Marinated Baccala with Baby Fennel and Aceto Tradizionale

My great-grandparents immigrated to this country from Portugal many moons ago. I never had the chance to meet my great-grandfather because he passed away before I was born. But I remember stopping over to my great-grandmother's house as a child, usually right after seeing my grandmother who lived just up the street. 

My brother and I loved going over to see her because she always had treats for us, mainly cookies and Tang (hey, we were easy to please back then). But she also had plenty of snacks for any of the adults in the family that would pop over unexpectedly too.  

She was famous for her rice pudding, which to this day has yet to be duplicated exactly by anyone. She could make a killer vinaigrette. And she used a Portuguese staple, baccala, the main ingredient in this next recipe, to make her amazing cod-fish fritters which always went fast. 

Sundays used to be the day where everyone in the family would drop in to feast on her traditional Portuguese cooking, my grandfather's homemade wine, and to catch up on family gossip. Her cooking was by feel and sight, with no measuring, and it came out perfect and consistent every time, something that everyone can envy, chef or not. Pretty impressive for a woman that joined my great-grandfather in marriage and calling a new land home at the young age of 17. She kept on cooking until her passing well into her eighties. Seeing an ingredient like baccala in the book makes me nostalgic and I hope that Mario's preparation and handling of this ingredient pays her the homage that she deserves. 

I want to get started with the prep, but as the recipe notes mention, baccala needs to be soaked in water for 48 hours before it is used, making sure that the water is changed every 12 hours or so. 

Once that is out of the way I can start with the marinade for the fish. In a casserole dish, I combine the baccala, olive oil, champagne vinegar, thinly sliced red onion, lemon zest, red pepper flakes, peppercorns, and fennel fronds. I make sure the fish is well coated. The baccala gets marinated for four hours, turning after two hours for even marinating. 

Next is to bring some salted water to a boil and to set up an ice bath nearby. The baby fennel bulbs get blanched for almost a minute then removed and shocked in the ice bath. I then heat up the broiler, brush the fennel bulbs with olive oil and seasoning, and then broil the fennel until they are slightly charred and cooked through. Now the recipe calls for baby fennel bulbs but I was unable to find any babies at the market, so I bought the smallest ones that they had and cut them up smaller than I normally would have. You do what you have to do to make things work sometimes. 

Once the fennel is cooked, the fish is removed from the marinade and sliced very thin as if you were slicing a carpaccio. You'll need an extra sharp knife for the step which I am sure that by now is already in your arsenal. 

The marinade is strained and reserved. 

I am now ready to plate. The thin slices of baccala are placed on the plate with the fennel, the marinade is spooned over the fish and fennel, then the fish is drizzled with some really good extra-virgin olive oil and Aceto Tradzionale, or aged balsamic vinegar. I was able to get the aged balsamic that Mario recommends in the liner notes that is made by a friend of his in Italy. This stuff is quite expensive at $40 a bottle, and Mario notes that a small vial of aged balsamic vinegar is usually included in a brides dowry. I can understand why as a little goes a long way. 

Overall I didn't hate the dish is much as I thought that I would, but that's a far cry from me wanting to ever make this again. The marinade really made the fish pop and helped to cut some of the richness of the baccala, but I felt like the fennel was just 'there' and didn't really contribute much to the dish. Overall it's a little too light and skimpy in order for me to consider it an appetizer. Sorry Mario, but I much rather prefer my great-grandmother's way of handling baccala. 

Until next time...

5 Autumn Vegetables with Goat Ricotta and Pumpkinseed Oil

Happy new year! 

I'm back from my brief hiatus away from the blog and ready to dive in feet first. I hope all of you in blog-land had a great holiday season and are enjoying the new year. I certainly had a great Christmas with my wife and pet rabbit, and even scored some sweet gifts that'll make completing this blog all the more easier. My wife gets me so well that I even found a pair of these under the Christmas tree:

This time of year tends to be very busy for me at work. Add to that, my February cold came early this year, but regardless I'm excited to be continuing on with this project. We are rapidly approaching the 1-year anniversary of Babbo-at-home, and are nearly 50 recipes into the book. Not including my text books from culinary school, this is the most that I have ever cooked out of any one cookbook before. 

I'm starting to reach a point to where I am showing up to Whole Foods with book in hand and am checking out what's fresh and available and proceeding from there as opposed to picking my recipe ahead of time and hoping that my ingredients are on the shelf, which is kind of the main point of the book. Shopping as Italians would, with an open mind, a good eye, and no preconceived notions about what's going to be for dinner is Mario's main mantra. 

I also find that I am going to have to factor more time into the pre-planning of cooking these recipes as there are more and more specialty products popping up that need to be sourced out. If Whole Foods doesn't have it, shockingly so, then I have to hit up Google and go from there. So between allowing for sourcing, shipping times, and longer preparation of more complex recipes, my pace may slow a little, but this is where the real learning will kick in. With the exception of the drinks, many of the preparations from now on will be more complex. 

This inaugural 2015 post wasn't complex per se, but it did have quite a few ingredients that I was shocked to find available all in one convenient location. It's a beautiful looking appetizer that's vegetarian friendly. I let my wife pick this one out for me to make so let's see how it scored. 

I start by preheating my oven to 475°. Sharpen you knife because we're in for some chopping. I peel some butternut squash and cut it into 1/2 inch cubes. It gets tossed with some extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and some finely chopped sage, then put in the oven. 

While that's going, I take some scrubbed Jerusalem artichokes and slice them into 1/8 inch disks. I take the butternut out of the oven, which has now been in for a few minutes, and put the artichokes on the same sheet tray as the squash. The two should now cook at the same time. When done, they are set aside. 

Next I peel some parsnips, slice them into 1/4 inch disks, toss with olive oil, cumin, and seasoning, and roast them for about 7 minutes until they are cooked. The parsnips are set aside when fully cooked. 

I then bring some water up to a boil and set myself up with a water bath to blanch some julienned leeks. The leeks need only a few minutes in the boiling water before being shocked into the ice water. 

Sage oil is needed for the plating, so I took out my food processor and puréed sage leaves with olive oil, then strained it out. 

My last real prep work for this recipe is to julienne some celery root. It stays raw for this preparation. 

Okay now it's assembly time. The squash, artichokes, parsnips, leeks, and celery root get added to a mixing bowl with mizuna. Whole Foods didn't have any fresh mizuna for me, but luckily in the recipe notes Mario suggests frisée as a substitute, so I used that. The salad gets tossed with olive oil, sherry vinegar, and salt and pepper. 

The finished salad gets plated with a goat cheese smeared baguette slice, and drizzled with homemade sage oil (recipe on page 51) and pumpkin seed oil which Whole Foods had in their flavored oil aisle. 

My wife found this dish to be boring and uneventful. I thought that it was a nice salad. If we ate it in October our opinions might be better, but it served its purpose as a light, fresh, veggie starter. I'm not a fan of the goat cheese and probably never will be. But the rest of the dish is a keeper and something I may revisit next year when poking through a farmers market. 

Next up is a dish with a main ingredient close to my heart. Some that my Portuguese great-grandmother used often in her cooking. Until next time...

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...