Spaghetti with Sweet 100 Tomatoes, Garlic Chives, and Lemon Basil

I couldn't let the month of September fly by without making this next recipe that features a few ingredients that I grew in my garden this year....or at least attempted to grow. 

Okay, so maybe the garden didn't do so well this year. It's a bummer. I put my sweat and tears into it. More sweat than tears. But a few veggies did pop up so it wasn't a total loss. 

It was my first year of growing at the new house in a patch of land that clearly had never seen seed of any kind, in a state that got almost no rain this summer. And....maybe....I did neglect it just a little bit. Sue me. Next year will better for sure. 

My tomato plants faired well however, (thanks Home Depot!) and my wife and I had plenty of tomatoes to enjoy, including a nice variety of sweet 100's. The vines are just loaded with them, so I picked some tonight to use in this recipe. 

There's something to be said about cooking with and eating produce so fresh that it has never seen even a bit of refrigeration. And with a recipe that has such few ingredients, every one of those ingredients has to be a star. 

Those of you at home will appreciate this dish in that there is no need to crank up the oven and heat up your home during the Indian summer, nor is some complicated culinary surgery required to prepare it either. It doesn't require that you grow your own tomatoes, but having access to incredibly high quality ones are essential. 

I start by bringing salted water up to a boil to cook my spaghetti in. Once boiling, I throw in the pasta and heat a sauté pan with extra virgin olive oil on high heat. Oh and in case I haven't already mentioned it, don't put oil in your pasta water. It's a waste of oil. Oil and water won't mix. I know some people think that it helps prevent the pasta from sticking together, but it doesn't. Stirring the pasta often and using plenty of water prevents your pasta from clumping together. 

I add some slivered garlic to the oil as my pasta cooks. 

After about 2 minutes, the garlic turns golden brown so I throw in some sweet 100's, basil, and chives.

 

This gets sautéed until the tomatoes beginning to burst. 

Once the spaghetti is just shy of al dente', it gets added to the sauté pan and cooks for about another 30 seconds longer. Why? Because the heat of the condiment will continue to cook the pasta as the pasta simultaneously absorbs the flavor of the condiment. This is something that Mario always harped on on his show 'Molto Mario', and in his countless number of cookbooks. This how it is in Italy, in his restaurants, and making pasta in this manner will really take your noodle cookery to the next level. 

The spaghetti is ready to plate. 

You would not be shunned in my presence for adding some chili flakes and grated Parmesan cheese to this plate, but really it's perfect just the way it is. That is, of course, unless you have anything less than great ingredients. 

Overall, this was way easy, so I'll be looking to find another recipe that offers more of a challenge.  Until next time...

Black Pepper Tagliatelle with Parsnips and Pancetta

Here in Massachusetts, fall is staring us right in the face. This is the time of the year when New England still has warm, comfortable days, and those slightly chilly nights that make you want to cozy up under a warm blanket, pour yourself a nice glass of Barolo, and eat a nice warm plate of pasta. At least it does for me anyway. 

September is an amazing month for cooks in that all of the wonderful summer harvest, the stuff that we have been waiting to taste all year, is just now starting to hit its prime. So I want to take full advantage everything our farms have to offer. I can't wait to start working with this years selection. As I've said before, this cookbook has so many great ideas for fall that I want to dive right in. 

I go to the market and see some parsnips that look great so like the good honorary Italian that I am, I take them home with me, knowing that Mario has something for me to do with them. 

The only real hurdle in this dish is to make the fresh pasta. Once we get that out of the way, the rest is so simple. Sure, you could substitute your favorite dried pasta for the tagliatelle, but what's the fun in that?

I start by making the pasta dough. The dough is Mario's standard pasta recipe but with some cracked black pepper added to the egg/olive oil mixture. 

I knead it for about 7 minutes until it looks like this:

The dough gets wrapped in plastic wrap and is allowed to rest for 30 minutes. 

Once rested, I roll out the dough to the thinnest setting on the pasta machine and cut the pasta sheets into 1/4 inch wide strips of tagliatelle. 

Next, I have to prep my ingredients. I chop some fresh parsley, dice some pancetta, and cut the peeled parsnips into half moon pieces. Again, not a lot going on here. 

Once that's taken care of, I bring some salted water up to a boil for the pasta. 

In a sauté pan, I add the diced pancetta and brown it until the fat has rendered out. OMG does it smell good already. 

Once at this stage, I use a slotted spoon to remove the pancetta, add a cube of butter, and start cooking the parsnips until golden brown and slightly crispy. Mario advises to not shake the sauté pan too much during this step so that the parsnips can develop their caramelization. Kind of like when you're grilling a steak and you just leave it instead of turning it every two minutes to make it look like you're doing something. Ya that's right I'm calling you out on that one!

At this point I drop the tagliatelle into the boiling water. 

I add the pancetta back into the sauté pan and when the pasta is cooked al dente, about 2 minutes, add it to the sauté pan. Turn off the heat and add the fresh parsley and grate some Parmigiano Reggiano into the pasta goodness. 

I plate it up and the smell is so overwhelming that I can't even wait for my wife to come home to try it. For such a simple recipe, this was a complex palette pleaser. You have the sweetness of the parsnips, the smokiness of the pancetta, the pepper from the tagliatelle, and the richness of the Parmesan cheese. A really nice surprise. And a great way to put me in the mood for more fall surprises. 

Next up I will continue with the same harvest theme, especially now that I see some sweet 100's on my tomato vines in the garden. Until next time...

Chocolate and Valpolicella Crema

Ask anyone that really knows me and they'll tell you that I'm a sucker for anything chocolate. So I have been waiting for the chance to make what Mario calls the most adult chocolate pudding that you'll ever encounter.

At first glance, this recipe looks like your standard chocolate pudding.  But Mario kicks this into overdrive by adding red wine. I know, i was a little sceptical about it too, but hey, its chocolate, how bad could it be?

I also want to take the opportunity to apologize in advance for the lack of photos in this blog post.  I decided to try out the camera on my new cell phone but for some reason none of the photos seemed to save. Lesson learned. 

I started by reducing some red wine and sugar in a small saucepan until reduced by 2/3 and syrupy.

While that's going, I melt some bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler. When melted, I add the red wine syrup, some egg yolks, milk, cream, and sugar, along with a pat of butter and whisk the mixture until smooth.

This mixture then goes into wine glasses or custard cups and is chilled until it has set. 

Its ready to eat.  It just needs a little dollop of whipped cream.

Wow.....wow....shhh....I'm eating....wow....

This is quite complex. There's such a nice contrast of sweet and acidic.  Its a quick recipe too. I just wish that you could see some of the steps that i went thru to make it.  But regardless, here is what it looks like finished.

I know right! You want to make it don't you? If you love chocolate as much as i do then you can't go wrong with this dessert.

Next up, I'm going to start utilizing some of the great fall ingredients that are coming in to season as we speak. The air is getting more crisp every day, and there are some amazing looking fall recipes in this cookbook.  Until next time...

Preserved Lemons

Here's another short little recipe of Mario's that is used throughout the book several times. It's something that is versatile enough that Mario includes it in dishes with meat or fish. Having used preserved lemons in the past, I can assure you that using them in dishes, especially with a piccata sauce which we'll cover in a later recipe, adds a whole new dimension to your cooking. 

If you go to Mario's YouTube channel, there is a really great video demonstration of this technique. However, if you follow along with me at home, you really won't even need a recipe. 

You start with four whole lemons that are scrubbed clean. You then make two long perpendicular cuts through one end of each, so that every lemon resembles a tulip with an X on the top of it. 

Next, you'll want to salt each lemon very liberally. 

Once this step is done, you can place them in a large jar that has a tight sealing lid. I found that going to the store and buying Mason canning jars works really well.  

Next you add fresh squeezed lemon juice into the jar to cover the lemons completely. According to the recipe, Mario suggest that four lemons juiced will be enough to cover. I have found that you will need at least another three lemons worth of juice in order to cover it. 

Next up is to place the lid on the jar and get a tight seal. Shake very well so that the juice and salt mixture are well combined. The preserves are ready after one month. They will need to be turned upside down every other week during that month for proper curing. 

I know, I know, waiting an entire month for recipe to be complete is a real test of your patience. But if you tried the duck salami recipe from a previous post, then you are used to waiting. 

You can notice a slight color difference from the beginning of the curing process to the end. Make sure you use pure lemon juice and not the stuff from concentrate. That contains water and a bunch of other stuff that you don't need or want in the recipe. 

And there you have it. Some of these recipes that I will be attempting in the months coming require some special shopping on my part. It will require me to go online to Amazon.com to see if I can find some of this stuff. It will be a new experience for me to use the exotic ingredients that make it to the Babbo table, but I can't wait to tackle these recipes. Until next time...