Column: Nonna Shari's tri-cultural spinach pasta

It’s that time of year again: my grandma’s “pretty-much-fat-free” spinach pasta time.
My grandmother, Nonna Shari Tepper-Mayes, has spent her life between Rome, Detroit and Chicago. She has cooked on granite countertops everywhere, always with her recipes by her side.

Rome gave her a penchant for pasta, upgrading this unleavened dough to the main dish in many family meals.

Detroit gave her a taste for the dried delicacies, incorporating dehydrated basil, thyme and rosemary in plates when the real seasoning wasn’t available.

And after my grandfather’s heart attack, Chicago doctors left Nonna Shari to cook for a man on a strict diet that allotted little room for calories, fat or sodium.

This left the kitchen in a sticky place. The cookbooks of my grandma’s culinary life, peppered with the fullness of thyme, needed to be cut back.

Butter became margarine. Milk became soy. Water, it turned out, proved to be
thicker than oil.

But after 20 years in a marginalized kitchen, my grandfather’s dietary restrictions were lifted. My grandma could again leaf through recipes on the countertop, ready to bring back some taste.

The fried veal of Rome has returned, but the fat-free spinach pasta has stayed. This zero fat, calorie and sodium dish (“I don’t really know what it is,” Nonna Shari admits) is a fast and delicious fall dish.

Recipe

Begin the “pretty-much-fat-free” spinach casserole by boiling an eight-ounce pack of Strom “No Yolk” noodles.

While the pasta cooks, strain a 10-ounce package of frozen, chopped spinach until moisture-free. Heat the spinach in the microwave for four to six minutes (once the leaves are hot), then place on a pseudo-granite countertop. Wait for the spinach to cool.

After 10 minutes the pasta will be cooked. Drain the noodles and place in a bowl. Add about four ounces of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” spread in the dish, and add a 16-ounce carton of Breakstone’s fat-free Cottage Cheese, plus another 16 ounces of fat-free Breakstone’s Sour Cream (Use Breakstone’s, as “the other brands taste like shit,” according to Nonna Shari). Add the heated spinach and a half-cup of chopped, dried onions to the bowl.

Now, lightly coat the bowl in Detroit-inspired garlic salt and ground pepper. Salt for taste.

Then, mix, mix and mix profusely. Scoop the pasta from the bottom up and turn until your arm hurts. Then, mix a little more.

Season as you go, and once the pasta is evenly distributed, pour this “pretty much fat-free” salt, sour cream and cottage cheese mixture into a 13-inch Pyrex dish.
Set the oven for 350 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes.

Sit back, relax and smell what the oven is cooking. Remove once the surface is golden brown. Serve after the pasta has cooled (about five minutes of countertop time).

Impress friends, relatives and roommates alike by baking this multi-cultural dish that, from the smell of my kitchen, has made its way to Indiana. 

— ntepper@indiana.edu