Pino Luongo

IL CLASSICO
Lemons, capers, and olives are traditional accompaniments to seafood throughout Italy and, indeed, all over the Mediterranean.

LA MIA VERSIONE
Here we apply the simple Tuscan sensibility to soft-shell crabs, which, incidentally, are not available in Italy.

1 cup semolina flour
½ cup all-purpose flour
12 soft-shell crabs, with the aprons removed by the fishmonger
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup dry white wine
juice of 3 lemons
1/3 cup drained capers
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
4 cups tightly packed arugula, stems removed, rinsed, and spun dry
1 bunch watercress, stems removed, rinsed, and spun dry
3 lemons, zest and pith removed, cut into wedges
16 caper berries

Sift the semolina flour and all-purpose flour together and dust the crabs with it.

Warm 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a sauté pan large enough to hold the crabs in one layer over medium heat, then add 2 tablespoons of the butter. When the butter has melted, add the crabs and sauté on both sides, seasoning with salt and pepper, until crispy, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove the crabs and keep them warm.

Add the wine to the sauté pan. When it has evaporated, add two-thirds of the lemon juice, the capers, the rest of the butter, and the chopped parsley. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes more, until the sauce is creamy.

Pour the remaining lemon juice into a mixing bowl, add ¼ teaspoon salt, and whisk until the salt has dissolved. Add the remaining ¼ cup olive oil and whisk until well mixed.

Place the arugula in a salad bowl and add the watercress, lemon wedges, and caper berries. Add the lemon juice-and-oil mixture and mix well.

Serve the crabs with the sauce on top and the salad on the side.

VINO A South African Chardonnay will play beautifully off the crabmeat and the peppery arugula.

I love rosé wines. They are perfect for the light fresh tastes of spring. Also rosé wines are closer to the body of red, taking on their rich color and additional flavor from their skin.

I am currently serving several rosés at Centolire that I recommend to you. These three are all from Argentina and represent good value: they are delicious and inexpensive.

Dolium, Rosé de Malbec, 2005

Dolium, Petit Reserva Rosé, 2005

El Portillo, Rosé Malbec, 2006

Serves 4 as an appetizer

IL CLASSICO
Pontormo is a salad of seasonal greens and scrambled eggs. It usually is based on a mesclun-like combination of Boston lettuce, green oak leaf, red oak leaf, and frisée. Occasionally bacon is added for a salty counterpoint.

LA MIA VERSIONE
This recipe uses more substantial artichoke in place of the traditional greens.

juice of 1 lemon
10 baby artichokes
½ cup finely diced pancetta
6 large eggs, beaten
2 cups tightly packed frisée
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
fine sea salt
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

Fill a large bowl with cold water and add the lemon juice.

Remove the tough outer leaves from the artichokes. Trim off the tips, saving only the tender parts. Cut the artichokes in half lengthwise and then into thin slices, collecting the slices in the bowl of acidulated water as you work.

Place the pancetta in a skillet and sauté over low heat until it begins to render its fat. Remove the pancetta from the pan and cover to keep warm. Raise the heat to high, add the eggs to the pan, and cook them as you would scrambled eggs.

Place the frisée in a salad bowl and transfer the eggs to the bowl with the frisée.

Remove the artichoke slivers from the acidulated water and pat them dry with paper towels. Add them to the salad bowl along with the warm pancetta.

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt. Add the olive oil in a thin stream, continuing to whisk, until a homogenous mixture is formed. Drizzle this over the salad, add a few grinds of black pepper, and toss well. Serve at once.

VINO
Serve this with a dry white Lacryma Christi from the Campagna region.

Serves 4 as an appetizer

IL CLASSICO
This dish has its origins well to the south of Tuscany, in Rome. It is based on carciofi alla Romana (Roman-style artichokes), in which fresh, giant artichokes are rubbed inside and out with a mixture of parsley, mint, and garlic before being cooked gently.

LA MIA VERSIONE
We have enhanced the spring theme of the dish by adding fresh peas and balancing the vegetables with salty prosciutto di Parma.

Artichokes:
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
¼ cup chopped fresh mint
1 garlic clove, minced
juice of 1 lemon
8 medium artichokes
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 cups extra virgin olive oil

In a small bowl, stir together the parsley, mint, and garlic.

Fill a bowl with cold water and add the lemon juice. Trim the artichokes, removing the tough outer leaves and cutting off the top. As you do this, place each artichoke in the acidulated water.

Season the artichokes inside and out with salt and pepper. Stuff their cavities with the garlic-herb mixture. Place them upside down in a flameproof casserole large enough to hold them in a single layer without crowding.

Pour the olive oil and 2 cups cold water into the casserole, cover with a lid, and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the casserole from the heat, remove the lid, and set aside at room temperature.

Peas:
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
8 scallions, both white and green parts, finely sliced
1 cup finely diced prosciutto di Parma
3 cups fresh peas or defrosted frozen tiny peas
¼ teaspoon sugar
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
½ cup vegetable stock
Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add the scallions and sauté until the white portion is translucent, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the prosciutto and sauté until the fat is rendered. Stir in the peas, and add the sugar. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the stock to the pan and cook over low heat until the peas are tender but retain their bright green color, about 10 minutes.

Assembly:
Stand 2 artichokes up on each of 4 salad plates. Fill each one’s cavity with the sweet peas and prosciutto and spoon the remaining peas and prosciutto around the plate.

VINO
Enjoy this starter with a very young Frascati, a dry white wine from the Lazio region.

Shell the fava beans, and put them on a bed of arugala with Pecorino Romana cheese cut in little squares, ½ the size of the fava bean. Drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.

I am taking my wife out for dinner tonight, for Mother’s Day. We eat better at home but we both enjoy going out and being served. Partially the food tastes better at home because we make what we like the way we like it, and also the food is better at home because we start with the best quality ingredients.

We have to grow food we want to eat in America. My wife subscribes to Andrew Weil, and according to him, we shouldn’t eat fruits and vegetables that aren’t grown organically. Well this is the majority of the fruits and vegetables available, and his message is eat mostly fruits and vegetables.

If you are what you eat, I’d like to be seasonal, ripe and delicious. I may have imperfections on the outside, but on the inside, I’d like to be delectable. The American fascination with beauty and impatience has had a negative impact on food production. You are now offered produce that is tasteless, of marginal nutritional benefit (again, according to Weil – there is no nutritional benefit in farm-raised salmon and he has a top 10 list of produce that he considers toxic,) and dismal taste. All this is convenient, available year-round, and affordable.

But you don’t get anything if you don’t buy quality produce. In fact, you waste your time, buying, cleaning, and preparing fruits, vegetables and meats that are tasteful, and possibly harmful to you because of the toxins and hormones used to grow them.

I am proud to say that I have co-joined with a few fellow restaurateurs to contract farmers in Upstate New York to supply me with the produce I need for Centolire. I have to serve the best quality food to my customers, and this means quality growing seasons for plants and animals. At home my wife buys food that is organic and I am grateful to her for ensuring that she and my children have good, healthy food to eat.

I have read about the horrors of commercial food production, and surely I have tasted them, but it takes a little more information. Between Weil and Michael Pollan, in his recent book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, ripe with shock value to make us consider what we are doing at the dinner table, we must re-think what we eat. Not beauty on the outside, but taste and nutrients on the inside.

When I first came to America in 1980, I spoke no English. But I was hungry. I’d landed in Queens with an American girlfriend. The night before I’d said goodbye to my Italian friends in Piazzo Navonna, in Rome – the most beautiful city in the world. No offense to the good people of Queens, but I don’t see the beauty of Queens Boulevard. So I am in America, and I am hungry, and I don’t recognize a familiar restaurant, but I see a grocery store. Under florescent lights, the produce section held limp miserable fruits and vegetables, wrapped in celephane like condoms.

America has come a long way since 1980. We are now able to buy organic, seasonal produce. But this is the exception more than the rule. I hope it will become a rule for you – to eat so that your food is delicious and healthy. Read Weil and Pollan, and ask questions about your food: where did it come from, what kind of fertilizers or pesticides were used to grow it, and mostly, does it taste good? I promise you that most likely, the best tasting foods and are the quality foods. If you are not sure, taste again with your eyes closed so you aren’t fooled by the color or shape.

http://www.michaelpollan.com/omnivore.php
http://www.drweil.com/drw/ecs/index.html

I love to have a macchiato after lunch. But in the summer, which it feels like already in New York, it’s too hot. So I have an Espresso Granito instead.

Espresso Granita
Make strong espresso and blend in liquid sugar. Freeze for several hours in a shallow metal pan in the freezer. Shave the frozen mixture off with a metal spatula, and
spoon into a glass. Top with cream.

balsamic vinegar
olive oil
salt
crushed red pepper
Coho salmon: 1 per person, butterflied

If you plan to bake the fish, preheat the oven to hot. Make a marinade of 1 part balsamic vinegar to 3 parts olive oil. Sprinkle the fish with salt and red pepper. Coat the fish flesh well with the marinade and let it rest in the mixture long enough to absorb the flavors, at least 30 minutes, turning occasionally.

Turn once again immediately before cooking and, with some of the marinade still clinging to the fish, broil, grill, or bake in a hot oven, skin side down, until a fork penetrates the meat easily.

Red wine vinegar
Salt
Black pepper
Salsa al Pesto
Lemons
Fresh tomatoes, dices
Tuna: steak cut at least 1 inch thick

To make the sauce, combines equal parts pesto and vinegar with 3 times the quantity of tomatoes. Add salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste. Mix well and set aside.

Wet the tuna with olive oil on both sides and broil or grill it over hot coals until rare. Cut into thin slices and spread the sauce on top. Serve with lemon halves on the side.

Pesto will keep for days in the fridge and can be frozen as well. It can be served with many dishes — pasta cold or warm, fish (as with the Grilled Tuna above) veal, shellfish, chicken or salad. Just serve it at room temperature or chilled, never cooked.

Pignolis
Salt
Black pepper
Olive oil
Fresh basil leaves

Separate the basil leaves from the stems, discard the stems, and wash the leaves. Grind the basil and pignoli nuts. Add salt and pepper to taste. Slowly pour in olive oil, mixing the sauce as you do, until it reaches the consistency of green mud.