Beef Shank and Sausage Ragù (recommended by Chip, from Bon Appétit)

We met Chip and Bridget on a hiking trip, and got to talking about food -- as one does. He recommended this for cool days, so we'll wait for winter to make it in Barcelona.  

The recipe comes from Bon Appetit and is behind a paywall but it can be found elsewhere, so I'm pasting it here in case it disappears.  When I make it, I'll scale it down and add metric measurements. 

Serves: 12

Ragù:

2 teaspoons fennel seeds
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 pounds hot Italian sausages, casings removed
3 1/2 to 3 3/4 pounds 1 1/2-inch-thick beef shanks with bone (about 3 pieces)
5 cups chopped onions (about 3 large)
2 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes in juice
1 750-ml bottle dry red wine
8 large garlic cloves, chopped
4 fresh bay leaves
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

Pasta:

1 1/2 pounds multi-grain or whole grain spaghetti
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2/3 cup (packed) freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

For ragù:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Toast fennel seeds in small dry skillet over medium-low heat until slightly darker in color and very fragrant, about 3 minutes. Set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large oven-proof pot over medium heat. Add sausage. Cook until brown and cooked through, breaking up with back of spoon, about 10 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer sausage to large bowl.

Add 1 tablespoon oil to pot. Sprinkle beef shanks with salt and pepper. Add to pot and sauté until brown, about 6 minutes per side. Transfer shanks to bowl with sausage. Add onions to pot and sauté until brown and tender, scraping up browned bits, about 10 minutes. Return shanks, sausage, and any accumulated juices to pot. Add tomatoes with juice, wine, garlic, bay leaves, oregano, crushed red pepper, and toasted fennel seeds. Bring to simmer.

Cover pot and place in oven. Braise until shanks are very tender, about 2 1/2 hours. Transfer shanks to work surface. Cut meat off bones and dice. Discard bones. Tilt pot. Spoon off fat from surface of pan juices. Return diced shank meat to pot. Simmer until liquid is reduced enough to coat spoon, about 10 minutes. Season ragù to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Cool slightly. Chill uncovered until cold, then cover and keep chilled. Rewarm over medium heat, stirring occasionally, before continuing.

For pasta:

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain pasta; transfer to large bowl. Add oil and toss to coat. Add cheese and parsley; toss to coat. Season pasta with salt and pepper.

Divide pasta among 12 shallow bowls. Ladle ragù over and serve.

Gnocchi with Microwaved Potatoes: light and easy

We love gnocchi, the wonderful dumpling-like pasta. There's usually a pack of store-bought ones in the house but they can be a bit heavy or gummy. It's a simple food with just potato, flour, and frequently a little egg to bind, and we've made them before. I wanted to make light ones without heating up our kitchen too much. This is fairly quick and came out quite well.

Gnocchi with Irene's pesto which had preserved lemon and foraged wild fennel

To make light gnocchi, we need to minimize the flour; to reduce the amount of flour, we need our potatoes to be as dry as possible. First, choose a potato that's dry and starchy, not waxy. Many recipes recommend baking them (on salt, or elevated) to dry them out, rather than boiling them. Our Barcelona summers are hot, so I didn't want to run my oven on high for over an hour. One of my posts said that my best version used a microwaved potato:

the best gnocchi I ever made was after a night of carousing: when I came home, more than a little tipsy and famished, I riced a microwaved potato, added an egg and just the right amount of flour to make the lightest, most silky gnocchi we've had at home -- sadly, I've never been able to repeat that level of excellence

I've now been able to recreate this excellent texture, again using the microwave. It dries out the potato similar to baking, and we then proceed as usual, trying to release even more moisture. 

Many recipes use a whole egg for 1000 g of Potato, some suggest two yolks to avoid the excess moisture of the whites (which make up 65% of an egg). Most use 1/4 the weight of Flour as the Potatoes, so we'll start there. 

1000 g  Potato (dry, starchy, not waxy: Russet, Idaho, Maris Piper)

 250 g  Flour (preferably 00 but AP is OK)

  50 g  Egg (one egg, or two yolks)

   5 g  Salt

The potatoes I got at the market weighed 780 g, which was enough for two dinners for the two of us (four servings). Scaling the recipe:

780 g  Potatoes

185 g  Flour (I ended up using only 100 g)

  2    Egg Yolks

  5 g  Salt (more to boil)

Wash the Potatoes and pierce them with a fork. Microwave about 15 minutes until cooked through (check with a knife), flipping them once.

Cut the Potatoes in half to allow the steam to escape; hold with a fork, and remove the skin.

Use a potato ricer to "rice" them onto a clean counter.
Drizzle with the Egg Yolks, Salt, and top with a good spoonful of the Flour; we'll add more later

We want to combine these and add just enough Flour over time so the dough isn't sticky. Avoid kneading which will develop gluten and toughness. You can use a pastry cutter or bench scraper to do most of this before using your hands; don't use a potato masher. I didn't have a ricer nor a bench scraper, so I used the side of a metal spatula to cut in and mince the Potato, and it came out successfully but it took a while. 

Dust and cut-in Flour, occasionally shaping with your hands, until it's not too sticky, just a little tacky.
Roll into a log, dust with Flour, and let rest a few minutes to hydrate.

Cut into 4 pieces.
For each piece, roll into a 2cm diameter snake, then cut into 2cm lengths.
Roll each pillow over a grooved gnocchi board of the back of a fork (or spatula) to create grooves to catch the sauce;
collect them on a kitchen towel while you do the rest.

I used a metal spatula to cut in the Flour and form the grooves

(We had twice as much as needed so I transferred half to a cloth-lined plate and froze them, then bagged them for use later; we can boil them directly from frozen.)

Bring water to a boil and add some Salt.
Add the Gnocchi and boil gently until they rise to the top, just a couple minutes.
Fish out with a strainer and add to a pan of sauce: for this one, we used Irene's pesto.
Serve immediately, garnish with grated Parmesan.

Chlorophyll Pasta Stuffed with Foraged Greens

We went foraging on Montjuïc recently and had more greens than we needed. I've been meaning to try extracting chlorophyll to make green pasta again, and this was a great opportunity. After extracting, I had the left over vegetable pulp and used it to make a spanakopita-like stuffing for the pasta. It turned out really well, and I'd do it again.  I'm putting all the techniques here because I managed to nail the proportions of filling to pasta. 

This makes enough for dinner for two, with an extra batch of pasta, and some left over vegetable pulp. Measurements are flexible. 

Chlorophyll pasta filled with greens, with an anchovy butter sauce

Extract Chlorophyll

I've been able to greatly simplify the Chlorophyll extraction based on the French Laundry technique we used in 2004: you don't have to shock it and wait two days for the straining; you can do it at the moment. 

I got 28.5 g Chlorophyll from my greens, a 12% yield, which is within the range I got from the French Laundry technique, but it all depends on what greens you have. We had plantain leaf, wild chard, dandelion leaves, goosefoot, and probably some others -- each has a different amount of Chlorophyll.

235 g  Wild Greens

500 ml Water

Chop the Wild Greens and add to a blender with the Water.

Whiz thoroughly for a couple minutes -- I don't think you can over-blend this.

Strain through a fine strainer and squeeze all the green liquid into a pot; 

save the vegetable pulp for the filling.

Bring the green water to about 70C / 160F while stirring: you'll see the Chlorophyll start to precipitate out of the solution and flocculate into clumps.

Stir any Chlorophyll that's stuck to the bottom of the pot into the water.

Let it hang out a while, stirring occasionally to get as much Chlorophyll to precipitate as possible.

Strain through a very fine mesh filter: I used a reusable plastic mesh coffee filter, but a paper filter works well too.

Keep the Chlorophyll that's trapped in the filter.

Make the Pasta Dough

Our usual combination is 1 Egg to 100 g Flour for two people, half the typical Italian amount but it's enough for us. You'll need to adjust depending on the size of your Eggs and how wet your Chlorophyll is. I use a food processor but you can use a bowl and your muscles. We always make a double batch, and freeze half the finished dough for later. 

Half of the below makes enough for for the two of us us when filled and sauced.

 100 g      Flour

 100 g      Semolina Flour

            Salt

28.5 g      Chlorophyll, from above

   2 large  Eggs

Combine the dry ingredients in a food processor and whiz briefly to combine. 

Add the Chlorophyll and Eggs, and whiz on low speed.

The dough should come together into a collection of large crumbs;

Helen Rennie's YouTube video shows this well.

If it coalesces into a tight ball, it's a too wet, so add some Flour and whiz again;

if it remains powdery, add some Water and whiz some more.

Scoop the crumbly dough out onto a counter and knead into a tight ball:

it shouldn't be too sticky nor too stiff.

Cover in plastic and refrigerate until it's time to roll and stuff; freeze any extra.

Assemble the Filling

I was thinking of spanakopita: spinach, feta, and egg; a bit of lemon wouldn't have been out of place. You can use whatever you like.

This was just the right amount for our two-person, half recipe of dough from above. 

  1 large  Egg

100 g      Wild Greens Pulp, from above

100 g      Feta Cheese

           Nutmeg

           Salt

           Pepper

Whip the Egg so it's pretty uniform, and add the rest of the ingredients.

Whiz in the food processor you used above (no need to clean it) or combine well with a fork.

It shouldn't be soggy, nor dry and crumbly.

Roll and Fill the Pasta

I've been using an Atlas manual pasta roller for decades and have a feel for the dough, how much to fold to get the width right, etc. For stuffed pasta, the sheets need to be pretty thin, so you probably can't use a wine bottle like you can for strands. The Pasta Grannies make it look easy, but if you can roll thinly with a rolling pin, you're a better pasta maker than I will ever will be.

Cut the Dough in to 4 pieces and keep the ones you're not working with covered in the plastic film so they don't dry out.

Feed the dough through the widest setting (#0) to flatten, fold into thirds, and re-feed in the perpendicular direction. Repeat this a few times to laminate the dough. It should be almost as wide as the roller, but will  widen as you thin it next.

Dust both sides of the flattened dough with Flour.

Reduce the width of the rollers to the next setting (#1) and feed the dough through once.

Reduce again, and repeat.

Repeat until you're at the thinnest setting for stuffed pasta (#9 on my machine).

Unlike for strands, don't let the Pasta wait and dry out at all: stuff immediately so it adheres to itself without cracking.

I decided to make Agnolotti, which is like Ravioli with an extra flap. I suggest watching this YouTube Short, it's quite clear. Agnolotti filled with a soft filling is easy to pinch and seal; my filling is more stiff, which prevents sealing, so I dolloped small dots over the length. Instead of sealing the long edge, I found I could press out more air by first sealing between each dollop, then seal the long edge. Then cut, and seal each edge again to be sure.

Boil, Sauce, and Serve

Boil the filled Pasta in salted water until the dough is tender but still a little toothsome, about 5 minutes for my batch.

Sauce as you like: Irene made a simple but lusty anchovy and butter sauce which went well.

We used a strainer to transfer the cooked Pasta with a bit of its starchy water to the Sauce. Gently fold into the Sauce to coat. 

Serve.

This stood up well to a full-bodied red wine.

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 orecchiette 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 same dough can be used to make Orecchiette, check YouTube for videos of Pasta Grannies shaping these "little ears" with a table knife; with practice mine turn out acceptably but wouldn't win any prizes.

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 Grano Duro (hard, high gluten flour)

 65 g      Barley Flour

100 ml     Water (to start)

           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. I've used a slightly textured polypropylene plastic cutting board and it worked fine. I recently bought a large Ikea Lämplig wooden cutting board with counter-edge (and juice groove on the other side) for a very reasonable price -- it's perfect for this.

Mix the Flours and make a well; pour the Water in the center, then mix with your fingers, incorporating the flour into the water. I've found 100 ml Water works with some flours and weather conditions, but have had to go as high as 150 ml for others. Continue until it's loosely combined, then knead firmly until smooth -- about 10 minutes.  It should be pliable, like Play-Doh, not crumbly and not sticky. Cover and let rest 15-30 minutes if you can.

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; alternatively, press the rod into the dough, and roll your palms over the ends of the rods -- it may unwrap a bit before wrapping to fit the rod. 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.

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

 

Squid Ink Pasta with Huevo de Bacalao and Saffron Cream Sauce

I frequently make pasta with squid ink. This time I combined it with a cream sauce containing "huevo de bacalao" -- firm cured cod egg sacks, botarga. It was easy to make, rich and intense, and worth doing again. The Bacalao retains some of its texture which makes it more appealing than a smooth sauce. Adding Garlic and Saffron seemed compatible flavors, but you can omit if you like.

The first time I made this with 160 g (?) Huevo de Bacalao, the second with a 125 g Mullet. Both seemed a bit dense, thickening the sauce. I'd suggest dropping this to 100 g, with half in the sauce and half as a garnish. I first used 36% fat cream, but dropped to 18% fat cream the next time but it was still quite dense.

Dramatic squid ink pasta and intense cream sauce

pinch    Saffron
         Bourbon or other alcohol
         Oil
1 clove  Garlic, minced
100 ml   Cream, 18% fat
100 g    Botarga: Huevo de Bacalao, Mullet, etc, coarsely grated
180 g    Squid Ink Pasta, fresh, cut into spaghetti

Pulverize the Saffron in a folded sheet of paper rubbed with the back of a spoon and add to a little Bourbon or other alcohol to extract the flavor.

In a pot, heat a little Oil and add minced Garlic; cook until softened and the raw smell is gone.

Grate the Botarga on a coarse box grater.

Add the Cream and half the Botarga to the pot and heat; it may seem too thin for a sauce at first but will thicken as the Bacalao dissolves into the Cream. Add the Saffron in alcohol. Stir occasionally.

Boil the Pasta in salted water; the fresh pasta  will only take a few minutes. Drain, but save some of the water to thin the sauce if needed.

Plate the pasta and top with the sauce, garnish with remaining Botarga; serve.

Canelones Rossini: pâté for the gourmet

Canelones/Canalóns are well-loved in Catalunya; this blog post has a good history. The "Rossini" version is a bit fancy, adding pâté per the composer's reputation as a "militant connoisseur". This recipe comes from a Canal Sur video. 

We've made Canelones before with homemade pasta. Here in Barcelona, every store carries "placas" of Canelones: sheets of dried pasta that are uncooked or precooked. The original recipe used "carne" (beef) but beef/pork mixes are common, as are ground pork, chicken, and turkey -- you can use whichever you like. Rossini may have used Foie Gras, but Pâté has a better texture for this and is much more affordable. You can tweak the vegetables in the filling, but I think Onions should definitely be included. Other recipes don't use the veggies, add ham, while some mush up the meats and add cream, but we find the texture of the ground meat more pleasant. Tomate Frito is a cooked tomato sauce, thicker than uncooked puree. 

The box of uncooked sheets had 20 sheets, while the precooked had 18 but ours stuck mercilessly so we ended up with only 12 -- not doing that again! It's not nearly so common to find the pasta tubes I'm used to seeing in The States.

This makes 4 servings, and they reheat gracefully in the microwave.

 20 sheets  Canelone pasta (uncooked)

            Olive Oil

  1         Onion, fine dice

  3 cloves  Garlic, finely sliced

  1         Carrot, grated

  1 small   Green/Red Pepper (mild), finely diced

300 g       Ground Beef/Pork mix

 60 ml      Tomate Frito [4 Tbs]

120 g       Pâté

            Salt

            Pepper

 50 g       Flour

 50 g       Olive Oil

500 ml      Milk

            Nutmeg

            Cheese (e.g., Parmesan, Manchego), grated or sliced

Given the problem we've had with the precooked sheets sticking, I strongly suggest the uncooked pasta sheets; the precooked ones don't save much time, really. Bring a large pot of salted water to a strong boil and drop the sheets, one-by-one, into it, and stir so they don't stick to the bottom nor to each other. Boil for 12-15 minutes per the box -- we wanted a bit more texture so stay to the shorter time. Rinse in cold water to stop cooking and prevent sticking. Remove and lay on kitchen towels or directly on an oiled counter to dry.

Meanwhile, start the filling.

Sauté the Onions, Garlic, Carrot, Pepper.

Add the Meat and sauté until cooked.

Add 60 ml Tomate Frito and combine.

Turn off heat and add Pâté, then mix to meld the ingredients.

Add Salt and Pepper to taste.

Adding pâté to veg and meat

While that's cooking, prepare the bechamel.

Cook the Flour in the Oil until the Flour's cooked; a whisk is perfect here.

Add the Milk and whisk to make a Bechamel with a texture of light cream.

Grate in the Nutmeg.

Add 2 Tbs Tomato Sauce.

If it's a bit thick, add Milk; if too thin, boil to reduce.

Preheat oven to 200C.

Add a bit of Oil a baking dish (we used three Pyrex loaf pans) and spread; this keeps the pasta from sticking to the dish, and causes them to develop a slight crunch on the bottom.

Lay out a few Pasta Sheets and add about a finger-sized line of filling.

Roll them up, overlapping the seam a little, and place them in the baking dish or loaf pan seam side up so the serving spatula doesn't unwrap them

Top the Canelones with the Bechamel, then add grated/sliced Cheese.

Bake 20 minutes until the Cheese is golden and the filling is heated through.

Let sit a few minutes to set up, then serve.

"King of Carbonara" sauce: rich and indulgent

We saw this video of "The King of Carbonara" in Rome and new we had to try it: the technique of using the fat from the Guanciale and gently cooking the sauce in a bain-marie appealed to us. Even with his technique, this dish can be put together in about 15 minutes.

We first had Bucatini alla Carbonara at A. V. Restaurante Italiano (RIP) in Washington DC years ago; it is one of our "go to" dishes at home when we want some easy comfort food. Irene and I have slightly different approaches: she adds the hot pasta to the sauce and relies on the retained heat to cook the sauce, while I find that a bit too raw and add a bit of heat when combining in a pan. Either way, it's fast and satisfying: you can prep the sauce in the time it takes the pasta to cook.

Even with Chef Monosilio's more careful technique, the sauce can be made while the pasta cooks, then they come together over gentle heat. In the video, he cuts a large slab of Guanciale into cubes, fries them to render the fat and crisp the meat, and uses some of that fat in the sauce -- that's what hooked us. We can readily find 100 g packages of sliced Guanciale here in Barcelona: it's not cubed, but sliced like thick American bacon; it does have a good piggy funk to it. He uses a mix of Pecorino and Grana Padano because he said that folks now don't like the high salt level of Pecorino; the version of that cheese we get here isn't as dry and salty as what we found in the States, but we'll use his mix.  The proportions below are for two, and it's quite rich. He uses only the Yolks for extra intensity, but I find the sauce to be using whole eggs makes an attractively textured sauce

133 g Long Pasta: Bucatini, Spaghetti, etc

100 g Guanciale, sliced 1-2 mm x 2 cm (or 1 cm cubes)

 25 g Grana Padano (a good aged Parmesan should work), grated fine

 25 g Pecorino Romana, grated fine

  2   Eggs (or just Yolks)

      Black Pepper

Get your ingredients organized in a mise en place, since this comes together quickly.

 

Sauté the Guanciale with fairly high heat: you want to render fat and crisp the pork. When the meat's crispy and just browned, reserve it and let the fat cool down (separately or in the pan) so you don't end up cooking the Eggs too much.

 

While that's rendering, get a pot of salted water boiling and find a bowl or pan that can sit on top to create a bain-marie later. 

Cook the pasta until its fully done (not al dente), probably 10-12 minutes.

While the pasta cooks, prepare the sauce.

In a bowl/pan, whisk the Eggs (Yolks) and most of the grated Cheeses, reserving some for a garnish.

Whisk in the cooled Fat from the Guanciale pan; I used all of it (maybe 30 ml / 2 Tbs) but you might not be so gluttonous.

Add plenty of coarse freshly ground Black Pepper and whisk to combine.

If this is pasty, whisk in a little of the Pasta Water so it's a thick liquid.

When the Pasta is done, transfer it with tongs to the sauce bowl/pan; it's OK if some water clings to it. 

Put the bowl on the water Pot to create a bain-marie, and stir the sauce over the gentle heat; after a while, it should start to thicken a bit as the Yolks cook.

Continue stirring until the sauce is creamy and everything is well coated. You're looking for a creamy sauce with a texture like crème anglaise; avoid overcooking and setting the eggs. (Take a look at the video to see the texture you're looking for.) 

Don't add the Guanciale early like this or it will lose its crunch!

Plate the Pasta and garnish with the crispy Guanciale, reserved grated Cheese, and a healthy grind of Pepper.

Fideuà all’Assassina con Albondigas: crunchy culture clash

I first heard about spaghetti all’Assassina in Cooks Illustrated (pay wall, try a "reader view" plugin) and  New York Times and others describe it well. The pasta is cooked in the manner of risotto then is finished in a way that provides an interesting a crusty texture. We loved the intensity (no water to dilute the pasta flavor) and crunch.

I thought it would be fun to make a Catalan-oriented mutation. Fideuá is kinda like a paella but made with short pasta strands: I wanted to use these for my crunchy texture, so I added a step of browning the fideuà noodles in oil.  I used a simple tomato sauce to hydrate, and decided to add meatballs to make it really inauthentic -- in a fun Italian-American way; "albondigas" are Catalan meatballs, typically served as a tapa by themselves, not on pasta. :-)

This was easy to make, and kinda fun. Irene makes our meatballs and albondigas, but the first time we made this we used ones pork+beef ones our grocery store sells pre-madeeef ones, and they were fine. The measures are approximate, use onions and garlic in the sauce as you like. 

Serves 2 for dinner.

  2 cloves Garlic, minced

125 g Meatballs, small
xxx g Onion, diced
125 g Fideuà noodles (mine were quite thin)
500 g Tomatoes, canned, with their sauce
      Spicy Chili peppers
      Olive Oil

Saute the Onions and Garlic in some Olive Oil.

Whiz the canned Tomato and its Juice until smooth; add Chili peppers, Onions and Garlic, and whiz again.
Add to a pot and warm the sauce.

Add Oil to a skillet and brown the Meatballs on all sides, continue until cooked through; add to the sauce to keep them warm.

To crust the pasta, I strongly suggest a non-stick skillet, as the sauce's acidity can damage the patina of carbon steel and possible a well-seasoned cast iron pan.
Add some Olive Oil to a non-stick pan on medium, add the Fideuà, and stir occasionally to brown through a bit.

Add the sauce, a bit at a time -- like risotto -- until it's absorbed; continue until the pasta is mostly cooked through. Leave the meatballs in until serving time.

Now it gets interesting: Turn up the heat, and when you hear a sizzle, use a spatulu to flip over the pasta to the hot skillet to create a crust; don't be timid here, press it down a bit to get good contact. When it's developed the crunch, flip again. Continue until you've got lots of crusty bits -- it's the best part. 

Combine with cooked Meatballs and serve.