Blood Orange Bellini

I'm back. 

Well, I never left. I've always been here. But it has really been murder at work lately. So far, I've had three days off this month (yes you read that right). And as tired as all of those ten-hour days have left me, it has paid off in the end. 

Literally. 

I wound up with quite a sweet promotion. 

And with that promotion comes more responsibility, requiring more of my time away from my home kitchen. But don't worry, nothing can tear me away from all of you in blog-land. 

I thought it would be appropriate not only to celebrate my great news, but also as a fast blog recipe if I made one of the drinks in the beginning of the cookbook. Mario states that a drink is usually the first thing that he is offered either in the company of a friend's home or even at a 5-star restaurant. There are several very appealing sounding drinks in The Babbo Cookbook, so I decided on trying the Blood Orange Bellini. For one, it looks tasty, is versatile enough to have at any time of the day, and, the best part, it only has 2 ingredients! Blood orange juice and Proseco. Fool proof indeed. 

You start with a little bit of blood orange juice in the bottom of a champagne flute. Then top with the Proseco. 

Cheers. (Sorry I'd love to give out this simple drink recipe but you'll just have to buy the book)

My glass was a little bit bigger than a champagne flute, but as I said before, it has been a long month. 

The next post will be something that was a month in the making. It's another easy one, but an essential piece used in several recipes within the book. After that, I promise we'll get into some of the more intricate recipes that make this book amazing. After all, fall is coming, along with this year's harvest, and this book has some wonderful looking fall recipes that utilize them. I can't wait. And thank you all for hanging in there with me. I know it's been a while, but I am going to get this blog back on track and head back into the kitchen. 

Until next time...

Ziti with Tuscan-Style Cauliflower

It's been such a busy few weeks at work. I've barely had time for anything, be it blog posts, reading, or attending my tripe cookers anonymous meetings. These next few days off have been long awaited and I am trying to play catch-up with all of my chores, so I find myself rummaging through the cookbook looking for something quick to make. When time is of the essence, make some pasta.

Pasta is by far my favorite thing to make. I mean, who doesn't love a plate of pasta? From a cooks perspective it's cheap, tasty, and very versatile. Hot outside? Make it light with oil, garlic, and some chillies. Cold? Pair it with a hearty Ragu, you know the 'stick to your ribs' kind. 

Some pasta dishes take longer to prepare than others, but most, like this one, can be made in about the time it takes to bring some water to a boil. Furthermore, this one is something that my father would call a 'one-pot wonder', with everything prepared in one pan, on the stove, without the need to use the oven and further heat the house. 

Mario uses common ingredients, available in almost every grocery store year round, so making this dish is very easy and won't require extensive ingredient searching. Another plus on a busy schedule. 

You'll want to get that pot of water boiling for the pasta, because this ones a quickie. And your pasta water should have salt in it. When the pasta is cooking, it'll absorb the salt which flavors the pasta. And we like flavor, right? You won't need much salt, about a good handful's worth will do. 

I start by taking a head of cauliflower and cutting it into 1 inch pieces. 

Next I diced some red onions and garlic. 

I then heated extra virgin olive oil until almost smoking and add the red onion and garlic, with a chiffonade of fresh mint and some chili flakes. It only needs to cook about a minute until the garlic is slightly browned. I'm eager to see how the mint will work in this dish. 

Next, the cauliflower is added to the pan to cook in the oil/onion mixture. It should take about 7 minutes to cook through. This is a non-blanching technique that Mario learned in Tuscany. The cauliflower cooks by absorbing the oil. Skipping the blanching step saves time, prevents dirtying more dishes, and adds great flavor to an otherwise bland vegetable. This is also a good time to drop your ziti into the pasta pot. 

Once the ziti is almost al dente, I strain it and add it to the sauté pan with the cauliflower mixture. It cooks for an additional 30 seconds or so, just enough to bring the pasta to the point of al dente. That is, cooked but with a slight bite. 

Of course, how can we forget a shaving of the 'undisputed king of all cheese'? I shave some Parmesan and add some more fresh mint off the heat. 

It's ready to plate. 

This made for a perfect light lunch, although it's suitable for dinner too. And because it's vegetarian, you can please almost anyone by making this.

 I liked it. Not quite to the extent of reenacting Meg Ryan's diner scene with Billy Crystal in 'When Harry met Sally'. But I liked it. The mint wasn't overpowering and the cauliflower picked up some great flavor. The fact that this meal is virtually fool proof is a big plus too. 

Next time, having more rest in me, I'd like to tackle something that's a little bit more of a challenge. Until next time...

Warm Tripe alla Parmigiana

For this next post, I decided to really step out of the box and try something new. Not just something new in the sense of a new recipe, but also that of a new product that I have never worked with before. Tripe. 

I found myself alone on a Thursday night this week, my wife away on a short vacation, myself working a long week in the kitchen, so I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to try something that my family might call a little funky. Even Mario admits in the recipe notes that this used to be a tough sell in his restaurant. But this dish did look really good, tripe that was swimming in a rich tomato sauce with root vegetables and some shaved Parmesan cheese. Mario assures us that this dish has gained popularity at Babbo and now flies out the kitchen door. So what the heck? I'll give it a try. 

So just what is tripe? It's the lining from a cow's stomach. Actually it can come from a variety of animals, but most commonly tripe comes from cow. Mmmmm, stomach lining. Very appealing isn't it? But to be fair, tripe is right in line with the Italian's philosophy of nothing goes to waste. 

Tripe is actually very popular in many cuisines of the world. In France, it is boiled then smoked and made into Andouille sausage. In India, it is made into a stew called Chakna. In Scotland, it is the main ingredient in the making of haggis. In Mexico, it is made into a stew called Menudo. And that pho that you get at the Vietnamese restaurant? Yep it's in there. In fact, tripe is often used as a filler in many American breakfast sausages. 

I was able to find some tripe at my local grocery store. I mean it's not like there's a long line of people waiting to buy it. I was probably the only one that bought any this week. 

The recipe called for what is known as the honeycomb variety of beef tripe, which gets its name because as you can see it looks like a giant honeycomb. 

I start by placing the tripe and a large pot and covered it with water. 

To the water is added vinegar and vanilla extract. I know, it sounded weird to me too, but Mario insists that by putting these two ingredients in the pot of tripe, it will remove the uric smell that often makes tripe objectionable. 

The tripe gets brought to a boil, then reduced to a simmer for about an hour until tender....

Or so the instructions say.....

I gave the tripe over an hour and a half. It was tougher than shoe leather. But by this time it was approaching about 9 o'clock at night, so I took the pot off the heat. No big deal I thought. The next step in the process was to cool the tripe overnight in the cooking liquid anyway, so I figured that I would give it a little bit more cooking time the next night when I finished the preparation for my dinner. 

Before I started re-preparing the tripe, I did plenty of research to make sure that I wasn't seeing something wrong. The Internet was quite inconsistent with cooking time for tripe. Many people said an hour and a half, some said that it would take at least a couple of hours, and Thomas Keller of the French Laundry Cookbook has a tripe recipe that cooks for about 5 hours. 

So I put the tripe back onto the stove and brought it to a simmer for several hours.....

Yep, still shoe leather. Except now I had this god awful smell of tripe cooking in my home. It was really nauseating. Like I had a golf ball of vomit in the back of my throat. 

I checked the tripe again. Way too tough.

At this point, having gone way past the one hour cooking time in the instructions, and furiously trying to light every scented candle that I own to kill the aroma, I was left with a worthless piece of stomach, while mine remained empty. I decided to cut my losses and just stop this train wreck altogether. Luckily tripe is very inexpensive, less than $3 a pound, so I don't feel bad letting this go. I just feel bummed that we have another recipe that didn't quite work out for this blog. 

Mine: 

Mario's: 

I have no idea what went wrong here. Did I get a bad piece of tripe? Mario if you are out there in Internet Land I could really use your help on this one!

I really doubt that I would try to make this dish again. The cookbook was right though. It did fly out of my kitchen. 'Right into the fuckin' bin', as Gordon Ramsey would say. 

Until next time...

Basic Tomato Sauce

This next recipe, very much like the brown chicken stock that I made in a previous post, is not a major player in the collection of recipes in this cookbook. But it is a very important one nonetheless. It is something that is used throughout the book as a part of other recipes, and darned tasty if I do say so myself. Even in French cuisine, tomato sauce is considered to be one of the five mother sauces. So because of that, I am giving the tomato sauce its own post. 

If you put 100 people in a room and ask them how they make their tomato sauce, you would probably get 100 different answers. Do you prefer it smooth or chunky? Onions or no onions? Spicy? The combinations are quite infinite. But again, it's all in personal preference, and something that you the home cook can and should personalize whenever and wherever you can. 

I believe that every home cook should have a good go-to tomato sauce in their repertoire, and you can't go wrong with Mario's. I've used it a lot in the past. It's also relatively simple to make and it doesn't take that long to cook. I would make a big batch and either can it for future use, or put a bunch in the freezer for a later time. 

Let's dive in to this sauce. 

First I took and small diced some onion thinly sliced some garlic. 

I started cooking the onion mixture in a sauce pot over medium heat, in extra-virgin olive oil, until the onions got golden brown. 

Next was to add some fresh thyme and very thinly shredded carrot and combine with the onion mixture to cook a few minutes more. I know what you are thinking, not many of you are probably used to putting carrots into your tomato sauce. So why does Mario do it? The sweetness from the carrot counterbalances the acidity and bitterness of the tomatoes. Mario said to finely shred the carrot, so I used my micro plane in order to do so. This shaved the carrot so fine that once it started to heat up it basically just melted within the sauce. 

While that was going, I hand crushed my cans of whole peeled tomatoes. Again, this is where you want to use high-quality product, preferably San Marzano tomatoes. They are much sweeter than their American counterpart. 

The tomatoes get added into the sauce pot. The mixture is brought to a boil and then reduced down to a simmer for approximately half an hour, or until the tomato sauce resembles the texture of hot cereal. 

At this point the tomato sauce is all done, it just needs a little bit of salt to taste. As you can see, this sauce is quite chunky. If you prefer yours to be really smooth, after it has cooled you can purée your sauce if you wish. I happen to like mine a little bit on the chunky side just like Mario's. 

I had some guests over the house this weekend where I had the opportunity to use the tomato sauce with something that I was cooking for them. Everyone seemed to really like it. In fact, my batch of sauce was completely used up! I am going to have to make another batch so that I can keep it in the freezer to use when I come across it again in some of the recipes. 

Feel free to let me know what you think of this sauce while you are cooking with me at home. Until next time...

Olive Oil and Fresh Rosemary Cake

For this next post, I finally get to use something from my garden. That's right, this guy has a garden and it's really taking off. It's nothing too large, in fact I have it on the side of my house, but it's manageable for me and loaded with great stuff that I can't wait to cook. I may expand the garden in size next year, but I digress. I snipped some sprigs from my rosemary bushes that will be used in this cake and finely chopped them. 

Rosemary and olive oil aren't two ingredients that you would normally find in a dessert, so once again I was hesitant about just how good this would actually taste. But if I have learned anything by now, it's that I should just let down my guard and put my full faith and trust in the All-Mighty Mario. 

I started by heating my oven to 325° and spraying a loaf pan with non-stick spray. 

Yeah I'm sure you know what a sprayed loaf pan looks like, but I'm really stretching for content here. This is such an easy and fast moving recipe that it'll all be over before you can finish polishing your orange kitchen clogs. 

Some eggs are beaten in the mixer for about 30 seconds and then sugar is added and mixed until very pale and foamy. 

With the mixer going, once the egg mixture is pale, the olive oil is drizzled in slowly. 

Next was to beat in some of the finely chopped rosemary, flour, baking powder, and salt. 

The cake batter goes into the loaf pan and is baked for about 45 minutes. 

It's done when a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle. 

In the recipe notes, Mario states that 'this is a perfect example of what Italians really eat in the late afternoon,' and that is when I decided to have it as well. My wife, parents, and I had been rebuilding our front steps at the house and needed an afternoon break when the work was completed. I served this cake with butter and jam which paired well. Everyone seemed to like it, including me. Once again Mario, I was pleasantly surprised. Although, if I could change one thing, I would add lemon zest to this cake. I felt like lemon would make this cake perfect. 

It's not an overly sweet cake, which may not spark the interest of the American pallet, but it is a great afternoon snack or accompaniment for breakfast fare. Is it 5-star restaurant worthy? Probably not. But sometimes after a meal you don't want an overly sweet dessert either. I guess it's all a personal preference. 

The recipe notes seem a bit dated, however, because Mario notes that this is served at Babbo with either braised figs or sorbet, and I'm pretty sure that you'll still find it on the menu but with olive oil gelato, for which the recipe is thankfully included in this book. The cake batter is also baked in individual round molds for a better presentation. Check out yelp.com for pictures of it. 

Until next time...

Lemon Goat Cheese Cake

Originally, the goal for this post was to prepare one of the drinks that Mario has in the beginning of the cookbook (yes there is a whole section on mixed drinks) that used blood orange juice as an ingredient. I, however, missed blood orange juice season by nearly a week and was quite disappointed when I saw the empty spot on the shelf at Whole Foods. But no worries though, I chose something else to make instead. 

I found myself having some family over in the beginning of the week for a grilled dinner. I wanted to make something for dessert out of the book. Now I could've played it safe and went for either one of the cookie recipes or perhaps the olive oil cake (which I will be making soon), but I decided to test not only their dessert boundaries but mine as well. Hence, I chose this dessert, the lemon goat cheese cake. 

Now even on a good day, goat cheese is a really hard sell for me. So you will have to understand why my guests and I balked at the sound of this dessert. But one of the things that I like about this project is that I constantly find myself trying new ingredients or new combinations. It's something that I encourage you all at home to try with any one of your cookbooks. I'm sure many of you out there in home-cooking-land have at least several cookbooks in your house that you have cherry picked recipes from that are well inside of your comfort zone. So I propose that every once in a while we step out of our comfort zone and make something that we normally wouldn't ever try. There's a good chance that you might just like it and you would be asked to make it again. So here goes. 

I start by heating my oven to 325° and I spray my springform pan with non stick cooking spray and coat the bottom and sides with sugar. 

Next, I take out my kitchen aid mixer (one of my favorite tools) and beat some egg yolks (making sure to reserve the egg whites) and sugar until pale. 

Once there, I slowly mix in some of the goat cheese. 

Then, I add rum, flour, lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla and salt and mix until creamy. 

I then took the egg whites and whisked them with a pinch of salt until it started to foam. After it foamed, I added sugar and kept whisking until it reached the soft-peak meringue stage. By the way, having an electric mixer makes this part effortless. Otherwise, it would be a good arm workout. 

The whipped egg whites then get carefully folded into the cheese mixture. 

The spring form pan goes into a baking dish large enough to hold it so that hot water can be added, coming halfway up the side of the springform pan. The cheesecake mixture gets put into the spring form pan. 

The whole thing gets wrapped in foil and put in the oven for about 35 minutes. Then the foil gets removed and the cheesecake continues to cook for about another 10 minutes or until set. 

Once finished cooking, the cheesecake goes in the fridge to cool completely. 

This cheesecake comes with a lemon syrup glaze that Mario describes in the recipe notes as so tasty that it 'would make gym shoes taste delicious.' To make it, I just boiled lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan until reduced and thickened. It gets set aside and cooled when finished. 

I'm now anxiously waiting to plate this thing because I know what's coming next...I get to try it. I removed the sides of the cake pan, pour the lemon glaze on top, and garnish with fresh raspberries. I had some leftover glaze and saved it for the individual plates. 

It looked beautiful. But it was goat cheese after all. So let's see what the official tasting standings were:

Wife: Didn't like it

Sister-in-law: Spit it out

Mother-in-law: Liked it

Father-in-law: Loved the glaze, not too keen on the cheesecake

Me: Liked it, but not enough to make it again

I really do have to give my family props for trying such a funky dessert. I promise I won't put them through that again. Overall, if you really like goats cheese, then you'll probably love this dessert. It's luxurious, sweet, and pretty. But if you're used to traditional cheesecake, then you'll probably hate it. Not to mention that with the amount of goats cheese you'll need to make this recipe, it can get quite pricey to make. The maple cheesecake from my first month of posts was received much better. 

I'm really going to keep plugging away at this and try to get more recipes knocked out this month. It should be an uneventful week so let's see what else I can make. Until next time...

Duck Bresaola with Borlotti and Red Onion Jam

With the debacle over from the last post, I was eager to try another recipe from the cookbook would hopefully lift my spirits. Truthfully, I was disappointed and still a little bit bitter about the Panna Cotta not working out. But I am here to blog about the good, the bad, and ugly. I am here to make everything in this cookbook the way Mario says to make it. This blog has to be a truthful expression of the process of me working through the entire cookbook, and I can't let a little misprint get me down. So here goes nothing. 

I'd like to say that I whipped up this next recipe with the same vigor and speed as the previous ones, but the truth is that the making of this recipe took three weeks to complete. It involved doing something that I have never tried before in my career. That is, making my own cured meat. 

In the recipe notes, Mario Batali calls this recipe a 'simple and virtually foolproof way of curing meat at home'. I would say that is a very accurate description. The hardest part was having to wait three weeks for the duck breast to fully cure. 

Salumi and cured meats are a staple in Italian cuisine, as in many other cultures. The image of homemade sausage making and meat curing probably makes you think of those old world charcuterie stores with meat hanging from the ceiling, but turning your home into a deli counter was not needed. I was excited to add something new to my culinary repertoire. 

I first started with that beautiful duck from a few posts back.

Here, I had previously separated the thighs, wings, and breasts from the carcass. I've used the thighs last time, and this recipe will use the breasts exclusively. 

My next step was to mix salt, pepper, sugar, rosemary, and thyme in a bowl.

This mixture is then put on the duck breasts in a heavy coating. 

The breasts get wrapped separately in wax paper like a Christmas present for 4 days. 

After 4 days, the breasts get unwrapped and then tied with butchers twine, where they will hang (yes, literally hang) in the refrigerator for 3 weeks. You read that right. 3 weeks. I hung these at work in our walk-in cooler with a container underneath to avoid any possible mess. 

Next up was making the onion jam. Olive oil gets heated in a sauté pan until very hot and diced red onions get sautéed until golden brown. 

Orange juice is then added to the pan. 

The orange juice gets reduced until it coats the onions. Once at this stage, the jam gets cooled. 

In another mixing bowl, I combine borlotti beans, olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, and vinegar and mix well. Now, I couldn't for the life in me find borlotti beans in any store near me. So I substituted roman beans instead. I could have ordered some thru amazon.com, but they sold way more than what I would have needed for this recipe so I felt like using the roman beans instead.  You could use almost any bean you want really. It's up to you. Just give the mix about an hour to absorb flavors. 

Next, it was time to plate. The bean mixture gets spooned onto the plate, with some of the jam off to the side, and I placed very thin slices of the duck 'prosciutto' over the beans. If you don't have access to a deli slicer like I do at the restaurant, you can use a very sharp knife to slice it thinly. 

Just what I needed. This tasted amazing, and my boss agreed. It was so worth the wait. The orange in the jam paired perfectly with the duck and the beans. The duck tasted just like prosciutto. I kind of wish that I had some crusty peasant bread to go with it. 

I would certainly recommend making this at home. It was easy, and if you can make it thru the 3-week curing process, you'll be left with the most amazing, freshest, and light tasting cured meat that you've ever had. The extra that I have left will be going in some of my salads this week for sure.

My next post is a very simple and quick 'recipe' that almost everyone over the age of 21 can enjoy. Until next time...