Spaghetti à la Los Angeles Times

The following is a recipe that my family knows as “Spaghetti à la Los Angeles Times” because at some point around 40 years ago—if not longer—my uncles’ godparents, who were subscribers to the Los Angeles Times and who apparently found this recipe there, gave it to my grandmother, who then passed it on to my mother, who then passed it on to me. Really, I don’t remember a time without this recipe. In recent weeks, I’ve been preparing this recipe quite frequently, so I’ve taken an interest in looking through the culinary section of the Los Angeles Times to see if I can find it. I haven't found the culinary section of the paper in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the paper's archives online, and, unfortunately, as far as I have been able to tell, I haven’t found this recipe anywhere else. If anyone has more complete access to the Times’ old issues (or if this somehow makes it to someone who works there), I’d love to know if, looking back as far as you can, you can find this recipe that I haven’t been able to locate anywhere except within our family tradition. 

This recipe comes together at lightning speed, so mise en place is as important as ever. First, set a pot of cold water over high heat to bring it to a boil. While this is happening. Finely mince one whole bunch of parsley. You can either do this with a food processor or by hand. If you do it by hand, place your parsley in one bunch on your cutting board in lengthwise orientation. Run your knife through the bunch of parsley once, making cuts perpendicular to the direction it lays on the board. Rotate the board 90 degrees and run the knife through again. Place in a bowl. Repeat this process in a similar manner with 4 cloves of garlic.  To prepare half a pound of ham: stack it, and then cut a grid, so you end up with squares of ham about an inch on each side. Place the ham in the same bowl where the parsley is.  Coarsely chop ¾ to 1 cup of walnuts, just running the knife through the nuts. Hold the knife with one hand at the handle and use another hand on top of the blade (on the side opposite the cutting edge) to stabilize it, and rock the knife through the nuts a few times. Uniformity isn’t really important, and neither is the size of the nuts. Set this too into the bowl where the parsley and the ham are. Stream in about ⅓ cup of olive oil and season to taste with freshly ground black pepper. You’ve now made what essentially amounts to a gremolata, a traditional Italian herb-oil “sauce,” if one can call it that. This, and not a traditional liquid sauce, like a bechamel or marinara, is what will accompany the pasta. The longer the gremolata sits, the better it tastes, so prepare it up to an hour before use (if you want to keep it out) or overnight (if you are willing to refrigerate it).

Cook a long pasta—we typically use spaghetti—to one minute short of “al dente” according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Drain, and reserve in the strainer. In the same pan where the pasta was cooked, heat a thin film of olive oil over medium heat (just enough to coat the bottom of the pan) until shimmering, then heat the gremolata. Stir continuously so as not to burn the garlic or the nuts. Once they are aromatic, place the pasta into the gremolata, stir to combine, and finish cooking for another minute.

Serve, garnishing with parmesan.  

If you make this, be sure to leave a comment down below letting me know!