Erica De Mane

Recipe below: Pasta Puttanesca with Fresh Cod, Black Olives, and Tarragon

When my first book, Pasta Improvvisata, came out, I did an interview with Erica Marcus, the food writer for Newsday. As the book’s theme was improvisation, she showed up at my apartment with a grab bag of ingredients I had no advance notice of. My job was to make an improvised pasta from it all. And she didn’t make it easy. One of the ingredients was fresh tarragon. That concerned me. Tarragon is not an herb used in Southern Italian cooking, and since my goal in the book was to create new pastas while staying inside the Southern Mediterranean orbit, I didn’t think it would work out very well.

I can’t remember exactly what kind of dish I came up with. I think it contained prosciutto, maybe cherry tomatoes, fettuccine, and, of course, the dreaded tarragon. All I can remember was being relieved that it tasted pretty good. We both enjoyed a nice Italian lunch with a bottle of Orvieto.

I happen to love tarragon. I now often try it when my Italian mind might say add fennel or basil. The flavors are not dissimilar, all being on the fennel-anise spectrum. Tarragon is to my palate more anise than fennel, but it goes really well with almost all things tomato, like this sauce.

So here’s an improvised puttanesca. I’ve added olives, capers, and anchovies, all standard. I had a great looking thick piece of cod that I needed to use immediately, and I had tarragon. So there you go. This came out better than expected. Delicious even. Don’t you love when that happens?

Note: There’s an important thing to remember about tarragon, if you’re buying it in a grocery or farmers’ market, or you want to grow it yourself: Make sure you get true French tarragon. That’s the superb culinary variety. Tarragons labeled Mexican (also known as Mexican marigold mint) or Russian are different. Both are harsher and lack that sweet  anise aroma. And they look a little different, too, having fatter and darker leaves. Those herbs, in my opinion, aren’t great to cook with, though I’d take the Mexican over the Russian in a pinch.

Pasta Puttanesca with Fresh Cod, Black Olives, and Tarragon

(Serves 4 or 5)

1½ pounds thick cod fillet, skinned and cut into approximately 1-inch chunks
Salt
Black pepper
A big pinch of fennel pollen or ground fennel seed
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, cut into small dice
1 celery stalk, with the leaves from 3 stalks, chopped
3 oil-packed anchovy fillets, chopped
¼ cup dry vermouth
½ cup chicken broth
1 28-ounce can plum tomatoes, drained and chopped
A palmful of salt-packed Sicilian capers, soaked and drained
A palmful of black olives, pitted and pulled in half (I used the wrinkled Moroccan type)
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound gemelli or penne
Aleppo pepper
About 8 or so large tarragon sprigs, the leaves lightly chopped
About 8 or so large sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, the leaves lightly chopped

Toss the cod chunks in salt, black pepper, and the fennel pollen or seed. Drizzle in a little olive oil, and let sit unrefrigerated.

Set up a pot of pasta cooking water, add salt, and bring it to a boil.

While the water is heating, set up a large skillet over medium heat.  Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Add the onion and celery, with the leaves, and sauté until softened and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the anchovies, working them in. Add the vermouth, letting it bubble out for a few seconds. Add the chicken broth and the tomatoes. Add a little salt and black pepper, and simmer at a low bubble for 10 minutes, just long enough to bring the flavors together.

Start cooking the pasta.

Over low heat, add the capers and olives to the tomato sauce. Add the cod chunks, and simmer just until they’re tender, only a minute or so.  Add a sprinkling of Aleppo and the tarragon.

When the pasta is al dente, drain it, and pour it into a large serving bowl. Add the butter, and toss. Add the cod sauce and the parsley, and toss gently, so you don’t break up the cod. Serve right away.