Extra Virgin (13 page)
Authors: Gabriele Corcos
FOUR-CHEESE PENNE
PENNE AI QUATTRO FORMAGGI
SERVES 10 HUNGRY CHILDREN
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So many of us have surrendered to boxed macaroni with powdered cheese when dealing with the growling stomachs of kids, but we say try the four-cheese Tuscan version next time! The Taleggio’s smokiness, the hint of blue from the Gorgonzola, the sharpness of the Gruyère, and Parmigiano’s natural saltiness—a combo straight from Gabriele’s Nonna—make for a rich, fantastic combination that even parents will happily devour.
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup whole milk
¼ pound Taleggio cheese, cut into small cubes
¼ pound Gorgonzola cheese, cut into small cubes
2 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated
2 ounces freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for topping
1 pound mezze pasta (short penne)
¹⁄³ cup dried bread crumbs
In an 8- to 12-quart pot, bring 6 quarts of salted water to a rolling boil.
In a large saucepan, heat the milk over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes, or until you see steam, but before it boils. Add all of the cheeses and heat over medium heat, stirring gently but consistently with a wooden spoon, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and no lumps remain. Remove from the heat.
Add the penne to the boiling water and use a wooden fork to stir the pasta so it won’t stick together. Cook until al dente. Drain, add to the sauce, and toss well. Season with salt and a generous amount of pepper.
Preheat the broiler.
Divide the penne into ten 6-ounce ramekins or a 9 × 13-inch baking dish, top with the bread crumbs, and a sprinkling of Parmesan, and place on the top rack of your oven. Bake for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the top is golden and crisp. Serve immediately.
LINGUINE AI LANGOSTINI
SERVES 6
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Italians don’t grow up with the gargantuan lobsters that Americans do—we have the Mediterranean-friendly langostinos, which for us are like baby lobsters, or overgrown prawns. Frozen langostinos aren’t that hard to find anymore in the United States, but there’s nothing as satisfying as plating a whole, fresh crustacean. Try this in summer with a glass of dry white wine, and you’ll have an instant kinship with diners up and down the Italian coast!
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
Pinch of hot red pepper flakes, plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
1½ pounds langostinos or Santa Barbara spot prawns, deveined, shells on
½ cup dry white wine
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes (pelati), puréed in a blender
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound linguine
1 tablespoon torn fresh basil, for garnish
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and sauté for 1 minute, until fragrant. Add the parsley and langostinos and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, turning them, until the color turns from dark gray (uncooked) to a vivid pink (cooked). Add the wine and stir well until you can no longer detect a sharp alcohol aroma, about 1 minute.
Transfer the langostinos to a bowl. Peel the shells off 2 of the langostinos, chop them into ½-inch pieces, and set aside.
Add the tomatoes to the sauce in the skillet, stir, season with salt and pepper to taste, and simmer over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes to meld the flavors. Add the chopped langostinos and simmer for another 3 minutes.
In an 8- to 12-quart pot, bring 6 quarts of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the linguine to the water and use a wooden fork to stir the pasta so it won’t stick together. Cook until al dente. Drain, then add the cooked pasta to the sauce in the skillet. Over medium-high heat, stir the pasta in the sauce for up to 1 minute.
Serve on a platter with the remaining whole, cooked langostinos on top. Garnish with the basil, a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.
ANGRY LOBSTER PASTA
L’ARAGOSTA ARRABBIATA
SERVES 4–6
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This is a lobster-mad dish, or more appropriately, lobster-angry, since it’s paired with the “angry” pasta sauce known as arrabbiata. If you think only of melted butter when it comes to lobster, try this leaner, spicier red sauce version; it will satisfy you just as much. (I cooked it for Anthony Bourdain, and he had three servings of it!)
3 (1-pound) or 2 (1½-pound) live lobsters
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
½ cup dry white wine
2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
1 pound spaghetti
12 fresh basil leaves, torn, for garnish
Bring a 16-quart pot of water (for the lobsters) and a separate 9- to 10-quart pot with 6 quarts of salted water (for the pasta) to a boil. It’s best if the lobster pot has a lid.
Place the lobsters in the boiling water head first and cover tightly with the lid. (If you have lobsters of different weights, put the heaviest lobster in first, wait 1 minute, then add the others.) Boil the lobsters for about 7 minutes, but no longer than 8 minutes—you want them to be slightly underdone. Remove the lobsters to a cutting board. Holding each lobster upside down, twist the body to separate it from its head. Set aside the heads in a bowl. Remove the lobster legs from the bodies and set aside.
In a 14-inch skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the reserved lobster heads; make sure they face up so the juices collect in the pan. Include any juices that collected in the bowl. Cook for about 5 minutes, then discard the heads.
Meanwhile, crack open the claws and remove the meat. Cut open the tail to remove the tail meat. Cut all of the meat into 1- to 2-inch pieces.
To the same skillet, add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes, until fragrant. Add the wine and cook for 5 minutes, until the wine has reduced by half. Add the tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste, and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until they just break down.
Add the spaghetti to the second pot of boiling water and cook until al dente. Ladle out 1 cup of the pasta water, then drain the pasta.
Add the lobster meat, reserved legs, and pasta to the sauce and toss together for about 1 minute, adding pasta water as needed to give more fluidity to the sauce. Serve immediately garnished with the basil.
REEF PENNETTE
PENNETTE ALLO SCOGLIO
SERVES 4–6
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I think of this dish as a microcosm of sea flavors. Scoglio refers to the rock or reef around which shellfish, mussels, and small fish thrive. Although scoglio pasta is traditionally made from whatever seafood odds and ends a poor farmer or fisherman can find, you can think of this as a way to mix and match whatever catches your eye at the market.
1 pound mussels
1 pound clams
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, plus more for serving
1 cup puréed canned whole peeled tomatoes (pelati)
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh Italian parsley, plus more for garnish
1 pound pennette or spaghetti
Clean the mussels by pulling out their beards from the narrow end of the shell, away and down, toward their broadest portion. Rinse the mussels well, scrubbing them vigorously (preferably with a mussel brush) to remove impurities from the shells.
Place the mussels and clams in a large skillet, cover, and cook over medium-high heat for 1 to 2 minutes. Check to see which mussels and clams have opened and move them to a bowl. Continue cooking the unopened mussels and clams, covered, checking every minute and removing those that have opened. After a total of 5 minutes, discard any unopened mussels or clams. Transfer the released juices from the skillet to a bowl.
In an 8- to 12-quart pot, bring 6 quarts of salted water to a rolling boil.
In the same skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add the garlic and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, until the garlic starts to color. Add the red pepper flakes, stir well, and cook for 1 minute more. Add the tomatoes and parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour in ½ cup of the reserved seafood juices. Stir well, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for about 15 minutes until the sauce is reduced by one-third and the flavors have melded.
Add the mussels and clams to the sauce, stir well, and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the pasta to the boiling water, using a wooden fork so it won’t stick together. Cook until al dente. Drain, then add the pasta to the skillet. Toss well with the sauce.
Serve with a garnish of parsley, a drizzle of olive oil, and if so desired, an extra touch of red pepper flakes.
SPAGHETTI ALLE VONGOLE
SERVES 4–6
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There’s a reason this is an Italian classic: When the clams release their wonderfully salty juice, you want that perfect welcoming party for it, and that’s where the white wine, garlic, and pepper flakes come in. Sea and spice!