Dinner date: June 28, 2008
Menu: Chitarra Pasta with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Red Pepper Flakes
Wine: Pinot Grigio
Work is finally starting to let up a bit so rather than spend more energy in the kitchen I decided to make this Saturday night’s dinner an easy task, and enjoy a little free time reading. The current book on the coffee table is Jacques Manière’s Le Grand Livre de la Cuisine à la Vapeur translated into English by Stephanie Lyness with the subtitle: The Art of Cooking With Steam. In addition to translating the recipes it’s an interesting read because Lyness turns it into a narrative of Manière’s work and his intentions within it. (Manière passed away shortly after Lyness began the translation.)
Of the four ingredients listed in the recipe title olive oil is perhaps the most personal to most people. People have olive oil preferences ranging from color to taste to press sequence and press method to country of origin. There are so many sources available in explaining the olive oil lingo that I’m not going to address it here. I will say that my favorite olive oil is an inexpensive bottle available at Trader Joe’s. It’s the Kalamata Olive Oil and I like it because it tastes like olives. It’s not peppery, grassy, nutty, fruity, or buttery… it’s olivy.
A visitor new to the Market would think the streets of Seattle were lined with olive trees simply based upon the amount of olive oil available for purchase here. I don’t know why it’s this way because Seattle is not at the top of any list of olive-oil producing regions, yet two food souvenirs you see people carrying around the market are fish in a cardboard box shipper and olive oil.
Along with numerous tables in the original Market building known as the Main Arcade (Arcade) displaying all sorts of infused olive oils and vinegars, the Market proper has two main olive oil suppliers:
La Buona Tavola Truffle Cafe and Specialty Foods in the Triangle building offers lesser-seen brands mixed in with its truffle scented oils.
DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine in the Economy Market building is a wonderful Italian market with wine, cheese, and deli and has over 90 feet of shelf space dedicated to olive oils from Italy.
The Spanish Table, located behind and below the Market on Western Avenue, specializes in Spanish and Portuguese products. If you need Port this is the place to go. There is more Port consumed per capita in Seattle than in any other city in the country; maybe it’s the rain. The Spanish Table has 12 feet of shelving and one table (and the floor space underneath it) for olive oil. The shelving has one facing per bottle. This is unlike your typical grocery that has three or more facings per bottle. The 12 feet may sound insignificant, but it’s equal to 36 feet or more of grocery shelving and here it’s all Spanish and Portuguese olive oil.
Honorable mention goes to Big John’s PFI (Pacific Food Importers) located 1.2 miles south of the Market and just east of the stadiums on 6th avenue. It’s an honorable mention because as a supplier of Mediterranean foods, they not only have 96 feet of shelving dedicated to this stuff from the Mediterranean rim, they also supply my pantry with Israeli couscous, lentils, cavatelli, trofie, monastiri, pastichio macaroni, and orecchiette specialty pastas, carnaroli rice, Dutch cocoa powder, Callebaut chocolate, Diamond Kosher salt, Maldon sea salt, Moscatel vinegar, Banyuls vinegar, Champagne vinegar, and gelatin leaves because they offer the cheapest prices I can find on these products. <Sorry for the run-on…>
What makes this all so significant is that most of the brands available in these stores are not available in your local supermarket.
What the Farmers Are Selling in the Market
As long as I was at the market with my measuring tape I thought I’d check the farmers tables to see what they’re harvesting this week. The farmers set up their tables in two locations: daily on the east wall in the Arcade, and on Wednesdays (organic farmers), Fridays, and Sundays from June through October under canopies on the red-brick paved Pike Place.
Last Wednesday I took a walk through to the Market to see the organic farmer setup. There’s only seven there, probably due to it being a weekday and the record-breaking cold spell we’ve had this spring. Most of these farms are located in Skagit County north of Seattle. Many harvest schedules are delayed this year. Most of the farmers today have cherries—either Bing (deep red) or Rainier (mostly yellowish with bright red and pink areas). They look good with firm skins, none shriveled. Other produce being offered include: apriums, an apricot and plum in one; English, snow, and sugar snap peas; and various salad greens.
Inside the Arcade the long stretch of tables, about 200 feet long, is filled with flower, infused olive oil, and jewelry vendors except for one young woman who has about 6 feet of table space. She is selling strawberries for Hayton Farms Homeplace Berry Stand from Mount Vernon, about 50 miles north of Seattle. She has quite the quantity given the difficult growing conditions so far. The berries are very big and very red. In conversation with her I find that Hayton Farms is certified transitional meaning they’re transitioning their crops from conventional growing methods to organic. Soon they’ll qualify to have a canopy outdoors on Wednesdays with higher visibility and more foot traffic.
Tonight’s Dinner
What a difference 14 days makes. In my last post, June 7, I talked how it hadn’t been this cold in Seattle in over 114 years. Today SeaTac airport tied the high temperature for this date, 91 degrees—19 degrees warmer than average.
This temperature swing caused a major shift from my dinner planning earlier in the week. Now I’ll keep the oven off and make a quick preparation of a dish and enjoy it while sitting on the back deck.
Tonight’s pasta is a Chitarra Pasta Abruzzese di Semola di Grano Duro Secca imported from Italy and is made from durum wheat and water. It is produced by Rustichella d’Arbruzzo S.p.A. I bought it at the newly opened Kress Grocery on 3rd Avenue. I guess chitarra pasta is a cross between spaghetti and linguini because it’s square. Pasta can be divided into two categories: pasta secca (dried) and pasta fresca (fresh). Dried pasta is made from hard durum wheat and water, pressed through metal dies, dried and sold as dried pasta. Fresh pasta usually contains softer wheat flour, eggs, and salt, is handmade and as sold fresh pasta. This is also the homemade type.
Setting up a pot for cooking pasta is a basic function, we’ve all done it, and done it quite well, I’m sure. I do have some items to offer to the process.
· Have all ingredients going into the pasta prepared and portioned before cooking the pasta. Once you drain the pasta it’s just two minutes to service. There’s no time for mincing, dicing, or heating.
· Figure on using about 2 ounces dried pasta per person for a first course, 4 ounces for a main course.
· Most sources say to use 4 to 6 quarts of water to 1 pound of pasta. Don’t try using a small amount of water to cook the pasta. The water will get too starchy from the pasta and it will be difficult to keep the pasta from sticking together.
· Make sure the water is at a rapid boil when you add the pasta. Cover the pot to achieve that boil, if necessary. Do not keep the pot covered during cooking; you can’t see what’s happening.
· Don’t forget to stir the pasta during cooking at least once every two minutes. You’ll never have enough water boiling to keep the pasta separate in the boil. In a restaurant I’ve cooked 3 pounds of pasta in 8 gallons of water and still had to stir the pot to keep the strands from sticking together. At home, a tablespoon of salt is enough to season pasta during cooking. Don’t try seasoning afterwards because it won’t be absorbed. Bland pasta is very noticeable in a finished dish and adding it to the water before the boil ensures the pasta will be well-seasoned when it’s done cooking. Unseasoned pasta has that ’something’s missing’ feel when you bite into it.
· Don’t add oil to the water just because you’ve read that it helps keep the pasta from sticking; it doesn’t and this is a waste of [probably] good oil. Mix oil and water together and oil always ends up floating above water. It doesn’t matter if the water is standing still or is boiling. In fact, the pressure from the boil pushes the oil to the surface away from the pasta. I suppose you could pull the pasta up to the oiled surface with a pasta ladle, but why bother? If that works, then it follows that the pasta will have oil on it when you sauce it, and sauce doesn’t stick to oily pasta. Just give the pasta a stir every other minute during cooking and it won’t stick.
· Professionally made dry pasta is usually done by the time mentioned on the package instructions. Manufacturers know best about cooking the pasta they make so that’s the place to start. You probably also read about cooking pasta to ‘al dente’, which means ‘to the tooth’. And it goes on to explain that ‘to the tooth’ means that the pasta has a ‘bite’ to it. So? That’s not a good explanation as to when pasta is done. It’s like what people say on the bulletin boards about how they identify an over-cooked salmon fillet and writing, “Hmmm… denatured proteins… tsk, tsk.” It tells you nothing about determining doneness.
And don’t throw pasta against the wall looking for it to stick as a measure of doneness. An ex-liquidator of future income of mine used to do that and all we had was a wall with starch stains that really don’t disappear when painted over. When you bite into the pasta don’t just trust your bite to determine the doneness. Look at the pasta where you bit it. That tells you how far along the pasta is to doneness.
4 stages of pasta: raw, undercooked, properly cooked, and overcooked.
Professionally made dry pasta is yellow in its uncooked state; however, a color change takes place during cooking. The uncooked pasta in the middle turns white. Take a bite of pasta three-quarters into cooking it and look at the edge where your bit. Notice the white center, it’s probably large in proportion to the diameter of the pasta and it’s still quite hard. Cook it to its full cooking time and bite another piece. What you want is a pinpoint white spot, nothing bigger. This is when dried pasta is done, this is al dente. If you’re cooking a flat noodle such as lasagne or ravioli, then the pinpoint is a straight line across the pasta as if drawn from a pin.
· Rinse pasta in cold running water if the pasta is going to be a cold pasta salad. Do not rinse pasta after cooking unless you’re planning on doing a ‘reheat’ later on and need to immediately stop the cooking process. A ‘reheat’ is necessary if you’re having a big dinner party or catering. Creating dishes à la minute doesn’t fit to your schedule. The pasta loses some quality, but that’s better than losing a dish or your sanity.
· Drain the pasta into a colander in the sink and then immediately return the pasta to the pot. Doing so will keep about two to four tablespoons of pasta water with the pasta. This ’starchy water’ helps add texture to the sauce.
Garlic, since I’ve been reading Le Grand Livre de la Cuisine à la Vapeur I decided to play along with tonight’s garlic and steam it with its skin still on for 12 to 15 minutes according to the instructions in the book. Let it cool and then peel and process any way you want. As Manière and Lyness described, the steaming garlic technique makes garlic as spreadable as butter. Also, steaming garlic rounds its angular flavors. I found this to be a technique good for many applications.
There are several garlic types available, so whatever type you buy you want a firm, plump bulb with dry, papery skins. As with all root vegetables, avoid those that are soft or shriveled or have sprouts shooting out. No matter what you’re cooking preference, if the garlic is old, as usually indicated by sprouting, slice the garlic in half lengthwise and remove inner green sprout. This is a plant’s way of trying to survive through reproduction and that sprout is very bitter and acrid.
Olive oil. As previously mentioned, I use Trader Joe’s Kalamata Olive Oil. Heating a subtly flavored olive oil or running it through a food processor breaks down those subtle flavors. I’m not worried about this particular oil because the only subtle flavor is olive, and there’s a lot of it. Adding a little splash from the bottle at the end of preparation helps keep the flavor bright.
Red pepper flakes. Not much to say about this. You can buy it anywhere spices are sold. The only issue here is when to add the flakes to the oil. If you want the spicy heat (picante) from the flakes add it right away as the oil heats. Otherwise, sprinkle it in with the pasta along with the oil at the end of the preparation. The former preparation offers a hotter dish than the latter.
Whenever a recipe calls for a citrus juice I also add some zest from that fruit. It adds a little complexity and another layer of flavor. When zesting a citrus use a grater to grate just the outer skin. Avoid grating deep into it and exposing the white pith. If you expose the pith, chances are you’re grating into it and it ends up in the dish. This is bitter and can ruin a dinner. Tonight I’m adding lemon juice and zest because it will match the wine.
The Wine
After consuming over $400 in wine in two of the first three posts, I decided to dig through the couch for some change and buy a Pinot Grigio priced under $7. Like Rosés, Pinot Grigios are starting to bloom all over the place as the warm weather appears. When you bump into floor displays of Rosé, Pinot Grigio, and Sauvignon Blanc in a store’s entrance you know summer is just around the corner.
Bella Serra 2007 Pinot Grigio
Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are one and the same white grape. It has two flavor profiles depending on the region where it’s grown. In Italy, Pinot Grigio is known for its steely-minerality and acidity. It’s light and crisp and usually has a ‘middle-of-the-road’ flavor. The best description I’ve found for Pinot Grigio comes from Oz Clarke, “…the archetypal Italian restaurant wine.”
The Pinot Gris wines made in Oregon go quite well with salmon prepared with moist heat cooking methods (simmer, poach, or steam). Oregon Pinot Gris is usually crisp and acidic with pomme fruit and mango notes. A footnote to Oregon Pinot Gris, as of October 2007, winemakers can label their wines Pinot Grigio.
In Alsace, the grape named Pinot Gris makes wines that are soft, spicy, nutty and with a honey bouquet. It’s completely different from Italy’s table wine. The grape grown in Alsace makes excellent late harvest wines due to the area’s usually dry autumns. This same wine profile also comes from German regions of Baden and Pfalz in wines named Ruländer (sweet) or Grauer Burgunder (dry).
MEP
The bullet-point Mis en Place (pronounced MEEz ahn plahs) for this dinner is as follows.
Set up the equipment on the stove:
· 6- or 8-quart pot
· skillet
Set up the equipment and ingredients on the counter:
· colander
· grater for lemon and Parmesan cheese
· pasta weighed according to course and number of people
· olive oil
· red pepper flakes
· lemon (zest and juice)
· salt
· pepper
Recipe
The following steps are listed in the order taken to prepare the meal as described above, not in the typical order of protein first or first course served is the first course listed.
For the pasta:
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1 tablespoon salt
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Add water and stir to dissolve the salt. Cover and bring the water to a boil. |
For the sauce:
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juice and zest from one lemon 1/2 cup of extra-virgin olive oil 6 garlic cloves, steamed and coarsely chopped 2 tsp hot pepper flakes
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Combine in the skillet and warm over medium heat. |
Preparing the bowls:
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Fill the bowls with a little water…
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and microwave until the water boils. We use Thomas Rosenthal porcelain plates and they retain heat quite well.
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Continuing with the pasta:
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When the water boils…
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add the pasta and stir. Do not cover with the lid. Stir the pasta every two minutes. Begin testing the pasta for doneness starting at 75 percent of the cooking time. Place the colander in the sink.
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When the pasta is done…
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drain the pasta into the colander. Return the pasta back into the pot. Including a little water is preferable. Turn the stove off and place the pot on the burner to keep warm.
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Finishing the dish:
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Pour olive oil into the pot…
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and mix well. |
Plating:
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Drain water from bowls…
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and wipe dry. Divide the pasta between the plates. Grate Parmesan cheese over the pasta and serve.
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Analysis and Notes
While preparing the dish, I decided to add lemon juice and zest to accent the citrus notes of the wine. The affect of the hot pepper flakes goes to the back of the tongue where they accentuate the citrus. The oil, wine, and bread will counterbalance that affect.
The wine offered some light, crisp, citrus flavors with a chalky undertone. A younger vintage would probably offer more. After we finished dinner the remaining wine exhibited a lime-like note. Was this an evolution in the wine or was it because we were no longer consuming lemon from the dish?
We opened the wine at 5 P.M. and went straight into dinner. It was quite clear and had very little color; typical for this style of Pinot Grigio. The bottle lasted about an hour. What follows is a timeline of what and when each new component was detected.
5:00 citrus flavors with a chalky undertone T
6:00 citrus flavors with a chalky undertone T
6:15 Lime B
T Taste
B Bouquet
I can say this the wine was consistent.
All-in-all I’d say this was a really nice dinner.
Until next Saturday… boja, boja.
Photos by me and I’m (obviously) not a photographer.
Here are a few items of note about the ingredients. Unless otherwise specified:
· Salt is always Kosher
· Olive oil is always extra-virgin
· Eggs are always large
· Butter is always unsalted
· Pepper is always freshly ground
References
Claudia Piras editor-in-chief, Culinaria Italy, Cologne, Germany, Könemann, 2004
Jacques Manière with Stephanie Lyness, Le Grand Livre de la Cuisine à la Vapeur, New York, William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1995
Jill Norman, The Cook’s Book, New York, Dorling Kindersley, 2005
Jill Prescott, Ecole de Cuisine, Berkeley, California, Ten Speed Press, 2001
Kate Whiteman, Jeni Wright, Angela Boggiano, and Carla Capalbo, The Italian Cooking Encyclopedia, London, Lorenz Books, 1999
Oz Clark, Oz Clark’s Encyclopedia of Grapes, New York, Harcourt, Inc., 2001
Web Sites
La Buona Tavola Truffle Cafe and Specialty Foods
DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine
