Sunday, September 15, 2024

Tipo 00 - The Pasta Cookbook

In my last post (here) I wrote that I ordered Andreas Papadakis’s Tipo 00 – The Pasta Cookbook (Allen & Unwin, Australia) from Kitchen Arts & Letters in New York City. Papadakis co-owns and is the chef at Tipo 00, a pasta bar in Melbourne, Australia. With Papadakis’s fine dining background and his restaurant’s pasta-centric focus, I looked forward to diving into his new cookbook.

Tipo 00 looks splendid with its handsome teal blue cover, clean layout and especially lovely and instructive photographs by Mark Roper.

Papadakis divides Tipo 00 into eight main chapters: How to Make Pasta; Long Pasta; Pasta, Filled and Shaped; Risotto; Home Classics; Not Pasta; Tipomisu and Other Desserts; and Basics and Other Essentials.

I found something worthwhile in each of these sections. But what really interests me is Papadakis’s master pasta dough recipe.

Many restaurant-based cookbooks offer up a luxe egg yolk-rich dough recipe. Some examples: Rich Table (210 grams all-purpose flour to 12 large egg yolks); Flour + Water (360 grams tipo 00 flour to approximately 18 to 20 yolks); and Missy Robbins’s Pasta (500 grams tipo 00 flour to approximately 24 to 26 yolks).

I appreciate that these recipes document a restaurant’s process. It is interesting to understand a Michelin-star chef’s pasta ratios.  But using 24 to 26 egg yolks to make pasta is something home cooks would likely not entertain. So finding a pasta dough recipe from a great chef that offers a more accessible balance of egg and yolk and flour for the home cook feels welcoming.

Papadakis’s introduces Tipo 00’s master pasta dough like this:

“We use a lot of different doughs to make our pasta in the restaurant, but this is a good universal recipe. For home cooks, the main thing to note is the dryness of the dough—I believe that many recipes for making pasta at home produce a dough that is too wet. This might be easier to roll and shape, but it won’t have the right strength. If your pasta dough is too wet, once you put the rolled and cut or shaped pasta in boiling water to cook, it quickly takes on the consistency of a dumpling.”

Papadakis’s dough gains its strength, in part, from a 70:30 ratio of tipo 00 flour to semolina flour. Adding semolina allows the pasta maker to “reduce the amount of egg yolks needed to bind the dough, and so the pasta will be less rich and eggy.” Papadakis warns that this drier dough might prove a challenge for smaller home pasta machines. His restaurant employs an Imperia R220 Manual Pasta Machine to sheet its dough.

I made Tipo 00’s master dough following Papadakis’s recipe to the letter. I usually use my mixer’s paddle/beater attachment to bring my pasta dough together, but I trusted Papadakis’s instructions and employed a dough hook per his recipe. To help ensure proper dough hydration, I typically slowly add egg to flour. But again, I heeded Papadakis’s process and simply added the egg mixture into a flour well that I formed in the mixer’s bowl.

In the end, the recipe worked out great. My dough didn’t look quite as dry as the dough pictured on page 22 of Tipo 00, but this might be because I used a double milled rather than a course semolina flour. 

I also followed Papadakis’s rolling and folding instructions. They produced a beautiful pasta sheet that neatly fit the width of my Imperia R220 machine.

Here’s Papadakis’s master pasta dough recipe, which serves 4 to 6, with his rolling and folding instructions. The asides are Papadakis’s.

350 g (12 oz) ‘00’ flour

150 g (5½ oz) durum wheat semolina flour

1 teaspoon sea salt

65 g (2¼ oz) egg yolk (from about 3-4 eggs)

190 g (6¾ oz) whole egg (about 4 eggs)

If using an electric mixer, place both flours and the salt in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Make a well in the centre and add the egg yolk and whole egg. (I find it easier to weigh the egg yolks in a clean bowl first and then the whole eggs to the same bowl up to the total amount of eggs, which is 255 g (9 oz) for this recipe. The total amount of egg is the important part.) Mix on slow speed for 8-10 minutes, until you start seeing large crumbs forming and the dough starts coming together. Transfer the dough to a clean benchtop and knead by hand until it comes together. Don’t expect it to be really smooth, as this is a drier dough—it will come together more and get smoother in the rolling process.

To make the dough by hand, combine both flours and the salt in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the egg yolk and whole egg. Mix with a fork until just combined, then transfer to a clean benchtop and knead by hand for 6-8 minutes until the dough comes together.

If the dough seems too dry and won’t come together, you can spray it a couple of times with your spray bottle of water—just be careful not to overdo it and make the dough too wet, since it will become more hydrated and softer as it rests.

I like to shape the dough into a roughly rectangular block, rather than a ball, as I find it easier to feed through the pasta machine later. Wrap your dough really well in plastic film, making it as airtight as possible (at the restaurant we use a vacuum sealer).

If you are planning to make your pasta straight away, let the dough rest for at least an hour at room temperature—but ideally refrigerate it overnight, then take it out a couple of hours before rolling and cutting to let it come back to room temperature.

To make the rolling more manageable, it’s best to work with a relatively small amount of dough, so divide it in two before you start. (If you are not using all the dough at once, you can refrigerate the rest of it, tightly wrapped, for up to 3 days.)

Rolling and Folding the Dough

Set up the pasta machine on a solid benchtop. Using your hands or a rolling pin, flatten the dough enough that it will go through the widest setting on the pasta machine, then pass it through the rollers two or three times, going down one notch each time.

Bring both sides of the dough to the centre, so they meet in the middle, then fold in half to create four layers of dough.

Roll the dough through the widest setting again, then repeat the folding and rolling process one more time—but this time bring one third of the dough into the centre, laying it over the middle third, then cover with the last third to create three layers.

Flatten the dough again, so that it will go through the widest setting on your machine, then pass it through the rollers, going down one notch at a time; it should be smooth by now and starting to become elastic. Keep going until the pasta sheets are the thickness you need.

I followed Papadakis’s advice: I let the dough rest one hour at room temperature and worked with only half of my dough (storing the remainder in the refrigerator.) I finished rolling my pasta at a setting between 3 and 2 on my R220 machine. I let the sheets dry out for a bit on each side. I then dusted the pasta with some flour and stacked the sheets on a tray that I lightly covered with plastic film and stored in the refrigerator. An hour or so before cooking, I cut the pasta into tagliatelle.

My family really enjoyed the taste and, especially, the texture of Papadakis’s pasta. The noodles had an excellent firm bite and delicious flavor. I will definitely add this pasta dough recipe into my repertoire.

Tipo 00 contains a large number of pasta dishes that I look forward to trying: Squid ink tagliolini with calamari; Asparagus ravioli with parmesan cream; and Cannelloni with smoked eggplant & ricotta. If you are looking for a solid pasta cookbook to add to your collection, check out Andreas Papadakis’s Tipo 00.

Monday, August 19, 2024

Some 2024 Cookbooks


I really enjoy keeping track of new cookbook releases. If you do, too, here’s a short list of some of the 2024 published titles I enjoy and of some upcoming cookbooks that I plan on checking out.

Back in 2020, an Amsterdam publisher released a Dutch-language cookbook called Een boek over brood by Issa Niemeijer-Brown. This year HL Books offers an English-translation of this work entitled A Book About Bread.

The author and his brother run a bakery in Amsterdam offering croissants, pastries and bread. Niemeijer-Brown’s book does a solid job covering breadmaking basics with a number of helpful baking hints. In his chapter on Making Your Own Bread, he writes: “[n]ever put sourdough directly in the fridge after a refreshment. The natural yeasts and bacteria present will not have a proper chance to recuperate and start growing again in quantity. The yeast in particular will not be able to regain its proper activity.”

In spring I bought The Turkey Book by Jesse Griffiths (St. John’s Press). The Turkey Book’s subtitle speaks to what you’re getting: A Chef’s Journal of Hunting and Cooking America’s Bird. I find Griffiths’s prose fun to read and I like his recipes. I made Dan’s Maple-Cured Turkey Leg. In a nutshell: brine a turkey quarter with warm spices, salt, sugar and maple syrup; brown; and then braise the leg for 4 hours in hard cider. I look forward to making his recipe for Wild Turkey Kiev. Griffiths’s 1.5-inch-thick book doesn’t skimp on recipes and, to my mind, represents reasonable value even at $50. Find it at www.wildbooks.com. For $10 more you can get a signed copy, if that’s your thing.

Perhaps my favorite 2024 cookbook so far is Brendan Liew and Caryn Ng’s A Day in Tokyo (Smith Street Books). Liew, who trained as a chef, also wrote Tokyo Up Late (2022), which is a really solid book. Because I own a lot of Japanese cookbooks, I wasn’t sure if A Day in Tokyo covered enough new ground to warrant a purchase. I feel it does and believe it is Liew and Ng’s strongest cookbook to date. Souffle Pancakes (Funwari Hottokeki) are enjoying their moment in the sun, and A Day in Tokyo contains a great recipe. In fact, the book’s entire Early chapter, which covers tradition Japanese and modern breakfast offerings, warrants a look.

Looking forward into 2024, I just ordered Andreas Papadakis’s Tipo 00 from Kitchen Arts and Letters in New York City. Melissa Weller’s Very Good Bread comes out in November. Her A Good Bake (2020) is a modern classic and one of the best cookbooks I own, baking or otherwise. Another 2024 Japanese cookbook from Liew and Ng? Yes! Konbini arrives in October. Also out in October is Taboon by Hisham Assaad. I really, really like his 2021 cookbook entitled Bayrut. (Look for a Rizzoli re-print of Bayrut in 2025.) I’m also looking forward to these two Phaidon titles: Café Cecilia by Max Rocha and Mangall ll by Ferhat Dirik and Sertac Dirik. Michael Mina’s My Egypt is on my watch list, too.

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Best Cookbooks of 2023


I read a lot of 2023 cookbooks. My takeaway: what a great year for Japanese cookbook fans! In alphabetical order, I share my picks for the five best cookbooks of 2023.

 

Japan: The Vegetarian Cookbook by Nancy Singleton Hachisu (Phaidon)

 

Love Japan: Recipes from Our Japanese American Kitchen by Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel with Gabriella Gershenson (Ten Speed Press)

 

Pasta: The guide to the most loved Italian food by ItaliaSquisita

 

Rintaro by Sylvan Mishima Brackett with Jessica Battilana (Hardie Grant)

 

Scandinavian from Scratch: A Love Letter to the Baking of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden by Nichole Accettola with Malena Watrous (Ten Speed Press)

 

Japan: The Vegetarian Cookbook  When I survey Hachisu’s oeuvre—from Japanese Farm Food to Food Artisans of Japan—it strikes me that she consistently presents simple and refined Japanese food. Japan: The Vegetarian Cookbook treads this same path with dishes distilled to a featured ingredient’s essence. She organizes her latest cookbook into these chapters: Prep; Before the Meal; Dressed; Vinegared; Deep Fried; Steamed & Simmered; Stir-Fried & Grilled; Soup; Pickled & Preserved; and Sweet. Recipes that standout: Spring Cabbage Soup; Yuba and Sesame Salt Nori Rolls; Simmered Turnips with Negi; and (surprise!) Potato Chip Salad with a curry vinaigrette. Phaidon produced a lovely book with beautiful, elegant, wow photographs by Aya Brackett.

 

Love Japan: Recipes from Our Japanese American Kitchen  Okochi and Israel own a Brooklyn restaurant called Shalom Japan. Love Japan covers the food that they cook for their family, primarily homey Japanese dishes sometimes with a nod to Jewish cuisine (e.g., Rolled Cabbage in Dashi). What a wonderful cookbook! Almost all the recipes tempt, but especially the classic poultry offerings:  Tsukune (Chicken Meatballs); Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken); and Oyakodon (Chicken and Egg over Rice). The chapter on Sandos covers making Shokupan (Japanese Milk Bread) and then shares recipes for a majestic Veggie Deluxe Sando with Shiso Pesto and for a Tamago Sando. If you want a cookbook on Japanese comfort food enhanced by two chefs, then buy this excellent book.

 

Pasta: The guide to the most loved Italian food In April 2023 the English-language version of Pasta arrived, so this newly translated cookbook makes this year’s Best Of list. Technically two separate books, entitled Fresh Pasta and Dry Pasta, these paperback volumes fit cheek by jowl in a bright yellow open-sided book sleeve. Pasta contains “more than 100 recipes by the great Italian chefs”. Its publisher, ItaliaSquisita, asks and answers “among the pasta dishes by chefs in Italy today, which are the most interesting and celebrated?”  Pasta presents an Italian pasta masterclass with recipes geared to cooking professionals and advanced makers. The Dry Pasta volume explores some really interesting cooking techniques rarely covered, such as Infusion and Passive Cooking. What’s Passive Cooking? “This technique, also known as ‘off-fire cooking’, has origins as early as 1700 when Benjamin Thompson—one of the founding fathers of the principles of thermodynamics—declared that pasta reached its cooking point not for the water boiling, whilst the more for the continuous heat (between 70 and 80C) it managed to keep for a prolonged amount of time even after reaching a boil.” If this type of knowledge floats your boat, you will love ItaliaSquisita’s Pasta. Yes, this collection is not for everyone, its translation wonky and it’s certainly not cheap at $75.00 (especially for two thin-ish paperbacks), but I’m glad to add it to my cookbook library and recommend it to advanced pasta makers and anyone interested in high-level Italian noodle craft. 

 

 

Rintaro Brackett subtitles his restaurant cookbook “Japanese Food from an Izakaya in California”. The Golden State subtly informs rather than transforms the cookbook’s collection of classic Japanese dishes. Rintaro’s recipes mostly play friendly in a home kitchen. Brackett divides his cookbook into ten chapters: Dashi; Sashimi; Dressed Dishes; Tofu and Eggs; Yakitori; Fried Dishes; Simmered Dishes; Rice; Udon; and Desserts. I’d rather Rintaro the restaurant source pristine seafood for sashimi, but I’m game for making Brackett’s udon noodles (and I have, based upon a udon recipe that he shared in Sunset magazine in 2014). I recently wrote about tsukune-inspired meatballs (here). Brackett provides his restaurant’s recipe (which includes skin-on whole chicken legs for the perfect ratio of meat to fat). Finally, I love Rintaro’s fun, bold graphic design and handsome photographs by...Aya Mishima Brackett.

 

 

Scandinavian from Scratch: A Love Letter to the Baking of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden  I’m always on the hunt for a great baking book. This year I recommend Nichole Accettola’s Scandinavia from Scratch. Accettola’s book focuses on bakes and smørrebrød from mostly Denmark, but also Norway and Sweden. Don’t expect the breadth of Magnus Nilsson’s epic The Nordic Baking Book (2018) which, in addition to Scandinavia covers Finland and Iceland. Rather, Accettola penned a home-baking friendly book that includes recipes from Kantine, her Scandinavian bakery and café in San Francisco. She divides her book into six main sections: The Cookie Tin; Simple Cakes and Celebration Desserts; Let’s Fika!; Rise and Shine; Rye Bread and Smørrebrød; and Winter Therapy. To my taste, the Simple Cakes and Celebration Desserts chapter stands out with offering like Coconut Dream Cake; Lemon Moon Cake; Blackberry Tosca Cake; and Royal Party Cake. The open-face sandwiches look amazing, too, especially the Egg and Shrimp Smørrebrød. Lovely, clean design and type selection add to the cookbook’s appeal.

 

For want of diversity, I left Emiko Davies’s Gohan – Everyday Japanese Cooking (Smith Street Books) off the list, but think it a beautiful book and highly recommend it if you want a book on Japanese home cooking. I also enjoyed reading Paul Fehribach’s Midwestern Food (University of Chicago) and share his Chicken and Noodles recipe (here). The Simple Art of Rice by JJ Johnson with Danica Novgorodoff (Flatiron Books) warrants a look. And I like The Food of the Italian Island by the self-proclaimed prolific (and, in the case of this title, self-published) Katie Parla.

 

And that’s nearly it for 2023. Looking forward to 2024! If I don’t get another post up, here’s to A Merry Christmas and A Healthy and Happy New Year.