Comfort food

[dolorosa_12]

There is a particular dish which is, to me, the very definition of comfort food. Growing up, I think we probably ate it once a week (both my parents cooked it, but their versions differed subtly). I think it was one of the first things I learnt how to cook, and after I moved out of home it was one of a set of several meals that I cycled through every couple of weeks. I've moved house (and country) lots of times in my adult life, and, almost without realising it, I fell into the habit of cooking this dish on the first night in a new house. It became something of a ritual to mark the fact that I'd become secure in a new suburb, city, or country: locate the ingredients for comfort food, make a new kitchen my own.

It's an incredibly simple dish, and requires only five ingredients and about twenty minutes of your time. It's based on a recipe by Marcella Hazan because my mother learnt to cook from my father in New York in the '80s, and Marcella Hazan was A Thing then.


Ingredients
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
a bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
two tins of chopped tomatoes
two small tins or one large tin of tuna, the kind that's in olive oil (the olive oil gives it a better flavour; tuna in water or brine has a very bland flavour)
any variety of pasta that you desire (I think it tastes best with fusilli or farfalle, but it's down to personal preferences)
olive oil for frying

Directions
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat.
When it's warm, add the chopped garlic, and fry until they're a light gold colour.
Add the parsley. You may need to turn down the heat or remove the pan for a moment, as the heat tends to make the parsley jump around in the air.
Once the parsley has been lightly fried, add the tinned tomatoes. Simmer over a low heat for about ten minutes.
While the sauce is cooking, boil a pot of water, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook it for as long as the packet suggests (usually no more than twelve minutes).
Drain the tuna through a sieve, letting the oil fall into a bowl so that it doesn't run down the drain. Don't worry about getting all the oil out, as it will add flavour.
Add the tuna to the sauce and turn up the heat slightly. Cook for about two minutes, or until the tinned tomatoes are no longer watery and the tuna has been blended into the sauce (you might have to break it up with a fork so that it's not all clumped together).
Drain the pasta, and serve with as much sauce as you require (my sister and I maintain that it needs to be a fifty-fifty split between sauce and pasta, but it's down to personal preference).

Serves about four.


Do any of you have particular dishes that define comfort food for you?

Comments

[pax_athena]

There aren't any particular individual dishes, but I do find myself cooking dishes that my mother did cook when I was a kid when down phases strike ... I don't even know proper names for most of them and often it's simple things: panfried potatoes, a simple salad ...

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I cook so many things that I grew up eating. I used to watch my parents cooking when I was a child, hanging around in the kitchen and helping where I could, and it left me with a repertoire of simple dishes that I was able to draw on when I moved out of home.