Estela by Ignacio Mattos
with Gabe Ulla is one of my best books of
2018. Mattos is a culinary wizard who weaves flavors and
textures with simple ingredients to create brilliance. I was
fortunate enough to dine at the chef's New York restaurant, Estela,
last spring. It was the best meal I have ever eaten.
The Estela cookbook delivers
recipes for many of the restaurant's dishes. The 
endive salad (recipe below) was divine
and I replicated that salad last summer (photo right) for
a dinner party (adapting it slightly). It is a salad that makes all
other salads wilt in shame. I ate nearly half the platter
when I made it.
At the restaurant after sharing multiple small plates with my
dinner companions one of them chose a dessert for us, Panna cotta
with honey. I was less than pleased with the choice. When the
dessert arrived, I took a taste and would have gladly fought off my
two friends to finish the creamy, tangy perfection that is this
dish. I have not stopped thinking about it.
I have the Panna cotta setting up in the
refrigerator now (photo left). I have made the honey mixture and
purchased the bee pollen and cannot wait to share this dessert with
my family tonight. Each component tastes exactly as I remember, and
it will be a special treat to experience them all together
again.
Estela is a book (and a
restaurant) not to be missed. From the restaurant to the page, it
is an experience that must be enjoyed to understand its
brilliance. Having a meal there or recapturing a dish with the
assistance of this cookbook reinforces that a few simple
ingredients perfectly orchestrated can be exceptional. There
needn't be three dozen ingredients to create a masterpiece; there
just needs to be a maestro like Ignacio Mattos to lead the way.
Update: The finished Panna cotta is
extraordinary (photo right). Andrew, my son, has declared it "the
best thing you've ever made" (disclaimer he says that about a great
many things). He loved the vinegar tang and the perfect creaminess
of the panna cotta. I've decided this is my dinner for tonight.
Panna cotta can be dinner, no?
Special thanks to Ignacio Mattos and Artisan Books for sharing the
Endive recipe with our members today and for providing two copies
of this must have book in our giveaway below.
Endive
salad with walnuts and Ubriaco rosso
Add
this recipe to your Bookshelf (click the blue +Bookshelf
button).
It's fun to see people's reactions to this dish. At first
glance, it looks like just a pile of endive leaves. But I think
there's something really beautiful about it. The way to start is by
eating a few of the top leaves, little endive cups holding orange
juice and oil, and then begin filling the rest of them with the
absurdly delicious crouton-and-cheese mixture hidden below, sort of
like making your own taco.
Serves 4 to 6
For the Vinaigrette
- 2 garlic cloves
- 4 large anchovy fillets, rinsed and patted dry
- 2 tablespoons garnacha vinegar
- ¼ cup (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
- Cracked black pepper
For the Granola
- 1½ cups (50 g) ½-inch cubes of day-old sourdough (you want a
few pieces with some dark crust)
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt
- 1 cup (100 g) walnuts
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Chile flakes
- ⅓ cup (40 g) irregular pieces (¼- to ½-inch) Ubriaco Rosso
- Scant ⅓ cup (about 35 g) irregular pieces (¼- to ½-inch)
Pecorino Duro
For the Endives
- 4 endives
- Kosher salt
- 1 medium orange
- 1 tablespoon chardonnay vinegar
- Extra-virgin olive oil
Make the vinaigrette:
Pound the garlic cloves into a paste in a mortar with the
pestle. Add the anchovies and pound until everything is fairly
smooth but still slightly chunky. Add the vinegar, olive oil, and
cracked black pepper to taste and mix to combine. The idea is to
get a broken vinaigrette with pieces of anchovy still visible.
Make the granola:
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Put the bread cubes on a baking sheet and toss with a few
teaspoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt, then spread them out.
Spread the nuts out on a separate baking sheet. Toast the bread and
walnuts in the oven, tossing them every few minutes. Remove the
nuts once they are dark and well toasted, about 8 minutes. Remove
the bread once it's dark brown and toasted all the way through,
about 10 minutes.
While the nuts are still warm, put them in a mortar, add a
teaspoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt, a few generous cranks of
black pepper, and a pinch of chile flakes and crush them into
coarse chunks with the pestle. Using the bottom of a heavy pan,
crush the bread cubes into chunks between ¼ and ½ inch. (With each
component, you want a mix of textures and sizes.)
Combine the croutons, walnuts, and cheeses in a medium bowl.
Dress with the vinaigrette, mixing well. Let sit while you prepare
the endives so the croutons get a little softer and the flavors
come together.
Prepare the endives:
Cut an inch off the bottom of each endive and discard. Gently
peel back the leaves, continuing to trim the root as you go, until
you get to the core (it's the sweetest part of the endive). Cut
each core in half lengthwise, or into quarters if it's large, and
toss them into the bowl.
To serve, season the endives with a generous pinch of salt.
Grate the zest of the orange evenly over the top of the endives,
then halve the orange and squeeze the juice over the leaves. Add
the vinegar and gently toss the leaves to coat, as you don't want
them to bruise.
Spread the granola mixture evenly on two plates. Arrange the
endive leaves on top so that they make little cups for the
dressing. Sprinkle with salt, spoon on the orange juice mixture
left in the bottom of the bowl, and drizzle on a bit of olive
oil.
Excerpted from Estela by Ignacio Mattos (Artisan Books).
Copyright © 2018. Photographs by Marcus Nillson
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of this book to EYB Members in the US and
Canada. One of the entry options is to answer the
following question in the comments section of this blog post.
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