GAZPACHO

TODAY IS THE END OF SUMMER. I promised cucumbers a while back when I mentioned peppers and tomatoes and there isn't a better way to describe cucumbers (besides salad) than Gazpacho. 

Recently, on my last trip to Milwaukee, the high point of my eating experience (I was only there 65 hours) was in a little village called Mequon about 15 miles due north on Highway 43 from Milwaukee on the way to Port Washington, Sheboygan and Green Bay - go Packers! My friend Linda and I often go to Cafe 1505 for our ritual lunch repast of delicious egg salad sandwiches - she's a vegan but will eat eggs - and ice tea. I was visiting on Labor Day weekend and they had gazpacho as the soup of the day and it was without any doubt one of the best gazpachos I have ever eaten. Keeping that in my memory banks, and referring to Simon Hopkinson - again - I decided to make some of my own a while back and here is what I did.

6 tbs. red wine vinegar

1 cup ice water

1 cucumber, peeled and chopped

4 sweet peppers (1 of each: orange, yellow, red and green) cored, seeded and chopped

1 lb. very ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped or 

1 12 oz. can chopped tomatoes

5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 small onion, chopped

8-12 drops Tabasco

1 tbs. ketchup

salt and pepper

1 1/4 lb. ice cubes

1 cup olive oil

Puree all of the ingredients together in a blender, but use only half of the peppers and cucumbers and only half of the tomatoes. Stir in the olive oil and mix in the other half of the chopped vegetables (I like it chunky). Chill if not serving immediately. Garnish with either a fresh basil or a mint leaf and serve with croutons (optional). 

This yields about 8 cups of soup and can serve up to 12 people in a pinch.

CUCUMBER SALAD

This is the simplest thing in the world and utterly delicious. 

1 seedless cucumber, peeled but leaving green stripes to make a green and white border, and sliced on a mandolin on the thinnest setting possible (you want transparent slices).

1 small onion, sliced paper thin

1 small clove garlic smashed and minced to a paste

salt and pepper

1 tbs. olive oil

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

Place the cucumbers in a large bowl with the onions and garlic. Salt and pepper to taste and let sit for 15 minutes. Add the olive oil and vinegar and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Cucumbers should be bathed in juice but not swimming in it. Serve cold.

CROISSANTS!

I KNOW I said that I was going to make croissants, and I did; it's just that it's taken me a while to formulate my thoughts on the matter and get all the steps in my memory to write it all down. It is also never as it was when it happened, or rather, when the thought occurred to me to make these in the first place. If you remember, on the morning I decided to make them, it was a blustery, chilly day. Since then, the weather has turned unseasonably warm again and when I finally did make them on Wednesday morning, it was 10º warmer outside, which means 20º warmer in my apartment (my apartment is an oven at all times). Be that as it may, these turned out to be quite good and the recipe that follows should yield enough dough to make about 2 dozen croissants. I used only half of the dough and froze the rest, which I will use soon enough -  possibly with almond and/or chocolate for a little variety. 

To give proper credit here, I have used Jacques Pépin's recipe from his Complete Techniques cookbook (p. 568).

3 cups tightly packed all-purpose flour

2 tbs. extra flour to mix with the butter

3 sticks unsalted butter (softened)

1 generous cup milk (90-100º)

1 1/4 oz. package of dry yeast

1 tbs. sugar

1-1/2 tsp. salt

Combine milk, yeast and sugar, mix well and let stand for 5-10 minutes. Place 2-1/2 sticks of the butter and the 2 tablespoons flour in the bowl of an electric stand mixer or a food processor and mix until it is creamy and completely mixed. Add the flour with the remaining 2 oz. butter, salt and milk and mix on low speed until a ball forms. 

Remove from the bowl and place the dough on a lightly dusted wooden board or a marble pastry board and knead and shape into a rectangle. Roll the dough into a rectangle to approximately 20x12 inches. Spread the butter mixture over 2/3 of the surface, leaving about 1 inch unbuttered along the edges. Lift the unbuttered third over the center and fold the other buttered section over that. Place the dough into a plastic bag or wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (preferably longer). 

Put the dough again on a lightly floured wooden board or marble slab and roll out into another rectangle, always rolling out from the center (not back and forth), of the same dimensions as above and fold into thirds as before. Do not roll too much as you don't want the butter to come through the dough. Once you've created another rectangle, refrigerate again. This will be two turns. You will repeat this process four more times to reach 6 turns. 

As you can see this is an all-day affair so if you like, you can do this throughout the day and refrigerate overnight (as I did) and roll out for the last time in the morning and continue with this recipe as follows.

Prepare baking sheets lined in parchment paper.

Roll out the dough into yet another rectangle of the same dimensions and divide the dough lengthwise into two strips. Cut diagonally to create triangles (one strip should yield about a dozen or so triangles). Take each triangle and press lightly with your rolling pin to stretch each triangle to a larger dimension and start to roll them up from the widest point so that the tips end up on the top. You can place them on the parchment and either curl them to be rounded or leave them straight (see photograph below). Once you've finished creating your croissants, you will need to proof the dough in a warm place for about 50-60 minutes (the inside of the oven is perfect) at a temperature of 80-90º. Remove from the oven and set the temperature at 425º.

Take an egg yolk beaten with a teaspoon of milk and brush the croissants and let sit while the oven is preheating.

Ready for the oven!

Once the oven is hot enough, place the sheet(s) in the middle level and bake for 15-18 minutes until they are golden brown and crisp. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before eating (with more butter and really fine apricot preserves!).

Bon appetit!

VEGETABLE GRATIN

I DON'T KNOW WHY but it's true that one cookbook often leads you to another and another and . . . 

This is what invariable happens to me when I start reading cookbooks as literature or as bedside reading. I mentioned Simon Hopkinson the other day and he wrote about Richard Olney and I became so interested that I had to rush out and order not one but three of his books on Amazon (all three with postage cost under $14.00!). Anyway, what I have been reading are his Provence: The Beautiful Cookbook and Simple French Food. Well, let me tell you, both of these books are gems stuffed with information on all things related to French cooking! Provence: The Beautiful Cookbook is a cocktail table book with magnificent pictures with recipes to match. Simple French Food is the quasi-contemporary counterpart to anything M.F.K. Fisher ever wrote and I would have to say that it is a tad more authoritative as it doesn't necessarily cater to an American sensibility. These are both books that concentrate on real French food. A case in point: pates vs. terrines. We, here in America, have completely misunderstood their definitions. A paté is something encased in pastry, while a terrine is forcemeat swathed in fat.

That said, I was intrigued by his treatment of vegetables as gratin, and in custard as well, which to my sensibilities is high church. One doesn't often encounter the use of eggplant or zucchini in a custard so I had to try something along those lines with what I had in the house today and I came up with a frothy mixture of fennel, Belgian endive, leftover carrots and turnips which I braised in chicken stock and garlic and then gratineéd with milk, cream, eggs, bread crumbs and some Parmesan cheese. It was incredibly good and, of course, incredibly rich but what the hell. You only live once.

Let's just say that I decided to make a custardy melange of vegetables which is exactly what happened. 

3 Belgian endives divided into two halves

1 fennel bulb (quartered)

1 slice bacon (diced)

3 cloves garlic (unpeeled)

3 tbs. olive oil

2 pats butter

salt and pepper

8 tbs. chicken stock

2 carrots sliced lengthwise and cut in half to make 8 pieces

1 turnip quartered

4 tsp. chopped tomato concasse

1 cup milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 eggs beaten

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil, butter and the bacon until the bacon renders some of its fat and add the fennel and endives along with the garlic. Saute and turn the vegetables once. Add the chicken stock, bring to the boil, turn down to the barest simmer and cover for 2 hours. Watch the pot periodically and turn the fennel if necessary but try not to disturb the endive. After about an hour, move the lid so the pot is slightly ajar and cook to reduce the liquid so there only remains about 2 tbs. The vegetables should be bronzed and softened. Turn off heat and let rest for about an hour.

Oil the bottom and sides of a gratin dish and arrange the endive, fennel and garlic in a circular fashion. Fill in any gaps with carrots and turnips. Top with the chopped tomatoes.

Mix the eggs with the milk and the cream and add half of the bread crumbs and all of the cheese. Pour over the vegetables to cover and sprinkle on the rest of the bread crumbs. Put into a preheated 375º oven and bake for an hour or until a crust forms at the edges and you can see oil bubbling on the sides. 

Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.

BLUSTERY AND NEEDING SOMETHING COMFORTING - LIKE BROWNIES!

WELL, IT LOOKS LIKE SUMMER IS ACTUALLY OVER!

I went out this morning with my dog, only to find out that I hadn't dressed well enough for the elements - it was cold out and windy too!  So, on the way back home after being out in Riverside Park watching the dogs romp and seeing the white caps (!!!) on the Hudson, I was fantasizing about croissants and brownies and when I got home, guess what, that's exactly what I set out to do. Of course, I won't be able to eat or even bake the croissants until tomorrow because I made the dough today and one must turn and fold and roll and chill several times before the butter and the paste become layers and layers of gorgeous dough just waiting to be cut and rolled and baked to a fabulously buttery crisp! But, on the brownie front, I was much more successful in attaining something on the level of instant gratification without having to wait 24 hours.

These are the best brownies I have ever baked OR eaten. Period! Hands down, the absolute winner!

I have been using a recipe for quite a while now from the fantastic pastry alchemist, Maida Heatter, called Palm Beach Brownies. She puts mints in these brownies which I don't really care for so I omit the mints and double the chocolate. These brownies are rich, gooey squares and just a small square on the par of a piece of fudge will do just fine. Trust me!

The process may seem elaborate but with the proper utensils and a methodical mind, you can do this in less than an hour. And whatever you do, do not even think about counting calories here. These are special treats for special occasions, like a holiday or a birthday but especially when you need to uplift your spirits. When in doubt, do it with chocolate!

Invert a 9x12x3 inch rectangular baking pan and cover it with aluminum foil (shiny side down). Crimp the corners to make a nice mold which you will then insert into the pan. You can either put a pat of butter on the foil and put it in a 250º oven for 3 minutes and brush the melted butter all over the bottom and sides of the foil or you can melt the butter in the microwave and brush it from the bowl. Makes no difference. Once that is done, set it aside and heat the oven to 425º.

Melt 1 pound of very good chocolate (I used Belgian - Callebaut) and 2 sticks of butter in a double boiler with 1 heaping tbs. very strong, finely ground coffee or Medaglia d'Oro Espresso Powder.

While the chocolate is melting:

5 eggs (Grade A large)

3 3/4 cups sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. almond extract

1/4 tsp. salt

Mix eggs and sugar until fluffy and pale yellow. Add the other ingredients and continue to beat for about 10 minutes. When the chocolate is melted, add that and mix until it is just  incorporated. Add:

1 2/3 cups sifted flour and mix that until it is well incorporated. It isn't necessary to mix too much. 

2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Fold in the nuts and spread the brownie mix all over the baking pan with a rubber spatula making sure the mixing bowl is emptied completely. Level the mixture out with an offset spatula until you achieve an even surface.

Place in the oven and bake for 35 minutes. Make sure to turn the pan around half way through (I do 17 minute increments)  to ensure even baking. 

When the timer goes off, take out the brownies. You can check with a toothpick or a knife and it will most certainly come out a little gooey. This is fine; you don't want them completely cooked as the brownies will settle and cool. After the brownies have completely cooled, invert on a cookie sheet, remove the foil and invert again onto a rack and allow to cool even more. You can refrigerate or freeze the whole piece to harden and cool so you can cut the brownies into pieces. 

Store in a plastic container lined with wax paper and refrigerate or freeze. The brownies will stay fresh for about a week and will keep in the freezer for at least a month - if they last at all!  

You will find that these brownies are very dense and rich with amazingly delicious - almost addictive - chocolate flavor.

Enjoy!

PICKLED PEPPERONCINI

THESE ARE THE SIMPLEST THINGS to make. 

I found a box of small red peppers at the green market (about 15 to the box) for $3.00 and thought . . . pickled peppers. And so  . . . as promised, so you know what to do if ever you want to use them in corn caponata (previous recipe) or as an added treat to the olive and antipasto tray or just to eat by themselves as I so often find myself doing. And they're not terrible fattening and these sweet/hot little morsels certainly do leave a warm feeling in the gut!

12-15 small red peppers (with a tiny paring knife, cut a small slit in the pepper close to the stem but do not cut through)

1 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp. Kosher salt

A mixture of pickling spices (cardoman, cinnamon stick, celery seed, bay leaf, nutmeg, black pepper corns, some curry powder, if you like, and cayenne pepper)

Bring the water, vinegar, sugar and spices to the boil and let the sugar dissolve completely. Add the peppers and turn the heat off. Allow to cool completely before jarring the entire contents in a sterilized preserving jar, but first remove the peppers and add to the jar and strain the juices into the jar (no spices or cinnamon stick in the jar, please). Make sure that the liquid completely covers the peppers by at least 1/2 an inch. Close the jars tightly and store in the refrigerator or process as you would with any canning project as follows: place jar(s) in a very large pot of water making sure the water covers the jars entirely by as least 1 inch. Bring to the boil and boil for 10-12 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow everything to cool in the pot. Remove the jars and wipe dry and store in a cool dry place. These will keep from 6 months to a year if they last at all. I like to marinate mine in olive oil before serving as antipasto but for the corn caponata, you can take them directly from the brine slice them up and add them to the pan with the juices and the seeds. 

Enjoy!

CORN CAPONATA

I WAS READING the Wine Spectator's The Flavors of Italy issue (September 30, 2013) and there was a fantastic little article on Michael White's (of Marea fame and a fellow Wisconsinite) take on Salt Cod poached in olive oil which looks really delicious. What grabbed me more, though, was his little discussion - in relation to la cucina del sud - on corn. As he so correctly states, corn in Italy is not a big staple of any kind except for the making of polenta but in the context of fresh vegetables at this particular time of the year, and translated to the American palette, what better way to use it than in CAPONATA!

Corn Caponate with Fennel and Peppers

I've been making caponate for many years and being Sicilian, it is hard not to imagine making it in a variety of ways with any number of vegetables - literally whatever you have in the house. Of course, we are all familiar with one made with eggplant, olives, tomato, celery, et. al., I have made one with just celery and any kind of contrasting colored fruit (pomegranates come immediately to mind). The secret to caponata, however, is agradolce. The marriage of vinegar and sugar that is cooked, reduced and mixed into the caponata at the very end - a startling and spectacularly delicious finish.  

Be that as it may, as soon as Mr. White said corn, the lights went on and the whistles were blowing because I had corn in the house and I knew exactly what I was going to do and here it is!

Olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of a frying pan)

1 medium onion finely chopped

1/2 fennel bulb, slice very thin and then chopped (but only a little)

1 tsp. freshly chopped thyme

12 leaves fresh basil (chiffonade)

2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

1 roasted pepper (preferably orange) seeded, peeled and cut into strips and marinated in oil.

3-4 red pickled pepperoncini (the sweet kind that are small and round) - recipe to follow

1/2 cup chopped scallions (green part only)

3 cobs of corn, kernels removed (you can do this before or after cooking in water, but uncooked with give you more   crunch if that's what you prefer)

1 large anchovy filet

1/2 cup vinegar

1/4 cup golden raisins (soaked in the vinegar, drained and cooked with the corn at the last moment)

2 tsp. sugar

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup slivered almonds or hazelnuts (optional)

Heat the oil until it starts to make ripples in the pan. Add the onions and the garlic and saute until just beginning to turn a little golden. Add the fennel, the thyme and a pinch of salt and some pepper and saute until the fennel becomes translucent and softens a bit - you still want some crunch to remain. Remove from pan, wipe dry and add more oil and begin again but this time with the corn, the raisins, and the peppers together. Cook until the corn begins to render more color, salt and pepper to taste and add the scallions and cook for about a minute, if only to warm and wilt the scallion. Add this mixture to the reserved fennel. Add the basil chiffonade and mix well. 

If using almonds, toast in a dry frying pan for a few minutes until the pan just starts to show signs of smoking and remove from heat and take almonds out of the pan. Add to the caponata.

Take the vinegar which you soaked the raisins in and the sugar and heat up in the pan which you used to cook the vegetables. Let it reduce to about 3 tbs. of syrup and pour into the bowl with the caponata ingredients. Correct seasoning, if necessary, and chop the anchovy and stir it into mixture. Put in a storage container large enough to hold all ingredients but let it all come to room temperature before storing in the refrigerator (if you can wait that long!). I know for a fact, though, that refrigerating it and then letting it come back to room temperature before serving is definitely the way to go here. It will taste better, I guarantee you. 

This dish is perfect for antipasto or as a compliment to fish, chicken or even lamb. I had some last night with the stuffed peppers and fennel and it was marvelous.

Buon appetito!

MORE END OF SUMMER FARE

I KNOW that I've been lax here and it doesn't sound like I have any excuses, but I do, and they're personal as well as private. Nevertheless, I want to continue with my personal exploration into end of summer vegetables. Since I already spoke about corn, I'll go on to something with a somewhat different color but will return to corn in another vein completely later on. For today's purposes, I'd like to explore the ubiquitous bell pepper. Included in that will be the tomato and the eggplant.

With tomato and anchovy only

Let me begin by saying that I have lately discovered a British cook by the name of Simon Hopkinson, who is in my mind, a very witty and extremely brilliant chef. I found him accidentally on the stacks in the cookbook section of the New York Public Library and renewed the two books I borrowed - twice! - before going to the ever dependable Amazon.com and purchasing said two volumes. They are called Roast Chicken and Other Stories and Second Helpings of Roast Chicken. Nigella loves him; calls him a genius. That's enough endorsement for me and she's right: the books are good enough for the kitchen and the bedside table. I've found myself bellowing out loud on the bus reading his prose. So that said, here is a recipe I found in the first volume called Peppers alla Piedmontese with a few twists of my own added into the mix.

Considering that peppers and tomatoes, AND the eggplant are Sicilian staples, I tweaked this recipe but the method basically remains the same.

The finished product with eggplant and tomato!

This can be made one or two days ahead of time and served with antipasto (at room temperature), but I guarantee you that once you've had a bite, whatever you have left from however many of these you make in one recipe, they won't last, so delicious are they!

I use a round heavy-bottomed cast iron skillet for these. Take a piece of parchment paper and place the pan on top and draw a circle around the pan. Cut the paper to fit the inside of the pan and brush with olive oil. To help the peppers stand more upright, I quarter a fennel bulb rub it with oil and salt and pepper and roast these as arranged in the photograph below. 

2 bell peppers (red, orange, and/or yellow - NO green)

4-8 ultra ripe plum tomatoes (skinned, halved, cored and all seeds removed)*

1 cup eggplant caponata or any leftover eggplant and tomato relish you may have in the house (see my recipe for salt cod to follow)

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

1 tsp. fresh minced thyme

8 whole anchovy filets

Preheat the oven to 425º (400º for convection roast)

Cut the peppers in half, remove stem and all seeds. Chop 2 of the tomatoes into a pulp and reserve. Place tomato halves or quarters into each pepper making sure they occupy the entire cavity. Divide the thyme over each piece, and sprinkle some olive oil, salt and pepper on them. Add a bit of eggplant mixture to cover. Use whatever you have to make a nice mound. Take a teaspoon or two of the tomato pulp and cover the eggplant mixture. Sprinkle some salt pepper and a pinch of sugar on the tomato and then drizzle some olive oil on top. 

Put skillet in the oven and roast for 30 minutes. Turn down the heat to 350º and roast for another 45-60 minutes. I have found that the peppers need more time, even with convection and don't really take on that blistered, shrunken appearance until after 80-90 minutes. But we are at the peak of summer here and the peppers I used while trying to be judicious in size, are still huge and need more time to cook and for the stuffing to meld with the pepper. Keeping this in mind, it is wise to keep an eye on them after an hour and definitely use a timer in 10 minute increments. You'll smell them - it will be pungent! - when they're truly ready to come out of the oven.

Just out of the oven!

*Just an aside here: One day last week, I bought some ultra ripe plum tomatoes at the green market in my neighborhood at the end of the day and found some of these delicious fruits in the $1.00 a pound bin! So be on the lookout for those tomatoes which must be used immediately and you'll be on the right track. I bought a few pounds and used them up. Unfortunately, Ludwig doesn't like raw tomatoes but he likes anchovies and fish of all kinds!

CHOWDER

IT'S SUMMER, or at least beginning to feel like it's over in a sense because the tomatoes are really ripe and delicious and the corn is very, very sweet. Taking sweet corn as my cue, I decided to make a corn chowder, which, when nearing the end, will then be incorporated into a delicious New England Clam Chowder. There is bacon and shellfish stock included in this recipe so, omit if you're vegetarian or a vegan and use vegetable stock instead of chicken or shellfish stock.

Corn Chowder

4 cups chicken or shellfish stock

4 cups water leftover from cooking corn

6 ears of fresh corn, cooked and kernels removed (reserve the cobs)

4 slices slab bacon, medium dice 

2 tbs. unsalted butter

1 chopped onion

1 leek (cleaned, trimmed and sliced, including parts of the green leaf)

1 carrot, peeled and chopped into medium dice

2 stalks celery, peeled and chopped

3 cloves garlic, smashed and finely chopped

1 stalk scallion chopped

2 tsp. chopped tarragon

1 tsp. chopped thyme

1/2 cup chopped chives

salt and pepper to taste

3 or 4 gratings of nutmeg

2 cups milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 lbs. potatoes (peeled and diced)

2 doz. clams (for clam chowder)
chopped chives for garnish

Melt butter and bacon until most of the fat has been rendered from the bacon. Add the onions, leeks, celery carrot, scallion and saute until wilted and have rendered some of their juices. Continue to cook until the onions are translucent and add both the chicken and shellfish stocks. Add to that the corn cobbs and cook at a simmer for about 45 minutes. Remove corn cobs, add corn, diced potatoes, milk and heavy cream as well as the nutmeg and half the chives. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer and cook semi-covered for 2 hours, skimming as necessary. Mash the bottom of the stock pot to mash some of the potatoes and thicken the soup. There should be just a noticeable amount of reduction (about a cup or so). Garnish with more chives and serve. 

You can add the clams, or crabmeat or shrimp (or all three) at the end and turn this into clam or seafood chowder. (Removing the clam shells is optional.) I've found, this year in particular, that clam shells have been taking forever to open when steamed. If you do make clam chowder, it's always good to soak the clams in cold water for about 30 minutes and then wash under cold water to make sure most of the sand is gone. Alternatively, after soaking the clams, you can steam the clams in a separate pan of water and then strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve lined with paper towels and use this for the shellfish stock base in the soup. It's rich with the taste of the sea.

Buon appetito!

SQUID INK TAGLIATELLE AL DIAVOLO

I PROMISED to make Tagliatelle al Diavolo and here it is. 

3 tbs. EVOO

1 onion

4 cloves garlic smashed

1/8 tsp. dried chili flakes

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup shellfish broth

1/8 tso. saffron

2 tbs. chopped basil

1 tsp. chopped thyme

3 cups chopped tomatoes (peeled and seeded)

4-5 chopped anchovy filets

meat from 1/2 lobster

8 large shrimp

1/2 cup chopped crabmeat

Put enough water into a large stockpot, add 1 tbs. salt, the rind from 1 lemon and 1 onion halved. Bring to the boil, place a live lobster and the shrimp in the pot and cover. Cook for exactly 11 minutes, turn off heat and let rest uncovered for 5 minutes, Remove lobster and shrimp and allow to cool. If making the night before, cover with foil and refrigerate. I would reserve 4 cups of the stock myself and freeze the bulk of it for future use. If you're going to make this after you boil the shellfish, proceed with the recipe as follows.

Remove all meat from the lobster (body, claws, tail, the lot; including the roe if you've got yourself a female*). Shell the shrimp but leave whole. Chop up the lobster and mix with the crabmeat and the shrimp. Set aside. Heat the olive oil in a large pan, sauté the onions and the garlic with the chili flakes until golden, pour in the wine, the saffron, half the basil and  all of the thyme and reduce by half, add the shellfish broth and reduce that by half as well. Add the tomatoes, the anchovies and the rest of the basil (no need to salt any of this as the anchovies will give enough saltiness to the sauce). Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer. Add all of the shellfish meat and cook for about 35 minutes or until the tomato sauce has reduced by half. You want a thick, juicy and very red sauce. 

Meanwhile, bring another pot of water to a boil. Add a handful of Kosher salt and put 8 nests of black noodles to the pot. Bring to a boil and cook until the noodles are al dente. Use tongs and remove the noodles or drain the noodles in a colander. Before you do drain, though, take a ladle full of the cooking water and add it to the tomato sauce. Dress the pasta with sauce and arrange in a large bowl with pieces of the lobster, crabmeat and whole shrimp. Serve immediately.

*How to tell a female? There are two intersecting feelers on the underside between the tail and the body of the lobster. If the feelers are soft and fuzzy, this is a female. The male's feelers are rigid and spindly. 

SQUID INK PASTA

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I am preparing this dish. I couldn't sleep last night and so, at 4:00 a.m. I woke up, wrote in my journal for about an hour and a half and realized that it was either do something else and then walk Ludwig or go back to bed where I probably would have languished until about 10:00. So, rather than waste the day, I made a very strong cup of coffee and decided to make black pasta dough. It wasn't difficult at all and once I started to knead the dough by hand, it truly became much blacker than it had been in the food processor - even with the flour dustings.

Squid ink pasta can be transformed into noodles, but they can also serve very well in the process of making ravioli or tortellini and tortelloni but should always be stuffed with some kind of seafood or fish. Lobster or scampi come to mind but scallops or salmon or even a meaty white fish like monkfish or skate can be used. I prefer mine in red sauce al diavolo which is divine. A divine diavolo . . . what an oxymoron that is!

3 1/2 cups of flour (reserving the 1/2 cup or more if needed for later)
4 eggs
4 egg yolks
1/2 tsp. olive oil
2 packets of squid ink (see picture)

Measure out the flour and put in the bowl of the food processor. Beat the eggs and egg yolks with the olive oil, add them to the flour mixture as well as the squid ink. Process until a mass forms and begins to roll around the bowl in one piece. It should be very wet at this point. Add more flour if necessary, a little at a time, until everything comes off the walls of the bowl and forms a ball. 

Remove the dough from the container and put on a lightly floured cutting board and knead by hand until you have a well formed black ball of dough. You will be able to tell that it is ready when it comes off completely clean from the cutting board. Place in another bowl and cover loosely with a towel and let rest for 30 minutes or so. You can refrigerate it for a couple of hours if you're not going to roll out the dough right away.

With a pasta machine take a medium-sized chunk of dough, flatten it into a disk and roll out through the machine at the widest setting. Do this over and over again until you have a smooth, elastic rectangle. Continue to roll through the rollers adjusting the settings each time until you get to number 8. You will have to dust the sheets with flour periodically as you proceed with the rolling. 

Place each sheet on a towel to dry for awhile or on a rectangular screen (with a towel on top) to allow the sheets to dry somewhat before cutting into noodles. 

After you've finished rolling out the dough, go back and start with the first sheet you rolled out (the driest at this point) and roll through the noodle attachment. You can make either tagliolini or tagliatelle (or both). As well as you can do this lay the entire group of noodles flat on the towel over the screen and continue making noodles until all of them are finished and laid flat on the towel. Begin again with the first batch, divide that into two groups and form nests around your fingers until all of the noodles are used up. Allow to sit like this in the open air for at least 3 hours turning each nest occasionally so they dry evenly. I prefer to let them dry all day to make sure they are dry enough to store overnight if necessary. You can freeze these noodles once they are dry, but they are very delicate so they must be stored flat (no ZipLocks here, please) and you shouldn't freeze for more than a week. They do not hold up to storing in unfrozen so the noodles should be prepared as soon as possible. Obviously, since so much work is involved, this pasta is usually reserved for a special occasion or a holiday meal.

Sauces to follow!

THIS AND THAT AND SHELLFISH

IT'S THE END of summer so please forgive me if I've been an absentee blogger. I've been here and there as well as attending the Christening of my great-niece - Siena is her name and she's gorgeous! Not only that, but guess who the godfather is? I tried to channel Al Pacino, but I had no one to murder, although I could think of a few people I'd certainly consider. But then, couldn't we all?

So, to begin, the one night that I did cook something worth writing about was one of those extremely muggy New York days and, even though I tried my best, my Pavlova wasn't the grand creation I had hoped for. But where there is failure, surely among the courses, there can be a success or two. And so it went: 

Mussels and Clams poached in white wine and tomato, served tepid alla Veneziana with home made toasts with herbed butter and then Cold Boiled Lobsters with Lime Juice and Sliced Tomatoes. 

Cozze e Vongole al Pomodoro

1 doz. clams (size is up to you)

1 doz. mussels (I prefer the very small, black mussels since this dish was really served as an antipasto)

Soak the clams and the mussels in cold salted water. Remove any hair or "beard" from the mussels and continue to soak for about an hour. 

In a large oval pan place the shellfish and 1 cup water with a dash of lemon juice and salt and pepper over moderately high heat. Cover the pan and let the clams steam until they are all opened. Place on a plate, cover with foil and reserve. Take the cooking liquid and strain through a fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth. Reserve the shellfish stock.

3 tbs. EVOO

3 tbs. unsalted butter

1 shallot, chopped 

3-5 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed with the side of a wide chef's knife or cleaver

Shellfish stock

1 cup dry white wine (Pino Grigio works well here)

Juice of 1 lemon plus the rinds

1 tsp. fresh chopped tarragon 

1 tsp. fresh chopped thyme

12 leaves fresh basil (chiffonade)

Small pinch of saffron dissolved in olive oil

6 plum tomatoes (skins and seeds removed and then chopped)

Salt and pepper to taste

Red pepper flakes (optional)

Soak the saffron in 1 tsp. EVOO and reserve for later. In a large oval pan, saute the shallot and the garlic until transparent. Add the wine, the stock and the lemon juice and cook for about a minute until every thing bubbles and thickens. Add half the butter and swirl around the pan and then add the rinds of the lemon and cook for a few minutes. Add the tarragon and the thyme.

Let the wine reduce a bit, remove the lemon halves, and then add the tomatoes, the saffron mixture and the basil (you can at this point add the red pepper flakes if you like, but don't over do it). Stir to combine and bring to a violent boil. Reduce the heat to a low simmer and cook for about 12 minutes. Turn up the heat and cook the tomatoes until they gradually become a thick mass. Correct seasoning, if necessary. 

Remove the top shell from each of the mussels and clams. Put the mussels and clams back into the oval pan but cover each one with a enough tomato to cover. By the time you have covered each of the shells, you shouldn't have much, if any, tomato sauce left. Cover again with foil and let rest.

Serve the shellfish with the toast and use the toast to wipe the juices and leftover tomato out the pan.

Toasted bread with seasoned butter

For the butter take:

1/4 cup spinach*

1/4 cup arugula

1/4 cup basil

1/4 cup parsley

1/2 tsp. fresh tarragon

6 cloves garlic smashed (or more depending how much you like garlic)

1 shallot chopped

5 filets of anchovy

2 tbs. capers

2 tbs. India Pickle Relish (or chopped pickles)

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp. lemon zest

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 stick of butter cut into pieces and softened

1/2 cup EVOO

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop all the greens and place into an electric blender. Blend until extremely fine. Add all of the ingredients except the butter and the olive oil and blend until you get a deep green paste. Add the butter and little by little, pour the olive oil into the blender while machine is running. Add the vinegar and continue to blend. You should have a smooth, light green paste. Taste for seasoning and then place in a storage container and refrigerate for 24 hours. This makes quite a lot of herbed butter. It will keep for several weeks in the fridge and a few months if frozen.

Take any kind of stale bread and cut into half slices. Cover one side of the slice with the herbed butter and place the slices, unbuttered side down, into a hot cast iron frying pan with olive oil. Once the bread is browned, turn the slices over so the buttered side browns evenly in the pan. Press down with a spatula so the bread doesn't curl while toasting. Continue until all the bread is used up and let rest for about an hour to let them dry out a bit more or let them dry in the open air overnight (best!).

Serve the shellfish semi-hot or tepid with the bread slices. If you like garlic as I do, you can eat the cloves with the bread as well. Totally delicious!

Buon Appetito!

*All greens should be thoroughly washed and drained in a colander before blending.