"Cucina Rustica" & "Patsy's [NYC Restaurant] Cookbook" - Pasta with Sausage and Fennel Sauce and Pasta Bolognese - Christmas Eve 2017

Date I made these recipes:  December 24, 2017 - Christmas Eve

Cucina Rustica by Viana La Place & Evan Kleiman

Published by William Morrow & Company, Inc.

ISBN: 0-688-16063-8; copyright 1990

Recipe: “Little Ears” Pasta with Sausage and Fennel (Orecchiette con Salsicce e Finnocchio) – p. 188-189

Patsy’s Cookbook – Classic Recipes From a New York City Landmark Restaurant by Sal J. Scognamillo; Foreword by Nancy Sinatra

Published by Clarkson Potter Publishers

ISBN: 0-609-60954-8; copyright 2002

Recipe:  Penne Bolognese – p. 109

As is usual and customary, I made once again a pasta dish for our Christmas Eve repast.  Normally, I make spaghetti and meatballs but from time to time, I’ve made a pasta sauce just to mix things up a little.  Either way, pasta and sauce of some kind is a family custom, so I set to work to find some recipes.

Reader, I found two.  When I presented these two options to my husband, and asked him to choose one, he said “Why don’t we make both?  We can always freeze the leftovers.”

For the record, we do not “freeze” in this house unless by “freeze” you mean how we are feeling right now after coming in from outside where the current temperature is -5.  This is “up” from our starting temperature of -15 below.  My feet feel like blocks of ice.  (It’s also New Year’s Eve and this is just a great way to ring in the new year, is it not?)

Anyway, as usual, and especially when I’m looking at Italian cookbooks, I got sidetracked as so many dishes sounded fantastic.  Here’s a look at Cucina Rustica’s Table of Contents: 

• Menus
• The Italian Kitchen
• Antipasti
• Insalate (Salads)
• Zuppe e Minestre (Soups)
• Pasta
• Risotto
• Polenta
• Contorni (Vegetables)
• Pesce e Frutti di Mare (Fish and Shellfish)
• Pollame e Carne (Poultry and Meat)
• Dolci (Desserts)

 For many Italian-American families, Christmas Eve is the “Feast of the Seven Fishes.”  My family never observed this, and I don’t either, so I didn’t spend much time with that chapter.  The same cannot be said though, for the soup section as I do enjoy soup, especially when the weather is cold.  I toyed briefly, with making my own recipe for Italian Wedding Soup but that recipe wasn’t in this cookbook.

Many of the poultry, meat, vegetable and dessert selections would have been fabulous on any other day but this one and so I soldiered on to the pasta section. Let me be clear that the “pasta on Christmas Eve” edict wasn’t really a family rule per se, it’s just that we started having spaghetti on Christmas Eve when I was very young and I saw no reason to deviate.

Although the pasta section covered all the bases from “Fast Spaghetti” [Sauce] on p. 152, to “Sardinian Clam Sauce” on p. 171, I settled on the sausage and fennel sauce because I like sausage, I like fennel, and I like them together!

Some of you though, may not like fennel because it tastes – slightly - of anise which is to say, licorice. Do not be fooled into thinking you’re going to be eating black candy licorice though, because fennel licorice is no where near the tangy, yet sweet candy confection.  It’s a subtle taste and it marries well with sausage.  This recipe gives you the option to add cream to the broth-based sauce and what the heck, it’s a holiday, right?  We indulged.

By the way, this book’s authors, Viana La Place and Evan Kleiman wrote also Cucina Fresca and Pasta Fresca just in case you’re in a mood to get your pasta on!

Then there’s Pasty’s Cookbook which is a “commemorative” cookbook from the famous NYC restaurant, a place so small that it is always booked, and those bookings are for the beautiful people, i.e. celebrities. In fact, the back cover is filled with quotes from some of Patsy’s most famous patrons:  Nancy Sinatra (who ate there with her dad, Frank), Tony Bennett, Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and Michael Feinstein.  (I have an awful feeling that many of you reading this are saying “Who?” but Google them and educate yourselves because these people were big deals “back in the day.”)

Given that all of us little people have a snowball’s chance in hell of eating at Patsy’s, it was nice of them to publish this cookbook, so we can all sample what might have been.

Patsy’s Table of Contents is similar to but smaller than Cucina Rustica:

• Appetizers
• Salads and Vegetables
• Soups
• Pasta, Risotto, and Sauces
• Chicken
• Meats
• Fish and Shellfish
• Desserts

 There’s also a small section for Frank Sinatra’s Favorites which I thought was hilarious, but the guy ate there a lot, so why not, right?  The book contains several stories about family and friends and also many photos.  I love cookbooks like this as I feel like I’m looking at a family album.

Once again, I focused my search on pasta dishes and the one that caught my eye was yet another meat sauce, this time Bolognese.  Bolognese is a hearty meat sauce which is why I was hesitant to make both it and the sausage and fennel sauce, but protein is a good thing, so we went for it.  Whereas the sausage and fennel sauce had cream (optional, but we added it anyway), this one called for 2 tablespoons of butter and of course I obliged.  It would be rude not to, plus, butter is often a key ingredient in the Bolognese sauce and I was not about to leave out a key ingredient. (Patsy’s noted that cream is traditional also, but they opted for butter.)

Each of these sauces takes little time to make which was great and you can save yourself a whole lot of time with the pasta by choosing one kind (I used ziti) and running with it instead of making both orecchiette and penne.  In fact, the two pastas remind me of a hilarious moment in Venice while on my honeymoon 26 years ago.  We stayed in a small pensione run by two older sisters who were almost dead-ringers for my twin great-aunts, Angelina and Catherine who hailed from Sicily. At any rate, these sisters also ran a small restaurant and when we went downstairs for dinner one night, I ordered spaghetti and Andy ordered rigatoni.

The sister who took our order then shuffled back to the kitchen and moments later, we heard them both yelling (in Italian).  Our order-taking sister came back out, looked at us and said “Due (pronounced “do-ay” spaghetti or due rigatoni,” which translated means “Two [orders of] spaghetti or two of rigatoni,” and not one of each!

We cracked up laughing because reader, we were the only people in the restaurant at that moment!  Those sisters were not going to mess around by cooking two different pastas, and I didn’t either:  I split the difference by making ziti and that was the end of that!

This concludes our Italian-centric Christmas Eve dinner discussion.  You can make these recipes at any time, but I think they are best appreciated on a holiday in the cold, bleak midwinter.

Little Ears [Pasta] with Sausage and Fennel (Orecchiette con Salsicce e Finocchio) – serves 4 to 6

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

½ medium onion, peeled and minced

2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

10 ounces sweet Italian sausage, casings removed, crumbled

10 fresh basil leaves, cut into julienne

5 sprigs fresh oregano, leaves only

½ cup chicken broth

½ cup young red wine

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

½ cup cream (optional)

1 pound imported orecchiette

Grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese for the table

Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized skillet.  Add the onion and gently sauté over low heat until it wilts.  Add the fennel and continue cooking until both fennel and onion are soft.  Turn up the heat and add the garlic to the skillet.

Sauté garlic briefly just until it turns opaque and releases its characteristic aroma.  Add the sausage and brown over high heat.  When no trace of pink remains in the sausage, add the basil, oregano, chicken broth, red wine, and salt and pepper to taste.  Turn down the heat to medium and cook sauce until the liquids reduce and the flavors are well blended.  Add the cream, if desired, and cook just until it reduces slightly, about 5 minutes.

Cook the orecchiette in abundant boiling salted water until al dente.  Drain the pasta thoroughly and transfer to the skillet with the sauce.  Cook briefly over moderate heat, stirring well.  Serve immediately in a large shallow serving bowl topped with plenty of grated cheese of your choice.

Pasta Bolognese – Serves 4 to 6

6 medium white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

¼ cup olive oil

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

½ pound finely ground lean beef

1 16-ounce can plum tomatoes, with juice

2 bay leaves

¼ cup Cabernet Sauvignon

¼ cup beef broth

Pinch of oregano

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1 pound penne (or spiral pasta), cooked al dente

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the mushrooms, and blanch for 2 minutes.  Drain, chop fine, and reserve.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high flame and sauté the onions for 3 to 4 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Add the blanched mushrooms, garlic, and ground beef, and continue to cook and stir for 7 to 8 minutes, until the meat is browned.  Coarsely chop the tomatoes and add with their juice, the bay leaves, wine, broth, and oregano.  Bring to a boil, reduce the hat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove the bay leaves.  Add the butter and parsley and season with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle and stir in the Parmigiano-Reggiano and serve over the cooked pasta.

"A Culinary Collection from The Metropolitan Museum of Art" - Fresh Vegetable Soup

Date I made this recipe:  August 20, 2017

A Culinary Collection from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, compiled by Linda Gillies, Anita Muller and Pamela Patterson (recipes from members of the Board of Trustees and museum staff)

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art

©1973; ISBN: 0-87099-081-0

Recipe: Fresh Vegetable Soup – p. 25, submitted by Clare Vincent – Western European Arts

In my latest blog, published last week, I mentioned that I was recently in New York state and also New York City.   Today's recipe is from New York City's world-renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I cannot recall the first time I went to The Met, but it was and is pretty impressive. It's also so big that it almost exhausts visitors before they even get past the entrance.  To combat that, I often decide in advance what I'm going to look at and then go from there.

Over the years, my favorite section of the museum has been exhibits in the lower-level, particularly those in The Costume Institute.  I cannot sew and I cannot draw but others can and I've seen some great exhibits.

I also like photography and have seen a number of special exhibits that just leave me speechless; I'm particularly fond of black and white photos because of the crispness it brings and the detail it enhances. 

Here is the most important thing you should know about The Met:  although the sign says "admission," it is your choice whether to pay anything (you decide how much you want to contribute) or nothing at all.  Don't go that last route though:  this museum costs a ton of money to run and if you can't part with at least a dollar bill, maybe this is not the place for you!

In the early years, I dutifully paid the suggested admission and even had a membership for a few years (mostly for the gift shop), but eons ago, I switched it up to give what I thought was reasonable.  This works very well for me if I only have time for a quick in and out.

For the record, the suggested "admission" for adults is $25.00 per person and heaven help you brought people with you because ouch!  I am not a cheap person per se and yes, this is New York City, but I'd bet at least 90% of people attending The Met are families of at least four, maybe more.  And that's just to get in folks, that does not county shopping opportunities thereafter!

Now the thing to know about all museum gift shops anywhere is that you do not have to pay to go there, and so if I am pressed for time, like I was this trip, this is how I get a glimpse of current and past exhibits as the gift shop stocks books and magazines from those exhibits.  Win Win!  All that said, you should know that I probably spend about double what I would on the "admission" but I can't help myself because well, the stuff is there, and it's just waiting for me to buy it under the premise of "I'm here, it's here and I may not be back for another year so...."

This year, I got there so late and was so absorbed in several books of interest that I did not hear the "all call" that the museum is closing until a guard came up and said "You're the last person here."  OMG—I was so embarrassed!  I think I made up for it though by purchasing three books there; had I had more time, it would have been four!

So to recap, pay what you want, check out the gift shop and also, and this is important, (although not quite on point), if you are leaving The Met and it is raining, do not expect to be able to hail a cab.  Do not.  Insiders know that cabs and rain do not go together.  Time after time, I see tourists trying to hail cabs but those cabs – coming from where I do not know – already have passengers.  I need to figure out "ground zero" to catch an empty cab!  (Likely 20 blocks north from there, if not more.)

And for the record, and again, apropos to nothing, almost every single time I've been to The Met, whether alone or with someone, it rains.  It rained this year.  It rained two years ago when I was with my friend, Susan, who lives in NYC. In fact, it has rained on us every single time prompting me to tell her that she was the jinx, and yet this time around, I got caught out.  I had an umbrella though so that was good but other times, I haven't. 

In conclusion then:  pay what you want, if pressed for time, check out the gift shop because it's FREE, and "fugheddaboudit" hailing a cab in the rain. (PS—You can, if you want, purchase a rain poncho like many of the tourists do, but it won't help you get a cab, and frankly it screams "TOURIST" to everybody you see.  Plus they are hot and I don't mean fashion-wise! Umbrellas are the better choice, and for your "convenience" you can almost always find an umbrella vendor near the front steps.)

This concludes my public service announcement about visiting The Met.

As to the cookbook, it is spiral bound which as I said in my last post, does not usually find favor with me, but I bought this at an estate sale and really didn't care because it was from The Met.  Besides, I was intrigued by the illustrations, both on the cover and inside and thought them appropriate for a cookbook from an art museum.

The cover art is "The Pastry Cook," by Abraham Bosse (French, 1602-1676), and is a rendering in black and white of several cooks in a kitchen (illustrations continue on the back of the book).  The inside illustrations were taken from an early Italian cookbook, Il Cuco segreto di Papa Pio V (The Private Chef of Pope Pius V] by Bartomlomeo Scappi, Venice, 1570.  The inside illustrations were all of pots, pans, and utensils along with their Italian names and I thought that was kind of fun.

Like the museum itself, the Table of Contents is carefully curated into these categories:

• Appetizers & Soups
• Meats, Poultry, Fish & Their Sauces
• Vegetables, Salads, & Salad Dressings
• Noodles, Rice, Pasta, & Their Sauces
• Quiches, Soufflés, & Eggs
• Desserts
• Cookies, Cakes, & Breads
• Menus & Miscellaneous

And remember, all of these recipes were submitted by the museum's staff and board members and their work area is listed next to each recipe, for example "Catalogue," "Drawings," "Prints and Photographs," and so on.

As to the recipes, there were plenty that caught my eye and would have been acceptable.  In fact, for the longest time, my money was on making "Bloody Mary Meat Loaf" on page 59 because well, why not!  I've never made a meatloaf with a Bloody Mary mix.  But then I started rethinking my selection and I have to tell you that sometimes these self-debates sound suspiciously like the call of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs:  "It's 'Bloody Mary Meat Loaf' in the lead.  'Bloody Mary Meat Loaf' down the back stretch.  'Fresh Vegetable Soup' is coming up from behind.  'Fresh Vegetable Soup' is gaining on 'Bloody Mary Meat Loaf'.  'Bloody Mary Meat Loaf' and 'Fresh Vegetable Soup' are neck and neck and...'Fresh Vegetable Soup' wins by a nose!"

I have a vivid imagination! 

I also flagged "Hot Crab Meat for Twenty" on page 14 for future use, likely at a party, and pondered the merits of "Two-Tiered Tuna Casserole," p. 82. before deciding that it was a bit heavy for the day, plus it didn't have peas and people, it has to have peas.  Period.

In the end, I wanted something light and fresh and so went with the soup.  Mind you, the day I made it, the humidity was off the charts, but my house remained cool and so it all worked and it was tasty. 

As to my quick trip to The Met's Gift Shop, to answer your burning question, no, I didn't purchase a cookbooks because they really don't stock a lot of them and nothing I saw tripped my trigger such that I had to have it that day.  The books I purchased were all about NYC architecture and design which is also an area of interest and I ran out of time to see much of anything else.  By the way, one year after getting caught in the rain on my way into the museum and gift shop – what did I tell you – I pretty much hugged all the lighted jewelry cases as a way to warm up from the cold downpour.  I'd have loved to have been the security person who watched that tape:  "What is she doing? What. Is. She. doing? Is she trying to break into the cases?  Hey Joe, c'mere and look at this...."

Fresh Vegetable Soup – Serves 8 – submitted by Clare Vincent – Western European Arts

2 leeks, cut in ½-inch chunks

1 medium or large onion, cut in ½-inch chunks

2 tablespoons butter

 6 chicken bouillon cubes (Ann's Note:  or substitute chicken broth)

2 parsnips, cut in ½-inch chunks

2 medium white turnips, cut in ½-inch chunks

3 stalks celery (without leaves), cut in ½-inch chunks

2 medium carrots, cut in thumb-size pieces

¼ teaspoon dried thyme (or more)

¼ teaspoon dried rosemary (or more)

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 medium potatoes, cut in thumb-size pieces

2 cups stewed tomatoes (one 16-ounce can) (Ann's Note:  or substitute fresh, chopped tomatoes)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

In a large pot wilt leeks and onion in butter.  Add 3 quarts of water and bouillon cubes and bring to a boil.  (Ann's Note:  if you want to substitute chicken broth like I did, then just pour out 3 cups of broth and add that instead.) 

Add parsnips and bring to a boil.  Add turnips and bring to a boil. Add celery and bring to a boil.  Add carrots and bring to a boil.  Add thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper, and correct seasonings (more herbs and bouillon may be added).  Ann's Note:  once the broth started to boil, it continued to boil so there was no "bring to a boil" portion of our program.  Since the recipe contributor didn't saw to lower the heat, I kept it as was and just kept adding the vegetables as directed.

Add potatoes and bring to a boil. Add tomatoes, bring to a boil, and simmer until the potatoes are nearly cooked through.  All the other vegetables will be ready by this time. Add parsley and dill, and simmer until the potatoes are done and the herbs have just begun to wilt.

When reheating to serve, make sure not to allow soup to simmer more than a minute or two, or all the care in bringing each vegetable to just the right degree of doneness will be wasted.

Ann's Note:  Okay, I need to parse this. Since the only way to make sure the veggies weren't overdone was to immediately lower the heat to simmer and then bring it back to a boil, it would have been nice if that was in the directions!  As mentioned above, once the broth started boiling, it never stopped.  Now had I made a full recipe, maybe the bulk of the vegetables would have caused the appropriate "delay" in the restart of the boil but such was not the case.  I did not need soup for 8, I needed soup for 2 and so played with it.  In the end, did the extra boil time matter much?  Nah.