Saveur Cooks Authentic American - Editors Of Cook's Illustrated Magazine [22]
Bright Green
Rapini is one of the most assertively flavored vegetables we’ve had the pleasure of tasting. Known in English as broccoli rabe, this member of the cabbage family (also referred to in Italian as broccoletti di rape, or “little turnip sprouts”) only resembles broccoli in color and form, with its jagged leaves and slim stalks topped with green buds that blossom into yellow flowers. (Once rapini flowers, it becomes even more bitter.)Though the vegetable’s origins are in Central Asia, where it’s commonly stir-fried, it has also been embraced in the Italian kitchen, where cooks put its bright flavor to good use in side dishes, panini, and pastas. You’ll often find rapini paired with garlic, which balances and takes the edge off the vegetable’s pungent flavor. Blanching and shocking rapini in cold water before sautéing it is another way to temper its bitter edge.
Brown Butter Pasta
Chef Gabrielle Hamilton of the New York City restaurant Prune shared this recipe for pasta, which she tosses in brown butter and pine nuts, and then tops with sunny-side-up eggs, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and nutmeg.
Kosher salt, to taste
8 oz. fresh pasta, such as fettuccine or tagliatelle (see recipe for Homemade Tagliatelle)
1 cup unsalted butter
¾ cup pine nuts
4 eggs Freshly ground black pepper, to taste Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and nutmeg, to taste
Serves 4
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add pasta; cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente, about 4 minutes. Set a strainer over a bowl; drain the pasta, reserving ½ cup pasta cooking water, and set aside.
2. Melt butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add pine nuts and cook, stirring often, until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer pine nuts to a bowl. Working in two batches, crack eggs into butter and cook, spooning butter over yolks, until whites are set but yolks are still runny, about 3 minutes. Transfer eggs to a plate and keep warm. Add pasta and half the pine nuts to skillet and toss until hot. Stir in some of the reserved pasta water to create a sauce, and season with salt and pepper.
3. To serve, divide pasta between 4 serving plates and top each serving with a fried egg. Sprinkle pasta with remaining pine nuts, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and nutmeg.
Simple Beauty
Cook butter long enough to see it sputter and foam, and something wonderful occurs. The color deepens to a golden brown, and the scent evolves from unctuous to toasty. This is brown butter, what the French call beurre noisette (literally, hazelnut butter), named both for its nutty color and flavor. It’s also one of the simplest and most rewarding sauces a home cook can make.
When butter melts in a pan over heat, its butterfat separates from its milk solids and the water evaporates out, leaving behind a more concentrated, buttery liquid. The solids sink to the bottom of the pan and begin to caramelize, taking on an increasingly darker hue and richer flavor. A pale brown color will correspond to a faint nutty taste, while a deeper shade means a more profound flavor. (Don’t let your brown butter get too dark, or the milk solids will scorch and the sauce will taste acrid and burnt.) It’s important to remove brown butter from the pan as soon as caramelization is achieved; pour it into a small bowl so that the sauce doesn’t continue cooking in the pan. Otherwise, you can stop the cooking process with the addition of something acidic; a squirt of lemon juice does the trick (while also balancing out the richness of the sauce). The addition of chopped parsley and lemon juice turns brown butter into the classic French sauce known as beurre meuniere, a traditional pairing for fish. Brown butter works well on its own, as a sauce for pasta or a garnish for fish or vegetables; it takes well to accompaniments like grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano, pine nuts, and spices like nutmeg