Audacious Italian Dishes

Playboy's food & drink editor

It's not the art,it's the audacity that makes Italian cooking.

No subtle souffles,no sensitive sauce,no humble herbs are tolerated at the Italian table.Instead you will meet sausages fiery as Vesuvius,cheese as hard as the Apennine Mountains,coffee blacker than a Neapolitan night and hotter than Venice at high noon.

Where but among the Italians will you find people celebrating the holidays by eating that modest delicacy,the octopus?Watch an Italian workman open his lunch box.You will detect no silly flir.(continued on page 52)(continued from page 45) tations like peanut butter and jelly, no offenses like egg salad on white, but big unsliced chunks of the magnificent crusty bread called pagnotta, Genoa salami, wedges of high-powered cheese and crisp green scallions that snap and crunch as they are hungrily chewed.

You'll seldom see Italians drinking hard liquor because their earthy wines and their sensuous food give them the peace, the escape and the honest thrill that other people get out of their whiskies and brandies. Even when liquor is combined with food, it takes a happy turn. Taste the Zuppa Inglese. It's a layer cake particularly liked in Rome. The light sponge cake is doused with rum, a luscious custard is spread between the layers and then the whole cake is finished with whipped cream spread on the top and sides. It's not gourmet's eating. And yet it has a heavenly richness, a harmony as delicious as a Donizetti duet.

Certainly as far as food is concerned Stendahl was accurate when he wrote that "the Italian must have his pleasures genuine or not at all."

Italians frankly acknowledge that French cooking is more complex, more consummate and more subtle than their own. But they don't forget that modern French cooking was born when Catherine de Medici took her Italian cooks to France after marrying the man who became Henry II. They know that it was the French apprentices who came to Rome, then the center of Renaissance culture, to learn the skills which have since developed into the French haute cuisine. Italians remember that while Britons were eating out of wooden wash basins called trenchers, using wooden spoons and their fingers, Italy gave to the world an invention as great as the wheel – namely, the fork.

For the young fellow exploring Italian cookery in the United States there is only one man-trap – a certain hackneyed type of Italian restaurant. It's the kind of eatery you'll hardly ever find in Italy. There is the damp backyard, the inevitable fountain with its gnats and mosquitoes and the roving fiddle player Watch out for that fiddle player above everything else. As soon as he sees your party arriving, he'll draw his bow like a medieval burgher cutting the throat of an ox. As he approaches your table, he plays with such gusto that the rosin from his bow sprays all over your antipasto. If you make the mistake of smiling at him, he'll bow so deeply the scroll of his fiddle will dip right into the spaghetti sauce.

Get familiar with him and he'll drop the fiddle, clear his throat and begin to bleat a hunk of Pagliacci. You won't hear your voice nor the voice of your playmate across the table. Copper saucepans will tremble and even the dishwashing machine will be drowned out by his grandiose throating.

While you're facing the music, you'll be served the inevitable minestrone soup made once a week, overladen with macaroni and carrots and completely lacking in the genuine bean flavor that should dominate this wonderful soup. In this kind of cafe the sauce for the spaghetti, whether it be the marinara, the clam or the meat sauce, tastes as though it all came from the same pot with some clams or meat thrown in as an afterthought. The bread is rubbery, the broccoli over-cooked and the Brie cheese is made in a suburb of Jersey City.

Certainly you won't find these conditions in such restaurants as Mercurio's or the Red Devil in New York. Here you will eat the light golden beef broth with chicory, the rich risotto milanese, succulent veal scallopine with marsala – classics that have no peer in any other national cookery.

From eating Italian specialties in the United States, one might think that no Italian recipe has been written that doesn't include tomatoes and garlic. The tomato-garlic combination is found all through southern Italy and Sicily. Most of the Italian immigrants to this country originally hailed from the southern provinces and, therefore, the tomato-garlic pattern does seem to carry a disproportionate weight in the Kitchen. Travelers to Italy, however, soon discover that there are many northern sections of the country where rice and not spaghetti is the staple food and where garlic and tomatoes are only used as minor flavoring ingredients.

The tomato-garlic team is most renowned in the thick spaghetti sauces. Before attempting any of these sauces, the aspiring male cook would do well to familiarize himself with Playboy's first year course in the basic principles of spaghetti cookery.

HOW TO COOK SPAGHETTI

First of all, you don't buy ordinary spaghetti but the thinner strands known as spaghetti or thin spaghetti. The best quality is made from hard semolina wheat, which means that when the spaghetti is cooked, it will keep its firm texture and will not be mushy. The top grades of spaghetti are hard and brittle, with a dull yellow rather than a creamy white color. Allow one pound of spaghetti for six to eight average size portions.

For each pound of spaghetti, use a gallon of boiling water to which one tablespoon salt has been added. The large amount of water is necessary to carry off the loose starch particles and help prevent stickiness.

After the water has been brought to a rapid boil, the spaghetti should be lowered into the water so slowly that the water does not stop boiling. The stiff strands will soon soften and coil at the bottom of the pot. As soon as all the spaghetti has been added, it should be well stirred to keep the strands from sticking together. Cook at a rapid boil for 7 to 9 minutes. Avoid overcooking. No sophisticated spaghetti bender will tolerate pasta that is overcooked and soft. It should be al dente, meaning it must display resistance to the teeth. In other words, it must be chewable.

You then drain the spaghetti and serve it at once. Use a large colander or wire strainer for draining. At this point test the spaghetti to see if it is sticky. If it is, it should be rinsed well. Use scalding hot water from the tap – unless your hot water is rusty. In the latter case, rinse the spaghetti well in cold water and then reheat it by dipping it into boiling water. This step may mean a delay, but it's worth it to avoid the gummy glutinous mass that is so often served as spaghetti.

Always be sure that the spaghetti you are about to serve is completely free of excess water. If too much water adheres to the spaghetti, it will simply form a pool of liquid on the dinner plate and spoil the spaghetti sauce. T wirl the spaghetti around in the colander with a fork or toss it in the colander until it is dry.

If you are cooking for a large party and you want to avoid the last minute rush, boil the spaghetti before the mob arrives and then steep it in cold water until needed. Just before serving, dip it in boiling water and drain well.

[recipe_title]MARINARA SAUCE[/recipe_title]

(Serves four to five

This is a thick unstrained tomato sauce, flavored with anchovies. For best results, use imported Italian tomatoes or Italian style plum tomatoes.

1 medium size onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 can (21/2 size) tomatoes

6 oz. can of tomato paste

3 tablespoons butter or olive oil

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon oregano

8 anchovy filets

Salt – pepper – sugar

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Chop the onion and garlic extremely fine. Force the tomatoes through a colander or chop them fine with a knife. Don't discard the tomato juice but use it along with the tomatoes for the sauce.

In a large saucepan put the butter or oil, the onion and garlic. Heat slowly, stirring frequently, until the onion turns yellow, not brown. Add the tomatoes, the tomato paste, the bay leaf and oregano. Simmer 30 minutes or until sauce is very thick. Chop the anchovies fine and add to the sauce. Simmer 5 minutes more. Add the cheese, mixing well. Add salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Avoid oversalting, since the anchovies are salty. Use enough sugar to bring out the natural sweetness of the tomatoes. Remove the bay leaf. Pour the hot marinara sauce over the spaghetti on the serving plates. Pass additional grated cheese at the table.

[recipe_title]MEAT SAUCE[recipe_title]

(Serves six)

The most popular of all spaghetti sauces is made with all chopped beef or with 1/2 chopped beef, 1/4 chopped veal and 1/4 chopped pork. The combination of meats makes for a more subtle blend of flavors, although you can't always get

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Italian Dishes(continued from page 52) this combination in all butcher shops. Be sure the chopped meat is lean or the fat will simply melt during the cooking and rise to the top of the sauce. Following an old Italian tradition, Playboy's editors like to add a very small amount of sweet cream to the sauce just before serving. The cream takes away the acrid tomato bite.

1 medium size onion

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 medium size green pepper

3 tablespoons butter or olive oil

1 lb. chopped meat

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon powdered thyme

1 can (21/2 size) tomatoes

6 oz. can of tomato paste

1/4 cup sweet heavy cream

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Salt – pepper – sugar

Chop the onion, green pepper and garlic extremely fine. Force the tomatoes through a colander or chop fine with a knife. In a large saucepan put the onion, green pepper, garlic and butter or oil. Heat slowly, stirring frequently, until onion turns yellow. Add the chopped meat. Stir frequently until the meat breaks up into small pieces. Cook until the meat loses its red color.

Add the tomatoes, the tomato paste, the bay leaf and thyme. Add 2 teaspoons salt,1 teaspoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Simmer slowly until the sauce is very thick and the flavors are blended, about 1 hour. Do not use a high flame or sauce may burn. Stir frequently. Skim excess fat from surface. Remove sauce from flame. Extract the bay leaf. Add cheese and cream. Mix well. Add more salt or pepper if necessary.

[recipe_title]White Clam Sauce[/recipe_title]

(Serves four)

For seafood lovers who want a luscious spaghetti sauce minus tomatoes, white clam sauce is a culinary joy. Since overcooking will toughen clams, the clams are added to the sauce just before serving. The clams are steamed open in water. The water becomes clam broth when the clams open, and the clam broth forms the stock for the sauce.

2 doz. cherrystone clams in shell

1 medium size onion

1 small green pepper

4 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley

3 tablespoons dry white wine

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

2 bouillon cubes

Salt – pepper

Wash the clams under cold running water, using a vegetable brush if possible, to remove all sand. Put the clams in a large pot. Add 2 cups of cold water. Cover pot with a tight fitting lid. Bring water to a boil and cook until the clam shells open. Remove clams from pot. Drain and measure 2 cups of broth. If there is any sand in the broth, strain the broth through a cheesecloth.

Chop the onion, green pepper and garlic very fine. In a saucepan melt the butter. Add the onion, green pepper and garlic. Cook slowly until onion turns yellow. Remove the pan from the flame. Stir in the flour, mixing well with a wire whip so that no lumps of flour remain in the pan. Slowly add the 2 cups of clam broth, stirring well. Add the bouillon cubes. Return to a moderate flame. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, and simmer 5 minutes. While the sauce is simmering, cut the clams into small dice about 1/4 inch thick. Add the clams, parsley and wine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce over hot spaghetti on dinner plates. This is the one spaghetti sauce that is not eaten with grated cheese.

[recipe_title]Veal Cutlets Parmigiana[/recipe_title]

(Serves four)

A parade of flavor contrasts is the secret of this delightful dish. The mild veal is covered with a crisp brown breadcrumb coating. Creamy Mozarella cheese forms a duet with sharp Parmesan cheese. Both the cutlets and the cheese are moistened with a tangy tomato sauce. Order Italian style veal cutlets from your butcher. These are thin slices from the leg of veal, weighing about 3 or 4 ounces each and pounded thin with the butcher's cleaver. The Mozarella cheese is obtainable at most dairy stores or Italian grocery stores. Be sure the canned tomato sauce is a good brand with a lively flavor.

4 veal cutlets, Italian style

Salt – pepper – paprika

1/2 cup flour

2 eggs

1 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup shortening

8 oz. can of tomato sauce

1/2 lb. Mozarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons olive oil

Beat the eggs until the whites are no longer visible. Sprinkle the cutlets with salt, pepper and paprika. Dip the cutlets in flour. Shake off excess flour. Dip cutlets in beaten eggs. Be sure the cutlets are completely covered with egg so that there are no bald spots. Dip the cutlets in bread crumbs, again coating thoroughly.

Melt the shortening in a large heavy frying pan. As soon as the shortening shows the first wisp of smoke, put the cutlets in the pan. Cook about 4 minutes on each side or until the cutlets are a light golden brown. Do the frying in two shifts if your pan is not large enough to hold all the cutlets.

Remove the cutlets from the pan. Place them in a large baking dish or in four individual baking dishes or casseroles. Slice the Mozarella cheese as thin as possible. Cover the cutlets with the Mozarella cheese. Pour the tomato sauce over the Mozarella cheese. Sprinkle lightly with paprika. Sprinkle with olive oil. Bake in a moderate oven, 350 degrees, for about 20 to 25 minutes or long enough for the cheese to brown slightly.