Given that next week’s newsletter is going to focus on fall style, I thought I’d take a moment today to share some fall cooking tips and go-to’s. I also wanted to start by teasing out a couple of recipes from my new cookbook. Both are cold weather favorites that are reasonably easy to prepare with a lot of bang for your effort and guaranteed to please. These and many more recipes can be found in my new cookbook A Man and His Kitchen, which you can pick up here.
Slow-Cooker Pork Ragu (Serves 6 to 8)
Just the sight of the slow cooker on the counter reminds me of cold-weather comfort cooking. This is a riff on the wild boar dishes I’ve eaten in Tuscany, but considering that boar might be a bit difficult to get a hold of, I will substitute it with a heritage raised pork shoulder or butt. (Duck breast works well here too.) The below recipe leaves you with a nice amount of meat; the next day, I usually add a 28-ounce (794 g) can of crushed tomatoes to the leftover shredded meat for a second (often even more delicious) meal often served without pasta as a stew, if you will served with grilled bread drizzled with good olive oil. Like the one my friend’s at Hudson Ranch produce!
Ingredients
Olive oil
1 picnic or Boston pork butt, about 4 pounds (1.8 kg)
2 anchovies, chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup (240 ml) dry white wine
2 cups (480 ml) beef stock, homemade (page 282) or store- bought
One 14-ounce (397 g) can crushed tomatoes, plus more as needed
1 sprig fresh rosemary
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 fresh sage leaves
2 sprigs fresh parsley
Pappardelle, cooked according to package directions, for serving
Steps
Coat the bottom of a large enameled cast-iron pan with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add the pork and brown on all sides, turning with tongs, then transfer to a plate. Add the anchovies, celery, carrots, onion, and garlic and sauté until softened, 5 to 10 minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until darker in color. Add the wine, stock, and tomatoes and bring to a simmer.
Transfer the mixture to a slow cooker along with the browned pork and the rose- mary, thyme, sage, and parsley.
Set the temperature to high and cook for 6 hours. Remove the herbs from the cooking liquid. Transfer the pork to a serving bowl. Using two forks, shred the meat into pieces.
If the cooking liquid is very thin, you can transfer it to a saucepan and reduce it over medium heat until thick or add more crushed tomatoes and cook the liquid down a bit. Serve with warm pappardelle.
Flatbread with Cherry Tomatoes (Serves 4 to 6)
This is a cocktail hour no-brainer — easy to make and serve, mainly because I don’t ever make the dough from scratch (I just buy the pizza dough at my local shop or buy it frozen, so there’s never any stress about making the base). It’s highlighted with tomato and rosemary, but you can add whatever herbs you like best to it. I will often serve it for lunch with a simple salad, too.
Pro Tip: When it came to cutting pizza or focaccia, my mom and aunts never used a knife or pizza cutting wheel. They always used a pair of scissors. It is the easiest and fastest way to get through a pie.
Ingredients
Extra-virgin olive oil, for the pan and for drizzling
1 pound (455 g) store-bought pizza dough
All-purpose flour, for dusting
8 ounces (225 g) cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
2 or more sprigs fresh rosemary, needles stripped off
1 white onion, thinly sliced (optional)
Flaky sea salt, such as Maldon
Steps
Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C).
Brush a quarter sheet pan or large rimmed baking sheet lightly with olive oil. With your fingertips, stretch out the dough on a lightly floured work surface, then transfer it to the oiled pan and stretch it out almost (but not quite) to the rim. Dimple it all over with your fingertips, then let the dough rest for about 10 minutes.
Drizzle olive oil all over the dough, then scatter the tomatoes, rosemary, and onion, if using, over the top. Sprinkle with flaky salt.
Bake until golden, about 20 minutes, or to your desired doneness.
Transfer the flatbread to a wire rack to cool slightly. Cut into bite-size squares and serve warm or at room temperature.
OBSESSIONS
I make a lot of my cookbook’s recipes in vintage cookware that I’ve found at flea markets, Salvation Army, and junk shops. I've always loved collecting vintage cookware—they are beautiful design objects as well as very good cooking vessels. Even the seemingly beater ones can be cleaned up and put to work in no time, just by giving the enamel a good scrub or adding bleach to a dull pan interior and letting the thing soak. They often come out as good as new. I avoid ones that have chipped enamel or severely burned interiors. Also, there's truly nothing better than finding somebody else’s well seasoned cast iron in an antique shop or a thrift store — all the work has been done for you, and when a cast iron has been perfectly seasoned over time, it’s essentially a non-stick pan that can also go directly into the broiler or oven.
I’ve been really lucky to find a lot of vintage Dansk and Scandinavian enamelware, as well as Le Creuset pieces, all in some great colors, just from digging around. And more often than not, these older pieces are also that much more attractive to take from stove to table. Start at your local Salvation Army, thrift, church shop or antique mall. My pro-tip is to search the thrift stores in the wealthiest neighborhoods first!
HAPPY HOUR
After a summer of clear drinks like martinis, it’s that time of year when I welcome brown spirits back into the rotation. Every October, as soon as I sense that little snap of cold in the air, I without hesitation kick off the season by making a ceremonial Manhattan, usually at the farm upstate. (My cold-weather flankers are an Old Fashioned or Vieux Carré, but the Manhattan will always lead the charge.)
Growing up, there was a lot of Canadian rye in my relatives’ homes, and the Manhattan was the one cocktail I’d seen them prepare the most. Anyone’s welcome to stir it over ice, but I prefer mine shaken like they made theirs, then served in a coupe glass with a peel of orange instead of a maraschino cherry — I just prefer the fragrance of orange with this drink. I’m sharing my recipe below, but if you’re in New York, I’d also encourage heading out and enjoying it at one of the many great bars I wrote about here. Any bartender at any decent bar should be able to get a Manhattan right—especially as compared to a Martini, there’s a little more wiggle room in what constitutes a good one.
Matt’s Manhattan
2 ounces (60 ml) rye
3/4 ounce (30 ml) sweet vermouth (I like Punt e Mes, Antica, or Dolin)
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
1 strip of orange peel, for garnish
Combine the rye, vermouth, and bitters in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well, then strain directly into a coupe. Garnish with the orange peel.
*Dear haters of the shaker. I know it gets cloudy during this method but it clears quickly and the drink is icey cold this way…the way I like it and my uncles did.
Coming-of-drinking-age during the late aughts cocktail boom, I was taught that stirring a Manhattan or Martini was what separated a bar that "knew what it was doing" from those that didn't. For years I took this as gospel, until the absolute perfection of a shaken Martini at J.G. Melon made me question it. Now I think I might finally be ready to throw out the book and shake the Manhattan, too.
I made the pork ragu last week. Also the sausages & chicken thighs. Both went over well in my house. Will be testing riffs on more recipes in the coming weeks!