Puglian Pasta from Awaiting Table: minchiareddi formed on knitting needles

We've been wanting to go to The Awaiting Table cooking school in Lecce Italy for many years, and finally went for a week in September. It was fantastic: we rode bikes to the coast each morning, then returned to make dinner from scratch every afternoon, and learned a lot about Puglian wine and olive oil.

We made different shapes of pasta each day from the same dough, a 2/3 - 1/3 mix of hard durum wheat flour ("semola" is fine or “rimacinata” or “twice milled”), and barley flour; the barley is unusual, but I enjoy the flavor it adds. While orecchietti is the most famous shape from the region, I think it's cool that we can make the hollow tubular shape, "minchiareddi" ("little willies"!) with just a slender non-sticky rod. In class, we used cut umbrella ribs, but you can buy proper brass "ferretos" for 31€, and some folks use cut off twisted bar spoons, but I find that inexpensive knitting needles work fine: I bought five 3mm double-ended ones for a few euros on Amazon.es, and got two 5mm needles from Irene's mum (I just pried off the plastic end caps): the larger ones are a little faster and easier.

The cuisine of Puglia is frequently called "cucina povera": rustic cooking which ekes out big flavors from local, seasonal ingredients, sometimes foraged. Meat is treated as a garnish, and pasta is made without eggs. Below, the Onion and Garlic are my own additions. (Awaiting Table's maestro, Silvestro Silvestori, pointed out that Puglian food uses either pepper or garlic, but not both, since they both contribute a burn).

First batch, made with 3mm knitting needle, no parsley

The sauce for this punches above its humble weight, with the Cabbage cooking down to an almost jam-like consistency. 

The ratios of Flours isn't critical, and you should add Water as needed so it's not too sticky nor too crumbly: it's much easier to dry out a wet dough by adding Flour than it is to dampen a dry dough. In class, we just eyeballed all the quantities, and usually had way too much finished pasta, so I'm providing proportions here as a guide. I find the technique for rolling out the tubes to relatively easy: I used the part of my palm closest to my wrist, not my fingers. There's a Pasta Grannies episode which may help. 

Serves two generously.

150 g      Pancetta, cut into small bite-sized pieces

150 g      Onion, sliced thinly (optional)

  4 clove  Garlic, sliced (optional)

300 g      Cabbage, chopped into bite-sized pieces

  1 pinch  Chili pepper

135 g      Semola di Grana Dura (hard, high gluten flour)

 65 g      Barley Flour

100 ml     Water (approximate)

           Parsley, minced

           Parmesan, grated

           Extra Virgin Olive Oil, for finishing

In a large skillet, cook the Pancetta over medium heat until it starts to get a bit crisp; reserve, but leave the rendered fat in the skillet. 

Add the Onion and cook to soften a bit, then add the Garlic and cook a bit more.

Add the Cabbage -- it's quite a lot -- and cook covered over low heat for a long time, stirring occasionally, until quite tender and almost jam-like.

Adjust Salt.

While the sauce is cooking, make the pasta. In class we used traditional large wooden pasta boards to mix and shape the pasta: they have a slightly rough texture to grip the dough. At home, I used a slightly textured polypropylene plastic cutting board and it worked fine.

Mix the Flours and make a well; pour the Water in the center, then mix with your fingers, incorporating the flour into the water. Continue until it's loosely combined, then knead firmly until smooth -- about 10 minutes. 

Roll out some of the dough to a finger-thick snake, and cut off 1 cm sections: I do 10 at a time.

Place a pillow of dough on the board and gently press in a knitting needle, then gently press and slide with the base of your palm, sliding back and forth, to wrap the pasta around the needle and stretch it along its length. It might take a few tries, but it'll work fine. Give it a gentle twist back and forth on the needle to free it, then slide off the end to a plate. You should have a rustic tube of pasta.

Continue until all the dough it used; this will take a while, about the same as you need to soften the Cabbage sauce.

Boil the Minchiareddi in salted water until al dente, about 4 minutes. Drain.

Add the Sauce to the now empty pasta pot, then add the pasta, and stir gently to combine.

Plate, garnishing with Parsley and grated Parmesan, if desired.

Anoint with a generous glug of high quality finishing Olive Oil.

 

Second batch, made with 5mm needle, with parsley

Next Time:

Use more Cabbage since it cooks down so much, doubling the quantity should be fine.

Add Salt to the pasta flours before making the dough.

Patatas Panaderas: rustic and simple potatoes

We were looking for a simple, rustic starch to go with our meal and this looked good -- a bit familiar, replacing the expected butter with the more typical olive oil of Spain. Potatoes, onions, olive oil, garlic, some wine -- that's about it. This isn't an awesome, impress-your-friends dish,  but straight forward comfort food that will go with many dishes; we served it with sous vide and seared pork loin and sauerkraut.

Not going to win any beauty prize, but it's easy comfort food

Most recipes I've seen bake for a long time (hot, expensive), some cook in the microwave (won't get crisp), others on stovetop in copious oil, and most finish with a splash of wine then baked hot and uncovered. Teresa Barrenechea's is very simple, one step, but covered at very high heat to cook and crisp -- 500F for 30 minutes, covered the whole time, no wine. They all start by slicing the potatoes and onions, then adding seasonings and oil. This chef's video shows the technique and this page has ingredients and instructions. This recipe cooks everything covered in a microwave for 10-11 minutes, but there's no way it can get crusty and crunchy. Spain on a Fork has a recipe and video, and I've found his others to come out well. La Tienda has a simple one, like Barrenechea's, but with a final uncovered browning stage.

I don't want to crank the oven for over an hour, so I first cook in the microwave, then brown in a hot oven.

This serves two as a side dish.

  2 medium  Potatoes, peeled, sliced thin

1/2 medium  Onion, peeled, slice thin

    bunch   Parsley, chopped

 to taste   Salt

 to taste   Pepper

 60 ml      Olive Oil (more as needed)

 60 ml      White Wine (amount not critical)

In a microwave-safe bowl, toss the sliced Potatoes and Onions with the Parsley, Salt, Pepper, and Olive Oil to coat well.

Cover tightly with film and poke a small hole for steam.

Microwave on high for 10 minutes until the potatoes are just tender.

Preheat oven to 200C convection (if possible).

Transfer everything to a small baking sheet.

Bake on the top shelf until the wine's boiled off and the potatoes are browned and a bit crunchy.

Serve.

Casual Fideuà: easy, quick, slightly nontraditional

Fideuà is Valencian dish made similarly to Paella but uses short thin noodles instead of rice, and this makes it much quicker to prepare. We've made a number of variations in the US (with Spaghettini) and Barcelona (Ravalistan, Assassina). This version was driven by hunger and a "what's for dinner" moment: it comes together quickly, for an easy weeknight meal. My biggest cheat here is using a non-stick skillet instead of one of my paella pans and it worked fine! It took only 35 minutes to make.

Meatballs aren't traditional but this dish is tasty

The first time I made this, I rushed and skipped the Sofrito and it lacked flavor. The second time, with Sofrito, was much fuller in flavor, and I used monk fish for the protein; happily, the noodles stood up in the pan when done, a curious effect that seems to mark a well made fideuà. Here, Fideuà is usually made with fish/shellfish, but I'm using what's on hand, even if a bit nontraditional: Irene's mixed stock and her mini meatballs.

Most recipes seem to use 2-to-1 to 4-to-1 ratios of liquid-to-stock (by weight). This one from a chef seems way off, with a 10-to-1 ratio (!), and starts and finishes in the oven -- too fussy. The one from BBC looks pretty good but seems to use an excess of tomatoes in the sofrito. This recipe is quite detailed and looks authentic.

The noodles (Catalan fideus, Spanish fideos) come in a variety of thicknesses, and I prefer a rather thin one, so I'm using our local Bonpreu store brand cabell d'angel (angel hair) which the package says cooks in only 2-4 minutes, so the final step is fast; thicker noodles take longer, of course. 

The only tricky bit with this is that you want the pasta barely cooked  and all the liquid absorbed: if the pasta is threatening to get too soft, crank the heat all the way up; if the noodles aren't cooked enough, lower the heat and maybe add more stock or water.  You want to dry it out to finish to develop a little crusty base similar to socarrat in paella.

It's typically served garnished with lemon wedges and a garlic-y allioli (try my eggless toum or rapidisimo).

Serves 2 for dinner with a side salad

375 ml      Stock (fish, chicken, etc, as appropriate)

            Olive Oil

200 g       Mini Meatballs (or other protein)

125 g       Fideus/Fideos noodles, thin

1/2 medium  Onion, diced

  1         Ñora pepper (hydrated) or half a Red Bell Pepper, diced

  2 cloves  Garlic, sliced thinly

  1 medium  Tomato, grated

            Salt

  2         Lemon Wedges

In a pot, Warm the Stock and hold.

I'm using a 25 cm (10 inch) non-stick skillet for the Fideuà because neither our old induction cooktop nor portable gas burner heat very evenly; I'd like to try this on our BBQ with our proper paella pan.

 

If you use a firm protein (e.g., monk fish, squid, meatballs), sauté it first in a bit of Olive Oil until barely done; reserve.

Add a bit more Oil if needed and sauté the Fideus Noodles until lightly browned, reserve.

 

 

Add the Onion and sauté a bit, then add the Ñora or Red Pepper, and cook until softened.

Add the Garlic and cook to remove the raw edge.

Add the Tomato and cook the entire Sofrito until a bit dry and thickened to intensify the flavor.

Taste and add Salt as needed.

Add the Noodles back to the Sofrito pan and stir it to combine thoroughly.

Add the Stock and give it one gentle stir to combine well;after that, don't stir the noodles, it makes them sticky: instead, give the pan a shake if you need to.

 

 

Cook over medium-high to high heat: the thinner the Noodle, the less time you'll need to cook and absorb and evaporate the Stock (I needed high heat for these very thin noodles).

Top with the cooked Meatballs (or other protein) to heat through.

Check the texture of the noodles and adjust heat as needed: when al dente, crank the heat up to drive off the rest of the liquid; listen carefully for a little sizzling -- you may also begin to smell a bit of crust forming, check the bottom with a fork and remove from heat when mostly dry.

Garnish with Lemon Wedges, garlic sauce, and serve.

 

Note dark skin on left

Fork holding crusty skin

 

Kombu Cured Salmon, Cooked Sous Vide

Kombu (kelp) is full of glutamic acid which provides Umami -- the rich savory "6th taste". Chefs are curing fish with it and serving it raw, but we're not convinced of the quality of our store-bought Norwegian salmon so we're going to cook ours gently. We don't want to overpower the flavor from the Kombu, so we'll cook it sous vide with minimal seasoning rather than sauteing or broiling.

If the Salmon has skin, remove it so the Kombu can penetrate.
Soak the Kombu until pliant, and wipe down with a slice of Lemon.
Lightly salt the Salmon and let rest while the Kombu hydrates.
Wrap the Salmon in the Kombu and put in a vacuum bag and seal.
Let cure 1-24 hours.
Cook in a water bath at 50C/122F to 52C/125F for 30 minutes.

I don't have a record of how this turned out, but am posting it anyway in hopes that -- now that I can search for it -- I'll make it again and report back.

Lamb leg stuffed with Mediterranean flavors, sous vide then grilled

We wanted to repeat something we improvised a while ago that turned out really well: lamb leg stuffed with mediterranean herbs from our window boxes. It was a thick cut so we cooked it low with sous vide to ensure it was fully cooked, then flashed on the grill to brown a little. 

Rose-pink meat with green lines from the rosemary paste

Our local markets (Sant Antoni, Ninot) have proper butchers, about half of which sell lamb (Spanish "cordero", Catalan "xai"). The cut from the front leg is "espalda", the back is "pierna" (Spanish) or "cuixa" (Catalan); the cuixa on display looked like a better shape for stuffing, and was under 12€/Kg. I asked the butcher to remove the bone, and he cut it up so we could use it for soup. Our leg of lamb was 1175g without bones. I opened it up, cut off a piece outside a rough rectangle leaving about 935 g (2 pounds).

We've got a healthy crop of Rosemary and Parsley, and a meager amount of Mint; we figured the salt and umami from Anchovies would go well. All the quantities below are flexible. Basically, flatten the meat, smear with a flavorful paste, roll up, cook long and slow, then sear.

This should serve 4-6.

935 g       Lamb leg, boned out, trimmed
  3 sticks  Rosemary, leaves stripped off stem
  1 bunch   Mint, leaves only
  4 cloves  Garlic
  8         Anchovies (from a jar)
 to taste   Salt
 60 ml      Extra Virgin Olive Oil, approx
 ??         Preserved Lemon, chopped coarse

Cut between the muscles of the Lamb to flatten a bit, being careful not to cut through it.
Slash the meat to provide more surface area for the paste, but don't cut through.

In a mini food processor, whiz Rosemary, Mint, Garlic, Anchovies, Salt, and EVOO; process to a smooth paste, adding more EVOO if needed.

I intended to coarsely chop some Preserved Lemons that Irene made based on the Modernist Cuisine tomes, but forgot until after I'd tied everything up -- next time!
Spread the paste over the meat, pressing into the slashes.
Roll up as a spiral.
Tie snugly with butcher's string.

I wrapped this in plastic film to prevent Oil being sucked out by the vaccuum sealer but this may not have been necessary.
Put in a sous vide bag and seal on the "liquid" setting to avoid pulling out the oil from the paste.

Cook 3.5 hours at 57C/135F which I took from Serious Eats, hoping for some pink but not floppy rare; he says that 2 hours should be enough, but I wanted to be safe: the rolled meat is thick, so it will take a while for the heat to penetrate.
When done, remove from bag and catch any juices.
Brown over a hot BBQ fire, like these folks do, about 5 minutes a side.

Seared on the barbecue

Slice with strings still attached for neater cuts, and serve.

Next Time...

The color was a beautiful rose-pink, with almost no loss of juice from the meat, maybe 60 ml (2 ounces), so I think 57C is  a good temperature. The lamb we get here in Barcelona is obviously different than the rather tender cuts we got in the States -- a bit more toothsome, but I didn't need a steak knive; I might increase the sous vide time to perhaps 5 hours to tenderize a bit more.

The rosemary paste was good, flavorful, and I'd use that again -- hopefully I'll remember the preserved lemons!

There were some tough gristly bits: trim the outside sinew better. 

Lamb fat melts at 56-60C, so our sous vide should have released some, but we saw almost no liquid in the bag and after cutting. When we put it on the grill fat did melt and cause flare-ups. Grill carefully, and lower the heat to tame any raging flames.

One Serious Eats post stuffs the leg with a black olives, and I think the briny tart flavor of a tapenade sounds like a good idea.

Allioli Rapidísimo: quick and pungent -- using milk!

While I was researching recipes for sepia croquetas I came across a TV video which included a "allioli rapidísimo". Interestingly, it used milk as a base, which is something I've never heard of, and I've been working on various Spanish alliolis like toum for a while. As the name implies, it takes just a few minutes to make using a stick blender. It has a fiery burn from the raw garlic which mellows after a night in the fridge.

The chef said you can use whatever oil you like as the base, including a neutral one like sunflower oil, but we found this was too mild and created a sauce that was blindingly white, so we'll use a plain olive oil, then finish with extra virgin for flavor. The chef also added a bit of parsley at the end, but I think that distracts from the appearance.

A search shows that this is a Portuguese (perhaps Brazilian) called "maionese de leite", and that author shows that it's amenable to a variety of flavors including tomato or anchovy which sounds interesting.

  1 clove  Garlic, whole, peeled

 60 ml     Milk

120 ml     Olive Oil (perhaps not Extra Virgin)

as needed  Extra Virgin Olive Oil

           Parsley (optional)

to taste   Sherry Vinegar

to taste   Salt

Put the clove of Garlic in the cup of a stick blender, add the Milk and the first Olive Oil.

Whiz with the stick blender -- without moving the blender -- until the Milk and Oil merge almost completely.

Slowly drizzle in the Extra Virgin Olive Oil while blending, raising and dropping the stick blender to incorporate; it should start to thicken and fluff up. 

Add as much EVOO as you like to get the texture you want, I probably added 60 ml or so, not as much as I expected.

Add a bit of Parsley if you like and whiz briefly.

Add Sherry Vinegar and Salt, whiz a little, taste, and adjust. 

Croquetas de Sepia y su Tinta: crunchy and rich

Croquetas are little fried balls of bechamel containing something like jamón, chicken, bacalao, cheese and nuts, or in this case, squid with its ink. Almost every little café serves them as a tapa, but usually not the squid ink variety. This is my favorite flavor: the ink gives it a rich "earthiness" (which seems like the wrong word for a sea creature). The proteins are usually diced very small, to provide some texture without poking through the crunchy crust.

Croquetas topped with "allioli rapidísimo"

Sepia and Choco refer to the same species (cuttlefish), while Calamar (squid) is a different beast; both work fine. Many recipes add onions, cooked eggs, wine, nutmeg, etc, but I think those additions would be distracting. This video recipe is quite detailed, but he's using squid already cooked in its ink. Another video makes the bechamel with oil (no butter), and that seems very Spanish to me, I'll do that too. We get squid and separate frozen  packets of ink (4 for 0,69€), and we'll cook the squid then its ink in the bechamel's oil. The bechamel is equal parts by weight of fat (oil, butter, or a mix) and flour. The ratio of milk to fat+oil is about 2.5-2.8. I used Squid, an amount I had on hand.

These are easy enough to make, although the shaping/coating can be a little fussy so having a friend speeds the process.

One of my source recipes made an "allioli rapidísimo" which I made, and it turned out well, so I've written that up separately. 

Makes about 24, and a tapa-sized serving is probably 3 per person. After cooking and cooling, extras  freeze and reheat surprisingly well, baked.

100 g        Olive Oil (doesn't have to be Extra Virgin)

150 g        Sepia/Calamar, cleaned, body and tentacles, fine dice
  1 clove    Garlic, minced
  2 packets  Squid Ink ("tinta")
100 g        Flour

500 ml       Milk, whole
 to taste    Salt

Flour

Egg, beaten
Panko Bread Crumbs

Heat the Oil in a medium sized pan.

Add the Squid and Garlic and cook a few minutes until the garlic is barely golden.

Add the Ink and stir to distribute well.

Add the Flour, and mix thoroughly; cook 5 minutes to ensure there's no raw flour taste.

Add half the Milk to the Squid/Flour mixture, stir until it comes together;

add the rest of the Milk and repeat.

Cook to thicken and intensify, stirring continuously until you have a sauce thicker than cream, perhaps yoghurt-like: you want a stiff mixture when it's cool so you can form them.

Put in a tub, cover tightly with film, cool, then refrigerate; it should be quite stiff.

You can use this time to make an allioli if you like.

For shaping and coating, it helps to have a friend: one scoops, shapes, and coats in Flour, the other then coats in Egg and Panko.

Set out separate bowls of Flour, beaten Egg, and Panko.

Scoop out a bit and make a bite size ball or cork-like shape; a #30 disher/scoop can help here. 

Drop in the Flour, transfer to Egg and coat, then to Panko to cover; this can get messy.

Repeat until all the Squid Bechamel is used.

I like to chill these before frying but it's probably not necessary.

Fry in batches in hot oil, about 190C/375F, until golden all around;

if they soften and leak the filling, remove immediately.

Drain on a paper towel lined plate.

Serve with an allioli or other sauce. 

Eat promptly, while hot.

How it turned out, next time...

The texture was good, creamy rather than liquid or stiff. The filling didn't have enough fishy/squiddy flavor, and wasn't as dramatically black as I wanted. The squid shrank a lot when cooking and was not very apparent in the bite.

Next time, bump up the squid to 200-300 g. Cut it into larger pieces, pea sized, since it shrinks so much. Double the ink to 4 packets.

Consider boosting flavor by adding a seafood stock to the bechamel and cooking it down to intensify.