Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes From the New York Times - Mark Bittman [115]
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Put half the butter or oil in a skillet, turn the heat to medium-high, and, a minute later, add the shallot. Sprinkle lightly with salt and cook, stirring, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Chop the chestnuts into ½- to ¼-inch chunks, then measure about 1 cup. Add them to the skillet along with a little more salt.
3. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chestnuts deepen in color, about 5 minutes. Remove the mushrooms from their soaking liquid; reserve and strain the liquid. Chop the mushrooms and add them to the skillet; cook, stirring, for a minute or two, then add the strained mushroom-soaking liquid. Turn the heat to low and season to taste with salt and lots of black pepper.
4. Cook the pasta until tender but not mushy. If the sauce is too thick, add a little of the pasta-cooking water to it when the pasta is nearly done. Stir in the remaining butter or oil, then drain the pasta and dress with the sauce. Serve immediately.
VARIATIONS
• Add a few fresh thyme sprigs along with the shallot. Remove before serving and sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves as a garnish.
• Add diced (¼ inch or less) zucchini; peeled, seeded, and diced tomato; or red bell pepper—no more than a cup total—along with the chestnuts.
PEELING CHESTNUTS
THERE ARE MANY WAYS to peel chestnuts, which like most nuts have a hard outer shell and a soft inner skin. Removing them both is a three-step process. First, use a paring knife—a curved one with a sharp point makes this quick and easy—to cut a ring around the equator of each nut or make an X on the flat side. Plunge the nuts into boiling water to cover for about three minutes, then turn off the heat, leaving the chestnuts in the water. Remove two or three at a time and, using the knife and your fingers, peel off both shell and skin; use a towel to protect your hands from the heat if necessary. If you’re doing a large batch—say, twenty or more—you’ll notice that as the water cools the skins become more difficult to remove. Bring the pot back to a boil and they’ll begin to slip off again. And, although the exact count of chestnuts for this dish is not critical, I begin with fifteen, because there are usually a couple of rotten ones, or some whose inner skin refuses to come off. These must be discarded.
PASTA WITH MEATY BONES
MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS
TIME: AT LEAST 1 HOUR
ONE OF MY favorite elaborations on a simple tomato sauce is the recipe for pasta with meaty bones. It requires considerably more time but almost no extra effort, and it boasts the wonderful depth of flavor, silken texture, and satisfying chewiness of slow-cooked meat. Southern Italian in origin, it begins with bony meat (or meaty bones) and requires lengthy simmering. Otherwise, it’s little different from basic tomato sauce.
Whatever you use, the idea remains constant: meat is a supporting player, not the star, so an eight- to twelve-ounce piece of veal shank, for example, provides enough meat, marrow, and gelatin to create a luxuriously rich sauce. Just cook until the meat falls off the bone, then chop it and return it to the sauce along with any marrow.
This sauce is rich enough without grated cheese; a better garnish is a large handful of coarsely chopped parsley or basil. Either freshens the sauce while adding color and flavor.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 small dried hot red chiles (optional)
1 meaty veal shank (½ to 1 pound)
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
One 28-ounce can whole plum tomatoes with juice
1 pound ziti, penne, or other cut pasta
½ cup or more roughly chopped fresh parsley or basil
1. Put the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. After a minute, add the chiles if you like and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the veal shank and raise the heat to medium-high; cook, turning as necessary, until the meat is nicely browned, 10 minutes or more. When the meat is just