Leite's Culinaria » pasta | grains

Spaghetti with Wild Garlic and Herbs

Julie Dreyfoos — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:40:28 +0000

Darina Allen | Forgotten Skills of Cooking | Kyle Books, 2009 | Serves 4 to 6

This is a little gem of a recipe. You can vary the herbs and the fats and the cheese, and throw in choice bits like chanterelles or periwinkles or cockles, if you have any around. Wild garlic begins to emerge at green-markets late winter, typically in March. If you don’t have any available to you, you can substitute flat-leaf parsley.—Darina Allen

LC Note: Granted, pasta may not seem much like Irish fare. Yet what Darina explains in her book and in our conversations with her is that Irish cuisine relies on those hallmarks of home cooking of thrift and foraging—whether in the woods or forest, at the green-market, or in your own refrigerator. This is a lovely last-minute recipe that she conjures quite frequently based on what happens to be in season on any given day.

convert Ingredients
1 pound thin spaghetti
8 tablespoons butter or a combination of butter and extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped mint
2 tablespoons chopped wild garlic (leaves and bulbs) or flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons basil or lemon balm, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 to 1 cup finely grated cheese, preferably Parmigiano-Reggiano, though we often use Irish cheddar
Chive flowers or wild garlic (leave and bulbs) in season, for garnish (optional)

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Method
1. Cook the spaghetti in salted boiling water until al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain and return to the pot.

2. Melt the butter in another pan over medium to medium-low heat. Add all the herbs and the crushed garlic and cook gently for no more than 2 minutes. Pour over the hot spaghetti, toss, and serve with the grated cheese. Sprinkle chive flowers and wild garlic over the top for extra excitement, if desired.

Variations
~Add 8 ounces cooked sliced wild or cultivated mushrooms to the herbs and garlic—chanterelles are great.
~Add some halved cherry tomatoes to the herbs and garlic and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
~Add 1 teaspoon red chile flakes to the herbs and garlic.
~Add 4 to 8 ounces diced chorizo to the herbs and garlic.

Basmati Rice with Cinnamon and Saffron

Linda Avery — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:08:07 +0000

Madhur Jaffrey | From Curries to Kebabs | Clarkson Potter, 2003 |Serves 4 to 6

This stunning rice dish from Madhur Jaffrey makes a fragrant addition to any dinner party menu, yet it comes together quickly and easily enough to make a welcome appearance at random weeknight dinners. The highly perfumed side elevates just about anything, including spiced kebabs, steamed fish, even simple roast (and let’s be realistic, rotisserie) chicken. When you want something a little more special, we suggest serving it with Jaffrey’s Moghlai Lamb with Spinach (Paalag Gosht) or as an accompaniment to her Gujarati Mango Soup.—Renee Schettler Rossi

convert Ingredients
1 teaspoon saffron threads
3 tablespoons hot milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon sugar
2 cups basmati rice
2 tablespoons corn, peanut, or olive oil, or ghee
2 medium sticks cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

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Method
1. Place the saffron on a piece of foil. Fold some of the foil over the saffron and crush it with a rolling pin or a wooden potato masher. Put the crushed saffron in a small cup. Add the hot milk cardamom, and sugar. Mix with a toothpick or the handle of a small spoon and set aside for 3 hours.

2. Put the rice in a bowl and wash in several changes of water. Drain, add fresh water to cover generously, and leave to soak for 30 minutes. Drain.

3. Pour the oil into a heavy, lidded pan that will just hold the cooked rice comfortably and set over medium heat. When the oil is hot, put in the cinnamon sticks. Stir for 10 seconds, then add the rice. Reduce the heat to medium-low and stir the rice around until all the grams look translucent, about 2 minutes. Add 2 2/3 cups of water and the salt. Bring to a boil. Cover.

4. Reduce the heat to very, very low and cook for 25 minutes. Turn off the heat. Lift the lid and quickly dribble in the saffron milk in any haphazard pattern. Quickly cover again and leave for 10 minutes. Mix the rice very delicately with a slotted spoon before serving.

Coal Miner’s Fodder: Spaghetti alla Carbonara

David Leite — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:26:16 +0000

My introduction to spaghetti alla carbonara was nothing less than ignoble. In the early ’90s, I encountered the recipe in a low-fat, low-cholesterol cookbook I had borrowed from my friend Diane, a stick-thin Stairmaster mistress. Diane, who has an impeccable palate, nonetheless wanted slim-down versions of her favorite dishes during the week so that she could splurge on the real thing during weekends.

The recipe — which in its unadulterated form is rich with eggs, pancetta, grated cheese, and plenty of freshly ground pepper — was an anemic version of itself. The final dish was a concoction of egg substitute, artificial bacon bits and low-fat grated cheese. After a few bites, I decided to steer clear of the dish — and the book.

Five years later, on a trip to Italy, several friends and I were dining at Vecchia Roma, on the Piazza Campitelli in Rome, and there on the menu was spaghetti alla carbonara. I was resolute in my aversion, and instead ordered risotto with shrimp and whitefish — utterly delicious, but like an ABBA song, I couldn’t get carbonara out of my head.

A week later in Bellagio in the Lake Como region, it appeared again on the menu of a small lakeside restaurant whose name I can’t remember, thanks to a bottle of Franciacorta spumante. I was going to pass it up until I read its description.

“Alla carbonara,” the menu said, means “in the manner of the coal miners.” (Carbonara and carbone, the Italian word for coal, both derive from the Latin word carbo.) According to this legend, the dish was popular with miners because the few ingredients could easily be carried or, in the case of eggs, pocketed from henhouses on the way to work. When appetites knocked, a simple campfire in the woods was all that was needed to make an elegant meal. The liberal use of pepper is considered a modern-day metaphor for the specks of coal that would inevitably drop from the miners’ clothing onto the plates of pasta. Others say the name comes from the carbon that rose from cooking the dish over a charcoal fire.

A sucker for a good story, no matter the origin, I committed myself to finding the best spaghetti alla carbonara our trip had to offer. From Bellagio to Milan to Venice, I ordered the same dish, and each time something different was placed in front of me. Some contained cream; others, wild boar; still others had the temerity to sport sauteed onions and garlic, which tipped the balance of flavors.

After arriving home and discovering I had gained 14 pounds (the hazards of research), I briefly entertained the idea of Diane’s denuded version from years ago. But the real thing in all its iterations had wooed me and won. Now, would someone pass the Parmigiano-Reggiano, please?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHwniV8Lwfw

Spaghetti alla Carbonara
by David Leite
Serves 4

convert Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
6 ounces thickly sliced pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 pound spaghetti
3 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, well beaten
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano combined with 1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano
3/4 cup of boiling pasta water
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method
1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until it ripples. Add the pancetta and cook, stirring often, until crisp. Slide the pan off the heat and set aside.

2. Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add the salt and the spaghetti, stirring often to prevent the pasta from clumping, and cook until al dente. Drain, reserving the 3/4 cup of pasta water, and return the spaghetti while it’s very hot to the pan. Set over very low heat. Immediately add the eggs, half of the cheese, the reserved pancetta, and any rendered fat, and toss well. Add just enough of the pasta water to make the mixture lusciously creamy. Sprinkle generously with pepper and serve at once. Pass the remaining cheese at the table.

Wild Mushroom Risotto with Peas

Linda Avery — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:50:24 +0000

Giada De Laurentiis | Everyday Italian | Clarkson Potter, 2005 | Makes 6 side-dish servings

The secret to the intense mushroom flavor in this recipe is that not only are mushrooms themselves part of the mix, but the risotto is cooked with mushroom-flavored broth. In order to use dried porcini mushrooms—or any dried mushrooms for that matter—you have to reconstitute them by allowing them to sit in hot water for a few minutes, absorbing that water and plumping up. Then the mushrooms are ready to cook with, and you have all this flavorful liquid as a by-product. By all means, take advantage of it. Here, it works as a flavor booster to the chicken stock, but you can also use it as the base of a wonderful soup or sauce.—Giada De Laurentiis

convert Ingredients
5 3/4 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 cups finely chopped onions
10 ounces white mushrooms, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice or medium-grain white rice
2/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

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Method
1. Bring the broth to a simmer in a heavy, medium-size saucepan. Add the porcini mushrooms. Cover and set aside until the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the mushrooms and finely chop. Cover the broth and keep warm over very low heat.

2. Melt the butter in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 8 minutes. Add the white mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, and garlic; saute until the mushrooms are tender and the juices evaporate, about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in the rice. Add the wine; cook, stirring often, until the liquid is absorbed, about 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of hot broth; simmer over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the liquid is absorbed, about 3 minutes. Continue to cook until the rice is just tender and the mixture is creamy, adding more broth by cupfuls and stirring often, about 28 minutes.

4. Stir in the peas. Mix in the Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Macaroni Gratin

Linda Avery — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:12:57 +0000

by Keith McNally, Riad Nasr, Lee Hanson
from The Balthazar Cookbook
(Clarkson Potter, 2003)
Serves 6 to 8

This delicious gratin is flavored with sharp Gruyère and smoky lardons. It’s served at the restaurant in individual casseroles, but it looks best at home in a great big dish. This makes generous portions or highly prized leftovers. Be sure not to overbake the gratin or it will “break,” meaning that the butterfat in the cheese will separate from the milk solids, resulting in the dreaded greasy gratin.—Keith McNally

convert Ingredients
One 16-ounce box elbow macaroni
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces lightly smoked slab bacon, cut into 1/4-inch dice
5 cups whole milk
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 cups grated Gruyère cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

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Method
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

2. Cook the macaroni according to the directions on the box. Drain, toss with the olive oil, and set aside in a large mixing bowl.

3. Add the bacon to a small skillet and saute over medium heat until brown but not crisp, about 10 minutes. Drain on paper towels and add to the cooked macaroni.

4. In a medium saucepan, bring the milk just to a foamy boil, then reduce the heat to very low to keep warm.

5. In another saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. When the foam subsides, remove from the heat. Whisk in the flour and continue stirring until a smooth, pale roux has formed. Return the saucepan to medium heat and, while still whisking steadily, begin ladling the hot milk into the roux, 1 cup at a time, completely incorporating each cup before adding the next. After all the milk has been added, continue to whisk until the sauce thickens and bubbles gently, about 2 minutes. Add the Parmesan, 2 cups of the Gruyère, and the salt and pepper, and stir until the cheese has completely melted.

6. Pour the sauce over the macaroni, mix thoroughly, and pour into a buttered 10 X 14-inch gratin dish. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes. Remove, sprinkle the remaining cup of Gruyère over entire top, and continue baking for an additional 10 minutes, until the top is golden and crunchy.

Valtellina Pizzoccheri

Linda Avery — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:30:43 +0000

Pizzoccheri della Valtellina | Editors of Phaidon Press | Silver Spoon Pasta | Phaidon, 2009 | Serves 6

Don’t think that pizzoccheri (peet-zo-key-AIR-ee) has anything to do with pizza. Pizzoccheri is a hearty flat buckwheat noodle found in the Lombardy region. Valtellina is one of the north-most points of Lombardy, near the Swiss border, and I’ll bet pizzoccheri is a popular dish at the end of a day’s skiing. Although this recipe generically calls for “low-fat cheese,” fontina is most often used in combination with Parmesan for this sauce. —Linda Avery

convert Ingredients
For the pasta
1 1/4 cups buckwheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour, preferably Italian type 00, plus extra for dusting
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons milk
Salt

For the pasta sauce
14 ounces savoy cabbage, shredded
1 potato, chopped
Scant 1/2 cup butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
4 shredded fresh sage leaves
5 ounces sliced low-fat cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper

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Method
Make the pasta
1. Sift together both flours and a pinch of salt into a mound on the counter and make a well in the center. Add the egg, 1 tablespoon warm water, and the milk and gradually incorporate the flour with your fingers, adding more warm water if necessary. Knead until smooth.

2. Roll in a damp dish towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

Make the pasta sauce
1. Put the cabbage and potato into a pan, add water to cover, and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes until the cabbage is tender and the potato is almost disintegrating.

2. Divide the butter between three small pans and cook the onion, garlic, and sage in the separate pans until soft and golden brown.

3. Roll out the pasta dough into a fairly thick sheet on a lightly floured counter and cut into 1/2-inch wide ribbons about 8 inches long.

4. Add the pizzoccheri to the pan of cabbage and potato, cook for 5 minutes, then drain, and transfer the mixture to a large dish. Pour the three hot butters over the mixture and toss lightly.

5. Arrange a layer of pizzoccheri-vegetable mixture on the base of a soup tureen, place a layer of cheese slices on top, and sprinkle with the Parmesan. Continue making alternating layers until all the ingredients are used. Serve hot.

Trenette with Langoustines

Linda Avery — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:15:51 +0000

Trenette agli Scampi | Editors of Phaidon Press | The Silver Spoon Pasta | Phaidon, 2009 | Serves 4

Trenette is a dried pasta that’s long, narrow, and flat. It’s popular in Genoa and Liguria and is the pasta of choice for their regional dish with pesto, string beans, and potatoes.—Linda Avery

convert Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 chile
12 ounces langoustines or lobsterettes, thawed if frozen, peeled
12 ounces fresh Trenette
Chopped flat-left parsley, to garnish
Salt

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Method
1. Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the garlic clove and chile and cook, stirring frequently, for a few minutes until lightly browned. Remove the garlic and chile with a slotted spoon and discard.

2. Add the langoustines or lobsterettes to the skillet, season with salt, and cook for 3-5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, cook the trenette in plenty of salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes until al dente. Drain, tip into the skillet, and toss to mix. Serve immediately, garnished with chopped parsley.

Shells with Gorgonzola and Pistachios

Linda Avery — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:00:43 +0000

Conchigle Con Gorgonzola e Pistacchi | Editors of Phaidon Press
The Silver Spoon Pasta | Phaidon, 2009 | Serves 4

If you’re in a hurry, start the water boiling first, because that’s what will take the longest in making this recipe. This rich Gorgonzola sauce studded with pistachios belies how quickly the dish comes together.—Linda Avery

convert Ingredients
1/2 cup pistachios
3 1/2 ounces diced strong Gorgonzola
2 tablespoons heavy cream
11 ounces pasta shells
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt

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Method
1. Put the pistachios into a heatproof bowl, pour over boiling water to cover, and let stand for 3 minutes. Drain well and when cool enough to handle, rub off the skins with your fingers. Chop the kernel and set aside.

2. Put the Gorgonzola and cream into a pan and melt over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth, then remove from the heat.

3. Cook the pasta shells in plenty of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain, tip into a warmed serving dish, and toss with the melted Gorgonzola mixture, chopped pistachios, and Parmesan. Serve immediately.