Spring Farro Salad

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• ½ lb asparagus, tough ends trimmed
• 1/3 lb grilled artichoke halves, roughly chopped
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt, more to taste
• 1.5  cups farro
• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar, more to taste
• 1 garlic clove, grated
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1/3 cup olive oil, more as needed
• 3 ounces feta cheese, LARGE crumbled 
• Fresh basil, torn or chopped

Instructions

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Toss asparagus with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread onto a baking sheet and roast for 13 minutes. Remove to cool, then cut into 2 inch pieces.

In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, garlic and pepper. Whisk in olive oil. To the bowl, add asparagus pieces, artichokes, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Set aside. 

In a medium pot, bring the honey and 3 ½ cups water and salt to a simmer. Add farro and simmer until water is absorbed and the farro is tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Add a little more water if needed while cooking. If there’s still liquid in the pot when the farro is done, drain it, then add the farro to the large bowl with dressing and vegetables.

Add feta crumbles and toss to mix well. Keep chilled. Improves in flavor over the next 3 days. Keeps for 6 days.

A taste of Italy, by way of Alaska. Combining multiple Caputo’s house favorites, this dish is all about simplicity, elevated. Enjoy fresh, Alaskan octopus from our friends at Wildfish Cannery, marinated in Bullwhip Hot Sauce from their neighbors at Barnacle, sitting atop perfectly seasoned beans. Take these flavors to the moon with a heathy drizzle of our favorite condiment grade olive oil from Italy: Viola Colleruita. This one was going to be kept a secret for our Culture Club subscribers, but it’s too damn tasty not to share. You’re welcome.

INGREDIENTS

• EVOO (for cooking)
• 4 cloves garlic (divided)
• 1/3lb cannelini beans, dried
• 2 medium lemons
• 1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
• Viola Colleruita (NOT for cooking – for dressing)
• 1 tin Wildfish Octopus in Barnacle Bullwhip Hot Sauce (2 tins if you love each other)
• Salt & Pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Soak your beans one of two ways:
   1. Soak beans for 12-24 hours before cooking in cold water
   2. Add beans to a medium pot and completely cover with cold water. Bring to a boil. Cover with lid and turn off heat. Let beans sit in the hot water for 1-2 hours.
2. Once beans are soaked and ready to cook, heat 2-3 tablespoons of cooking olive oil in a separate, medium pot.
3. Peel and smash two of the garlic cloves and add to oil in the medium pot, stirring occasionally until browned and fragrant.
4. Add beans and their liquid to the pot with garlic. Cover beans with more water if needed (you’ll want 2-3 more tablespoons than what covers the beans). Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a gentle simmer. This will ensure the beans don’t break in a rolling boil.
5. Skim off any bean scum, then add more cooking olive oil to create a layer above the simmering water. Now’s a great time to also add a couple pinches of salt, a few parsley sprigs, and any other ingredients you want to flavor your beans with. (We’re building some layers, here!) Suggestions: bay leaves, a charred lemon half, other herbs, peppercorns, etc.
6. Allow the beans to simmer for 30-45 minutes until tender. Be sure to test three beans before making your determinations – (never trust just one bean!). Once done, drain and discard (or save) your bean liquid. (People who save bean liquid for other soups or simmers go straight to Heaven!)
7. While the beans are still steaming, grate two garlic cloves directly into the bowl of beans and stir. Adding to hot beans will heat them just enough to remove the fresh bite, but still keep them quite flavorful.
8. Grate the zest of one lemon into the beans along with the juice of the same lemon. Add chopped parsley and season with salt, pepper, and a glug of Viola. Stir, taste, and adjust your seasoning. Set aside.
9. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat and crack open your tin of octopus. Add a tablespoon of cooking oil to the skillet and then the pieces of octopus. Save the juices from the tin! We’ll use those in just a moment!.
10. Allow the octopus to warm through and begin to brown. Remove after a few minutes, turn off the heat but leave the skillet in place, and cut any large pieces of octopus into bite sized chunks.
11. Take the skillet off heat and pour in the liquid from the tin, stirring frequently to allow the juices to thicken. Pick up any undesirable straggling bits of octopus.
12. Heap your delicious beans onto two plates, top with octopus, then pour the thickened juices over each bowl. Finish with another drizzle of Viola and lemon wedges.
13. Lastly, taste the vibrant flavors of this dish with friends or family – or keep it all to yourself!

It’s Fulvi week here at Caputo’s. We’re celebrating the centuries long tradition of Pecorino Romano cheese made from Roman sheep’s milk by highlighting the only true Roman pecorino available in the US – Genuine Fulvi. While Pecorino Romano is part of the noble list of legally protected cheeses in Italy, there is a surprising amount of latitude for production spanning from Sardinia and  Lazio as well as the province of Grosseto in Tuscany. The allowance of other regional milk not only makes the name less true, but it disregards the terroir of milk. We often reserve the use of the term for wine and, more recently, chocolate; however, cheese holds the same key environmental factors that affect a food item’s flavor from farming practices and specific growth habitat from the milk of the animals and the plant matter consumed to create that milk. With that in mind, Pecorino Romano Genuine Fulvi holds true to the name, place, and intrinsic flavor we believe people should know, taste, and enjoy. This is our chance to shed light on these practices and to celebrate the artisans producing the truest form of this more than 2,000 year old cheese making heritage.

Join us in our celebration of Genuine Fulvi by trying any of the Fulvi-centric specials at our Caputo’s locations, by creating your own traditional dishes like Cacio e Pepe and Carbonara, by enjoying this Spring with fresh fava beans just like the Romans do, or try my contribution to Fulvi week – a sweet, bitter, earthy, and very Fulvi salad.

A Very Fulvi, Very Italian Salad
Serves 4

• 1/2 cup walnut halves and pieces
• One head radicchio, core removed and roughly chopped
• One cup arugula
• 2 pears, D’anjou or Bosc, quartered, core removed, and thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup Honey Som Cane Cordial  
• 1/3 lb Pecorino Romano Genuine Fulvi
• Condiment grade olive oil (Viola, obvi)
• Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and toast walnuts on a baking sheet for 12-15 minutes. While the walnuts are toasting, mix radicchio, arugula, and pear slices in a large bowl. Sprinkle with a pinch or two of salt and mix with your hands to pre-season. Drizzle half of the Honey Som over the mixture and toss. Taste before adding more to ensure it suits your taste. Using a fine rasp grater, grate the Pecorino Romano Fulvi over your greens and pears. Add walnuts and toss to combine. Portion the mixture onto plates and finish with a drizzle of condiment olive oil and a fresh grind of black pepper. Serve immediately.

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I could feel the pie-anxiety sneaking up on me one chilly fall morning. Baking pies has never been my forte. I had a few hours to kill and some seasonal ingredients in the fridge begging to be used. I figured it was time to come up with what I intended to contribute to Thanksgiving dinner. As the baker in my family, a pie seemed to be the best option. I cracked open my favorite baking book for ideas and was almost immediately swayed away from making a pie, thank God! A gorgeous galette called my name from the first page I flipped to.

A galette is essentially a pie without the dish. Although this free-standing “pie” of sorts is not meant to hold your creamy pumpkin or other custard pie filling from your grandma’s recipe book, it never hurts to switch things up. It may even help you win the unspoken Thanksgiving cook off between relatives. A galette is best suited to be filled with more texturally diverse ingredients such as pieces of sautéed apples, pears, squash, or root veggies and served as a delightful hors d’oeuvre or dessert. It saves a dirty dish, and looks just as, if not more, impressive for the Thanksgiving table.

The pastry dough I used for this recipe is a bit more delicate than your average pie crust; therefore, it requires a more attentive process. As a result, the finished product has much less of a risk of a soggy bottom and is much flakier and easier to handle than a piece of pie. Don’t hesitate to use a pastry dough recipe that has always worked for you. This, or any galette, is versatile enough to be made using any pastry dough of your choosing.

The filling is a simple combination of caramelized onions, roasted squash, herbs, a little spice, and my favorite goat milk cheese, Chabrin! I used Caputo’s cave aged Chabrin Reserve. This Chabrin is aged an additional 6 months in our cheese caves, making a more delicate, fudgy version of its original French-basque version. This cheese lends the perfect amount of funk to the filling to balance out the sweetness from the squash and onions, without feeling like you’re getting kicked in the teeth by a goat in each bite. A young Chabrin would also be a wonderful alternative to the reserve, as well as any other mild goats cheese (or any funky cheese that suits your fancy).

This is perfect to serve before your Thanksgiving meal, or even just as a seasonal snack to share with friends or loved ones.

Chabrin, Squash, and Onion Galette
Serves 6-8

Tartine bakery’s Flaky Tart Dough
*recipe is halved from original version, to fit single galette

• 1 cup unsalted butter, very cold
• ½ cup water
• ¾ tsp salt
• 2 1/3 cup All-Purpose Flour

To make the dough, cut the butter into 1-inch cubes and put them in the freezer. Measure the water, dissolve the salt into it, and put it in freezer as well. Chill the butter and water for about 10 minutes.

Measure all of the flour onto your work surface. Spread the flour out into a rectangle about 1/3 inch deep. Scatter the butter cubes over the flour. Toss a little of the flour over the butter so that your rolling pin won’t stick and then begin rolling. When the butter starts flattening out into long, thin pieces, use a bench scraper to scoop up the sides of the rectangle so that it is again the size you started with. Repeat the rolling and scraping 3 or 4 times. Make a well in the center and pour all of the water into the well. Using the bench scraper, scoop the sides of the dough onto the center, cutting (mixing in with the bench scraper) the water into the dough. Keep scraping and cutting until the dough is a shaggy mass, and then shape the dough into a rectangle about 10×14 inches. Lightly dust the top with flour. Roll out the rectangle until it is half again as large and then scrape the top, bottom, and sides together again to the original size and reroll. Repeat 3 or 4 times until you have a smooth cohesive dough. You should have a neat rectangle measuring about 10×14 inches. Transfer the dough to a large baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and chill well, about 1 hour.

Filling

• 2 cups butternut squash, cut in ½ inch cubes
• 1 Tbs unsalted butter
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 large or 2 small sweet onions, cut into thin strips
• 1 tsp fresh sage
• 1 tsp fresh thyme
• 1/3 lb Chabrin Reserve cheese, grated
• salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbs water

Preheat oven to 350. While dough is chilling, toss butternut squash in olive oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, and roast on a lined sheet pan for 30 minutes, or until squash can be easily pierced with a fork.
While squash is roasting, melt butter in a pan, and add onions. Cook on medium-low heat for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once onions are half-way caramelized, season with salt and herbs. Add a tablespoon of water if needed.
Remove squash from oven and carefully combine with onions. When cool enough, fold in Chabrin (or cheese of choice), and season to taste.

Assembly

When dough has chilled, fold dough over itself 2-3 times and re-roll until you have a circle measuring about 14 inches in width. Transfer back to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and chill until firm, about 10 minutes. When chilled, fill the center of the dough with prepared filling, leaving 3-4 inches of dough to fold over filling.
Beat egg and 1 Tablespoon water, and lightly brush over the dough. Bake on a lined sheet pan 50-60 minutes, or until galette looks golden. Top with flaky seat salt of choice.

I have a cold. Or a sinus infection. Or maybe it’s allergies. I have symptoms pointing to all three possibilities and I’m bamboozled by my body’s ability to feel so ambiguously yucky. The weather is warming up, the skies are mostly clear, and I’m in bed with a box of tissues and a queue or Real Housewives reruns.

While the weather works out its springtime kinks, I’ll be working out the kinks in my sinuses. After all the vitamins, supplements, tea, and vegetables, I find myself aching for something more comforting and warm (read: pasta). On this eve of our upcoming Cheese Caves Week, a bowl of hot pasta sounds like the perfect thing to soothe my soul while I spend hours on WedMD self diagnosing.

This sick gal wants carbonara but is missing ingredients and has no energy to get to a grocery store. Said sick gal has loads of cheese in the fridge (after all, who do you think I am?) and a head full of either stubborn American ingenuity or enough muck to cloud my classic culinary judgments. A lovely chunk of Grotte Tartufo sat atop my pile of cheeses, begging to be grated atop my ‘kinda sorta’ carbonara. Grotte Tartufo doesn’t melt the way alpine style cheeses do and will rather wilt atop hot pasta rather than coat it. I began imagining a pure white iteration of carbonara and didn’t look back from there. This is how Grotte Tartufo met a partial Pasta Carbonara and how the working title was born. Friends, meet Tartufonara. Partially carbonara, but mostly carbonara technique applied to loads of cheese and pasta.

Use this recipe as a blank canvas and add other cheeses, spring vegetables, or not much else for your own (insert ingredient here)-onara. I felt better after a bowl of this, and I hope you do too.

Pasta Tartufonara
Serves 6-8

• kosher salt
• 1 lb bronze dye cut pasta (This isn’t a classic recipe, so there are no rules! We loved it on calamarata, but a long noodle like spaghetti would make this feel more traditional)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated
• 3 ounces Grotte Tartufo, roughly grated or chopped.

Bring a large part of water to a rolling boil and season with kosher salt. Add pasta and cook just past al dente. (The pasta will finish cooking as you toss with the sauce, but since this won’t happen over heat, we want the pasta to be just moments from being finished rather than minutes)

While pasta cooks, whisk eggs and Parmigiano in a large bowl until a pale yellow paste forms. When pasta in nearly ready to be pulled from the water, take a cup of pasta water from the pot and, while whisking the egg and Parm paste, slowly drizzle the pasta water into the paste. This will temper the egg so as not to become curds and help create a silky sauce. Remove pasta directly to the bowl with egg and cheese and toss to coat and finish cooking, adding more pasta water as needed. Just before serving, toss in Grotte Tartufo and any other ingredients you’d like to include (think blanched peas, chopped greens, or crispy prosciutto). Serve immediately.

This is the OG of the Caputo’s Cheese Caves. This oldie but goodie dates back to our early Cave days, and has only gotten better with age. After a minimum of 16 months in the Caves, Grotte Caputo emerges with the coveted amino acid crystallization, often referred to as “flavor crystals,” along with rich flavor and slightly crumbly (read: perfect table cheese) texture.

Constantly a crowd pleaser, Grotte Caputo is best described as a hybrid of piquant Asiago and a sweet, nutty 4 year-old Gouda, with notes of brown sugar, cream, grass and coffee.

Order yours here or stop by any of our Utah stores for a sample!