Fast, Fresh & Green (10 page)

3
Remove the pan from the heat
, uncover, and add the lemon juice, mustard, and the remaining ½ Tbsp butter. Stir well with a silicone spatula as the butter melts and the sauce becomes creamy. Toss in the parsley, stir, and transfer the vegetables and sauce to a serving platter or dinner plates. Garnish with the Toasted Parmigiano Bread Crumbs, if desired. (You may not need all of them. Add them immediately before serving to keep them crisp.)

Serves 3 to 4

Tips:
I like to use English muffins for bread crumbs. I rip several of them into big pieces and whiz them in the food processor (or even in a coffee grinder). Then I store them in the freezer. They defrost in minutes.

A rasp-style grater (such as a Microplane) works well for finely grating Parmigiano.

Fingerlings. Just the name of these potatoes tickles me, and then there’s that great knobby shape. They’re fun to cook with, and because they’re relatively high in starch, braising is a great way to treat them. The starch helps them to brown up quickly in the pan, but the braising liquid keeps their fluffy texture from drying out.

2 TBSP EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

8 LARGE GARLIC CLOVES,
each peeled and cut crosswise into 2 or 3 pieces

½ TSP KOSHER SALT,
and more as needed

12 OZ/340 G SMALL FINGERLING POTATOES,
halved lengthwise

½ CUP/120 ML LOW-SODIUM CHICKEN BROTH,
and more if necessary

1 TBSP UNSALTED BUTTER

2 TSP FINELY CHOPPED FRESH ROSEMARY

FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER

½ TO 1 TSP SHERRY VINEGAR

1
In a 10-in/25-cm straight-sided sauté pan
with a lid, heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the garlic, and sauté just until the oil becomes fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle the salt over the bottom of the pan and arrange the potato halves, cut side down, in the pan among the garlic. Cover the pan loosely, leaving the lid partially askew to let a little steam escape, and cook until the bottoms of the potatoes are nicely browned, 7 to 9 minutes. (Move the pan around occasionally for even browning.)

2
Pour in the broth
(it will sputter a bit), partially cover again, and reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook, without stirring, until the broth reduces to 1 or 2 Tbsp, 5 to 7 minutes. Pierce a potato with a paring knife. It should be just tender. (If not, add ¼ cup/60 ml cup of broth or water to the pan, partially cover, bring to a simmer, and cook until reduced to 1 or 2 Tbsp. Check again.) Add the butter and rosemary to the pan and stir the vegetables. Cook until the butter has melted and the rosemary has softened a bit and released its aroma, 1 to 2 minutes. As the butter melts, stir and scrape the bottom of the pan to incorporate any browned bits. Season the potatoes with a little more salt and pepper, and season with sherry vinegar to taste. Transfer the vegetables to a serving dish and stir and scrape out any remaining pan sauce over them. Serve warm.

Serves 3 to 4

I know I probably sound like a broken record (well, that dates me!), but fennel is yet another vegetable that really benefits from this quick-braising technique. Browning it first amps up its sweet anise flavor, and simmering it softens its tough texture to a perfectly pleasant al dente. Add a touch of cream to that, and … yum. Here I decided to appropriate pink pasta sauce (tomato, cream, and vodka) and use it on fennel, because tomatoes and fennel go together so well. I love the richness of this dish. For some reason, I adore it with roast chicken, though it would be a natural with pork loin or lamb, too. I’ve added a lighter, lemony variation on braised fennel at the end of this recipe, so that you’ll be sure to give this treatment a try, even if slightly rich food is not your thing.

Fennel bulbs vary a lot in size, but you will usually be able to find a large one at the grocery store. If the fennel bulbs look small, buy two just to be sure. The recipe works best with the fennel wedges covering the bottom of the pan.

¾ CUP/175 ML LOW-SODIUM CHICKEN BROTH

2 TBSP VODKA

¼ CUP/60 ML HEAVY CREAM

2 TSP TOMATO PASTE

1 LARGE FENNEL BULB (
about 1 lb 5 oz/600 g with stalks attached
)

2 TBSP UNSALTED BUTTER

1 TBSP EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

1 TSP KOSHER SALT

FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER

1
Combine the broth
and vodka in a liquid measure and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the heavy cream and tomato paste and set aside.

2
Cut the stalks off the fennel
. Chop enough of the fennel fronds to yield 1 tsp; set aside. Trim any brown spots from the outside of the bulb and cut the bulb in half. Notch most of the core out from both halves, leaving a bit of it to hold the wedges together. (You should have about 1 lb/455 g of fennel remaining.) Cut each fennel half into 6 thick wedges.

3
In a 10-in/25-cm straight-sided sauté pan
with a lid, melt the butter with the olive oil over medium heat. Arrange the fennel wedges, one cut side down, in one layer in the pan. Season with the salt and a few grinds of pepper. Cook until the fennel wedges are nicely browned, 7 to 8 minutes. (If the heat on your burner is uneven, rotate the pan so that all the wedges brown evenly.) Turn the wedges over to another cut side with tongs. Pour the broth and vodka mixture over the fennel. Cover the pan, leaving the lid slightly askew so that some steam escapes. Make sure the liquid is gently simmering (turn the heat down or up if necessary), and cook until the liquid is reduced to just a few tablespoons, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the lid, add the tomatocream mixture, and cook, gently turning the fennel wedges with tongs, and stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan, until the cream thickens and coats the fennel, about 2 minutes.

4
Remove the pan from the heat.
Serve the fennel and sauce right away, garnished with the chopped fennel fronds.

Serves 3

Follow the recipe for Silky Braised Fennel in Pink Sauce, but eliminate the vodka (keep the chicken broth amount the same), the tomato paste, and the heavy cream. Reduce the amount of salt to ¾ tsp. When chopping some of the fennel fronds, double the quantity—about 2 tsp total. When the fennel has finished braising and the broth is reduced, remove the pan from the heat and add 2 tsp fresh lemon juice and the chopped fennel fronds and stir well. Transfer to a serving dish.

Believe it or not, baby artichokes don’t take tons of time to prepare; you can trim nine of them in about 10 minutes. (They don’t have the fuzzy choke in the middle, which needs to be removed in bigger artichokes.) Since they’re now more available in grocery stores, I wanted to include this recipe so that you could learn the absolute best way to cook them—braising. I almost didn’t because prepping and cooking does take 45 to 50 minutes total. But every time I make these, people devour them.

The dish has a complex and alluring flavor, because the artichokes and shallots are browned in pancetta drippings first, simmered in chicken stock, and finished with butter and lemon. You could probably eat these and nothing else for dinner (and some of my testers did). But they’re also the perfect side dish for roast lamb—and, of course, roast chicken, roast beef, roast pork, and I don’t know, maybe roast turkey, too! You can tell I like these.

2 WHOLE LEMONS,
halved

9 BABY ARTICHOKES

3 TBSP UNSALTED BUTTER

1½ OZ/45 G THINLY SLICED PANCETTA,
chopped (about
¹
/
₃
cup)

6 SMALL SHALLOTS,
halved and peeled

½ TSP KOSHER SALT,
and more as needed

1 CUP/240 ML LOW-SODIUM CHICKEN BROTH

1
Set aside 1 lemon half for the sauce.
Squeeze and drop 2 of the remaining lemon halves into a medium bowl filled halfway with water. Cut the stems off the artichokes at the base. Peel away all of the outer leaves of each artichoke until you are left with a mostly lemon-limey-colored artichoke (it will be somewhat cone-shaped). The top third will still be a light green. With a sharp knife, cut about ¾ in/2 cm off each top, and cut the artichokes in half. With the remaining lemon half, rub the cut sides of the artichokes and drop the artichokes into the water.

2
In a 10-in/25-cm straight-sided sauté pan
with a lid, melt 2 Tbsp of the butter over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook, stirring, until crisp (about 5 minutes), turning the heat down to low if the drippings in the pan get too brown.

3
Remove the pan from the heat
and transfer the pancetta with a slotted spoon to a paper–towel–lined plate. Arrange the artichoke halves (with whatever water still clings to them) and the shallot halves, cut side down, in one snug layer in the pan. Sprinkle with the ½ tsp salt.

4
Return the pan to medium-high heat
and cook, without stirring, until the bottoms of the artichokes and the shallots are well browned, 6 to 7 minutes. (If the heat on your stove top is uneven, rotate the pan so that the bottoms get evenly browned.) Pour in the broth and cover the pan, leaving the lid slightly askew so that some steam escapes. Simmer gently, turning down the heat if necessary, until the broth is reduced to 1 or 2 Tbsp, 12 to 14 minutes. Uncover, add the remaining 1 Tbsp butter, and squeeze the reserved lemon half over all. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir, scraping up as much of the browned bits as possible. Taste for salt and immediately transfer to a serving platter. Sprinkle with the reserved pancetta.

Serves 3

METHOD: Hands-on sautéing

EQUIPMENT: 10-in/25-cm straight-sided sauté pan, 12-in/30.5-cm nonstick skillet, heat-proof spatula, tongs

HEAT: The stove top, cranked up

RECIPES:
Foundation Recipe for Hands-On Sautéing •
82

Corn Sauté with Chile and Lime •
83

Sautéed Shiitakes, Spinach, and Scallions •
84

Sautéed Sugar Snaps with Salami Crisps •
85

Sautéed Carrots with Warm Olive and Mint Dressing •
87

Quick Collard Greens, Confetti-Style •
88

Sautéed Savoy Cabbage with Apple Cider Butter •
89

Sautéed Asparagus with Pancetta and Parmigiano for Two •
91

Brown Butter Summer Squash “Linguine” •
93

Spinach with Shallots and Parmigiano •
94

Mahogany Mushrooms •
95

Most likely you are in one of two camps about sautéing. Either you think it’s a fancy French term for something that you can’t imagine you would want to fuss with, or you think that it’s something so simple that everyone knows how to do it. I’m sorry to have to tell you that if you’re in either camp, you’re wrong. Sautéing isn’t difficult or laborious. But a good sauté—one that yields yummy vegetables—isn’t a given, unless you follow a few simple tricks. And I mean simple.

Crank up the heat, and don’t crowd the pan. If you did those two things, you’d be well on your way to nicely browned vegetables that still maintain some textural integrity. If your pan’s not hot enough, you just won’t get the browning that gives sautéed vegetables their characteristically yummy, caramelized flavor. And in most cases (though, after this, I’ll give you a whole chapter of exceptions, just to confuse you), if the pan’s too crowded, your vegetables will give off moisture and steam before they have a chance to brown. In fact, high-moisture vegetables like zucchini won’t brown at all before breaking down completely if they are cooked in a crowded pan.

Next, we have to talk about fat (don’t squirm): You don’t want your vegetables to be swimming in fat, but you do need a little bit of this stuff to carry the heat and flavor around the pan. I like to sauté in olive oil, but I also like the flavor of butter. However, butter will burn over high heat because of its milk solids. A good compromise is a mix of both. You can get away with less fat in a nonstick pan; just remember that you will also get less of that browned stuff on the bottom of the pan. Sounds good, you think, right? Less cleanup. But that browned stuff has a ton of flavor in it and can often be reincorporated into the dish for more flavor. Whichever kind of pan you use, have a variety of hand tools nearby for stirring (tongs, heat-proof spatulas, wooden spoons). And keep in mind that
sauté
is from the French verb
sauter
, which means “to jump.” This isn’t an Olympic activity, but you will want to stay close by your pan and stir frequently. The really good news is that sautéing is quick; most of the recipes in this chapter come together easily in under 30 minutes.