By: Shaye Elliott

Though I’m not Italian by heritage, time around our family table was none-the-less influenced by Italian-fare, as so many tables are around the world. Fettuccini was on the table for all of my birthdays (don’t tell the Italians, but my Mom made it with cream!) and at least once a week, my Mom made a large pot of (what we affectionately called at the time) “macaroni and tomato juice”. Though it wasn’t macaroni, and it wasn’t tomato juice, we all knew what it meant: ditalini pasta swimming in a warm bowl of tomato sauce, seasoned only with a generous dollop of butter, salt and pepper, and served with finely grated Parmesan cheese. Authentic? Hardly. But it is a flavor of my childhood, the staple at gatherings both big and small.

Though it’s easy to get caught up in the big feasts that the holidays have to offer, I’m often drawn to the meals at the fringes. What’s eaten the day after Christmas? What foods do we stock up with for when guests arrive and we need lunch on the table in a hurry? These are often the meals that speak to us the most, reflecting the flavors and textures that we’re drawn to out of comfort and joy. Though I now affectionately make my Mom’s macaroni-and-tomato-juice with Bona Furtuna’s heirloom ditalini pasta and whatever variety of Bona Furtuna marinara or passata I have on hand, the result remains the same: simple pleasure, quick preparation, deep comfort. Enjoying the holidays, bellied up to the table, goes behind showy-meat-dishes and carefully prepared desserts (though we all love those as well). The comforts of the season sit somewhere between taste and memory, our palettes being shaped not only by what we love to eat now but also by the foods that shaped us. All the better to enjoy those foods, whatever they may be, with whomever helped us to love them in the first place.

Tomato Ditalini

Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS

▢ 1 box Ditalini pasta
▢ 2 jars Marinara Sauce
▢ 1/2 teaspoon salt 
▢ 1/2 teaspoon sugar
▢ 1 teaspoon black pepper
▢ 6 tablespoons butter
▢ Parmesan cheese, for serving 

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat a large stockpot of water until boiling. Add in a handful of salt and the pasta. Stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and allow the pasta to simmer. 
2. While the pasta cooks, pour the marinara into a large pan. Add in the salt, sugar, black pepper and butter. Heat until simmering and warmed through. 
3. Remove the pasta when it is just slightly undercooked. Strain it from the water and add it into the tomato mixture. Bring the whole dish up to a low simmer until the pasta is perfectly cooked. 
4. Spoon the pasta into bowls and top with Parmesan cheese. Adjust salt and pepper as needed. 

Friend and ambassador to the brand, Shaye Elliott is an avid and talented cook.  Shaye prepares stunning meals incorporating flavors cultivated on the farm and shares her recipes with her cooking community, teaches cooking classes, hosts a podcast, has written five cookbooks, and raises her family all from her charming farmhouse kitchen.