The big day - Cassoulet!

The big day has arrived. Hit by a cold front, with temperatures in the teens, what better day than today to spend hours in the kitchen, experimenting with a new dish? I've never made cassoulet, but have eaten plenty of it. Often, if I'm in a French restaurant I will order it precisely because it's one of those things that you normally wouldn't have time to do at home. I looked over many recipes, and found this one from Saveur magazine that sounded good, and not too hard. Cassoulet is one of those things that changes region by region, so I went for one that sounded yummy to me. Your version might be vastly different, but that's the nature of the dish! I'm inspired now to make it again, but this time making my own duck confit, as I learned to do in my cooking class. More time needed for that, of course, but with a little planning.... If you are going to make this, make sure that you allow at least 6 hours start to finish (and don't forget that you will need to soak your beans the night before), and read all the way through before starting. The first three hours are active cooking time, the final three it is in the oven, so you can go do something else. This would also be a great dish to make for a dinner party, and bake in individual casserole dishes, if you happen to have those.

Cassoulet from Saveur magazine

1 lb. dried great northern beans
10 tbsp. duck fat or olive oil
16 cloves garlic, smashed
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 large ham hocks
1 lb. pork shoulder, cut into 1"cubes
1⁄2 lb. pancetta, cubed
4 sprigs oregano
4 sprigs thyme
3 bay leaves
1 cup whole peeled canned tomatoes
1 cup white wine
2 cups chicken broth
4 confit duck legs (optional)
1 lb. pork sausages
2 cups bread crumbs

• Soak beans in a 4-qt. bowl in 7 1⁄2 cups water overnight. Heat 2 tbsp. duck fat in a 6-qt. pot over medium-high heat. Add half the garlic, onions, and carrots and cook until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add ham hocks along with beans and their water and boil. Reduce heat and simmer beans until tender, about 1 1⁄2 hours.
• Transfer ham hocks to a plate; let cool. Pull off meat; discard skin, bone, and gristle. Chop meat; add to beans. Set aside.
• Heat 2 tbsp. duck fat in a 5-qt. dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add pork and brown for 8 minutes. Add pancetta; cook for 5 minutes. Add remaining garlic, onions, and carrots; cook until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Tie together oregano, thyme, and bay leaves with twine; add to pan with tomatoes; cook until liquid thickens, 8–10 minutes. Add wine; reduce by half. Add broth; boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, uncovered, until liquid has thickened, about 1 hour. Discard herbs; set dutch oven aside.
• Meanwhile, sear duck legs in 2 tbsp. duck fat in a 12" skillet over medium-high heat for 8 minutes; transfer to a plate. Brown sausages in the fat, about 8 minutes. Cut sausages into 1⁄2" slices. Pull duck meat off bones. Discard fat and bones. Stir duck and sausages into pork stew.
• Heat oven to 300˚. Mix beans and pork stew in a 4-qt. earthenware casserole. Cover with bread crumbs; drizzle with remaining duck fat. Bake, uncovered, for 3 hours. Raise oven temperature to 500˚; cook cassoulet until crust is golden, about 5 minutes.

Catching up - step back to Sunday

Lidia's pasta, with slight variations

I'm not sure how the days get away from me. It's not like I have so much to do here, and really, I feel like I could be accomplishing so much more. I am managing to get my workout in most mornings though, but by the time I have breakfast, work out, and shower, most of the morning is gone! So, I am a few days behind on my menus. I'll start where I left off... Saturday we had crepes. Sunday I made a simple pasta. I tend to do one day of something a bit complicated, and the next day I do a simple meal to offset it. This is a pasta dish that I first encountered during a pledge drive for KQED, our local public TV station in SF. Yes, I'm that much of a celebrity stalker that I volunteered to answer phones during a pledge drive because Lidia Bastianich was going to be there. She made this dish during one of the pledge segments, and then we (the volunteers) got to eat it! Lots of people go to Lidia's restaurants, but how many people can say that they had food that she actually cooked herself - while you watched! I was super happy. And then, she autographed books, and spent time chatting with everyone. I spoke to her in my limited Italian, and could not have been more thrilled. She is truly a gracious person. This has become one of my go-to pasta dishes, as I generally have most of the items on hand. Often, I will add peas (as I did Sunday) or maybe eggplant, just to give it a twist, but I always use the fennel and sausage, although not always Italian sausage - if I have wild boar on hand, I'll use that, and sometimes I'll use a mix of sweet and spicy sausages. Disclaimer: the photo above is of a different time when I made this pasta, as I forgot to take a photo the other night! Here's Lidia's version, direct from her website, lidiasitaly.com:

salt for the pasta water
1 pound ziti
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, without fennel seeds
1 large fennel bulb, about 1 pound
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, cut in half-moon slices
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1/2 cup tomato paste
3 cups finely chopped fennel fronds
1 cup freshly grated pecorino, or Grana or Parmigiano

Heat a large pot of salted water to boiling for the pasta. Drop the ziti into the boiling water, then bring back to a boil and cook until the ziti are not quite al dente. Drain, reserving 3 cups of the pasta water. While the pasta is cooking, remove the sausage from its casing and break the meat up a bit with your fingers. Trim the fennel bulb, removing any tough outer parts, reserving the fronds. Slice the bulb in half lengthwise, remove core then slice each half in ¼- inch- thick lengthwise slices.

Separate the slivers of fennel if they are attached at the bottom; cut the long slivers in half so you have about 3 cups of 2- inch- long matchsticks of fennel. Heat the olive oil in a skillet set over medium- high heat. Add the sausage meat, and cook, stirring and breaking it up more with a wooden spoon, until it sizzles and begins to brown, about 1½ minutes. Push the sausage to the sides of the pan, and drop the onion slices into the clear part of the pan; sauté, stirring, until they sizzle and wilt, another 2 minutes or so, then stir them in with the meat. Clear a new space, and drop in the fennel; let it heat up and wilt for 1 minute or more, then stir to combine.

Sprinkle on ¼ teaspoon salt; drop the hot red pepper flakes into a cleared hot spot, and toast the flakes for ½ a minute, then stir to combine. Clear a good sized hot spot in the center of the pan, plop in the tomato paste, and cook, stirring it in the spot, for a good minute of more, until it is sizzling and caramelizing. Then stir it in with everything else.

Ladle the reserved pasta water into the skillet, stir well, and bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and let cook until the flavors have developed, the sauce is thickened but not too thick, and the fennel is soft but not mushy, 6 minutes or more. (Add more water if the sauce reduces too rapidly.) Season to taste.

Drop the cooked ziti into the simmering sauce. Toss everything together, then sprinkle over it the chopped fennel fronds, and continue to cook until the ziti are perfectly al dente and cooked with the sauce.

Remove the skillet from the heat, sprinkle the grated cheese over the ziti, and toss it in. Serve the hot pasta right from the skillet into warm pasta bowls.