Bottega - Michael Chiarello [56]
I’ve written the preceding recipe assuming that you don’t have an octo-machine at your house, but if you come up with a creative way to tenderize you can reduce the cooking time in the recipe. Facebook me and show me your tenderizing technique.
The Fruit of the Vine
Our wine director and assistant G.M., Michael Iglesias, follows two unique ideas with our wine list. The first is pricing. At Bottega, we mark up our wines just twice instead of the normal three to four times. This allows our customers to enjoy wines that they normally could not buy at retail, at an affordable price.
The second idea behind our wine list is to weave together a collection of our favorite Napa Valley and Italian wines, offering vintages across the spectrum that best complement our food and entertaining style. Iglesias offers regular wine classes to every Bottega staff member; he teaches how to taste but also gives the stories behind the wines and the vintners. These stories add such great flavor to the experience.
At Chiarello Family Vineyards, I organically farm 20 acres of Cabernet, Zinfandel, and Petite Syrah. Two of these vineyards are 100 years old and have never been irrigated; these pre-Prohibition vines speak to the history of the Napa Valley with each glass. I’ve named the vineyards after my wife, daughters, and my son. The idea is simple: when I work in the Eileen vineyard, for example, I spend that time thinking of my wife and what I can do to be a better husband and father.
Adriatic Brodetto
SERVES 8 TO 10
This is, without a doubt, one of the best things at Bottega. My wife has had this more than a hundred times. Rich, slow-cooked tomatoes make the sauce so extraordinary, you’ll use the technique again and again. This confit method works with peeled fresh tomatoes just as easily as with San Marzano tomatoes from a can. I recommend cooking the confit the day before you make the brodetto.
This stew deserves a beautiful plating, and it gets one: A vibrant gold saffron rouille is ladled right on top of each individual serving, followed by a handful of crunchy, warm croutons. This is everything you want in a seafood stew, times ten.
You don’t make this for two people; you make it for ten or twenty, and everything else on the table should be simple: a green salad, really good bread, a magnum of a wine from Southern Italy—stop! Don’t even think about dessert.
Wine Pairing: Southern Italian red
TOMATO CONFIT
Two 28-ounce cans whole San Marzano tomatoes (juice reserved), or 2 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, or as needed
1 teaspoon sea salt, preferably gray salt, or kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
SAFFRON ROUILLE
½ cup dry white wine
Large pinch of saffron threads
2 egg yolks at room temperature
1 teaspoon fork-mashed garlic (about 1 large clove)
1½ teaspoons Calabrian chile paste (see Resources), or ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon pimentón de la Vera (smoked Spanish paprika; see Resources)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 cups extra-virgin olive oil at room temperature
Sea salt, preferably gray salt
Freshly ground black pepper
BRODETTO SAUCE
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 yellow onions, cut soup-style (peeled and thinly sliced from stem to bottom)
1 tablespoon sliced garlic (about 2 cloves)
¼ cup red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons capers, preferably salt-packed capers rinsed and soaked for 30 minutes
3 anchovy fillets, preferably salt-packed anchovies rinsed and soaked for 30 minutes
½ cup dry white wine
2 cups Fish Fumet
Tomato Confit (at right)
CROUTONS
1 loaf ciabatta bread
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
½ cup sliced garlic
3 dozen mussels, scrubbed and debearded
About 2 pounds monkfish
About 2 pounds rock cod
½ cup chopped fresh