A Saucy Sunday Pasta with Olives + An Embarrassing Confession

Please don't judge me

When I get an idea that I’m excited about, I latch onto it, making it a priority (read: obsession) until I follow through with it. Admittedly, I am stubborn, it runs in my family. So last week, I went to a friend’s house for a lovely dinner party here in LA, and she made duck legs. They were fantastic: crispy skin, with just the right amount of saltiness, and tender, flavorful meat. I absolutely loved them. This was surprising to me because I tend to land in the middle with duck. While I do love it, I’ve had less than wonderful preparations out, so I tend to skip it on the menu out of habit and don’t really think to make it at home.  

But this dinner changed me. 

I became preoccupied with making duck legs. (Is this sad to admit?) I had already mapped out the simple and fuss-free method I was going to use, bought some vegetables and potatoes at the farmers market and couldn’t wait for a free day to cook them. While researching duck recipes to see how others had approached it, I came across these two introductory notes for the same Nigella recipe, on two different websites, which made me realize just how wonderful she is as so much of these headnotes speak to me and how I approach cooking. I also loved and appreciated her brutal honesty and boldness—maybe her lack of fear of upsetting people is what also appealed to me as that is something I’m still working on. It also leads me to my confession…

Screenshot from Foodnetwork.com for Nigella's roast duck legs with potatoes

Screenshot from Nigella.com for roast duck legs with potatoes

Dear reader, I used to be a fat phobe.

Her notes probably would have driven me off years ago, which I find embarrassing to admit because I have always thought of myself as a “real food person” or “A gourmet” as Mr. Beard put it, but, in my head, I would have been freaked out about the amount of fat. I think it’s likely because I grew up during a time when fat-free and sugar-free foods were the craze and, because of this, and likely other societal factors involved in growing up as a woman, I believed that fat was the enemy, particularly animal fat. 15 or so years ago, I would have shook my head at a steak, burger or fatty cut of meat, not to mention slabs of sea-salt-sprinkled butter (ones that I would now gladly dive into with a piece of crusty bread), whole milk, eggs, and so on. Olive oil, lean cuts of meat, skim milk or alternative milks were what I would turn to instead, rounded out by lots of fruits and vegetables. Even someone drizzling olive oil to finish a dish made me wonder—why would they ever want to add extra fat?! I was not thinking about flavor, texture or, to be honest, enjoyment of food. I was labeling things as “good” and “bad” with Nigella’s “supposed health concerns” as my reasoning.

And, while it feels now more common or popular, if you will, for people to place themselves in the “trying to eat less meat” category, I find myself moving in the opposite direction. I was a vegetables first person for so long, and, while I still love them, I’m now trying to incorporate more meat and fat into my meals.

This shift really began about 10 years ago, and, please don’t laugh, it started with my skin. I went to see a holistic esthetician in Brooklyn, who, within minutes of examining me, told me that my skin needed more minerals, ones I could find in animal fat and meat. She wowed me by guessing so much about myself based on what she saw, and she has continued to each time I see her, which I did regularly when living there and now whenever I visit NYC. (She is saved in my phone as Emma Skin Savior.) 

When I explained my overall approach to food and eating to her after she asked about my daily diet, Emma, without judgment, gently encouraged me to start eating more fat from animals, sourcing it well and thoughtfully, such as turkey sausage from Di Paola’s in New York, ghee, bone broth—she recommended this before it became somewhat of a trend—and so on. 

Some beautiful vegetables I bought this week at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market—that purple!

While ghee, turkey sausage and bone broth felt like easy additions, I was still living in the vegetable-first realm with sparing amounts of meat and animal fat. Shifting my mindset to get to a place where I could view animal products and fat as something nourishing and actually enjoy eating them without guilt was challenging.

It happened slowly as it tends to with deeply ingrained beliefs, but I am now someone who embraces and seeks out—a certain amount of—fat as something that’s good for me rather than something to be scared of or seen as a “sneaky cheat” or “indulgence.” I’m not a huge fan of either of these terms as I think it casts a negative shadow on the food you’re eating, and, if you’re enjoying it, then that’s great. I think the lesson for me was to learn to stop seeing these foods as something scary and bad and remove the negative viewpoint I learned growing up. I do believe that you can still have a deep love for food but get confused when it comes to understanding what it means to be healthy or eat well as it’s such a loaded topic.

On that note, this is a massive topic to cover, and I apologize for glossing over it. I hope you know that I realize that eating choices also stem in religion, culture and history, and, there are legitimate health reasons for avoiding certain foods, so in no way am I judging or condemning those choices—please, do whatever makes you happy and feel the best. That’s truly all I wish for anyone. I also don’t mean this to be a lecture, medical advice or something you need to change about your life or choices, which I respect as yours to make, especially if you don’t want to hurt animals. I love them too, and it’s tricky navigating this space.

What struck me and why I felt compelled to share this is because I could see just how much I had changed. When I first made duck confit during an intensive course at the French Culinary Institute over 15 years ago, I was thoroughly appalled at the amount of fat used (please remember my fat-phobe mindset at the time). And, while I didn’t make duck confit, all week I was consumed by and excited to eat duck legs and duck-fat-soaked vegetables (and they were unbelievably delicious). What I onced viewed as the enemy is now something that brings me an immense amount of joy, and I can savor and relish in that eating experience without bringing any negativity or judgement to it. In fact, I’m trying to push my family into letting me make it for our Christmas lunch.

After all that duck and fat talk, we are not making a duck recipe today, instead, this recipe is a meat-filled pasta, similar to the Easy Sunday Meat Sauce I mentioned last week from my upcoming book (which I can’t wait to talk all about in the next newsletter!), as I have found myself making variations of it several times in the past couple of weeks. This particular version came about when I had leftover olives from recipe developing, plus leftover meat sauce, and now you know a little how my brain works. Hope you enjoy! xx

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Sunday Pasta with Green Olives + some notes!

Not quite a puttanesca, not quite a Bolognese, plus some warming spices throw in, this recipe draws on these lovely dishes for happy Sunday or anytime-of-the-week supper.

There is a lot going on in here, so I included (optional) behind ones that you can skip, depending on your energy level and cravings and their swaps below. 

• You can add a thinly sliced red onion to the pot before adding the mushrooms/carrots, too or swap it in for some sweetness. 

• If you prefer the carrots to be less noticeable, then you can dice them (and the mushrooms too). This is more of a chunky sauce. 

• You can skip the red wine and add a splash of sherry or red wine vinegar, if you’d like. 

• For the olives, if your supermarket has a deli bar, then you can also buy pitted lemon-garlic olives, an olive mixture of kalamata, black and green, or whatever catches your eye. If you like snacking on them, then you’ll probably enjoy them in the pasta. I would just skip any stuffed olives (like cheese and such).

• You can also simmer this sauce for longer, just put the lid halfway on and let it cook gently for up to an hour or two. You can always add a splash of water or the cooked pasta water if it looks too thick at any point.

• An apology note: I know it’s annoying to call for less than the full amount of pasta in a package, but I did make it with a full pound once and it was just too much pasta for the sauce.

Serves 4

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• ½ pound cremini mushrooms, woody ends trimmed, thinly sliced (optional)

• 2 small carrots, unpeeled and thinly sliced

• 1 pound 80/20 ground beef

• 2 teaspoons ground cumin

• 2 teaspoons ground turmeric

• 1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more as desired

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste, preferably double-concentrated

• ½ cup red wine, preferably what you’re drinking

• 1 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes

• 1 cup pitted green olives, such as castelvetrano, roughly chopped

• 3/4 pound (12 ounces) short or long pasta of your choice

• Grated Parmesan, for serving

1. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or pot over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and let cook, stirring every minute or 2, until they shrink down, about 4 minutes. Add the carrots, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften in texture, 3 to 4 minutes. Push them to the sides of the pot, then add the meat in the center. Season with salt and the spices, then stir, to mix everything together. Continue to cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon into small pieces, until no pink spots remain, 5 to 7 minutes.

2. Push everything to the sides of the pot, then add the tomato paste in the center. Let sit for 1 minute, then stir to mix with the other ingredients. Pour in the red wine and let it bubble away, about 1 minute more. Add the olives, tomatoes and their juice, then fill the can halfway with water, swirling it around to get any lingering tomato juice clinging to the edges and add to the pot. Once the liquid starts to bubble rapidly, lower the heat to maintain a simmer so that active (but not wild and crazy splattering) bubbles are breaking across its surface. 

3. Cook until the sauce thickens and starts to taste delicious, seasoning as you go with salt, at least 25 to 30 minutes more. Once the sauce has been simmering for 10 minutes, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season with salt and add the pasta. 

4. Cook until just a little too tough to bite through, 2 to 3 minutes less than the package instructions. Use tongs to transfer to the sauce or drain in a colander (you can leave it here if it’s done too soon). Cook until the pasta is done to your liking and thoroughly mixed with the sauce, 2 to 3 minutes more. Top with cheese and serve.