In a list of the top ten meals I have ever eaten, at least seven of them would be from NYC. Let's see...there is S'MAC (which serves nothing but Mac and Cheese), an Afghanistan Restaurant on the upper east side (I still dream about their hummus), the famous Halal Food Cart outside of Rockefeller Center (I don't know what they put in that white sauce, but it's amazing), the best burger I've ever eaten from The Burger Joint , the best milk shake I have ever had, from The Shake Shack, and there are not even words that could adequately describe how good a lobster roll from The Red Hook Lobster Truck is.
But, above all, the best Italian food I've ever had, in my entire life, is from this little family owned Italian place called Enzo's right by Prospect Park in Brooklyn. And it's not that they do one thing well, it's ALL insanely good. Their pizza, lasagna, salad, tortellini, ravioli, it's all just amazing.
So when the staff and students from the Tribeca 2012 Summer Project got together for a reunion this past weekend, we figured, what better way to remember our time than by recreating some of our favorite foods, namely, the Pasta Alla Vodka from Enzo's. It's only a secret family recipe that has been perfected over a span of 50 years...it can't be that hard to duplicate for 25 people...right?
And because I am such an organized, detail oriented person (read that as sarcasm), I've decided to walk you through the process, so you too can enjoy the chaos that was this past Saturday as well.
First things first...grocery shopping for everything you might need.
(The fact that we had, not one, but TWO, turkey pans to put the pasta in should have been our first indicator that we grossly overestimated how much food we should actually be making.)
Step Two: Chop five large onions.
(Hint: If your chopped onions only fit in the largest bowl the kitchen has, you may be making too much.)
Step Three: Make pepper infused vodka. WHAT!?!?!?! First off...it may be a little naive, but did anyone else know there was vodka in Penne Alla Vodka? Next your going to be telling me there are actually eggs in Eggnog. The directions said to let the pepper flakes marinate for seven days. We only had about three hours. Oh well...here goes nothing. Like I said...this is more Pintrocity than Pinterest pin.
(The pepper flakes marinating)
Step Four: Stir all of the ingredients together in the largest pot you can imagine. Minus the pepper infused vodka of course. That's still marinating because you are trying to squeeze every second out of that two hours you allotted for it to sit (again I say..."oops").
This would be a good time to mention that if you quadruple a recipe you should probably quadruple the time as well. This was supposed to simmer for thirty minutes until the liquid was gone. TWO HOURS LATER and we were finally ready to move on.
(This picture was taken as soon as we started stirring. If I had known I would be sitting here for another hour and a half, I probably would have spaced out my picture taking, as well as done some major arm exercises to prepare for all the stirring. I wonder if CrossFit has a "cooking preparation" class I could look into?)
Step Five: Drain the pepper infused Vodka, and mix into the sauce to cook down a bit. Don't have a strainer you say? Don't worry, coffee filters work in a pinch. Martha Stewart...if at any point in time you find yourself reading this blog...now would be a good time to look away.
(I felt a little like McGyver or Bear Grills substituting my coffee filter for a strainer.)
Step Six: Mix the rest of the ingredients together and give it a taste. You will immediately want to add more salt, and don't worry...if worse comes to worse...cheese makes everything taste better.
Now, I mentioned before that we may have over cooked by a bit. This is a picture of the pasta before we started eating.
And this is a picture after 25 people had eaten so much we could barely stand. Note to self...never times a recipe by five unless you are literally feeding an army of teenage boys going through a growth spurt.
Step Seven: Since you have just spent a total of three hours cooking pasta that could be, at best, considered eatable, send in the boys to clean the kitchen.
This foray into baking may not be considered a complete success, but that's not really what the Year of Do is about is it. It's about taking risks and trying things I normally wouldn't. Let's consider this one a cooking Semi-success (That may be too generous), but a Year of Do total success!
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