Cranberry & Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

I was sitting by the Christmas tree, enjoying a cup of coffee and a couple of Christmas cookies during the lull between Christmas and New Year’s, when I realized that I had intended to post the recipe for the very cookies I was enjoying.  I had hoped to make it happen before Christmas.  Oops.  At least I will get it done before the New Year.  And as a consequence, the recipe will be here for all the Christmases that are yet to come.

This particular recipe appeared in Gourmet magazine way back in 2006.  For many years, Gourmet magazine’s December issue was without fail a treasure trove of wonderful recipes for holiday cookies.  If you look through the Christmas cookies I’ve posted…or if you ever took one of my holiday cookie classes…you know that many of the recipes that I have shared were straight out of Gourmet.

Sadly with this recipe, the first time I made it, it was a bit of a failure.  The pictured cookies are neat and square.  Mine were misshapen and lumpy looking.  As someone who strives for neatness in cookies, this was disappointing to say the least.  

On the plus side, the cookies had a fantastic flavor.  I love cranberries and pistachio with orange.  But I probably wouldn’t have thought to add cinnamon to the mix.  It is just the right touch. 

I also love the sparkly and crunchy exterior coating of turbinado sugar.  As it turns out, this is a bit of a fussy step...and you can skip it and still have a pretty nice cookie.  But I think it's worth the effort.

The flavors...and the thought of how lovely these cookies could be…made me want to fix the recipe.  And to be honest, the recipe didn’t require a ton of tweaking.  As always with baked goods, the key to success is in the details.

As I looked at the recipe I realized they were simply slice and bake shortbread.  And since I have a delicious recipe for a slice a bake shortbread, I thought it would be worth comparing the two.  As it turned out, with the exception of the flour, the recipes were identical.  But frankly, it’s difficult to tell how much flour the original recipe called for since the recipe is in cups/measuring spoons instead of weights.  (I wrote a lengthy rant on this subject a few years ago.)  So the first thing I did to alter the recipe was to correct the amount of flour. 

The other thing that struck me as odd about the recipe was the instruction to cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  I suppose that once the amount of flour was corrected, that extended creaming would have produced a delicious cookie.  But I had shortbread in my head as I was looking at the recipe…and shortbread does not receive a lengthy creaming.  The purpose of creaming is aeration.  And shortbread doesn’t want aeration.  The dough just needs to be well amalgamated.  Many traditional recipes rub the butter into dry ingredients—dispensing with even a short creaming (for blending purposes) altogether.

Finally, I lowered the oven temperature a bit.  Shortbread bakes low and slow so it will be baked through…but still be lovely and pale.  The original recipe baked a fairly standard cookie temperature of 350°.  I reduced it to 325°. (Some recipes…for thick shortbread…bake at an even lower temperature.)

My adjusted recipe produced the cookie I had been imagining.  It has a nice crisp shortbread texture and a pale, light golden color that sets the pistachios and dried cranberries off nicely.  The intended flavors of the original still come through.  It is a delicious little cookie…perfect for a holiday platter.

 

Cranberry-Pistachio Slice & Bake Shortbread Cookies

 3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks/170 g.) unsalted butter, softened but cool
6 T. (75 g.) sugar
1/2 t. orange zest
1 3/4 c. (210 g.) all-purpose flour
3/8 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. (65 g.) pistachios, coarsely chopped
1/3 c. (54 g.) dried cranberries, coarsely chopped if “whole”

Finishing ingredients (optional):
1 large egg or white, beaten
Turbinado sugar for decorating 

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, briefly cream the butter, sugar and orange zest…just to combine (it doesn’t need to be light & fluffy).  Add the flour, salt and cinnamon and mix on low speed until the flour is beginning to be absorbed.  

Add the pistachios and craisins and mix until the dough forms clumps.  

Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, forming a rough strip about 12 inches long.  Using the plastic wrap, press the dough into a rectangular, square or round “log.” Wrap tightly and chill until firm.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scatter the turbinado sugar in a strip on a piece of parchment (you’ll need about a quarter cup). Unwrap the log, brush with the egg and roll in the sugar, pressing to help the sugar adhere.  If the log softens during this operation, chill briefly to let it firm up again. 

Using a thin, sharp knife, slice the log into 1/4-inch-thick slices; 

place the cookies about an inch apart on the baking sheet. 

Bake until the cookies are set and just beginning to turn a very pale golden color—about 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and let cookies cool on the sheets.  Makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies.

(Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, December 2006)

Printable Version

 

Winter into Spring Salad

Recently while scrolling Instagram a beautiful salad from AOC in Los Angeles caught my eye.   It isn’t really surprising that this happened…I love Suzanne Goin’s salads.  They are always beautiful.  But more importantly, they taste even better than they look.  She has a gift for combining not only colors and shapes, but textures and flavors.  I don’t think I have made all the salads in her book Sunday Suppers at Lucques…but I have made a lot of them (some I have shared on my blog).  I have never been disappointed.

Of course I didn’t have a recipe for the salad pictured on Instagram, but that didn’t stop me from making it.  The combination of arugula (a long time favorite lettuce) and radicchio (my current favorite winter “green”) with oranges, dates, pistachios and goat cheese rang all my bells.  And because I have been keeping radicchio as part of my “lettuce pantry” this winter, I had all the ingredients on hand.

I did make a couple of changes to the salad.  First, I added some roasted beets. I don’t always have roasted beets in my fridge, but for some reason that escapes me now, I had some.  When I began pulling the ingredients for the salad out on the day I intended to make it for lunch, I pulled out the beets because my memory of the picture included beets.  When I checked the IG post before I made my salad to make sure I had everything, I realized there were no beets in the image.  All I can say is that they clearly belonged in my version of the salad. 

The other change I made was the kind of cheese. I had goat cheese out and was going to use it, but decided at the last minute while I was making the salad that I wanted a salty element.  So I used Feta instead of goat cheese. It was delicious—not only did I really like the salt with the sweet beets and dates, I liked the crumblier, firmer texture of the Feta.

I mentioned in my last post that I like to keep a versatile mustard and shallot based vinaigrette on hand.  The one I had in my fridge was a simple champagne vinaigrette that is good with bitter winter greens (like radicchio) and winter fruits… so that’s the one I used.  It worked very well. 

The salad was just excellent.  I’m sharing it here as I made it: for one.  But it would be an easy thing to multiply the ingredients to make a big platter for a crowd…or several individual plated salads.

The day I made the salad, I posted a picture of the salad on Instagram.  When my sister-in-law saw it she commented that the plate just screamed springtime.  I was struck by her comment because the ingredients (citrus…winter lettuces….beets…) seemed very wintery to me.  But she was right about the brilliant colors.  So I’m calling this my “Winter into Spring Salad.” 

 

Winter into Spring Salad
(Arugula with Radicchio, Citrus & Dates)

1/2 a large or 1 small, Cara cara orange
1/2 oz. Arugula
1/2 oz. Radicchio (about 2 leaves), torn into large bite-sized pieces
1 T. (or to taste) Champagne Vinaigrette (see below)
1 medium beet (about 3 oz.), roasted and cut into 8 to 10 wedges or halved and sliced crosswise (dressed with lemon or vinegar of your choice, if you like)
2 Medjool dates, pitted and each cut into 6 to 7 lengthwise strips
A mounded tablespoon of pistachios, lightly toasted (or not—as you prefer) and very coarsely chopped
1 oz. Feta in brine, broken/crumbled

Prepare the orange:  Slice off the stem and blossom ends.  Set the fruit so that it is resting on one of the flat, cut surfaces.  Using a thin, sharp knife, cut away the rind in strips.  As you cut, follow the contour of the fruit with your knife and use the previous cut to guide where you make the next cut so that you remove all of the peel, pith and membrane...but as little of the flesh as possible. Slice from top to bottom and rotate the fruit as you make each cut.  You should end up with a smooth, sphere of citrus that is free of membrane, pith and peel.  Cut the orange in half from top to bottom (direction of the segments).  If the orange is large, I only use one half.  If small, I’ll use the whole thing.  Cut the halves into quarters, lay them on their side and cut cross-wise in quarter inch or so slices.

Place the arugula and radicchio in a small bowl. Season with salt and drizzle with enough vinaigrette to barely coat—don’t weigh the greens down with the dressing…you can drizzle more over the salad after you build it.  Toss to thoroughly coat the lettuces.  Give the beets a drizzle of the vinaigrette and season with salt & pepper if you didn’t dress them with vinegar and season them when you roasted them.

Scatter half of the greens over the plate.  Arrange half of all the other elements over the greens.  Repeat these two layers.  Drizzle with more vinaigrette and serve.  Serves 1…but multiplies easily to serve as many as you like.

Champagne vinaigrette:
2 T. Champagne vinegar
1 small shallot, peeled and finely minced (1 1/2 to 2 T.)
1/4 t. salt, or to taste
1 t. Dijon mustard
6 T. extra-virgin olive oil

Make the vinaigrette:  Place the vinegar in a small bowl with the shallots and salt.  Set aside for five minutes or so to let the shallots soften a bit. Add the mustard and whisk until smooth. While whisking constantly, add the olive oil in a thin stream to form a slightly thickened, emulsified dressing.  Taste and correct the seasoning with salt.  Set aside.

Printable Version

Chocolate-Pistachio Financiers

One year ago this past week I moved to a new home.  This was my first move in almost 30 years…and it involved a lot of changes and adjustments to routines and responsibilities.  Everything about the move was good…but developing, testing and writing about recipes fell to the bottom of my to-do list for pretty much the whole of 2019. 

As 2020 began, things felt as if they were calming down a bit, but I still struggled to find room for my blog.  I had begun to wonder if I was going to be able to find time to work up a recipe and write a tenth anniversary blog post (which just so happens to be today!), when all of a sudden I have found myself with abundant time:  In the space of four days every piece of business on my calendar for the remainder of March has been canceled as almost all social interactions have ground to a halt in an attempt to stem the tsunami that is COVID-19. 

In light of the current situation, before I share my anniversary recipe, I want to encourage readers to follow me on Instagram or Twitter (if you aren’t already).  I love IG and have been fairly active there for the past few years, regularly sharing the things that I cook at home in hopes that this will provide inspiration for others in the daily quest to put dinner on the table.  As we are entering this time of social distancing and self isolation, I will begin to post this same kind of thing  on Twitter as well. 

I don’t know how long the current situation will last, but as restaurants are today beginning to close their doors many people will find themselves in the foreign territory of having to cook for themselves on a regular basis.  This would be hard enough in normal times—but it’s even more difficult if you are trying to feed yourself from a limited pantry of almost entirely shelf stable items.  So follow me—and encourage your friends (who might not have previously been in the habit of cooking for themselves) to follow me too—as I share the things I’m cooking for myself from a more limited pantry (supplemented by produce from less frequent trips to the grocery store).  It would be fantastic if there could be a truly good outcome from this rather traumatic period:  people rediscovering the pleasures of home, cooking and the table.

As for my anniversary, longtime readers might remember my tradition of making something Pistachio to mark each successive anniversary.  There is no particular reason for this other than I posted a pistachio cake on my first anniversary.  Then on the next one I made another pistachio cake.  At that point I felt like I needed to continue to challenge myself to come up with something featuring pistachios each year.  Besides cakes there have been a couple of cookie recipes, cupcakes, a savory sauce…even pancakes!

This year I made some mini cakes:  Chocolate-Pistachio Financiers.  The idea came to me as I was preparing for a class in February.  The dessert I taught was a “Chocolate Almond Mini Cake” from Patricia Wells’ book Simply French.  When I ran across the recipe I recognized it as a chocolate financier (a miniature French browned butter and almond meal cake).  Served with homemade espresso ice cream, it was a big hit with the class.

At the time it occurred to me that I would like the cake even more if it were made with pistachios.  I like almonds…but I love the flavor of pistachios—not to mention that it is especially good with chocolate.  And like all nut flours, pistachio flour/meal tenderizes and adds moisture.   

So, that was my plan for my anniversary post.  But as the day approached, I still hadn’t made a pistachio version.  Then, suddenly I had the whole weekend right before my anniversary free…with no pressing projects (other than figuring out how I’m going to earn a living for the foreseeable future….).

So I made these little chocolate-pistachio cakes my Sunday project (I’m trying to have a specific project each day while my work has stopped and I’m stuck at home).  And as it turned out, I was right:  I do indeed like them better than the almond ones.  The almond version didn’t get the lovely glaze I put on the pistachio cakes—but even without it, I think the pistachio cakes would still be better.  Pistachios have a natural sweetness that enhances the chocolate rather than diluting its flavor the way added sugar might.  They are intensely chocolate-y, tender and moist.  The perfect little bite of cake. 

If you are a baker, you probably have all of the ingredients for these cakes in your pantry already.  If you don’t have pistachios, but you have almonds…or hazelnuts…you can substitute either of those and have a delicious cake.  Baking is a great thing to do when you are stuck at home.  Besides baking, I’m catching up on other things I never had time to do this past year…and reveling in the extra time I have available to spend out in my garden at one of my favorite moments of the gardening year (when everything is waking up). And hopefully I’ll spend more time getting back into the rhythm of testing recipes and posting them here for all of you to enjoy.

Chocolate Pistachio Financiers

55 g. (1/2 c.) pistachio flour/meal (see note)

30 g. (1/4 c.) all-purpose flour

5 g. (1 T.) cocoa

90 g. (3/4 c.) powdered sugar

1/4 t. salt

90 g. bittersweet (70%) chocolate, chopped

20 g. (1 T.) honey

90 g. (6 T.) unsalted butter

3 egg whites (90 grams)—beaten until foamy

1 recipe chocolate glaze

2 or 3 T. coarsely chopped pistachios

Whisk the first five ingredients together in a medium bowl; set aside. 

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and drizzle the honey over.  Place the butter in a small saucepan set over medium heat. As the butter begins to sputter and pop, whisk occasionally. The butter solids will begin to turn brown. When the solids are a golden brown and the butter has a pleasantly nutty aroma, pour the butter over the chocolate and honey (making sure to get all the browned bits).  Let sit for a few moments.  Whisk until smooth.

Add the egg whites to the bowl with the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth.  Drizzle in the warm chocolate mixture in while whisking until fully incorporated.  Divide the batter among 9 buttered 2 oz. ramekins (or you can use a standard muffin tin--just fill 9 instead of all 12).  Chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours.  

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F.  If the ramekins have been in the fridge for longer than an hour or two, let them sit briefly on the counter so the ramekins can come to room temperature.  Place on a baking sheet and transfer to the oven.  Bake until the cake a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs—about 18 to 22 minutes.  Cool the cakes for 10 minutes before turning them out. 

The cakes may be served warm:  Dust with powdered sugar and serve with a small scoop of ice cream, custard sauce, or whipped cream.

Or, cool the cakes and decorate with chocolate glaze: Turn the cakes upside down (so the smooth, slightly domed side will face up) 

and place a spoonful of the cooled glaze (see below) in the center of a cake.  Spread the glaze to the edges so that it begins to drip randomly down the sides. Repeat with the remaining cakes.  

When the glaze is just set, garnish with a small mound of chopped pistachios placed on the center of each cake.  

The cakes may be baked up to 24 hours ahead.  Store airtight.

Notes:

• I have never found pistachio flour for sale.  I grind raw pistachios in a rotary nut grinder (the kind used for Parmesan) to make nut flour.
• You can substitute almonds or hazelnuts for the pistachios
• When I made these cakes I didn’t have any 70% chocolate in my pantry.  But I did have unsweetened (i.e. 100%) and 60%.  So I used 1/4 unsweetened and 3/4 60% to approximate 70%. 

Chocolate Glaze

55 g. (4 T) unsalted butter, diced
85g. (3 oz.) bittersweet chocolate, broken up
1 T. (21 g.) honey

Melt the butter, chocolate and honey together in the microwave or over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth.  Let the glaze cool until it just begins to thicken (the temperature will be about 80°. 

Printable Version

Spring Salad of Arugula, Strawberries, Baked Goat Cheese & Candied Spiced Pistachios

Spring really is salad season.  I eat salads all year long.  But suddenly in the spring, when the local growers begin to bring heads of freshly harvested lettuce and bags of just cut baby greens and arugula, I begin to really relish salads.  Even the baby lettuces have substance and flavor.  They become far more than just a background for other foods; they are something I enjoy eating just for their own merit (and I often do—munching away on them as I’m cleaning them and putting them away).  So even though my last post was a salad…and I haven’t been posting as much recently because of the busyness of settling into my new home…I’m going to share another salad today.   This one features young arugula paired with the bountiful and flavorful strawberries that are filling the markets right now.

Arugula and strawberries are a fairly common salad combination.  The peppery bite of the arugula goes very well with the sweet and tangy strawberries.  And since they are abundant and at their flavor peak at right around the same time, making a salad of them is a no-brainer.  If you look around on line you will discover that many people add a salty and tangy cheese to the combination…like Feta, a blue or goat cheese…and usually a nut of some kind for added crunch.  I have not veered away from this combination at all.  Instead I have altered the manner in which I add the cheese and nuts.

For the cheese, I used goat cheese.  And instead of simply crumbling it over the salad, I form it into a round, coat it with breadcrumbs and bake it.  The cheese contributes a varied temperature element this way…and also textural variation if you serve it with toasts or crusty bread.  If you don’t want to take the time to form and bake rounds, you can of course just crumble the goat cheese over the salad.  But if you have never had a salad with baked goat cheese before, you really do need to give it a try. 

The nuts that usually appear in this salad are almonds or pecans.  Both are delicious, but I opted for pistachios.  I think their color is particularly.  And to echo the pepper and spice of the arugula…and emphasize the sweetness of the strawberries…I gave them a caramel and spice coating. They are so tasty this way that you’ll probably want to make extra just to have on hand for a snack.

When I worked at The American Restaurant many years ago, we used to put these pistachios (with just pepper for the spice—I’m also adding fennel and coriander) 

on a spinach and blue cheese salad.  It was on a banquet menu so every cook in the kitchen got to make them at one time or another.  I think every cook probably used a slightly different method when making them.  The process is admittedly a bit tricky.  I am giving two methods—one that uses the oven and another that is accomplished entirely on the stove top.  If you toast the nuts in the oven and add them to the hot caramel (my preferred method), you must work out the timing so the nuts are still hot when you combine them with the caramel.  If you don’t, you will have a hopelessly stuck mass of nuts and caramel.  If you choose to toast the nuts in a sauté pan and add the sugar after the nuts get hot (allowing it to caramelize around the nuts) you must be very careful not to scorch the nuts.  Either way, you will need a non-stick sauté pan, an oiled heat-proof spatula and an oiled baking sheet—and you will have to work quickly and be vigilant about tossing and stirring—even continuing to stir a bit after the nuts are out of the pan if you want to have perfectly separated nuts.  If you don’t mind having clumps/clusters, then you can just turn them out of the pan and leave them alone while they cool. 

My final addition to the salad is finely sliced spring onions.  I always keep masses of spring onions in my kitchen this time of year.  I use them as a base for pilafs, pastas and vegetables ragouts…and in salads.  When I cook with them I use some of the green.  For this salad I only use the white and pale green portion.  If you don’t have any spring onions, you may replace them with finely shaved shallot or red onion.  Just make sure that you soak the sliced or shaved onion (or shallot) in a bowl of ice water for five minutes or so.  This will soften the heat/bite of the onion and crisp them up at the same time. 

I hope that everyone is enjoying salads as much as I am this year.  But if not, you can still use the baked goat cheese and spiced pistachio recipes.  Both would make outstanding additions to an appetizer spread for your next summer party.   But I hope you do like salads...and I hope you will try this one.  I would love to promise that my next post will not be a salad post...but you never know.  Salad season isn't quite over yet.

Salad of Arugula, Strawberries, Baked Goat Cheese & Candied Spiced Pistachios

6 oz. soft, Montrachet-style goat cheese

Olive oil

A few sprigs of thyme or winter savory, if you like

Freshly ground black pepper

1/4 to 1/3 c. fine, dry toasted breadcrumbs

3 to 4 oz. arugula, or arugula mixed with baby lettuces

1/4 to 1/3 c. very finely sliced (on a long bias) white and pale green of spring onion, soaked in ice water for 5 minutes and blotted dry

8 to 10 oz. strawberries—preferable on the smallish side (about a half ounce each), rinsed, dried, hulled & quartered

1 recipe Candied Spiced Pistachios

White Balsamic Vinaigrette

Cut the log of goat cheese into four slices.  It is likely the slices will be a bit misshapen, so use your hands to form the slices into 4 neat, 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick disks.  If time permits (or you are thinking ahead) place 1/4 c. Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a shallow pan.  Add a few herb sprigs and a few grindings of black pepper.  Place the goat cheese rounds in the seasoned oil and turn to coat.  Let marinate for an hour or so (or overnight in the fridge), turning once or twice.  If you don’t want to marinate the goat cheese, simple drizzle the rounds with just enough olive oil to coat.  Place the breadcrumbs on a small plate or in a small dish.  Coat the goat cheese with the breadcrumbs.  Place the goat cheese rounds on a lightly oiled baking sheet or dish.  When ready to serve the salad, bake the cheese in a preheated 400° oven for about 6 minutes, until the cheese is softened and lightly bubbling at the edges.

While the cheese is baking, place the lettuces, spring onions and strawberries in a large bowl.  Season the greens with salt & pepper.  Drizzle with a few spoonfuls of the vinaigrette.  Use a sparing hand, you can always add more.  Toss until everything is lightly coated.  Add more vinaigrette if necessary.  Add the pistachios and toss to distribute.  Divide the salad among four plates.  When the cheese is ready, use a small spatula to transfer it to the plates.  Nestle the soft rounds alongside the piles of greens and strawberries.  Serve immediately with crusty bread or toasts.

Serves 4

If you don't have any goat cheese on hand, the salad makes a nice side for a Quesadilla, too

Candied Spiced Pistachios

1/2 c. pistachios

2 T. sugar

1/4 t. each black peppercorns, coriander seed, & fennel seed, coarsely crushed in a mortar & pestle

Kosher salt

Spread the pistachios on a small, lightly oiled baking sheet (or in a pie tin) and toast in a 350° oven until hot through—about 5 minutes.  The goal isn’t so much to fully toast the nuts as to get the process started—they will continue to toast in the caramelized sugar.  The goal is to get them hot.  If they are not hot when they are added to the caramel, the mixture will seize into a tight blob.  The goal is separated pistachios, coated with a light crust of spiced caramelized sugar.

Two or three minutes before the nuts come out of the oven, scatter the sugar in a small non-stick sauté pan (one that will just hold the pistachios in a single layer) and set over high heat.  Shake the pan occasionally to keep the sugar distributed.  It will begin to melt and turn to caramel almost simultaneously.  When the sugar has turned to liquid caramel, 

sprinkle the spices over the caramel and then scatter in the hot nuts.  Using a lightly oiled heat proof spatula to strategically stir and turn the nuts, helping them to become coated in a thin film of caramel.  

Reduce the heat if the caramel starts to smoke.  The nuts will want to stick together, but just continue to stir, turn, and separate them with the spatula until the nuts are mostly evenly coated.  Transfer back to the oiled sheet and use the oiled spatula to spread them out, separating them as much as possible.  

Some will persist in sticking, but they should break up fairly easily once the caramel has cooled.  Let cool and then finish breaking them up.  Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Alternatively:  Combine the sugar and the spices and set aside.  Place the pistachios in a non-stick sauté pan over medium-high heat.  Toast the nuts stirring frequently, until they are fragrant.   Begin to sprinkle the sugar mixture over the nuts as you simultaneously shake the pan back and forth.  The sugar will immediately begin to caramelize and coat the nuts.  Continue to sprinkle the sugar and shake the pan until the nuts are nicely glazed with the spiced caramel.  Immediately spread the nuts on a greased cookie sheet to cool.

White Balsamic Vinaigrette

2 T. White Balsamic Vinegar

1/2 t. (slightly mounded) Dijon mustard

1/8 t. Kosher salt

1/4 c. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Place the vinegar, mustard and salt in a small bowl.  Whisk until smooth.  Add the olive oil in a thin stream while whisking constantly.  Taste and correct the seasoning.  The vinaigrette should be tangy and slightly sweet.  Store any leftovers in the fridge.  Re-whisk before using.

Printable Version

Winter Pasta Salad with Roast Chicken, Carrots & Carrot Top Pesto

Occasionally, in the depths of winter, I teach a salad class.  I know that salad is more of a spring or summer topic, but I find that in the winter—despite the fact that we generally want hearty braises, soups, stews and casseroles—there is a genuine craving for things that are fresh and raw.  A salad is the obvious way to satisfy this craving and there are a surprising number of winter ingredients that can easily fill this niche:  kale, chicories (Belgian endive, frisée, radicchio, and escarole), grated/julienned root vegetables (like carrots, celeriac and beets), cabbages of all kinds…as well as apples, pears and the wide variety of citrus fruits that flood the market every winter.  The aim of the class is to encourage people to think about ways to create fresh, seasonal, winter salads.

But of course “salads” can also be hearty and filling.  I think of roasted vegetable platters, grain salads, barely wilted greens that are doused in vinegar to give them a salad like feel, shell bean salads and pasta salads.  Like salads in general, the latter category is also something that comes to mind mostly in relation to summer.  But a bowl of room temperature pasta, tossed with a savory dressing and roasted or blanched winter vegetables, can be every bit as much of a salad as the summer versions.

For years I taught a pasta salad that included a walnut-parsley pesto and roasted carrots and cauliflower.  It was a fine dish…but it was best when freshly made.  The roasted cauliflower didn’t really hold very well in the fridge.  I really wanted the pasta salad that I did for the class to be one that could hold overnight (or even longer) in the fridge.  So this year, as I was getting ready to teach the class, I decided to look around at what other cooks and chefs were creating with pasta and pesto during the winter months. 

Although I was looking for pesto, I was intrigued by and stopped to take a more in depth look at Deb Perelman’s Pasta salad with roasted carrots and sunflower seed dressing.  I discovered that the sunflower seed dressing was actually a carrot-top pesto!  Since my salad already included carrots, I thought this was perfect.  For my improved winter pasta salad, I jettisoned the roasted cauliflower in my old recipe in favor of shredded roast chicken and decided to use the carrot top pesto that I make with pistachios instead of Perelman’s sunflower seed version. 

I loved the way this salad turned out.  It is balanced and savory…and satisfying without making you feel stuffed (or like you need a long winter’s nap).  Best of all, like all good pasta salads, it is even better the next day.

Winter Pasta Salad with Roasted Chicken, Carrots & Carrot Top Pesto

Carrot Top Pesto:

2 c. (2 oz.) lightly packed carrot tops (Before measuring the carrot tops, trim the feathery fronds away from the thick, ropey stems.  Discard the stems and use the tops only.)

a handful (1 oz.) of arugula

1/2 c. shelled pistachios, lightly toasted

1/2 to 3/4 t. kosher salt

1 large clove of garlic, peeled and smashed to a purée with a pinch of salt

2/3 c. olive oil...plus more if needed to get preferred consistency

1/3 c. (1 oz.) finely grated Parmesan

Place the carrot tops, arugula, pistachios, garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the food processor and process until everything is finely and uniformly chopped.  With the machine running, drizzle in the olive oil.  Scrape down the sides.  Add the Parmesan and pulse to combine.  Taste and correct the seasoning with salt and lemon juice if necessary.  If the pesto seems too tight, drizzle in a bit more oil.  Store in the refrigerator in a jar with a tight fitting lid and filmed with oil.  Makes 1 1/4 cups pesto.  

Salad:

1 large (about 12 oz.) split chicken breast

olive oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

2 lb. carrots, topped, tailed and peeled

3/4 lb. gemelli or penne pasta

3/4 c. (200g.) carrot top pesto (about 2/3 of the recipe)

1 T. lemon juice (or to taste)

2 handfuls (about 2 oz.) arugula

Grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 475°.

Rub the chicken with a light coating of olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper.  Place the chicken in a baking dish and place in the  oven, roasting until the skin is crisp and golden and an instant read thermometer inserted in the thickest portion reads 150° to 155°—about 25 to 30 minutes.  Remove the chicken from the oven and let sit until cool enough to handle.  Deglaze the baking pan with a couple of tablespoons of water.  Set aside.  When the chicken has cooled, remove the skin and bones and discard.  Shred the meat into long strips about 1/2-inch wide.  You should have about 2 cups shredded chicken.

If you can find them, tri-color carrots are beautiful in this dish.

If carrots are fatter than 3/4-inch in diameter, halve or quarter lengthwise.  Cut the carrots in scant 1/2-inch slices on a diagonal (so that they are roughly the length of the pasta).  Place the carrots in a large bowl.  Season to taste with salt & pepper.  Add enough olive oil to lightly coat the carrots (about 2 T.).  Toss to coat, and spread on a rimmed baking sheet.  Roast in a 475° oven until tender and caramelized/charred in spots, stirring once—about 20 minutes.  Set the vegetables aside until ready to assemble the salad.

Cook the pasta in 6 quarts of rapidly boiling water seasoned with 2 T. salt.  Stir occasionally and cook until the pasta is just al dente.  Drain, reserving some of the pasta cooking water.  Spread the pasta on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with a tablespoon or so of olive oil.  Set aside until ready to assemble the salad.

To assemble the salad, place the carrots, chicken and pasta in a large bowl.  Toss to combine.  Place the pesto in a small bowl and thin with 3 or 4 T. of the chicken pan deglazings and pasta water.  Pour over the pasta salad and toss the pasta salad until all the ingredients are evenly dressed with the pesto sauce.  

If the pasta salad seems "tight" add more pasta water or olive oil.  Taste and correct the seasoning with the lemon juice, salt, pepper or more pesto.  Add the arugula and toss again.  Serve at room temperature, garnished with Parmesan.

Serves 4 to 6.

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