Simply Red

The New York Times ^ | August 10, 2003 | MARK ROTELLA

[sarcasm]

Cut that out! I'm now ravenous.

[carlo3b]

Not as hard as you would think, this was a feature in one of our restaurants in New York (Le Pavillon).... but oh so delicious.

Lobster Ravioli with Crab meat Cream Sauce

Lobster Ravioli:

• 2 ounces unsalted butter
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped shallots
• 16 ounces cooked lobster meat
• 4 ounces cooked snow crab meat
• 2 ounces Cognac
• 2 ounces ricotta
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives
• Pasta dough, recipe follows
• Egg white, slightly beaten

Crab meat Cream Sauce:

• 2 ounces unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon chopped shallots
• 4 ounces whole chunk Maryland crab meat
• 2 ounces Cognac
• 5 ounces tomato sauce
• 10 ounces heavy cream
• Salt

For the Lobster Ravioli:
1) In a large sauté pan, add the butter and melt.
2) Add the garlic and shallots and sauté until golden brown.
3) Add lobster, crab, and chives and sauté 2 to 3 minutes. Add Cognac and reduce for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for 30 minutes, until room temperature.
4) Chop lobster mixture into small chunks. In a large bowl, combine lobster mixture and ricotta and mix well.
Season with salt and pepper.

Lay out the first piece of pasta dough on the table and place 1/4 ounce mounds of stuffing 2 inches apart. Using a pastry brush, brush egg white around each bit of stuffing, making the dough damp not wet. Take the second piece and cover the bottom piece with the stuffing. Press around each ravioli being careful not to squeeze the stuffing out. Using a round ravioli cutter, cut each ravioli round and put on a sheet pan sprinkled with semolina. Gently place ravioli in boiling water and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente.

For the sauce:
1) Using a 12-inch sauté pan at medium heat, add butter, shallots, and sauté until shallots are translucent.
2) Add the crab meat and sauté for about 2 to 3 minutes.
3) Remove the sauté pan from the burner and add Cognac then place pan back on the heat to cook off the alcohol. (Please beware: the Cognac will create a large flame.) Once the flame stops, add the tomato sauce and cream with salt and cook
until it reduces half way and becomes creamy. Add the cooked ravioli to the sauce and let cook together for about 1 minute before serving.
Garnish with chives.

Pasta Dough:

• 8 ounces durum flour
• 8 ounces semolina
• 1 egg
• Water, as needed
• Pinch salt

Add all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl until all
ingredients are blended. Place mixture on countertop and knead until
the texture is smooth and well mixed. Separate the pasta dough into 2
equal pieces and put one piece aside. Flour the first piece, just
enough to prevent sticking and roll out with a rolling pin to about
1/8th-inch thick. Repeat procedure with second piece making it as
close to the shape as the first.

[sarcasm]

I give up. I'm now going out for lunch.

[carlo3b]

Ha!... suffer, I have sauce on the stove, the old fashion kind that you can't pass the pot without lifting the lid, and dunking the hard crusted bread down into it, and dripping it on your t-shirt (assuming you are wearing one)...LOLOL

[carlo3b]

VEAL/CHICKEN PARMIGIANA

3 lb. veal/chicken cutlets  (8 cutlets)(6 chicken boneless skinless)
3 c. Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1 c. flour
1 egg
1 1/2c. milk
1/2c. vegetable oil
1 bell pepper
8 slices Mozzarella cheese
1 can sliced mushrooms (fresh if you have them)
Salt and Pepper
Your Favorite Spaghetti Sauce

    Salt and pepper cutlets. Mix egg and milk together, dip the cutlets into the flour, then the egg mixture and then into seasoned bread crumbs. Fry in oil until browned. In casserole spread a little sauce on bottom. Put cutlets in on top with a little sauce. Then put mushrooms and two slices of mozzarella cheese on each cutlet. Top with a slice of bell pepper and cook until hot and bubbly, about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

[jocon307]

N train, no?

[carlo3b]

In Brooklyn, I would encourage you to try Areo and Da Tomasso. In Queens, Piccolo Venezia. Wonderful old time rich, red, full bodied sauce...yummmmm

[jocon307]

Copy that! Will try it soonest. Hubby says I don't pound the veal enough so I'll try to improve on that count. Thanks!

[cyborg]

Oh, the effects of affluence. In the '60's and '70's the ethnics couldn't wait finally 'make it'. The minute they had enough $$ to get out of the ethnic neighborhoods they fled to 'the country'. Now 'the country' is the 'burbs'.

*Not only affluence but to many of these ethnics, being American was looking,dressing,talking,acting like an American. It wasn't American to be called Ralph Lipshitz, but it's American to be called Ralph Lauren. Up till recently, many Americans of Italian descent changed their name. Of course, many wanted houses instead of saltwater flats, tenements and ghettos where most Suthern Italians were shoveled into when they exited Ellis Island.

That was the end of the ethnic neighborhoods and they deteriorated as minorities moved in and we were left with blocks of old folks interspersed with poor minorities.

*Squalor exists where people of an underclass exist, where you warehouse them and stuff them. Depends on the neighborhood. My father grew up in an pre-depression Italian tenement, and believe me, the rich, WASPY types on Long Island cried shame about those 'filthy rags moving in'.

This clearly resulted in a loss of identity for those 2nd and 3rd generation Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, etc. They are now searching, in vain, for something that will tell them who they are. Like restaurants. And ethnic food---made in restaurants. Kind of sad this article, in my opinion.

*This method is searching for roots is not uncommon in other people searching for roots they think they lost. The only person responsible for retaining connections to one's ethnicity and peoples, is that person themselves. I grew up in a very ethnic household, West Indian and Italian, and EVERY DAY was ethnicity but it wasn't forced. Both my parents are immigrants, but they didn't ditch their way of life to fit in. I live on Long Island and the guido-wannabes make me laugh. They make me laugh as much as those blacks who run around talking about their 'african' heritage sporting kufis and muslim names. Besides do you really need an ethnicity to tell you who you are? I think there are more important things in life.

You are right. This article is sad. Almost as sad as the show 'The Restaurant' with Rocco DiSpirito. I think you would like it... like throwing food at your tv!

[Lawgvr1955]

anybody in the St. Louis area knows that if you want real Italian food, you go to *The Hill*...

Ah, the Hill!! Home of Yogi Berra and the best Italian food in St.Louis. I wish I wasn't 100 miles away from there. I could go for some Cunneto's canneloni about now, or an Amaghetti's special for watching the Cards tonight.

[mystery-ak]

Amaghetti's meatball sandwich is my favorite...Im 100 miles away too, I always stop at the Hill when in town to visit my relatives.....Can't remember the name of the bakery, but it's a major stop for my family to load up on treats to bring home.

[carlo3b]

I attended their grand opening in the mid 70's..a great family, and wonderful food.. Vince and Joey Cunetto.. WOW does that bring back memories..

[Lawgvr1955]

I attended their grand opening in the mid 70's..a great family, and wonderful food.. Vince and Joey Cunetto.. WOW does that bring back memories..

To me that is part of the charm of family restaraunts, the memories. Thinking of the Hill reminds me of family and friends (now deceased or moved away) and happy times. For some reason the best times I recall are in "mom and pop" places and not the chains. Probably part of the special treatment you get in a family place enhances the experience.

[sarcasm]

I've been to Piccolo Venezia - excellent food.
I had to settle
for pizza
for lunch

[kitkat]

Carlo, I was just about to ping you when I saw your post.

YES, please, PLEASE give us a recipe for rich, red pasta.

All the Italian restaurants I've been in for several years (including NYC) have served watery sauce that doesn't even cover the pasta. In fact, they serve pasta in a soup bowl to contain the pathetic sauce, and the drowned pasta is sitting on the bottom of the bowl. GAK!

But, Carlo, I'm not Italian and I don't know from fresh tomatoes. Do you have a recipe that doesn't call for fresh tomatoes? Anything else, I'll happily do. YUM!

Now I'll go back and read your other recipes.

[carlo3b]

Ok, you asked, and these are the real thingys. The first is a true greaseball gravy.. rich, garlic, oregano, bread dippin sauce! Just remember, if you ask any Italian family how to make the real thing, you will get a fight about which way to do it, even if they live under the same roof... Bwhahhahahhahhah

OLD FASHION ITALIAN MEAT SAUCE

This recipe makes plenty of sauce for two meals, so enjoy some with this menu and freeze the remainder for another time. The sauce is great over tortellini, penne or fusilli.

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon of dried Parsley
• 3/4 pound extra-lean ground beef
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 28 ounce can Italian plum tomatoes (yes, you may use tomato sauce, but it is different, trust me)
• 1 16 ounce, or 2, 8-ounce cans tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, (sprinkled over while boiling)
• 1/8 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper (to taste)
• Salt and pepper
• Freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

1) Heat oil in heavy, medium size saucepan over medium heat.
2) Add onion and cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.
3) Add ground beef parsley, and fresh garlic and sauté until meat is no longer pink, breaking up with fork, about 5 minutes.
4) Puree tomatoes with juices in processor. Add to saucepan. Add canned tomato paste, herbs and dried crushed red pepper. Simmer 45 minutes to an hour and a half (until it thickens), stirring occasionally and seasoning sauce by taste, with salt and pepper. Some folks add a tablespoon of sugar, however we do not.

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain well. Place pasta in large bowl. Add enough sauce to coat; stir. Serve, passing cheese separately.
2-4 servings; can be easily doubled or tripled.

---

Italian Pasta with Bolognese Meat Sauce

This is quite different than southern Italian red sauce, and a traditional northern Italian tomato sauce. Did you know that northern Italians eat more Rice, and Polenta than pasta?

• 2 Tbls olive oil
• 1/2 c medium onion, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 c minced carrot
• 1/2 c chopped celery
• 16 oz ground veal, or 8 oz each, lean beef and pork
• 1 c whole milk
• 2 x 12 - 14oz cans Italian plum tomatoes, diced, and drained
• 2 tsp. Salt
• 1 tsp. fresh ground pepper
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 12 oz your favorite pasta, prepared by following package instructions
• 3 oz freshly ground Parmesan cheese, plus more available for guests tastes
• 1 tsp. of fresh or 1/2 tsp. dry, parsley (optional)

1) In large heavy saucepan, heat oil; add onion and garlic and sauté until onion is translucent.
2) Add carrot and celery and sauté for about 3 minutes; add meat and cook, stirring constantly with a fork, until meat is crumbly and loses its pink color.
3) Add milk and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until some of liquid has evaporated, about 3-5 minutes; add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thick and creamy, about 30-45 minutes.
4) Meanwhile boil pasta, until it begins to stretch when pulled (al dente), quickly drain, and toss immediately into meat mixture, and sprinkle with cheese, and parsley. Toss as you serve each guest.
Makes 4-6 servings

[Irene Adler]

"At the next table sat a tiny man slumped in his chair, known to everyone as Uncle Louie."

Wow, they even name the chairs. The place IS homey.

[kitkat]

Carlo, Than......wait a minute. I have to cover the keyboard. I think the drool might get me electrocuted. There! OK. Typing might be sloppy, but...
................................THANK YOU...................................

That sounds just right. And no tomatoes to peel. Carlo, this is exactly what I've been searching for. Can't wait to eat red, rich spaghetti sauce again.

YUM.....SLURP!

[Jacvin]

I've been to Piccolo Venezia also. About 5 or 6 years ago.

Very good.

[carlo3b]

It was my pleasure,... enjoy!