoning blends, which offer a variety of spices without a lot of salt; they also come in no-salt and no-sugar varieties). Once the chicken is nice and brown, remove it. Veggie time: Without cleaning the pot, add onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, green onion and parsley to the pot, slowly cooking them down. “Make sure you scrape up all those little bits stuck to the bottom of the pot,” advises Ardoin. It’s going to take about 25 minutes to cook the vegetables. This isn’t a race; keep the heat low.

58 MARCH•APRIL 2019