¼ cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
Stir everything together in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves. Taste and adjust so you have an intense sweet-salty-sour-hot balance. Ideally, make this a day ahead, then taste and readjust the seasonings on the second day. The chile heat is likely to get stronger. The sauce will keep for a month or two in the fridge.
More ways:
→ Sprinkle over grilled fish or vegetables.
→ Use as a dip for salad rolls or lettuce wraps.
→ Mix with a touch of oil and marinate firm tofu to be grilled.
Classic Salsa Verde and a Couple of Variations
From an Italian perspective, a proper salsa verde should have just enough oil to bind and moisten the herbs but not so much that it pools out. Once you add the acid and salt, the herbs begin to “cook,” so if you’re making this ahead for a party, make the base, but don’t add the lemon and salt until just before serving.
I love the classic version and often serve it just as is, but think of it also as a launch pad for other variations.
» Makes about 1½ cups
Classic
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, thick stems trimmed off and reserved, leaves chopped medium fine
1 bunch scallions, trimmed (including ½ inch off the green tops), thinly sliced
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lemon
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed, drained, and chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
Kosher salt
Measure out half the parsley stems (compost the others or save for another use), trim off the dried end bits of the stems, and very finely slice them, as you would chives.
Put the parsley stems and leaves and scallions in a small bowl and pour in the olive oil.
Grate the lemon zest into the bowl, add the capers, and season generously with pepper. When you’re ready to serve, halve the lemon and squeeze over about 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Season with salt.
Salsa verde is best eaten within a day, but it will keep for up to 3 days in the fridge.
Pickle Salsa Verde
Make the classic and fold in ¼ cup finely chopped pickled vegetables (such as carrots) along with 2 finely chopped Peppadews (sweet-hot pickled peppers).
Radish and Mint Salsa Verde
Make the classic and fold in 3 very finely sliced radishes and ½cup chopped fresh mint.
More ways (for any of the versions):
→ Spoon over slices of roast pork, warm or cold.
→ Drizzle over steamed potatoes.
→ Serve with rich fish, such as salmon and tuna.
Spiced Green Sauce
This delicious sauce is similar to a classic Middle Eastern skhug, with its sweet spices and chile pepper. My friend chef Samuel Smith developed this recipe at Ava Gene’s, where we use it on vegetables, grilled meats, and snacks of all kinds. It is a workhorse recipe, and you will find countless ways to use it in your own kitchen. To lower the chile heat, use milder chiles such as poblano or Anaheim.
» Makes 1 cup
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
Seeds from 4 green or black cardamom pods
½ cup deribbed, seeded, and roughly chopped fresh hot green chiles, such as serrano (2 to 4)
1 to 3 garlic cloves (to taste), smashed and peeled
2 cups lightly packed cilantro leaves
2 cups lightly packed flat-leaf parsley leaves
A pinch of ground cloves
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
About 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Put the coriander, cumin, and cardamom seeds into a dry skillet. Toast the spices lightly over medium heat, shaking the pan frequently, just until they become fragrant, about 4 minutes. Dump them out of the skillet onto a plate to cool, then grind finely in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle.
Put the chiles and garlic in a food processor and pulse a few times until they are fairly fine. Add the cilantro, parsley, toasted seeds, ground cloves, lemon zest, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and a few twists of black pepper. Pulse until all is finely chopped into a rough puree. With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil. Stop the processor before the sauce is completely blended and smooth—you want a slightly “bitty” texture.
Taste the sauce (be careful of the blade!) and adjust the seasoning with more salt, black pepper, lemon juice, or any of the spices—though show restraint with the spices because they can get overwhelming. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
More ways:
→ Season a pocket sandwich with pita bread and sliced leg of lamb.
→ Spread on grilled flatbreads as they come off the grill.
→ Drizzle over roasted red peppers, top with crumbled feta.
At the market For good chile flavor but not so much of the heat, choose an Anaheim or poblano chile rather than the quite spicy serrano or jalapeño.
Tonnato
Tonnato sauce is truly Italian, but you’ll recognize the flavors from the tuna sandwiches of your youth. The sauce works so well with so many vegetables, from raw to grilled to pickled.
» Makes about 1½ cups
Two 5-ounce cans oil-packed tuna, drained
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
About ⅓ cup good-quality mayonnaise (such as Hellmann’s or Best Foods)
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
About 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Put the tuna and salt in a food processor and pulse until it’s blended. Add ⅓ cup mayonnaise and pulse until the ingredients are getting creamy. With the processor running, drizzle in the olive oil and lemon juice and process until the tonnato is very smooth and creamy.
Taste and add more mayonnaise, olive oil, lemon juice, or salt. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week.
More ways:
→ Use as a dip for any raw, grilled, or roasted vegetables.
→ Spread on slices of cold roast pork or veal.
→ Thin it out with more lemon juice and toss with boiled and smashed new potatoes or add it to a romaine salad.
→ Spoon it on bread and top it with Soft-Cooked Eggs, tomatoes, and capers.
→ Use it in my charred broccoli dish.
BREADS, PASTRIES, AND GRAINS
Whole-Grain Carta di Musica
Carta di musica is a Sardinian flatbread whose name translates to “sheet of music,” presumably because they are both thin and brittle. We make it at the restaurant every day, and we’ve found several nontraditional uses for it. The flatbread is addictive, super simple, and fun to make. Several recipes in this book use it, but you’ll find so many things to put on it—even just olive oil and flaky salt is fantastic. If you can’t find (or don’t want to buy the small amount of) rye flour, just use more whole wheat.
» Makes 12 large crackers
1¾ cups (8 ounces by weight) whole wheat flour, plus a bit more for shaping
¼ cup (1 ounce by weight) light rye flour
¾ cup (4 ounces by weight) semolina
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup water
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Heat the oven to 450°F. Place your heaviest baking sheet in the oven to preheat. If you have a pizza stone, this is a perfect use for it.
Mix the whole wheat flour, rye flour, semolina, and salt in a big bowl and whisk until every-thing’s blended. Stir together the water and oil. Slowly add the liquid to the dry ingredients while you stir; you want to end up with a soft dough.
Scoop the dough onto the work surface and gently knead so that it comes together into a smoother bal
l of dough. Don’t knead aggressively, use a gentle pressure, and only work it for a minute or two. If it feels really sticky, work in a bit more whole wheat flour.
Roll the dough into a fat log and cut it into 12 equal portions. Cup your hand on top of one piece and move it in tight circles against the countertop, which should shape the piece into a tidy ball.
Cover the dough balls with a kitchen towel. You’ll work, shape, and bake only one at a time, because they bake so quickly.
Press a dough ball into as large a round as you can (don’t worry about making the shape perfect—what’s important here is to aim for an even thickness). Sometimes the dough is easiest to work on an unfloured counter, but if it’s sticking for you, then lightly dust the work surface.
Take a rolling pin and continue working the round so it is as thin as you can get it. After every few strokes, gently slide your outspread fingers underneath to release the round from the counter and to ease and stretch it bigger.
Watch out for very thin spots, which will burn (though a few charred spots are just fine). You can press together any holes that may form. Shaping the crackers will take a bit of practice, so count on the first couple being not great. The ingredients aren’t very expensive, so relax and enjoy the process, and if you have to make another batch of dough, so be it.
When you’ve rolled out one round, carefully take the heated baking sheet from the oven and set it down. Lift the dough round and lay it on the baking sheet. Don’t worry if you have a few tiny pleats.
Pop the sheet back into the oven and bake the cracker until you see that the bottom is browning nicely and the dough is puffing up a bit, 1 to 2 minutes. With tongs, flip the cracker and cook until the second side is browned. You want as even a browning as possible, but you’ll likely get darker and lighter spots, which is okay. It’s better to have a few burned spots than to have portions of the cracker that are too pale, because they will not be crisp. Remove the cracker from the oven and cool on a rack. The first side will always be the most attractive.
Put the baking sheet back in the oven while you roll out the next cracker. This explanation makes the process seem tricky and a hassle, but once you do it a couple of times, it becomes a lot of fun and you’ll feel like a genius because the breads are so thin and crisp.
The crackers will stay crisp for a couple of days, either just on the counter or, if you’re in a humid area, in an airtight container.
In the kitchen To transfer fragile doughs from work surface to baking pan, place your rolling pin on one edge of your dough round and carefully roll up the dough onto the pin. Position the pin so you’re right over the hot baking sheet and quickly unroll onto it. Don’t worry if you have a few tiny pleats.
Slightly Tangy Flatbreads
This recipe is easy, quick, and perfect to make for a party—you can set your dinner table with vegetable dishes and sauces and then keep the flatbreads coming to the table hot off the griddle as everyone is enjoying the food. These are definitely better freshly cooked; if you need to reheat some, I would brush with olive oil and heat in a hot oven, to get them slightly crisp around the edges.
» Makes 6
1 cup (4.5 ounces by weight) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 cup (4.5 ounces by weight) whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup plain whole-milk or low-fat yogurt (not Greek), plus more if needed
Put the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl and whisk to blend everything well. Make a well in the center of the bowl and add the yogurt. Mix the flour into the yogurt a little bit at a time, using your hands or a rubber spatula to blend. If the dough seems dry, add another small spoonful of yogurt.
When the flour is mostly all mixed with the yogurt, dump the dough onto a flour-dusted work surface and knead it gently until smooth, about 30 seconds. Cut it into 6 equal portions. Using a rolling pin and your hands, shape each portion to a nice round about ⅛ inch thick; don’t worry if the shapes are not perfect.
Heat a dry cast-iron skillet or griddle until it is super hot. Add the flatbreads, one or two at a time, depending on the size of your pan, and cook until slightly puffy and lightly browned and freckled with some charred spots, about 1 minute on each side. It’s better to overcook these than to undercook them, which would leave them doughy and heavy. Reduce the heat a touch if you find the breads are charring before the interiors are cooked; wipe out the inside of the pan between batches to remove any burned flour.
Let cool on a rack. These are best eaten within an hour or two of cooking.
Pecan Dough
This is a rich dough, meaning it has a high butter-to-flour ratio. That makes it a touch tricky to roll, as do the nuts, but the final crust is so delicious that it’s worth the tiny bit of fuss. You can substitute any nut for the pecan, in the same amount. The dough freezes well, too, so make a double batch and keep one in the freezer; it will stay perfect for 3 months or longer. Let frozen dough thaw overnight in the fridge.
» Makes enough for one 9-inch single-crust pie
½ cup pecans
1⅔ cups (7.25 ounces by weight) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 ounces very cold unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
2 tablespoons very cold water
Put the pecans in a food processor and pulse until they are very fine and uniform, though not to the point of pecan butter. Add the flour, sugar, and salt and pulse a few times to blend. Add the butter and pulse again until the largest piece is the size of a small pea.
With the processor running, drizzle in the water and process until the mixture climbs up the sides of the processor. Remove the top and squeeze a big pinch of the dough to see whether it’s still dry and crumbly or holds together and feels moist. If it is dry, pulse in a few more drops of water.
When the dough is the right consistency, dump it on a lightly floured counter and gather it into a ball. Push the dough away from you with the heel of your hand and then with a dough scraper or thin spatula, scrape it back into a ball. Repeat for a few strokes until the dough starts to come together. Don’t overwork it; it’s okay if it’s still slightly crumbly. Shape it into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for about 30 minutes; if you chill it longer, leave at room temperature for a few minutes before rolling, to avoid cracking.
Store in the fridge for up to 2 days; freeze for up to 3 months.
Very Flaky Pastry Dough
I like this dough for savory pies and galettes; it’s easy to work with yet still rich and buttery. Make a double batch and keep half in the freezer for up to 3 months.
» Makes enough for one 9-inch tart (or 8 hand pies)
4 ounces unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
1½ cups (6.75 ounces by weight) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup ice water
Spread the butter cubes on a plate and freeze for about 15 minutes. They should be very cold but not rock hard.
Mixer method: Combine the flour, salt, and butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle. Mix on low speed until the butter cubes are smashed up a bit and the chunks are about half their original size; don’t worry if the chunks aren’t uniform. With the mixer running, slowly pour about half the ice water into the flour and butter and mix just until the dough barely holds together; it will look quite shaggy. Take a big pinch and give it a squeeze. If it all holds together nicely and there’s barely any loose flour in the bowl, no need for more water. If it feels dry and powdery, add more water a few drops at a time; depending on your flour, you may need to add a bit more than the ¼ cup.
Hand method: To
ss the flour, salt, and butter in a wide bowl and cut the butter into smaller pieces with a dough scraper (also called a bench scraper) or a table knife. Pinch and press the mixture with your fingers to encourage the butter to form flattened pieces. Gradually add about half the ice water as you toss the flour mixture with a fork to evenly distribute the liquid. Don’t add all the liquid until you’re sure you need it. Test by taking a big pinch and giving it a squeeze. If it all holds together nicely and there’s barely any loose flour in the bowl, no need for more water. If it feels dry and powdery, add more water just a few drops at a time; depending on your flour, you may need to add a bit more than the ¼ cup.
for both methods: Dump the dough onto a floured counter and shape it into a mound. Using the heel of your hand, press the mound to flatten a bit, pushing away from you slightly to smear the pieces of butter into the flour. With a dough scraper (bench scraper), scoop up an edge of the mound, fold it on top of itself, and continue pressing and smearing. You’re basically kneading the dough to make it more workable but you’re keeping larger layers of butter intact, which will make the dough very flaky. Continue 5 or 6 more rounds of pressing, smearing, and folding, until the dough no longer feels shaggy and is smooth but not sticky. If the dough is soft at this point, wrap in plastic and chill for 20 to 40 minutes. You can make the dough ahead and freeze it well wrapped for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before rolling.
Farro
You don’t have to toast farro before you cook it, but I know that once you’ve tasted farro made with this toasting method, you’ll never look back. This basic method calls for 3 to 5 minutes of toasting, but if you’re patient and have some time, you can toast the farro even more deeply. Stir constantly and keep an eye on it; this will only intensify the flavor.
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