Reason Why I love Italian Food...

Simply - fresh ingredients, cooked well tastes delicious. I stopped by the Union Square Greenmarket the other day and was looking for something fun to cook. Sad to say the tomatoes, apples, and pears all tasted very lifeless compared to the ones I had in Berkeley. What I did see was Puntarelle, which I've had before but never cooked. Puntarelle is a favorite of the Romans and has a nice bitter flavor with a slightly tender-crisp texture. Also, I've never seen baby leeks before - probably just a marketing thing as it looked very similar to scallions. Below is what I made...

Raw Puntarelle with Anchovy Vinaigrette
A nice bitter salad with a very pungent dressing. I added balsamic since I thought the sweet/sourness of the balsamic would cut through the bitter puntarelle. A very refreshing dish.

Ingredients
1 bunch puntarelle
4 anchovies
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

1) With a pestle and mortar, add anchovies and a little bit of salt and mash into a paste. Add the garlic clove and mash some more into a fine paste. Add all the vinegar and olive oil and stir around until it becomes a thick vinaigrette.
2) Thoroughly wash the puntarelle and cut into bite size pieces.
3) Add the dressing on the puntarelle bit by bit and make sure the puntarelle isn't drowning in the dressing. Just enough to coat - puntarelle should still be relatively crisp. Add the pepper and if need be, a little more salt.


Linguine with baby leeks
I love pasta and this dish represents why I love pasta. I believe as long as you have very good olive oil, you can cook one fresh ingredient well and the dish will come out great. All you taste is the sweetness of the leeks, the richness of the oil, and the textures of the leeks and perfectly cooked pasta. Make sure you have a very rich olive oil and very fresh leeks, since there's really nothing else besides these two ingredients - they need to be very high quality.

Ingredients
1/2 Box Linguine
1 bunch baby leeks
4 cloves garlic thinly sliced
very good extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

1) Add a gallon of hot water and a large handful of salt to a large pot. When water comes to a boil, add the pasta.
2) Throughly wash and trim the leeks and cut into thirds. Sautee the leeks over high heat until the leeks slightly wilt (about 1-2 minutes). Add the garlic cloves and stop cooking when the kitchen smells like garlic (about 30 seconds). Take the pan of the heat.
3) When pasta is finished (always 1 minute before the box says so), add the pasta to the leeks and continue to cook for about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat, add the oil and pepper, and taste. Add more salt and pepper if need be.
4) When plating, make sure the amount of leeks to pasta is about 50/50 (again, since there's no other flavorings to the dish you need some leeks) and top off with more oil.