Recipes for Life (12 page)

It was one of Bunky’s rare speechless moments.

I had many marvelous moments on that film, including working with Lee Marvin for the first time. But the best thing that happened on
The Klansman
was meeting Luciana Paluzzi, a beautiful Italian lady, both inside and out. Like Ursula, Luciana was one of the classic James Bond beauties. She has remained a very dear friend and has given me one of my favorite pasta recipes.

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ pound of pancetta (or thick-cut bacon), cubed

One large onion, sliced thin

Red pepper flakes, to taste (as much as your personal desire for hot food allows)

6 tablespoons red wine

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 (28-ounce) cans peeled whole or diced tomatoes (San Marzano is the best quality)

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 pound penne pasta

Grated pecorino and Parmesan cheese, to taste (I prefer Parmigiano-Reggiano)

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the pancetta or bacon. Cook until crisp, then pour off about two-thirds of the fat.

Add the onion and the red pepper flakes to the pan, and when the onion is golden, add the red wine and vinegar. Let it sizzle and
evaporate for a few seconds, then add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper, breaking the tomatoes up with your spoon. Reduce until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Cook the penne according to the manufacturer’s directions. Drain the pasta and pour the sauce over it.

And as Luciana says: “Sprinkle it with the pancetta, cheeses, and love. Serve hot.”

W
HEN THE SUSHI
craze hit Los Angeles in the 1970s, many of my friends tried to talk me into trying it. The very thought of eating raw anything made me sick. It seemed barbaric. I try to always have an open mind, but in this case my body flat out refused to go along.

Then one day, Christina Belford (who I’d met while working on her TV series
Banacek
) convinced me to go with her to her favorite sushi place. She promised I could eat something cooked if I was too chicken to try something out of the box.

We ended up sitting at the bar at a tiny place, elbow to elbow, and painfully close to the sushi chef and all of his raw delights (a few I’d swear were still moving). I’m not sure how I got through that first time, but some part of the experience must have been okay, because Christina managed to talk me into going back with her.

What I do recall was how delightfully warm and charming the young sushi chef was. He seemed to understand my discomfort and made me very special cooked dishes, while gently encouraging me to try a few well-wrapped, seaweed-disguised raw treats in between. Soon I found myself inviting Christina to join me for sushi.

Looking back, I realize how incredibly lucky I was to be introduced to sushi with undoubtedly one of the greatest chefs of our time, Nobu Matsuhisa. We met long before he owned his first restaurant, the nowfamous Matsuhisa, and years before I did
Dynasty
. It was sweet that we became friends before either of us became well known.

Nobu’s dishes were so original that it was hard to believe that this genius was in our little neighborhood sushi bar. I introduced my friends
and family to Nobu and we all followed him, like the devoted fans that we were, anytime he moved to a new location.

I remember how excited I was when Nobu invited me to his home to meet his beautiful wife and two adorable little daughters. The dinner was even beyond my expectations. Nobu didn’t just study to be a sushi chef in Japan, he’d also worked in South America. He brilliantly combined the flavors of Peru and Argentina, fusing them with traditional Japanese cuisine. He was the first chef to do this, and food critics rightfully launched his career like a rocket.

Chef Nobu Matsuhisa and his beautiful family.

Hundreds of sushi dinners later, Nobu opened his first restaurant and my career opened up with
Dynasty
. Despite our busy schedules, we remained friends. The first time I invited Nobu and his family to my home for dinner, I was shaking in my apron at the thought of cooking for this amazing chef.

Nobu loved my hollandaise so much (which I learned from Julia Child and believe is the best there is) that one night at Matsuhisa, he invited me into the kitchen and asked me to show him how to make it. Of course, he did what all truly great chefs do: he played with it and created his own version, which he calls “egg sauce.” He was sweet to give me credit for inspiring it in
Nobu: The Cookbook.

Now Nobu has many great cookbooks and restaurants all around the world. It could not have happened to a nicer, more wonderful guy. Here is Julia Child’s classic recipe (reprinted from
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
, with permission).

6 to 8 ounces of butter (¾ to 1 cup or 1½ to 2 sticks)

A small saucepan

A 4- to 6-cup, medium weight, enameled or stainless steel saucepan

A wire whip

3 egg yolks

1 Tb cold water

1 Tb lemon juice

Big pinch of salt

1 Tb cold butter

A pan of cold water (to cool off the bottom of the saucepan if necessary)

1 Tb cold butter

The melted butter

Salt and white pepper

Drops of lemon juice

Cut the butter into pieces and melt it in the saucepan over moderate heat. Then set aside.

Beat the egg yolks for about 1 minute in the saucepan, or until they become thick and sticky.

Add the water, lemon juice, and salt, and beat for half a minute more.

Add the tablespoon of cold butter, but do not beat it in. Then place the saucepan over very low heat or barely simmering water and stir the egg yolks with a wire whip until they slowly thicken into a smooth cream. This will take 1 to 2 minutes. If they seem to be thickening too quickly, or even suggest a lumpy quality, immediately plunge the bottom of the pan in cold water, beating the yolks to cool them. Then continue beating over heat. The egg yolks have thickened enough when you can begin to see the bottom of the pan between strokes, and the mixture forms a light cream on the wires of the whip.

Immediately remove from heat and beat in the cold butter, which will cool the egg yolks and stop their cooking.

Then beating the egg yolks with a wire whip, pour on the melted butter by droplets or quarter-teaspoonfuls until the sauce begins to thicken into a very heavy cream. Then pour the butter a little more rapidly. Omit the milky residue at the bottom of the butter pan.

Season the sauce to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

KEEPING THE SAUCE WARM

Hollandaise is served warm, not hot. If it is kept too warm, it will thin out or curdle. It can be held perfectly for an hour or more near the very faint heat of a gas pilot light on the stove, or in a pan of lukewarm water. As hollandaise made with the maximum amount of butter is difficult to hold, use the minimum suggested in the recipe, then beat softened or tepid butter into the sauce just before serving.

IF THE SAUCE REFUSES TO THICKEN

If you have beaten in your butter too quickly, and the sauce refuses to thicken, it is easily remedied. Rinse out a mixing bowl with hot water. Put in a teaspoon of lemon juice and a tablespoon of the sauce. Beat with a wire whip for a moment until the sauce creams and thickens. Then beat in the rest of the sauce half a tablespoon at a time, beating until each addition has thickened in the sauce before adding the next. This always works.

IF THE SAUCE CURDLES OR SEPARATES—“TURNED SAUCE”

If a finished sauce starts to separate, a tablespoon of cold water beaten into it will bring it back. If not, use the preceding technique.

This very quick method for making hollandaise cannot fail when you add your butter in a small stream of droplets. If the sauce refuses to thicken, pour it out, then pour it back into the whizzing machine in a thin stream of droplets. As the butter cools, it begins to cream and forms itself into a thick sauce. If you are used to handmade hollandaise, you may find the blender variety lacks something in quality; this is perhaps due to complete homogenization. But as the technique is well within the capabilities of an eight-year-old child, it has much to recommend it.

3 egg yolks

2 Tb lemon juice

¼ tsp salt

Pinch of pepper

4 ounces or 1 stick of butter

A towel, if you do not have a splatterproof blender jar

Place the egg yolks, lemon juice, and seasonings in the blender jar.

Cut the butter into pieces and heat it to foaming hot in a small saucepan.

Cover the jar and blend the egg yolk mixture at top speed for 2 seconds. Uncover, and still blending at top speed, immediately start pouring on the hot butter in a thin stream of droplets. (You may need to protect yourself with a towel during this operation.) By the time two-thirds of the butter has gone in, the sauce will be a thick cream. Omit the milky residue at the bottom of the butter pan. Taste the sauce, and blend in more seasonings if necessary.

(*) If not used immediately, set the jar in tepid, but not warm, water.

FOR MORE SAUCE

The amount of butter you can use in a blender is only half the amount the egg yolks could absorb if you were making the sauce by hand, when 3 egg yolks can take 8 to 9 ounces of butter rather than the 4 ounces in the preceding recipe. However, if you added more butter to the blender than the 4 ounces specified, the sauce would become so thick that it would clog the machine. To double your amount of sauce, then, pour it out of the blender jar into a saucepan or bowl and beat into it an additional ½ cup of melted butter, added in a stream of droplets.

I put Julia’s perfect hollandaise on asparagus that I peel before boiling.

¼ to ½ pound asparagus, per person

Salt, to taste

Julia Child’s “Perfect” Hollandaise, per person

I think asparagus is better peeled before it is cooked. Using a vegetable peeler or a small, sharp knife, peel up to the green tip. Cut off the dry part of the bottom of each stalk (an inch or more). Then submerge in a large pan of cold water with a dozen or so ice cubes. This refreshes the asparagus and gets it crisp for better cooking.

Fill a large pot with water and set on high heat. When boiling, add salt and asparagus. I differ in taste from most cookbooks in that I cook the asparagus only as follows (because they are peeled they take less time to cook):

Small thin spears: 1 minute

Medium spears: 1½ to 2 minutes

Large spears: 3 minutes

Drain. (As they sit in the colander, they continue to cook.)

Serve with hollandaise sauce or, if you prefer, melted butter.