Linguine con Sarde

I really love pasta. I could probably eat pasta for every meal every day. And, I love cooking pasta. I even love those hours-long processes involving making homemade pasta dough, rolling it, cutting it, drying it, and then cooking it while making a complicated sauce. But, the book I want to tell you about today is not about that kind of pasta-making. This book is about regular pasta cooking or the kind you can do every day. It’s full of go-to, quick meals made from a well-stocked pantry. This is Back Pocket Pasta: Inspired Dinners to Cook on the Fly by Colu Henry, and I received a review copy. The book is intended to inspire creativity with what you have on hand rather than serve as a strict set of rules. There are pasta dishes for every season, made with and without meat and/or seafood, and the options range from light to hearty. Following the pasta recipes, a section for Salads and Sides is included as well as a guide for drinks and wine. A couple of especially pretty recipes are the Scallops, Sun Golds, and a Mess of Herbs with bright, little tomatoes and seared scallops and the Frutti de Mare with Squid Ink Pasta with the black pasta strands mixed with shrimp, squid, clams, and mussels. The Tuscan Kale “Caesar” Pasta got my attention with the fried egg on top, and I like everything about the Mediterranean Cavatappi with artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and feta. A couple of others I want to try are the Baccala and Green Olive Pasta with Almonds and Fettuccine with Crab and Jalapenos. The first dish I made from the book is a classic, but I had to make one little change. 

Linguine con Sarde is all about good pantry items like canned sardines, dried breadcrumbs, canned tomatoes, and olive oil. Traditionally, this dish includes some raisins for a sweet note. And, traditionally, I always skip the raisins in Sicilian dishes (including caponata) no matter how heretical. To start, the breadcrumbs were toasted in a skillet with olive oil, and then lemon zest and chopped fennel fronds were added. Next, the quick sauce was made by sauteeing chopped fennel and minced onion. Garlic and red pepper flakes were added followed by canned tomatoes. Meanwhile, water was brought to a boil for the pasta, and the linguine was cooked and drained. Be sure to keep some of the pasta cooking water before draining the pasta. I split the sardines into fillets and removed the backbone before adding them to the sauce, and then the drained pasta was added and tossed to combine. To serve, bowls of pasta were topped with golden, seasoned breadcrumbs. 

The lemony, crunchy breadcrumbs are a perfect companion to the chunks of sardines in the pasta as is the sweet, sauteed fennel. As much as I enjoy pasta, I often end up using the same ingredients with it over and over. This book has plenty of ideas for changing things up and trying new combinations. Maybe I really could have pasta for every meal every day. 

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Glamorgan Sausages

Do you have an opinion of British food? Has your opinion changed in recent years? Lately, British cuisine seems to be surging forward with England, Scotland, and Wales receiving 181 Michelin stars in 2015 and several restaurants and chefs gaining popularity internationally. In Colman Andrews latest book, The British Table: A New Look at the Traditional Cooking of England, Scotland, and Wales of which I received a review copy, he examines the changes in British food and its perception over the centuries. He writes: “The mystery isn’t so much why British food is so good today, but why it ever wasn’t.” The coastline, the soils, the microclimates have always been there for producing great ingredients, and the region was known for superior meals until sometime in the 19th century. Heston Blumenthal is quoted for suggesting that the Victorian “abstemious moral code” had something to do with people turning away from the pleasures of dining well. Later, French cuisine became more fashionable than traditional, British fare. A food revival began in the mid-20th century with influence from immigrants at the same time as a new look at heritage foods was starting. The book covers traditional foods and more current inventions from across Great Britain. It’s an interesting combination of history and current events in the British food scene, and it’s full of beautiful photos by Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton. Among the lovely soups, there’s Cullen Skink which is a smoked fish soup, and now I need to get my hands on some finnan haddie to make it. In the Fish and Shellfish chapter, Poached Salmon Steaks with Whisky Sauce and Fillet of Cod with Parsley Sauce both caught my eye. There are poultry and meat dishes in addition to wild game and offal. It was interesting to learn that “Game Chips” that are served with Roast Grouse are what the British usually call “crisps,” but regardless of the name, they look delicious. Expected names like Yorkshire Pudding and Cornish Pasties appear in the Savory Pies chapter, but I was surprised to find Vegetarian Haggis among the vegetable dishes. It’s made with lentils and has been served at The Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow since the 1970s. The book also includes snacks, sweet, and a chapter for Whisky, Cider, Beer, and Wine. I wanted to try something vegetarian and was very curious about that version of haggis but decided on Glamorgan Sausages instead. 

Obviously, there is no sausage in vegetarian Glamorgan sausages. The name of these Welsh croquettes came about because of their sausage-like shape and the use of cheese made from the milk of Glamorgan cows. The recipe calls for Caerphilly or another Welsh cheddar, but the best I could do was to find Montgomery Cheddar from Neals Yard Dairy. First, finely chopped leek and scallion were sauteed in butter, and since it is kale season, I had to add some chopped kale. I seem to add it to everything when I can. Next, the cooled leek and scallion mixture was combined with bread crumbs, grated cheese, thyme, parsley, and dry mustard. It was seasoned with salt and pepper, and egg yolks were added and mixed to combine. Rather than chilling the mixture at this point, I shaped the croquettes and chilled them before proceeding with the breading and frying. The mixture was shaped into “sausages” about four inches long. After chilling, each croquette was rolled in flour, dunked in egg whites, and dredged in bread crumbs before being cooked until golden all around. 

These are hearty and savory, little croquettes. I was surprised at how filling they are and decided they are certainly as substantial as regular sausages. The aromatic leek and scallion give them a lot of flavor along with the rich cheese. I realized this was the first time I had cooked anything Welsh, but it definitely won’t be the last.

Glamorgan Sausages 
Recipe reprinted with publisher’s permission from The British Table: A New Look at the Traditional Cooking of England, Scotland, and Wales. 

SERVES 2 TO 4 

The earliest reference anyone has been able to find to these Welsh vegetable croquettes is apparently a line by the nineteenth-century English author, translator, and traveler George Borrow in his book Wild Wales: Its People, Language and Scenery, vintage 1862. After spending the night at a raucous inn at “Gutter Vawr” (the Welsh mining town formerly called Y Gwter Fawr and since renamed Brynamman), he descends from his room for a morning meal. “The breakfast was delicious,” he reports, “consisting of excellent tea, buttered toast, and Glamorgan sausages, which I really think are not a whit inferior to those of Epping.” Interestingly, he doesn’t mention that they contain no meat (Epping sausages are pork sausages flavored with assorted herbs, often cooked without casings). Glamorgan, in far southern Wales, is one of the thirteen original Welsh counties, and was once a small kingdom of its own. These sausages—which were originally a farm family’s meat substitute—are said to have been named not for the county but for the cheese made from the milk of Glamorgan cattle, an old Welsh breed now almost extinct. 

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick / 55 g) butter 
1 medium leek, white part only, very thoroughly washed and very finely chopped 
1 scallion, trimmed and very finely chopped 
2 cups coarse bread crumbs 
8 ounces (225 g) Caerphilly or Welsh cheddar, grated 
Leaves from 2 to 3 sprigs fresh thyme 
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley 
1 teaspoon dry mustard 
Salt and freshly ground black pepper 
2 large eggs, separated 
1 tablespoon whole milk 
1/4 cup (55 g) clarified butter 
1/2 cup (65 g) all-purpose flour 

Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat, then add the leek and scallion. Cook, stirring frequently, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are beginning to soften. Let cool to room temperature. 

In a large bowl, combine the leek and scallion mixture, about three-quarters of the bread crumbs, the cheese, the thyme, the parsley, and the mustard. Season generously with salt and pepper, then stir in the egg yolks and the milk and mix the ingredients together thoroughly. 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for about 1 hour. 

Shape the mixture into 8 to 12 sausage shapes, about 2 inches (5 cm) thick and 4 inches (10 cm) long. 

Heat the clarified butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Sift the flour onto a plate and spread the remaining bread crumbs out on another plate. Roll each sausage in flour, dip it in the egg whites, then roll it in bread crumbs. 

Fry the sausages for 8 to 10 minutes, turning them occasionally, until they are golden-brown on all sides. The sausages may be served hot or at room temperature. 

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Baked Clams with Wasabi Bread Crumbs

It’s that time of year when party food has its moment or several moments. I have to say, as I was preparing the dish shown here today, I kept thinking of how well it would work as a hors d’oeuvre for a party. This dish came from Mark Bittman's Kitchen Matrix, and I received a review copy. The idea behind the book is that every basic recipe can be adapted into sometimes countless variations. General concepts like chicken wings, vegetable soup, grain salads, deviled eggs, etc. are shown with simple changes that take each in numerous different directions. The cooking technique remains the same, but the flavor profiles change. So, those wings could end up with typical Buffalo spicing, or you could choose teriyaki, lemon-garlic-pepper, chipotle-lime, Thai peanut, or jerk. The book would be a great source for those times when you’ve run out of ideas for what to do with fresh corn or zucchini or beets. Of the 16 ways celery is used, there are a few I would never have thought of. Celery slaw with fennel, celery raita, and orange and celery salad all sound delicious. There's a very practical feel to the book. It straightforwardly guides you through the options for choosing a flavor profile and combination of ingredients. Because this is a Mark Bittman book, of course there are gentle reminders that I like seeing about minimizing meat intake and filling most of our plates with vegetables. And, the book ends with a delightful chapter of sweets with twists on basic cookie dough, four versions of doughnuts, and a dozen options for ice pops. The first recipe I tried from the book was the Corn Cakes with fresh corn kernels. I served those savory, little pancakes for brunch with frittata and topped them with a sprinkling of smoked paprika. The other options for the corn cakes included turning them into arepas or corn and crab cakes. Next, I had to try the Baked Clams with Wasabi Bread Crumbs. 

One reason this dish would be great for a party is because the clams can be steamed open and prepped in advance and kept in the refrigerator. They can be popped into a hot oven for a brief 10 minutes to warm through just before serving. So, to begin, I always clean clams by putting them in a big bowl of water and adding a few tablespoons of flour. I leave them to soak and purge for 15 minutes or so. Then, I rinse the clams to remove any flour, and they’re ready to steam. To steam, I put them in a Dutch oven, add some water and white wine to total about one-half cup, maybe add a peeled and smashed garlic clove or two, cover, and bring to a boil. Check the clams after a few minutes and remove each one as it opens. Once cool enough to handle, the top of each shell was removed. If serving at a party, I would loosen the clams from the bottom shells at this point to make eating them even easier. They could be refrigerated until ready to serve. For the bread crumb filling, I toasted the panko in a dry skillet on top of the stove first. This wasn’t called for in the recipe, but the bread crumbs will have a better chance of a good overall toasting if given this head start. While toasting, a teaspoon of soy sauce and a small drizzle of sesame oil were added. After toasting, a teaspoon of wasabi powder was stirred into the bread crumbs. The bread crumb mixture was spooned on top of each opened clam, and the clams were placed on a baking sheet. They went into a 450 degree F oven for 10 minutes and were topped with chopped garlic chives before serving. 

Clams, and all bivalves, are such a good sustainable choice of seafood; I’m thrilled to have some new recipes like this one for using them. There are also recipes in the book for pan-roasted and fried clams. This book does a great job of pointing you in new directions with mostly familiar ingredients and recipes and gets you thinking creatively about myriad other ways you might tweak some of your favorite meals. Happy party season, and Happy Thanksgiving! 

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Roasted Cauliflower Polonaise

It’s actually feeling like fall here this week. Cooler weather, drizzly rain, and earlier sunsets are making it clear that summer is gone. Just in time to help warm up the house with the oven, Ruhlman's How to Roast has appeared, and I received a review copy. This new book covers the basics of oven roasting everything from the Thanksgiving turkey to roasted fruit for dessert. He starts by explaining what roasting has come to mean. Originally, roasting involved a spit and fire, but these days, the process of roasting is really the same as that of baking. The different names are used depending on what is being cooked. With either name, it’s a “dry-heat cooking method.” And, it’s a pretty easy way to make things delicious when they take on a golden crispness in the oven. Starting with a classic roasted chicken, Ruhlman walks you through the simple steps of seasoning, bringing up to temperature, prepping, roasting, and carving. Beef, pork, lamb, fish, and shellfish are all covered including an actual spit-roasted leg of lamb, and then there are lovely, golden, roasted vegetables. I’ve roasted all sorts of vegetables over the years. Usually, I just toss the vegetables with some olive oil, maybe add some sliced garlic or smashed whole cloves of garlic, and pop them in the hot oven on a sheet pan. But, now that I’ve tasted the wonder of roasting cauliflower in a cast iron skillet with butter, I may never go back. The Roasted Cauliflower Polonaise recipe caught my eye because it was completely unfamiliar to me. I learned that Polonaise refers to any dish topped with buttered breadcrumbs and hard cooked eggs. Here, there’s also a splash of lemon and chopped fresh parsley. It’s one of two recipes that uses Basic Roasted Cauliflower in the book, and I highly recommend it. 

Now, I have to explain that I took option B in making this dish. Option A would have been to roast the whole head of cauliflower intact. Then, it would have been served in the cast iron skillet and portions would have been cut as wedges. It’s a lovely, old-school kind of preparation and presentation, but since I was just cooking for two, I went the simpler route. I cut the head of cauliflower into florets, and roasted them in the skillet with butter. Every ten minutes or so, I turned the cauliflower pieces and spooned melted, browned butter over the tops. The cauliflower pieces roasted for about 40 minutes total, and came out of the oven nicely golden. Meanwhile, I hard-cooked two eggs, chopped parsley, and toasted breadcrumbs in melted butter on top of the stove. To serve, I transferred cauliflower pieces to a platter, squeezed lemon juice over the top, added the toasted buttery breadcrumbs and chopped eggs, and garnished with parsley. 

For me, this was a vegetarian main course. The buttery goodness was undeniable, but the crispy breadcrumbs, bright lemon, and rich chopped egg combined delightfully. My next stop in the book will either be the Duck Fat-Roasted Potatoes or the Roasted Pineapple with Vanilla Ice Cream and Caramel Sauce. The oven is going to get plenty of use this fall. 

Roasted Cauliflower Polonaise 
Recipes reprinted with publisher’s permission from Ruhlman's How to Roast. Copyright ©2014 by Ruhlman Enterprises, Inc. Courtesy Little, Brown and Company. The book is available at Barnes and Noble and IndieBound.

Boiled cauliflower with hard-cooked eggs, bread crumbs, and parsley? When I first learned this old preparation, in a culinary basics class at the CIA, I thought it was too goofy for words. But when I asked my cooking partner, Adam Shepard, what he thought of it, he said, “I’d serve it at my restaurant. Though I’d figure out a way to make the egg and bread crumbs stick to the cauliflower.” That he took it seriously made me take it seriously. As my appreciation of classic dishes grew, so too did my affection for this dish. Prepare it with roasted cauliflower rather than boiled, and it becomes a great dish for any occasion. 

1 head cauliflower (whole or cut into florets), roasted 
1/4 cup/20 grams panko bread crumbs 
1 or 2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped 
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 

• PLACE the hot roasted cauliflower on a serving platter. If there is no remaining butter in the skillet, add another tablespoon. Add the bread crumbs to the skillet and cook over medium-high heat till they’re toasted. 

• SQUEEZE the lemon over the cauliflower and then spoon the toasted bread crumbs over the cauliflower. Spoon the chopped egg over the cauliflower (don’t worry if it doesn’t stick). Sprinkle it with parsley and serve in wedges or slices, scooping up extra garnish as you do so. 

• If you’re using roasted florets, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a separate small skillet over medium-high heat and toast the bread crumbs. To serve, simply sprinkle the lemon juice, toasted bread crumbs, chopped egg, and parsley uniformly over the top of the florets and serve right from the skillet. 

Basic Roasted Cauliflower 
6 tablespoons/90 grams butter, at room temperature 
1 head cauliflower 
Kosher salt 

• PREHEAT the oven to 425˚F/220˚C (use convection if you have it). 

• Cut the stem and leaves off the cauliflower so that it will sit flat in a skillet; the more of the cauliflower that’s in contact with the skillet the better, as it gets very brown and tasty. 

• Set the cauliflower in an ovenproof skillet and smear the butter all over the surface. Give it a liberal sprinkling of salt. 

• Roast till tender (a long knife should slide easily down into the cauliflower all the way through to its stem), 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. Several times while it’s roasting, baste it with the butter, which will have melted and started to brown. (If you’re roasting a cut-up cauliflower, simply put the florets and butter in the skillet and put it in the oven. After 5 or 10 minutes, stir and toss the cauliflower to coat the florets with the melted butter, and then continue roasting and basting till tender, 30 to 40 

• Serve immediately, in wedges or slices, or keep warm and reheat for a few minutes in a hot oven before serving. 

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Spaghetti with Fennel, Chile, Lemon, and Breadcrumbs

It’s true that I have trust issues with recipes. If I’m skeptical, I may proceed as instructed, but I try to be prepared should I feel the need to change course. So, although I was intrigued by a pasta recipe that suggested a topping of breadcrumbs in place of parmesan, I had a wedge of parmigiano reggiano ready and waiting just in case. This came from Delicious magazine a few months ago, and I can’t seem to locate the recipe online so I’ll include it below. Spicy breadcrumbs were made by toasting chunks of day-old bread that had been tossed with olive oil and dried chile flakes and then processing them to crumbs once cool. They were tasty breadcrumbs, and they were certainly going to add a flavorful, crispy element to the pasta dish, but I wasn’t convinced they could completely replace the experience of a good parmigiano reggiano. I had just received some fennel from my CSA, and making fresh pasta is one of my most favorite kitchen tasks, so with some back-up parmesan to shred over each plate of pasta should it be necessary, I was ready to experiment.

I made the fresh pasta from Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition since this has become my go-to pasta recipe. I cut the fresh pasta sheets into thin spaghetti and let the strands dry for a bit while working on the breadcrumbs. Half a loaf of day-old bread, and I used some leftover Norwich sourdough which had been stored in the freezer since Christmas, was cut into chunks and tossed with extra virgin olive oil, salt, and red chile flakes. The bread chunks were toasted on a sheet pan in the oven until dry and crisp, and they were left to cool. Then, they went into a food processor with some fronds from the fennel and were pulsed until crumbly. Next, the fennel bulbs were prepped by slicing them thinly with a mandoline or Benriner. Lemon rind was supposed to have been cut into thin ribbons, but Kurt isn’t a fan of big pieces of citrus rind in savory dishes, so I zested the lemon with a microplane instead. Last, garlic was minced, and cooking could commence. While water for the pasta boiled, olive oil was heated in a large saute pan. The fennel and garlic were gently cooked over medium heat so as not to brown the fennel but just to allow it to soften. The lemon zest was added, and after a short dunk in the boiling water, the drained pasta was added with lemon juice and more olive oil. Everything was tossed about in the pan to combine and warm through, and then it was served topped with the breadcrumbs.

This dish ended up delivering two surprises. First, I had assumed the fennel would retain its anise bite since it was so gently cooked. Although it didn’t even brown in the pan, it did soften and become sweeter and was not at all like sharp, raw fennel. The bright lemon juice and zest mingled nicely with it. The other surprise was that the breadcrumbs were delicious and satisfying in a way that I didn’t expect at all. With the salt, chile flakes, and fennel fronds, the crunchy bits of bread were all the dish needed. At the end of the meal, the wedge of parmigiano reggiano had gone completely untouched.

Spaghetti with Fennel, Chile, Lemon, and Breadcrumbs
adapted from Delicious magazine

half a loaf of day-old bread such as a sourdough rustic loaf or ciabatta
2 teaspoons dried chile flakes
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 organic lemons (organic is important here since the peel will be used)
3 fennel bulbs
12 ounces long strands of thin pasta (make fresh pasta if you have time)
Salt and pepper to taste

-Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut or pull the bread into chunks and place on a baking sheet. Toss the bread chunks with two tablespoons of the olive oil, the dried chile flakes, and a big pinch of salt. Spread the pieces into an even layer and bake for about 10 minutes until golden and crisp. Then, set aside and allow to cool.

- Zest one lemon and then cut both in halve to be juiced. Remove and discard the outer leaves of the fennel and reserve 1/2 cup of the fronds. Thinly slice the fennel, and using a Benriner is the quickest way to do it.

- Place the fennel fronds and cooled bread chunks in a food processor and pulse until crumbly.

- Boil a large pot of salted water for the pasta, and time the cooking of the pasta for it to be ready when the fennel and lemon zest have cooked (fresh pasta will cook must faster than dried). Meanwhile, heat three tablespoons olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the sliced fennel to the saute pan, and cook while stirring for a couple of minutes. Add the minced garlic and continue to cook for three minutes until the fennel begins to soften. Add the lemon zest, reduce heat to low and cook for another five minutes or so. The goal is for the lemon and garlic flavors to meld with the fennel, but the fennel should only gently cook and not brown. When the pasta has cooked, drain it and add it to the saute pan. Add the juice from the two lemons and the remaining olive oil, and toss to combine.

- Serve the pasta and fennel topped with a generous handful of the breadcrumbs, and I promise you won’t need a single shred of parmesan.

I’m submitting this to Yeastspotting where you’ll find some seriously well-made bread.

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Mussels with Hot Paprika Breadcrumbs

This dish caught my eye in the January issue of Food and Wine. It was part of the 50 trends to try this year, and the trend in question was new sparkling wines. Three wines including a lambrusco bianco, a sparkling chenin blanc, and a sparkling gruner veltliner were suggested, and all would pair well with the mussels. We never have much luck locating exact bottles that appear in articles and that proved to be the case last weekend. So, we chose a prosecco instead. Therefore, I suppose we failed to experience this trend set by these new sparklers, but the mussels were outstanding with the bubbly wine we did procure.

This was served as a first course prior to the eggplant salmon entree. The mussels are quick and simple to prepare, and smoked, hot paprika is always welcome. Breadcrumbs were tossed with butter-cooked garlic and paprika, and then thyme, lemon zest, and salt and pepper were added. This mixture was spooned over steamed, opened mussels which were then set under the broiler for a couple of minutes.

Simply delicious. Of course, we wished we would have bought more mussels. When paprika, butter, and breadcrumbs are involved, always plan to serve more than you think you’ll need. The prosecco was lovely as both the steaming liquid and as the beverage served with the finished dish, but the Szigeti Gruner Veltliner Brut sounded interesting. We’ll have to keep looking for it so we can properly experience this particular trend.

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