24 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY may 2-8, 2024 www.montereycountyweekly.com Chefs also have access to a roster of purveyors. When Charlie Trotter, the famed chef of Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, released his eponymous cookbook in 1994, the recipes dictated which farm or ranch one was to gather ingredients from (cookbooks from celebrity chefs were not always consumer-friendly). Fortunately, all the testing was with the home cook in mind. Jim Culcasi would never stoop to a box of grocery store cake mix at Rosine’s. The cookbook, however, allows one to take shortcuts—and they’ve already sorted out the compromise. For example, the chocolate-peanut butter cake recipe calls for two boxes of cake mix, then tells you how to improve upon it. But in the many distinctions between a professional and home kitchen lie most of the time and effort involved. “I always said I wanted to write a book,” Murray says. “The problem is I’m not a recipe chef. It’s all in my head.” It’s that same impulse that tends to throw me off, even with the book open on the counter in front of me. I first started to cook from scratch in the 1970s. It didn’t take me too long to ignore recipes altogether and just wing everything—often to decent outcomes. I set out to prepare a dish from both the Cafe Fina and Rosine’s books to see if an undisciplined cook could pull it off. But there is a lesson for those of us who play loosely in the kitchen: When you intend to follow a recipe, take care to read it ahead of time and comprehend what is involved. For the entree picked from Cafe Fina, I had glanced at the recipes involved—meatballs, marinara sauce, finished dish—enough to fill out a grocery list. On this particular Monday, I made it home at 4:30pm to get started, with the Weekly’s photographer, Daniel Dreifuss, scheduled to arrive at 5pm and victims—make that guests—staff writer Agata Pope˛da and associate editor Erik Chalhoub—at 6pm. Only after arranging the ingredients I would need for the first step did I notice the line recommending that the marinara simmer for an hour. It’s something that I really should have prepared a day in advance. And it’s probably what families did before people became accustomed to a routine of instant gratification. This is a recipe that asks for patience and draws the family into the kitchen. ■ ■ ■ Rosine’s chocolate peanut butter layer cake is the recipe that caused me the most trepidation. I had to borrow springform cake pans. There were unmastered techniques to worry about, such as keeping an even keel while slicing cakes horizontally into four rounds. A lot could go wrong. While the box said to bake for 23-28 minutes, the middle of each was still wet after 30. And after 35. Fortunately, they didn’t burn. And after allowing them to cool, I acted on a tip and stuck toothpicks around Cafe Fina Pasta Gianna Serves 4 Ingredients: Olive oil for cooking Mom’s meatballs, cooked and chopped (the recipe is included in the book; can substitute 10 oz. ground beef) 2 links of sweet Italian sausage 4 cups marinara sauce (the recipe is included in the book) 1/2 cup of canned or frozen peas 3/4 cup sliced mushrooms 1 lb rigatoni, cooked al dente 1 cup shredded mozzarella 8 slices provolone (about 4 oz.) Grated parmesan for serving Red pepper for serving (optional) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. STEPS: In a saucepan, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add sausage (and ground beef, if substituting; if using meatballs, you will add those later). Cook until both meats are browned. Add 3 cups of marinara sauce. Mix ingredients, then add peas, mushrooms and cooked meatballs (if not using ground beef). Let simmer on low for about 5 minutes, then add cooked rigatoni. Stir all ingredients well. Put pasta into an oven-proof dish. Cover with the mozzarella and provolone and bake until cheeses have melted. Pasta Gianna in the oven. While the appearance may not have been restaurant-quality, the flavors were amazing. Some of the ingredients ready for my attempt at Cafe Fina’s marinara sauce. Despite the pasta machine shown in the background, I went the easy store-bought route. Mistakes were made along the way. One of them was miscalculating the size of the pot I would need for pasta. Daniel Dreifuss Daniel Dreifuss Daniel Dreifuss
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