(uplifting music) - Today on "Cook's Country," Ashley makes Bridget seafood fra diavolo, I share the story behind
the name fra diavolo, Jack has tips on when to
splurge at the grocery store, and Christie makes salmon piccata. That's all right here on "Cook's Country." (cheerful music) (upbeat music) - Anytime you see a recipe
that ends with fra diavolo, you know you're in for a treat. You get linguine or spaghetti, all bathed in a seafood sauce that's spicy, briny, tomatoey, so good. Now, it can be a real
bear to make at home, and that's even if you're
not using bear, but seafood. (Ashley chuckling) And Ashley's here. She's going to show us a
great seafood fra diavolo that we can make a home. - Yes, absolutely, and best
of all, it's a one-pan recipe. - Awesome. - So it's definitely one of those recipes that I never really did think
to make it at home, right, because by the time I seek out
the seafood and prepare it, I feel like restaurants
would do it better, until I made this recipe. - Okay. - It is super packed with flavor, and it's very easy to put together. So naturally, let's
start with the seafood. I've got some scallops, some
shrimp, and some mussels. - [Bridget] Mm. - But these aren't just any scallops. These are what's called dry scallops. And I have 12 ounces here. The difference between
dry and wet scallops, the dry scallops have not been treated with chemical additives,
and the wet ones have. So if you do see a difference
at your seafood counter, you wanna make sure to get the dry ones. - [Bridget] Okay. - And these are a beautiful size. These are what's called the tendon. Other people call them
the foot. Same difference. It's just what attaches itself
to the interior of the shell. It can get tough, so what I like to do is, I like to just peel it off. And for this recipe, one of
the things I love about it is that everybody gets
a good amount of seafood in each bowl. And that's because we're
doing things like this, cutting the scallops in half crosswise. So there's no fighting in
my house over the scallops. All right, now I have 12
ounces of the scallops. I also have 12 ounces
of 21/25 shrimp here. And I've gone ahead and peeled, deveined, and taken the tails off of most
of them except for the two. So I'm gonna transfer them in here 'cause they're all gonna hang out together in the fridge in a little bit. - [Bridget] Okay, great. - Now, we have a few ways
of shelling, deveining, and peeling shrimp, but
one of my favorite ways is to use shrimp shears. - [Bridget] Very smart.
- [Ashley] Thank you. - [Bridget] Sometimes
you don't find any veins on your shrimp.
- [Ashley] Mm-hm. - [Bridget] But sometimes, jackpot. - Mm-hm, I just peeled off
the feet and the shell. Now, as I said, these are gonna hang out in
the fridge for a little bit. So what I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna add some oil, some garlic, and some salt. So that is two tablespoons
of extra virgin olive oil, three minced garlic cloves, and finally, 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Just toss it all together. All right, now let's talk about shellfish. - Show me your mussels, Ashley. (Ashley grunting)
Yes, there you go. - Some of them have been debearded
and cleaned and scrubbed, but a few of them, I wanted to show you just one of the beards
that have been left behind. - Yes. - So what you wanna do is,
just using a paring knife, holding this in your opposite hand, just go through and tug away that beard. - They're squeaking.
- I know. Now, especially with clams and mussels, if you do find that they
have opened up slightly in the fridge, try and give
'em a tap or try to close them. Give it a little time. Sometimes
it takes a little while. I need to make sure it is
still alive before we cook it. - [Bridget] Right. - [Ashley] So I'm gonna
just tap it gently. Hi. And if he's closing up slowly,
which it looks like he is, then he's good to keep. But if it stays open,
you wanna discard that because that means it's not alive and we don't wanna cook it.
- [Bridget] Great. - [Ashley] Now, we're gonna
add those in a little bit. - [Bridget] Okay. - But first, I'm going to
put our scallops and shrimp into the fridge until we're
ready to add them to our recipe. - [Bridget] Okay. - Now, I mentioned, it's a one-pan meal that we're building here today. So I'm gonna start to build the sauce in this beautiful Dutch oven right here. I have four tablespoons of extra
virgin olive oil heating up over medium heat.
- [Bridget] Okay. - [Ashley] And I'm gonna
add three anchovies. - [Bridget] Mm, that's
part of that savory. - Oh yeah, lots of
umami going on in there, and four minced garlic cloves. - All right. - I am gonna go in with a wooden spoon. Just break up the anchovies. And anchovies are one
of my favorite things to put in any kind of tomato sauce, even if there's no seafood, because it, as you said, gives
it a really great savoriness. And they also kinda just
disappear into the sauce. - They do. They almost dissolve. - [Ashley] So I'm gonna cook
this for about three minutes, until the garlic begins to brown. - [Bridget] Okay. - So you can see the garlic
is just beginning to brown. So now I'm gonna add three
tablespoons of some tomato paste and two teaspoons of dried
oregano and red pepper flakes, 'cause fra diavolo. - It's gotta have a little
fire to it. And how much? - Exactly. This is
actually 1 1/2 teaspoons. But if you don't love spice, you can back off on that a little bit. So I'm gonna cook this
for two more minutes, until the tomato paste starts to darken. So beautiful. - It just gets better and better. - Mm-hm, all right, so
that was two minutes. And as you can see, the tomato paste is
turning nice and dark red. And now I'm gonna add some white wine. I've got one cup of white wine. And I'm gonna first increase
the heat to medium-high, and we're gonna deglaze
the pan at this point, just going in there just to
kinda loosen up any brown bits that may have been at
the bottom of the pot. But I'm also gonna add our mussels. Again, that's one pound. Give it a good stir. And then I'm gonna cover
and cook the mussels until they open, which should
take three to four minutes. - [Bridget] Okay. - All right, let's check on the mussels. - [Both] Ooh! - Hey, we just said the same thing. Jinx. - Yes, we did. - [Ashley] You owe me some mussels. - [Bridget] Yeah, you owe me some mussels. (Ashley giggling)
Oh my goodness. - [Ashley] Mm-hm. - [Bridget] They're open and ready to go. - Ready to go. Now, if there are any mussels
in here that haven't opened, it's best to discard them 'cause that means they weren't
alive prior to cooking. Oh my goodness. So I'm going to add all
the mussels into this bowl. And we're gonna add
these back into the dish once we're closer to eating, 'cause they're already
cooked at this point. - [Bridget] Right. - Just gonna put a little
plastic on that to cover just so they stay warm. And now, one of my favorite tricks. We've got a 28-ounce can
of whole peeled tomatoes. I don't know about you, but
I have tried so many times to crush these by hand,
channeling my inner nonna. But I've always ended up with splatter, tomato splatter all over my walls. So what we're gonna do is, we're actually gonna
use this potato masher and go in there and mash
the tomatoes that way. - Very smart, and you're
using whole tomatoes here because it's the right ratio
of tomato solids to liquid, whereas if you buy a
can of crushed tomatoes, there's a lot more
solid tomatoes in there. - Absolutely, yep, and
then I have eight ounces of clam juice, which is
just gonna help reinstate that clam flavor. - Clamtastic. - Clamtastic, and finally, a
quarter teaspoon of more salt. - [Bridget] Okay. - So I'm gonna finish
mashing the tomatoes. And I'm gonna increase
the heat to medium-high. Bring this to a boil. All right, now I am
going to add our pasta. I have 12 ounces, not 1 pound,
12 ounces of linguine pasta. So I'm gonna add this
directly into the sauce. And then, using some tongs,
I'm just gonna go in there just to kind of get all
the noodles submerged. Now, you don't wanna cook the
pasta fully at this point. You wanna cook this about two minutes shy of what the cooking instructions
say to do on the box. (upbeat music) - The Italian name fra diavolo
translates as brother devil. It's a fitting name for a seafood dish known for its spiciness. The name is also a
reference to Michele Pezza, a ferocious Italian bandit who lived in the late 18th century. He earned the nickname Fra
Diavolo by terrorizing peasants in the Italian countryside. He was recruited by King Ferdinand IV to fight against the French
occupation of Naples. Later, he tried to organize
the resistance to Napoleon but was captured and executed. Over the years, Pezza's story
gained notoriety in America thanks to a popular opera. He was also celebrated by the
French writer Alexandre Dumas. Through these tales, Pezza was transformed from a ferocious villain to a folk hero. But while the dish is named
for an infamous Italian, seafood fra diavolo is actually an Italian-American invention
with roots in New York City. At "Cook's Country," our version of the dish
includes two kinds of chili to really punch up the heat. (upbeat music) - So we're about five minutes
into the cooking here. And you can see it needs
a little bit more liquid. So I have some hot water on
hand, and for this recipe, you wanna add about 1/2
cup of hot water at a time, 'cause you can always add more,
but you can never take away. And just make sure it's still
submerged in the liquid, 'cause as that pasta cooks,
the starch gets released, and then the sauce is gonna thicken. - [Bridget] Mm. - Now we're at that point,
two minutes shy of al dente. So you can see it does have
a little bit of pliability. So because the scallops and the shrimp are really quick cooking, we're gonna add them now at the end. And you know that the
scallops and shrimp are cooked when they turn opaque. - [Bridget] Okay. - Again, that'll be about
two to three minutes. We made it. - Oh, it looks beautiful. - Yeah.
- [Bridget] Mm. - [Ashley] I'm gonna add
just a few more things. I have a good amount of
chopped fresh parsley. It's 1/2 cup, and now
I have two tablespoons of chopped hot cherry peppers, plus a little bit of the brine. - Absolutely, it's definitely
part of fra diavolo. - Mm-hm, and our mussels from earlier. And then, if there's any juice
that is kind of collected at the bottom of the bowl,
don't leave any of it behind. All right, now turn that heat off 'cause everything is done
cooking at this point, yeah. - [Bridget] Ashley.
- I know. All right, lemme just taste
for seasoning real quick. Oh, ooh. - [Bridget] Literally,
my mouth is watering. - [Ashley] I'm gonna do
a little twirl for you. - [Bridget] A little food
stylist in action here. - [Ashley] Mm-hm. Do you say sca-lop or scah-lop? - [Bridget] Depends on
how much I paid for it. (Ashley giggling) - [Ashley] Ooh, you got a mussel. - [Bridget] (gasps) Yes, I do. (Bridget sniffing) - [Ashley] It smells like
an Italian restaurant here. (Bridget moans) - [Ashley] The best kind
of Italian restaurant. - [Bridget] The best kind. - Mm-hm, and a little
extra virgin olive oil to drizzle on top, along with a few more
crushed red pepper flakes. - [Bridget] Oh, right. This is stunning,
actually better than most of the fra diavolo dishes that I've had. - [Ashley] Mm-hm. - [Bridget] This is just gorgeous. All right, I am mirroring you. You're going for a scallop first. - Mm-hm. (scallop squishing) So tender. - [Bridget] Mm! - I mean, I barely used a spoon. I just need the side of a fork. - That was melt-in-your-mouth. - Yeah. - [Bridget] So tender. The pasta absorbed the sauce. - Totally, that extra bit of garlic. And it's not raw, even though
we did stir it in at the end with the shrimp and with the scallops. - Not raw at all. - It's completely transformed. - [Bridget] I'm gonna go for a muscle. - [Ashley] Yeah, me too. Mm.
- [Bridget] Gorgeous. - [Ashley] This is so delicious. The acidity, too, (sighs) from the brine and the cherry peppers that
we stirred in at the end. - Mm-hm! This is a very, very
special seafood fra diavolo. - [Ashley] Mm-hm. - And this special person
made it for me, so thank you. - Thank you. - If you want to try this
absolutely gorgeous seafood dish at home, toss shrimp and
scallops with garlic, stagger the cooking of the seafood, and cook the pasta right in the sauce. So from "Cook's Country",
the very best thing to come out of one pot,
seafood fra diavolo. (upbeat music) - I know you think I like fancy foods, and I'm guilty as charged. But sometimes you really
do need to spend more money in order to get a quality product. So let me share some examples with you. First off, Parmigiano Reggiano. Now, other cheeses labeled Parmesan have two main differences. One, Parmigiano Reggiano
uses raw, unpasteurized milk. And when they pasteurize the milk, which is how Parmesan is made elsewhere, basically, you get rid of
all the flavor of the milk. It's terrible. The other thing is, they're
not aged merely long enough. You can actually see the
aging in this cheese. There are all of these crystals here that are indicating that
it's aged at least 12 months. Honestly, I look for the 24 month, although 12 month is
totally fine for aging. Second cheese here,
another Italian favorite, Pecorino Romano. Now, a lot of Romano cheeses, pretty much all of them, actually,
are made with cow's milk. The real deal is made with sheep's milk. Pecora is the word for sheep in Italian. It really must be made with sheep's milk in order to have the real
gamey piquant flavor. When it comes to orange juice, fresh squeezed is always the best, but honestly, I'm never gonna do that at seven in the morning. The problem is, most
supermarket orange juices don't have much flavor. That is, until we did a tasting
and we discovered Natalie's. It tastes like
fresh-squeezed orange juice. And that's because it's squeezed and shipped pretty much immediately. A lot of the supermarket
juices, they squeeze the juice and hold it in tanks for months or years and then add all kinds of tricks to make it taste somewhat
like fresh juice. Why not just start with
something that's actually fresh? And more importantly, it is pasteurized at lower temperatures for less time, so it's got more fresh flavor. Yes, it will not last as
long in the supermarket, so it's got a shelf life of
weeks rather than months. But it's so delicious, it's not going to last
that long in your fridge. In tastings of their lemonade
and grapefruit juice, they won both of those
tastings for the same reason. It just tastes like fresh-squeezed juice. Next up, let's talk about syrup. And honestly, I'm not gonna
talk about pancake syrup 'cause it's not worth eating. I mean, maple syrup, the real deal. It is much more expensive,
but it's much more delicious. Now, I will tell you, any maple syrup, you can buy the cheapest one you can find. They all are delicious. Probably, the most
important thing is to look for either the words dark
or very dark on the label. I think those have the most flavor as opposed to golden or amber. Finally, some good news for those of you who want to save some pennies, and actually, it's more like dollars, totally fine to buy
imitation vanilla extract. No one, including the people
here in the Test Kitchen, is gonna be able to tell the difference in a cookie or a cake if
you use imitation extract. And all of the dollars that you save on buying cheaper extract,
you can spend on better syrup, better juice, and better cheese. (upbeat music) - Today, I'm making roasted
garlic Parmesan bread. You have to start by roasting garlic. To do that, you wanna take
off any of that loose, papery skin on its outside. Next, I wanna expose the cloves, so I'm gonna cut off just
the top part of the garlic. Here, I've got some foil
that I put in a wire rack, which is in a baking sheet. Put the garlic heads on top of that and then drizzle it with some oil and sprinkle with a good amount of salt. Next, I'm gonna crimp the
foil all around this garlic and make sure it's nice
and tightly sealed. Roast it in a 400-degree oven
for about an hour and a half. Can you smell it? Let the garlic cool 30 minutes, and then it's time to make the bread. I just need one head for this recipe, so I'm gonna squeeze out
the cloves from this one, and then I'll save this other
garlic for something else. Mash the garlic with softened
butter, Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper
until nice and smooth. I'm using Italian bread here. And I just need to cut it in half and smear that butter mixture evenly on the cut sides of the bread. Now I'm gonna bake the bread
until it's nice and golden at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Time to cut each slice into eight pieces. It's so crispy and golden. Delicious and warm roasted
garlic Parmesan bread. Some marinara sauce wouldn't hurt. (upbeat music) - Piccata is a classic Italian
sauce made with lemon juice, white wine, and capers,
and it packs a punch. Now, traditionally, piccata is served with cutlets of chicken or veal. But today, Christie's gonna
show us something new. - We are using salmon. The great thing about salmon, in addition to the fact that
it just tastes fantastic, is that we don't have
to slice it or pound it to make it cook quickly. All we have to do is remove the skin. I have a two-pound
center-cut piece of salmon. It's about 1 1/2 inches thick. It's really gorgeous. Now, you can certainly purchase salmon that's already skinless or
ask your fishmonger to do it, but it's really easy to do yourself. - Okay. - So I'll start with a corner. If you had a longer piece,
you'd start near the tail. Now, you're going to skin the
salmon underneath the flesh, which might seem counterintuitive, but it's really the easiest way to do it. - [Julia] Okay. - I'm just gonna kinda
scrape to get myself started. And then I'm gonna take a paper
towel to hold onto the skin. - [Julia] Yeah, that's slippery. - [Christie] It's very slippery. Now, I'm going to basically skim my knife underneath the flesh, almost
skimming it off the skin. - [Julia] Okay. - [Christie] Doesn't really
require a lot of force, but you wanna try to keep your
knife as flat as possible, kinda pointing down. Once you kinda get the
other corner liberated, I'll grab that skin and
just keep my knife flat and work along the bottom. - [Julia] Now, why's it so important to take the skin off here? - Because it's going
to affect the cooking. It's a really cool cooking method, and we need to be able to have
heat penetrate on both sides. - [Julia] Okay. - [Christie] So as you can
see, it did not come off in one perfect piece.
- Nicely done. - [Christie] Sometimes it,
you know, takes a little work, but we've got the skin off. So I'm really just gonna
eyeball this halfway. We want four pieces. - [Julia] Those are four beautiful pieces. - (laughing) It's really a
gorgeous piece of salmon. Okay, now we are going
to sear the salmon first, so I wanna get it nice and dry. So I'll pat it dry with paper towels. Now I'm going to season it. I have 1/2 teaspoon of salt
and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. So we'll season it well. Now, I'm going to get cleaned up- (Julia laughing)
Before we proceed. - [Julia] Sounds good. - Julia, I have a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil heating up in a 12-inch nonstick
skillet on medium-high heat till it's just smoking. We want it nice and hot 'cause we're going to sear
these presentation side down. So this flesh side, not the skin side, is gonna go face down in the pan. (oil sizzling) Are you ready?
- [Julia] I'm ready. (laughing) That was pretty wild. - The cool part of this recipe is, we're going to let the
salmon steam in the moisture that it releases as it cooks. So we wanted to get a
really nice, hot skillet, brown that presentation side. We're going to cover it and let it cook for about five minutes, until
it steams from the top down. - So you don't have to flip the salmon halfway through cooking. It's gonna cook evenly just like that. - Yes. - Now I understand why
you took the skin off, 'cause if skin was on, it would
interrupt the even cooking. - Right, so this is gonna
cook for about five minutes to get us to medium rare, which is 125. If you like to cook it
to more like medium, 135, you'll need to go closer to seven minutes. - [Julia] Okay. - [Christie] Well, it's been five minutes. (oil bubbling) - [Julia] It's a very cool technique. - [Christie] Isn't it?
- [Julia] Yeah. - [Christie] So we wanna check the temp. Remember, we were looking
for a medium rare. - [Julia] Yes, please. - [Christie] So this is 126. - [Julia] Perfect.
- I'm good with that. - [Julia] Yeah. Oh, Christie, that is beautiful! Look at that sear! - [Christie] It's really
such a cool technique. They're not done yet. We
need to make the piccata now. - [Julia] That's right.
- Right? So I still have a nice, hot
pan with some fat in it. I have my heat turned down to medium now, and everything's gonna come
together really quickly at this point. So notice I have all my ingredients out. We've got our serving plates. - [Julia] Mm-hm. - You gotta go with it
once you get started. - [Julia] I like how quick this is. - Super quick. So I have three garlic cloves
that I've sliced thinly. And we're just giving these
a kiss, about 30 seconds. (Julia chuckling) We just want them to
get a little bit golden. Basically, once you can smell them, you know that they're
pretty much ready to go. - [Julia] Oh, it smells good. - And some key ingredients. Now I have two teaspoons of flour. - [Julia] Mm. - Now, we know that
oftentimes with piccata, you flour the chicken
or you flour the veal. And that flour kinda
sloughs off into the sauce and thickens it. Well, we didn't do that. So I'm just gonna add flour
directly to the skillet and stir it around just
to kinda get it coated with some oil. Now we'll add our liquid, so this is an acidic, bright sauce. - [Julia] Mm-hm. - [Christie] I have 1/2
cup of dry white wine. (wine sizzling) I'll cut that with 1/4 cup of water. And then classic elements,
we've got lemon and capers. - [Julia] Mm-hm.
- [Christie] Two tablespoons of capers that I've already rinsed, a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. - [Julia] Mm-hm. - But even more importantly, a teaspoon of grated lemon zest. - Nice, so you get the lemon flavor without that harsh, acidic bite. - Right. And 1/2 teaspoon of salt
and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. We're just gonna whisk
this, bring it to a boil, maybe 30 seconds. And you can see it's
really coming together and visibly thickening. Okay, once that happens,
we can turn off the heat. Now we'll add a little enrichment. (Julia chuckling) I have four tablespoons
of unsalted butter. Cut it into pieces. We're gonna add these one
at a time off the heat. Whisk each one in. - [Julia] Mm-hm. - [Christie] Okay, last piece in. (groans) This smells so good, doesn't it? - [Julia] It looks delicious. - Now, with classic piccata, you'd use parsley as a
fresh note at the end. But to kinda marry classic
piccata and salmon piccata, we're gonna use some fresh dill. - [Julia] Oh, nice! - [Christie] This is three tablespoons of chopped fresh dill. And that's such a classic
pairing with salmon. - [Julia] Mm-hm. - [Christie] The final act,
we're gonna piccata the salmon. - [Julia] Oh, that looks pretty. - [Christie] You almost
don't wanna cover up that gorgeous brown side. - [Julia] No, don't cover it all up. (Christie laughing) Christie, this looks delicious. - [Christie] I am so excited to dig in. - [Julia] Mm-hm. - [Christie] May I sauce you? - [Julia] Yes. I thought you'd never ask. (both laughing) Oh, the lemon, and I smell the dill. - [Christie] Well, wait till you taste it. - [Julia] Can't wait. I'm
going right for the center. Perfectly cooked, just how I like it. - [Christie] It's just that contrast between that crusty outside
and the super tender inside. - [Julia] Mm-hm. - [Christie] Mm. - Mm! That's delicious. The punchiness of that piccata sauce really cuts through the salmon. - [Christie] Even though
we put butter in the sauce, it still is so bright and sharp
that it doesn't feel heavy. - And I'm impressed with how
quick this came together. This is perfect for a midweek dinner. - [Christie] Mm-hm, you can't
snooze. There's no time. (Julia laughing)
You have to be on your game. (Christie laughing) - Christie, this is a
lovely take on piccata. Thank you. - No, my pleasure. - So if you wanna give
salmon piccata a try, start by using skinless salmon. Cook the fish in a covered skillet and simmer the piccata
sauce for just 30 seconds to preserve the lemon zippy flavor. From "Cook's Country," a brand new recipe for salmon piccata. You can find this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with select episodes
and product reviews, at our website, CooksCountry.com/tv. (forks clinking) I'm definitely gonna
make this for the family. (Christie laughing) Thanks for watching "Cook's Country From
America's Test Kitchen." So what'd you think? - Leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make. Or just say hi. - Now, you can find links to
today's recipes and reviews in the video description. - And don't forget to
subscribe to our channel. - See you later. - Alligator. (both chuckling)
