COOKBOOKS
- New Italian Cooking [buy it]
- Bold Italian [buy it]
RECOMMENDED BY
- Chef Jimmy Bradley, The Harrison & The Red Cat
- Chef Chris Santos, The Stanton Social & Beauty and Essex
- Chef Rebecca Weitzman, Thistle Hill Tavern
RECOMMENDATIONS
Scott Conant’s recommendations for restaurants in New York, Brooklyn, Miami, Las Vegas, Toronto, Italy and Hong Kong, as well as for drinks, pastas and knives.
Chef Scott Conant - Recipes
WHAT
Recipe for Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce and Stracci with Seafood from chef Scott Conant.
- Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce
- Stracci with Seafood
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Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce
Courtesy of chef Scott Conant
One of Scott Conant’s signature dishes.
Spaghetti Sauce with Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce
Photo Credit: Christopher Villano
Yield
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
- 2.5 pounds ripe plum tomatoes (about 20)
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Pinch red pepper flakes
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 pound spaghetti, preferably alla chitarra or another artisanal cut
- 6 large basil leaves
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoon freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus additional for serving, if desired
Directions
1) Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Have a large bowl of ice water ready near the stove. Cut a small “X” in the bottom of each tomato. Ease 5 of the tomatoes into the boiling water; scoop them out and transfer them to the ice water after 15 seconds. Repeat this with the rest of the tomatoes. Starting with the X, peel the skin off each tomato and cut away the core. Cut each tomato in half lengthwise and use your fingers to flick out the seeds.
2) Heat 5 tablespoons of the oil in a wide saucepan. Add the tomatoes and red pepper flakes and season with salt and pepper. Once the tomatoes have started to soften, after about 10 minutes, mash them with a potato masher. If you don’t have a potato masher, you’d be surprised how well pounding them with the bottom of a sturdy coffee mug works. Cook the tomatoes another 15 to 20 minutes, until they’re tender and the sauce has thickened. Set them aside.
3) Bring 4 to 5 quarts of well-salted water to a boil in a large pot and add the spaghetti. While the spaghetti cooks, stack the basil leaves, roll them up tightly and use a sharp knife to slice and roll into fine shreds, making a chiffonade. Set the basil aside. Gently reheat the sauce and check the seasonings.
4) Cook the spaghetti until al dente, 7 to 8 minutes, then drain, reserving about a half-cup of the cooking water. Add the pasta and the remaining oil to the sauce and toss gently with a couple of wooden spoons so you don’t break the pasta, using a generous motion, until the pasta is well-coated. If necessary, moisten the spaghetti with some of the reserved cooking water. Add the butter, grated cheese, and basil chiffonade, toss again, and serve at once.
Stracci with Seafood
Courtesy of chef Scott Conant
Stracci pasta (translated to rag) are cooked in clam juice and leek sauce which is made from leeks, shallots, chicken stock and extra virgin olive oil. Sliced garlic and scallion are sweated then deglazed with the shellfish stock. Leek sauce is then added. The dish is finished with a mixture of seafood, little neck clams, razor clams, mussels, rock shrimp. It is then finished with a chiffonade of parsley. Once plated, the dish is topped with a bottarga breadcrumb mixture (bottarga is dried fish roe from either tuna or mullet, we use mullet bottarga).
Yield
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 19 pieces of Stracci
- 2 oz. shellfish liquid
- 2 oz. leek sauce
- 5 shucked clams
- 5 shucked mussels
- 1 tablespoon razor clam diamonds
- 8 marinated rock shrimp
- 2 tablespoon leeks, diced and cooked
- 1 teaspoon shaved garlic
- 1 tablespoon sliced scallions (on the bias)
- 1 tablespoon parsley (chiffonade)
- 2 tablespoon botarga breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoon tomato dice
Leek Sauce
- 2 quarts leeks
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 quart zucchini bodies (no skin)
- 1.5 quart vegetable stock
- 1 - 1.5 cups extra virgin olive oil
- Thyme, to taste
- Peperoncino, to taste
- Salt, to taste
Directions
Leek Sauce
1) Sweat leeks and garlic, no color.
2) Season with salt, peperocino and thyme.
3) Add zucchini bodies, sweat.
4) Deglaze with vegetable stock, bring to boil.
5) Simmer until fully cooked, 30 minutes.
6) Strain and puree adding the liquid back in to adjust consistency.
7) Blend in extra virgin olive oil and adjust seasoning.
Seafood + Stracci
1) Heat saute pan, add 2 tablespoon olive oil.
2) Add garlic and sweat, no color, add scallions, add leeks.
3) Cook pasta in boiling, salted water.
4) As the pasta is cooking, deglaze pan with shellfish stock.
5) Add leek sauce.
6) Cook pasta 3/4 of the way in the pasta cooker, then finish in the pan with the stock and sauce.
7) Adjust consistency with pasta water.
8) Add the shellfish, finish with parsley and tomatoes.
9) Plate the pasta in the center of a large round coupe plate.
10) Sprinkle 2 tablespoon of bottarga breadcrumbs.
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SCARPETTA - NEW YORK
Chelsea
Italian
55 West 14th Street
New York, NY10014
T: 212.691.0555 (make a reservation)
Website:
Hours:
Sun - Thu: 5:30pm -11pm
Fri - Sat: 5:30pm - 12am
SCARPETTA - MIAMI
South Beach
Italian
Fontainebleau Miami Beach
4441 Collins Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33140
T: 305.674.4660 (make a reservation)
Website:
Hours:
Sun - Thu: 6pm - 11pm
Fri - Sat: 6pm - 12am
SCARPETTA - LAS VEGAS
The Strip
Italian
Cosmopolitan Resort
3708 Las Vegas Bouldevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
T: 702.698.7960 (make a reservation)
Website:
Hours:
Sun - Thu: 5:30pm - 11pm
Fri - Sat: 5:30pm - 12am
SCARPETTA - LOS ANGELES
Beverly Hills
Italian
Montage Beverly Hills
225 North Cannon Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
T: 310.860.7970 (make a reservation)
Website:
Hours:
Daily: 11:30am - 3pm
Sun - Thu: 5:30pm - 11pm
Fri - Sat: 5:30pm - 12am
SCARPETTA - TORONTO
Midtown / Uptown
Italian
Thompson Hotel Toronto
550 Wellington Street West
Toronto, ON M5V 2V4
T: 416.601.3590 (make a reservation)
Website:
D.O.C.G. ENOTECA - LAS VEGAS
The Strip
Italian / Wine Bar / Coffee Bar
Cosmopolitan Resort
3708 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
T: 702.698.7920 (make a reservation)
Website:
Hours:
Sun - Thu: 11:30am - 11pm
Fri - Sat: 11:30am - 12am
WHO
Executive chef and owner of Scarpetta and D.O.C.G. Enoteca.
WHY
James Beard award-winning chef Conant creates accessible Italian dishes using Old World cooking and adding his own unique modern twists.
Photo Credit: Melanie Dunea
Scarpetta - New York, Miami, Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Toronto | D.O.C.G. Enoteca - Las Vegas
