Salsa Genovese Recipes

SALSA DI NOCI

Steps:

• Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add walnuts and cook until they have softened slightly, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
• Combine garlic and 1 pinch sea salt in the bowl of a mortar and pestle. Grind to create a thick paste. Add walnuts, marjoram, thyme, and oregano. Grind until combined and slightly creamy, but still coarse.
• Transfer the walnut mixture to a large bowl. Slowly whisk in olive oil to form a thick emulsion. Add heavy cream and Pecorino Romano cheese, whisk until combined. Season with black pepper and sea salt to taste.
• Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil. Stir in the fettuccine, return to a boil, and cook pasta over medium heat until cooked through but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain.
• Toss walnut sauce with pasta. Garnish with fresh chives.

SPAGHETTI GENOVESE

Steps:

• Pour a kettle of boiling water into a very large pan until half full. Return to the boil, then add the potatoes and spaghetti, and a little salt. Cook for 10 minutes until the potatoes and pasta are almost tender. Tip in the green beans and cook for 5 minutes more.
• Drain well, reserving 4 tbsp of the cooking liquid. Return the potatoes, pasta and beans to the pan, then stir in the fresh pesto and reserved cooking liquid. Season to taste, divide between four serving plates and drizzle with a little olive oil.

PASTA ALLA GENOVESE

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place the onions in the boiling water, and cook, covered, 15 minutes. Drain the onions, and let cool a bit, then slice very thinly.
• Heat half the oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat; stir in the carrots, celery and bacon, and cook for 4 minutes. Add the beef, then cover with the onions. Pour the remaining oil over the onions, then sprinkle with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 3/4 teaspoon pepper. Cover, bring to a simmer and cook gently until the beef is tender, about 2 hours; the onions will release a good deal of liquid.
• Uncover the pot and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring more frequently as the liquid reduces and lowering the heat as necessary to prevent scorching, until the meat has fallen apart and the sauce is creamy, about 45 minutes. Stir in the wine and taste, adding more wine if desired. Reduce the heat to low, and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce is glossy and quite thick, about 15 minutes more.
• Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, then drain and toss with the sauce. Stir in Parmesan to taste, then serve.

RIGATONI ALLA GENOVESE

Steps:

• Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook pancetta until most of fat is rendered out, about 6 minutes. Remove cooked pancetta with a slotted spoon and save.
• Raise heat to high and transfer meat to the pot. Season with salt. Cook and stir until liquid releases from beef and begins to evaporate, and meat browns, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Reduce heat to medium-high. Add celery, carrots, reserved cooked pancetta, salt and pepper. Cook and stir about 5 minutes. Add a heaping tablespoon of tomato paste, bay leaf, and white wine. Cook and stir, scraping up the brownings from the bottom of the pan, 2 to 3 minutes. Add sliced onions. Reduce heat to medium. Cover pot and cook 30 minutes without stirring. After 30 minutes, stir onions and meat until well mixed. Cover again, and cook another 30 minutes. Stir.
• Reduce heat to low and cook uncovered 8 to 10 hours, stirring occasionally. Skim off fat as mixture cooks. If sauce seems to reduce too much, add water or broth as needed to maintain a sauce-like consistency. Cook until beef and onions seem to melt into each other.
• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook rigatoni in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until just barely al dente, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain.
• Add rigatoni to the sauce and cook until heated through. Serve topped with a pinch of marjoram and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

PESTO ALLA GENOVESE

Steps:

• In the bowl of a food processor, combine the basil, salt, and pepper and process for a few seconds until the basil is chopped. Add the cheese, pine nuts, and garlic and, while the processor is running, add the oil in a thin, steady stream until a mostly smooth sauce is formed. Transfer pesto to a bowl and set aside. (Note: Pesto may be made 1 day in advance and kept, refrigerated, in an airtight container, until ready to use. If making in advance, be sure to cover the top of the pesto with a thin layer of olive oil to prevent the pesto from darkening. Pesto may also be frozen in the same manner in small quantities for use at a later date.)
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook, according to package directions, until al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. In a large bowl, toss pasta with pesto. Add a little of the reserved cooking liquid if pasta seems to dry. Serve immediately.

SLOW-ROASTED HALIBUT WITH ASPARAGUS AND SALSA GENOVESE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
• Put 1 1/2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a shallow baking dish. Place the fish fillets in the baking dish and turn to coat them with the oil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Spoon the wine around the fish. Bake until the fish just flakes, about 20 minutes.
• Whisk a tablespoon or 2 of the juices from the baking dish into the salsa and oil mixture to thin and flavor it, then spoon the sauce over the fish. Serve at once.
• Add all the ingredients except for the olive oil and pulse until nearly pureed. With the machine running, add 6 tablespoons olive oil through the feed tube, pureeing until the mixture is almost smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
• Refrigerate in an airtight container with a thin film of olive oil on top to protect it from oxidizing. The flavors will stay lively for 2 to 3 days.

SALSA GENOVESE

Steps:

• Pulse the olives in a food processor until well chopped. Add all the remaining ingredients except for the olive oil and pulse until nearly pureed. With the machine running, add 6 tablespoons olive oil through the feed tube, pureeing until the mixture is almost smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Refrigerate in an airtight container with a thin film of olive oil on top to protect it from oxidizing. The flavors will stay lively for 2 to 3 days.

SALSA GENOVESE

Steps:

• Using the food processor with the metal blade, mince the bacon and garlic cloves together into a fine pestata (paste). Since you have the machine out, use it to chop the carrot, celery, and onions if you want (you don't need to wash the bowl). Process each vegetable separately. Cut the carrot and the celery stalk into chunks before chopping; pulse each to small bits. Chunk up the onions into 1-inch pieces, put them into the food-processor bowl in batches, and pulse them to 1/4-inch bits, not too fine. Put the onions in a big bowl-you will have 4 to 5 quarts of chopped onion when you are done.
• (Of course, you may shred and chop the vegetables by hand, or even mince the bacon-garlic paste with a heavy cleaver, as I did growing up. It takes longer but is quite satisfying.)
• Rinse and dry the pork, then sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon salt lightly on all surfaces, patting it on. Pour the oil into the braising pan, and set it over medium heat. Before it gets hot, lay the pork in and brown it-lightly-turning it after a minute or so on each side.
• While the meat is browning, scrape the pestata into the pan bottom; spread it out and let the bacon begin to render. Drop in peperoncino now, if you want some heat in the salsa; toast it on the pan bottom.
• After 3 minutes or so of browning the pork, drop the tomato paste into the fat; stir and caramelize a minute. Dump the shredded carrot and celery into the pan bottom; stir for a minute, just to get them cooking. (Keep turning the meat so it browns evenly and slowly.)
• Now scrape the chopped onions into the pan, all around the meat. Sprinkle the remaining coarse salt over the onions; raise the heat a bit, stirring the onions up from the bottom and mixing them with the oil, pestata, and tomato paste. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the onions are all hot and starting to sweat. Cover, and turn the heat to medium-low.
• The pork is now going to cook for about 3 hours. Leave it alone for the first 45 minutes, then uncover, turn the meat, and stir the onions. They should be wilting and releasing liquid; if there is any sign of burning, lower the heat. Cover, and cook for another 45 minutes, turn the meat, and stir the onions. They should be quite reduced in volume, in a thick, simmering sauce. Stir in 2 cups of hot broth, bringing the liquid higher around the pork.
• Cook, covered, for another 45 minutes, then stir. If the sauce level has dropped a lot and is beginning to stick, stir in another cup or two of broth. Taste, and add more salt if necessary.
• Cover, and cook another 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. Check the consistency of the onions-they should be melting into the sauce, and the meat should be soft when pierced with a fork. If satisfactory, remove from the heat; otherwise, cook longer, adding more broth, or, if the sauce seems thin, uncover and cook to reduce it.
• As a primo, first course, for six: Remove 2 cups of the fresh onion sauce from the pot and put it in a large skillet. Cook 1 pound of rigatoni or other pasta, and toss it in the skillet with the simmering sauce. Finish with extra-virgin olive oil and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano.
• As a secondo, main meat course, for six or more: Remove the pork from the braising pot and cut out the blade bone (just lift the cooked meat off it and remove the bone). Slice the pork against the grain in 1/3-inch-thick slices, and moisten with hot sauce from the pot.
• As a meaty sauce for pasta: Traditionally, the leftover meat and sauce from Sunday dinner were combined and served another day as a dressing for pasta, but you can dedicate any amount of Salsa Genovese to this marvelous mixture.
• If you want to make this with freshly braised meat and sauce, let cool briefly, then pull the meat apart with forks (or fingers) into shreds, about 1/2 inch wide or more, and toss with the sauce. Refrigerate or freeze for another day.
• To dress 1 pound of pasta with meaty sauce: Heat 2 cups of sauce in a large skillet; refresh and extend it with a bit of extravirgin olive oil and broth, and bring to a simmer. I like to serve this with rigatoni or ziti. Fresh garganelli or cavatappi would also be a fine pasta choice. Finish with more oil and freshly grated cheese.
• You'll notice that I put coarse salt, rather than granular salt, on large meat cuts and whole birds that roast or braise for a long time. At home, I use either coarse sel de mer-sea salt with crystals formed naturally in coastal flats-or kosher salt, which crystallizes in the manufacturing process. The crystal structure adheres to the meat better than ordinary salt; real sea-salt crystals, my favorite, have more flavor too. I also prefer coarse salt for finishing-that is, for sprinkling on hot foods after they come out of the pot or pan.
• I recommend that you have at least one of these coarse crystal salts in the kitchen. If a recipe calls for coarse salt but you have none, use ordinary granular salt but reduce the amount by a third or a half: since granular salt is smaller and more dense, a spoonful of it (or any measured amount) adds more saltiness than an equal measure of bigger, airier salt crystals.

SALSA GENOVESE WITH SHAVED PARMESAN

Steps:

• 1. Place olives in food processor bowl. Cover and process until finely chopped. Add pine nuts, parsley, basil, thyme, lemon peel, capers and garlic. Cover and process until smooth. Transfer to airtight container. Cover with thin layer of olive oil. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to 3 days. 2. Drain off excess oil. Spoon olive mixture onto crackers. Top with Parmesan cheese.*NOTE: To toast pine nuts spread evenly on baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for 5 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown, stirring once or twice.