Rooftop Gourmet

Everyone loves comfort food on a cold, wintery day and my go-to meal to whip up is usually chicken Parmesan. Aromas from a homemade tomato sauce that has been simmering on the stove top all day long fills the air. The tender chicken encrusted in crispy breadcrumbs covered with gooey, melted mozzarella cheese, and sprinkled with tangy Parmesan-Reggiano. Last night I decided to make individual baked chicken Parmesan in over-sized ramekins.

This is a great meal to assemble ahead of time in personal servings and freeze them so that they’re ready to go in short notice. If you don’t have over-sized ramekins, this would still work in a baking dish, loaf pan, or pie dish. I started off by getting my tomato sauce going with a minced yellow onion, toasted garlic, and 2 cans of milled San Marzano tomatoes, which simmered on the stove top all day long.

I brought out one of my favorite tools… the meat pounder/tenderizer and pounded the chicken breasts flat before I cut out perfect circles with a ring mold (a cookie cutter would work fine). The chicken then went through the breading station… first the flour, then egg wash, then the breadcrumbs. I wanted a little bit of extra crunch on the outside so I mixed regular breadcrumbs with panko breadcrumbs. Panko is a type of breadcrumb that is made in Japan, and it totally gives the coating an extra crunch and much more texture.

After the chicken was quickly pan fried to golden brown it was time to start assembling. I simply layered the ramekin with sauce, chicken, Parmesan cheese, slices of fresh buffalo mozzarella and repeated 3 times. I baked the chicken Parm ramekins in the oven for about 20 minutes until the cheese was melted and the Parmesan on top was nice and crispy.

Letting these things cool before digging in was the hardest part because they looked amazing but we had to show some patience so that the sauce didn’t run everywhere. After about 10 minutes resting, I flipped it upside down onto a plate and viola… a baked chicken parm tower! I paired this meal with the 2008 Seghesio Zinfandel who’s 2007 predecessor was in the Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of the Year list.

This wine is full bodied and packed with gobs of jammy fruit. Zinfandel is typically high in alcohol because of its intense fruit. The natural sugars in these baby grapes shoot the alcohol level up and some can be a little over powering. The Seghesio does a great job of balancing the power with loads of plum and raspberry fruit and a hint of licorice spice.

California Zin is usually a great pairing for classic comfort food dishes such as chicken parm, beef stew, or meatloaf because of its versatility and all around crowd pleasing presence. If you’re a fan of chicken parm like I am, give this version a try and make a couple of extras to put away in the freezer for another cold, rainy day.

Pesto is a sauce that originated in the northern coastal region of Liguria, Italy and the name “pesto” means to pound or crush, referring to the mortar and pestle method in which the sauce is made. I love pesto because it’s so easy to make in a food processor and you can freeze large batches of it to use at a later date. The classic pesto is comprised of only five simple  ingredients… basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, and extra virgin olive oil. I have made pesto countless times over the years and experimented with all sorts of variations but the other night I decided to deconstruct this famous sauce and use different techniques to cook the ingredients. I picked up some quinoa from whole foods and decided to use it as my base for the deconstructed pesto.

Quinoa is a grain-like crop grown in South America, that is extremely high in protein and when cooked, produces a light, fluffy textured alternative to rice or cous cous. I started off by roasting handfuls of garlic cloves to bring out their natural sweetness, and toasting the pine nuts to release the aromatic, nutty oils. I wanted to use the star of pesto (the basil) in two different ways, so I added a fresh chiffonade of basil to the cooked quinoa and I quickly fried some whole basil leaves for a garnish.

Along with the basil, the quinoa got a healthy dose of Parmesan cheese and the toasted pine nuts. The result was a fluffy, yet rich mouthful of pesto ingredients all coming together as one in every bite. I topped the mound of quinoa with a perfectly grilled piece of salmon, and drizzled roasted garlic oil all over the steaming fish. A few of the mushy, sweet roasted garlic cloves were placed on top with a couple of crispy fried basil leaves and the dish was complete.

 I chose to pair the deconstructed pesto dish with a wine from the opposite side of  northern Italy, in the Fruili-Venezia region. The 2007 Bastianich Friulano is a special wine because it is named after and made by famous cookbook author and chef Lidia Bastianich.

This wine is made from the Tocai grape which is a member of the Sauvignon family and produces a dry white wine with pronounced minerality and fruitiness. I detected dried apricots, and lemon zest aromas on the nose, while the wine fills your mouth with a medium bodied, oily mouth-feel. This is an extremely complex wine and I feel like its subtle white peach flavors, and strong acidity paired great with this dish.

I got the chance to meet Lidia last night at her new cookbook signing and wine dinner at Alta Strada in Wellesley. She is a very pleasant, and passionate woman who loves to break down Italian food and wine based on 20 regions of the country, all of which have very different gastronomical cultures. Her new cookbook is called Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy, and her award winning cooking show Lidia’s Italy can be seen at all different times on PBS.

If you’re a lover of pesto, try experimenting with deconstructing the ingredients or substituting certain ingredients with new flavors. Basil can easily be replaced with arugula, cilantro, or spinach while pine nuts can be replaced with walnuts, macadamia nuts, or almonds.

When it comes to choosing a steak, I typically go for a ribeye, strip, or hangar steak because of its marbling. Marbling is the fat content that runs throughout the meat and adds flavor when it is cooked (fat = flavor). If you choose a flavorful, well marbled cut of meat you have to sacrifice tenderness, which is what you get out of a Filet Mignon or tenderloin. I used to always order Filet when I went to steakhouses but have recently switched to the darkside because once you have a perfectly cooked ribeye and taste the maximum flavor potential of the beef, there’s no turning back. Don’t get me wrong, I still eat Filet but I do like to try to kick up the flavor a little bit whether it’s with a compound butter, dry rub, glaze or something that I tried last night. I have to admit, I kind of stole this idea from The Capital Grille because their signature steak is rubbed with Kona Coffee.

Kona coffee is a specific bean grown on the big island of Hawaii and is incredibly rich and aromatic. I added pink peppercorns and kosher salt to the ground coffee beans and encrusted both sides of the filet before throwing it on the grill. The aromas of the rich, decadent coffee and the peppercorns filled the air creating a steakhouse-coffee shop fusion atmosphere. I envisioned a rich cup of steaming coffee in a mug and decided to add that dollop of frothy milk, which in this case was a spoonful of creamy, tangy goat cheese. To my surprise, the coffee didn’t completely overpower the beef and the rich cheese balanced out the heat from the peppercorns nicely. I served the steak with some roasted Parmesan red bliss potatoes.

The wine I chose to pair this steak with is the 2006 Graeagle Red Wing blend from Walla Walla, Washington State. The wine is composed of 38%Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Cabernet Franc, 18% Merlot, 6% Syrah, and 3% Petit Verdot; somewhat similar to a Bordeaux-style blend. Washington State soil and climate is great for growing Cabernet Franc, which is why I believe the winemaker chose to add a healthy chunk of it into this wine (you normally don’t see more than 10%). Cabernet Franc is typically medium bodied and extremely aromatic and it shows through in this wine.. This isn’t your giant California Cab that can sometimes overpower a delicate filet.

This wine is balanced, lush, and elegant and I believe paired perfectly with this meal. The complex, dark fruit was balanced with soft tannins and the wine actually had a toasted espresso bean aroma…what a coincidence. I will have to get to The Capital Grille and try their version (I think they use a NY Strip) sometime soon. When it comes to ordering steak…what do you look for? Maximum flavor or extreme tenderness?

Last Sunday I went out for brunch for the first time in months over at Masa in the South End. It totally reminded me how much I love brunch and breakfast food in general. Of the eight of us at the table, I noticed that six of us ordered the Eggs Benedict; the king of the brunch menu. As the plates came out, I stared at all of the creamy Hollandaise sauce, slowly flowing over the perfectly poached eggs and I said to myself… I want to use Hollandaise in a non-breakfast food situation. A sauce that tastes this good shouldn’t be reserved for only eggs and english muffins. Last night I brought out the whisk and had my chance to make it happen.

I picked up some always fresh pieces of Cod from Yankee Lobster that were super thick and decided to pan roast them and serve them on top of sauteed asparagus. I must say, the only other time I have ever seen Hollandaise sauce outside of the breakfast food realm was in a small, lonely gravy boat that accompanied my side of asparagus at a steak house. I also had a bag of Fregola that had been sitting in my pantry for a while, so I figured I would make a simple risotto-like side dish. Fregola is a Sardinian pasta made from semolina and water, rolled into pellets, and slightly toasted, which adds a unique nutty flavor. If you’re looking for a good arm workout this winter, try making a batch of Hollandaise sauce every night. This technique brought back painful memories of culinary school, and after I was done my right forearm looked like Popeyes’.

Hollandaise sauce looks simple on paper… egg yolks, clarified butter, lemon juice, and salt, but it requires tons of constant whisking over something called a Bain Marie. A Bain Marie is just a fancy name for a double boiler or water bath. I simply placed the bowl over my pot of simmering Fregola to warm the contents of the bowl gently. The goal is to eventually suspend the lemon juice and butter into the fat of the egg yolk and create an emulsion which happens at a certain temperature… not too cold, and not too hot that you have scrambled eggs. I wanted to put my own twist on this classic French sauce so I added a handful of freshly chopped Tarragon. The result was amazing! The delicate Cod was moist and flaky, smothered with the rich, buttery sauce that had a hint of anise flavors from the Tarragon.

The sauce overflowed onto the asparagus and tasted equally as good with the vegetable. The Fregola was al dente and added some texture and nutty aromas. Pairing this dish with a wine was the most difficult task of the night because of the vegetable I chose. Wine Experts will tell you that asparagus (and artichokes) are wines worst enemy because they contain a sulfurous amino acid that when combined with the natural grassy flavor of the vegetable and wine… the result is just plain weird. I thought long and hard and decided to pair this dish with an Arneis, which is translated into “a little crazy”, because wine with asparagus is a little bit crazy. Arneis is sometimes otherwise known as Nebbiolo Blanco and is very difficult to grow in the Piedmont region of Italy because when on the vine, the small grapes are very sweet and birds love to snack on them.

I think that the rich Hollandaise sauce helped in toning down the clashing of the wine and vegetable because I didn’t notice any problems… in fact, I thought that this wine was perfect with this dish. The Arneis was hay yellow in color and bone dry with a decent amount of acidity and hits of wild herb aromas that were surprisingly pleasant. It didn’t overpower the fish and certainly had enough acidity to cut through the creamy sauce. The dish was an all around homerun in my book, and if I keep up this Sunday morning brunch streak, you might start to see maple syrup for dinner as well.

Sticking with a Halloween theme, my friend Leigh from Nella Pasta made a batch of jet black, squid ink linguini and was generous enough to drop me off a sample. The first time I encountered squid ink pasta was two years ago in the small, blue collar,  seaport town of Recco, Italy. My whole family was staying in Tuscany and traveling throughout the country and found it necessary to make a pit stop in the small town that bears our surname. I remember sitting down for lunch and ordering the special… Risotto al Nero di Seppi, with no idea what was going to show up. To my surprise, a midnight black risotto arrived tossed with cuttlefish (very similar to squid) and I loved it! The squid ink flavor was so subtle but completely necessary; rich, briny, and buttery.

This was the first time that I have had squid ink since that trip and I was extremely excited when Leigh showed up at my Halloween party bearing this slightly unusual gift, but totally perplexed as to how I was going to create a dish with it. I am a huge fan of heat, so I figured that I would keep the sauce simple and make a quick Arriabiata sauce. Arriabiata is a classic Italian red sauce that you’ll find on every single ristorante or trattoria menu in Tuscany. It is composed of four main ingredients;  tomatoes, toasted garlic, chile flakes, and olive oil.

Since the sauce was very simple, I decided to do something a little wild to add some flair to the dish. I asked my fish monger for the largest squid bodies that he could find and I stuffed them with a mixture of hot Italian sausage, breadcrumbs, parsley, and lemon zest. This may seem somewhat strange but it was relatively easy to do.

I grilled the stuffed calamari even though it was borderline freezing on my deck and plated it atop the squid ink linguine arriabiata. The grill added some charred smokiness to the squid that was amazing with the spicy sauce and the freshness of the lemon zest inside the filling.

There are very few wines that can hold up to spicy meals, but Alsatian Riesling did the trick. The 2008 Trimbach Riesling hits you with an initial burst of fruit and sweetness but then finishes with loads of limestone and minerality, clearly indicative of the Alsace region. Not quite as much residual sugar as some German Riesling, but just enough to balance out the heat from the sauce and the savory garlic.

If you’re a fan of pasta, whether it’s dried, fresh, or stuffed… stay tuned because Nella Pasta will be selling all sorts of handcrafted goodies at Upper Falls Liquors starting very soon. Check out Leigh & Rachels’ website: www.nellapasta.com for more information on times and details as to what will be available.