Eating Italy: A Chef's Culinary Adventure (49 page)

TECHNIQUES

ROASTING PEPPERS.
I roast peppers right over a hot wood fire. You could also do it on a gas grill, under a broiler, or right on the gas flame on your stovetop. To make about 4 cups (590 g) of roasted peppers, rinse four large bell peppers and pat them dry. Put them over or under a flame or other high heat source until completely blackened on all sides, 4 to 5 minutes per side, turning the peppers several times. Transfer the blackened peppers to a bowl, cover, and let steam for 10 minutes. Peel off and discard the skins, and then pull out and discard the cores and seeds.

SWEATING.
Think of this as a kinder, gentler form of sautéing. The goal is to soften the vegetables in a pan without browning them. When sweating vegetables, you want no color because browning introduces new flavors. Those flavors are great for sautéing, but not for sweating, which is usually done over slightly lower heat.

EQUIPMENT

SCALE.
Most professional chefs measure ingredients by weight, not volume. Weights are more accurate because volumes change, especially for ingredients that are easily compacted, such as flour. But most home cooks measure by volume, so that’s how the recipes in this book are written. You still might need to weigh an ingredient in the odd recipe here or there, and I highly recommend it for accuracy. Just buy a cheap digital scale that can weigh in grams, and keep it on your kitchen counter.

TONGS.
I use tongs for everything from tossing pasta in a pan to pulling steaks from the grill. Find a good pair of spring-loaded ones. Edlund’s are particularly sturdy and cheap.

VEAL STOCK

At Osteria, we make very traditional meat stocks by roasting the bones to develop flavor and then heating the bones slowly in water with mirepoix and herbs. We don’t add any wine, tomatoes, or other flavorings until we use the stock to make sauces or soups. This method gives you a clear stock that highlights the pure flavor of the bones. For chicken stock, use chicken bones. Or use any other animal bones you like to make pork stock, lamb stock, rabbit stock, and other meat stocks.

MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART (1 L)

5 pounds (2.25 kg) veal bones

2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil

1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped (1½ cups/240 g)

2 large carrots, chopped (1½ cups/185 g)

3 medium-size ribs celery, chopped (1½ cups/152 g)

1 sachet of 2 sprigs rosemary, 5 parsley stems, 10 peppercorns, 1 garlic clove, and 1 fresh bay leaf (see
page 277
)

Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C). Lay the bones in a single layer in a roasting pan and roast until dark browned, 1½ to 2 hours. Transfer the browned bones to a stockpot and place the roasting pan over medium heat. Add about a cup (235 ml) of cold water to deglaze the pan, scraping all the browned bits from the pan bottom. Scrape into the stockpot and add 3 more cups (750 ml) of cold water.

Bring the liquid to just under a simmer but do not boil. If it boils, your stock will be cloudy. A few bubbles should occasionally and lazily come to the surface. Cook for 1 hour, frequently skimming scum from the surface.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and sauté until deeply browned, 8 to 10 minutes. After the stock has cooked for 1 hour, add the sautéed vegetables. Cook gently for another 6 hours, frequently skimming the surface. Add the sachet, and cook for another 2 hours, skimming the surface. The total cooking time should be about 8 hours.

Remove and discard the bones and big vegetable pieces with tongs. Line a medium-mesh sieve with cheesecloth and strain the stock through the cheesecloth into a quart-size (liter-size) container. Label, date, and refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month.

FISH STOCK

Use any white fish bones here, such as those from cod, halibut, or branzino. Be sure to remove the gills from the heads.

MAKES ABOUT 2 QUARTS (2 L)

2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil

1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped (1¼ cups/200 g)

4 medium-size ribs celery, chopped (1¼ cups/125 g)

5 pounds (2.25 kg) white fish bones

2 lemons

1 sachet of 1 bay leaf, 10 parsley stems, 10 peppercorns, and 1 garlic clove (see
page 277
)

Heat the oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and sweat until soft but not browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the fish bones and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Cut the lemons in half and squeeze in the juice. Add the rinds, too. Pour in 2 quarts (2 L) of cold water, drop in the sachet, and bring the liquid to just under a simmer but do not boil. A few bubbles should occasionally and lazily come to the surface. Cook for 45 minutes, skimming any scum that comes to the surface.

Remove and discard the bones and big vegetable pieces with tongs. Line a medium-mesh sieve with cheesecloth. Let the stock cool until warm and then strain it through the cheesecloth into quart-size (liter-size) containers. Label, date, and refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month.

SHELLFISH STOCK

This recipe is part stock, part sauce. You gently heat bits of shellfish, such as lobster heads and shrimp shells; puree the shells right along with everything else; and then strain the whole mixture. This method extracts so much flavor—and some protein—from the shellfish that you can simply mix the stock with pasta and seafood, as in Spaghetti al Nero di Seppia with Shrimp (
page 104
).

MAKES ABOUT 3 QUARTS (3 L)

¼ cup (60 ml) grapeseed oil

2 pounds (1 kg) mixed lobster heads, shrimp shells, and other shellfish bits

1½ cups (375 ml) white wine

1 large yellow onion, chopped (2 cups/320 g)

1 large carrot, chopped (¾ cup/92 g)

2 medium-size ribs celery, chopped (¾ cup/75 g)

3 cups (720 g) canned peeled tomatoes, preferably San Marzano, cored and crushed by hand

1 sachet of 1 sprig rosemary, 2 sprigs thyme, 1 bay leaf, and 10 black peppercorns (see
page 277
)

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or large, deep sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the shells and sauté until pink, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until most of the liquid evaporates, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the onion, carrot and celery and sweat the vegetables until soft but not brown, 4 to 6 minutes. Add the tomatoes and sachet, and cook until the tomatoes start to break down a little, 4 to 5 minutes. Add water to cover and adjust the heat so that the liquid simmers gently. Simmer for 45 minutes, then remove from the heat and discard the sachet.

Blend the mixture, shells and all, in batches in a blender. Strain each blended batch through a fine-mesh strainer, pressing on the solids to extract the liquids. Let cool. When cool, pack in quart-size (liter-size) containers and refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months.

3-2-1 BRINE

Three gallons (12 liters) of water, two pounds (1 k) of salt, and one pound (50 g) of sugar. This brine recipe is easy to remember, and it’s the only one you’ll ever need. Use it to brine chicken, fish, pork, or almost anything that needs a little extra moisture. I included volume measurements for salt and sugar so you don’t have to weigh those out, but weights are more accurate, so if you have a kitchen scale, use it. This recipe makes enough to brine about twenty pounds (9 kg) of meat. Halve or quarter the recipe as needed. You’ll need a half-recipe to brine ten pounds (4.5 kg) of meat, or a quarter-recipe to brine five pounds (2.25 kg) of meat. As a rule of thumb, I usually brine meat for about one day per pound (450 g) of bone-in meat—or a little longer if the meat is very thick, like a whole ham.

MAKES ABOUT 3 GALLONS (12 L)

2 pounds/1 kg (about 3 cups) kosher salt

1 pound/450 g (2 ½ cups) granulated sugar

3 garlic cloves, smashed

10 rosemary sprigs

1 bay leaf, crumbled

15 black peppercorns

Dissolve the kosher salt and sugar in 3 gallons (12 L) of water. Pour 2 cups (475 ml) of the brine into a food processor and add the garlic, rosemary, bay leaf, and black peppercorns. Puree until all the ingredients are finely chopped, and then pour the mixture back into the brine. Submerge the meat in the brine and refrigerate.

POLENTA

Every day I put a big copper pot of polenta over my wood fire at Osteria in Philadelphia, just as Claudia’s mother and grandmother did over their home fire in Italy decades ago. It’s the best way to make it. Coarsely milled whole-kernel corn makes the best polenta. You can also mix in other grains.
Polenta taragna
includes some buckwheat flour.

MAKES ABOUT 5½ CUPS (1.375 L)

Salt

¾ cup (120 g) coarse yellow cornmeal (polenta)

Bring 6 cups (1.5 L) of water to boil in a large pot and add salt to taste (it should taste like a mild broth; I use about 1½ teaspoons [9 g] salt per quart of water). Gradually whisk in the polenta in a slow, steady stream. Lower the heat just enough to keep the polenta bubbling and then cook, without stirring, until the polenta becomes a very thick porridge, like cooked oatmeal, and burns a little on the bottom and sides of the pan, which adds a nice smoky aroma. The total cooking time will be 45 minutes to 1 hour for medium-coarse polenta or 1½ to 2 hours for very coarse polenta. Avoid stirring to make sure the bottom burns a little.

VARIATIONS

FOR PORCINI POLENTA
:
Grind ¼ packed cup (a generous ¼ ounce/about 10 g) of dried porcini mushrooms to a powder in a spice grinder or clean coffee mill. You should have about 2 tablespoons (10 g) of powder. When the polenta is thick yet pourable, stir in the porcini powder. Taste and season with additional salt as necessary.

FOR BUCKWHEAT POLENTA:
Whisk 1 cup (160 g) of polenta and ½ cup (62 g) of buckwheat flour into 5 cups (1.25 L) of boiling water. Cook over medium heat until the polenta is the texture of stiff pudding but still pourable, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

BÉCHAMEL SAUCE

Also called
besciamella
, this sauce finds its way into quite a few Italian dishes, such as lasagna, cannelloni, flan, and sformato. I even use flavored béchamel as pizza sauce. It’s basically a blank canvas of creaminess that you can flavor however you like.

MAKES ABOUT 2 QUARTS (2 L)

6 tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter

1 small yellow onion, minced (½ cup/80 g)

⅔ cup (83 g)
tipo
00 flour (see
page 277
) or all-purpose flour

2 quarts (2 L) whole milk

⅛ teaspoon (0.3 g) grated nutmeg

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sweat until soft but not browned, 5 to 6 minutes. Whisk in the flour to make a roux (it will look like lumpy batter). Whisk and cook until the flour smells a little nutty but doesn’t turn brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Slowly whisk in the milk until it is fully incorporated and the mixture is free of lumps. Season with the nutmeg, plus salt and pepper to taste, and then simmer gently over medium to medium-low heat until thickened, 35 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking on the bottom. For a super-smooth sauce, strain through a medium-mesh strainer and cool. The cooled béchamel can be covered with plastic pressed onto the surface (to prevent a skin from forming), and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Reheat gently in a saucepan before using.

VARIATIONS

FOR PORCINI BÉCHAMEL:
Omit the nutmeg. Soak 2 ounces (57 g/about 2 cups) of dried porcini in 3 cups (750 ml) of hot water until the porcini are tender, about 15 minutes. Replace 2 cups (475 ml) of the milk with 2 cups (475 ml) of porcini-soaking liquid. Chop the soaked porcini and stir into the sauce, along with the salt and pepper. Skip the straining step to retain the chopped porcini in the sauce.