A Zuni Dinner

Wine:

DeRose 2002 Zinfandel
Debit05 Croatia White Wine

We had Bea over for dinner. We made one of our favorite salads from The Zuni Café Cookbook: Caesar Salad. It is a great recipe We like to serve the romaine leaves whole, that way you can pick up the leaf and eat with your hands. Messy but fun, plus you get to lick your fingers at the table!

For the pasta we made PASTA ALL 'AMATRICIANA, a very simple but delicious Sauce with Canned Whole Tomatoes and sautéed onions and my favorite seasoning: bacon. We served it with bucattelo pasta which looks like regular pasta but actually as a tube. It holds the sauce. We topped with grated pecorino from The Cheese Store of Silverlake.
This recipe is also from The Zuni Cookbook.

It is amazing that you can make great tomato pasta in the fall without fresh tomatoes.





PASTA with BRAISED BACON & ROASTED TOMATO SAUCE
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Zuni’s version of the much-loved dish from Abruzzo, PASTA ALL 'AMATRICIANA, Since the traditional signature ingredient, guanciale {tender pig-cheek bacon], is not available to us, we blanch and slow-cook a piece of slab bacon, which renders much of the fat and mellows strong cures. Consider braising a larger chunk of bacon than you think you will need; you can use the extra for other. I like the tender leftover bits and scraps fried in the same pan with eggs, with a trickle of the bacon braising juices spooned over the top. You can prepare this multipurpose bacon up to a week in advance, which is a boon. But for those times when braised bacon is not an option, make this dish with little strips of thickly sliced bacon. (Brown them while the pasta boils, then drain off most of the fat, stir in the peppery tomato sauce, and simmer together for a minute or two.}
We always make this sauce with canned tomatoes-roasting them concentrates their flavor and gives them a fleshy texture.

Pasta all'amatriciana is traditionally made with bucatini (also called perciatelle], but penne, penne rigate, and spaghetti are good alternatives. Offer freshly grated pecorino romano or pecorino sardo to garnish; the salty, feral flavor is a good match for this aggressive sauce. Parmigiano-Reggiano would taste out of place here.
Wine: Rioja Reserva Vina Ardanza, La Rioja Alta, 1995
FOR 4 TO 5 SERVINGS:
for the braised bacon {makes 1/2 to 3/4 pound]:

3/4 to 1 pound slab bacon, in one piece, skin removed
About 1/2 cup dry white wine
1 bay leaf, crumbled
1 small carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
About 1/2 cup Chicken Stock
About 1/2 cup dry white vermouth
1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
1 small yellow onion, thickly sliced

For the roasted tomato sauce {makes about 2-1/2 cups):
2-1/2 cups drained canned whole tomatoes, juice reserved
1 bay leaf
Salt
Sugar, if needed
About 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
8 ounces sliced yellow onion (about 1 medium onion]
1 pound bucatini, penne, penne rigate,or spaghetti
6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
Freshly grated pecorino romano or pecorino sardo, to taste
1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, plus more for serving

Preparing the braised bacon:
Preheat the oven to 300°.
Place the bacon in a wide pot and add cold water to cover by a few inches, over medium heat, bring to a simmer, and cook until the bacon softens a little, 5 to 10 minutes. Drain and rinse. {This process will draw out some of the sweet-salty brine and more important, rehydrate the bacon, to produce a tender, succulent result.}
Place the bacon fat side up in a shallow flameproof baking dish just large enough to hold it and the vegetables in a single layer (A 1-quart gratin dish should work; cut the bacon into 2 pieces if necessary}. Add the carrot, celery, onion, and bay leaf and moisten with equal parts of the wine, vermouth, and stock, adding enough to come to a depth of 1/2 inch. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cover with parchment paper and then with foil, dull side out, transfer to the oven, and bake until melting tender, about 2-1/2 hours.
Uncover the baking dish, raise the-heat to broil, and leave just long enough the color the surface, 3 to 5 minutes. By now the bacon will have rendered about 30 percent of its weight, most of it in fat. Leave to cool completely in the baking dish, then skim or scrape off and discard the rendered fat. Strain and save the braising liquid to flavor beans, soups, or braised greens. (I usually discard the braising vegetables as too strong and too cooked to be of interest.}
If not using the bacon right away, cool completely, then replace in a clean baking dish, add the strained liquid, cover, and refrigerate.

Preparing the tomato sauce:
Preheat the oven to 500°.

Halve the tomatoes and place cut side down in a shallow roasting pan or gratin dish that holds them in one crowded layer. They shouldn't be stacked, or they will steam and stew rather than dry out and color. Add any juice they released when you cut them in half, plus enough of the reserved juice to come to a depth of 1/4 inch. Drizzle with a tablespoon or two of the olive oil.
Roast until the tomatoes char slightly and are bubbling around the edges, about 15 minutes. Use a dough cutter to very coarsely chop in the roasting dish.
Shortly before the tomatoes are done, in a 12-inch skillet, cook the onions in about 3 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium-high heat until they begin to color at the edges, about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat and stir in the garlic, pepper, and bay leaf.
When the onions are just beginning to soften through, stir in the warm toma¬toes and another few tablespoons of olive oil. Salt lightly to taste, and add a pinch or two of sugar if you find the tomatoes too tart. Add a spoonful of the reserved tomato juice if needed to keep the tomatoes saucy. Simmer briefly, just long enough to combine the elements, but without sacrificing their textures and indi¬viduality. Set aside.

Cooking and saucing the pasta:
Cut the braised bacon into strips about 1/4 inch thick and I inch long.
Drop the pasta into 6 quarts rapidly boiling water seasoned with a scant 2 tablespoons salt {a little more if using kosher salt}. Stir, and cook until al dente.
Meanwhile, brown the bacon strips in a 12-inch skillet or 3-quart saute pan over medium heat, stirring as needed, until both sides are slightly colored, a few minutes at most. If the bacon seems dry, add a trickle of olive oil. Stir in the tomato sauce. Simmer together for a minute or so.
Drain the pasta well and fold into the tomato sauce. Offer the pecorino and additional black pepper.