Italian recipes often list quantities of ingredients simply as “q.b” – q.b stands for quanto basta, literally – how much is enough, or it’s up to you.
For the learner of Italian cooking, those 2 letters “q.b” can be infuriating. Especially, if *all* the ingredients in a recipe have been given the “q.b” treatment. When followed by equally elusive instructions like … “turn off the heat when the sauce is ready”, that infuriation can turn to outrage.
But if you can set down your frustration and widen your lens, I guess it only makes sense. Italians don’t care too much for rules. They add, subtract, replace, bend, duplicate, twist as they prefer, so why would it be different in a recipe? They take an idea and make their own, and they expect, for you to trust your own good taste, and put your spin on it too.
So, with all that said, the recipe below has a touch of the q.b’s about it, in the sense that, the measurements are estimates only. It’s for a creamy, gorgonzola pasta sauce, that goes particularly well with something chunky, like ravioli or other stuffed pasta parcels, to balance out the richness. Depending on the punchiness of the cheese, I also like to add a little milk to the sauce, again to balance out the richness.
Yesterday, I made this sauce to coat “girasoli” pasta named after the sunflower shape of these parcels with their perky, round centre and undulating edges like flower petals. I’d bought some fresh girasoli pasta filled with radicchio and speck that made for a gorgeous, smoky contrast to the blue cheese in both taste and colour. But go wild yourself and choose any pasta you fancy – the quantity ? … q.b , naturally.
Pasta with Gorgonzola ~ Pasta al Gorgonzola
- stuffed pasta q.b (maybe 500g) (can also use any short variety of unstuffed pasta)
- cream q.b (maybe 200 ml ?)
- sage leaves q.b and optional
- gorgonzola q. b (about the same quantity as the cream?), cut into small pieces
- a good dash of milk
- salt
- pepper
- parmigiano to serve
Place a large pan of water on to boil for the pasta.
In a large frypan, gently heat the cream over a low flame. Add the sage leaves if using. Give the cream an occasional stir to prevent it from sticking or boiling. Add the pieces of gorgonzola and continue stirring until the cheese is melted. Add a splash of milk, salt and pepper. Stir until smooth, then turn off the heat.
When the water is boiling, salt the water then add the pasta. When the pasta is almost cooked, drain it, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Add the pasta to the gorgonzola sauce and return the frypan to the heat, stirring gently to combine. If needed, add some of the reserved pasta cooking water, so that all of the pasta is coated by the sauce. Serve immediately, topped with a little parmigiano.
