Reported today on The New York Times
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The Tomato-y, Shallot-y Pasta You Didn’t Know You WantedLet’s be clear: Alison Roman doesn’t take requests. But sometimes, there are exceptions.As a general rule, I don’t take requests for recipes – not at home when I’m cooking for others, and not for this column. Sure, the temptation to give people exactly what they want is always there, but ultimately I’m not certain that does anyone any favors. If I just wrote recipes by request, this would be a column of strictly chickpea stews and sheet-pan chicken (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). I’m sorry if that sounds harsh.But there are exceptions, and this is a story about an exception.Every Christmas Eve, my friends and I gather for a bacchanalian celebration, including anyone who sticks around for the holidays. Last year, the theme was Feast of the Seven Fishes, but we were a bit ambitious and ended up with closer to 12 fishes (doesn’t quite have the same ring, does it?).Each dish on the table was a bold, extremely fish-forward approach to the theme, so I wanted to have something that was more of a humble, mildly flavored, comforting, carby background dancer to the real stars of the show (fishes). I threw together a giant pot of caramelized shallot pasta, enhanced, of course, with plenty of anchovies – I am nothing if not loyal to a theme and my own personal brand. It was shockingly good for the modest and limited ingredients involved, better than it should be, honestly.ImageImageThe sauce itself was made with an obscene amount of shallots, fried in a generous pool of olive oil until caramelized and delightfully golden brown, melted into a jammy pile. I also added a few slivers of garlic to be toasted with the shallots; a whole tin of anchovies for meatiness, saltiness and thematic consistency; a bit of red p