Big Night

Instructions

1 hr before serving, place martini glass in the freezer. When ready to serve, add a splash of vermouth to the glass and swirl it around before discarding. Next, fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add vodka + 1/2 shot of vermouth. Shake until well chilled and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with BIGASS olive, with an added splash of olive brine if you like 'em dirty. I have a suspicion that's how Gabriella prefers them...

Instructions

Lightly toss together flour, rosemary, salt, and yeast in a mixing bowl. In a separate measuring cup, mix 1 1/4 cup warm water and honey and stir rapidly to combine.

Pour wet ingredients into bowl of dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula. Don't overwork the dough, but mix until everything is incorporated and the sides of the bowl are relatively clean. Get in there with your hands if you feel up to it! You should end up with a rough dough ball.

Pour one tbsp of olive oil over your dough ball and turn once to coat. Cover tightly and regrigerate overnight (though, if you're in a big hurry you can also allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 4 hours-- the focaccia just won't be quite as light and fluffy).

2 hours before cooking, butter an 8x8 pan and add a tbsp of olive oil to the bottom. Remove your dough from the fridge and plop it into the center of your pan.

Take the top of the dough (farthest end from you) and fold it toward you. Do the same with each side of the dough, and finish by wrapping the bottom upwards-- the technique is demonstrated a bit better here. Allow this new focaccia dough package to continue rising in your pan, uncovered and in a warm place, for about 2 hours until doubled in size-- it'll come close to filling the pan.

While you are waiting, combine remaining minced rosemary, 2 cloves of grated garlic, and olive oil. Allow sit at room temperature, letting the flavors marry.

Preheat your oven to 450 and spread your focaccia dough a bit more evenly in the pan. Using all ten fingers, take all of your frustration at culinary philistines out on your focaccia dough, and make DEEP indentations all over the surface. Drizzle with more olive oil, and then brush lightly with rosemary garlic oil. Don't add TOO much, or the rosemary flakes will burn-- see below for the correct dosage.

Bake for 20 minutes, until focaccia crust is a heavenly golden brown. Remove from oven, brush lightly with more rosemary garlic oil, and sprinkle with flaky Maldon salt.

Cut into 16 equal squares (or 12 if you're feeling particulary ambitious), and serve immediately if possible. Focaccia is always best within 2 hours of baking, but if need be, you can always re-toast the next day.

Instructions

Begin with the broth (again, can be made ahead!). Assemble your ingredients below.

Saute your onion and garlic in olive oil until just starting to brown and soften. Add white wine to deglaze the pan, and continue cooking until mostly evaporated.

Next, add peppercorns, bay leaves, parmesan rinds and water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer for two hours until all of the parmesan goodness has thickened and flavored your broth. Strain all of the solids out of your broth, and store until almost ready to serve.

About an hour before you're ready to serve your zuppa, start on your garganelli! Don't let the below fool you-- I halved the recipe once I discovered that my paltry little arms did not have the strength to make a full batch of that size. Luckily, I didn't need 2 dozen noodles, so just use the below as a model for what to do. Dump your flour onto a pasta mat or other floured surface, and make a well in the center. Add salt, eggs, and yolks to the well, and mix with a fork to form a slurry.

Then, get in there with your hands and knead your dough until the shaggy mess becomes a flexible and smooth ball. Shape into a disk, add a bit of flour to the surface, and wrap tightly in plastic. Refrigerate for 30-45 minutes.

Flour a pasta mat and roll the dough into a rectangular shape at less than 1/16th inch thick-- you should be able to see through the dough. Cut your rectangle with a pasta or pizza cutter into 1 1/2-2 inch squares.

Using a nifty pasta stripper (product recommendation to follow), roll your squares at an angle, pressing down slightly to seal. You should end up with garganelli shapes like those below.

Flour lightly and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Store wrapped and refrigerated (for no more than a few hours), until you are a couple of minutes away from serving.

15 minutes before serving, bring your broth to a boil and add chopped celery and carrot. Allow those to soften a bit, before adding fresh pasta. Boil the pasta for 2-3 minutes until al dente, and serve your zuppa immediately, topped with roughly chopped parsley.

Instructions

First, your pesto (this can be made in advance!). Lightly toast your pine nuts in a non-stick skillet for a couple of minutes-- they will turn a light golden brown and become fragrant, but be careful they don't burn!

Next, in a (mini, if you have one) food processer, combine pine nuts, basil, and garlic and pulse until mostly pureed.

Add parmesan, lemon juice, and olive oil and continue to puree, adding a tsp of water if you like a slightly looser consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Next, assemble your ingredients for your tricolore risotto. Three different risottos at once is A LOT, but I tried to make it a bit simpler-- the liquid of the white risotto is the same for the pesto, so feel free to start by combining those two into one larger pan and keeping the seafood risotto with its seafood broth in its own, smaller pan.

Start with 2 tbsp shallots, 1/2 tbsp butter, 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a small pan, and 4 tbsp shallots, 1 tbsp butter, and 1 tbsp olive in a larger pan. Caramelize the shallots until softened, and add 1/2 cup arborio rice to the smaller pan, and 1 cup arborio rice to the larger pan. Toss the rice in the butter, oil, and shallots and allow to cook briefly until the edges of the rice become translucent-- see below.

Next, add two tbsp of white wine to the small pan, and the remaining wine to the large pan-- allow the wine to cook off very briefly, stirring constantly.

Now, the exhausting part. Risotto cannot be allowed to stick to the pan or itself, and its creamy consistency relies on a slow simmer with small additions of liquid, 1/2 a cup at a time, until it becomes tender. So, over the next 45 minutes or so, add seafood stock to the small pan, and chicken broth to the large pan, gradually and while stirring regularly.

When your risotto is creamy and al dente, add 1 tbsp of tomato paste to the smaller pan, and stir to combine. Next, divide the larger portion of risotto into two. Now you should have your pink/orange seafood risotto, a risotto ready for the addition of your green pesto, and a plain risotto ready to be made even more creamy.

Add asiago to your seafood risotto and stir to combine; stir pesto into one batch of plain risotto, and finally add mascarpone and parmesan to the last batch. Serve, lined up on a plate in the order of green, white, and "red". Demarcate your risotto types with fresh sprigs of thyme, and serve!

For reference, see below from Big Night. A pretty close mini-me!

Instructions

Begin with your tomato sauce (can be made a day ahead). The below will serve as your base! If you can get them, San Marzano tomatoes are the best-- just slightly sweeter and better quality over all.

Crush your tomatoes as much as possible and set aside.

In a large sauce pot, caramelize your onions in olive oil and butter until softened, adding garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes halfway through.

Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, wine, and tomato sauce to the pot and stir until fully incorporated. Allow to simmer for a couple of hours on very low heat while you continue to...

MEATBALLS! These can also be assembled (though not cooked) in advance. Begin by soaking your bread in half and half for five to ten minutes. Separately in a medium bowl, add meats, onion, parmesan, egg, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. Squeeze the excess half and half from the bread and add wet bread to your bowl-- mix with your hands until just incorporated.

Form into 1 1/2 inch meatballs and dredge in flour. Set on a parchment lined sheet, cover in plastic and refrigerate until ready to cook.

While your sauce simmers and your meatballs set, attack your dough. As mentioned in my garganelli recipe, this is A LOT of dough-- I highly recommend cheating and using a stand mixer.

Add flour, salt, egg yoks, and eggs to a mixing bowl and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds with a paddle attachment until a shaggy dough begins to come together.

Switch to a dough hook, and mix on low speed until your dough comes together into a ball, just a couple more minutes.

On a well floured cutting board, knead your pasta dough for 2-3 more minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic.

Look how pretty! Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Now it's time to cook your meatballs! Drizzle a bit of olive oil in a non-stick pan and heat on medium high. In batches if need be, fry your meatballs until golden brown on all sides:

When done, add meatballs to your sauce and let those meaty flavors infuse.

Now for your filler pasta! And, I admit, I cheated again. Sure, you could theoretically hand-roll 1.5 lbs of pasta, but it would take forever and honestly-- extruded pastas like penne (which stand up better to weight) are better dried and made entirely from semolina. And, most of my super fancy and authentic Italian cookbooks advise to just purchase from a store. Sooooo just let it go OK???

Heat a big pot of water with plenty of salt and olive oil (about 1 tbsp of each) and bring it to a boil. Boil penne to just UNDER al dente, about 8 minutes-- your penne will finish cooking inside your timpano. Just before straining, reserve 1 cup of pasta water. Once strained, dump pasta into your tomato sauce with meatballs and stir gently with a wooden spoon to fully incorporate.

Now for my Everest-- the giant circle of pasta dough that will be the outer casing for your timpano. On a VERY well floured pasta matt or other large flat surface, roll your refrigerated disc of pasta into a 22-23 inch diameter circle. You should be able to see through it slightly-- try to get it as thin as possible.

Grease a 6 qt dutch oven generously with oil and butter, and flip your pasta dough over so that it lies over the dutch oven. Press down gently so that the dough fits into and lines the inside of the pot-- you want a lot of extra dough draping over the sides.

And now, the time has come to preheat the oven to 375 and FILL YOUR TIMPANO. Be sure to retrieve your meatballs from your tomato sauce before you begin.

Start with a layer of pasta, and top with mozz and grated cheeses.

Then, add meatballs, egg halves, and pepperoni (which I vastly prefer over salami-- I tried it, trust me, the pepperoni is better).

Top that layer with more cheese, and repeat everything over one more time. Then add a final layer of pasta, a thin layer of cheese, and then bring your draped dough up and over the rim of the pan so that it covers your filling completely. Brush the top of your dough generously with olive oil to help seal it closed.

Bake, covered for 1 hour, then remove the cover and continue to bake for 30 minutes more. Remove your timpano when your crust becomes a lovely golden brown.

Allow to rest for at least an hour, lid off. When you are ready to eat, flip the dutch oven onto a cutting board and lift the pot off of your deliciously beautiful work of art.

Cut into that baby (at the table for presentation!) and eat. Again, don't get full, we have a LONG way to go...

Instructions

Pat your hens dry with a paper towel and fold the itty bitty wings under the body-- if you're not sure how to do that, check out my post for Fantastic Mr. Fox! I have a photo how-to and everything.

Soften your butter (either at room temperature over 15-20 minutes, or briefly in the microwave), and mix in minced herbs. Next, set your hens in an oiled glass or ceramic baking dish, and stuff each with two lemon quarters and two garlic cloves.

Rub your herb butter under the breast skin of your hens, and surround your birds with cipolinni onions, rosemary and thyme springs. Drizzle with a healthy glug of olive oil and sprinkle with a tsp or so of salt and pepper.

Bake at 375 for 35-40 mins.

In the meantime, toss your grapes in a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. At about the 35 minute mark, before your birds are done baking, throw your grapes into the baking dish. They will have JUST enough time to develope a lovely blister.

Remove your hens from the oven at about 50 minutes total, when the thickest part of the breast registers 165 and your skin is a nice and crisp golden brown. Serve whole or halved, depending on the intestinal capacity of you and your guests.

Instructions

Since they are slightly more labor intensive, begin by prepping your tomatoes. Slice your romas in half lengthwise, removing the inner seeds as thoroughly as possible (see the bottom tomatoes in the below pic).

Combine shallots, cheese, garlic, chopped parsley, and breadcrumbs in a small bowl, and sprinkle your tomato halves with salt and pepper. Stuff your tomatoes with your bread mixture, and place onto an aluminum foil lined baking dish. Drizzle generously with olive oil. Note: at this point I switched from martinis to red wine because there was a very real danger of drunkendly dropping my timpano on the kitchen floor.

To prep your asparagus, first snap off the tougher end of the asparagus spear-- it should break naturally if you bend from the end with one hand and about 4 inches from the end with the other.

Space your asparagus out on another aluminum lined banking sheet, drizzling with olive oil and sprinkling lightly with a pinch of salt and pepper each.

About 20 minutes before eating, preheat your oven to 400. Bake tomatoes first for 15 minutes, and put asparagus in when you have 6-7 minutes remaining.

Serve asparagus with a squeeze of fresh lemon, and tomatoes with basil garnish, on individual plates or a single dish (the latter is preferred if you happen to be taking photos of all your Big Night dishes in one go and are struggling to fit everything into frame).

Instructions

In a small bowl, combine almond flour, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, lemon zest and salt. In a bigger bowl, combine egg whites and almond extract. Using a hand beater, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Then, add your flour mixture to your egg whites. Stir gently until dough comes together. Form dough into a disk, wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 325, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Next, prep your rolling sugars—sprinkle powdered sugar on one plate and remaining 1/8 cup granulated sugar on the other.

Remove your cookie dough from the fridge and scoop out 1-inch dough balls. As you go, coat each ball first in granulated sugar, then in powdered sugar.

Place each cookie dough ball on the parchment lined baking sheet, pressing gently down on each to flatten slightly. You should end up with 8 cookies.

Bake for 20 minutes, until cookies begin to crack but are still slightly soft. Remove from your oven and allow to cool in the pan.

Now, for your flying wish (or joss) paper! What was originally a product of Asian tradition representing "spirit money", now these whimsical papers can carry a written wish to the heavens. I think both are appropriate intents for Big Night. And anyway I really do like lighting stuff on fire.

Link to the flying wish paper I found on Amazon is below.