Whole Foods + Marc Vetri + Olive Oil

This one has to start with a shout out to Food and Wine, if only because that’s where the recipe came from. I subscribed to the magazine a year or so ago because of some ridiculous deal, and I was frankly pretty unimpressed. I planned to cancel when the deal ended. But then the past few months, the magazine has been really good. With, like, recipes that I might actually cook and stories I enjoyed reading. Way to turn it around, Food and Wine.

As I say, this recipe is from the most recent issue, so November 2011. Bucatini with Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts: yum, right? I’ve always got an eye out for delicious sounding vegetarian recipes, and I had some cauliflower in the fridge. And I love Brussels sprouts. Plus there’s the very persuasive fact that the recipe was contributed by Marc Vetri, a Philly cooking god. I haven’t yet been to his first, eponymous restaurant, Vetri, but it makes people say crazy things, like “Probably the best Italian restaurant in America” (Alan Richman, so: wow). I eaten at and loved another of his restaurants, Osteria.

Anyway, I figured there was a good shot this would be delicious. It was.

I hit the Whole Foods (the one on South Street, if you happen to care) for bucatini and Brussels sprouts. Bucatini, by the way, is a thick spaghetti-like pasta with a hole through the middle. Yes, I did have to Google it to find that out. There was, sadly, no bucatini, but, even better, there was a new fresh pasta section next to the fancy cheese. Gnocchi, ravioli,  or sheets of spinach, whole wheat, or egg pasta, cut to your preference. And, at a very reasonable price, rigatoni, stuffed with cheese. Oh yeah, that would do just fine.

So if you want to replicate my dinner precisely, sub in ¾ lb of fresh rigatoni stuffed with cheese for the bucatini. Otherwise, I did something a little unusual: I followed the recipe exactly.

I don’t often do this, unless it’s some insanely complex Cook’s Illustrated recipe that I’m spending an entire afternoon (or two or three) on, just for the experience of having the best possible version of something and leaning a new technique or two along the way. At this point, I’m a bit of a snob about my cooking. I know I can do it, and do it pretty well. I’m comfortable with messing around with a recipe as it’s written, tweaking it to meet my tastes or conform to what’s in my pantry.

Ingredient #1, bucatini, I replaced because I couldn’t get it. And I knew the rigatoni would be awesome.

Ingredient #2 reads: “1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.” Yes, this simple vegetable and pasta dish wanted me to pour in more than a half cup of olive oil.

This is exactly the kind of thing I don’t do. I read that, and I laugh, and halve it. But last night, I paused. I keep reading that this is the difference in taste between restaurant food and home cooked food: the sheer quantities of fat and salt. I have no fear of salt. But fat – yes, I often skimp on the fat. (In cooking, that is; never in baking. My pie crusts are all butter.)

Reader, I went for it. I used all that olive oil. And you know what? It was delicious. Yes, it created an oil slick on the plate, but it tasted darn good.

Will I do it again? Maybe. I bet I could make the dish with some additional chicken broth or white wine and about half the oil, and it would still taste mighty good, although it might lose some of that brilliant sheen. And, oh yes, some of that restaurant taste.