Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Television

- Now, this pesto has completely changed the way that I think about pestos.

- It's a great one to really highlight this kind of wacky vegetable.

- And then, for a little bit of texture, and also because it looks kind of cool, gonna add some chopped walnuts.

- Pasta water is really an important part of it.

That starch is going to help bind the sauce to the pasta.

- Now, all the lessons that we learned back in Italy totally apply.

Let me go ahead and show you what we learned.

- We all know that the world of Italian pastas goes way beyond spaghetti with red sauce.

So today at Milk Street, we start with a Venetian recipe, pasta with radicchio, walnuts, and black pepper.

Then we do a rigatoni with Roman-style broccoli lemon sauce.

And we finish up with a pasta with sage, walnut, and parmesan.

Please stay tuned.

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- So when you think of Venice, you probably think of canals and gondolas.

And if you're thinking of food, maybe even seafood.

But how about radicchio?

No?

All right, me, neither.

But, luckily, we met Francesco Bernardi.

He's a Venice home cook who taught us his recipe for pasta with radicchio, walnuts, and black pepper.

It's a great one to really highlight this kind of wacky vegetable's bitterness.

I'm going to start with the pasta.

Got some water boiling.

I'm going to add a tablespoon of kosher salt.

And then the pasta.

We're using penne today.

Give this a stir.

And now let's move on to the sauce.

So we're going to start with the walnuts.

I've already toasted these walnuts.

If you are going to use nuts, please, please, please toast them.

When you toast nuts, it creates some new flavors, better, better flavors.

It also dries the nuts out so they're nice and crispy.

Do not skip this step.

So I'm going to chop these nuts pretty fine, almost like crumblike, and that's because we want them to really distribute throughout the pasta.

So I'm going to keep chopping our nuts.

The pasta is going to finish.

I'm going to drain it and reserve about a half a cup of the pasta water, which is what we're going to use to build the sauce.

And we'll be back in a few.

Okay, so I cooked the pasta just until al dente, and I reserved a half a cup of pasta water.

Now, you'll notice I've already cooked the pasta before we've even started making of the sauce.

And that's because we want to cook the radicchio just until it's crisp-tender, and there's the possibility that we might overcook that if we're waiting for the pasta.

The timing has to be just perfect here, and while I'm pretty good, I'm not that good.

So, in the meantime, we can start prepping the radicchio.

So radicchio is a member of the chicory family.

It kind of lives somewhere in between lettuce and cabbage.

It does have bitterness, but what's great about this recipe is, these complementary flavors we're going to add are going to really balance that bitterness.

So to prep radicchio, you want to take off these outer leaves that are kind of wilted.

And then I'm just going to cut it in half and then quarters.

And I'm going to take the core out.

And then we're just going to cut this into about half-inch pieces or so.

Okay, now we can start building the sauce.

I'm going to start with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.

And we're gonna add some smashed cloves of garlic.

This is a common technique in Italy to add just subtle garlic flavor, not, like, kind of hit you over the head with garlic, like we're probably more accustomed to.

This is going to have a really nice background flavor.

So I'm going to add the garlic and let it brown, and then I'm actually going to just take it out, so that will season that oil, and then that garlic flavor will go all over the pasta.

Okay, so the garlic is browned.

It's done its job.

So I'm going to take it out.

Okay, now I'm going to add all of that radicchio that I chopped into this nice garlic oil.

And then a little bit of salt and pepper.

(sizzling) And then we'll just toss this just this one time just to get all of that radicchio coated with that garlic oil.

And then you just want to leave it alone.

We really want to get some nice caramelization on the bottom of that, so I'm going to let this go just for a couple of minutes.

We're only going to let this cook just until it's crisp-tender.

All right, our radicchio looks great.

It's nicely browned.

I'm going to add the pasta.

(sizzling) Some parmesan cheese.

Smells so good-- you can smell the radicchio.

Half of that.

Then those nuts that we chopped up earlier.

Leave some of these for later, for garnish.

And then some of the pasta water.

And this is really what's going to bring this sauce together.

So I'm going to toss this around as best I can in this skillet.

So that pasta water is going to mix with that cheese and kind of create a nice, rich sauce, which is really going to balance out the bitterness from that radicchio.

Okay, so this looks great.

I'm going to pull it off the heat now.

We can add the rest of that parmesan cheese.

A little bit of lemon juice, which is going to really brighten this up.

And then salt.

And you have to add pepper.

It's in the title of the recipe.

You want to be able to taste the pepper here.

So a pretty healthy amount of pepper.

And then a little bit of parsley.

Add some greenery here-- it looks beautiful.

And you can see that that pasta water has helped everything kind of cling to the pasta.

The cheese is sticking on there, so it's going to really balance out the bitterness of that radicchio.

All right, this looks amazing.

I'm going to make myself a bowl, because of course I am.

There is nothing quite like radicchio in the way it tastes, in the way it looks.

Has this beautiful purple color.

Okay, now I can garnish this with some more nuts... A little more parsley... And a little bit of olive oil.

This is a common thing to do in Italy, is add a little bit of olive oil.

And in this case, it's really important, because it adds a little bit of richness to the pasta, which helps, again, balance that radicchio.

(chuckling): And of course, we're going to add more cheese.

I mean, who do we think we are?

Okay.

So what's so great here is, the radicchio is really the star of the dish, but it's not super-bitter because it's so nicely balanced with the cheese, which is really rich.

That pasta sauce really brought everything together.

It's bright from a little bit of lemon juice, and then you've got that black pepper, which adds a little bit of heat to this.

You're hitting on a ton of different points of flavor that all come together to complement and, at the same time, contrast each other, which is just amazing.

It's so, so good.

So pasta with radicchio, walnuts, and black pepper.

- Today we are going to be making a broccoli lemon rigatoni, and we're actually going to be using the broccoli as our sauce.

So if you're going to be doing that, there are a couple things to remember.

You don't want to use the stems, because they're a little bit fibrous, so we're only using the broccoli crowns here.

This recipe was actually inspired by a trip to Italy, and it was something that we had to come back and recreate.

And it's really interesting because it's a really great way to get your vegetables in.

So to start it off, I'm going to take about a tablespoon of salt and add it to my boiling water.

I'm going to add about a pound of broccoli crowns.

And about three cloves of garlic.

So I've got my broccoli and the garlic in the pot, a little bit of salt, I'm going to let it cook about four to six minutes until it's crisp-tender.

Because if I go fully tender, I don't want it to lose all that beautiful, vivid green.

So it's been about five-ish minutes here and my broccoli is crisp-tender.

So I'm going to move this to my blender.

I'm using a slotted spoon for this, because I actually want to hold on to this water to both flavor and boil my pasta.

Look at how pretty and green that is.

So I've got everything that was boiling in my blender-- my garlic, my broccoli.

I'm going to pull about two cups of this water out just so I can thin out my sauce if need be and save it for later.

There we go.

So now that I've got my vegetables and my garlic pulled, I'm going to add a little bit of capers to that for some flavor, and I'm going to put in my blender.

This won't blend without a little bit of liquid, so I'm going to add about a cup and a half of the water that I used to boil my vegetables.

All right, so now I've got my water, broccoli, garlic, and capers all in here, I'm going to move it over to my blender.

Put my lid on.

So I'm going to blend this until it's nice and smooth, and then I'm going to add some of my olive oil.

(blender whirring) (blender stops) Take a quick peek.

Looks pretty smooth in here.

I'm going to take off the little lid on my blender and gently stream my olive oil in so it emulsifies into a lovely sauce.

And slowly turn it back on.

(blender whirring) (blender stops) Now time to add our pasta to our water.

Get that boiled up and ready for our sauce.

Now, again, using the water that I boiled the broccoli and garlic in is going to be a way to add a little bit more flavor on a quick dish.

So it's handy and you don't have to clean as much.

Stir this around, let this boil until it's tender.

All right, so I've still got my broccoli pure.

I drained my pasta and added it back to my pot.

Now it's time to add this beautiful green pure into the pasta.

The pure is still super-warm, so it will absorb into the noodles just a little bit.

Stir this up.

So I'm going to add a cup of pecorino Romano.

Freshly grated.

Smells amazing.

Stir it up.

Then I'm going to add about two tablespoons of lemon juice.

And then, to further enhance our lemon flavor, actually going to grate some lemon zest directly into my pot.

I want about a tablespoon's worth.

Now, when I'm zesting my lemon, I don't want to get too deep into the pith, because that's more bitter than the outer layer.

All right, we're in good shape.

And so now, I'm going to stir it up, taste it for seasoning.

Definitely needs some salt and pepper.

Season to your taste.

Just a little bit of pepper.

Give this a good stir.

Now it looks like my broccoli pure is actually adhering all right to the noodles.

If I needed to make it just a little bit thinner so it would make a nice, light sauce, I'd add a little bit of my reserve water, but I don't think I need to do that here.

All right, looks like we're ready to eat.

Spoon in some of my pasta... Look at how beautiful that green color is.

So vibrant.

That looks like a healthy bowl.

All righty, and now I'm going to obviously add just a little bit more cheese.

I think I want to drizzle just a little bit of olive oil on it, as well.

And then, for a little bit of texture-- also because it looks kind of cool-- I'm going to add some chopped walnuts.

And there you have it, nice and simple, minimal mess, lots of flavor.

This is our rigatoni with broccoli and lemon sauce.

- You know, everybody's wrong about cooking pasta, and what I mean by that is how much water people use, and then how do they make the sauce.

And the pasta water is really an important part of it.

Now, if you go to Italy, to a little town-- to an outdoor restaurant, for example-- you'll see a huge pot with tons of water.

Now, the problem is, of course, they're cooking 100 or 200 portions of pasta throughout the day, and that water is getting a lot of starch in it.

At home, when you're cooking one portion or one amount of pasta, you're not cooking a whole bunch of it, you need to reduce the water.

Generally speaking, about two quarts of water makes sense for up to a pound of pasta.

Why do you do that?

Because the starch from the pasta is going to leach out into the water.

And that water you can use in making a sauce.

And that starch is going to help to bind the sauce to the pasta.

So, as an example, this is a recipe for fettuccine Alfredo.

This is the real recipe we discovered in Italy.

It's not a big, creamy, rich dish.

It's actually something mothers used to make for their kids when they had a stomachache.

It's some butter and cheese, no cream.

So let's start with that-- two quarts of water, and now we also need to add kosher salt, about a teaspoon and a half.

And I have nine ounces of fresh pasta.

You should always make this with fresh fettuccine, not dried, and we're going to cook that, and this cooks really quickly, just in a couple of minutes.

So the pasta is almost done.

As I said, two quarts of water-- don't fill the pot up.

A lot of people use four quarts or more.

I'm going to take just a little bit of the water out here now.

So I can use that later.

And now we have a bowl with about a half a stick of butter in it.

And we're going to take the pasta-- still wet, we're not going to drain the pasta, because this water, which is very starchy, is going to become part of the sauce-- and put that in the bowl.

So this is the water.

You can tell it's starchy because it's cloudy.

And that starch is going to be really critical in making the sauce.

So I'm going to add just a little bit to start.

Now, one of the things we learned in making this recipe and lots of recipes on our trips to Italy is, people toss the pasta with the sauce quite a lot.

One other technique is to actually finish cooking the pasta in the sauce in a skillet.

We're not doing that for this recipe, but the key is to constantly toss.

And you get a nice emulsion, really, between the sauce and the pasta, and it makes a big difference.

And also, over time, the pasta is going to absorb a little bit more of that liquid.

And that's what you want.

So you want the sauce to be married to the pasta.

You want the pasta to absorb some of the sauce, especially if it's a creamy sauce that has butter and cheese.

So we're going to start adding our ground parmesan.

And again, you want to do this slowly and take your time, because you want to add a little bit more water as you go.

And now you're getting nice, really creamy sauce.

Because we took our time and we made a really starchy pasta water, and not using too much water.

And now, now it really starts to look good.

It looks really creamy.

And that creaminess is because, among other things, we toss slowly, but we also use some of that pasta cooking water.

So you can see we have a really creamy sauce for two reasons.

We didn't use too much water to cook the pasta-- a lot of starch in that water.

That's helping to bind everything together.

And then we tossed slowly and continuously.

We watch people actually do this at home.

They might stand there for two or three minutes tossing pasta with the sauce.

And that really is a secret.

It's sort of like doing a salad with a salad dressing.

You take the time.

So there we are.

So everybody's wrong about how to cook pasta.

They use too much water.

If you use less water, you get starchy water, and use that, incorporate that, into your sauce, which helps the sauce to marry to the pasta.

You can see it's nice and glossy, it's rich, it's creamy, and the pasta has actually absorbed some of that flavor.

So less water makes a better pasta dish.

- In this recipe for pasta with sage, walnut, parmesan pesto, each and every ingredient has its job.

The parmesan and the walnuts bring this rich meatiness to the dish, while the sage offers some earthy freshness.

The parsley that we throw in brings vibrancy to the game.

And, of course, the ricotta ties everything together through its creaminess.

Now, all the lessons that we learned on making a classic basil pesto back in Italy totally apply to nontraditional pestos like this.

Let me go ahead and show you what we learned.

It all starts with our food processor.

To this I'm going to be throwing in some parmesan cheese that's been cut up into cubes.

And this is actually our first lesson: grind the parmesan, don't grate it.

The grinding actually helps produce enough friction when you make the pesto.

That way, everything breaks down and emulsifies evenly.

If you grate it up, it's just going to clump up together.

Nobody likes that.

So we'll pulse this down until it has the texture of coarse sand.

That might take a couple of pulses.

(processor pulsing) My favorite way to tell if I've hit the right texture is if there aren't huge chunks of parmesan hitting the lid of the food processor.

But, as you can see, everything has broken down into a nice crumble.

We're going to go ahead and transfer that out of the food processor and then we'll add back in later.

Now, to this, we'll also be throwing in our herbs.

And, like we said, this is a sage pesto.

But here's the second lesson we learned.

You want to roughly chop your herbs before you add them to the food processor.

That way, all the food processor has to do is focus on grinding everything down and blending it until it's smooth and emulsified.

So take the time, roughly chop your herbs, but don't go too crazy.

It doesn't have to be super-fine.

Okay, so right into the processor we go.

We'll also be throwing in our walnuts... A little bit of salt and pepper... And now we'll grind this down until everything is finely chopped.

(processor pulsing) There we go.

Now, periodically, while you're blitzing everything up, you'll want to give the sides a little bit of a scrape.

There's oil in the walnuts, and sometimes that causes things to clump up in the corners, but we want each and every little bit of flavor in this pesto.

Now we can go ahead and add in a little bit of oil to get everything moving.

As well as our ricotta cheese for that creaminess.

And finally that parmesan.

Now we just want to blitz this until it's nice and creamy.

(processor whirring) As always, scrape down the sides.

Now, at this point, it's not looking too green, but that is where the parsley comes in.

So I'm going to go ahead and give this a rough chop, just like we did with the sage.

Now, the reason why we're throwing parsley into this pesto is because that vibrant green color stays even after the pesto has been heated up a little bit.

Now, I'm actually going to save just a little bit of the parsley to use as garnish right at the very end.

But the rest of this can get thrown right into the food processor.

And you'll notice that we incorporated all of our ingredients into this food processor at different stages.

And that is actually the third lesson that we learned back in Italy.

By incorporating your ingredients in stages, it helps ensure that each ingredient is broken down properly without getting too muddled up.

We're also going to throw in that last bit of oil to help everything emulsify.

And now we blend.

(processor whirring) Delish-- that is our pesto done.

Now all we got to do is add this pesto to our pasta.

Here I have some cooked ziti that is al dente.

And I reserved a little bit of that pasta waster before I drained it all.

So now we are going to add our pesto to the pot.

And this is all happening off heat, by the way.

You'll see I didn't get all of that pesto off the blade.

I'm just going to show you a quick little trick.

Go ahead and pop that dirty blade back onto the food processor, pop a lid on it, and blitz.

It's going to wick all of that pesto right off the blade.

(processor whirring) Clean.

And now we can get the rest of that into the pot.

And now we'll want to add in our pasta water a little bit at a time, just until this sauce starts to cling to the pasta and be a little bit more silky and luscious.

So, as you can see, it only took a little bit of water to get that pesto going on each and every piece of pasta in here.

It's at this point that it's always good to get just a little taste just to see if it needs some extra salt and pepper.

Mm!

Oh, it's so bright.

The parmesan comes through just fine.

Doesn't need anything.

I mean, look at this.

The pesto is coating each and every piece of ziti.

All it needs is a little extra pop of color and freshness in the form of that parsley that I set aside.

Beautiful.

Now, this pesto has completely changed the way that I think about pestos.

So I'm definitely adding it to my weekly dinner repertoire, because there's so many fresh herbs you could play with.

So please enjoy pasta with sage, walnut, and parmesan pesto.

You can get this recipe and all of the recipes from this season of Milk Street TV at MilkStreetTV.com.

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- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - That meal.

You sauted, you seared, and you served, cooking with All-Clad, bonded cookware designed, engineered, and assembled in the U.S.A. for over 50 years.

All-Clad, for all your kitchen adventures.