-- D R A F T --
Ingrdients:
- one tin of chopped or minced clams per serving (this recipe is geared
towards two servings) [Yes, fresh minced clams would be WONDERFUL,
but this is the midwest, c'est la vie...]
- a half pint of whipping cream for every two servings
- extra virgin olive oil
- several to a whole lot of cloves of fresh garlic - minced
- approx. 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
- approx. 1 tsp. dried oregano
- approx. 1 tsp. dried basil
[increase pepper and herb amounts appropriately for more servings]
- freshly grated parmesan cheese (or not)
- angel hair or vermicelli pasta (fettuccine is an alternative)
- garlic bread (de rigueur)
Procedure:
1. Wipe off the tops of the clam tins and open them without taking the top all
the way off. Press down on the lid and drain as much of the clam juice from
the tin as possible into a separate container (DON'T throw the juice out - we're
going to use it later!) Scrape out all the clam bits into a second bowl.
Do this for each tin of clams.
2. Prepare a mixture of the pepper, oregano, and basil and set aside in a small
bowl. I generally just pour what looks like a teaspoon of oregano into the
palm of my hand and then use the heel of my other hand to sort of mortar and
pestle the herb into a finer texture. I do the same with the basil. Makes your
hands smell great, too!
3. Prepare the garlic by mincing several cloves (I tend to use big cloves and
LOTS of them - possibly 3 to 4 tablespoons of minced garlic when all's said
and done) and set aside in a small separate bowl.
4. Start heating your favorite saute pan on medium heat to the point where the
heating surface of the pan will feel like it will burn your knuckles when you
lightly tap them on the pan. At this point, add about 2 tablespoons of extra
virgin olive oil and swirl around, coating the pan surface.
Alternate: use one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of olive oil - that's
what I do. If you do use this method, add the butter first, as the pan is heating,
then when it's all melted, add the olive oil and stir them well together. Making
more than 2 servings? Add more butter/olive oil proportionally.
Oh, and make sure your pan is large enough to hold all the clams and the juice
and the cream - although you will be reducing the liquid as you go.
5. Add the pepper, oregano, basil mixture and stir until well mixed with the olive
oil.
6. Add the well-drained clams, stirring well so clams and herb-pepper mixture and
olive oil get all mixed together. After about a minute or so, add the garlic.
(Note: I wait to add the garlic so it doesn't get too over cooked.)
Keep stirring well and pay attention to what's happening, because soon, the
little bits of clam will start to "pop" and jump around a bit. At this point,
add the reserved clam juice and continue to stir occasionally letting the whole
thing reduce by half or more.
7. Somehwere around here, you should probably start your water for the pasta - and
don't forget to add about a teaspoon of salt just before boiling and stir it well
so the salt doesn't pit the bottom of your pot. And perhaps make sure however
you prepare your garlic bread, you've got that started, too. Oh, and WARM your
plates and/or a pasta bowl!
8. When the mix of ingredients in your saute pan starts to look like it could run out
of liquid if you let it go much longer, (we're trying to concentrate the flavor of
the clams from the juice without totalling reducing the liquid away) add the cream
a little at a time - say, maybe a third of it, and let that reduce. You might
also want to watch your heat here, so the cream doesn't get too hot - it *is*
a milk product and you don't want it to overheat, so turn down the fire a little.
Then after another little while, add another third and let it reduce - stirring
occasionally. Finally, add the last third and let it reduce until you like the looks
of what you're cooking - it should look intensely creamy and a bit off-white.
(Ok, so this is NOT a lo-cal recipe!)
9. Don't rush step 8. It takes a while and patience to properly reduce this.
10. Drain the pasta when it's cooked al dente and dribble butter or olive oil over it
and stir around so the pasta gets fairly well coated (helps prevent sticking and adds
extra flavor).
11. At this point, you've basically two options: put a serving of pasta on WARMED plates
and then add a serving of the clam sauce -OR- put all the pasta in a WARMED bowl and
pour the clam sauce over it, mixing it all up and then serving it on WARMED plates.
12. Serve with garlic bread and a dry white wine, like an excellent Pinot Grigio.
Parmesan cheese on top is optional, but do try to use freshly grated Parmigiano
Reggiano. A nice salad, like "Spring Mix" with an Italian dressing, store bought
or homemade, will lend a nice taste, texture, and color contrast to even the
whole thing out.
13. Buon appetito!
If you try this and like it, let me know. Or if you didn't like it,
I'd be interested in knowing why or what you did differently.
Email: lnelson at uiuc.edu==============================================================================
Here's a wonderful hybrid OTSI (off the shelf ingredients) pasta dish that's simple, quick to prepare, and IMHO, WONDERFULLY tasty. I call it Fettuccine ACAF (Alfredo con Asparago e Fungo) aka asparagus and mushrooms. Of course the reader is free and encouraged to modify this recipe and experiment on their own. BUT, as it stands, and following the procedures pretty closely, you WON'T be disappointed. And yes, homemade ingredients like the pasta and the sauce would be even better, but after all this *is* designed to be quick and use Off The Shelf Ingredients. Fettuccine ACAF (feeds 3 comfortably or 2 hungry folk) Ingredients: - Fettuccine pasta (your choice of brands) - Jar of Classico Roasted Garlic Alfredo Sauce (see web site below) - Fresh mushrooms (a small container of large white ones will do nicely) - Fresh asparagus - select fresh *good* asparagus at the grocery (or farmer's market, or your own homegrown). By good, I mean thin and crisp and good color. Thin means that most of the stalks should be no bigger around than your little finger. The stalks neither should be limp looking or limp feeling. - Fresh ground pepper (We love India Malabar from Penzeys - see web page below) - Bread (for garlic bread - we try to get freshly baked Italian Pane from our grocery store) - Herbes de Provence (goes on the garlic bread. We use a mix that's not available anymore [I assume] from Navarro Vineyards, made up of organic basil, rosemary, summer savory, lavendar, thyme, fennel, and bay leaf. McCormick makes a variation as well - see their web page below). - Cheese (again, for the garlic bread - optional, but see the Sargento web page below) - Olive Oil (extra virgin, your choice of brands) - Butter (for sauteing shrooms and for the garlic bread) - Garlic (garlic bread, of course) - Wine (for this dish, I recommend a semi-dry white. Our favorite is a non-vintage gem from Von Jacob's called Hillside White - see web page below. And yes, it really is in Illinois, and it is excellent! Varietal is Vidal Blanc.)Procedure (follow this and don't cut corners - you'll be glad!): 1. Asparagus prep. (this can be done ahead of time as the asparagus does not need to be, and should not be, warm or hot after its initial prep) Grab yourself a medium pot, fill it about 3/4 full of water and start it boiling. Meanwhile, at your sink, rinse the stalks one at a time while snapping off the top crispest part. You can do that easily by holding the stalk in both hands and bend it till it breaks. (the stalk knows where it should break - trust it; you'll soon get used to feeling just where that point is - usually closer to the bottom of the fatter end.) How much to use is kinda up to you. For this recipe, I usually use half of the store-bought bunch, winding up with maybe slightly more than a dozen stalks. Toss the fat bottom ends and just use the thinner top portions. (Or save the fat bottom ends to make cream of asparagus soup!) Now, french cut (on the diagonal) the stalks into pieces an inch to an inch and a half long and set aside until we have boiling water. Once the water is at boiling or about to boil, add about a tablespoon of olive oil to the water and stir around. This heightens the green color of the asparagus (not necessary, but makes them look better). Once the water is at a rolling boil, turn up the heat to high and add the cut asparagus. We want to cook these puppies, at a boil, for NO MORE than 2 MINUTES for thin asparagus - if thick asparagus, maybe add 1/2 minute, so have a timer ready or watch the clock! At 2 MINUTES, shut off the heat and drain immediately into a handheld strainer or a collander in your sink and run cold water over the asparagus to stop the cooking. Do this for nearly a minute so they are good and cooled down. A sink sprayer attachment works nicely here. Set the asparagus aside in the strainer or collander and continue to let it drain off any excess water. If you let them cook much past 2 minutes, they'll wind up uncrisp and gloppy. [Gloppy - n. Something soft and soggy; very undesireable] 2. Mushroom prep. (this can be done ahead of time, too. And if there are 2 of you, assign one to this task while the other does the aforementioned asparagus prep.) Take your mushroom brush (you *do* have one right? You really are *not* washing your mushrooms, right!? Good.) and clean the growing medium from your shrooms. Follow that by cutting about the bottom 1/8th inch of the dried stem off with a good sharp small paring knife and discard them. Then slice the shrooms (however you like) into pieces for sauteing. Start heating your favorite saute pan on medium heat and add a tablespoon of butter. Once the butter has melted, add the cut up shrooms and saute until some of them exhibit a slight bit of golden crispness and they've shrunk down to a good half their former size. Transfer them to another medium pot and add the Classico Roasted Garlic Alfredo Sauce and stir all around. Put this on low heat and proceed to the... 3. Garlic bread prep. 400 degree oven. Start by semi-melting 2, 3, or 4 tablespoons of butter (depending on how much bread you want) and then garlic press a gazillion cloves of garlic into the butter and stir it all up. Cut the bread however you like it so you've got some open, bready surface. Spread the butter/garlic all over the open surfaces of the bread and sprinkle a healthy mixture of the herbes de provence on top. Then, we like to further top the bread off with a healthy sprinkling of Sargento's 6 Cheese Italian Blend and pop the bread pieces in the oven so they get lightly brown and melty. 4. Fettuccine prep. Another pot - big enough for fettuccine for two (or 3). Pretty standard stuph - cook to al dente, of course. Drain and dribble olive oil over the fettuccine (or butter - your choice, different flavors ensue) and stir it all up with your pasta fork tool thingy to keep it from sticking together and for adding flavor. 5. Putting it together. Now, add the reserved asparagus to your sauce and shrooms pot and stir it all up. We waited til now so the asparagus wouldn't cook anymore and remain crisp. The hot sauce will now warm it back up without compromising the crispness. Grab a warm plate (always use warm plates for warm pasta dishes like this - maybe have them sitting on your stovetop during the prep so they gain the heat from your oven) and ladel on the alfredo/shroom/asparagus sauce to your liking. THEN, (this is important!) freshly grind lots and lots of pepper on top and serve up with the garlic bread and wine (which is probably half gone if you're like me and start drinking wine at the outset of this cooking process. TIMING!: Well, this is kind of important. I can't really tell you when to do what, but having read thru the preceding procedure, and assuming you've put things together before in your kitchen, you probably know what needs done when. Certainly you don't want to prepare the pasta first and have it waiting around getting cold and sticky and gloppy. Assuming the bread will take 10 - 15 minutes to get where you like it (check every minute after 10 minutes), and assuming the fettuccine will take about 12 - 13 minutes, and if there are two of you who can "do the dance" in your kitchen and not kill each other, then I'd say pop the bread into the oven at the time you add the pasta to your salted boiling water. Of course, during this watch and wait period, set your table and light your candles. And most of all ENJOY!!! If you try this and like it, let me know. Or if you didn't like it, I'd be interested in knowing why or what you did differently.
Email: lnelson at uiuc.edu
McCormick's Herbes de Provence==============================================================================
There are many, many recipes out there for Gazpacho (cold tomato soup), and most are simply wonderful. This is my variation on the theme. I love it, and others who've tried it say they love it, too. It only gets made in our household during the summer months when fresh tomatoes are available. ENJOY! Ingredients: - several fresh tomatoes (I used about 7 smallish Early Girls and one medium Better Boy from our garden - see below about the Better Boy) [DO NOT USE STORE BOUGHT TOMATOES - ICK!] - tomato juice, large can good quality (I used most of the can) - extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup - red wine vinegar, 1/4 cup - chives, about a quarter of a cup or a generous grabbed handful (these were fresh from our garden, also - store bought should suffice) - worcestershire sauce, 1/2 to one teaspoon - tobasco sauce (or similar), 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon - pepper, freshly ground, about a teaspoon - ground cumin, about 1/2 teaspoon - salt, none to a pinch to about a teaspoon - your preference - water, just to thin it out if starts getting to thick and chunky for your taste [the following came from our local weekend Farmers Market] - cucumber, peeled and seeded (cut length-wise and spoon out the seeds) - green bell pepper, cored and seeded - yellow onion, medium - garlic, 3 big cloves - jalepeno pepper, seeded - basil, fresh sweet - about a dozen large leaves - cilantro, about a quarter of a cup - parsley, about a quarter of a cup Process: I use a food processor and do it in stages (because it won't all fit!). I start with the tomatoes and plop them in boiling water for about a minute. That makes peeling them amazingly easy - skin comes right off. I pulse the Early Girls in the food processor until they're basically pureed. Then dump them into a big bowl - like maybe 3 or 4 quart size. I pulse the Better Boy just enough so there are still some decent size chunks that you can get a spoon around - they look nice in the bowl, too, I think. Then, one by one, processor-ize the rest of the veggies to your desired chunky factor (I tend to make them finely chopped) and keep dumping the results into your ever expanding amount of soup. Note: it helps to have about half a cup of liquid in the food processor when you do leafy things like the basil, cilantro, etc. In order to kill 2 birds with one stone, I get the olive oil and vinegar emulsified in the food processor and add the leafy stuph at the same time. Note: The one item that doesn't go in the food processor is the chives. I use kitchen shears to cut them into small pieces into the soup. Combine the rest of the ingredients, stir, taste, adjust, stir, taste, adjust until you're satisfied and then chill it for at least 2 hours. Overnight is even better - lets everything meld and merge and become much more than the sum of the parts. Serve with fresh sourdough bread and a nice chilled dry white wine.
* My Gazpacho recipe *
page created: 12/26/97
page last updated: 03/14/05
author: P. Larry Nelson
contact: lnelson at uiuc.edu