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Urban Italian
Veteran food writer Irene Sax tells us about a new cookbook and shares healthy and delicious recipes, including one that's been lightened up with tips from the book's author. This month's book is Urban Italian by Andrew Carmellini (Bloomsbury 2008).
What's Urban Italian? Is it Venice, Rome and Naples? To chef Andrew Carmellini, it means the kind of modern, creative Italian food he cooks today. As a book, Urban Italian (Bloomsburg, 2008) came about when Carmellini was planning to open his own restaurant, A Voce, in New York. As construction dragged on for a year he grew frustrated and turned to the activity he loved most: cooking. But this time he wasn't working in a professional kitchen with a staff for prep work and cleaning up. He was in a tiny apartment kitchen where, if he wanted something chopped or scrubbed, he had to do it himself. If he wanted something to cook with, he had to go out and buy it and carry it home. The result? A book by a top-level chef that's honestly and truly about home cooking.
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Carmellini zaps asparagus in the microwave, mixes pasta dough in a standing mixer, makes sauce with canned cherry tomatoes and uses Tabasco when he can't put his hands on the hot pepper flakes. His food is never quite what you expect, but an amalgam of what his grandmother cooked, what he learned while working at the best French restaurants and what he puts together from visits to the greenmarket. He wraps shrimp in pancetta then slides them under a hot broiler; tosses a salad of roasted beets, grapefruit and pistachios; sauces fettuccini with corn, bacon and mushrooms, and when he makes meatballs, he makes them with duck and lamb, or even shrimp and chorizo.
Despite his high-level experience in the kitchens of Daniel Boulud and Gray Kunz, most of his dishes are both healthy and quick. Every so often he starts a recipe — squash tortelloni, for example — by saying, “This one's a project,” and warns us to break down the prep over a few days. (These are usually the old-style Italian dishes.) But many recipes — for steak with salsa verdi, for linguini with broccoli rabe and pesto — are labeled “super-quick” or “super-super-quick” and demand no special ability beyond that of reading and following a recipe. It's a book full of ideas, one that you'll have fun using, and it's a great read: Carmellini's co-author is his wife, food writer Gwen Hyman.
No-apologies microwave asparagus
Midwinter asparagus can need some help. Here it gets it from sweet-and-sunny citrus vinaigrette.
Asparagus with Citrus and Oregano
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
- For the asparagus
- 1 bunch of the largest green asparagus you can find (jumbo is best)
- 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- zest of 1 orange
- For the dressing
- 2 oranges
- 4 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 scallions, finely chopped
- 1 tsp dried oregano, preferably on the branch
- juice of 1 lemon
- salt and coarse-ground black pepper to taste
- sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Cut off an inch or two from the bottom of the asparagus and discard.
- Place the asparagus in a microwave-safe dish with high sides. Add the olive oil and 1/4 cup water. Using a microplane or box grater, grate the orange zest over the top.
- Cover the dish with plastic wrap and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes on high. Rotate the dish and cook for 2 more minutes, until the asparagus stalks are bright green and crunchy-tender. (The exact time will depend on the size of your asparagus.)
- Segment the oranges: with the peel still on, slice the ends off an orange. Set it on one end and, with a small, sharp knife, slice off the peel and the white pith together. Holding the peeled orange in your hand, cut along the inside of each white segmenting line. Remove the “supremes” (the meat, the best part) to a bowl, leaving all the membranes attached to the “skeleton.” Squeeze all the juice out of this skeleton into the bowl with the supremes, then discard the skeleton. Repeat with the other orange.
- Add the olive oil, scallion, oregano and lemon juice. Combine with a spoon. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- When the asparagus has finished cooking, remove the plastic wrap. There shouldn't be a lot of water on the bottom, but if there is, drain that from the dish.
- Spoon the dressing over the asparagus and sprinkle with sea salt.
Notes
- Asparagus in the microwave is awesome. Yup. You read that right. I'm sure some food snob somewhere is recoiling in horror and throwing this book across the room, but I don't care. The microwave can be a good cooking tool, if you don't abuse it. I learned how to do asparagus in the microwave like this from my mom — and nobody is going to insult my mom's cooking: everything she makes is gold. This technique is no exception; when I cook asparagus at home now, I don't put a big pot of water on.
Easily improved spinach salad
Fried chickpeas are undoubtedly crunchy and delicious. But we don't need them, do we? Instead, we used plain drained chickpeas in this super flavorful spinach dish and found that we didn't miss the crunch — or the calories — at all.
Spinach with Chickpeas and Ricotta Salata
Serves 4
Ingredients
- For the chickpeas
- 1 15-oz can chickpeas (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 tsp each of salt and coarse-ground black pepper
- For the spinach
- 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced Goodfellas thin
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 pound fresh spinach, leaves picked and thoroughly washed
- 1/4 tsp each of salt and coarse-ground black pepper
- 1/3 cup grated ricotta salata
Instructions
- Drain the chickpeas thoroughly in a strainer and let them dry, then place them on a paper-towel-lined plate so that any excess liquid is absorbed.
- Place the flour in a deep bowl. Add the chickpeas and shake them around until they're all coated with the flour.
- Heat the olive oil in a large, high-sided pot over high heat. When the oil begins to smoke, add the chickpeas and shake the pot around to coat them with the olive oil. The chickpeas will begin to snap-crackle-pop; that's the sound of crispiness happening. Keep shaking or stirring periodically so the chickpeas turn golden brown on all sides, about 4 minutes. Season with the salt and pepper, stir to coat, and then remove the chickpeas to a bowl and reserve.
- Return the chickpea pot to the stove. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, then add the garlic and sweat 30 seconds, stirring constantly to avoid burning.
- Add the red pepper flakes and then the spinach. When the spinach has begun to wilt — about 1 minute — add the salt and pepper. Cook for another 30 seconds, until the spinach has wilted thoroughly.
- Pile the spinach on a serving plate and load the chickpeas on top. Sprinkle the ricotta salata over everything. Serve immediately.
Notes
- Chickpeas have been all over southern Italian cooking ever since the Saracens; and spinach with garlic, of course, is very Italian. But this recipe was pure NYC in inspiration: I came up with it strolling through the Union Square Greenmarket while eating a falafel from my local joint.
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