Cook Like a Rock Star (6 page)

Mortadella Pâté

SERVES: 6 TO 8 • TIME: ABOUT 20 MINUTES

Mortadella is a super-high-quality baloney. In fact, it’s probably the most delicious baloney you’ve ever had. At one of my dinner parties I was serving mortadella and one of my guests said, “Hey, this baloney has nuts in it!” And it does: Mortadella is full of pistachios and chunky bits of fat, both of which make it super-flavorful. My mortadella pâté is puréed, mixed with whipped cream, and topped with pistachios—think of it as baloney mousse.

MISE EN PLACE

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ cup
chicken stock

½ pound mortadella, 6 ounces cut into 2-inch chunks and 2 ounces cut into small dice

1 cup heavy cream, whipped to medium peaks

½ cup shelled and chopped pistachios

1
Melt the butter in a large, deep saucepan. Whisk in the flour and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, continuing to whisk until well combined; it should look like wet sand. Add the chicken stock and continue to cook for another 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

2
Purée the large chunks of mortadella in a food processor until very smooth, then add the butter-flour mixture and continue puréeing until the mixture is homogeneous. Scrape down the sides of the food processor and check the consistency—it should be very smooth.

3
Transfer the purée to a large mixing bowl and add the diced mortadella, along with a third of the whipped cream. Gently combine the whipped cream into the mixture; repeat twice more. What you’re looking for is a homogeneous mixture without any streaks of cream. Transfer the pâté to a serving dish and sprinkle with pistachios.

Mmmmm … it’s a baloney cloud!

Zucchini & Parm Fritters with Spicy Tomato Sauce

SERVES: 6 TO 8 • TIME: ABOUT 45 MINUTES

Everybody likes fried food (if you say you don’t, you’re lying!), and these little guys are fried food done beautifully: a ton of zucchini held together by just a little bit of batter. They’re the perfect combination of salty, crispy, cheesy, and spicy all rolled into one. And, they’re a cinch to make: Do all your mise en place ahead of time; then you can make the sauce and the batter at the same time. Once you’re prepped, fry these babies until they’re really dark and crunchy. What we want here is crispy, crunchy, and dark. Woo-hoo!

MISE EN PLACE

FOR THE SAUCE

Extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, cut into ½-inch dice

Large pinch of crushed red pepper

Kosher salt

2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

1 28-ounce can San Marzano tomatoes (with their juices), passed through a food mill or puréed

FOR THE FRITTERS

Extra virgin olive oil

2 onions, cut into ½-inch dice

Kosher salt

1 zucchini, cut into ½-inch dice

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano, plus more for garnish

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ to ½ cup whole milk

Peanut or other neutral-flavored oil

FOR THE SAUCE

1
Coat a large saucepan with olive oil, add the onion and a decent pinch of red pepper—don’t go crazy here with the spicy stuff, you can always add more along the way—and bring the pan to medium-high heat. Season with salt and cook until the onion is soft and aromatic, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, stirring frequently.

2
Add the tomatoes and stir to combine. Taste and season with more salt and red pepper if needed. Bring to a boil (BTB) and reduce to a simmer (RTS).

3
Continue cooking until the sauce thickens, 15 to 20 minutes. Remember, it’s a dipping sauce, so you want it thick, highly seasoned, and delicious. When it gets there, remove it from
the heat, adjust the seasoning if needed, and … get ready to dip!

FOR THE FRITTERS

1
Coat a large sauté pan with olive oil, add the onions, season with salt, and bring the pan to medium-high heat. Cook until the onions are soft and aromatic, 8 to 10 minutes.

2
Add the zucchini, season with salt, and cook for another 7 to 8 minutes, or until the zucchini is soft and just beginning to color on the edges. Remove from the heat and let cool.

3
In a large bowl, combine the flour, Parm, and baking powder. Add the zucchini and onions to the bowl and stir until just combined. Add the milk gradually (you may not need it all) and stir to combine; you want a very thick batter. Don’t worry about the lumps.

4
Pour peanut oil into a large saucepan over medium-high heat; the oil should come 1½ to 2 inches up the sides of the pan. While the oil heats, set up your drying situation next to the stove by putting a couple layers of paper towels on a baking sheet. To see if the oil is hot enough, drop a little ball of batter into it. If it sizzles and floats quickly, you’re good to go. (If the batter burns or the oil begins to smoke, it’s too hot, so reduce the heat.) Drop 1-inch balls of batter into the pan without overcrowding. When the fritters turn nice and brown on all sides, 3 to 4 minutes, remove them with a slotted spoon and drain on the paper towels. Work in batches to finish the rest of the batter. If the fritters begin to color too quickly, lower the heat; if they don’t sizzle when they hit the oil, turn it up.

5
When all the fritters are done, serve them with a sprinkey-dink of Parm and the super-yummy spicy tomato sauce.

Holy fritter, Batman!

You can judge the temperature of the oil by what’s going on in the pan, but if you feel the need to use a deep-fry thermometer, go ahead!

SERVES: 4 TO 6 • TIME: ABOUT 1½ HOURS, MOSTLY UNATTENDED

Lots of restaurants put a dish of olives on the table, which always seems like a great idea. The bummer is that the olives usually aren’t marinated very well and so they’re boring. These olives are different: I use all different colors and sizes and add yummy things like big pieces of citrus zest, fennel and coriander seeds, garlic, herbs, and even a little kick of crushed red pepper. The secret is to first warm everything together slowly so the flavors marry; then, once they’re marinated, stir-fry them in a SCREAMING hot pan until they blister and frizzle on the outside. (And here’s a tip: These olives will hold forever in the fridge and it’s just as easy to make a lot as a little—so whip up a big batch, and you’ll always have some on hand.) These are SOOOOO delicious you want to eat them right away, but watch out—they’re hot stuff!

MISE EN PLACE

2 cups olives, all the same or a mix of sizes and colors

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

2 cloves garlic, smashed

Zest of 1 orange, removed in wide strips with a peeler

Zest of 1 lemon, removed in wide strips with a peeler

2 bay leaves

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

1½ cups extra virgin olive oil

1
In a large saucepan, combine all the ingredients over low heat and warm everything until it bubbles gently, like a Jacuzzi. Continue to cook the olives in their warm oil bath for about 20 minutes; they should be very aromatic. Turn off the heat and let everything cool to room temperature (this will take about an hour). If you want to do this step ahead of time, put the olives in a jar in the fridge until you’re ready to fry them—the olive oil will solidify but don’t worry; it will melt when reheated.

2
When you’re ready to serve the olives, bring a large sauté pan to high heat—you want to get it EXTREMELY hot. Add the cooled olive mixture to the pan, shaking it every few seconds until the olives blister on the outside, then remove from the heat.

3
Put the olives and all the other good stuff in a dish and serve immediately, but remember—inside the hot olives is hot olive oil, so be careful!

Aaahhh-luuuv these!!!