Erica De Mane

Recipes:
Spaghetti with Roasted Beets, Escarole, and Anchovies
Spinach Salad with Pears, Spiced Walnuts, and Ricotta Salata
Warm Octopus and Potato Salad with Tomato-Marjoram Dressing
Ricotta Gelato for Christmas Eve

Recreating restaurant dishes in my home kitchen is both an ongoing joy for me and an occasional frustration. Since I cook constantly, I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out dishes I’m served and identifying all their flavors. But it’s far easier to figure out what went into a quick-cooked dish than into a slow one like a ragu or a stew, and sometimes I can be stumped, though I taste with my eyes as well as my tongue, and if I can see an ingredient, recreating the dish is that much easier.

In braised, simmered, or stewed dishes the flavors tend to meld or even combine to form a nuanced and complex new flavor. This can be hard to dissect, especially when the point is to blend and mingle the ingredients for depth of flavor. But you can do so if you let the flavors linger on your tongue. You’ll start to taste its components, maybe red wine, a hint of clove, bacon. Just remember that many long-cooked dishes in restaurants begin with stock, so much of what you taste may be fish or beef stock. Although many restaurant chefs are flattered when you ask how they did it, I tend not to. I like to try to figure it out myself, if only as a point of pride. Doing so has led to me to interesting improvisations and discoveries about technique.

When you try to unlock the secret of a favorite restaurant dish, first consider its name on the menu. Some overly complicated American menus list just about every ingredient, sometimes laboriously adding where each was made or raised, but this fad seems happily to be going out of fashion. Ask your waiter what’s in the dish; he may know. When I cooked in restaurants, bored waiters were always snooping around the kitchen, asking questions and threatening to stick their fingers in the pots. When the plate comes to the table, smell it and stare at it hard. What does it look like? Does it have an aroma of saffron or rosemary? If you think you see chopped carrot, you probably do. Taste slowly. It’s amazing how when long-cooked, a carrot can give up almost all of its flavor to the sauce and and no longer taste like the original vegetable at all.

It’s usually easy to figure out if a dish was long- or short-cooked; telling how the specific ingredients in it were prepared can be much harder. When I first tasted Gigino’s spaghetti with beets, I noticed that the beets were a bit crunchy, so I assumed they’d been sliced raw and sautéed. I tried that at home and they came out too runny and too crunchy, so the next time I roasted them until quite tender, added olive oil, and then tossed them with the cooked spaghetti, after which I sautéed the escarole separately with the garlic and anchovy, reasoning that it would benefit from some seasoning, before adding it to the spaghetti. I don’t believe they sauté the escarole at Gigino, and I’m not sure about the beets either (maybe they steam them and then sauté them). But I really like my blend of roasted and sautéed vegetables, and even though my version contains the exact same ingredients as Gigino’s, my resulting plate of pasta is a little different in taste and texture.

My goal when I explore restaurant dishes at home is not to duplicate them exactly but to borrow what I consider a good idea and then go about making it my own. I’ve learned a lot about cooking doing this. So don’t be discouraged if you try to recreate a beloved restaurant meal and it comes out different (unless, of course, it’s inedible). If you really put your heart into it, your version may even be the better one. Good luck and have fun.

Spaghetti with Roasted Beets, Escarole, and Anchovies

Spaghetti del Padrino is the name of the original for this pink-tinted bowl of spaghetti on the menu at Gigino Trattoria, on Greenwich Street, in Tribeca, New York City.

(Serves 4 or 5)

3 medium beets, trimmed of their tops
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large head escarole, washed, trimmed, and chopped
3 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
3 whole salt-packed anchovies, filleted, rinsed of excess salt, and soaked in cool water for about 1/2 hour
A generous splash of dry white wine
1 pound spaghetti
A small handful of salt-packed capers, soaked for 1/2 hour in several changes of cool water and drained
A handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves, lightly chopped

Wrap the beets in aluminum foil and roast them in a 400-degree oven until tender, about and hour and a half. Remove the foil and run the beets very briefly under cool water, cooling them slightly, and slip off their skins. Slice the beets into thin rounds, and then slice the rounds into strips. Place the strips (they should still be quite warm) in a large, warmed pasta-serving bowl. Drizzle on about 1/3 cup olive oil and season with salt and black pepper. Mix.

Set up a large pot of pasta-cooking water. Bring it to a boil and add a generous amount of salt. Add the escarole and blanch it for about a minute. Scoop it from the water into a colander with a large strainer spoon. Run cold water over it to preserve its color. Squeeze it dry with your hands.

Bring the water back to a hard boil and drop the spaghetti into it.

In a large skillet, heat about 1/4 cup of olive oil over a medium flame. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant and very lightly colored, about a minute. Chop the anchovies and add them and the escarole to the skillet. Sauté about a minute longer. Add the white wine and let it bubble a few seconds.

When the spaghetti is al dente, drain it, saving about 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Add the spaghetti to the serving bowl and toss. The beets will turn it bright pink. Add the escarole along with any skillet juices, the capers, and the parsley, and toss to blend well. Season with black pepper and a bit of salt if needed (you may not need any if the anchovies and capers are sufficiently salty). Add a splash of pasta-cooking water to loosen the sauce if needed. Serve right away.

This pasta is best without adding any type of grated cheese.

Spinach Salad with Pears, Spiced Walnuts, and Ricotta Salata

This is a simple, composed salad with a good balance of sweet and salty, inspired by a similar one served at Grano Trattoria, in Greenwich Village. The spice in the walnuts is my own addition.

(Serves 4)

For the walnuts:

A few drops of extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup very fresh walnut halves
A pinch of sea salt
A pinch of grated nutmeg
A pinch of grated cinnamon
A pinch of sugar
A pinch of cayenne

For the dressing:

1 garlic clove, peeled and lightly crushed
A pinch of grated nutmeg
A generous pinch of sea salt
About a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, or a bit more to taste
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

For the salad:

2 ripe pears, cored and thinly sliced (red Anjou are especially pretty for this)
2 cups baby spinach leaves, washed, dried, and stemmed
1 shallot, very thinly sliced
1/4 pound ricotta salata, very thinly sliced or shaved

Heat a medium sauté pan over medium-low flame for a minute. Add the walnuts, a tiny drizzle of olive oil, the salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar, and cayenne, and sauté, stirring frequently, until the walnuts are fragrant and lightly toasted, about 3 or 4 minutes.

Put all the ingredients for the dressing into a mixing bowl large enough to hold all the spinach, and whisk them until well blended.

When ready to serve, set out four salad plates and decorate their rims with the pear slices. Add the spinach and shallot to the mixing bowl and toss. Remove the garlic and put the spinach on the four plates. Place a few slices of ricotta salata on each and garnish with the walnuts. Serve right away.

Warm Octopus and Potato Salad with Tomato-Marjoram Dressing

This recipe is very loosely inspired by a warm octopus and potato salad that used to be on the menu at Le Zie, a fine Venetian trattoria in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The vinaigrette is my addition. Le Zie’s version was mellower, more like a light stew; mine’s more a traditional Italian fish salad.

(Serves 4 as a first course or light lunch)

1 medium-size octopus, about 3 pounds, pre-cleaned, and thawed if frozen
1 bay leaf
2 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
About a half a bottle of dry white wine
A few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, with their stems
Extra-virgin olive oil
10 small Yukon Gold potatoes, halved
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
A splash of grappa or cognac
2 leeks, cleaned, trimmed, and cut into thin rounds
2 tender inner celery stalks, sliced, plus the leaves from about 4 stalks, chopped

For the vinaigrette:

4 canned plum tomatoes, drained
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
A tiny splash of balsamic vinegar
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
A pinch of nutmeg
A few large sprigs fresh marjoram, leaves chopped, plus a few whole sprigs for garnish.

Place the octopus in a large pot. Add the bay leaf, white wine, parsley, garlic, and a drizzle of olive oil. Cover with cool water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer, partially covered, until the octopus is very tender, about 1 1/2 hours or longer (the octopus will curl up when it starts to cook and probably pop up out of the water a bit; if so, just add a little extra water to cover it). Start testing after about an hour; it is possible to overcook octopus and make it dry. (Cooking time for octopus can vary, and it is done when a knife goes easily into the thick tentacle area closest to the head, or else just taste-test a piece.) When the octopus is tender, lift it from the cooking liquid and let it cool slightly. Save the liquid.

Place the potatoes in a small saucepan full of cool water. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and boil until the potatoes are tender, about 5 minutes. Drain them and place them in a large serving bowl. Spoon a few tablespoons of octopus cooking liquid over them and let them absorb it.

Place all the vinaigrette ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the tomatoes are in tiny pieces (not completely puréed) and everything is well blended. Taste for seasoning.

Cut the octopus by slicing the tentacles into bite-size pieces and the head area into rings (I sometimes discard the head, but that’s up to you. The thick skin covering the tentacles adds good flavor and is, in my opinion, part of its charm. Some cooks, especially in restaurants here (not in Italy, though) remove it. If you don’t like its texture, peel some of it away, but I wouldn’t bother. The sautéeing crisps it up a bit anyway.)

In a large skillet, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over high heat. Add the octopus, seasoning with salt and black pepper, and sauté until it’s lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Add the splash of grappa and let it boil away. Transfer the octopus to the serving bowl with the potatoes. In the skillet they were just in, heat a few more tablespoons of olive oil and, when the oil’s hot, add the leeks and celery. Sauté about a minute, just to take the raw edge off. Place in the serving bowl. Add the celery leaves and pour on the vinaigrette. Toss gently. Taste for seasoning, and if needed to balance the flavors, add more salt, black pepper, a few drops of balsamic vinegar, or a bit more chopped marjoram. Garnish with marjoram sprigs. Serve warm.

Ricotta Gelato for Christmas Eve

I love having this ice cream with a stewed dried-fruit sauce, especially of prunes or figs, although kids may not go for that. I also like it with a fresh raspberry or blackberry sauce.

If you want to try making your own ricotta for this (not that store-bought won’t do fine), take a look at the easy ricotta recipe I put up in the fall.

(Serves 6)

1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 pounds whole-milk ricotta
1 pint heavy cream, not ultrapasteurized
A generous pinch (about 1/8 teaspoon) of grated cinnamon
1 teaspoon Madagascar vanilla extract
2 tablespoons dry Marsala (Florio is a good producer)
2 tablespoons wildflower honey

Place the sugar in a small saucepan and add cool water to cover it by about half an inch. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes.

Place the ricotta in a food processor and process until very smooth. Add the sugar syrup and all the other ingredients and pulse the machine a few times to blend well. Refrigerate until the mixture is very cold.

Pour into an ice cream freezer, and freeze according to the freezer’s directions.