Pasta Carbonara With Duckcetta

Growing up in NYC and eating (PORK) was normal for me. Having a Sicilian Grandfather turned me on too many many different Italians foods which I miss and love. That being said I have not eaten any Treif in almost 18 years. About 8 months ago I saw a recipe being made on T.V. called, yup you guessed it Pasta Carbonara. I remembered eating this many times as a young man. Traditional Carbonara like the one my grandfather cooked was made with Pancetta or Guanciale. So with that I needed a meat that was high in fat and tasted divine. Well we all know that's Duck. Hence my creation of Duckcetta was born. 

Recipe 

2 whole eggs and 7 yolks

35 grams each of Pecorino Romano and Parmesano Reggiano cheese

200 grams of Duckcetta chopped up

28 grams to toasted finely chopped/grounded up pine nuts

50 grams of Pureeed Sundried Tom packs in olive oil

1.5 tsp of pepper 

1 lb of Spaghetti

6 Tbl or more of Duck fat or Olive oil

Although this is my recipe I decided to use Serious Eats technique for making the Pasta Carbonara. Their technique is far superior and easier than I was doing. Oh and they have a video too. 

Toast the Pinenuts and grind them up too. I forgot to take a picture of this. Ground Pine nuts give this dish a great texture. 

Measure out the Sun-Dried Tomatoes and puree using a sharp knife or a food processor. 

Measure out the cheese too.....Why two different cheeses? Pecorino Romano Cheese is made from sheep's milk and is salty, tangy and has a umami punch. Whereas Parmigiano Reggiano which comes from Cows Milk is nuttier and is a bit milder. Both cheeses together take this dish over the top. 

These are the end Pieces of the Duckcetta. As you can see in the picture to the right I sliced/chopped them up into about 3/8's of an inch.

Get the eggs ready.......

Toss in the pepper...

Toss in the cheese, Ground up Pine Nuts and cheese. Mix thoroughly. 

Add about 3 Tbl. of Duck fat to the pan and saute the Duckcetta on a very low flame. The Goal is render as much fat as possible without over cooking the Duckcetta.

Mean while.... You should have had the pot of salted water boiling already. Cook the pasta right to the point before al-Dente. reserve 2 cups of Pasta water. Toss the al-dente pasta into pan with the Duckcetta and toss until all the pasta is coated with the duck fat. You might need to add some more so have some on hand. 

Almost done.... Add the now Fat coated Pasta and Guanciale to the bowl that contains the eggs mixture.   Add about a 1/2 of water to the pasta and toss with tongs. Using the pasta pot you just used as a double boiler (keep it on simmer) place the bowl on top and keep folding the pasta using tongs. The goal is to thicken the sauce ever so gently without breaking the eggs. keep adding water until you achieve the desired viscosity.  

REVIEW- AMAZING!!!

Duckcetta

Katshkecetta

That's right another Duck recipe from me. An out of the box recipe no doubt. As most of you know I don't eat Pork which leads me to my next point of evolution in food. Since I don't partake in treif I'm on a constant and boundless quest to make the unusual. Transforming food is what I love to do. I like using the term Yiddisher Kop which means Jewish Head to describe what it is I do. Katshkecetta is Yiddish for Duckcetta if you were curious.

This recipe originated with my desire to replicate the treif version know as Pancetta. I did this twice before using both Veal and Beef. I used the Veal Navel Cut for this application and it was  magnificent. I called the Veal version Vealcetta. I also made a Beef version (Used Beef Navel) called Bovicetta. The veal version was much better than the Beef version. Anyhow I thought that Duck would be a great canvas for this grandiose of a recipe. Based on previous experiences I'm using the Muscovy Breast for this "Cetta". The Muscovy breasts are tasty and easy to work and should work well with this crazy concept of mine. You can check out my other Duck Cured meat recipes HERE. In this recipe I won't go into a huge amount of detail because it's virtually no different than my Vealcetta. 

As with most of my recipes there's always a need. Growing up in NYC and eating (PORK) was normal for me. Having a Sicilian Grandfather turned me on too many many different Italians foods which I miss and love. That being said I have not eaten any Treif in almost 18 years. About 8 months ago I saw a recipe being made on T.V. called, yup you guessed it Pasta Carbonara. I remembered eating this many times as a young man. Traditional Carbonara like the one my grandfather cooked was made with Pancetta or Guanciale. So with that I needed a meat that was high in fat and just tasted divine. Well we all know that's Duck. My Vealcetta would have been Ok but Duck is the best for this application in my opinion. All that Duck fat is heavenly. 
Here's my version of Pasta Carbonara with Duckcetta.

First things first- Measure out all your ingredients. Combine the Salt and Cure #2 in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Using a spice mill grind Whole Cloves, Mustard Seed and Fennel together and place in separate bowl. Measure out the remaining ingredients and place in same bowl as the Cloves, Mustard and Fennel......mix thoroughly. You should have two bowls.

Note: You will need Orange Zest too. not listed in recipe. 

Here is a beautiful picture of both sides of the duck. It's important that the skin is attached. We're going to roll this baby. 

Apply the Salt & Cure to the breast making sure to get it in every nook & cranny (skin side too). Next add orange zest all over the breast. I didn't add it to the skin side.

Anyhow take the other bowl that contains the other ingredients and apply the rub getting it into all the nooks & crannies. Vacuum seal and place in refrigerator for at least a week and up to about 12 days. It's an equilibrium cure so you can't really over cure the thing. Flip it over every day too.

After the 12 days of curing I removed the Duck from its plastic home and rinsed and patted them dry. Notice they're sitting on plastic wrap? Explanation coming.

What's all that white powder? That's called Transglutminase aka Meat-Glue. This stuff will allow us to roll that baby up tight and it will hold its shape. The proteins will bond in about 24 hours and it will become ONE perfectly shaped cylinder. 

This is an important part so pay attention. Using the plastic wrap we're going to roll the duck up extremely tight. The idea here is to roll the duck up so tight that all the proteins are connecting and there are no air gaps. As you roll up the duck a cylinder will form. You must keeping squeezing and stretching the plastic wrap to create a very tight cylinder. In the end I think I rolled it probably 20 plus times. During this process you will twist the ends and squeeze in.  

Keep squeezing the ends and tie off with butcher twine. It may require two of you to get this baby really tight. After your done Vac seal and refrigerate. It needs 24 hours for the proteins to bond and meld together. 

After 24 hours you have a perfectly shaped Duck cylinder. 
Now that's tight!!!!

Now place in a dry aging chamber or use a UMAI bag like I did until the Duck loses 30% of its green weight. 

Wow.....because of the fat content of the Duck this took 5 months to reach the proper weight. I was not expecting it to take this long. 

After the long haul the Duck was placed in a standard Vacuum bag to equalize. Ok what's this equalize thing? Equalizing just means that the moisture levels will have a chance to distribute evenly through the meat. As the meat dries we know that the outer layers are drier than the inner layers. Sitting in a vac bag for a few weeks will equalize the moisture. How long? It needs at least 4 weeks. So all in all this baby took 6 months to complete. Was it worth it? 

Here it is......... Review below gratuitous pictures. 

Review- Wow just amazing. From the flavors to the texture just absolutely divine. How does this compare to my other duck recipes? .....all I have to say is WOW!!! I'm blown away. I must say the texture is far superior to my Duck Prosciutto. With the Prosciutto I never considered rolling them up and now that I have I won't go back. I will use this techniques for all my future recipes. 

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Pasta Schmaltz-Ey-Hindi

Inspiration This is a dish was inspired by another recipes method of preparation. The recipe I'm talking about is none other than my version of Pasta Carbonara. The simplicity and the haste at which this dish can be made is what made me decide to add it to my blog. My approach is simple and easy to execute and all you have to do is add or subtract a few ingredients based on that days inclination.

 Technique  I don't know about you but busy lifestyles and our ever changing schedules sometimes prevents us from having the finer things in life. I'm here to tell you we don't have to give up on good food anymore. Mastering your schedule and a few techniques is all you need to do. You may think you don't have time to cook but this versatile pasta sauce makes it easy to prepare something tasty and fast. If you can master a few culinary techniques one can put together tasty meals in a matter of minutes. What's really nice about this sauce is it's versatility. Change out a few ingredients and you have a new recipe. 

Yiddish So what's up with the funky name of the dish? Yes it's a rhetorical question but still needs to be answered. I love the Yiddish language and anytime there's a hint of Jewishness to a dish I have to use a few Yiddish words. My Bubbe spoke Yiddish and it's kind of cool and reminiscent of her memory. Pasta Schmaltz-Ey-Hindi is simply Pasta, Schmaltz = Chicken Fat, Ey = Eggs and Hindi = Chicken. Why not use the Yiddish words Makaronen for Pasta? Well for one thing no one would ever click on the link to this post. 

So with that let's begin. Like I said this is not exactly a recipe but a technique that will allow you to make many creative pasta dishes. 

Let's talk about the Modus Operandi first.

Transforming a bunch of eggs into a creamy sauce is easy to do if you know how. Obviously we want to cook the eggs in such a fashion that we avoid scrambling or curdling. This is known as Tempering. The goal is to slowly bring up the temperature of the eggs without scrambling them. 

The only way to pull this off is with a double boiler. If you were to add the eggs directly to a hot pan you would run the risk of scrambled eggs instead of creating a creamy sauce. I know I repeated myself but it's imperative that we don't scramble the eggs.

 What do I do? After the Pasta has reached al dente I remove a couple of cups of the starchy water and set aside. The starchy water will aid in building the egg sauce. We're going to use the pot the pasta was cooked in as our double boiler. Make sure that after you drain your pasta you leave a few inches of the hot water in the pot. The the large metal bowl above the pasta pot contains Eggs etc etc and Pasta. More on this later. 

You can use whichever pasta you want but just make sure it's good quality and will be able to hold on to a lot of sauce. I chose Bowtie for this excursion. Who doesn't like leftovers so I made 2 lbs. 
For 2 lbs of Pasta I used 4 whole eggs and 10 egg yolks. 
The next part is all about personal preference just like the pasta was. You have to decide what you want to add to this egg sauce. I kept mine relatively easy and just used what I had on hand. What kind of annoys me after the fact was I had peas in the freezer and wanted to add them but I forgot.



I chose chicken thighs as my protein. You can't screw up thighs and it's hard to overcook them. I used about 14 of them. Season them anyway you want. I had some Bruschetta Seasoning laying around so I used this as my spice and some others. I knew I would be grilling them off so I added olive oil to the bowl and greased them up. Grill them and cut them into bite size pieces.

I just love sun-dried Tomatoes. Not only are they delicious with pasta but the texture matches up nicely with this dish. Make sure to dice them up small. I think I used about 1.5 cups.

No dish like this would be complete without pine-nuts. Give them a quick toasting in a dry skillet.... I used 1.5 cups. 

Adding peas to this dish would have been great!!! Yea I missed the bus on that one. Note: Use any green veggie you want. I like peas, spinach, broccoli rabe and asparagus. 

About 3-4 cups of sliced cherry tomatoes.......

I used the zest of two lemons and the juice of one. Any citrus will work.

Piece De Resistance....Schmaltz and Gribenes are the stars of this dish. Rendered chicken fat and the cracklings. The Schmaltz will be used to fry everything up and the Gribenes will be used to enhance the dish. If you don't have any don't worry..... use your favorite fat. These are my two favorite ingredients of all times. My Mom & Bubbe made/used them in many dishes. 

Not sure I have to go into a lot of details here but you'll need to fry everything up based on how long you think it will take to cook. Obviously I started out with the Onions, seasoned with salt and pepper. After I started smelling the aroma of the onions I added the garlic. Don't burn the garlic!!! Toss in the sliced tomatoes and saute for a few minutes before adding additional stuff. 

Everything in the pool!!!! Add the remaining ingredients and saute for a few minutes and adjust seasoning. I also added green onions. Now add the lemon juice..... to taste... I only used one lemon. Don't add the pine nuts yet.

NOTE on Timing: Before I began frying I had a pot of boiling water going. Look at the cooking time for the pasta and plan accordingly. Right after I put up the pot of water up I got my egg mixture ready too. Last thing you want to do at the end is scramble (pun intended) to get everything in order. 

In my original Carbonara dish I used 2 whole eggs to 7 egg yolks to one pound of pasta. Since I am using a 2 lbs of pasta I needed to up everything. I used 4 whole eggs and 10 yolks. it seems like a waste of egg whites but it's not if you set them aside for breakfast. To the egg mixture I added a ton of cheese (pecorino romano or parmigiano reggiano cheese is the best). Add a lot pepper and add the zest of two lemons. Using a whisk or big ass fork scramble everything up and set aside.


Note: a really nice cheese to use in addition to the ones listed above would be mascarpone cheese.  

This is an important part. I've already covered this part but it's worth mentioning again. Before draining the pasta reserve a few cups of the pasta water. This starchy water will help you build your sauce and temper  your eggs. 

Turn off the heat source ( I have gas.... thank goodness) to pan with the tomato mixture. Drain the pasta (keep some water in the pot so you can use it as a double boiler) and pour into pan. Mix the pasta thoroughly making sure everything is coated evenly. Add the pine nuts. 

This is the part where you start tempering the eggs and building the sauce. Add all the pasta (the picture only shows a little bit of the pasta in the bowl) to the egg mixture and toss and fold coating the pasta thoroughly with the eggs. Add some italian parsley. Mix thoroughly and add little pasta water. 

Place the bowl on top of the simmering pasta pot. Start mixing until a creamy sauce is created. Add more pasta water if needed, add more cheese.....and of course lots of pepper. You'll know when it's done. I like a very creamy sauce sauce so I use a lot of pasta water and extra cheese. The whole goal here is to heat the eggs up without scrambling them. All done!!!

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