Red Meat: Domenica Marchetti
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
Happy Looming Snow Day, Gut Checkers!
And welcome to the launch of our latest online series: Red Meat–an ongoing Q&A designed to provide you with unfiltered access to our area’s most esteemed culinarians.
We’d like to get the (snow)ball rolling by introducing you to Domenica Marchetti:
(Image: Chris McNamara)
The Alexandria resident is a regular contributor to the Washington Post Food section and has also appeared in various national media. Although she claims no formal culinary training–”My mom was born and raised in Italy and I got my training from her. I am a (proud) home cook through and through,” she said of her epicurean credentials–Marchetti has two published cookbooks and is poised to release two more (The Glorious Pasta of Italy – June; untitled rustic Italian cooking tome – later this fall) before the end of the year.
WR: Salt. Pepper. What other spices/herbs could you not live without?
DM: Fresh basil in summer. I always toss it into my tomato and mozzarella salad and in fresh tomato sauce. And, of course, in pesto. I also can’t live without peperoncino (chili pepper). In Abruzzo, where my family is from, there is a plate of either fresh or dried peperoncini or a jar of or oil-marinated peperoncini on every dinner table. It goes on pasta, vegetables, and just about everything else!
WR: What’s the very first dish you ever mastered? How long did it take? Do you still make it today?
DM: Believe it or not, the first dish i ever mastered was Chinese spring rolls. Even though I grew up in an Italian family we loved Chinese food and went as often as we could to Chinatown in New York. My mother had a wonderful Chinese cookbook–I don’t remember the title–and I remember prepping all of filling ingredients, wrapping the filing in the spring roll skins, and frying them in a wok. They were delicious.
WR: What seasonal ingredient(s) get your creative juices flowing?
DM: Summer tomatoes, of course. Like others who love to cook and eat seasonally I wait for them all year long and eat them nearly every day from the time they make their debut at the farmers’ market till they disappear from the stalls. And zucchini blossoms! I fry them in a light batter and they are ethereal. I also like to toss them in soups and with cooked pasta. I also love apricots and sour cherries, my two favorite fruits. Their seasons overlap briefly and when they do I make apricot-cherry tarts and pies. As for winter ingredients, I am especially fond of kale, both regular curly kale and the kind known as dinosaur kale (cavolo nero aka lacinato kale). I love it sauteed with garlic and in hearty vegetable soups.
WR: My latest cookbook obsession is …
DM: Good to the Grain, by Kim Boyce. The book is about baking with whole-grain flours, from familiar flours such as whole-wheat to less-familiar ones, such as teff and kamut. The recipes are creative and inspired but not at all contrived. There’s no attempt to just substitute whole-grain for white flour. The recipes really honor and showcase the qualities of all of the various whole-grain flours. And the photos by Quentin Bacon are beautiful.
WR: What’s the most challenging dish you’ve ever attempted? Would you make it again?
DM: The most challenging dish I ever attempted is a pasta dish from Abruzzo called Maccheroni alla Mulinara (the miller’s wife’s pasta). Pasta dough is carefully rolled out into an extraordinarily long loop–probably longer than 10 feet–and then wrapped into a coil. When you boil the coil of pasta the loop breaks up into long, fat noodles that are sauced with Abruzzese ragu (meat sauce). A wonderful restaurant cook in Italy showed me how to make the noodles and I recreated them for my forthcoming book, The Glorious Pasta of Italy. It’s a wonderful, one-of-a-kind recipe that is worth every bit of effort. And in all honesty, it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be to master. Plus it’s so fun!
WR: If I could the spend the day working alongside any local chef, I’d love to collaborate with …
DM: This is such a tough question because we have so many talented chefs in the area. Right now I would have to say Johnny Monis of Komi. I’ve only eaten there once, but the meal was memorable, so carefully wrought and beautifully presented. And delicious. His food is unlike anything I cook at home, so it would be a treat to shadow him in the kitchen.
WR: What’s the easiest/quickest–but still wholly satisfying–meal you make for yourself?
DM: Probably my mother’s lentil soup, especially this time of year! It comes together in under an hour and is delicious and satisfying–a meal in a bowl. You can make it vegetarian, or you can add diced ham, pancetta, or sausage to make it a little heartier.
Zuppa di Lenticchie (Lentil Soup) –from The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy, by Domenica Marchetti (Chronicle Books, 2006)
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for serving
4 cloves garlic, lightly crushed with the flat side of a knife blade
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and cut into medium dice
1 rib celery, trimmed and cut into small dice
2 cups brown lentils, rinsed and drained
4 cups best-quality commercial chicken broth
4 cups water
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 fresh bay leaf
1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Homemade black pepper croutons (cubed country bread tossed with olive oil, salt, a generous shower of black pepper, and baked in the oven until crispy)
In a large Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, onion carrots, and celery and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the onion is softened and pale gold and the carrots are bright orange. Stir in the lentils and sauté for a minute or two, mixing well to coat them thoroughly with oil. Pour in the broth and water and add the thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper to taste. Cover partially and simmer, stirring from time to time, for 45 minutes, or until the lentils are completely tender. Reduce the heat if necessary to keep the soup at a gentle simmer.
Discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaf. Taste and adjust the seasoning with additional salt or pepper if you like.
Spoon into bowls and drizzle a little olive oil on top of each serving. Garnish each serving with a handful of croutons.
Cook’s Note: For an even heartier soup, add some chopped smoked ham, a small smoked pork chop, or a cut-up cooked sausage or two to the pot while sautéing the vegetables.
WR: In the next six months you won’t want to miss my …
DM: My latest cookbook, The Glorious Pasta of Italy. It’s a collection of my favorite pasta recipes, from simple weeknight pasta dishes that can be made in the time it takes to boil a pot of water to a handful of ‘showstoppers’–truly one-of-a-kind recipes like the one described above. There’s even a bonus chapter on Pasta Dolce–sweet pasta recipes for dessert.
WR: It’s quitting time. I’m pouring myself …
DM: A glass of wine. I enjoy Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, a fairly light red that pairs well with a lot of different foods. If it’s a special occasion…prosecco!
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A sincere thanks to Domenica for allowing us to pick her brain and for divulging her go-to lentil dish (perfect eating on a snowy night, no?).
Like what you see here?
Come back every Tuesday for another helping of Red Meat.
–WR
Tags: @domenicacooks, Alexandria, cookbooks, cooking, Domenica Cooks, Domenica Marchetti, Gut Check, Komi, lentils, Northern Virginia Magazine, recipes, Red Meat, The Glorious Pasta of Italy, Warren Rojas