Chef Scott Conant - Recipes (2024)

COOKBOOKS

- New Italian Cooking [buy it]

- Bold Italian [buy it]

RECOMMENDED BY

- Chef Jimmy Bradley, The Harrison & The Red Cat

- Chef Chris Santos, The Stanton Social & Beauty and Essex

- Chef Rebecca Weitzman, Thistle Hill Tavern

RECOMMENDATIONS

Scott Conant’s recommendations for restaurants in New York, Brooklyn, Miami, Las Vegas, Toronto, Italy and Hong Kong, as well as for drinks, pastas and knives.

Chef Scott Conant - Recipes

WHAT

Recipe for Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce and Stracci with Seafood from chef Scott Conant.

- Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce

- Stracci with Seafood

PRINTER FRIENDLY | SHARE ON FACEBOOK | TWEET

Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce

Courtesy of chef Scott Conant

One of Scott Conant’s signature dishes.

Spaghetti Sauce with Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce

Photo Credit: Christopher Villano

Yield

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

- 2.5 pounds ripe plum tomatoes (about 20)

- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

- Pinch red pepper flakes

- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

- 1 pound spaghetti, preferably alla chitarra or another artisanal cut

- 6 large basil leaves

- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

- 2 tablespoon freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus additional for serving, if desired

Directions

1) Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Have a large bowl of ice water ready near the stove. Cut a small “X” in the bottom of each tomato. Ease 5 of the tomatoes into the boiling water; scoop them out and transfer them to the ice water after 15 seconds. Repeat this with the rest of the tomatoes. Starting with the X, peel the skin off each tomato and cut away the core. Cut each tomato in half lengthwise and use your fingers to flick out the seeds.

2) Heat 5 tablespoons of the oil in a wide saucepan. Add the tomatoes and red pepper flakes and season with salt and pepper. Once the tomatoes have started to soften, after about 10 minutes, mash them with a potato masher. If you don’t have a potato masher, you’d be surprised how well pounding them with the bottom of a sturdy coffee mug works. Cook the tomatoes another 15 to 20 minutes, until they’re tender and the sauce has thickened. Set them aside.

3) Bring 4 to 5 quarts of well-salted water to a boil in a large pot and add the spaghetti. While the spaghetti cooks, stack the basil leaves, roll them up tightly and use a sharp knife to slice and roll into fine shreds, making a chiffonade. Set the basil aside. Gently reheat the sauce and check the seasonings.

4) Cook the spaghetti until al dente, 7 to 8 minutes, then drain, reserving about a half-cup of the cooking water. Add the pasta and the remaining oil to the sauce and toss gently with a couple of wooden spoons so you don’t break the pasta, using a generous motion, until the pasta is well-coated. If necessary, moisten the spaghetti with some of the reserved cooking water. Add the butter, grated cheese, and basil chiffonade, toss again, and serve at once.

Stracci with Seafood

Courtesy of chef Scott Conant

Stracci pasta (translated to rag) are cooked in clam juice and leek sauce which is made from leeks, shallots, chicken stock and extra virgin olive oil. Sliced garlic and scallion are sweated then deglazed with the shellfish stock. Leek sauce is then added. The dish is finished with a mixture of seafood, little neck clams, razor clams, mussels, rock shrimp. It is then finished with a chiffonade of parsley. Once plated, the dish is topped with a bottarga breadcrumb mixture (bottarga is dried fish roe from either tuna or mullet, we use mullet bottarga).

Yield

Serves 2

Ingredients

- 19 pieces of Stracci

- 2 oz. shellfish liquid

- 2 oz. leek sauce

- 5 shucked clams

- 5 shucked mussels

- 1 tablespoon razor clam diamonds

- 8 marinated rock shrimp

- 2 tablespoon leeks, diced and cooked

- 1 teaspoon shaved garlic

- 1 tablespoon sliced scallions (on the bias)

- 1 tablespoon parsley (chiffonade)

- 2 tablespoon botarga breadcrumbs

- 1 tablespoon tomato dice

Leek Sauce

- 2 quarts leeks

- 6 cloves garlic

- 1 quart zucchini bodies (no skin)

- 1.5 quart vegetable stock

- 1 - 1.5 cups extra virgin olive oil

- Thyme, to taste

- Peperoncino, to taste

- Salt, to taste

Directions

Leek Sauce

1) Sweat leeks and garlic, no color.

2) Season with salt, peperocino and thyme.

3) Add zucchini bodies, sweat.

4) Deglaze with vegetable stock, bring to boil.

5) Simmer until fully cooked, 30 minutes.

Chef Scott Conant - Recipes (2024)

References