FOOD PORN II - SAVORY

As I promised, here are some photographs of some of the savory dishes which I hope will inspire some of you in the kitchen. 

Carciofi ripieni (for recipe click on link below)
https://paoloknows.blogspot.com/2016/09/nonnas-stuffed-artichokes_35.html

 

  

Fennel and Beet Salad with Gorgonzola

French Onion Soup

Eggplant Fans

FOOD PORN

In the interest of being versatile and a little entertaining I’m going to try to amuse you today with just photographs of food; desserts actually. The recipes will follow eventually, I promise. We need a little fluff to lighten up the mood! And what better way to do it than with some dolce!

Let’s start with a Chocolate Pavlova with Raspberries and Cream! 

And then move on to a Creme Caramel! Click on link and scroll down for recipe:
(https://paoloknows.blogspot.com/2016/05/entertaining-ii-easter-feast.html

How's this for a mirror glaze!?

Shall we continue with and Apple Charlotte? Click on link for recipe:
https://paoloknows.blogspot.com/2017/03/apple-charlotte.html

 

We just keep getting fancier and fancier! Cheesecake with Raspberries:

And finally: Tarte au Citroen

MIDNIGHT AND LENTILS

It's well after midnight and rather balmy outsde. A cool 56º with a mild wind. 14th street is empty with only the occasional passing bus. Even the homeless guys who sleep on the steps of the Salvation Army are absent from the scene. It's an odd sensation.

I had to go to the hospital this morning for a CAT scan and I rode the bus up Madison and then back down Fifth Avenue. Madison Avenue was strangely populated near Mt. Sinai with multiple gatherings of people scattered piece meal along the sidewalks and there were gaggles of cars and taxis humming their way up to Harlem. Not so Fifth Avenue. It was desolate from the Met straight down to the Village. It's an odd sensation seeing 57th and Fifth without people. Even odder seeing Bergdorf's, St. Patrick's  and Saks completely shuttered. Rockefeller Center was devoid of humanity and barricaded. Ralph Lauren's flagship stores on Madison had very elegant, custom-made, white painted boards covering every glass surface facing the street. These are the strangest times in which we live. It's enough to suppress any appetite but curiously, it hasn't. Everyone I know is baking something almost every day. I decided to live vicariously by binge watching (again!) the Great British Baking Show so I wouldn't bake myself. That hasn't stopped me, however, from putting on a few pounds.

So let's talk about lentils; anything, really, to take our minds off of the realities of our day and age.

I first read about pasta with lentils in a cookbook by Lorenza de Medici. I've made this unsuspecting dish several times and have always been astonished by the depth of flavor - not to mention the texture - such an innocent little legume can impart on the palette. What's more, they are extremely good for you. I often make the recipe below without the pasta and eat it by itself. It can be a very satisfying repast for one on a cold winter's night. What follows, though, is, I think, one of the best ways to eat it with people round the table.

You can make the lentils a day ahead or reserve one cup of the lentils for this dish to be used at a later date. I find it tastes better the next day after it's been refrigerated. 

To prepare the lentils, rinse one cup lentils with cold water and let drain in a sieve. Once cooked you should have twice that amount by volume.

Make a soffrito of one small onion (minced), one small carrot finely diced, and about 1/4 cup minced celery. Mince on clove of garlic.

Saute the soffrito and the garlic in some olive oil over moderately high heat. Add the lentils to coat with the olive oil and then add 1/2 half cup roasted cherry tomatoes and about 1/4 cup white wine or vermouth. Let that reduce before adding 2 cups boiling chicken stock. bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for about 35 minutes or until tender. You can check on the lentils periodically and smash the tomatoes into the mixture so they melt away. Correct seasoning with salt and pepper.

Cook the pasta (farfalle, rigatoni, penne,gemelli, etc.) according to the instructions in lots of salted water. A half pound of pasta should be enough for 4 people as a first course. Reduce the cooking time by 2 minutes since it will be baked in the oven.

Drain pasta. Put a little olive oil in the casserole, add the pasta and toss and add the lentils, 1/2 cup heavy cream and 5 tbs. parmiggiano. Mix well and sprinkle some bread crumbs on top and put in a 400º oven and bake uncovered for 20 minutes. 

Serve immediately.

Buon appetito!

 

20-MINUTE PASTA

We all need some diversion right now. With the escalating numbers and dire instructions to stay at home, pandemic or not, we are trying to find things to occupy our minds and our time. I wrote about memories yesterday, so I'll continue to reminisce with a more recent story. 

I was chatting with an old friend about pasta the other day and wrote down a few thoughts on getting something on the table in no time at all. Of course, you have to have an arsenal of ingredients at the ready for however you want to create this dish - the possibilities are endless - but it's also about the time involved. One needn't fuss to make something extraordinarily delicious, yet simple. 

The conversation began over a pasta recipe in the food section of a California  newspaper callled "caprese", which wasn't a salad in the conventional sense; it was a bastardization of yet another magnificent Italian creation (think pesto and how it's inappropriately and incorrectly put on anything). I told her she'd be hard pressed to find ANY Italian, no matter how adventurous, eating mozzarella, basilico and sliced raw tomatoes with pasta. As a rule, and even though I love it, Italians don't eat pasta cold. Anyway, here is my go to recipe for pasta with roasted cherry tomato sauce that has endless variations and iterations. 

I roast cherry tomatoes whole in a cast iron skillet at 375º. I toss them (in the pan) with about 2 tbs. EVOO, a good helping of Kosher salt, 8-10 grinds of the black pepper mill, and a generous shake of powdered rosemary and thyme (which I grind myself from dried herbs). Roast for 1 hour or until they start to wrinkle, caramelize and take on a deep red hue.

I make enough to last me at least 4 or 5 days. (At least 2 pounds)

To make the spaghetti:

I allow 80-100 grams per person (4 oz. = 118 grams on the scale) so a pound per 4-5 people as a main course or a side dish. I have found that one helping of this is never enough FOR ANYONE.

The sauce can be made while the pasta water is heating up and the pasta is cooking. You'll need some of the pasta cooking water. Always use plenty of water in the pot and add a handful of Kosher salt to the pot when it starts to boil before adding the pasta.

1 shallot (or a small onion)
2-3 cloves garlic
3-6 anchovies (optional and to your taste)
red pepper flakes (more or less depending on how picante you want it)
1 cup toasted cherry tomatoes
Vermouth or White wine
Basil leaves cut into chiffonade

Saute the shallots, garlic, anchovies and pepper flakes together. Add the tomatoes, smash them into the sauce and add a good splash of the Vermouth or white wine. Let that cook and meld together. Add the basil. Continue to cook over low heat until it forms a dense mass. At this point, you'll need to start adding a little of the pasta water. Set your timer according to the directions on the pasta box. Two minutes before the pasta should be done, add 1/4 cup of pasta water to the sauce. Raise the heat and bring to the boil. Just before you are ready to drain the pasta, add a little more pasta  water, correct seasoning, if necessary. Make sure the sauce is thick and bubbly and add the pasta directly into the pan with the tomatoes. Toss with a pat of unsalted butter and serve. Cheese, of course!

I know there are many steps, but trust me, you can make this dish in 20 minutes. TOPS! Someone with only a very little bit of expertise should find this a piece of cake! I like to have a mise en place ready to go when I put the pasta water on the fire.

Variations: black squid ink pasta with this sauce spiced up with more hot pepper flakes, more garlic of course and seafood (squid, shrimp, scampi, lobster, etc.)

Linguini or cappelini or even rigatoni or gemelli (with tuna OMG!) I have made this sauce and added chopped slices of leftover breaded eggplant and added a dollop of sour cream to the sauce just at the end to make an improvised Pasta alla Norma! Another Sicilian twist: add a handful of roasted pine nuts and golden raisins to the sauce while cooking and dress the finished product with bread crumbs instead of cheese. This is particularly appropriate with pasta al sardo (sardines). 

One can use pancetta or guanciale as well. I have given up meat for Lent so it's sort of vanished from my lexicon at the moment, but rest assured, meat will be back on the menu next week!

Buon appetito!

 

MEMORIES

It's funny how pandemics and quarantines and confinement in small spaces play tricks on the mind. I've never been the sort of person who dwells on the past or even looks back on "halcyon days." But now, to quote Dante, in the middle of life, I find myself in a dark wood wandering, pining away for lost days, bygone decades when I was a younger, more adventurous - sometimes alarmingly so - person. But, a life without regrets is a life not lived. Sorry to get philosophical here but the peculiar atmosphere, which I believe we are all experiencing, has forced me, at least, to look back and try to tap into happier times. 

Being Italian, most of the stories of glory are surrounded by celebrations of food and music, and here is one of them. Many years ago - almost a lifetime really - I had the great fortune to study piano with a very famous teacher in Rome. It was the summer of 1982 actually, and I was bopping around Italy doing the piano competition circuit and landed in Rome for a few week before I would be forced to lasciare la bella Italia. He put me up for a few days in his palatial apartment before finding me smaller accommodations with a piano a few blocks from the Colosseum. In any event, the first night I was there, I played for him (a copious program of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Chopin) and then he cooked dinner. It is with genuine affection that I look back to that evening, laced with good wine, good conversation, dining with some of his other students on some of the best pasta with tuna I ever had. Well, it was the first time I had ever had it, really, and even when I make it, it doesn't come close to how his tasted. I remember asking: "what is this? Veal?" And of course, it was tuna cooked in tomatoes with all the right Roman spices (garlic, pepperoncini, etc.)  Here it is, pictured below with linguini.

 

Serves 4

1 lb. linguini (or any kind of pasta you like, any macaroni with ridges will do good because the sauce adheres to the ridges)

1 medium onion minced

2 stalks celery minced

1 small carrot (fine dice)

4 cloves garlic

1/4 tsp. pepperoncini flakes

a handful of parsley chopped fine

12 basil leaves cut in chiffonade 

2 sprigs fresh thyme

8 oz. tuna packed in oil (I make my own - highly superior to anything canned, but the Sicilian tuna in jars does very nicely here)

1/4 cup white wine

1 large can imported peeled, whole tomatoes (since the price of tuna is rather dear you might as well splurge and go whole hog on San Marzano tomatoes!)

Sauté the soffrito (onions celery, and carrots) and the garlic in olive oil until translucent. Add the pepper flakes and the herbs and continue to cook for a moment and then add the tuna. Cook for a few minutes over moderate heat, add a sprinkling of white wine and allow to reduce and then add the tomatoes. I recommend emptying the can into a large bowl and crush the whole tomatoes with your hands to break them up a bit before adding to the pot.

Add 1/2 tsp salt and few grinds of a pepper mill. Bring to the boil and then lower heat to a simmer and let cook partially covered for about 2 hours. Correct seasoning, if necessary, before dressing the pasta.

Boil a large pot of water, add a handful of Kosher salt and then the pasta. Cook according to the direction on the package. Dress the pasta when cooked with the sauce and serve. No cheese please - it's fish!

Buon appetito!

Viral Days

Braising Bulbs

It has been a seriously long time since I've deigned to write here much less compose something for aficionados of La Cucina. Be that as it may, it would seem that many people, forced to remain at home and thus rely on their own resources, have begun to take up cooking and baking with a vengeance. I must confess that I, too, am one of them. Necessity, after all, really is the mother of invention.

How does one pass the time when living alone, without a television, and for whom, besides playing the piano, watching the vacant lanes of West 14th Street from his window has become his only source of entertainment? I mean, there are just so many episodes of anything on Amazon Prime and Netflix one can watch. I've started re-reading Dickens (Trollope is next!) - always a challenge considering the length of their stories - to while away the hours. Don't get me wrong, I am still practicing in earnest but there is something unsettling about making so much noise when everything around you - especially in New York - is so still. It would be different if this were Westchester or an acred suburb anywhere in America or atop a mountain in Switzerland, but it's not.  We are here in the lively, 8-million-souls-filled metropolis of New York and everyone is either home, behind closed doors or escaped to parts unknown. The silence here is bloody deafening. My building, I am told, is only half full at the moment. Vewy scawy!

Nevertheless, I am here to talk about food so . . . let's start with Fennel. First of all, unlike most people you hear on the news, my grocery stores have been pretty well stocked. There have only been a few isolated instances where shortages remain constant, flour being the most prevalent; even "00" on Amazon has a 3-week waiting time. I haven't had any problems getting eggs or milk or butter, and vegetables have been ready for plucking from the shelves. I love fennel, especially raw, sliced thin and dressed only with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil (no vinegar!). It is simple, quick (if you have a mandolin) and deee-licious! I also like them sliced thin with slices of orange (same way). But during the wintry months, I love to braise the bulbs, cut in quarters.  

There are many ways to do this, even finish it off with cream and bake them au gratin. HEAVEN! I have done it many ways, but I think the best way is to simply braise them in broth with some finely sliced onions, a clove of garlic, some white wine and as you see in the picture, some roasted cherry tomatoes. It's fairly simple and takes no effort besides being forced to monitor the stove periodically and wait the required 2 hours before eating or serving.

Serves 8 as a vegetable or 4 as a main course with pasta or roast anything (game, fowl, meat, even fish)

2 whole bulbs Fennel

1 small onion or leek

1 clove of garlic (smashed)

1/4 tsp fennel seeds

1/4 tsp powdered thyme (or 2 fresh thyme sprigs removed before serving)

1 cup roasted cherry tomatoes

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 cup white wine

1 cup rich chicken stock

salt and pepper to taste at end 

Cut off stalks at top of the bulbs and mince the stalks and fronds and reserve

Cut off the hard base of each fennel bulb but without severing any of the leaves. Trim the bulbs by removing the tough outer leaves. Cut each bulb in half and in half again You should have 8 equal pieces.

Slice the onion very thin and reserve

In a large, heavy dutch oven (Le Creusets are perfect for this), heat the olive oil and add the fennel bulbs. Sauté the fennel on each side over moderate heat, including the rounded outside shell. When the bulbs are nicely browned, remove from the pan. Add the chopped garlic, the sliced onion and the minced fennel stalks and sauté until translucent. Add the fennel seeds and the thyme, stir a bit and add the fennel bulbs and the cherry tomatoes. Add the white wine and allow to reduce by half. Add the chicken stock, bring to the boil and lower heat to simmer. Cover and stir every once in a while for about 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Remove the cover during the last 20 minutes of cooking so the liquid in the pot reduces and thickens. Serve immediately.

There are so very many variations to this dish; the possibilities are almost endless. It is excellent served with game or fowl, especially goose or duck, and if allowed to cool and is then puréed, you can add it to a béchamel sauce and use it as the sauce base for a lasagna. The last time I made it, which was precisely at the beginning of our global ordeal, I added orzo to the broth. Perfect comfort food for anyone!

 

Cannellini and Escarole Soup

I got this recipe from a cookbook by Jacob Kenedy who is the owner and chef of London's very popular restaurant Bocca di Lupo. It is as simple as apple pie - in fact, simpler - and doesn't take more than a half an hour to make except the cooking time for the beans, of course. It should be made immediately before serving because you don't want the escarole to be overcooked or turn black. 

1 lb. cannellini beans (soaked overnight and cooked in a pot of water with 1 tablespoon salt and 1 tablespoon olive oil brought to a boil and then cooked for three hours over moderately low heat.

2-3 cups of the bean cooking liquid kept in reserve for the soup

One head escarole, cleaned in a waterbath, stems at the root removed and sliced lengthwise into strips

Three cloves of garlic sliced very thin

One pinch of hot red pepper flakes

16 to 20 leaves fresh basil cut in strips lengthwise 

One bunch of chopped flat parsley

2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Take half of the olive oil and heat it up in a large pot. Saute the garlic until it becomes golden at the edges, add the pinch of hot red pepper flakes and the cut up pieces of escarole. Season with a little salt and pepper and saute until wilted. Add the beans and the bean liquid and heat p to the boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and add the parsley and basil and the remaining olive oil. Stir well and serve with slices of toasted bread.