Bagna Cauda

When we had dinner a couple of months ago at Mozza for their Tuscan beef night, one of the standouts of the evening had nothing whatsoever to do with cow. The bagna cauda that kicked off the evening was spectacular. It has been haunting me ever since.

Bagna cauda basically translates from the Italian to hot bath in English. From Piedmont, Italy, it is a pungent hot dipping sauce composed of olive oil, butter, garlic, and anchovy. From there it is open to interpretation. I added lemon zest and lemon juice and I'm glad that I did. Raw vegetables are dunked into the bath and furiously gobbled up.

There are plenty of dishes where anchovies are used to great advantage and the recipe will tell you that your guests will never even guess that anchovies are in the dish. This is not one of those. It is all about the anchovies and garlic. And holy smoke, married together in melted butter and olive oil, they make an addictive pair.

I tried to finagle the recipe for Mozza's version out of Chef Chad Colby to no avail, but in the end it really isn't complicated. It requires a bit of mashing and melting. That's all. The lemon zest and juice that I added, gave the dish just a hint of zing and brightness.

You can use almost any kind of vegetable. Celery and cardoons are classic. I went with baby fennel, chiogga beets, celery, baby carrots, cauliflower and radishes. Vegetables never tasted so good!

The bagna cauda was the start of a crazy Cioppino dinner party that we had last weekend. The raw oysters and the Cioppino were divine, but the bagna cauda was hands down my favorite part of the meal.

Bagna Cauda

3 cloves, peeled and chopped

10 imported anchovy fillets, chopped

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon finely chopped lemon zest

4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Kosher salt to taste

Using a mortar and pestle mash the garlic and anchovies to a paste.

Place the butter and olive oil in a smallish saucepan. Add the paste and bring to a simmer over low heat. Simmer for five minutes or so. Remove the pan from the heat and add the lemon zest and lemon juice. Season with salt, if needed.

Serve with raw vegetables.

Serves 6 (This was actually plenty for 8 of us, with some left over, but really it depends on the kind of people you hang out with.)

What to Do With Those Preserved Lemons

So what do you do with the preserved lemons?

You can definitely get complicated and make beautiful braises with chicken. A pan-sauce with butter for fillet of sole is lovely. Or how about to finish lamb chops with artichoke hearts and feta?

Preserved lemons can do wonders for all kinds of meat, but today I am thinking vegetables.

Perhaps the simplest way to capitalize on your lemon stash immediately, is to use them in sautéed vegetables. Spinach is my preference.

Chop the rind of a quarter or half of a preserved lemon. Sauté some chopped garlic briefly and add the chopped lemon. Add the spinach a handful or two at a time and stir. Cook until wilted and taste. You should already feel like a much sharper cook. The preserved lemon absolutely elevates what might be just another rather mundane batch of greens.

The ladies over at Canal House are every bit as enamored with preserved lemons as I am. I was perusing their third volume when I bumped into inspiration for a great side with steaks. They suggest making a purée with lima beans, garlic, and olive oil for topping toasts. The toasts are to be garnished with plenty of chopped preserved lemon rind. That would be a perfect start to a casual party.

Since I was making steak for dinner for A. and myself, I went a slightly different direction. Using frozen lima beans is completely acceptable here. Cook the lima beans according to the package instructions, but until just shy of done. Sauté a clove or two of chopped garlic in some olive oil. Add the chopped rind of half of a preserved lemon, stirring. Add the cooked lima beans and stir for a minute or two, until the flavors meld. Serve with freshly grated or shaved parmigiano reggiano.

I have always been nuts for steamed limas drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil and cloaked with a healthy grating of parmigiano reggiano, but this preparation seriously ups the ante.

And finally, I'll turn to the Canal House folks again. They have a superb recipe for Winter Salad in the aforementioned Volume 3 - Winter & Spring. It features a few of my most beloved ingredients -- lemon, anchovy, preserved lemons, fennel, and mint. The salad has a compelling crunch and freshness -- almost reminiscent of tabouleh, thanks to the parsley and mint -- that keeps you foraging into the bowl even though you are way past full.

The preserved lemons in the vinaigrette add body and saltiness. I've started making a habit of adding preserved lemon to most of my lemon vinaigrettes. The dressings develop more complexity and dare I say, mystery.

To me the mint, parsley, scallions, preserved lemon, and anchovy are vital in this recipe. Please don't omit those. And if there happen to be leftovers, don't toss them out! The salad tastes quite great the next day too.

Canal House Winter Salad

Rind from 1/4 preserved lemon, finely chopped

2-3 anchovy fillets, chopped

Salt and pepper

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup great extra-virgin olive oil

4-5 ribs celery with leaves, sliced

1 fennel bulb, quartered and sliced

1 bunch radishes, sliced

1/2 head radicchio, sliced

1 Belgian endive, thickly sliced

3-4 scallions, sliced

1 handful fresh mint leaves, chopped

1 handful fresh parsley leaves, chopped

In a small bowl mix together the preserved lemon, anchovies, a pinch of salt and a generous amount of freshly ground pepper, and the lemon juice. Slowly stir in the olive oil.

In a large bowl mix together the celery, fennel, radishes, radicchio, endive, scallions, mint, and parsley. Stir in the dressing. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate for an hour to allow the flavors to meld. Toss and taste for seasoning.

Serves 4

Wilted Escarole with Anchovy & Garlic

Writing my last post made me realize that I hadn't yet shared one of my all time favorite Batali recipes with you -- Wilted Greens with Garlic and Anchovies.

I'm giving credit to Mario Batali because it is with great thanks to him and his book, Molto Italiano, that I make this escarole preparation so often. But in the end, I have a feeling that much of Italy makes this dish in their sleep.

There's not much to this recipe. Rather, it is a smart way to prepare greens that should be kept in the back of your head as a tool. Instead of a long, slow cook, this is a fast, hot preparation that leaves the greens with more crunch or chew.

Any hardy greens, like dandelion and turnip, work well, but my preference is for escarole. That pale yellow-green chicory is a favorite of mine -- cooked or in salad. Escarole has a nice note of bitterness, but is milder than most of its cousins, like endive.

I am pretty much crazy for anchovies. They mysteriously make everything taste better, adding body and saltiness. Nine out of ten times you won't even notice any fishy taste, just a bigger flavor. Worcestershire sauce is a perfect example of this.

In this recipe, the anchovies and garlic are sautéed in hot olive oil until the anchovies melt and the garlic turns a light golden brown. The recipe asks for thinly sliced garlic and whole anchovy fillets. On this particular evening, my mind was elsewhere and I chopped the garlic, and strangely I was out of anchovies and only had anchovy paste in the pantry to fall back on.

These are perfectly acceptable substitutions in a pinch, however it is more fun to bump into the sliced garlic when you are eating, and there is no question that using anchovy fillets provides an overall better flavor.

When I'm alone, I eat this dish for dinner all by itself. But that's just me... These greens taste so great with steak, but are perfectly at home served with roasted fish or chicken. To my mind, this is a very versatile dish and rather worthy of my frequent cravings.

Wilted Greens with Garlic and Anchovies

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 anchovy fillets, rinsed

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 head escarole or 1 head or bunch other sturdy leafy green, such as dandelion or turnip greens, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide ribbons, washed, and spun dry

Salt and pepper

1/2 lemon

Heat a 12-inch sauté pan over medium high heat until hot. Add the olive oil, anchovies, and garlic and cook just until the garlic is light golden brown, about 30 seconds. Add the greens and cook, stirring constantly, until wilted, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, squeeze the lemon juice over, and serve.

Serves 4

Canal House Roasted Tomatoes Studded with Garlic

I finally purchased Volume 1 of Canal House Cooking. I had been meaning to since at least last fall.

Oh, how I wish I hadn't wasted so much time.

I can't remember the last time I was this delighted with a book of recipes. Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton's cooking journal beautifully captures their passion and excitement for food.

Their enthusiasm is infectious.

Canal House Cooking is the epitome of what I dream of producing and living -- yes, I am filled with envy (and admiration)! This little journal is gorgeously produced. The photography is dreamy, the writing inspiring, the spirit fun, and the recipes are realistic.

These women speak the romance of food and drink -- Let's make a Pimm's Cup and pickle some watermelon rind! Let's invite a crowd and make paella over an open fire!

I'm in love with them and the life they have created.

Each issue is seasonal and embodies the wonder of its particular time of year.

Hooray for tomatoes! It's summertime!

Even though I was overly optimistic about the ripeness and heft of the tomatoes from our garden, the Canal House roasted tomatoes, studded with garlic served over spaghetti turned out marvelously.

This recipe is actually an adaptation of a Paul Bertolli (the genius behind Fra' Mani salumi, also of Chez Panisse and Oliveto fame) recipe. I love that I had every single ingredient on hand. Of course riper, more luscious tomatoes than those I plucked from the garden, would have made this already stellar dish, sublime.

The idea is that everyone gets their own garlicky, juicy tomato to squash over a nest of pasta -- essentially creating your own personal tomato sauce.

Fun eating, this is!

I'm particularly fond of the use of anchovies, pancetta, and breadcrumbs in this recipe. I always forget it, but I love toasty breadcrumbs with pasta. There is something about the crisp crunch against the slippery noodles that is immensely satisfying.

And when the breadcrumbs are cooked until golden in olive oil, the grease from cooked pancetta, and anchovies that have been melted down? Heaven.

Really.

It may seem insane to turn on the oven in the middle of summer, but it is only for an hour or so. And it is worth it. The tomatoes studded with garlic roast in the oven under a scattering of breadcrumbs and pancetta and a sprinkling of chopped fresh herbs.

The juices accumulate in the bottom of the pan with the extra crumbs during the roasting, just waiting to be tossed with the spaghetti. Just be sure to use juicy tomatoes for ultimate sauciness!

Canal House Roasted Tomatoes Studded with Garlic

1/2 cup diced pancetta

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the pasta

2 anchovy fillets

1 cup coarse fresh bread crumbs

4 tomatoes, tops sliced off, seeds scooped out (use your fingers)

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

Small handful fresh thyme, parsley, or basil leaves, chopped (I used a combination of all 3)

Salt and pepper

1/2 pound spaghetti

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Fry the pancetta in a skillet over medium heat until browned and crisp around the edges. Use a slotted spatula to lift the pancetta out of the skillet to a plate. Leave the rendered fat in the skillet. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and anchovies to the same skillet. Use a wooden spoon to mash the anchovies until they dissolve. Add the bread crumbs and cook, stirring often,until they are golden.

Put the tomatoes, cut side up, in a baking dish and slip some garlic into each tomato. Mound some bread crumbs into each tomato and scatter pancetta and herbs on top. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle the remaining 4 tablespoons of oil over all. Roast the tomatoes in the oven until they have browned a bit and the interior is supple but the tomatoes have not collapsed, 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

Cook the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling salted water. Drain. Return the pasta to the pot and stir in some olive oil and some of the oily tomato juices from the bottom of the tomato roasting dish.

Serve the spaghetti with the roasted tomatoes and their juices spooned on top.