Off the Bone

One of my first introductions to Italian cuisine took place in the Boston North End, where Tse Wei and I, both college freshmen, had a still slightly nervous but very romantic dinner. I had pasta in the shape of wide ribbons, with a creamy sauce and flakes of salmon. We were on the second floor of a small restaurant on the very edge of the neighborhood, and starry blue sky was painted on the ceiling, and I remember being a little concerned about twirling my noodles around the twines of the fork properly. But it was love at first sight. The pasta, I mean. Rich and tender and flavorful, with a delicate bite to the noodles, and a savory melting flakes of salmon, and probably some herbs, I don’t remember.

It was entirely different from the pasta I grew up with, which was served as simple side dish to meat, rarely dressed in anything more elaborate than a bit of butter, unless it’s cooked “fleet-style” - tossed with a bit of ground meet fried with onions. That was the dish that caused the sailor revolt on Battleship Potemkin - admittedly, because the meat was infested by maggots.

I cook pasta a lot now, but almost always with tomato-based sauces, wet and drippy. So I decided to explore other alternatives, with the capable guidance of Ms. Marcella Hazan, and came across a chicken liver sauce. I love chicken liver. According to Ms. Hazan, Italians tend to cook it with butter, sage, and white wine - although there are probably regional variations. All these things are present in the sauce recipe - along with some ground beef, pancetta or proscuitto (I actually used hog jowl that Tse Wei kindly brought from New York), shallots and garlic, and a bit of tomato paste. It is a lovely recipe, and a pleasure to make. Have your guests in the kitchen, as the smell of onions, garlic and sage sizzling in butter is mouthwatering.

The quantities in the recipe were not quite sufficient for the four people I tried to feed, so it’s been adapted a little.

1/2 lb chicken livers, washed, dried, with stringy and fatty bits removed, cut in four pieces
1/2 lb ground beef
a rather small handful of cubed pancetta, prosciutto, or hog jowl
half a small onion, or a couple of smallish shallots, chopped
one medium garlic clove, minced
6-7 sage leaves, whole
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
a heaping teaspoon of tomato paste, dissolved in 1/3 cup dry white wine

Sautee onion or shallots in the butter and olive oil mixture until translucent. Add garlic. When the garlic is fragrant, add pancetta. Toss in the sage, and enjoy the smell wafting from your pan.

Turn up the heat to medium-high, add ground beef, break it up with a spatula, and cook until it loses its raw color. Salt and pepper.

Add the livers, cook until they also lose the raw pink color.

Add the mixture of wine and tomato paste, and cook 5-8 minutes, stirring a few times. Taste and correct for salt, and toss with pasta.

If you cannot be bothered to cook pasta or would like a lighter dinner, spoon the hot sauce over a fresh chopped tomato in a bowl.