Gastronome

*taptap* Is this thing on? It’s been a bit - I’ve been travelling and working too much of late. (Hey, at least there was some travelling in there….) But tonight, back to creating something tasty and new for the Leckman-Borogove Sunday supper! I found a package of fregole at Lucca a few weeks ago - it looks like my beloved Israeli couscous, but toasted up nice and dark. This stuff is Sardinian - and it looks like the traditional dish made with it is fully of clammy goodness. I spotted an article in my local that mentioned that the good folks over at Incanto cook it like risotto with crab; that sounded good to me. Nothing being that easy for a Leckman-Borogove supper, I put together two different fregole dishes for our dinner tonight - a crab, thyme & shallot fregole, and one with tomatoes, chantarelles, white beans, and sage. (Warning: do not try and feed to the littlest Leckman.)

Fregole with Crab: method
–Clean a crab. Make a simple stock with the shells, and reserve the meat.
–Mince 3-4 shallots. Pluck a few branches of thyme.
–Sauté the shallots in a little butter over medium heat until they just start to color. Toss in the thyme; let cook for a few moments until the leaves turn bright bright green.
–Add in a cup of fregole. Stir to coat with tasty butter and shallot. Add stock to just cover up. Bring to a simmer.
–Simmer for 20-25 minutes, adding stock as necessary to keep the fregole submerged. Taste reasonably often, starting around minute 15. Stop cooking when they are just past al dente, but still a bit springy when you chomp.
–Stir in some crab butter that has been hanging around your freezer. And the reserved crab meat.
–Squeeze a small lemon (or half a big one) into the pasta. (Do this a bit at a time, until you like the lemon level.) Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a green salad and a little coarse sea salt sprinkled over the top. Serves 2, with a bit leftover for lunch.

Fregole with Beans, Tomato, Mushrooms & Sage: method
I worked from Judy Rogers’ method for cooking dried beans and then her method for Fagioli all’Uccelletto, from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. She’s smart, that Judy. (I just realized I made Fregole e Fagioli. Oh dear.)
For the tasty beans:
–Cook your white beans according to your favorite method. If you don’t have one, go get the Zuni Cookbook now!
–Chop an onion & sauté it over medium in some olive oil. Let it carmelize a bit.
–Throw in a few handfuls of chopped chantarelles and 2-3 cloves of minced garlic. And a little salt, just because you want to taste the mushrooms in a minute. Let them cook. (Now is a good time to drop down and start cooking your fregole.)
–Add a tablespooon of chopped fresh sage. Stir it in. Taste the mushrooms again. (And maybe one more time, for good measure. And let Beca taste them, too.)
—Add around a half a cup of chopped tomatoes and a splash of veg stock. Bring back to a simmer. Add the beans and some of their cooking liquid. Taste again - you’ll probably need more salt. Let simmer, gently, for 15 minutes or so. (Or until the fregole is done. We’re pragmatic around here.)
For the fregole
–Sauté another chopped onion in some olive oi. Add fregole, and a nice dark veg stock, and cook as above in the crab recipe.
–When the fregole is done, stir in most of the beans and their sauce, gently. Try not to break up the beans.
–Spoon into a plate, and top with a few more of the beans and a little extra sauce.
–If you have a meat-eater around, cook off a nice lamb sausage. (We had one from Golden Gate Meat Markets; lamb sausage cured in red wine.) Slice it and arrange it on the plate atop the fregole.
–Serves 3, with some leftover for lunch.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 23rd, 2005 at 10:23 pm and is filed under recipes - entrees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.