Cacio e Pepe with Peas and Mushrooms

I'm having a fling with Italy at the moment.  All sorts of cheese and pasta and pizzas.  It is simplicity and freshness, combined to create extremely satisfying, indulgent, wine-friendly meals.  Perfect early summer fare for those still chilly nights, when turning on the oven is actually kinda welcome but eating a piping hot stew seems wrong.

This pasta recipe is a new staple in our weeknight repertoire.  It is e a s y and takes about 30 minutes - last night I had dinner on the table before 8pm, to which Daniel insisted was too early for his internal clock to handle and he would need a few more minutes to work up an appetite.  He kids.  More after-dinner time for Orange is the New Black + wine is a grand accomplishment thank you very much.

I adapted this slightly from The New York Times recipe for cacio e pepe with fava beans and peas, but the essentials are still there.  Cracked black pepper, pasta, cheese.  Make sure to coarsely grind your peppercorns because nobody, Daniel especially, enjoys whole nuggets of pepper that disconcertingly crunch between your teeth.  And don't forget the pecorino or wimp out when it would just be so much easier to only have to buy classic parm.  I feel you, but I was once informed that it is the king of cheeses and it is absolutely necessary to add the punch and creaminess that parmesan cannot.  More importantly that begs the question, but what (who?) is the queen cheese?  I'm leaning towards some kind of feta for her sharp wit and easy going deliciousness, or maybe a creamy, stinky blue - either you can hang with that bitch or not but she couldn't give a shit.  Anyways.

Chives are an unexpected and delightful garnish, so don't skimp.

Finally, don't forget the wine!  The sharpness and heat of the black pepper beg for a fruitier, juicier red.  Sticking with Italy, we enjoyed Andrea Oberto's 2012 Dolcetto D'Alba from Piedmont.  While better known for their serious Barolos, this producer has the skills, experience and some damn good grapes, which are handled with the gentle adeptness of someone who has been in the vineyards his entire life.   The finished wine has a fresh, fruit-forward nose followed by subtle tannins, happy notes of plum and blueberry, and a faint earthiness.  A little kick of acidity kept it alive while still finishing with a lovely roundness and depth.  All in all, a wonderful weeknight wine for our wonderful weeknight pasta.  A meal to be played on repeat.

CACIO E PEPE with PEAS and MUSHROOMS
serves 3 - 4

12 oz pasta of your choice; spaghetti is most traditional
1 cup peas, fresh or frozen
1 lb crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 1/2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated pecorino 
1/2 cup grated parmesan
olive oil and sea salt, for serving
clipped chives, for garnish

Bring a small pot of salted water to boil.  Add a pinch of sugar.  Blanch your peas for 2 minutes and immediately drain and transfer to a fine mesh sieve placed over a bowl of ice water. 

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook until just 1 minute shy of al dente.  Drain, reserving 2/3 cup pasta water.

Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms in batches, making sure not to crowd the pan.  Season with salt as you cook.  Set aside. 

In a large skillet, melt 1 1/2 tbsp butter.  Add the cracked pepper and sauté for 1 minute, or until fragrant.  Add about 1/3 pasta water and the rest of the butter, letting it simmer for about 30 seconds, or until slightly reduced and thicker.  

Add cooked pasta and cheeses, tossing until the cheese melts.  Add mushrooms and peas, tossing to coat, adding more pasta water if it appears dry.  Season with salt to taste.  Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, chives, and more grated cheese.  

The Master of Margherita

My instinct is to try to cram as many vegetables into my meals as possible.  The more the merrier! Pasta sauces might be a hearty mess of chopped mushrooms, peppers, and whatever else is in the fridge. Pizzas spill over with roasted squash and sautéed kale, the crust fiercely trying to support that generous blanket of produce.  Forks are needed.  And that is great; that is delicious and healthy and sometimes exactly what I want to eat.  Flatbread overflowing with mushrooms, sage and taleggio is a house favorite and is eaten with hungry anticipation.

But.  But sometimes less is more merry.  Sometimes when simplicity sings you hear the melody just a little bit clearer.  Sometimes all I want to eat is the best crust, the best sauce, and the best cheese.  And let's forget all the fuss of making pizza at home.  Start here and the possibilities are endless, but I promise that this margherita will be hard to improve upon.

First, let's talk crust.  Throughout my years in kitchens, I've found that bread making and baking has an element of mystery that scares most homecooks away.  Plenty have tried their hand at rolls or loaves, but one failed attempt is enough to guarantee store-bought breads for life.  Yeast is weird.  Bread can be time consuming and scientific and does take quite a bit of practice, which is why you should start with pizza dough.  Specifically, this pizza dough recipe.  It is beyond easy, requires little kneading and is a synch to clean up.

PIZZA MARGHERITA

THE DOUGH 
the only dough recipe you'll ever need
makes 2 good sized pizzas that will serve 2 people each

1 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 cup warm water (not too hot, not too cold!)
2 tsp yeast

Combine the yeast and water, stirring until the yeast begins to dissolve and the water turns cloudy.

In a food processor, combine the flours and salt.  Pulse a few times, just to mix gently.

Turn the food processor on.  Slowly drizzle in the water/yeast mixture, making sure to scrape in all of the yeast.  Add more water if needed, but just spoonfuls at a time, until the dough comes together in a ball.  Remove from the food processor and knead just a few times until you have a smooth ball of dough.  Put in a bowl and cover.  Let it rise for at least an hour. 

Preheat oven to 550 degrees.  If you have a pizza stone, throw it in there.

When risen, divide the dough into two balls.  Lay down some parchment paper and use semolina flour to keep the dough from sticking.  Using a rolling pin or your hands, stretch the dough until it is quite thin, then lay it on the parchment paper.  This part takes practice, but keep at it and you'll find it can be mindlessly satisfying.  And perfectly round pizzas are for nerds.

If you only want to make one pizza, freeze the second half of dough.

And now for the sauce.  I've failed many a dinner by loading my beautifully stretched dough with a sloppy sauce that produces nothing more than a soggy, shameful piece of pizza.  Never again!  And no tricks with this sauce.  All you need is a fine-meshed sieve, which any moderately stocked kitchen should possess.

THE SAUCE
makes a little too much for one large pizza, so freeze the extra or just make more pizza

1 28oz can of whole, peeled tomatoes
pinch of sugar
a little more than a pinch of salt
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp dried oregano
red pepper flakes, to taste

Put tomatoes in a fine-meshed sieve over a bowl and let drain.  Mash the tomatoes with the back of a spoon to get out as much juice as possible.  Save tomato juice for dressings, bloody marys or stocks. 

In a bowl or blender, combine all ingredients and whizz until smooth.  I use an immersion blender, which works beautifully.  Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. 

THE CHEESE and THE TOPPINGS

Fresh mozzarella, but not the FRESHEST stuff that is packed in water.  That moisture will leave you with sad, limp slices.  Go for the vacuum-packed balls of mozzarella.  

Cured olives (optional, but do it do it do it)

Fresh torn basil 

Distribute mozzarella and olives over the sauce with random symmetry.  

Slide the pizza (parchment paper and all!) on to your pizza stone and cook for 8 - 10 minutes, depending on your oven.  It might take longer.  Your crust should be browning and the cheese bubbly.

Remove from oven.  Toss basil on top and slice.  Best if served with more red pepper flakes and a bright arugula salad.  

Now that you have a perfect pizza, what to drink?

Italian wine, absolutely no question.  More specifically, Valpolicella from the Veneto if you can get your hands on a bottle.  Typically produced from three grape varietals - Molinara, Corvina, and Rodinella (Italian grape names sound like princesses, don't you agree?) - basic Valpolicellas are most similar in style to the wines of Beaujolais and Burgundy.  They are fruity without being weighty and light without being lean.  This 2012 bottling from Monte dall' Ora was a near perfect pairing with the richness of the sauce and creamy cheese.  Full of ripe, snappy notes of cherries and raspberries, it is balanced by its true Italiannes - rustic earthiness.  This wine has energy and life.  The last glass was as vibrant as the first and boy, were we sad to see it go.

With a $20 price point, this Valpolicella was surprisingly wonderful and biodynamic to boot! That natural something something you can't quite put your finger on.  It tastes like wine.  Oh how I love it.

In your back pocket.

Fork.  When flipping through my overly stocked collection of cookbooks to find a recipe for last night's meal, I toyed with the idea of making something quite fancy and elaborate.  Go to town, pull out all the stops!  But then I came across one of my favorite recipes from Ballymaloe's Cookery Course cookbook that I used in school.  It's one of the simplest, tastiest recipes and perfect for this Indian summer thing we're experiencing.  Olive and chili salsa served with a cumin-crusted fish.  I changed just one thing - I added tomatoes to the salsa for color, acidity, and texture.  Otherwise the olives can overpower a delicate fish.  And until my farmer's market stops selling gorgeous cherry tomatoes, I'm going to keep eating them by the handful.  The fistful.

As a side, I roasted some shishito peppers, a new favorite of mine as well.  One in ten is a spicy one!  With coarse sea salt and a squeeze of lemon they are an exciting and delightful snack.  I could eat a whole tray myself.

As we were finishing up dinner, the boy nodded and encouraged me to keep this one in rotation - a solid recipe is always a good thing to have in your back pocket.

I'm a jerk, no picture of dinner.  So here is some cumin.

Cumin Crusted Char 
with olive, tomato, and chili salsa


1 tbsp cumin seeds
2 fillets arctic char (or the fish of your fancy)
salt and pepper

Salsa
1 1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives
1 1/2 cup chopped cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 chili (I used most of a large cayenne pepper)
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon (zest and juice)
salt and pepper

For salsa: mix all ingredients together.  Taste and season appropriately.  I used the juice of half a lemon, but you could use more or less based on personal preference.

Dry roast the cumin seeds in a sauce pan over medium heat until they become fragrant.  Be careful!  Don't burn them!  Grind them with in a pestle and mortar, or do as I did - use you're coffee grinder (after cleaning it well).  Season both sides of the fish with salt and pepper.  Dip the flesh side in cumin seeds.  

Heat a pan-grill over moderate to high heat.  Cook the fish in a little oil until crisp and golden on both sides and cooked through.  Serve with the salsa immediately.  

There she is

Glass.  Just as it's prudent to have a great recipe in your back pocket, having a go-to wine for any occasion makes for a stress-free evening.  This dish is a bit hard to pair with; some spice, lots of salt and acid, big flavors.  Yet, still light enough that you want to be drinking white wine.  My instinct was a richer, more full-bodied white, but not a sweeter riesling or heavily oaked chardonnay.  We went with a tasty wine from Friuli, in northeastern Italy. 

Made from one of the most famous white grapes from the region, ribolla gialla (Italians have a flair for naming their grapes like they would name fairytale characters), this particular bottle from Teresa Raiz is the 2009 vintage, and was perfect with the meal.  Tart apples and lemons and honey and straw come together for a softly rich, yet still vibrant wine.  As I said before, Italian wines can really round out the right meal, and this one did just that.  So now I have a recipe and a wine in my kitchen rolodex.  We'll be revisiting these often.

I have this one!

Play.  Quite literally, you should always have a journal in your back pocket.  Some blank pages to scribble whatever it is you scribble about.  I'm always making notes, doodling, recording.   I have a whole bookshelf dedicated to past journals, and while most are embarrassing to revisit, I'm very glad I have them.  Memories, ideas.  Most bullshit, but every now and then I find a kernel of interest.  So I keep writing.

For the past few years I've been buying journals from the same wonderful online store, Ex Libris Anonymous.  Not only has the customer service been impeccable and friendly, their books are brilliant.  How neat to have blank pages alternating with your favorite Nancy Drew classic?  And there are sooooo many to choose from!  And they are totally affordable, so you can buy a zillion.  I do, often.  And you should too. 


EX LIBRIS ANONYMOUS

 

Oh so scholarly.

Fork. On Sunday nights the boy and I have to work late.  Latish.  9pm.  Considering we live very close to the office, we're usually home by 9:30 or so, but that still demands a very quick turn around for dinner.  Pizza is the usual choice, especially because our sister shop sells a very delicious premade pizza dough*.

*Okay, it KILLS me that I buy the dough.  It does.  BUT, I do know the lovely lady that makes it and frankly, it's really quite good.  As close to home-made as I can handle, but in the future (when I have more time on pizza nights) I'm excited to get to making my own.  It will involve a sourdough starter and some hours of rising, but I'm itching for it.  Until then, Rachel's dough will do just fine.  (Thank you Rachel, thank you).

We try to keep it simple with the pizzas.  Too much stuff and your dough is bogged down and limp.  So, we went with a classic tomato sauce (reduced to thicken it a bit), mozzarella, chopped PIOPPINI mushrooms from the farmer's market, basil.  All topped with some dressed greens, a salad pizza, if you will.  Texturally it's very pleasing, and visually it looks pretty snappy too.  I almost always sprinkle my pizza with red pepper flakes, so I suggest you do the same.  If you know, you like some spice.


Glass.  GRIGNOLINO.  Ready to get on board?  I hope so.  Grignolino is a grape from Piedmont that produces a fantastically smooth and easy-drinking red.  Light and bright.  Delicate, even.  The color is a gorgeous ruby and the taste screams of fresh raspberries and strawberries.  Derived from the name "grignole," which means "many pips" or seeds, this grape doesn't have a lot of juice to offer.  Therefore, the wine is a happy blend of fruit and tannins, a very soft and food-friendly red.

 We drank the La Mondianese 2010 bottle with a chill.  Delicious.  Funnily, I'm not that excited about most Italian wines.  Often they are too high-toned and astringent to work well without some kind of food pairing.  Rarely do I want a glass of Italian wine without food, BUT with certain dishes they absolutely sing.  Grignolino and a classic pizza, yes please.


Play.  Think college.  Think booze.  Then think food.  Probably pizza right?  Maybe not in YOUR dorm room, but certainly in the dorm room of EVERY movie you've ever seen about college.

Now think of your ideal night now.  Ideal booze.  Ideal meal.  Easy drinking, easy eating, easy living.  To pair with the oh so high-browness of making our own pizza and drinking a rare Italian wine, we decided upon The Social Network.  You know the one.  That movie about that guy that made that thing we wish we didn't LOVE so much.  Ugh, he is sooo rich.

And like some kind of college classroom debate, the movie spurned lots of discussion on the meaning of facebook, how it has completely shaped our social lives.  Damnit, I've grown up with facebook.  I'm almost the same age as Mark Zuckerburg, I was one of the first to experience The Facebook as a daily thing.  It's hard to even talk about without feeling stupid and duped, but it is an interesting and overwhelmingly relevant topic.  Now that Twitter and these things we call BLOGS have taken over, facebook is a given, a must.  Almost old hat.  I'm legit friends with people I don't even know because of it.  Everyone is connected.

Love you!

So has it made all of our "real life" relationships more worthy?  Because they aren't based on some kind of virtual interaction?  And how many of these "real" relationships do we have?  Without this interweb of friends, how alone are we?

Le sigh.  I suggest watching the movie because Aaron Sorkin is AWESOME, because the acting is superb, because Trent Reznor nails it 2/3 of the way through, because it IS topical and yep, it does involve you.  But PLEASE do not without some very tasty booze and satisfying cuisine.  You need some backup.