Penne with Zucca, Onions, Anchovies, and Breadcrumbs

I find myself alone for dinner tonight while my wife is out celebrating her friend's birthday (Happy Birthday Vy!), so I thought that it would be a perfect opportunity to cook another blog post. After getting in to the kitchen at work this morning at 5 AM and leaving at four in the afternoon, I didn't really have it in me to delve into a drawn out recipe, but I know there has to be something savory in this cookbook that I could make for a quick supper tonight. As I've said before, when in doubt turn to the pasta chapter. 

I've been sweating a good plate of pasta for two weeks now, and having good luck in the past with Mario's pasta recipes, I knew that I was in good hands with whatever I chose. Which brings me to this next post. 

This penne recipe is quick, simple, cheap to make, has only a few ingredients, and as Mario points out in the recipe notes, there is a wonderful harmony between the sweetness of the squash and the brine of the anchovies. It wouldn't be the first time that I have made a pasta that combines vegetables and anchovies. I once worked at an Italian restaurant where we used to make a killer puttanesca sauce. 

What I have come to love about the Italian way of cooking, though, is the simplicity behind every dish. Bold flavors through the use of superior product versus some flashy technique is quickly becoming my new mantra. But is this recipe perhaps a little bit too simple? I couldn't wait to find out. 

My first order of business is to check my recipe mise en place to see what needs to be prepped. Because this is such a fast moving recipe, I won't want to prep any of the ingredients on the fly. So I finely chop some red onion, thinly slice garlic, I dice some butternut squash, and chop some flat leaf parsley. 

I will also need to soak some anchovy fillets in milk for about 20 minutes and then rinse and drain them well prior to starting the recipe. 

I'm now ready to start cooking. I bring a pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta. Then in a sauté pan I heat some extra-virgin olive oil and add the onion, garlic, and anchovies to the pan. I cook this mixture over medium heat until the onion and garlic are softened and the anchovies have started to break apart. 

Once at that stage I'm now ready to toss in the butternut squash. I raise the heat up a little bit to get some caramelization on the squash. 

While this is working I add my penne to the boiling water. I'm sure all of you out there have your favorite brand of pasta, but mine is Barilla all the way!

Once the penne is cooked to al dente, I add it to the sauté pan and toss with a little more extra-virgin olive oil and the flat leaf parsley. 

The pasta is seasoned with salt and pepper and then plated. Once plated I sprinkle some fresh toasted breadcrumbs over the top of the pasta. 

That's really all there is to it. This was another solid recipe and an overall tasty meal. I highly doubt that this is something that would pop up on a Michelin-starred restaurant like Babbo. This is probably something that you would see in a less formal Trattoria in Italy, perhaps for lunch paired with 'a powerful young southern Italian red wine' as Mario suggests. Regardless of when and where you eat this, you won't be disappointed, but I also don't feel that you will be overwhelmed either. Like I said, it's a really simple dish and the addition of the anchovies are a 'love it or hate it' dealbreaker for those would consider eating this. 

I can't believe that there's only a few weeks left of the year. I should be able to knock out at least one more recipe for this month in between all of the Christmas shopping, gift wrapping, and craziness at work. Until next time...

Mascarpone Jelly Thumbprints

Drumroll please. Here I am with the last cookie recipe in the cookbook. Okay so maybe it was a small chapter anyway. But I do feel a certain sense of accomplishment knowing that I am closing out an entire chapter in the cookbook already. Is this how it is going to feel when I finish the other chapters? 

Sometimes I look at the sheer number of recipes that are left and it feels a little overwhelming. But I have to look back at what I've completed this year so far, over 40 recipes now or roughly a third of the book, and it further motivates me to continue on with this fun project. 

I like how there's a little something for everyone with this cookbook. If you're looking for a light and quick meal or appetizer for dinner during the week, it's in there. If you're looking for a challenge or to learn something entirely new, it's in there. If you're looking to bring a touch of elegance to an upcoming dinner party and you need ideas, it's in there. There is even challenges for industry professionals such as myself with a culinary school background and professional cooking experience. 

I really do revere this cookbook and Mario Batali's teaching style, even if there are a few mistakes or misprints along the way. It's not the only cookbook of his that I own nor will it be the last. Cooking from it has so far been more of a joy than I initially ever expected it to be. 

So let's start this recipe already. Once again I preheat the oven to 325°, and I use my KitchenAid mixer to cream some butter and sugar. 

Next is to add an egg, vanilla extract, and mascarpone cheese. I make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl while mixing. 

I'm now ready to add the dry ingredients to the bowl. I add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

Once it is mixed and forms a dough,I wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it for about 30 minutes. 

The dough is then divided into four equal portions. Keeping each portion wrapped up until ready to use, I start working with one section at a time. I break off pieces of the dough and roll them into about a half inch ball. Okay I may have made mine a little bit larger than that, but I like a big cookie. Each ball is placed on a lightly greased baking sheet an inch apart. I use the end of a wooden spoon to make a deep hole into each of the balls using a circular motion to widen the opening at the top. 

The cookies get baked for 12 to 15 minutes or until they just begin to turn a pale golden at the edge. 

I set my timer, I patiently wait, I take my cookies out of the oven, and this is what I find:

These cookies look like a hot mess! They are not even close to the picture in the cookbook! I'm not really sure what went wrong here, but I'm going to officially put these on the bonk list. To finish these off I'm supposed to heat up a little bit of raspberry jam so that it spoons easily into the little pocket on the top of the cookie to finish it off. But as you can see there was no pocket left that was available to me so I skipped it. It's kind of a shame that this didn't work out, because after tasting the final product I did like the taste of the cookie. 

So far this makes the third recipe that hasn't worked out for me. I am going to officially move on the next one, however I may revisit some of the bonk list entries in a post towards the end of this blog project to see if maybe giving them a second try and perhaps a little tweak or two might do the trick.

It's getting really close to Christmas time and I still have some last-minute shopping and giftwrapping to finish, but I'm hoping to make at least another blog post entry before the end of the month. Until next time...

Fig and Walnut Biscotti

Next up for me in the chapter of cookie making is the fig and Walnut biscotti. Biscotti gets it's name in Italian meaning twice cooked. Basically once the cookie dough is mixed it is formed into a big log and baked, cooled, sliced, and then baked again, producing more of a hard crunchy cookie, perfect for dipping into a hot cup of tea or coffee at the end of a meal. 

Biscotti is one of those traditional Italian cookies that are perfect for around this time of year or anytime for that matter, and if you're making a holiday cookie platter such as I am, biscotti should be be a part of it. It also presents a little bit fancier than your traditional boring sugar cookie or chocolate chip cookie. There's nothing wrong with a good chocolate chip cookie, hell I would eat them all day. But making biscotti for someone looks like you put more work and effort into making a sweet concoction for them. It's a sweet treat that's easy to make and worth adding to your repertoire of desserts. 

Sparing the long chit-chat once again, I'm going to dive right in to production because I still have one last cookie recipe left. 

I start by preheating the oven to 325°. Once preheated, I put some walnuts on a baking tray and toast for about five minutes until golden brown and fragrant. I then allow them to cool.

Next is to take dried figs and the cooled walnuts and process in a food processor until it is finely chopped. 

Now I take out my KitchenAid and cream some butter and white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. 

Once creamed, I add eggs, vanilla, and orange zest and mix well. 

Next up is to add the dry ingredients. In the mixing bowl I add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves. 

The dough should come together and be somewhat firm. Once it does I add the walnuts and figs and mix some more until combined. 

The biscotti dough gets wrapped in plastic and chilled for half an hour. 

Next I have to form the logs. I divide the biscotti dough into two pieces. I roll each piece of dough out on a lightly floured work surface to about the length of the baking sheet. The two logs get brushed with egg white and dusted with granulated sugar and are then ready to bake for about 20-25 minutes. 

Once out of the oven they will need to cool completely before slicing. I make the slices relatively thin, cut both logs, and place the cookies back on baking sheets. They go back into the oven, I lower the temperature to 200° and toast the biscotti until crisp, which will take about half an hour. 

This was another phenomenal cookie recipe. So far everyone that has tried them has loved them. This will be another keeper that I make more often in the years to come. I'm even snacking on some as I write this blog post. 

Well, next up is the last cookie recipe in this cookbook. I'm kind of glad that my cookie making is coming to an end and I can soon get back to some more savory dishes. I'm not much of a baker, although I'm certainly going to get my practice with this cookbook. I still have a good two thirds of the cookbook to work through and I've made some great progress this year. The cookie section represents the finishing little touch at the end of a Babbo meal. While it is an important part of the Babbo experience, there are lots of other parts that are just as vital if not more so. Until next time...

Polenta Shortbread

Next up on Santa's cookie list are these amazing shortbread cookies. These are about as traditional as they come. They are Benno's, Mario's son's, favorite cookie. And so far my family's favorite as well. 

Again, as I had mentioned in the last post, I will spare the long babble and rants for these next few recipes and get right into the cooking. There are only three more cookies left to make, so I'm eager to knock this one out of the park. 

I start with mixing the dry ingredients; flour, quick-cooking polenta, sugar, baking powder, and salt. 

To this I add an egg, egg yolk, melted butter, and orange zest with the paddle attachment and mix for about three minutes until I form a sticky dough. Well, after five minutes I ended up with this dry heap:

Damn you Mario another typo?! This doesn't even resemble cookie dough!

Not wanting to add another recipe to the bonk list, I added a couple of tablespoons of melted butter to the dough to add some moisture. 

Still too dry.

I add a few more tablespoons of melted butter while mixing and finally we have a cohesive dough! I'm praying at this point that the recipe isn't shit from my adjustments. In all, I've added almost double the about of butter to make this come together. 

I wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to chill for half an hour. 

Once chilled, I flour my workbench lightly and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to a 1/4 inch thickness. So far so good, maybe my adjustments will work after all. (Although haven't I said that before too?)

Next, I take a square cookie cutter and cut out as many cookies as I can and put them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. The dough scraps get re-rolled and cut again as many times as possible until all of the dough is used. 

The cookies get a sprinkling of sugar and bake at 325° until gold brown. 

My wife loved these cookies. We brought some over to our family to help us eat them and they seemed to like them too. They're crisp with just the right hint of orange. Turns out my tinkering worked out okay in the end. I will make these for many years to come. If you cut these cookies a little larger, they would be perfect for ice-cream sandwiches as Mario suggests. 

Only two more batches of cookies to go! Until next time...

Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies

December is finally upon us which means holidays, gift-wrapping, long lines, more wrapping, eggnog, swearing at the the goddamn scotch tape dispenser, and did I mention wrapping? In honor of the last month of the year, I went to the last chapter of the cookbook to focus on finishing a few recipes. 

There are four cookie recipes left to make, and I picked this month to make the last of them because December is THE time of year that I like to go cookie crazy. It may be because I have to get in all that I can before the New Years resolutions start flying around in my house. 

Almost everyone passes around the platter of Italian cookies at Christmas, whether it be at an office party or the family gathering at your house with the 'creepy uncle'. For Babbo, the plate is passed around at the coffee point of the meal as the last little something to nibble on and take home for those that won't commit to dessert. How many restaurants do you go to that give you something like that? 

But that's Babbo. That's why they have the Michelin star. It's the attention to those little details with a desire to be better and different than the next guy. And that is what Mario is trying to get across with this cookbook. It's about thinking of those little details and creating something unique for your dinner guests, whether it be an elaborate meal for many or just a quick week-night supper.  

I couldn't wait to try these cookies which Mario promises will satisfy my chocolate cravings. I start by creaming some butter and sugar in a mixer. 

Next I throw in egg and vanilla extract. 

Now it's time to add the dry ingredients to the bowl. Some flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. 

Once fully mixed, I fold in some chopped hazelnuts and bitter-sweet chocolate. 

The finished dough gets wrapped in plastic wrap, chilled in the fridge for 30 minutes, and the oven gets pre-heated to 325°  

The next step is to shape the cookies. The dough gets divided into four parts and I take 1-inch pieces from each part, roll them into a ball, flatten each ball into a thin disc, then dredge  the discs in confectioners sugar, where they are then ready to bake. This process is demonstrated in the picture below. 

The cookies are ready to bake for about ten minutes or until they puff slightly and start to crack. Once cooled, they get re-rolled in confectioners sugar. 

Wow such amazing flavor for such little work! Mario was right again, these certainly gave me the buzz of chocolate that I needed. My wife didn't care for them but then again she doesn't possess the cult-like devotion to chocolate that I have. There are several other delicious cookies to choose from too, so I'm sure she'll find something to snack on. 

I didn't elaborate as much as I normally would in this post because I have three more cookies following this recipe to knock out, so I'll be back again soon with the next batch of cookie goodness. Until next time...

Gnocchi with Oxtail Ragu

In a post a while back, I mentioned how even though I have not yet tried Babbo Ristorante, the last time that I was in Las Vegas I did eat at Mario's other restaurant B&B Ristorante, which had a similar menu. It's hard to believe that since that inspiring meal, Mario's empire has grown to operating over 20 restaurants, one of which is as far away as Singapore. 

I believe it was a Wednesday night that I went to Mario's for dinner. I couldn't even remember how many years ago it was. But I can remember everything about the ambience of the restaurant right down to the way it smelled. Because it was a night in the middle of the week, many of the seats in the restaurant were available, and there was plenty of staff to provide that extra touch of service. 

The amouse-bouche that was passed at the very beginning of the meal, the ceci bruschetta, is something that I have already cooked on this blog. But the main entrée that I ordered that night, the gnocchi, is the subject for this post. 

I remember gazing my eyes upon it as my server put the plate in front of me. The portion size seemed quite modest, but the smell was intoxicating. The gnocchi were like little soft pillows, tossed with a Ragu that was so hearty and flavorful that it really blew me away. I knew from eating that meal that Mario was the real deal. It was at that moment that I knew I had to study more about him and learn about how he approaches his craft. 

In my professional career at that time I was what most would consider a young apprentice, still wet behind the ears. As the years passed, I came to study more and more about Mario and his approach in the kitchen. But it was nothing quite as in depth as the training that I am getting from this blog, which excites me to be able to really go back, take my time and pick apart what makes Babbo and Mario Batali tick. So when I stopped into my local market today and saw these lonely packages of some of the nicest looking oxtail that I've ever seen on the shelf, it brought me back to the thrill of that night, the thrill of a great meal that I just had to replicate. 

A little fore warning though, this is not a quick one-two and you're out kind of recipe. There's a lot going on here. First I have to make fresh pasta, then I have to make a very flavorful Ragu and put it all together. Plus, checking the ingredients list, I see that I'm going to need  some basic tomato sauce and some brown chicken stock to make this. I had the day off today so I was able to invest the several hours of preparation time that was needed to make this recipe perfect. 

You will need to invest in some inexpensive but essential equipment to make the perfect gnocchi. First is a tool that's called a potato ricer as shown in the picture below right. Passing cooked potatoes through one of these aerates them and makes them fluffy enough to avoid gummy pasta dough and is a must if you want light gnocchi. The other tool is kind of nonessential but I found it on Amazon.com for a couple of bucks so I bought it anyway. It's called a gnocchi board and later on I show how to use it to give the gnocchi those little ridges that help the sauce adhere to the pasta. You can use a fork, though, to achieve the same effect

After reading the many steps that are involved in making this recipe, many home cooks would probably just say that it's not worth the time to try making this. I assure you that if you're a little adventurous and have the time that it is totally worth it. 

With some newly washed comfortable pajamas on, I'm going to dive right into production. The recipe itself has you start by making the Ragu, but really what needs to be prepared first is the gnocchi. I say this because unlike the other fresh pasta recipes that I've made in other posts, the dough for the gnocchi recipe requires cooked russet potatoes. 

Once the potatoes are soft they get drained, peeled, and passed through the ricer as such;

Next I set up an ice bath and bring water in my pasta pot to a boil. While that's going, I make a well in the center of the potatoes and sprinkle the flour over the top. The egg goes in the middle of the well and from here it's standard Batali pasta making. 

Four minutes of kneading will bring the dough together, forming a ball that is dry to the touch. 

The dough gets divided into 6 balls. Each ball rolled out into a diameter of 3/4 inch and cut into 1 inch pieces. 

The 1 inch pieces get rolled over the gnocchi board as such, creating the signature ridges. 

These then get tossed into the boiling water, but not all at once. They should be split up and cooked in batches because overcrowding lowers the heat of the water and will turn the gnocchi into a glob of mashed potatoes. When dropped in the water they sink to the bottom, but when they are finished cooking, which only takes a few minutes, they float to the top. 

When fully cooked, I transfer them to the ice bath to stop the cooking. Here, they can be drained, tossed with canola oil, and reserved for later. 

Next I need to get the Ragu cooking. The oven is preheated to 375°. The oxtail are trimmed of excess fat and heavily seasoned. 

I take out my Dutch oven again and heat olive oil over high heat until smoking. The oxtails get dredged in flour and browned on all sides. I make sure to take the extra time to develop a rich brown color here. 

When finished, the oxtails are transferred to a plate, and I throw some diced onions into the Dutch oven, cooking until golden brown. 

Next, I deglaze with red wine, a whole bottle mind you (gasp), brown chicken stock, the basic tomato sauce, and thyme. It is brought to a boil. 

Once at a boil I put the oxtails back in, put a lid on the pan, and put it in the oven until the oxtails are fork tender. Mario says that this will take about an hour and a half, but I cooked mine for a total of three and a half hours. 

I use some tongs to remove the oxtails and skim the fat from the sauce. The meat can now be pulled off the bones, the bones discarded, and the shredded oxtails put back into the Ragu. 

I transfer the Ragu to a sauté pan for easier mixing and add the gnocchi. The only thing left is to adjust the seasoning and plate. 

I grated some fresh cheese over the top as expected. It was a good idea that I made extra of this dish so that I could get at least a full plate to myself. I ended up taking two, it was that freaking good! This dish is warm and heavy, perfect for an under 30° night here in Holyoke. As in the case of the short ribs, the smell of the Ragu permeates every square inch of your house. The gnocchi were light and fluffy, not gummy at all. This recipe took a lot out of me but I stuck it out to the end. 

Would I make it again? Well I would certainly eat it again, but making it is a little bit involved so I will probably reserve it for a special occasion meal. Was it as good as the plate of gnocchi that Mario made in Las Vegas? You betcha!

Until next time...