Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar
I am having fun working my way through this incredible book. Step-by-step instructions and photos for Chi Spacca’s famous focaccia di recco, a cheese-filled piece of heaven. Salt-baked fish, rack of lamb, coffee-rubbed beef, roasted beets and cauliflower (two different dishes, one happy cook), and key lime cheesecake are next on my list. And a banana cream pie with caramel sauce and bittersweet chocolate shavings.
Excerpted from Chi Spacca: A New Approach to American Cooking by Nancy Silverton with Ryan DeNicola and Carolynn Carreno. Copyright © 2020 by Nancy Silverton. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Asparagus al Cartoccio with Butter, Mint, and Parmesan
Serves 4
At one of my favorite restaurants in Tel Aviv, North Abraxass, I was served a dish of spinach stems al cartoccio, or spinach cooked in parchment. The paper packet came to the table unfolded, revealing the cooked green stems that were showered in Parmesan—so
simple! It was obvious to me that the same cooking method would work on any long, slender vegetable. When I came home, I tried it with pencil asparagus. Cooking the slender asparagus spears in paper this way protects them from direct heat, so they retain their shape and color, rather than shriveling and drying up the way they do when roasted. They’re basically steamed, but the paper packet gives the dish that “Wow!” factor. It’s like a pretty present.
You will need a large platter to serve the asparagus packages.
1 pound pencil asparagus
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 fresh mint sprigs
Flaky sea salt
Fresh coarsely ground black pepper
A chunk of Parmesan for grating
Adjust the oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 450°F.
Lay a 13-×18-inch sheet of parchment paper on a flat work surface with the long side parallel to the counter’s edge and have another sheet handy. Lay half of the asparagus lengthwise in the center of the paper. Sprinkle the kosher salt and scatter half of the butter cubes over the spears and lay one mint sprig on top. Bring the top and bottom edges of the paper together and fold them over tightly to seal closed. Fold the sides inward like you were wrapping a present without tape and press down hard to seal them closed, so the asparagus are tightly wrapped in the paper. Repeat, wrapping the remaining asparagus, along with the butter, kosher salt, and mint, in the second sheet of parchment paper.
Place the asparagus packages on a large baking sheet and roast for about 10 minutes, until the paper is golden brown and the butter is bubbling out of the packages. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the packages cool for 1 minute on the baking sheet.
To serve, lay the packages on a large platter. Cut a slit lengthwise down the middle of each package, being careful of the steam that will arise. Peel the sides of the parchment apart to expose the asparagus; remove and discard the mint sprigs.
Crush about 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt between your fingertips over the asparagus inside each package and grind a few turns of pepper into each package. Use a fine Microplane to grate a generous layer of Parmesan over one side of each package of asparagus, leaving one side free of cheese so you can see the asparagus.
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