My All Time Favorite Meal

Citrus Salad with Ligurian Walnut Pesto

Ingredients:

1/2 cup walnuts, very finely chopped or smashed, some nearly ground
1/3 cup good extra-virgin olive oil
3 tbsp finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1/4 cup finely grated Parmigiano
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 blood oranges, peeled
2 Cara Cara oranges or navel oranges, peeled
2 tangerines, peeled and broken into segments
1 grapefruit, peeled
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Preparation:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the walnuts, olive oil, parsley, cheese and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Stir to combine. If you have a food processor, you can blend whole walnuts and parsley leaves together for 10 seconds, and then combine with the oil and cheese.

2. Using a very sharp knife, slice the navel and Cara Cara oranges crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices. Remove any large seeds that show through.

3. On a large platter, arrange the orange slices haphazardly, overlapping them as needed. Scatter the mandarin segments on top. Spoon the walnut topping over the oranges and mandarins, tucking some underneath. Drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice, and another pinch of salt and pepper.

Alison Roman’s Caramelized Shallot and Anchovy Pasta (Slightly Tweaked)

I have never disliked anchovies, but I’ve never been a huge fan of them either. This recipe changed all of that. I now LOVE anchovies and this pasta is so dangerously good, the first time I made it I ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The sweetness from the caramelized shallot, fattiness from the anchovies, acid from the tomatoes, and chewiness of the pasta make this dish tantalizing to the senses. If you’re not (yet) an anchovy fan, you can skip that step. The finished product will still taste amazing.

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients

1/2 cup good extra virgin olive oil
6 large shallots, sliced very thinly
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Kosher salt and fresh black pepper
2 tsp red-pepper flakes
1 4.4 oz can of anchovies, drained but not rinsed
1.6 oz can tomato paste or 1/4 of a tomato paste tube
1/2 cup Pecorino Romano
1 pound of bucatini (or pasta of choice)
Parsley to top (optional)
Flaky salt (optional)

Instructions

Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add shallots and thinly sliced garlic, season with salt and pepper. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the shallots have become totally softened and caramelized with golden-brown fried edges, a solid 20- 25 minutes. This step takes time but really adds so much depth of flavor to the dish, so don’t skimp out on the time it takes to get a full caramelization!
Add red-pepper flakes and anchovies drained and straight from the can. No need to chop them as they simply dissolve when they’re cooked. Stir to combine the anchovies with the shallots, about 4 minutes.
Add tomato paste and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly to prevent any scorching, until the tomato paste has started to cook in the oil a bit, caramelizing at the edges, and turning from bright red to a deeper rusty, brick color, about 5 minutes.
Fill another large pot with heavily salted water and bring to a boil. When the water starts to boil add your noodles of choice (I like bucatini, specifically Rummo or Benedetto Cavaliere) and DON’T cook according to the package, we want these noodles al dente, so boil them for roughly 8 minutes. Test them to check chewiness. You want a good bit of chew because they’ll cook a bit more in the dutch oven pot.
Use tongs to remove pasta from boiling pot into dutch oven. If you don’t have tongs and are working with a colander, take a measuring cup and save 2 cups of pasta water prior to draining. This is important - Try not to forget!
Add the cooked pasta to the dutch oven with the sauce. Slowly begin to pour in the pasta water and toss the pasta to combine with the sauce. Continue adding a little bit of the water at a time to help loosen up the paste and coat all of the noodles. Remember: as the noodles and sauce cool they will begin to get sticky, so add a tiny bit more of the pasta water than you might think you need.
As a last step, I like add a 1/4 cup of parmesan into the pot and stir till dissolved. This is optional however.
Plate your pasta and top with parmesan, flaky salt and fresh parsley, if using.

Makes about 4-6 servings

Gabrio Bini Serraghia Fanino Rosso

Warning: This wine will cost you a pretty penny, but it is well worth it. With that said, I have a second, more affordable wine pairing for this decadent meal.

After spending a few holidays on the island of Pantelleria, Gabrio Bini decided to leave his career as an architect in Milan and buy property on the island to live with his wife Geneviève and son Giotto. The land came with a hectare of grapevines, but ironically, his first production was in the form of capers, and these salty treats were sold to some of the best restaurants around the world. A little over a decade later, after a lot of research and a trip to Spain to hunt down the perfect amphorae, Gabrio began his first grape harvest. His Serraghia vineyard is situated on terraced volcanic hillsides planted at a high altitude, allowing for cool sea breezes to moderate the temperature.

His half-red, half-white wine, Serraghhia Fanino, is roughly an equal balance of Catarratto and Pignatello grapes, which spend seven months on the skins in amphorae. A gorgeous hibiscus color, the wine is almost too pretty to drink. And it’s so beautifully perfumed - one sniff and you’re transported into a flower shop, submerged in a bouquet of roses. On the palate, notes of macerated strawberries, pomegranate, dried apricot, and fresh peaches beautifully intertwine with a mouth-watering acidity and well-integrated, ash-like tannins, lending this wine striking layers of dimension. You can almost feel the energy of the island with every sip. The Fanino really complements the bright citrus notes of the salad and its high acidity cuts through the fattiness of the pasta, cleansing your palate for every next bite.

$90/bottle. Shop below:

Wine-Searcher

Graci Etna Bianco

Etna may be one of the hottest (literally) wine regions right now. What makes the wine growing region so unique is that Mt. Etna is still an active volcano; in fact, the last eruption was on February 16th of last year.

The nutrient rich volcanic soil and high altitude vineyards make grape growing a dream here. Alberto Graci refers to Etna as “an electrical place, an emotional place, a place to make elegant, classical wines”. A benchmark producer of Etna wines, Graci does an incredible job of capturing this unique terroir in a bottle. He is very proud of his land so he does his best to respect local traditions by eliminating intervention of any kind in both the vineyard and in the cellar. He avoids using herbicides in order to preserve the unique balance and vital energy of the soil and he only uses large, well-used wood barrels for aging which don’t impart any flavor into the wine, preserving its natural taste.

This Etna Bianco is a fuller-bodied white, laden with layers of bright citrus, minerality and crunchy acidity. The wine is made up of 100% Carricante, an ancient white grape variety from eastern Sicily, thought to have been growing on the volcanic slopes of Mt Etna for at least a thousand years.

~$27/bottle. Shop below:

Vivino