Mario Batali

My earliest memories of chicken cacciatore are of the Italian chain restaurant variety, of sauces loaded with chunky bell pepper and an inexplicable blanket or filling of cheese on or inside the chicken. The dish was more heavy than hearty, and as such it was never a favorite of mine. As I got older and my love of Italian food led me to convert to the church of Marcella, Lidia and Mario, I learned there was a better way. A simpler way, in fact, because really, this “hunters-style” braise needs little more than mushrooms, onions, tomato and herbs to make it a cacciatore.

This is a loose adaptation of Mario’s Molto Italiano recipe which keeps his addition of pancetta as well as the delicious garlic and rosemary rub for the chicken, but I’ve chosen to go with whole, small cipollini onions in place of diced, as well as the richer, earthier taste of dried porcini mushrooms in the sauce. Don’t let the browning and peeling/chopping steps put you off, because once everything is in the pot all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the delicious aromas filling your home – the end result is well worth the effort, and a satisfying meal on a blustery winter night.

Hunter’s-Style Chicken

1 chicken (about 3 lbs.), cut into quarters, or an equivalent amount of skin-on parts of your choice
3 large garlic peeled garlic cloves
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
Olive oil
1 cup dried porcini
1 cup hot tap water
12 small cipollini onions, peeled and trimmed
2 thick slices pancetta
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup white wine
1 28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
1 tablespoon dried oregano or marjoram
Several sprigs fresh thyme
Red chile flakes to taste

Arrange the chicken pieces on a platter and pat them dry. In a food processor or mini chopper, pulse the garlic, salt, pepper and rosemary, then add enough olive oil to form a thick paste. Rub the paste all over the chicken pieces and let them sit in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

Place porcini in a bowl, cover with hot tap water and let them sit until the mushrooms are soft. Remove the mushrooms from the liquid and set aside. Strain the liquid to remove any grit and reserve.

Warm the olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat and add the chicken pieces in batches, allowing them to brown on all sides. When the last chicken pieces have been browned, remove them to a platter, discard the oil and any burnt garlic from the pot and return it to the heat. Add the pancetta and let it render and brown for a few minutes. Add the onions and porcini and a pinch of salt. Make a hot spot on the side of the pan and add the tomato paste, allowing it to cook for a minute or two before stirring it through.

Add the wine and let it come to a boil, then reduce the heat and add the reserved porcini liquid, the tomatoes with their juice, the oregano or marjoram, the thyme sprigs and the chile flakes. Stir well, crushing the tomatoes with the back of a spoon, then return the chicken pieces to the pan along with any juices that have accumulated on the platter. Cover the pan and cook over low heat for 30 minutes or more, until the chicken is cooked through and very tender and the sauce is slightly thickened.

Serve chicken and sauce over soft polenta, garnishing with additional fresh rosemary or thyme if desired.

One of the surest signs of spring in these parts is the appearance of ramps at markets and on menus around town. For those of you who may not have heard of them before, ramps are a variety of wild leek native to states along the eastern coast of the U.S. from the Carolinas northward. They’re only around for a short time, and they’re delicious, so when they’re available, we tend to binge on them.

When word got out on Saturday that the ramps had finally hit Union Square, we were sure that they’d be gone by the time we made it in to the city, but to our surprise and delight, there were plenty left when we arrived. We grabbed four fat bunches and began brainstorming.

I recently saw a segment on NY1 featuring chef April Bloomfield of The Spotted Pig; they did a brief interview and shot lots of footage of her in the kitchen, and I noticed at one point she was preparing bundles of ramps with the stems wrapped in bacon. I used half of our ramps in that preparation as part of our Sunday brunch, and we decided to use the remainder for Monday’s dinner in an equally simple preparation – spaghetti with ramps. I basically riffed on Mario Batali’s recipe, tinkering with the proportions a bit and spiking the toasted breadcrumbs with a bit of lemon zest to brighten up the flavors. It’s a delicious dish, quick and easy to put together, and it really lets the flavor of the ramps shine through.

Spaghetti with Ramps

2 bundles small ramps, cleaned and trimmed (ours were very small so we used them whole; if you have larger ramps, separate the white and green parts, and allow the whites to cook for a few minutes before adding the greens)
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon red chile flakes
Kosher salt
1/3 to 3/4 lb. thin spaghetti
1/8 cup breadcrumbs, toasted
Zest of 1/2 lemon

Cook spaghetti in an abundant amount of boiling salted water about 7 minutes, until it is just short of al dente.

While the spaghetti cooks, warm the olive oil in a skillet. Add the ramps, chile flakes and a pinch of salt and sauté until bright green. Add the spaghetti with a couple of tablespoons of the pasta water and toss through. Allow the pasta to continue cooking another minute or two and serve in warmed bowls. Mix breadcrumbs and lemon zest and sprinkle on top of the pasta.

Yesterday’s damp and rainy weather kept me from spending time in the garden as I had planned, so instead I decided to clean out and reorganize the freezer. I have a bad habit of cramming stuff in there and just letting it go until the door barely stays closed, and also of forgetting what we’ve got in there in the first place, so as I went through, I took inventory.

It’s fun to find little gems lurking in the deepest recesses of the freezer. When I discovered that I had one bag of basic tomato sauce left over from my final batch of last summer I knew immediately that I wanted to do something with it, so I pulled that out along with a package of pancetta (pretty much a freezer staple in our home) and decided to make Bucatini All’Amatriciana.

I basically used Mario Batali’s recipe for the version served at Babbo, though I had to substitute two large shallots for the red onion. It’s a great dish, a little sweet, a little spicy, with a rich porky flavor that’s really satisfying - what a way to transform odds and ends and pantry staples into something delicious.

Wine Pairing: The lovely and charming Dan at Uva Wines recommended the 2004 Villa Malacari Rosso Conero, a Montepulciano with deep, rich fruit and spice notes. As always, he picked us a winner.

When Mike and I set out for the Greenmarket in Union Square on Saturday morning, my original plan for dinner was to pick up a nice fat chicken to use in a Provencal-style stew with lots of garlic and herbs, but when we saw the beautiful guinea hens that Violet Hill Farm was offering, we had to get one.

I decided on a whim to do a google search for guinea hen preparations when we got home from the market, and turned up this recipe for "Guinea Hen with Red Wine: Faraona al Vino Rosso" from Mario Batali. We had everything we needed for it with the exception of grappa, but we swapped in an equal amount of Armagnac instead. (Ah, the joys of having a well-stocked bar…)

I made a few other minor adjustments to the recipe: I cooked the crumbled sausage first (not sweet sausage as indicated in the recipe, but Flying Pigs Farm’s excellent “Mike’s Grandmother’s Hot Italian”), drained most of the fat, then added a bit of tomato paste and allowed it all to caramelize before adding the sausage to the stew. I also added a bit of marjoram and the soaking liquid from the dried mushrooms.

The resulting stew was rich and deeply flavorful, the flavors of the wine, mushrooms and sausage all definitely present, but none overpowering. The meat was some of the most tender and juicy poultry I have ever tasted. I was satisfied with one bowl, but I wish I had had room for another (Mike did). I bet it’s going to be fantastic reheated for lunch.