BARBETTA’S ROASTED FRESH PEPPERS ALLA BAGNA CAUDA

SEASON 4, EPISODE 8

“The Summer Man”

After their first date at Jimmy’s LaGrange, where Chicken Kiev is the specialty of the house (see Chicken Kiev), Don Draper and Bethany Van Nuys visit a Benihana Steak House. This restaurant features a new fad in Japanese dining called teppanyaki where diners sit around a large cooking surface and watch the chef prepare their food in dramatic style (season 4, episode 5; “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”). Bethany complains that the setting isn’t very intimate, and the next time we see Don and Bethany out at dinner they are in the far cozier Barbetta.

Barbetta is the oldest restaurant in New York still owned by its founding family, the oldest Italian restaurant in the city, and the oldest restaurant in the Theater District. It is also the only restaurant in America to have been awarded landmark status by the prestigious Locali Storici d’Italia. Opened in 1906 by Sebastiano Maioglio, it is now owned by his daughter, Laura Maioglio.

If Bethany was looking for a more romantic and luxurious setting in which to charm Don than Benihana, this was it. Bethany is quite forward about wanting more from Don than the occasional dinner date, but he remains coy. They have one discomfiting moment at Barbetta when Betty and her second husband, Henry Francis, appear. But the evening is otherwise pleasant enough.

Each dish on Barbetta’s modern menu is noted with the year the dish was first served there. Barbetta owner Laura Maioglio was kind enough to share her recipe for an appetizer first served in 1962: Roasted Fresh Peppers alla Bagna Cauda. We don’t see what Don and Bethany have for a starter, but bagna cauda would have been a surefire way to warm up the evening.

Roasted Fresh Peppers alla Bagna Cauda is a variation on the full bagna cauda, a festive dish properly consumed with family and friends. Diners enjoy this dish by gathering around a table and dipping vegetables, principally cardoon, into the bagna cauda “sauce,” which is simmering in a central chafing dish. Bagna cauda evenings are traditional in Piemonte during fall and winter, especially on holiday eves. (Italy’s Piemonte region, the northwest region that borders France and Switzerland, is also known as the Piedmont.)

On the intimate cab ride home, it’s clear that Barbetta is what Bethany had in mind for a romantic dinner date with Don.

Roasted Fresh Peppers alla Bagna Cauda

COURTESY OF BARBETTA RESTAURANT, NEW YORK, NEW YORK

For the Bagna Cauda

8–12 anchovy filets

2–4 cloves of garlic

³⁄₄ cup olive oil

For the peppers

3 large red bell peppers

3 large orange bell peppers

3 large yellow bell peppers

¹⁄₄ cup olive oil (to brush over peppers)

For serving

Red leaf lettuce, for garnish (optional)

1. Soak anchovies in water to reduce salt. Strain, pat anchovies dry, and chop.
2. Cut garlic cloves into very thin slivers (adding more cloves will intensify the garlic taste of the Bagna Cauda). Pour olive oil into a heavy frying pan. Add anchovies and garlic and place over a very low heat. Cook, stirring, occasionally for 20–30 minutes. The Bagna Cauda is done when the anchovies have disintegrated. Set aside.
3. Preheat oven to broil. Cut each pepper in half lengthwise, remove the white ribs and all the seeds. Brush the peppers with olive oil and place in a baking pan, exterior skin side up. Place under high heat broiler for 5–7 minutes. Remove peppers from baking pan and place in another pan and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to cool. When peppers are cool enough to handle, remove the skin.
4. To serve, place 3 pieces of pepper interior side up (one of each color) on a large dinner plate. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the Bagna Cauda into each half pepper (at Barbetta, lettuce leaves are inserted between each slice of pepper). Serve at room temperature.

YIELD: 6 LARGE APPETIZER SERVINGS

THE ELEGANT MAIN DINING ROOM AT BARBETTA ON WEST 46TH STREET