Tag Archives: parsley

Cacio e Pepe

Posted on by
Cacio e Pepe by Tara Punzone

Recipe excerpt from:
Vegana Italiana
by Tara Punzone

Serves 2 to 4

Cacio e pepe is probably the most popular pasta dish in Rome. On countless occasions when I lived in Rome, I felt my mouth watering wildly, watching people eat it up while knowing that I couldn’t have any, as cacio e pepe means “cheese and pepper.” Of course, my version has no dairy cream or cheese. It’s just a clean vegan cheese sauce with lots of black pepper— and it’s the second-most popular dish on the Pura Vita menu.

  • 1 cup raw, unsalted cashews
  • 1/2 cup filtered water
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt, plus
  • 2 tablespoons for the pasta water
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper, plus more for topping
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 pound bucatini
  • Chopped fresh parsley
  1. Soak the cashews in water for a minimum of 4 hours. Drain and rinse well before using.
  2. In a large pot, bring 4 to 6 quarts of water to a rolling boil.
  3. Meanwhile, in a high- speed blender, combine the cashews, water, lemon juice, vinegar, yeast, garlic, 2 teaspoons of the salt, and the pepper. Blend until smooth.
  4. With the blender running on low speed, slowly add the olive oil until smooth.
  5. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of salt to the boiling water. Add the bucatini and cook until very al dente, a little more than half the recommended cooking time.
  6. Pour all the cacio e pepe sauce into a large sauté pan and warm it over low heat for 3 to 4 minutes, just enough to make it piping hot.
  7. Use pasta tongs to transfer the bucatini to the sauté pan and add 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water.
  8. Cook the bucatini in the sauce, tossing it around until it absorbs all the water and is perfectly al dente. Check to make sure the pasta does not overcook. Add more pasta water if needed.
  9. Top with parsley and pepper.

Excerpted from VEGANA ITALIANA by Tara Punzone & Gene Stone. Copyright © 2025 by Tara Punzone & Gene Stone. Used by permission of Rodale Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.  All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher

Eric Anderson: Photo Credit

Chicken with Walnuts and Lemon, from the Dordogne

Posted on by
Chicken with Walnuts and Lemon, from the Dordogne

Recipe excerpt from:
Plat du Jour: French Dinners Made Easy
by Susan Herrmann Loomis

Serves 4 to 6
Equipment: large heavy skillet with a lid, tongs
Preparation Time: 10 minutes if the chicken is in pieces; 20 if not
Cooking Time: 40 minutes max
Difficulty Level: simple

This is a dish from a farm in the Dordogne, where the walnuts are sweet, fat, and buttery tasting, and they make a perfect complement to poultry. This is the kind of dish that you settle down to with comfort and anticipation, because it’s got all the right elements, from cloves of garlic bursting with their sweet flavor to the golden chicken and walnuts and the tang of lemon that lifts the dish out of the ordinary. Serve this with a lovely Chardonnay.

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • One 3½- to 4-pound (1.8 to 2 kg) chicken, cut into 8 pieces (2 breast pieces, 2 wings with portion of breast attached, 2 legs, 2 thighs), giblets reserved
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1½ to 2 cups (375 to 500 ml) white wine, such as a sauvignon blanc
  • 12 garlic cloves
  • 1¼ cups (140 g) walnut halves or large pieces
  • Fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs for garnish
  1. Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking, brown the chicken pieces, seasoning them liberally with salt and pepper, until they are golden, about 5 minutes per side, using tongs to turn the chicken pieces.
  2. Add the lemon juice, ½ cup (125 ml) of the wine, and the garlic cloves to the skillet. Lower the heat to medium, cover, and cook until the chicken is nearly cooked through, about 15 minutes. Then stir the walnuts into the skillet, along with the giblets, cover, and continue to cook for about 8 minutes. Remove the cover from the skillet and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the pan juices have evaporated and the chicken, walnuts, and garlic are golden, 5 to 8 minutes. Be sure to watch the walnuts, for they tend to brown easily. If they are getting too brown at any point in the cooking, remove and return them to the pan just before serving.
  3. Transfer the chicken, garlic, and walnuts to a warmed serving platter and deglaze the skillet with the remaining wine, scraping the bottom to loosen any caramelized bits. Begin by adding the smaller amount of wine; if you need more, top it up with the remaining wine and cook until the sauce is reduced by half, about 4 minutes. Then pour the sauce over the chicken, garnish with the parsley sprigs, and serve immediately.

Recipe from Plat Du Jour – French Dinners Made Easy by Susan Herrmann Loomis.  Used with permission.

Oysters Rockefeller

Posted on by

Antoine’s guards their recipe very closely. It definitely does not contain spinach or bacon, but is said to contain parsley, celery and scallions.

Tom Fitzmorris Replica Recipe

Antonie's Oysters Rockefeller RecipeMr. Fitzmorris says it took him about 50 tries to match the flavor of Antoine’s recipe. So if you want to give it a try, I’d say he saved you a good deal of time and expense.

  • 2 cups celery, chopped
  • 1 1/2 cup scallion tops,chopped
  • 2 cups parsley leaves, chopped
  • 1 cup fresh fennel, chopped (bulbs,stalks and/or fronds are fine)
  • 1 cup watercress, chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic, chopped
  • 3 anchovy filets, rinsed and chopped
  • Liquor from 4 dozen oysters plus enough water to make 2 cups of liquid
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/4 cup ketchup
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon white pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
  • 2 drops green food coloring (Fitzmorris says this is optional, but authentic)
  • 1/2 pound butter
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 1/2 cup very fine fresh bread crumbs
  • 4 dozen oysters
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
  2. Combine the vegetables and anchovies in small batches, and process to a near puree in a food processor, using enough of the oyster liquor/water mixture to keep things moving.
  3. Combine the vegetable/anchovy mixture with the rest of the liquid in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring every now and then, until the excess water is gone, but the greens reman very moist. Add the sugar, ketchup, salt, white pepper, cayenne, Worchestershire, bitters and food coloring.
  4. Make a blond roux with the butter and flour. Blend well into the greens, until the sauce takes on a lighter texture. Mix in the bread crumbs.
  5. Place the fresh oysters into oyster shells, small ovenproof ramekins or gratin dishes. Top each oyster with a generous tablespoon (or more, if you like) of the sauce. Bake fifteen minutes, until the sauce barely begins to brown. Serve immediately.
    Note: If you bake the oysters on shells, serve on a bed of rock salt to keep the shells steady.

Yield: 4 Dozen

Bon Appetit!

From Hungry Town, A Culinary History of New Orleans by Tom Fitzmorris
Courtesy of Tom Fitzmorris