- 3 weeks ago
Luca's Key Ingredient - Season 5 Episode 3 -
Episode 03
Episode 03
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00:00Lifting our lid, look at that.
00:03I'm constantly exploring new ways to reinvent the classics.
00:07Come on, this is Christmas in a cup!
00:10But the secret to an Italian dish
00:12always starts with the best produce.
00:15The one and only Prosciutto di Parma.
00:17In this series, I'm going to share my key ingredients
00:20to quintessential Italian cooking.
00:23This is the part where I get really excited.
00:26And of course, I'll show you how to make those ingredients shine
00:29with some creative and delicious recipes
00:32that will take your Italian cooking to the next level.
00:35So please stay tuned, sit, relax, and let me do the cooking.
00:44Buongiorno and welcome back to Luca's Key Ingredient.
00:48Today's ingredient is something really close to my heart.
00:51Anchovies. I love anchovies a lot.
00:53I've got three amazing simple dishes ready to go for you.
00:57One, it's a beautiful broccoli and anchovies flan.
01:00It's the kind of take of a broccoli pasta with anchovy
01:03that works so well but turned into a side dish
01:05with an anchovy sauce.
01:06Then we're going to make an epic crumb butterfly prawns
01:10with stracciatella cheese, candied lemon, and anchovies, of course.
01:14And then we're going to wrap it up with the most traditional
01:17Sicilian pasta dish, which is pasta con le sarde.
01:21If you know what it is, stay tuned and don't go away.
01:25I'm all set up and ready to show you my first dish.
01:28It's a broccoli flan.
01:30So very, very simple.
01:32You can substitute the broccoli with any veg you like.
01:36Normally at home, I do this when my broccoli
01:39have been sitting there a little bit too long.
01:41And all you've got to do, that's how simple it is,
01:43it's pour some heavy cream to it.
01:46Then we're going to add two eggs.
01:50Crack them straight into the mixer.
01:52Then we're going to go in with a pinch of salt.
01:56Not too much because then we're going to have
01:58a beautiful anchovy sauce coming up next
02:00that will definitely increase the level of flavor and saltiness.
02:04Cracked pepper.
02:05Of course, parmigiano reggiano is going to add
02:08another great layer of flavor indeed.
02:10And because I just happen to have it,
02:12I'm going to use my very own extra virgin olive oil,
02:15chili oil.
02:16Get the lid on top.
02:17That's it.
02:18And now we're going to make some knives.
02:25And that is it.
02:26This is how quick our flan mixer takes to be made.
02:29And I'm ready to pour all of that goodness
02:32inside these little ramekins.
02:35Now, you can serve these in a couple of different ways.
02:38I like to serve them as a side dish most of the time.
02:41Make sure to melt some butter and brush it inside the ramekin.
02:45And then I just roll those ramekin with some panko bread crumb.
02:48So I'm going to put this down.
02:51Meanwhile, I'm going to turn my kettle on because I need boiling water.
02:54We're going to put this in a water bath while we put it in the oven.
02:57And then we're going to start pouring the mixture pretty much all the way
03:02until we get to the blue line.
03:05So they will raise a little bit.
03:08It's not a souffle.
03:09It's a flan.
03:10So there's overly eggs.
03:11And the egg white will definitely sort of increase the volume
03:14during the cooking process.
03:15But then they're going to kind of come out of the oven nice and puffed up.
03:19And then they will deflate a little bit.
03:21Now that I'm done, I'm going to put some hot water in here.
03:24We're going to cook this water bath in an oven preheated at 180 degrees.
03:28And this little one probably within 10 and 12 minutes will be just perfect.
03:32Now, while my flan are cooking, a very, very simple, beautiful anchovy sauce.
03:38It's got cream, so it's going to mellow down the flavor of the anchovies.
03:41So in this case scenario, I've chosen this Cantabric Sea anchovies.
03:46Let me tell you all about it.
03:48Once you peel them off, I mean, just look at the inside.
03:51Tell me, even if you don't really like anchovies, tell me if this doesn't look amazing.
03:56So these, they come from the Cantabric Sea.
03:58We're talking about north of Europe, above Spain.
04:01Those waters are quite cold.
04:03And basically what it does, it gives the actual anchovies a very, very firm type of texture
04:09and quite strong flavor profile.
04:11Like almost like a prosciutto per se, right?
04:13Which is not, it's not.
04:14Nevertheless, they are preserved and then in a nice saucepan.
04:18They're simply adding the anchovies into it.
04:21We're going to just stir up a little bit of these anchovies in extra virgin olive oil.
04:26I'm going to grab a spatula and we're going to turn these around until they start softening down.
04:34As you can see, in no time, they're just melting away.
04:39They're just breaking apart.
04:40The smell is delicious.
04:41It's actually quite subtle with anchovies.
04:44Now we've got cream again.
04:46All of that in.
04:47We're going to stir this up.
04:49Now, the remaining part for the sauce, it's a little bit of cornstarch and milk.
04:54So what I'm going to do, I'm going to pour the milk into my cornstarch and literally just start mixing up the starch.
05:02And we're going to slowly add it to the sauce until as it boils, it will start thickening.
05:09And as you can see, it's slowly thickening up.
05:13Okay.
05:14And that's about it.
05:15I'm going to turn the heat off.
05:16I'm going to move this onto my bench.
05:20Now I want to turn this into a very nice, smooth, creamy sauce.
05:24So get yourself a hand blender and then very gently start mixing this up.
05:28After this, I'm going to check on my little flan and we should be ready to plate up.
05:38And here they are.
05:40Look at those.
05:41And as you can see, they risen up and now slowly, slowly, they're going to sink down and settle.
05:46So I'm going to quickly and carefully remove these from the water bath.
05:51They hot, but you know, my little years in the kitchen are definitely helping.
05:57Okay.
05:58We're going to let this sit for a couple of minutes and then we're going to bring it all together in a beautiful platter.
06:04And now the time has come.
06:05I'm going to get these out of those little ramekins.
06:07So the back of a plain knife just on the edges, just like so.
06:11And as long as you can go around like that, yeah, I feel pretty comfortable that it's going to come out.
06:16It looks like they're really cooked through nicely, but it feels very soft as well.
06:21All right.
06:22So I've got four, which is plenty for what I need to do.
06:24I'm going to get my beautiful platter.
06:26I thought, like I said, to put them into a nice platter.
06:29Back to my beautiful anchovy sauce.
06:31And just as it is, straight from my saucepan, we're going to pour that extremely generously onto the platter.
06:39Okay.
06:40And now, are you ready?
06:42We're going to do this quickly.
06:43Bang it.
06:44Lift it.
06:45Yay.
06:46It looks really, really good.
06:47I'm going to do another one.
06:48Two out of two.
06:50Let's see how good I can get.
06:52Three out of three.
06:54All right.
06:55Last one.
06:56I want to do four.
06:57Yes.
06:58Little tool, little spatula, gently from underneath.
07:02And my idea was to place one here.
07:04And we just repeat.
07:06I think four.
07:07Yeah.
07:08It's beautiful and perfect for this platter.
07:10Now, I did toasted a little bit of almond to create a bit of texture with this beautiful dish.
07:17And I'm going to drizzle with a few drops.
07:20And lastly, a couple of baby green leaves to make this look even more pretty than what this already looks.
07:28So, just like that, scatter some of those green leaves.
07:32A little bit of cracked pepper.
07:34And there we have it, guys.
07:36Such a humble broccoli flan and hands with these delicious cantabric sea anchovies.
07:41Guys, too, too simple.
07:43Perfect way to get the patty started.
07:47I'm so excited about this next recipe.
08:00I'm going to peel those prawns.
08:01We're going to butterfly them, cram them, fry them.
08:04We're going to use these beautiful anchovies, which have been wrapped around a famous caper called caper from Pantelleria.
08:12But now, just back to the little prawn.
08:14I really want to show you what I'm doing.
08:15And we want to peel all the way to the very last part of the shell, maintaining the tail on.
08:22Now, prawn all peeled up.
08:25Get yourself a very sharp knife.
08:27You want to run the knife underneath the head.
08:31And be very, very gentle while you do that.
08:33Run it all the way down.
08:35Actually, let me put this on the side.
08:37We need to remove the vein at the back.
08:39And I can scrape it off.
08:40Okay.
08:41At this stage, let's return putting the prawns sitting flat.
08:46And gently, again, run the blade.
08:48So, this was just to show you how I prepared this earlier.
08:52We got the prawns ready to go.
08:54So, all I'm going to do here, I'm going to mix up a little bit of egg.
08:58Okay.
08:59So, keeping the fork here.
09:02Gently.
09:03This is going to be very gentle, guys.
09:04Flour.
09:05Then flip them around again.
09:08Shake it off.
09:09Again, very, very gentle.
09:11Be gentle because if this breaks, we're going to get upset after all the hard work that we've done.
09:17Right?
09:18So, you're going to let it dip in again in flour.
09:22Do the same, pat it.
09:24Two.
09:25Put one more in there.
09:28Okay.
09:29Facing down.
09:30That's it.
09:31Shaking off the flour.
09:32Okay.
09:33So, breadcrumbs and these next to each other.
09:36Now, let's try to do the same thing again.
09:38Make sure that you've got plenty of egg liquid, right?
09:42To make sure that they're all covered up.
09:45Grab breadcrumbs, generously.
09:47And then, again, grab it, gently.
09:50And we've got our beautiful butterfly prawns, okay?
09:53I'm going to lay this here.
09:55Slowly, slowly, the prawn, the egg, will just allow the breadcrumbs to get stuck properly.
10:00I'm going to finish off these two.
10:02Now, shallow fry these in extra virgin olive oil for extra flavor.
10:05And then, we're going to put it all together.
10:07Okay, my prawns are ready to go.
10:17Extra virgin is on.
10:18And then, I've got all my beautiful ingredients here ready to go.
10:21I'm going to open these beautiful anchovies.
10:23They've been wrapped around with capers.
10:26So, I'm going to get them out of the tin, so it's kind of easier for me to work with them.
10:30So, let's concentrate on the prawn.
10:32Good cookware.
10:33Always need it.
10:34As always, I'm cooking on my Swiss Diamond cookware.
10:38Great quality.
10:39And that retains the heat dramatically well.
10:42And that's very important when you're going to deep-frying.
10:45So, going with your prawns.
10:47As you can see, I'm being very, very gentle and very careful.
10:51It really takes two or three minutes.
10:54It wouldn't really probably take much more than that on each side.
10:57As soon as they come off, we're going to go in and lay a little slice of this amazing guanciale.
11:05Guanciale is the pure cheek of the pork, which has so much flavor.
11:10So, the idea is the heat and the warmth of the prawns will sort of allow that to warm through.
11:16Now, this is dangerous.
11:18I've got to be very, very careful.
11:19I really don't want them to break.
11:21Let's go underneath.
11:22Turn them around.
11:23Yes.
11:24Nice and golden.
11:25Beautiful.
11:26Look at that.
11:27Nice.
11:28While they're already cooking and hot, a little pinch of salt heat off.
11:32And what I'm going to do now is to grab them.
11:35And I'll show you quickly what I'm doing.
11:37Lay them flat first.
11:39Then, while they're hot, like I said, I need to take advantage of that.
11:42And I want the guanciale to warm through it.
11:45And now, put these on top.
11:47Look at this.
11:48Actually, I'm going to use my little tweezers.
11:51Sorry, it looks a bit too chef-y, but it makes my life easier.
11:56Done.
11:57Step number one.
11:58Step number two, beautiful stracciatella.
12:01So, a little bit of stracciatella and room temperature.
12:05Very important.
12:06Just a little bit, guys.
12:07And now, you know, if you go to a Japanese restaurant, there's always a little bit of mayonnaise on your deep-fried prawns.
12:12Let's say that I'm using stracciatella instead of that.
12:16I want something creamy to go along with this.
12:19Okay.
12:20Done.
12:21Anchovies.
12:24One here.
12:25We're going to do two anchovies per prawn.
12:28The next part is going to blow you away.
12:31I decided to have a bit of a lemon component to it.
12:34So, what I've done, I made some candied lemon.
12:38We basically peeled the lemon.
12:41They get to be blanched, as in dropped in boiling water, three times, in and out.
12:48And then, same quantity of sugar and water.
12:52And you cook them down until all the sugar and water is evaporated.
12:56It is the canned fruit you'll find into a panettone in Italy or a lot of Christmas cake.
13:01Now that I have all of these happening all together, I'm going to grab two of them.
13:06I've got one we're going to put here.
13:10Here.
13:11And I'll show you the last step.
13:13A little bit of parsley dust.
13:15If you've got herbs on the last leg, put them in your oven and use it to dehydrate them.
13:2080 degrees, two, three hours until they're very, very nice and dry.
13:23Put them through a blender and you get a powder.
13:26Look how amazing it's going to make something this simple look.
13:30I'm going to finish it off with a couple of other baby herbs to make it look even more pretty and colorful.
13:37And lastly, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
13:39Ladies and gentlemen, this, I think, is an epic entree starter.
13:43Call it whatever you want.
13:44Simple.
13:45All the effort is really into deep frying those prawns and butterfly them.
13:49But honestly, stracciatella, the candied lemon, the anchovies, and simple prawns put together like that.
13:55It's so simple, but oh my God, I just can't wait for the camera to stop rolling and I'm going to jump right into it.
14:14Now, for the last recipe, I have an amazing, simple pasta dish from the island of Sicily.
14:21It's the famous pasta con le sarde, pasta with sardines.
14:26The very first step of the recipe is the classic pangrattato.
14:30We are going to go and flavor that pangrattato, breadcrumb.
14:34Plenty of extra virgin olive oil from the beginning.
14:37Breadcrumb straight in it.
14:39We're using panko breadcrumb right here.
14:41And then straight with a garlic clove, okay?
14:44So, low heat, allow the breadcrumb to be sort of coated all from the extra virgin olive oil.
14:51And at this stage, you can start introducing a little bit of heat.
14:54I'm using my very own extra virgin olive oil infused with chili.
14:58And, you know, down in that part of the world, they love their spicy food.
15:01I love spicy food.
15:03Now that it's getting nice and golden, time has come to introduce the last two ingredients.
15:09I'm going in with a little bit of parsley, chopped up.
15:12I'm gonna stir this in.
15:14And now that this is perfectly done, I'm gonna turn the heat off.
15:19And the very last touch is going in with a little bit of lemon zest.
15:25Sicily is so famous for their citrus, right?
15:28So, zest goes in.
15:32The smell of the lemon has already hit my nose.
15:36Okay.
15:37Now, next step, we're gonna get started with a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
15:43And again, because I'm not using dried chili or fresh chili, I'm gonna keep going with my chili oil.
15:49Plenty of flavor, plenty of heat.
15:51Okay.
15:52As this is happening, spring onion.
15:55Okay.
15:56Use onion, of course, if spring onions are not in season.
15:58Roughly chop them, not too big, not too small either.
16:01All of these straight into our large frying pan.
16:05While this is cooking, I'm gonna keep an eye on that breadcrumb,
16:09because I know my little cookware here is still very hot.
16:12This is just golden.
16:13It's perfect.
16:14So, I'm gonna stop the cooking by simply transferring this breadcrumb into a bowl.
16:21Okay.
16:22I'm gonna keep this aside.
16:24All right.
16:25Back to my frying pan.
16:27Gently stirring my spring onions.
16:30Pinch of salt is gonna make them soft and even sweeter.
16:33Garlic cloves.
16:34You can finely chop them.
16:36I like to crush them and put them straight in.
16:39I like to put them after my onions.
16:41Bit of a stir.
16:43But right in here, while it's cooking, we need some pine nuts straight into my frying pan.
16:49We need some sultanas.
16:51Okay.
16:52Look for great qualities.
16:54Meanwhile, I'm gonna soak.
16:56I got white wine.
16:58Pinch of saffron pretz going in.
17:02Moving this aside.
17:04Stir in my sauce.
17:06And I kinda want the spring onions to cook, but also for my pine nuts to start toasting a little bit.
17:13Now, little, little trick.
17:15We're gonna use our boiling water to blanch our fennel tops.
17:20I'm gonna do this.
17:23Put my fennel tops in water.
17:26Gently.
17:27Look at this.
17:28In and out.
17:29In and out.
17:30So, literally blanch, like 30 seconds.
17:32Drain them well.
17:33And we're gonna go straight into our frying pan.
17:36Straight in here.
17:37Beautiful.
17:38While this is happening, let me give this a stir and a toss.
17:42At this stage, I'm gonna turn the heat off, because I've done most of the work on the sauce.
17:47We're gonna come back to this.
17:49But I wanna get ahead, and we're gonna cook our spaghetti.
17:53High quality, always needed.
17:55Spaghetti going in.
17:56Throw them, all of them around.
17:58While you're cooking your pasta, always give a very, very good stir from the get-go.
18:03The main starch release will happen right here, right now.
18:06So, as long as you give a very good stir, this will come back to a boil in a couple of seconds, and we're good to go.
18:17Back to my sauce.
18:24Aciughe.
18:25Sicilian anchovies.
18:27It says Canale di Sicilia.
18:29Sicilian channel.
18:30So, the waters down there, they're quite warm.
18:32The actual anchovy, having a very, very delicate flavor profile.
18:38Let me show you the anchovies.
18:40These, they tend to be a little bit softer in texture.
18:43They're sweet.
18:44They're definitely sweet as a flavor profile against the cantabric one.
18:48So, I'm gonna chop just a little bit of anchovies straight into my frying pan.
18:52And now, last, I'm going in with my beautiful sardines.
18:57It is called pasta con le sarde.
19:00So, pasta with sardines, okay?
19:02A little pinch of salt on them.
19:04Not much, because we've got anchovies adding the saltiness to it.
19:07At this stage, pick up a lot of color.
19:09And we're gonna go in with our wine and saffron.
19:12Allow this to evaporate.
19:16All right?
19:17Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you were in the studio with me.
19:22The smell is complex, not fishy at all.
19:25And the fennel tops are really, really contributing to the dish indeed.
19:32Now, the pasta literally has got a couple of minutes.
19:35Drain your pasta nice and al dente.
19:37And by nice and al dente, I mean undercook it by at least two minutes.
19:41You won't allow the pasta to finish up cooking by absorbing whatever goodness you got in your frying pan.
19:47Okay?
19:48And now you start tossing this around.
19:50I'm gonna give a little bit more of the cooking water.
19:53There's flavor of the pasta, nutrition, a little bit of the salt.
19:58It will just help create the lovely glossy look to the pasta.
20:03Okay.
20:04Turning the heat off.
20:05Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil as I'm chatting.
20:08Last final toss.
20:11I'm gonna return these two little pieces of sardines in the frying pan so they're gonna get a little bit nice and warm.
20:19Then put it inside of a ladle and twist.
20:23Well, I don't wanna make it too fancy, right?
20:25That's what we do in a restaurant.
20:26I just wanna go at least in the middle of the plate with a decent, decent shape.
20:31I'm not gonna let it sit up.
20:32I'm gonna let it slide.
20:33Okay?
20:34Let's see very carefully.
20:36What I really wanna do is to start going searching for all of these amazing sultanas and pine nuts.
20:45Okay?
20:46Done.
20:47Then I'm gonna get my sardines.
20:50Just a couple for garnish.
20:52One here.
20:53The fragrance of the saffron and everything else is amazing.
20:59Amazing.
21:00All right.
21:01We're kind of done.
21:02Not yet.
21:03This is where this comes into play.
21:05So, it's lemony, parsley, amazing texture.
21:11Go from the height like that.
21:14Let it fall down.
21:15And last, because we used it before and I want a bit of heat, a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil with chili.
21:22Ho, ho, ho.
21:23I hope I was able to give you a fantastic journey through the wonderful world of anchovies.
21:28We started with this beautiful, light and fluffy broccoli flan with the anchovy sauce.
21:34And then we made those amazing prawns, crammed and fried in extra virgin olive oil.
21:39And last, pasta con le sarde, a true tribute to Sicilian gastronomy.
21:46Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you're gonna go and get some anchovies, the good stuff, and get cooking.
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