In the Hands of a Chef (23 page)
Read In the Hands of a Chef Online
Authors: Jody Adams
D
on’t let another spring pass
without tasting fresh tagliatelle sauced with a creamy combination of shad roe, pancetta, and spinach. The distinctively nutty flavor and silky texture of shad roe, available for only a few brief weeks, is not to be missed. Shad roe are usually sold in “pairs,” or “sets,” attached twin pink lobes or sacs containing a firm mass of eggs. Take care not to overcook the roe during the initial poaching, or the resulting sauce will be grainy rather than creamy. Don’t worry if you can’t remove all the membranes holding the roe sacs together. When the sacs are mashed with a fork, any remaining membranes will break down.
MAKES 4 ENTRÉE SERVINGS
2 cups water
¼ cup dry white wine
½ small onion, thinly sliced
½ celery stalk, thinly sliced crosswise
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pair shad roe (about ½ pound) ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 ounces thinly sliced pancetta, cut into ¼-inch-wide strips
6 shallots, minced
2 small garlic cloves, minced
¾ pound Fresh Pasta (pages 142–43), cut into tagliatelle (see page 144)
3 cups lightly packed flat-leaf spinach, trimmed of thick stems, washed, dried, and cut into ¼-inch-wide strips
½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh tarragon
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
DO AHEAD:
Poach the roe and clean the spinach a day in advance.
1.
Bring the water, white wine, onion, celery, thyme, and bay leaf to a boil in a medium saucepan. Season with salt and pepper. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Gently slip the roe sacks into the liquid (you don’t want the membranes holding everything together to rupture) and simmer for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the roe to cool in the liquid.
2.
Carefully remove the cooled roe sacks from the poaching liquid. Remove the blood vessel and any thick pieces of membrane. Split the membranes holding the roe, and scrape it into a bowl. Use a fork to mash the clumps into individual eggs. Remove any obvious remaining membrane. Season with salt and pepper, cover tightly, and refrigerate.
3.
Put a large pot of water on to boil.
4.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook until the fat starts to render, about a minute. Don’t let it get too crispy. Add the shallots
and garlic and cook until tender, about 2 minutes. Keep warm.
5.
Season the boiling water with salt and add the pasta, stirring so the individual strands remain separate. Cover the pot if necessary to bring the water back to a boil. Cook for 1 minute, then stir again. Continue to check periodically to make sure the strands aren’t sticking together, and cook until the tagliatelle is tender but still offers a little resistance when you bite into it, about 3 minutes. Before draining the pasta, use a measuring cup to scoop out ¼ cup of the pasta water. Set it aside.
6.
Pour the pasta into a colander. While it’s draining, return the pancetta, garlic, and shallots to high heat. Add the spinach and tarragon and toss quickly, just until the spinach has wilted. Season with salt and pepper; remove from heat and keep warm.
7.
Transfer the pasta to a large warm bowl. Pour the spinach mixture over it and add the roe. Toss well. If the sauce seems too thick to coat the pasta, add a little of the reserved pasta water to thin it, then toss again. Season with the lemon juice, salt, and pepper, being especially generous with pepper. Serve immediately.
T
his is not the lasagna
your mother (or grandmother) used to serve you. Deceptively spare, elegant, with about a third of the cheese of traditional lasagna, it’s suffused with the assertive flavor of brandade, the Provençal purée of salt cod, cream, and a little potato. By itself, brandade would be too rich a filler for lasagna—you’d be sated after a bite or two—but the sharp flavor of broccoli rabe and the mild acid of the tomato sauce keep the brandade in line. Just when you think you’ve had enough, the richness is erased, and you want to go back for more.
MAKES 4 ENTRÉE SERVINGS
SAUCE
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped into ¼-inch dice
2 garlic cloves, minced
2½ cups diced tomatoes (high-quality canned tomatoes are fine)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
LASAGNA
Kosher salt
1½ pounds broccoli rabe, tough or split stems removed, rinsed
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 large leeks, white part only, trimmed of roots and tough outer leaves, thinly sliced crosswise, and swirled vigorously in a bowl of cold water to remove any grit
Freshly ground black pepper
4 garlic cloves, chopped
¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
Eight 6×8-inch sheets Fresh Pasta (pages 142–43; use half a recipe [about ½ pound], roll it out to setting #6, and cut into 8-inch lengths)
1 recipe Brandade de Morue (page 22)
½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1¼ cups freshly grated Pecorino Romano
4 teaspoons capers, rinsed, for garnish
DO AHEAD:
Make the brandade 2 days ahead. The sauce can also be made ahead and reheated.
1.
Heat the olive oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until aromatic, about a minute. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and add the sugar and red pepper flakes. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. If the sauce seems too thick, thin it with a little water as it cooks.
2.
Transfer the sauce to a blender and purée. Strain, if desired, and set aside.
3.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and season with salt. Prepare a large bowl of ice water. Add the broccoli rabe to the boiling water and cook at a rolling boil until tender, about 4 minutes. Scoop out the broccoli and plunge it into the ice water. When it’s chilled, drain and pat dry. Coarsely chop and set aside.
4.
Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the leeks, season with salt and pepper, and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until aromatic, about a minute. Add the broccoli rabe and red pepper flakes, season with salt and pepper, and toss well. Remove from the heat and let cool.
5.
Bring a fresh pot of water to a boil and season with salt. Prepare another bowl of ice water. Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter large enough to hold one sheet of pasta. Add the pasta sheets to the boiling water and blanch for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Drain the sheets in a colander, then immediately plunge them into the ice bath. Stir the sheets gently until they’ve cooled, about 30 seconds. Remove one pasta sheet, drain, and lay it out on the plastic wrap. Cover with a second sheet of plastic, then remove and drain a second pasta sheet, lay it on top of the first, and cover with plastic. (Work quickly; if you leave the pasta sheets in the water too long, they’ll stick together.) Repeat the process with the remaining sheets, then cover with a final layer of plastic wrap. Set aside until ready to use.
6.
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
7.
Rub a 9×13-inch lasagna pan with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Mix the brandade with the parsley. Lay 2 of the pasta sheets side by side in the pan so the bottom is covered. Spread the sheets evenly with one-third of the brandade. Top with one-third of the leek and broccoli rabe mixture, sprinkle with ¼ cup of the cheese, and cover with 2 more sheets of pasta. Repeat the layering two more times, finishing with a final layer of pasta sheets. Brush the top with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup Pecorino Romano.
8.
Bake the lasagna for 25 minutes, or until it is heated through and the top is lightly browned. Let rest for 5 minutes before cutting.
9.
While the lasagna is resting, warm the sauce. Cut the lasagna into 4 equal pieces. Make a pool of warm tomato sauce in the center of each plate. Set a serving of lasagna in the center of each pool of sauce. Sprinkle with the capers and serve.
I
was skeptical on first hearing
that in southern Italy bread crumbs sautéed in olive oil were the poor man’s substitute for cheese. I didn’t doubt that this was a technique that was used, just whether it tasted good. I’ve since revised my opinion: Sautéed bread crumbs lend a great texture and delicious flavor to pasta, even when there is nothing else to accompany them except a few cloves of garlic and a handful of chopped fresh herbs.
MAKES 4 ENTRÉE SERVINGS
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1½ cups slightly dry coarse bread crumbs
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half
¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, or more to taste
Kosher salt
1 pound high-quality dried spaghetti 1 pound Maine (or other high-quality) crabmeat (fresh or thawed frozen), picked through to remove any shells
½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1.
Put a large pot of water on to boil.
2.
Meanwhile, heat ¼ cup of the olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat. Add the bread crumbs and stir until they’re toasted and golden brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3.
Wipe out the pan with a paper towel and add the remaining oil. Add the garlic and cook over medium heat until golden. Add the tomatoes and red pepper flakes, season with salt, and cook until the tomatoes are tender but not falling apart, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
4.
Season the boiling water with salt and add the pasta, stirring so the strands remain separate. (If the pot isn’t large enough for the spaghetti to lie flat, either break the strands in half or hold one end of the pasta bundle while the other end softens in the boiling water, then release the pasta into the water.) Cover the pot if necessary to bring the water back to a boil, cook for 1 minute, then stir again. Continue to check periodically to make sure the strands aren’t sticking together, and cook until the spaghetti is tender but still offers a little bit of resistance when you bite into it. Begin checking for doneness after 8 minutes. Before draining the pasta, use a measuring cup to scoop out ¼ cup of the pasta water. Set it aside.
5.
Pour the pasta into a colander. While it’s draining, return the tomatoes to high heat. Add the crabmeat and parsley and heat through.
6.
Transfer the spaghetti to a large warm bowl. Pour the sauce over it and toss well. If the sauce is too thick to coat the spaghetti, add enough of the reserved pasta water to thin it, then toss again. Toss with the bread crumbs and serve.
F
regola is a granular Sardinian
pasta. The pasta dough is rolled by hand into peppercorn-sized balls and then baked. In the last few years it has been appearing on American menus, either under its own name or billed as “giant couscous, “ which it does indeed resemble. In Sardinia, fregola is often added to soup or broth, not unlike orzo, or matched with seafood, especially mussels or clams. You can cook it like regular pasta—boiling it in stock or water—but I prefer to treat it like risotto, which results in a much creamier texture.
MAKES 4 APPETIZER OR SIDE-DISH SERVINGS
4 to 5 cups Chicken Stock (page 31) or high-quality canned low-sodium chicken broth
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, cut into ¼-inch dice
½ pound fregola (Sardinian pasta, available in the Mediterranean section of specialty food stores)
Grated zest of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup shelled fresh fava beans, long-blanched (see Fava Notes, page 88) and peeled (about 1 pound in the pod; if favas are unavailable, you can use blanched fresh lima beans or fresh peas)
½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1.
Bring the chicken stock to a boil in a medium saucepan, then lower the heat to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper if it’s unseasoned or you’re using low-sodium broth. Keep the stock hot.
2.
Heat the oil in a large deep saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the fregola and lemon zest and cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes. Ladle 1 cup of the chicken stock over the fregola, stirring constantly, and cook until the stock is almost completely absorbed. Add 3 more cups of the stock, 1½ cups at a time, waiting until the previous addition is almost absorbed before adding more. Lower the heat if the stock seems to disappear as soon as it hits the pan or seems to be boiling. When finished, the pasta should be tender but not mushy. Add more chicken stock if necessary; the dish should be a little soupy. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the lemon juice and cheese. Keep warm.
3.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the favas and toss in the butter until heated through. Season with salt and pepper.
4.
Stir the parsley into the fregola. Spoon the pasta into four warm bowls, top with the fava beans, and serve, offering additional cheese.