Al Capone's Other Vault – His Stomach

Earlier this evening, after logging in a bit too late to identify a photo of a very young Al Capone in another thread, I decided to browse the Net and do a little reading about Big Al.

Then, I saw the following in a Wikipedia article:

Capone's signature dish was spaghetti and walnuts served cold.

Hmmm... Considering the grand lifestyle that Capone enjoyed (at least, until Alcatraz), I was a little surprised to read this. A very basic dish. And, served cold. (Like Revenge?)

Well, hot or cold, in short order I found some nice recipes; one is from the NY Times website by noted foodie, blogger, author and omnivore Mark Bittman:

**************************

January 26, 2009, 12:19 pm

Recipe of the Day: Pasta With Walnuts and Olive Oil

By MARK BITTMAN

This sauce transforms even plain dried pasta into an extremely satisfying vegetarian dish, showcasing the bittersweet taste, gritty texture and richness of the walnuts. Garlic is an essential component (of course).

Yield: 6 appetizer servings, or 3 to 4 main course servings

Time: 20 minutes

Summary

You can substitute pecans for the walnuts. Or you can make a sauce more like pesto by substituting basil for the parsley; fresh marjoram would also be delicious.

Ingredients

• 1 cup walnut or pecan halves
• 1/2 cup loosely packed parsley leaves, washed and dried
• 1 clove garlic
• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound linguine, spaghetti or other long pasta

Method

• 1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Meanwhile, combine nuts, parsley and garlic in a small food processor and turn machine on. (Or use a mortar and pestle.) Add oil gradually, using just enough so that mixture forms a creamy paste. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• 2. Cook pasta, stirring occasionally, until it is tender but not mushy. When it is ready, drain it, reserving a little cooking water. Toss with sauce. If mixture appears too thick, thin with a little more olive oil or some of the pasta cooking water.

Variations

• Pasta With Creamy Walnut Sauce: Omit garlic and olive oil. Combine nuts, parsley and a few small chunks of Parmesan (or about 1 cup coarsely grated Parmesan) and process as above. When mixture is grainy, transfer it to a bowl and combine with 3/4 cup creamy ricotta, heavy cream or half-and-half; mixture should be the consistency of creamed butter. Toss cooked pasta with sauce, thinning with cooking water as necessary. Serve, passing additional Parmesan at the table.

**************************

Another take on this dish can be found here:

Recipes We Would Die For

(I guess the vino and the baseball bat are optional. )

Think I may give this one a try. Strange to relate, but though I've heard of walnut sauces for a number of years, I've never actually gotten around to making one myself. Since I bought the necessary ingredients a little earlier this evening, I guess there's no time like the present to give it a shot (no pun intended).

Perhaps this is how "Big Al" got so big...

Signor V.

Sounds delicious, SV. Let us know how it comes out.

Sorry, but what language is that? I can't find a translation...

Anyway, interesting! Just today I bought a half pound of shelled walnuts to nibble on, but I don't think they'll last long enough for this recipe...

hey SV, did you ever make that, and if so how did it come out? i've been wanting to try a walnut pesto for a while now, just never got around to doing it and that recipe looks simple and has alot of wigle room for modifications to suite your particular tastes.(in my case alot more than 1 clove of garlic!)

To answer FF and SB, yes I did make the recipe (the Bittman version) the night it was posted. Since I am just one person, the amount was enough for two dinners. Here are my observations, so far:

First attempt: It definitely needs the salt and fresh-ground black pepper, because the walnut/parsley combination has a more subtle flavor than, say, a basil pesto. Yeah, I did increase the garlic, but only by a very small amount. I had some fresh shrimp ready to go, so I did not make the meal a vegetarian one. The shrimp helped, IMO. The problems were these: I used too much of the sauce on the pasta, and I should have added a bit more pasta water to the mixture than I did. The result was that the sauce was way too "heavy" for me - if you notice how much olive oil is in the recipe, then you can see the trouble on the horizon. Basically, around an hour or so after eating, my intestines declared all-out war. Even the grated cheese didn't prevent the conflagration.

Back to the drawing board...

Second attempt: I didn't really have to go too far, for there was still about one third of the sauce left in the refrigerator. I had used my blender to prepare the mixture, and I simply put everything into the refrigerator for a day or so, where it kept quite well. So, for the next try, I took the sauce out of cold storage and let it slowly return to room temperature. First off, I thought it needed a bit more salt for flavor, so I added some. It also needed substantially more pasta water than I used the first time, so I added more and blended everything together by pulsing the blender over and over until everything was "whipped" together. It now wasn't nearly as "heavy" as the first time around (when I had stirred in the water by hand), and I actually liked the texture of the sauce. Again, I topped everything with a generous sprinkling of grated cheese, but this time I served the pasta over a bed of chopped-up albacore tuna. Worked quite well, IMO. (And I didn't have to reach for the Alka-Seltzer, either!)

I am not a vegetarian, though I have no problem with those who are or with meat-free meals. But, I have to say that for me, for the pasta w/walnut sauce recipe to work as a main course, I would have to add something like shrimp, tuna, or some other kind of protein. Without them, I think the dish works better as an appetizer. But, again, that's just my (and my stomach's) opinion.

Before I forget: This is one recipe where the parsley absolutely must be fresh. Actually, I feel all the ingredients should be fresh in order for their true flavors to come through.

So, that's my adventure (and I lived to tell the tale... ).


Signor V.

Everything is cool with the recipe but the thing is i usualy put walnuts in deserts or any other sweet's,but gotta admit that i never tried a walnut sauce

Neither had I. What piqued my interest was that I had seen at least one cooking show on TV describe a walnut sauce recipe. I believe it was one of Lidia Bastianich's shows, but I can't remember which one. Anyway, what I remember is that a walnut sauce recipe is Italian, rather than Italian-American. I was curious; reading about Al Capone's liking this type of recipe finally swayed me enough to give it a go.

If anyone else on the GBB has experiences with walnut sauce(s), I would certainly like to see your recipes and hear your opinions.


Signor V.