MAKES 4 CUPS
When our grandfather wasn’t cookin’ or bottlin’ sauce or picklin’ eggplant, he was makin’ bread crumbs. He was big on making his own because he thought it was better for his meatballs. He was good friends with the guys down at Melone & Sons Bakery in Staten Island—an institution to this day, even though our grandfather would joke that their bread was only good half the time because Bobby Melone was only half Italian. But they really did make delicious bread. He’d go down there on Sunday and they’d give him all the bread they didn’t sell. Then he’d cut it into cubes, dry it out in the sun, season it with grated cheese, salt, pepper, and parsley; ziplock it up; and give a bag to everybody to take home after they came over to eat. When Sal was in college in Florida and our grandpa had moved out there, he always sent Sal home from his visits with a bag so Sal could make some decent meals in the dorms. In fact, every weekend Sal would cook Sunday dinner for everybody because he was the only Italian kid. That bag of bread crumbs would last him all semester—it was like gold.
4 cups unseasoned bread crumbs, made using our grandfather’s method or store-bought
1 cup grated pecorino
3 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons dried parsley
2 tablespoons black pepper
2 tablespoons granulated garlic
In a large bowl, toss all the ingredients together and combine well. These’ll keep in an airtight bag for years.
WITH RICOTTA AND SECRET BREAD CRUMBS
SERVES 6
Most people, when they make stuffed mushrooms, they take the stem out, chop it up, and mix it with onions and bread crumbs to make a stuffing. But us? We think we can do better. First, we take the stem out and put a scoop of ricotta right in there with some pecorino and heap our Secret Bread Crumbs (here) over the top. Then we put a little oil and garlic and a shot of white wine in the pan with the mushrooms, so the mushrooms get nice and flavorful when they cook. And we cook ’em in a nice, hot oven so the mushrooms don’t get all dried out. Instead, in just a few minutes they get a little crispy, but still have some body to them. It’s no wonder these are so famous at Artichoke.
24 cremini mushrooms
16 ounces ricotta cheese, or cream cheese, if you want to change it up a bit
½ cup grated pecorino
1 batch Secret Bread Crumbs (recipe on here)
1 cup chicken stock
½ cup olive oil
1 cup white wine, preferably Chardonnay
½ bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves and stems chopped
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
Preheat the oven to broil.
Scoop out the stems from the mushroom caps and fill each mushroom with a heaping teaspoon of ricotta and a good pinch of pecorino. Then, top each mushroom with a dollop of Secret Bread Crumbs.
Arrange the mushrooms, with the filling facing up, in a shallow baking pan. Pour in the chicken stock, olive oil, and wine and sprinkle with the parsley, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Broil the mushrooms for 10 to 15 minutes, or until they’re golden brown.
MAKES ABOUT 6 CUPS
In the restaurant, we always had two types of bread crumbs. The first kind was dry bread crumbs—ground up old bread, grated cheese, dried parsley, salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. You’d use them to bread cutlets or shrimp or eggplant. But if you wanted to stuff things like fish oreganata, chicken oreganata, peppers, or mushrooms, then you’d use these, which were Grandma Maria Basille’s creation. First, you add your fresh garlic, your grated cheese, your olive oil, your salt, your pepper. Then, you add the secret ingredient: a couple of scoops of sauce. Ta-da! It gives you a little bit of moisture without making the crumbs greasy, which makes a world of difference. Everybody’s always askin’ us how we get our bread crumbs that pretty orange color, and we’re always sayin’, “Sorry, we just can’t tell you.” But now we’re tellin’ you.
4 cups unseasoned bread crumbs, made using our grandfather’s method (here) or store-bought
2 cups grated pecorino
2 cups Cooked Sauce (here)
1 cup olive oil
¼ cup salt
1 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves and stems chopped
¼ cup chopped pignoli nuts
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons black pepper
In a large bowl, toss all the ingredients together and combine well. These’ll keep, covered, in the fridge for about a week.