Cook's Country

-"Cook's Country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table.

We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.

We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook, and we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.

We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.

This is "Cook's Country."

Today on "Cook's Country," Ashley makes Bridget seafood fra diavolo.

I share the story behind the name fra diavolo.

Jack has tips on when to splurge at the grocery store.

And Christie makes salmon piccata.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

-Anytime you see a recipe that ends with fra diavolo, you know you're in for a treat.

You get linguine or spaghetti all bathed in a seafood sauce that's spicy, briny, tomatoey, so good.

Now, it can be a real bear to make at home, and that's even if you're not using bear, but seafood.

-[ Laughs ] -And Ashley's here.

She's going to show us a great seafood fra diavolo that we can make at home.

-Yes, absolutely.

And best of all, it's a one-pan recipe.

-Awesome.

-So, it's definitely one of those recipes that I never really did think to make it at home... -Right.

-...because by the time I seek out the seafood and prepare it, I feel like restaurants would do it better, until I made this recipe.

-Okay.

-It is super packed with flavor, and it's very easy to put together.

So, naturally, let's start with the seafood.

I've got some scallops, some shrimp, and some mussels.

-Mmm.

-But these aren't just any scallops.

These are what's called dry scallops.

And I have 12 ounces here.

The difference between dry and wet scallops -- The dry scallops have not been treated with chemical additives, and the wet ones have.

So if you do see a difference at your seafood counter, you want to make sure to get the dry ones.

-Okay.

-And these are a beautiful size.

These are what's called the tendon.

Other people call them the foot.

Same difference.

It's just what attaches itself to the interior of the shell.

It can get tough, so what I like to do is I like to just peel it off.

And for this recipe, one of the things I love about it is that everybody gets a good amount of seafood in each bowl.

And that's because we're doing things like this, cutting the scallops in half crosswise.

So there's no fighting in my house over the scallops.

Alright.

Now, I have 12 ounces of the scallops.

I also have 12 ounces of 21/25 shrimp here.

And I've gone ahead and peeled, deveined, and taken the tails off of most of them, except for the two.

So I'm going to transfer them in here, 'cause they're all going to hang out together in the fridge in a little bit.

-Okay, great.

-Now, we have a few ways of shelling, deveining, and peeling shrimp, but one of my favorite ways is to use shrimp shears.

-Very smart.

-Thank you.

-Sometimes you don't find any veins on your shrimp.

-Yep.

Mm-hmm.

-But sometimes, jackpot.

-Mm-hmm.

I just peeled off the feet and the shell.

Now, as I said, these are going to hang out in the fridge for a little bit, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to add some oil, some garlic, and some salt.

So that is 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil... -Okay.

-...three minced garlic cloves, and finally, 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Just toss it all together.

Alright.

Now let's talk about shellfish.

-Show me your mussels, Ashley.

-[ Grunts ] -Yes, there you go.

-Some of them have been de-bearded and cleaned and scrubbed, but a few of them, I wanted to show you just some of the beards... -Yes.

-...that have been left behind.

-Yes.

-So, what you want to do is just, using a paring knife, holding this in your opposite hand, just go through and tug away, tug away that beard.

[ Air hisses ] -They're squeaking.

-I know!

Now, especially with clams and mussels, if you do find that they have opened up slightly in the fridge, try and give them a tap or try to close them.

Give it a little time.

Sometimes it takes a little while.

I need to make sure it is still alive before we cook it.

-Right.

-So I'm going to just tap it gently.

Hi.

And if he's closing up slowly, which it looks like he is, then he's good to keep.

But if it stays open, you want to discard that, because that means it's not alive, and we don't want to cook it.

-Great.

-Now, we're going to add those in a little bit.

-Okay.

-But first, I'm going to put our scallops and shrimp into the fridge until we're ready to add them to our recipe.

-Okay.

-Now, I mentioned it's a one-pan meal that we're building here today, so I'm going to start to build the sauce in this beautiful Dutch oven right here.

I have 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil heating up over medium heat.

-Okay.

-And I'm going to add three anchovies.

-Mmm, that's part of that savory.

-Oh, yeah.

Lots of umami going on in there.

And four minced garlic cloves.

-Alright.

-I am going to go in with a wooden spoon and just break up the anchovies.

And anchovies are one of my favorite things to put in any kind of tomato sauce, even if there's no seafood, because it, as you said, gives it a really great savoriness.

And they also kind of just disappear into the sauce.

-They do.

They almost dissolve.

-So, I'm going to cook this for about 3 minutes, until the garlic begins to brown.

-Okay.

-So, you can see the garlic is just beginning to brown.

So now I'm going to add 3 tablespoons of some tomato paste and 2 teaspoons of dried oregano and red pepper flakes, 'cause fra diavolo.

-It's got to have a little fire to it.

And how much?

-Exactly.

This is actually 1 1/2 teaspoons, but if you don't love spice, you can back off on that a little bit.

So, I'm going to cook this for 2 more minutes until the tomato paste starts to darken.

So beautiful.

-It just gets better and better.

-Mm-hmm.

Alright, so that was 2 minutes, and as you can see, the tomato paste is turning nice and dark red.

And now I'm going to add some white wine.

I've got 1 cup of white wine.

And I'm going to first increase the heat to medium-high.

And we're going to deglaze the pan at this point, just going in there just to kind of loosen up any brown bits that may have been at the bottom of the pot.

But I'm also going to add our mussels.

Again, that's 1 pound.

Give it a good stir, and then I'm going to cover and cook the mussels until they open, which should take 3 to 4 minutes.

-Okay.

-Alright, let's check on the mussels.

-Ooh!

-Ooh!

-Hey, we just said the same thing.

-Yes, we did.

-Jinx.

You owe me some mussels.

-Yeah, you owe me some mussels.

Oh, my goodness.

-Mm-hmm.

-They're open and ready to go.

-Ready to go.

Now, if there are any mussels in here that haven't opened, it's best to discard them, 'cause that means they weren't alive prior to cooking.

Oh, my goodness.

So, I'm going to add all the mussels into this bowl, and we're going to add these back into the dish once we're closer to eating... -Okay.

-...'cause they're already cooked at this point.

-Right.

-Just going to put a little plastic on that to cover just so they stay warm.

And now one of my favorite tricks.

We've got a 28-ounce can of whole, peeled tomatoes.

I don't know about you, but I have tried so many times to crush these by hand, channeling my inner nonna.

But I've always ended up with splatter, tomato splatter all over my walls.

-Right.

-So what we're going to do is we're actually going to use this potato masher and go in there and mash the tomatoes that way.

-Very smart.

And you're using whole tomatoes here because it's the right ratio of tomato solids to liquid, whereas if you buy a can of crushed tomatoes, there's a lot more solid tomatoes in there.

-Absolutely.

Yeah.

-Yeah.

And then I have 8 ounces of clam juice, which is just going to help reinstate that clam flavor.

-Clam-tastic.

-Clam-tastic.

And finally, 1/4 teaspoon of more salt.

-Okay.

-So, I'm going to finish mashing the tomatoes, and I'm going to increase the heat to medium-high, bring this to a boil.

Alright, now I'm going to add our pasta.

I have 12 ounces, not 1 pound, 12 ounces of linguine pasta.

So, I'm going to add this directly into the sauce, and then using some tongs, I'm just going to go in there just to kind of get all the noodles submerged.

Now, you don't want to cook the pasta fully at this point.

You want to cook this about 2 minutes shy of what the cooking instructions say to do on the box.

-The Italian name fra diavolo translates as "brother devil."

It's a fitting name for a seafood dish known for its spiciness.

The name is also a reference to Michele Pezza, a ferocious Italian bandit who lived in the late 18th century.

He earned the nickname Fra Diavolo by terrorizing peasants in the Italian countryside.

He was recruited by King Ferdinand IV to fight against the French occupation of Naples.

Later, he tried to organize the resistance to Napoleon but was captured and executed.

Over the years, Pezza's story gained notoriety in America thanks to a popular opera.

He was also celebrated by the French writer Alexandre Dumas.

Through these tales, Pezza was transformed from a ferocious villain to a folk hero.

But while the dish is named for an infamous Italian, seafood fra diavolo is actually an Italian-American invention with roots in New York City.

At "Cook's Country," our version of the dish includes two kinds of chili to really punch up the heat.

-So, we're about 5 minutes into the cooking here, and you can see it needs a little bit more liquid.

So I have some hot water on hand.

And for this recipe, you want to add about 1/2 cup of hot water at a time, 'cause you can always add more, but you can never take away.

And just make sure it's still submerged in the liquid, 'cause as that pasta cooks, the starch gets released, and then the sauce is going to thicken.

-Mmm.

-Now we're at that point, 2 minutes shy of al dente.

So you can see it does have a little bit of pliability.

So, because the scallops and the shrimp are really quick-cooking, we're going to add them now at the end.

And you know that the scallops and shrimp are cooked when they turn opaque.

-Okay.

-Again, that'll be about 2 to 3 minutes.

We made it.

-Oh, it looks beautiful.

-Yeah.

-Mmm.

-I'm going to add just a few more things.

I have a good amount of chopped fresh parsley.

It's 1/2 cup.

And now I have 2 tablespoons of chopped hot cherry peppers, plus a little bit of the brine.

-Absolutely.

It's definitely part of fra diavolo.

-Mm-hmm.

And our mussels from earlier.

And then if there's any juice that has kind of collected at the bottom of the bowl, don't leave any of it behind.

Alright.

Now turn that heat off, 'cause everything is done cooking at this point.

Yeah.

-Ah!

-Ashley.

-I know.

Alright, let me just taste for seasoning real quick.

Oh, ooh.

-Literally, my mouth is watering.

-I'm going to do a little twirl for you.

-A little food stylist in action here.

-Mm-hmm.

Do you say "scallop" or "scollop"?

-Depends on how much I paid for it.

-[ Laughs ] Ooh, you got a mussel.

-Yes, I do.

[ Both inhaling deeply ] -It smells like an Italian restaurant in here.

-[ Sighs ] -The best kind of Italian restaurant.

-The best kind.

-Mm-hmm.

And a little extra virgin olive oil to drizzle on top... -Nice.

-...along with a few more crushed red pepper flakes.

-Alright.

This is stunning.

It's actually better than most of the fra diavolo dishes that I've had.

-Mm-hmm.

-This is just gorgeous.

Alright, I am mirroring you.

So you're going for a scallop first.

-Mm-hmm.

-So tender.

-Mmm!

-I don't even -- I mean, I barely used a spoon.

I just need the side of a fork.

-That was melt-in-your-mouth.

-Yeah.

-So tender.

The pasta absorbed the sauce.

-Oh.

Totally.

That extra bit of garlic?

And it's not raw, even though we did stir it in at the end with the shrimp and with the scallops.

-Not raw at all.

-It's completely transformed.

-I'm going to go for a "muscel."

-Yeah.

Me, too.

Mmm.

-Gorgeous.

-This is so delicious.

The acidity, too, from the brine and the cherry peppers that we stirred in at the end?

-Mm-hmm.

This is a very, very special seafood fra diavolo.

-Mm.

-And this special person made it for me, so thank you.

-Thank you.

-If you want to try this absolutely gorgeous seafood dish at home, toss shrimp and scallops with garlic, stagger the cooking of the seafood, and cook the pasta right in the sauce.

So, from "Cook's Country," the very best thing to come out of one pot, seafood fra diavolo.

-I know you think I like fancy foods, and I'm guilty as charged, but sometimes you really do need to spend more money in order to get a quality product.

So let me share some examples with you.

First off, Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Now, other cheeses labeled Parmesan have two main differences.

One, Parmigiano-Reggiano uses raw, unpasteurized milk.

When they pasteurize the milk, which is how Parmesan is made elsewhere, basically, you get rid of all the flavor of the milk.

It's terrible.

The other thing is they're not aged nearly long enough.

You can actually see the aging in this cheese.

There are all of these crystals here that are indicating that it's aged at least 12 months.

Honestly, I look for the 24-month, although 12 months is totally fine for aging.

Second cheese here, another Italian favorite, Pecorino Romano.

Now, a lot of Romano cheeses, pretty much all of them, actually, are made with cows' milk.

The real deal is made with sheep's milk.

Pecora is the word for "sheep" in Italian.

It really must be made with sheep's milk in order to have the real gamey, piquant flavor.

When it comes to orange juice, fresh-squeezed is always the best.

But honestly, I'm never going to do that at 7:00 in the morning.

The problem is most supermarket orange juices don't have much flavor -- That is, until we did a tasting, and we discovered Natalie's.

It tastes like fresh-squeezed orange juice, and that's because it's squeezed and shipped pretty much immediately.

A lot of the supermarket juices, they squeeze the juice and hold it in tanks for months or years and then add all kinds of tricks to make it taste somewhat like fresh juice.

Why not just start with something that's actually fresh?

And more importantly, it is pasteurized at lower temperatures for less time, so it's got more fresh flavor.

Yes, it will not last as long in the supermarket, so it's got a shelf life of weeks rather than months.

But it's so delicious, it's not going to last that long in your fridge.

In tastings of their lemonade and grapefruit juice, they won both of those tastings for the same reason -- It just tastes like fresh-squeezed juice.

Next up, let's talk about syrup.

And honestly, I'm not going to talk about pancake syrup, because it's not worth eating.

I mean maple syrup, the real deal.

It is much more expensive, but it's much more delicious.

Now, I will tell you, any maple syrup, you can buy the cheapest one you can find.

They all are delicious.

Probably the most important thing is to look for either the words dark or very dark on the label.

I think those have the most flavor as opposed to golden or amber.

Finally, some good news for those of you who want to save some pennies.

And actually, it's more like dollars.

Totally fine to buy imitation vanilla extract.

No one, including the people here in the test kitchen, is going to be able to tell the difference in a cookie or a cake if you use imitation extract.

And all of the dollars that you save on buying cheaper extract, you can spend on better syrup, better juice, and better cheese.

-Today, I'm making roasted garlic-Parmesan bread.

You have to start by roasting garlic.

To do that, you want to take off any of that loose, papery skin on its outside.

Next, I want to expose the cloves, so I'm going to cut off just the top part of the garlic.

Here, I've got some foil that I've put in a wire rack, which is in a baking sheet.

Put the garlic heads on top of that and then drizzle it with some oil and sprinkle with a good amount of salt.

Next, I'm going to crimp the foil all around this garlic and make sure it's nice and tightly sealed.

Roast it in a 400-degree oven for about an hour and a half.

Can you smell it?

Let the garlic cool 30 minutes, and then it's time to make the bread.

I just need one head for this recipe, so I'm going to squeeze out the cloves from this one, and then I'll save this other garlic for something else.

Mash the garlic with softened butter, Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper until nice and smooth.

I'm using Italian bread here, and I just need to cut it in half and smear that butter mixture evenly on the cut sides of the bread.

Now I'm going to bake the bread until it's nice and golden at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Time to cut each slice into eight pieces.

It's so crispy and golden.

Delicious and warm roasted garlic-Parmesan bread.

Some marinara sauce wouldn't hurt.

-Piccata is a classic Italian sauce made with lemon juice, white wine, and capers, and it packs a punch.

Now, traditionally, piccata is served with cutlets of chicken or veal.

But today, Christie's going to show us something new.

-We are using salmon.

The great thing about salmon, in addition to the fact that it just tastes fantastic, is that we don't have to slice it or pound it to make it cook quickly.

All we have to do is remove the skin.

I have a 2-pound center-cut piece of salmon.

It's about 1 1/2 inches thick.

It's really gorgeous.

Now, you can certainly purchase salmon that's already skinless or ask your fishmonger to do it, but it's really easy to do yourself.

-Okay.

-So, I'll start with a corner.

If you had a longer piece, you'd start near the tail.

Now, you're going to skin the salmon underneath the flesh... -Right.

-...which might seem counterintuitive, but it's really the easiest way to do it.

-Okay.

-I'm just going to kind of scrape to get myself started, and then I'm going to take a paper towel to hold onto the skin, 'cause it's -- -Yeah, that's slippery.

-It's very slippery.

Now I'm going to basically skim my knife underneath the flesh, almost skimming it off the skin.

-Okay.

-It doesn't really require a lot of force, but you want to try to keep your knife as flat as possible, kind of pointing down.

Once you kind of get the other corner liberated, I'll grab that skin and just keep my knife flat and work along the bottom.

-Now, why is it so important to take the skin off here?

-Because it's going to affect the cooking.

It's a really cool cooking method, and we need to be able to have heat penetrate on both sides.

-Okay.

-So, as you can see, it didn't -- did not come off in one perfect piece.

-Nicely done.

-Sometimes it, you know, takes a little work.

But we've got the skin off.

So I'm really just going to eyeball this halfway.

We want four pieces.

-Those are four beautiful pieces.

-[ Laughs ] It's really a gorgeous piece of salmon.

Okay.

Now we are going to sear the salmon first, so I want to get it nice and dry, so I'll pat it dry with paper towels.

Now I'm going to season it.

I have 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

So we'll season it well.

Now, I'm going to get cleaned up before we proceed.

-Sounds good.

-Julia, I have a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil heating up in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat till it's just smoking.

We want it nice and hot because we're going to sear these presentation-side down.

So this flesh side, not the skin side, is going to go face-down in the pan.

Are you ready?

-I'm ready.

[ Laughs ] That's pretty wild.

-The cool part of this recipe is we're going to let the salmon steam in the moisture that it releases as it cooks.

So we wanted to get a really nice, hot skillet, brown that presentation side.

We're going to cover it and let it cook for about 5 minutes until it steams from the top down.

-So you don't have to flip the salmon halfway through cooking.

It's going to cook evenly just like that.

-Yes.

-Now I understand why you took the skin off, 'cause if skin was on, it would interrupt the even cooking.

-Right.

So, this is going to cook for about 5 minutes to get us to medium-rare, which is 125.

If you'd like to cook it to more like medium, 135, you'll need to go closer to 7 minutes.

-Okay.

-Well, it's been 5 minutes.

-It's a very cool technique.

-Isn't it?

-Yeah.

-So, we want to check the temp.

Remember, we were looking for a medium-rare.

-Yes, please.

-So, this is 126.

-Perfect.

-I'm good with that.

-Yeah.

Oh, Christie, that is beautiful.

Look at that sear.

-It's really such a cool technique.

They're not done yet.

We need to make the piccata now.

-That's right.

-Right?

So, I still have a nice, hot pan with some fat in it.

I have my heat turned down to medium now.

And everything's going to come together really quickly at this point, so notice I have all my ingredients out.

We've got our serving plates.

-Mm-hmm.

-You just -- You got to go with it once you get started.

-I like how quick this is.

-Super quick.

So, I have three garlic cloves that I've sliced thinly, and we're just giving these a kiss, about 30 seconds.

We just want them to get a little bit golden.

Basically, once you can smell them, you know that they're pretty much ready to go.

-Oh, it smells good.

-And some key ingredients.

Now I have 2 teaspoons of flour.

Now, we know that oftentimes with piccata, you flour the chicken, or you flour the veal, and that flour kind of sloughs off into the sauce and thickens it.

Well, we didn't do that, so we're just going to add flour directly to the skillet and stir it around just to kind of get it coated with some oil.

Now we'll add our liquid.

So, this is an acidic, bright sauce.

-Mm-hmm.

-I have 1/2 cup of dry white wine.

I'll cut that with 1/4 cup of water and then classic elements.

We've got lemon and capers.

-Mm-hmm.

-2 tablespoons of capers that I've already rinsed, a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice.

-Mm-hmm.

-But even more importantly, a teaspoon of grated lemon zest.

-Nice.

So you get the lemon flavor without that harsh, acidic bite.

-Right.

And 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

We're just going to whisk this.

Bring it to a boil.

Maybe 30 seconds.

And you can see it's really coming together and visibly thickening.

Okay, once that happens, we're going to turn off the heat.

Now we'll add a little enrichment.

I have 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter.

Cut it into pieces.

We're going to add these one at a time off the heat.

Whisk each one in.

-Mm-hmm.

-Okay, last piece in.

Oh, this smells so good, doesn't it?

-It looks delicious.

-Now, with classic piccata, you'd use parsley as a fresh note at the end.

But to kind of marry classic piccata and salmon piccata, we're going to use some fresh dill.

-Oh, nice.

-This is 3 tablespoons of chopped, fresh dill.

And that's such a classic pairing with salmon.

-Mm-hmm.

-The final act, we're going to piccata the salmon.

-Oh, that looks pretty.

-We almost don't want to cover up that gorgeous brown side.

-No, don't cover it all up.

-[ Laughs ] -Christie, this looks delicious.

-I am so excited to dig in.

-Mm-hmm.

-May I sauce you?

-Yes.

I thought you'd never ask.

[ Both laugh ] Oh.

The lemon, and I smell the dill.

-Well, wait till you taste it.

-I can't wait.

I'm going right for the center.

Perfectly cooked.

Just how I like it.

-It's just that contrast between that crusty outside and the super-tender inside.

-Mm-hmm.

-Mmm.

-Mmm.

That's delicious.

The punchiness of that piccata sauce really cuts through the salmon.

-Even though we put butter in the sauce, it still is so bright and sharp that it doesn't feel heavy.

-And I'm impressed with how quick this came together.

This is perfect for a mid-week dinner.

-Mm-hmm.

You can't snooze.

There's no time.

You have to be on your game.

[ Both laugh ] -Christie, this is a lovely take on piccata.

Thank you.

-Well, my pleasure.

-So, if you want to give salmon piccata a try, start by using skinless salmon.

Cook the fish in a covered skillet and simmer the piccata sauce for just 30 seconds to preserve the lemon's zippy flavor.

From "Cook's Country," a brand-new recipe for salmon piccata.

You can find this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with select episodes and product reviews, at our website, CooksCountry.com/tv.

I'm definitely going to make this for the family.

-[ Laughs ]