Mario Batali night

We got out Mario Batali’s cookbook from the library and decided to make a night out of cooking his recipes. Two simple yet delicious dishes were chosen: a Mushroom Salad, and St John’s Eve Pasta.

This pasta is a delicious combination of pappardelle with a classic tomato sauce, added with a crunchy breadcrumb (other recipes calls for panko). It is this crunchy texture that makes this delicious dish super special.

Recipe: for 4-6 servings (we halved this recipe ourselves0

3/4 cups sliced almonds

1/2 c virgin olive oil

2 c fresh bread crumbs

4 anchovies – chopped, rinsed

1 onion finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 and 1/2 c basic tomato sauce

6-8 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade

1 pound lasagnette or pappardelle

1. Boil water for pasta; add 2 T salt

2. Toast almonds with 1 T oil (over medium heat). Do not burn! Toast until medium brown

3. Transfer almonds to another plate

4. In remaining oil, toast breadcrumbs utnil golden brown- do not burn! Transfer with almonds

5. Add 2 T oil to pan and stir in anchovies. With a fork, crush them into oil. Transfer with breadcrumb mixture. Season with pepper if desired.

6. Saute oil and garlic – softened but not browned. Add tomato sauce, simmer, and sauce is reduced to about 1/3. Add basil and remove from heat.

7. Cook pasta in the boiling water. Drain and cook with sauce. Stir in half the breadcrumb mixture. Mix well.

8. Dish out, and sprinkle with remaining breadcrumb.

Tomato sauce - Mario's recipe.

This tomato sauce was amazing. We will post the tomato sauce at another time.

St John's Eve Pasta

For the salad, Mario’s original recipe called for porcini mushrooms, but we modified it by by grilling a portobella mushroom with a few king oyster mushroom. Then, we put it on a bed of spinach leaves, drizzled it with a very nice balsamic vinegar and truffle oil.

Salad of Mushrooms

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