Favorite Italian Classics | Milk Street TV Season 7, Episode 722

The food of Naples stars in this episode. We begin with Christopher Kimball and Milk Street Cook Rose Hattabaugh assembling No-Fry Neapolitan Eggplant Parmesan, a lighter, brighter version of the original that skips the breading. Milk Street Cook Matthew Card follows by preparing simple and satisfying Broccoli Rabe and Sausage, and we finish with Milk Street Cook Bianca Borges making classic Italian comfort food, Pasta and Potatoes.

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♪ ♪ – A lot of these eggplant parmesan dishes taste heavy, and they just taste of mozzarella and fried food. This is light. – And you can actually taste the eggplant… – Mm, yeah. – Which, a lot of times it’s just like a vehicle for all the cheese, but I think it’s delicious.

– You’ve got the bitter greens, the chilies, the garlic. Everything is going on here and, well, couldn’t be happier. – Look at the parmesan. It’s already melted on top. And– oh, oh! If you have a rustic bread, serve this alongside with the soup, and everyone can just dip it in and eat.

And believe me, you’ll have quietness around the table. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ – You know, classic Italian cooking is famous for many things, but I like to think about it as a cuisine that focuses on pairings, like eggplant and parmesan, broccoli rabe and sausage, or maybe pasta and potatoes.

So please stay tuned as we take a fresh look at some of Italy’s dynamic duos and most famous classic dishes. – Funding for this series was provided by the following: – Introducing Hestan ProBond, crafted from the resilience of cold-forged stainless steel. We collaborate with top chefs to redefine cookware and the kitchen experience.

Italian craftsmanship meets innovation with Hestan ProBond. ♪ ♪ – Over the years, we visited La Tavernetta Vittozzi to learn the secrets of Neapolitan cooking from the five Vittozzi sisters. One of them, Enza Vittozzi, is also a classically trained opera singer. – (operatic singing) – The family restaurant is her side gig between performances,

But today, it’s also her stage. – (operatic singing) – (speaking Italian): ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ – So, I say eggplant parmesan, you think breaded, you think fried, you think tomato sauce, you think cheese, you think delicious, but you don’t think light, probably, right? – No. – Naples is a really interesting place. We got a lot of recipes from there.

La Tavernetta Vittozzi is one of the places we’ve been to more than once. They’re five sisters. And Rose, you’re one of five. – I’m one of five sisters, yes. – See, that’s right. So it’s perfect– and you actually– near Naples, right, your family… – Yes, my dad grew up near Naples,

So I was destined to work on this recipe. – And what they did is when they did their eggplant parmesan, they didn’t bread it, which meant it was silkier and a bit lighter. So we started with that concept, how to do eggplant parmesan with no breading. That was the first step.

– So when we were working on this dish, we used different kinds of eggplant to see which would be closest to the ones they had in Naples. We tried thinner ones with lots of skin, too much skin on those, graffiti, larger globe eggplants and smaller globe eggplants.

And the smaller ones seemed to be closest to what they had in Naples. And so one of the things that they did to get rid of some of the skin was to peel them in one-inch strips, and that is to keep the eggplant together when you’re cooking it.

And we’re using a lot of eggplant here. It’s five pounds of eggplant. So, we decided to cook the eggplant on sheet pans in the oven, which crisped them up and got rid of some of that moisture so it wouldn’t be too watery. But then we don’t have to fry five pounds of eggplant,

– Yes. – I’s a big job. And we’re going to cut these in quarter inch rounds. – So is this what you want? – That’s perfect, yes. I just did that so she’d have to tell me it was perfect. – (laughs) And then the cool thing about this recipe

Is we’re going to brush some olive oil on the eggplant. But it’s only two tablespoons, so it’s a lot less olive oil than you would use if you were frying. So we’re going to shingle these on two baking sheets that have two tablespoons of olive oil brushed on them.

All right, so now that these are all shingled, we’re going to brush them and then sprinkle them with salt and pepper before we put them in the oven. – Your people are going to be mad at you. – (laughs) I have made this for my family and they really liked it.

So just a little sprinkle of salt and pepper. So these are going to go in a 425-degree oven on the upper middle and lower middle rack. Halfway through, we’re just going to take a spatula and flip them, turn the pans around, and put them on the different racks. And that’s it. – Okay.

So time for the sauce. And if you spend any time in Italy, in home kitchens, they use canned tomatoes… – Yes. Yeah. – …most of the time and they don’t cook it that long. It’s not like hours. This is not like The Godfather with Sunday gravy… – (laughs)

– And it’s all day, and they put in the sausages. It’s canned tomatoes. It’s actually pretty straightforward. – Yeah, it is very simple. So we’re going to add a little bit of olive oil, and we’re going to sauté some finely chopped onion just until it’s translucent. We don’t really want to caramelize these.

We just want to soften them with a little bit of salt, about a half a teaspoon. Okay, so these have softened a little bit. And we’re going to add those canned tomatoes that you talked about. These are crushed tomatoes. We wanted something that was a little smooth.

And I’m adding a little bit of water so it’s not too thick. And because we were not frying the eggplant, we’re using a little bit of butter to add a little richness to the sauce. – Well, again, as we said many times, butter and tomatoes is not an uncommon pairing.

– Right. – And it’s actually, I almost prefer butter to oil with tomatoes. It really adds– I don’t know why. It’s just, it’s a great partnership. – It is. So I’m going to add… a little bit of pepper. So I’m going to bring this to a simmer

And let it cook for about 15 to 20 minutes. ♪ ♪ – So now, this is the assembly, but this is the part– I always mess this up. There are too many balls in the air, because you’ve got to do sauce and cheese and that cheese, right? I mean, so, you–

You’re in charge. – Okay. Well, I will also say, if you mess it up, I think it’s still going to be great. – That’s a good point. – So what we’re going to do on the bottom here is one cup of sauce. So I’m just going to spread that around with my ladle.

That’s how I like to do it. And then we’re going to put one third of the eggplant on top of that. – Let me just understand this. So we didn’t fry this. We essentially baked it or roasted it. – Yes. – And so, it’s lost some of its moisture, which is nice.

Concentrated some of the flavor. – Yes. – So, you get– the only thing it doesn’t have is that crispy, breaded outside. But the problem with that is you put it in with tomato sauce and cheese, it doesn’t stay crispy, right? – No, it’s going to get soft anyway.

– Yeah. Right. – And then on top of this, we’re going to use about three quarters of a cup of the sauce on this layer. Doesn’t have to be fancy. So what the Vittozzi sisters did that’s different is they didn’t use mozzarella. They used smoked provolone,

Which sounds like it might be a little unusual, but it adds such a nice little smokiness to the dish without it being overpowering. So we’re going to put a cup of that on top of our tomato. – So you could use smoked mozzarella? – Yes. – You could use scamorza.

– Right. If you can’t find smoked provolone, those are great choices. So we’re going to add a cup of that. We’re going to use a quarter cup of our parmesan. Have to have parmesan if you’re going to make eggplant. And then fresh basil is so nice. If you cook it in the sauce,

You kind of lose a lot of that freshness, but doing it like this is nice. Now, we’re just going to repeat that. about three quarters of a cup of the sauce. And we’re going to add our smoked provolone, parmesan, and the rest of our basil.

– So after all this, this is what I do. I tear the basil pieces. – (chuckles) This is a pretty hefty amount of eggplant here. We kind of use it as a main course, but in Italy, they’d often be like a side dish. – Perfect. – Okay, so for the last layer,

We’re going to add… the rest of the sauce. The top layer just gets sprinkled with parmesan. – Now, the problem with dishes like this, a lasagna, is you have too much cheese. It gets really tough on the outside, on the top, right? It gets chewy. – Yeah.

– It’s just like, it’s a stomach bomb. – It is. – This does look a lot fresher. – Right. And you can really taste the eggplant more, I think. So, that’s it. We’re going to put it on the lower rack of the oven, it takes about 15 or 20 minutes.

And then we can try some. – From the top down, this doesn’t look gooey and heavy and cheesy. It looks nicer, it looks better. – So you want to cook it until the edges are bubbling and the cheese is melted. We’ve let it sit for ten minutes, so it’s not too hot.

You ready to try some? – Absolutely. – Okay. – So did you eat this growing up, or some version of this? – Yes. I mean, ours was usually breaded. A lot of times we would have it in a sandwich, which was actually… – Very good. – Really good. Okay, so… – Mm, man.

That is really good. A lot of these eggplant parmesan dishes taste heavy, and they just taste of mozzarella and fried food. This is light. – And you can actually taste the eggplant. – Mm. – Which, a lot of times it’s just like a vehicle for all the cheese, but I think it’s delicious.

– So it’s a no-fry Neapolitan eggplant parmesan. Great flavor. Basil really comes through. It is really not super cheesy. So if you like this dish and you like it a little lighter and brighter tasting, this is the one. – Yeah. – Yep. ♪ ♪ – So one of the things Italian cooks do

Really, really well is cook bitter greens. Think about it. Radicchio, treviso, puntarelle. All these are amazing. And then there’s my favorite: broccoli rabe. And broccoli rabe can be kind of bitter. It can be a little aggressive, little mustardy. But when you combine it with sausages

And cheese and strong garlic, it balances all out. You end up with this amazing blend that, well, is frankly, one of my favorites. We learned this dish from Lina Celia in the Amalfi region of Italy. Her version is really simple; it’s a weeknight-friendly dish.

And it’s the kind of thing you could turn into all sorts of different dishes. You can eat it on its own, you could put it over polenta, you could toss it with pasta, you could tuck it into a sandwich. Sky’s the limit. This is really one of my favorite weeknight dishes.

I’m going to heat a tablespoon of oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat until it’s barely smoking. I’m going to add a pound of Italian sausage to my skillet and cover the pan, then cook the sausage until well browned. Should take about six to eight minutes.

I’ll stir it every now and again to make sure all sides of the sausage brown. So I’ve got about two pounds of broccoli rabe here. Broccoli rabe tends to have fairly thick stems, And one of the things I like to do with broccoli rabe stems is cut them on the bias.

So if you cut them at an angle, it exposes more surface area, so they cook faster, and they’ll also absorb more of the flavors from the dish. So let’s go ahead. And I’m going to do about one bunch at a time, and I’m just going to cut crosswise into one-inch pieces.

Now, that sausage is looking great. Let’s slide it out of the pan to a large plate. Now into that hot skillet, add three chopped garlic cloves and a half teaspoon pepper flakes, stirring often so that it doesn’t burn. Now that the garlic is browned, I’m going to add half of the broccoli rabe to the pan and then toss to coat with that really flavorful pork fat and garlic. Let’s add a half cup of water, which will help steam the broccoli rabe. Now I’m adding the greens in two batches,

Because otherwise it may be too many greens to fit in the pan at one time. So that first batch of greens is wilted down. I’m going to go ahead and add the remaining broccoli rabe. It smells so good, because we’re cooking that broccoli rabe in the fat released from the sausages

And the garlic and the chilies. So, pretty heavy stuff. ♪ ♪ I’m going to toss to coat it. Now I’m going to cover and cook until the rabe is wilted, which should take three to four minutes. ♪ ♪ Now that the greens are wilted down,

I’m going to add the sausage back to the pan and flavor it all with two tablespoons of lemon juice and a quarter cup of finely grated parmesan. These two ingredients add balance to the bitter, strong flavors. Now, to finish the dish, I’m going to cook it until the sausages are just heated through,

Another two minutes or so. ♪ ♪ Now that it’s ready for the table, I’m going to add a little more parmesan and a little more lemon juice. So, here we go. One of my absolute favorite dishes, broccoli rabe and sausages. You’ve got the bitter greens, the chilies, the garlic.

Everything is going on here and, well, couldn’t be happier. I’m going to go find a crusty baguette and dig in. ♪ ♪ – Pasta e patate or pasta and potatoes is a classic “use up what you have” type of casual dish, originating in Italy,

Meant to use up sort of the ends and pieces, bits and bobs of whatever you have lying around in the kitchen. Now, it’s not a typical pasta dish. It’s more like a rich stew that happens to have pasta in it. So we’ll start by cutting up the vegetables.

It starts like many stews do. We have carrots, onion, and a little bit of celery. We’re going to chop those up finely, because we want them all to cook down soft and meld into the whole of the dish. For celery, if you have a really long stalk, cut it in half first.

And then cut long strips… Join them together, and then you can just cut very fine little pieces like that. Bring all these together, and then we’ll just add all these to the stockpot after we get the oil started. All right, we have a large stockpot. We’ll add a little bit of olive oil to this.

If you have a nice wide knife, you can just use it sort of like a spatula to help get your vegetables to the pot. (sizzling) Can you hear this? It’s loud, right? That’s what you want, A nice, loud sizzle. Stir frequently. The vegetables will give off some of their juices,

But they’ll evaporate as they cook, too. That’s why you want to keep the heat up. Okay, these are great. That little bit of liquid has dried out of the pot. You can smell the onions going. Now, we’ll just simply add the chopped garlic, just a little bit of an aromatic flavor,

And a little bit of red pepper flakes. Now, this is adjustable, obviously. If you like it super spicy, add a little more or a little less. It’s pure choice. Okay, only about 30 seconds. You don’t want the garlic to start browning. Then we’ll add a little bit of white wine. Now, if you don’t have white wine, simply use water. It just adds a little bit of a nice acidity to it. And adding the liquid at this point prevents the garlic from overcooking. We’ll let that simmer until the wine is practically evaporated, till it’s just the barest little trace left.

And then we’ll start adding the remaining ingredients. Okay, that looks good. First thing up is potatoes. We’ve peeled these and cut them into a small dice. Now, type of potato is important. Avoid the Yukon Golds, the waxy style potatoes that have a little bit of a yellow tone to them.

What you want is a starchy, fluffy potato, like a russet. The standard baking potato is good. You want a potato that will absorb water very easily, and that will start to break apart, because the starch is released at that point, and that will help to thicken the stew.

Okay, now we’ll add some beans. Now, you’re thinking “pasta, potato, and beans?” Well, sure. I mean, if you have beans left over in your kitchen– and most Italian kitchens will have a nice pot of beans going. So we’ll add a little bit of beans.

Canned is fine, of course, just remember to drain them. Roman beans are typical. They’re a large, meaty bean. But if you can’t find those, you can look for pink beans. A little bit of chopped fresh tomato. Now, once again, the tomato doesn’t add really vegetal texture, but what it adds

Is a brightness, a little bit of acidity and bright flavor. And now we will also add one sprig of rosemary. You would be surprised how much flavor would come out of this one little sprig of rosemary. We’ll put this in– it’s on the stalk,

And then we’ll remove the stalk a little bit later. While that heats up, it’s time to add some seasoning. We have about a teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Okay, this really smells amazing. Just that little bit. The white wine and the rosemary, the tomato, ugh, it really smells good. So…

We need some liquid in this, obviously, to cook the potatoes. And we will add four cups of water. This dish really has so much flavor on its own. You don’t need broth at all. You can use broth if you want, but water is the perfect thing to use.

It lets all the flavors come through really cleanly. We also like to utilize a really great trick from the Italians. It’s putting a piece of parmesan rind in your soups or stews. We’ll take this out later, of course, but that cheese melts away from the rind,

And it adds so much hearty flavor to this. ♪ ♪ We’ll turn this up, let it come to a boil, then we’ll turn it down to a simmer and cover it for about six to eight minutes, just until the potatoes start to soften. ♪ ♪ Been about seven minutes.

Oh, yes. That looks nice. Now it’s time to use the pasta. You want to choose a small pasta. You know, when the Italians made this originally, they’d just use whatever leftover bits of pasta they have laying around. They could be different shapes and sizes. but smaller is better, obviously,

Because they’ll cook a little more evenly, and you can choose whatever you like. These are shells. We’ll stir those in. So there’s a lot of liquid left in this pot, which is what’s going to cook the pasta, which is great. It will also continue cooking the potatoes. The potatoes will break down further,

Releasing their starch. That’s why we chose russets. The pasta will cook down and get soft. Everything sort of melds together. You might have some slight variances of soft, slightly soft, maybe a bit firmer, but it’s really meant to have a really nice, comforting mouth feel.

All right, we’ll let that go just a little bit longer, let the pasta cook, and then we’ll come back and finish it up. This smells fantastic. You really smell the rosemary, the onions, the garlic, the parmesan. My goodness, you can smell that. So, the thickness of the stew is up to you.

You want it even thicker, let it cook down a little bit more until the potatoes are completely broken apart. If you want it thinner, add a little hot water at this point and let that simmer just a little bit. Whatever you like, really. So what we’ll do now is remove

That stem of rosemary we put in earlier, and we’ll remove that piece of parmesan rind. See how the cheese has sort of melted off. Now we’ll add some freshly grated parmesan and we will add some fresh basil. This basil is optional but, of course, basil has this bright, really amazing herbal flavor.

It’s fantastic. You can chop this or tear it off. I really like tearing basil. I think it intensifies the flavor a little bit. You’re actually pinching the leaf as you tear it, so you’re bruising it a little bit, releasing some of the basil’s oil and the flavor. Give that a stir.

This is a good time to taste for seasoning. You might want to add a little more salt and pepper, might not. With all that delicious parmesan in there and the acidity of the white wine and tomatoes, you probably won’t need to. But, to each his own.

You know, this is amazing leftover as well. The flavors intensify even further. Now, with leftovers, the pasta is going to get more cooked, of course, because you’re going to be cooking it and reheating it. Doesn’t matter. That’s what’s beautiful about this stew. It’s extremely casual, Of course, some freshly grated parmesan.

Add a few more torn bits of basil… And, of course, a nice little drizzle of olive oil. Look at the parmesan, it’s already melted on top. And– oh, oh! If you have a rustic bread, serve this alongside with the soup and everyone can just dip it in and eat. And believe me,

You’ll have quietness around the table. This pasta and potatoes from southern Italy is the perfect end to a week full of cooking using up all your leftovers. You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season of Milk Street at MilkStreetTV.com. – Recipes and episodes from this season of Milk Street

Are available at MilkStreetTV.com, along with shopping lists, printer-ready recipes, and step-by-step videos. Access our content anytime to change the way you cook. – The new Milk Street Cookbook is now available and includes every recipe from our TV show. From pad Thai with shrimp and no-fry eggplant parmesan

To Korean fried chicken and salty honey browned butter bars, the Milk Street Cookbook offers bolder, fresher, easier recipes. Order your copy of the Milk Street Cookbook for $27, 40% less than the cover price. Call 855-MILK-177 or order online. – Funding for this series was provided by the following: – Introducing Hestan ProBond,

Crafted from the resilience of cold-forged stainless steel. We collaborate with top chefs to redefine cookware and the kitchen experience. Italian craftsmanship meets innovation with Hestan ProBond. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪