Fresh lime juice and minced shallot give a traditionally rich caesar dressing a little lift in this otherwise classic salad bulked up with grilled shrimp. Keep the greens chilled so they remain crisp, and serve the shrimp hot for satisfying contrast.

The post Shrimp Caesar Salad appeared first on Saveur.

A combination of nutty Grana Padano cheese and spicy black pepper turns a classic favorite—chicken cutlets—into an even tastier dish. Serve the cutlets with a squeeze of lemon and your favorite vegetable side.

The post Chicken Cutlets With Grana Padano and Black Pepper appeared first on Saveur.

This recipe for the classic Italian American Christmas confection calls for almond pastry filling in place of the standard almond paste, creating a lighter, moister crumb. Italian rainbow cookies—also known as Neapolitans, Venetians, and tricolore cookies—liven up any holiday dessert spread with their vibrant red, white, and green layers.

Featured in “Rainbow Bright,” by Greg Ferro.

The post Italian Rainbow Cookies appeared first on Saveur.

Black bass is in season through the winter in the northeastern United States, when chef Nick Perkins and Katie Jackson from Hart’s say the fish are plumpest and at their best. But any similar white fish works well in this whole roasted fish recipe, including duarade, branzino, or red snapper. “Since, with whole fish, you’re already contending with so much when picking it apart and eating it, it’s really nice to serve it with a homey, simple side.” He and chef Katie Jackson choose warm potatoes, broken apart and served with an olive-y salsa verde.

Featured in: An Eye-Opening Look at the Feast of the Seven Fishes

What You Will Need

• Large Cutting Board
• Bowl
• Large Pot
• Ovenproof Skillet

The post Whole Roasted Black Bass With Potatoes, Green Olives, and Salsa Verde appeared first on Saveur.

Fire-roasted Savoy cabbage is tossed with garlic-infused bread crumbs and a caper-anchovy vinaigrette in this take on a Caesar salad. The recipe is adapted from a dish served at chef Andrew Carmellini’s Southern Italian-inspired restaurant Leuca in Brooklyn.

Featured in: “This Grilled-Cabbage Caesar Salad Is Even Better Than the Original.”

The post Grilled Cabbage Caesar Salad appeared first on Saveur.

In Rhode Island, Italian food is practically sacrosanct. According to the New England Historical Society, the most Catholic state in America is also the most Italian, with residents of Italian descent making up nearly 19 percent of the population. This community’s influence on the coastal state’s rich and varied cuisine is indisputable, and at no time is that more evident than during the Church’s red-letter days. With Holy Week upon us, Newport chef Kevin O’Donnell is already braising the Easter lamb. 

A local boy who trained in Providence’s Johnson & Wales University, O’Donnell didn’t stick around Rhode Island for long. In fact, he worked for years in kitchens in Italy, Paris, and New York City before finally returning to New England. He garnered accolades at Boston’s Salty Pig and SRV, the latter of which was named “best Italian restaurant” by Boston Magazine. Then, in 2019, he decided to come back home—and as he prepared to open his new restaurant, Giusto, on Newport’s Commercial Wharf, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Fortunately for Rhode Island’s local residents and summer visitors, things are looking up.

O’Donnell describes the Giusto menu as “freestyle Italian,” and while there are a few playful nods to regional specialties (note the “Olneyville-Style” mortadella; if you know, you know), the food and all-natural, all-Italian wine selection feels oceans away from Providence’s iconic red sauce joints. Inspired by his own Italian heritage—O’Donnell’s maternal great-grandparents emigrated from Campania—and his years cooking in Umbria, the chef makes a point of featuring and celebrating his home state’s ingredients. Nearby Point Judith is considered by many to be the squid capital of the Atlantic, and the tentacle-patterned wallpaper lining Giusto’s private dining room is a nod to the region’s native calamari. Lamb, O’Donnell, proudly points out, is always on the menu, sourced exclusively from Hopkins Southdowns Farm, some 45 minutes away.

Long a fixture on springtime holiday tables, lamb’s popularity transcends cultural and religious borders, so O’Donnell tends to avoid the more popular cuts like chops and legs—particularly around Easter, when Don Hopkins, the farm’s proprietor, is scrambling to keep up with demand for those centerpiece roasts. Instead, the chef prefers to offer a bright and aromatic braise which can be easily adapted to any cut with a fair amount of connective tissue, which enriches the citrus- and harissa-spiked cooking juices with flavor and collagen. I hopped on a call to chat with him about the dish, Rhode Island lamb, and the art of the warm-weather braise.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Braised Lamb Belly with Lemon, Harissa, and White Wine

Craddock: This recipe is beautiful, and so, so delicious. Tell me a little bit about the farm that inspired it.

O’Donnell: Yeah! So it was probably like seven years ago, I started working with Hopkins Southdowns’ meat. I was living in Boston and working at SRV and I was invited by the Ocean House to do a guest chef dinner focusing on Rhode Island farms. That was the first time I tasted their lamb and I was really impressed. I had kind of been out of the scene in Rhode Island for a while and it was inspiring to find a farm that cared so much, and just good lamb coming from Rhode Island. So when I decided to move back home to open a restaurant here, they were at the top of my mind as one of the farms to use.

Tell me more about the flavor—why is it so special?

Yeah, so starting with the fat, it’s just clean-tasting, almost sweet, not super gamey. Of course you want lamb to taste like lamb, which it does. But it’s not so gamey that you want to start trimming off all the fat. Any dish that we’ve used it in has been successful. Italian flavors, Mediterranean flavors, Middle Eastern flavors… like the braise recipe that we did here is kind of a bridge between Italian and Middle Eastern cuisine and I just love the flavor of the meat and the texture is great in this too. The age in which they slaughter the lambs gives them the perfect balance of flavor and tenderness so you can really use the entire animal.

Do you notice any major differences between American lamb and the lamb that you were using in Italy? Does the domestic meat come close in flavor?

You know, Italy’s lamb is actually similar to American lamb. New Zealand or Australian lamb is from smaller animals, but American and Italian versions are a little more closely related. What they feed them, at least at Hopkins Farm and this other farm I’ve worked with, Elysian Fields—which is incredible as well—they’re both kind of on par with the Italian stuff. Super tender, really delicious, with sweet fat—flavorful, but without being super gamey. 

Let’s talk more about the recipe itself. You mentioned that this has some Middle Eastern flavors. Is the recipe itself a traditional dish or is it something that you created?

Well, a lot of how we approach Italian food and Italian cooking is we’re taking something that is fairly traditional, whether it’s a technique or a recipe or ingredient, or a combination of ingredients. And then we adapt it to use seasonal produce, or to use something from Rhode Island, or just to put our own spin on it, getting it to be a little fresher. So this particular recipe is kind of a play on a dish that a lot of restaurants in Rome do, called coratella. That is really mostly just made with lamb offal, but some cooks do add tongue and shanks and all those kind of odd bits that you might need to braise a little bit. They also use spleen and lung and kidneys. It’s a super common peasant dish that uses up everything—whatever cuts you have, you throw it in there. It’s served a lot in the spring, maybe with artichokes or peas and tons of fresh herbs. So I was initially inspired by that dish. I actually originally tried to put the classic version on the menu and people were like lamb heart? Lamb kidneys? It’s a tough sell, you know. So, we switched over to lamb belly, shanks, shoulder—anything that you can braise still makes it delicious. And then I’m a huge fan of harissa. I just love it. There’s this rose petal harissa that we use a lot, so we added that too.

Oh, we used a rose petal harissa when I baked at Sofra years back!

You know what? It was probably the same thing! I found out about it through my old business partner’s wife [Paige Lombardi], who is the chef at [Sofra’s sister restaurant], Oleana. I think it’s Belazu [brand].

What I really like about this recipe is that it’s so adaptable by design—like, hey, if you go to the farmers market or grocery store and you want lamb and there are no racks or chops, you can get any braising cut and make the dish.

That’s a good point. 

Tell me a little bit about the specific characteristics of the four cuts you recommended for this recipe. Would there be changes to the method if someone wanted to swap the belly out for lamb shanks, shoulder, or neck?

Well, any meat on the bone will take a little bit longer to cook. And I would say that if somebody was using this recipe for either neck or shanks, they will need to scale the meat up. For example, the main recipe calls for two pounds of lamb belly. The meat-to-bone ratio is pretty high in lamb belly (or shoulder). But it’s fairly low in shanks and necks. So I would double the weight of the meat when using neck or shanks to factor in the loss from the bone, so you still get a decent amount of meat in the finished yield. 

Then the vessel that you choose to cook in is really important, too. How light is the pot? Is it a heavy Le Creuset Dutch oven? Is it circular or rectangular? Large or small? Does it have a tight-fitting lid? All of those things really make a difference if you’re trying to braise something in liquid. So if you’re following this recipe to a tee, I would choose a larger, wide-bottomed pot. 

Whichever cut you decide to use, you should braise in something that ensures the meat is covered at least halfway with the liquid. And if it does stick out more than that, turn the lamb over halfway through cooking so that the top doesn’t dry out and so the whole thing has plenty of time underneath those braising juices.

I understand that your time cooking in Italy as well as your Italian roots have inspired your cooking. Are there any specific recipes or techniques that you’ve carried over from your family that you’re still using today?

I wouldn’t say too many recipes, but certainly a lot of inspiration. My [Italian American] grandmother would never waste anything. And, you know, that carried on down to my mom, which carried on to my brother and me. And just the art of being able to come up with something delicious from almost nothing and—you know, opening up the fridge and just making magic happen with odd cuts or leftovers. I don’t want to say it’s “so Italian,” because it’s also French and Spanish too, being able to turn leftovers into a totally different new dish, being able to appreciate and use every last bit of the ingredient, whether it’s whatever cuts of lamb the farmer has or whatever vegetable scraps or leftovers you find in the fridge.

Do you feel like “Easter lamb” is still a big deal in Rhode Island?

You know, we’ve been talking a lot about this right now—we just had a meeting, finalizing our Easter menu. My parents are both Christian—my mother’s Baptist, my father’s Catholic—and every time I write a menu, there’s always lamb on it in the spring. I think it’s still a pretty important tradition for me, personally. And we always try to keep Don in the loop on any menu changes, especially if we’re going to be switching out a cut because we want him to be a part of that decision as well. We were talking to him a few weeks ago and he said, “yeah, it’s going to be crazy—the springtime, around Easter, is our busiest time of the year.” So, yeah. I would say the answer to your question is absolutely, yes. And everybody’s getting legs of lamb or chops, so he’s banking and hoping restaurants like ours will use all of the off-cuts, so we’ll stay as far away from the legs and the racks as we possibly can because demand is through the roof for those. I’m just hoping that this recipe helps to open people’s eyes a little bit so they can see that, you know, it doesn’t always have to be just like—roast leg of lamb with rosemary and call it a day.

I’m thinking about the meal that I ate at your restaurant and what really stood out to me was how very seafood- and produce-forward the menu is. Would you say the main meat you have on the menu is lamb or are you working in a lot of other proteins as well?

Lamb is always on our menu, no matter what. And it’s always from Hopkins Southdowns. We also have a crispy pork belly dish and we usually sneak a little ‘nudja in somewhere because we love it. We just put a ribeye on for people who are looking for something simple. But otherwise, yeah, I would say you’re right, we don’t have a lot of meat on the menu. And getting into summer, we’ll certainly lean even more heavily towards seafood.

You’re probably not going to be serving braises through the summer, right? Will you switch to quicker-cooking cuts in the warmer months?

Actually, I still love braised food in the summer—so long as it’s lightened up a little, with some fresher ingredients or flavors. Say lamb neck, for example. I might braise the meat beforehand, cool it down in the liquid, then the next day, rub it with garlic and yogurt, some harissa again (because I’m obsessed), then finish it on the grill. Now it doesn’t seem like a braise any more, it’s a grilled dish. So I think there are ways to still use those odd braising cuts year-round, for sure.

Braising works so well in slow cookers and Instant Pots, so I guess you don’t have to heat up your whole kitchen by running the stove all day, either.

Totally.

I’m convinced!

Sold.

The post Ditch Your Usual Easter Roast for This “Freestyle” Italian Braise appeared first on Saveur.

I recently paid a visit to Nancy Silverton’s newest project, the Barish, an Italian-inspired steakhouse on the ground floor of L.A.’s historic Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. The building is situated on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and North Orange Drive, on the well-hoofed Walk of Fame. Built in 1927, it was the site of the original Academy Awards and since then, its restaurants, bars, and nightclubs have witnessed nearly a century of celebrity glitz, from Marilyn—who lived in one of the hotel’s cabana suites for two years before breaking into film—lounging poolside, to Lindsey Lohan and her ‘80s-themed 21st birthday party.

Early in the night’s service, however, the Barish felt a universe away from the surrounding bustle as Silverton’s executive chef, Armen Ayvazyan prepped for the evening’s service, calmly stoking the kitchen’s crackling wood-fired oven and stoves. In addition to the restaurant’s signature steaks and chops and an unsurprisingly lovely dessert menu—Silverton was the founder of the La Brea Bakery, after all—I noticed something unusual on the menu: a section dedicated to baked pasta.

I couldn’t resist ordering the lot, and I didn’t regret it. The four generous portions of crispy, gooey, slightly smoky, wood-fired carbs were all vastly different from one another, each a well-balanced celebration of its own seasonal ingredients, with far more interesting layers of texture and flavor than even the most deftly executed carbonara.

Since then, I’ve found myself again and again considering the endless possibilities of pasta al forno, leaving my usual stainless sautée pan on the hook as I tip a few ounces (or who am I kidding, pounds) of well-dressed macaroni into an iron casserole before sliding it all under the broiler.

Still inspired, and more than a little bit bewitched by Silverton’s ability to quietly reimagine a whole category of carbs I hadn’t even given a second glance, I wanted to learn more. So I tracked her down on the phone on her way from Copenhagen to Bologna to talk about the inspiration behind the Barish, cooking with cheese, and life as a baker in a savory kitchen.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Kat: Nancy, hello! Thanks for taking a few minutes to chat while you’re on the road. I was so bummed I missed you when I ate at the Barish. When I was working as a pastry chef, Pastries from the La Brea Bakery was one of my favorite books. There’s that prune muffin recipe in there that has coffee in the batter that I still love so, so much.

Nancy: Thank you! That’s so funny that you’re mentioning that book. I’m doing a new baking book right now actually. I thought this new one would be really simple, and it’s not simple. But it’s really just everything that I would really want in a cookbook—the best stuff, like the best pound cake and the best chocolate chip cookie. I don’t want to call it “classics,” but it’s kind of like that. So, I’m sort of returning to that baking world again.

Have you missed baking, since you’ve been focused so much more on savory cooking?

You know, I do miss it, but when I think about, say, bread baking, or even what I’m doing right now for this book, it’s all such a commitment. I get so obsessed and I just don’t have the ability to make one thing—to say okay, I like it, that’s tasty, and then move on. I have to think, well, what if I added just a hint more salt and maybe a few grains of nutmeg? And then I make the whole thing over and it’s like, well, I don’t really like that, but what if…? So I kind of stepped aside from the baking world because it’s so all-consuming for me and it just doesn’t allow for anything else. A`nd I get in people’s way! But yes, I’m on hiatus from the baking world and I do miss it. 

You’re at the head of several restaurants and of course you can’t be in all of them, all the time. Who is helping you lead the Barish?

Well, I did want to let you know about Armen, who is the chef. I’m so excited about working with him. He’s a really talented cook, and young. He’s one of those cooks who is so enthusiastic, but what I like about him is that he’s been able to hone in his enthusiasm, so his food is not confusing. You know, I’m finding a lot of confusing food out there these days!

Overly handled, for sure.

Overly everythinged! But Armen thinks really, really on many levels towards food, more layered than even I do, which makes me so excited to work with him, because he kind of goes off where I stop. But I’ve made it a point to be able to hone in also, to take away or eliminate some of the ingredients and some of the steps that may be not that necessary. It’s been a really interesting collaboration.

When the opportunity to open a restaurant at the Hollywood Roosevelt came my way, I knew I would be very focused on certain things. One is that I wanted to bring sort of an old Hollywood world to the Barish. I wanted to make certain that I didn’t do a menu that you could have gotten 15 minutes away or 10 minutes away at [my other restaurants,] the Osteria or chi SPACCA. 

My original choice of chefs to head the ship were a husband and wife team I had been working with over the last couple years. We came up with a new menu, kind of similar to what I’ve done before. Anyway, during the pandemic, when we were ready to open as a popup, they came to me and said, “you know what? We’ve been thinking for the last several months, and we are going to move. We’re not staying in Los Angeles.” So I had to very quickly look around to see if there were other cooks around who were familiar with working with wood, because there’s not a lot of people out there who are comfortable with it. I don’t know if you noticed but the front line of the kitchen, even though we do have a back prep kitchen, has no open flames. It’s only wood, both the oven and the hearth, so I was limited to who I could reach out to. 

It was a little bit challenging and I had to figure out something really quickly. In the end I was really lucky to find somebody who’s energetic, and I just love his temperament. He is running a kitchen with such maturity, even though he’s 30 years old. And I don’t mean maturity with an iron fist, but maturity as far as how to lead a kitchen and mentor people. And that’s what’s always been so important to me.

Tell me more about the wood-fired concept. 

Since my days in Spago with Wolfgang, I’ve always brought that wood-fired element. It really stuck with me and it certainly was a major focus of the menu at Campanile, and then also at the Osteria, and certainly at the pizzeria. It’s a style of cooking that I really appreciate. I’m not a person who likes to cook with all sorts of different machinery. I like very basic elements. I like pans. I like wood. I like rolling pins and spoons, and all that sort of feeling, more so than fancy equipment and food that’s overly manipulated. So from the beginning, when I first sat down with the people managing the hotel who brought me in, I said, “I want a dining room in this kitchen.” There wasn’t one. So that’s what we built. And in the plan, I didn’t find a reason to do any sauté cooking because I felt that wasn’t the kind of food that I wanted to highlight. And then, in putting in a wood-burning oven, it gave me the ability to do something that I wanted to do for a while, which is the idea of having an Italian restaurant with baked pastas. 

I love that part of the menu. And don’t think I’ve seen something like that before. Was that section part of the vision from the beginning?

From the very beginning, yes. I just thought—well, I knew that having this Italian restaurant meant that I had to have pasta because people were going to expect that. But I mean, everybody is doing the same pastas. Some are better than others, but I think, in every city, in every town, across the country, you could get a really well-crafted pasta. That wasn’t the case 15 years ago. I was excited when I opened the Osteria, because there were only a handful of restaurants that were doing pasta with the Italian sensibility. But I feel like everyone has that now, so I really wanted to bring a baked element into it. And now I have the excuse to do it because I have a wood-fired oven and I don’t have a sauté pan!

Do you see the baked pasta menu as a set lineup, or will you and Armen be changing up those dishes?

Well, we haven’t really unveiled that pasta element as much as I would like yet. But it is interesting, it’s on the menu as “pasta al forno,” and I’m always hoping that people understand, pasta in the oven. But sometimes they don’t. So there are a lot of customers who are confused and will say things like, “wait a minute, there’s something wrong with your pasta. It’s crunchy on top,” that kind of thing. So we have to work on our delivery, and to sort of let the customer know, without making them feel bad—“do you know what ‘pasta al forno’ means, and what it’s supposed to be?” If they think “macaroni and cheese,” then yes, they know it’s crunchy on top, and it’s supposed to be. But we have sort of backed off a little. It’s not all quite as crusty as I originally envisioned it! But that’s okay.

I was hoping we could get your radiatore with lamb sugo recipe for our readers—it’s such a great dish!—but I understand that it would be tough to do in a home kitchen. It has some smoked ingredients in it, right?

Yeah, the tomato is smoked. No one is going to make that dish at home! But maybe the torchio, which is basically macaroni and cheese, or even the rotolo with a little bit of practice. There are several steps to the rotolo because you’re cooking the swiss chard for the filling, and you’re rolling out the sheets of pasta—although you could probably get away with blanching sheets of an artisanal dried pasta. Then it’s rolled up, poached, and sliced. It’s not necessarily a user-friendly recipe! But I really enjoy the shapes and the process.

I thought what was so cool about that dish was that everyone always wants the cheesy, crispy corner piece of the lasagna, right? And everybody gets to enjoy those crispy bits when you finish the pasta by the slice in the oven.

Yep, exactly. And that was the reason for that. Massimo Bottura does a dish that is sort of inspired by just the ends of the lasagna. There are so many dishes that I really want to recreate that have to do with picking off everything that’s stuck to the pan. Those are always the best things, right? Like the onions that caramelize and stick to the pan with the roasted potatoes. It is always the best part.

At the elemental level, when you’re developing these baked pasta recipes, are there specific traits that you want each dish to have?

They have to have the texture right. One of the ones that I did early on that hasn’t made it to the menu is a gnocchi bolognese. You can’t really bake gnocchi—there’s not enough texture to them, so it just eats mushy, you know? But the radiatore is so good because that radiator-shaped pasta gives you all the texture you could want. And the torchio—that bell shape bakes really well too. 

Any tips for the ideal cooking vessels for baked pastas? What material do you like the best?

Certainly copper is wonderful. Cast iron is too. It’s a little bit challenging finding dishes in just the right size that actually have longevity. We originally started with ones that were made to go into the oven, and the handles started breaking off, so right now we have more cast iron, which definitely lasts!

Do you prefer enameled or seasoned cast iron? 

Either, really. Ours are slightly enameled on the outside, but either are okay. Le Creuset is fine, as long as you can get the right size, and also obviously the right depth. They shouldn’t be too deep.

Cheese seems really important on your menu. I used to be a cheesemonger, so it’s really important to me too!  

Well. I’ll tell you, I’m a cheese lover of all sorts. And one of my favorite places to buy cheese anywhere is in Neal’s Yard Dairy, which I did several visits to in London the last couple times I’ve been there. When I had La Brea Bakery, we used to have a lovely and well-curated cheese program there, and we bought a lot from Neal’s Yard, and I think that the way that they handle their cheese is just so perfect. Everything you buy from them is in such perfect shape.

Yes! Which cheeses are you most excited to have on the menu right now?

Well, I really love the ricotta that we’re working with, from Bellwether Farms. They make such a delicious ricotta, and that’s on top of our pizza fritti. We certainly have our Parmigiano-Reggiano, and the cheeses that go into the torchio. We have a blue cheese—the gorgonzola that goes with the wedge salad. But I’m just loving that Jersey ricotta from Bellwether Farms. It really is delicious.

Does Bellwether also make the butter that you’re serving with those fluffy pull-apart rolls?

No, that is a French butter, Beurre de Baratte from Rodolphe Le Meunier. And I don’t know if you know this, but in that hotel, I learned that they wanted me to take over two sections of the food service, one was where the Barish is, and the other one was where there was a club called Teddy’s. Teddy’s was kind of a nightclub that was one of those ones where you had to know somebody to get in. When you walk in, it’s dark, it has a disco ball, but it’s like a complete cave. That’s going to become Lorenzo’s and it’s going to be a wine and cheese bar where the plan is to have four tables that you have to reserve—minimum four people—and they’re going to be fondue tables. So a wine and cheese bar with a fondue component. Hopefully it’ll be done by the end of March. If you were going to ask me this in a few months, I would really be able to give you a complete answer on how my cheese purchasing was going, because that’s where it’s really going to showcase. There’s not going to be any cooking in there, but there will be cheese melters, and sandwich presses to make English style toasties, Welsh rarebit, things like that. So I’m really excited, because I do love cheese.

So it will have an Italian name, but it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a particularly Italian menu!

Well, it has an Italian name because it’s named after my father, who was not Italian. His name was Lawrence, and he grew up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. So as far away from Italy as you could be. But he too had a love of Italy, and he called himself Lorenzo. So that’s why it’s going to be called Lorenzo’s. And the Barish was named after his mother’s side of the family. 

Well, thank you so much for getting on the phone, Nancy! I know you’re super busy and in another time zone right now, so I don’t want to keep you any longer.

Oh, such a pleasure!

Get the recipe >

Crispy Torchio with Gruyère, Gouda, and Fontina

The post Don’t Skip the Crispy Carbs at Nancy Silverton’s Wood-Fired Hollywood Steakhouse appeared first on Saveur.

This toothsome homemade ravioli from JoMarie Pitino of Ava Gene’s restaurant in Portland, Oregon is made with a quick red sauce that keeps simmering time to a minimum. If desired, you can fill and shape the pasta up to a few days ahead, then immediately freeze the ravioli: Place them in a single layer on a lightly floured baking sheet, then freeze the sheet. As soon as the ravioli are firm, remove and store in a heavy-duty resealable plastic bag. If boiling the pasta from frozen, add an extra few minutes to cooking time.

What You Will Need

• Large Bowl
• Plastic Wrap
• Large Skillet
• Large Pot
• Baking Sheet
• Pasta Machine or Rolling Pin
• 3-inch Round Ravioli Cutter
• Slotted Spoon or Spider Tool

The post Ravioli With Ricotta and Greens appeared first on Saveur.

We all know that the best pizza is the one you make yourself, and we promise it’s not as hard as it sounds. Once you’ve got the dough down, all that’s left is to experiment with toppings. You can go classic or experimental, simple or complex. So if you want to start traditional, go for the margherita. Our recipe keeps it simple with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil leaves—the colors of the Italian flag. One of the most difficult parts of making pizza on your own is getting enough heat in a home oven to properly cook the crust. There’s no way to replicate the scorching heat of a pizza oven, but preheating a pizza stone under the broiler is a good option.

The real fun in making your own pizza is deciding what toppings to use. You could go a little more classic with mortadella and mozzarella or ham and caramelized onion, but that’s just the start. For a celebration of spring, try using ramps and morels, plus a barely-set fried egg. Or make the most of summer by topping a Rhode Island-style grilled pizza with ripe peaches, salty prosciutto, and peppery arugula.

Pizza Margherita (Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella Pizza)

Detroit-Style Pepperoni Pizza

Grilled Pizza with Peaches, Prosciutto, and Arugula

Easiest Pizza Ever

Pizza Rosa (Bianco)

Pizza with Ramps, Morels, and Eggs

Gluten-Free Pizza Margherita

Pistachio and Mortadella Pizza (Pizza Pistacchio e Mortadella)

Walnut Pesto and Zucchini Pizza (Pizza Noci e Zucchini)

Fried Pizza with Marinara Sauce (Pizza Montanara Starita)

Ham and Caramelized Onion Pizza

Pizza with Snow Crab, Ricotta, Shishito Peppers, and Wasabi Aïoli

Gluten-Free Cafeteria-Style Pizza

Butternut Squash and Smoked Mozzarella Pizza (Pizza del Papa)

Rachetta (Racket-Shaped Pizza with Mushrooms and Tomatoes)

Six-Onion Pizza

Squash Blossom Pizza

The post Our Homemade Pizza Recipes Will Make You Forget All About Delivery appeared first on Saveur.

The menu at New York chef Andrew Carmellini’s southern Italian-inspired restaurant Leuca has a lot going for it: inventive riffs on classic antipasti and pastas, Neapolitan-style pizza, and a showstopping roast suckling pig for two. But the dish that has stayed with us since opening day is a seasonal, seemingly humble special: grilled cabbage salad. Carmellini transforms the often ho-hum vegetable into the sweetest and smokiest version of itself by slow-roasting the heads over an open fire. The charred greens are then tossed with a zippy citrus-and-olive-oil dressing and loaded with umami-rich capers, anchovies, garlic, and grated pecorino—or “Caesar Flavors,” according to the menu. Finished with crispy fried bread crumbs and a few of the tart marinated white anchovies known as boquerones, the dish is a masterpiece. So of course, we had to ask Carmellini how to make it.

Part of the charm of Leuca’s kitchen—visible from the street level above—is Carmellini’s affection for cooking with fire. In addition to a massive domed pizza oven, the restaurant also boasts an open hearth that’s used to grill all manner of meats and seasonal vegetables over a combination of oak and binchotan (Japanese charcoal).

In the absence of our own roaring hearth, we adapted this recipe for home kitchens by using a softer, more delicate savoy cabbage and a well-seasoned cast-iron grill pan. The result? Smoky-sweet vegetables that are charred and crispy on the outside and soft and silky on the inside. Since the majority of the ingredients are inexpensive (even if you buy the fanciest farmers’ market cabbage!), we recommend splurging on two items, if you can: aged pecorino and extra-virgin olive oil. Whether you serve the salad as a low-key main course or as a lavish side dish, this is cabbage worth celebrating. Here’s how to pull off your new favorite Caesar.

Get the recipe for Grilled-Cabbage Caesar Salad »

Start with the Right Cabbage

At Leuca, Carmellini uses classic green or conical arrowhead cabbage; the densely packed leaves and firm cores hold up well to grilling over an open fire. To recreate the dish at home with these varieties, he suggests searing the vegetables in a skillet and finishing in the oven. We found that small heads of ruffled, more tender savoy cabbage cook more quickly and don’t require that second step. Cut them lengthwise through their cores into quarters.

Generously Salt the Greens

Liberally salting the cabbage ahead of time allows the wedges to soften and begin releasing some of their moisture. This step will generate steam during cooking, allowing the insides to cook as the outer edges sear.

Give the Leaves an Oil Rub

After salting, work a generous drizzle of olive oil into the cut sides of the cabbage. The oil serves two purposes: it seals the accumulating moisture into the leaves, preventing evaporation, and also keeps the wedges from sticking to the baking sheet as their sugars cook and caramelize.

Take Caesar Dressing Up a Notch

According to Carmellini, this salad was not originally conceived of as a “cabbage Caesar.” He simply took the chargrilled greens and started adding ingredients that he thought would complement their smoky, faintly mustardy flavor: fresh citrus (zest and juice) and anchovies—components that just happen to make up the base of Caesar dressing. Two nontraditional additions give the dressing an extra kick: capers up the brininess of the vinaigrette, while golden raisins enhance the cabbage’s caramelized sweetness and deliver a pleasant chew.

Choose an Italian Olive Oil

Cabbage is often considered a mild or even bland vegetable, but dry-cooking it brings out the cruciferous vegetable’s sweet and mustardy notes. To further enhance this flavor, use a robust, fruity, and peppery extra-virgin olive oil to finish the vinaigrette. High-quality Tuscan and Tuscan-style blends are ideal. The dressing can be made up to three days in advance and stored in an airtight jar in the refrigerator. Retrieve the vinaigrette from the fridge 15 minutes before serving and give it a good shake to recombine.

Sear on a Well-Seasoned Cast-Iron Grill Pan

Preheat a well-seasoned cast-iron grill pan over very high heat. When the pan is smoking lightly, add the wedges of cabbage, cut-side down, and cook, turning occasionally until they’re charred and caramelized on all sides. Any leaves that fell off during the salting or oiling stage can be added to the pan to crisp up as well. If you don’t have a grill pan, a flat griddle or a large, heavy cast-iron skillet will also get the job done.

Let the Cabbage Steam Itself

Once the cabbage wedges are seared all over, transfer to a large heatproof bowl, cover tightly with a lid or plastic wrap, and set aside. The residual heat and steam will continue cooking their centers.

Cut the Cabbage into Chunks

Part of this salad’s charm is the variation in texture—the combination of crispy, charred greens and soft, silky leaves is irresistible. When the cabbage wedges are tender at the core and cool enough to handle, cut them crosswise into chunky strips, then return to the bowl.

Go for Bread Crumbs Over Croutons

For a more satisfying crunch throughout the salad, add plenty of garlicky panko bread crumbs. They pair well with the briny vinaigrette and coarsely grated aged pecorino, a hard, dry Italian sheep’s milk cheese with a sharp, salty flavor. If you prefer a sweeter, less piquant cheese, you can substitute Parmesan.

Serve the Salad Warm

Use your hands to toss the salad, sliding apart any cabbage leaves that are still clustered together and working in the vinaigrette. The greens are best dressed while they’re still warm; as the vinaigrette is incorporated, the citrus juices will further soften the cabbage until it strikes the perfect balance between crisp and tender.

Transfer the dressed cabbage to a platter and top the salad with more panko and pecorino. The version at Leuca is topped with a few boquerones. A popular Spanish bar snack, these marinated white anchovies are less aggressively salty than ordinary anchovy fillets. Look for the tangy delicacy in the refrigerator case of specialty food markets. If you have trouble finding the little fish, feel free to omit them or substitute a few coarsely chopped oil-cured anchovies. For an even heartier main-course salad, top with a poached egg.

The post This Grilled-Cabbage Caesar Salad Is Even Better Than the Original appeared first on Saveur.

Spaghetti has got to be the most popular pasta variety, at least here in the U.S. It’s a staple for any pasta-lover’s pantry—and probably the most called-for noodle in SAVEUR’s pasta recipes. Although we appreciate the beloved red-sauced spaghetti and meatballs, some days call for a more unique twist. Spaghetti is super versatile—it plays well with all kinds of vegetables and proteins and can even be cooked in red wine or a flower-infused broth instead of the usual salted water for a colorful—and flavorful—supper. Whether you’re looking to twirl your fork into an Italian classic like pasta carbonara, amatriciana, puttanesca, or pomodoro, or an all-American casserole like turkey tetrazzini, our best spaghetti recipes have you covered.

Spaghetti Carbonara

Seafood Pasta with Tomatoes, Chiles, and Mint

Spaghetti Primavera

Lemon-Infused Spaghetti with Oil and Provolone

Spaghetti all’Amatriciana

Spaghetti alla Chitarra with Lamb and Sweet Pepper Ragù

Garlic Scape and Cherry Tomato Pasta

Turkey Tetrazzini

Summer Bolognese

Spaghettoni with Jasmine, Saffron, and Chamomile

Pasta Alla Norma (Pasta with Tomato Sauce and Eggplant)

Spaghetti with Oven-Roasted Tomatoes and Caramelized Fennel

Wayne Thiebaud’s Spaghetti with Mizithra Cheese

Spaghetti Con Gamberi

Morel and Asparagus Spaghetti

Spaghetti with Lobster (Spaghetti all’Astice)

The post 20 Spaghetti Recipes That Go Way Beyond Spaghetti and Meatballs appeared first on Saveur.