Tagliatelle with Caramelized Oranges and Almonds

 

Sometimes recipes are like earworms. You hear something and you just can’t let it go. It’s always there, lurking in your brain, telling you to take it out and play with it.

Well, sometime during the winter of 2009, I was driving home from church on a Sunday too cold and dreary to want to go out to eat. Typically church and eating out go together like some Pavlovian desire, or more specifically like peas and carrots.

And there on our public radio station WPLN (yes that’s a plug for terrestrial media destined for the public good) was Lynne Rosetta Kasper of Splendid Table. Some people swoon over Car Talk or Fresh Air but for me it’s Splendid Table, the most sensual radio show on air. Kasper was talking about the most unusual pasta dish that she had ever tasted and she was making it with Joshua Bell, the virtuoso violinist. She said it was an authentic 16th century Italian tagliatelle dish served for the most special of occasions – either as a side dish to meat or poultry – or even for dessert. And yes, it has sugar in it, as well as cinnamon, almonds and oranges. I was hooked. Not only did the dish sound great, but that Joshua Bell was someone I wanted to meet, cook with and have a glass of wine with. I could see us in some warm Italian landscape, maybe Fiosele, at a roadside café with that dappled Italian light, with a view of Florence, each of us making light-hearted sophisticated conversation about the best Parmesan Reggianos and the perfect wine to supplement this Renaissance dish. Maybe his most recent album. I would have licked the radio if I had thought it would have brought me closer to them and that dish.

Putting my tongue back in my mouth, I hurried in the house, found the recipe online and saved it to my desktop, just waiting for the special occasion. Lunch Bunch at work? Hardly. Not enough time and definitely no wine to share with such a sublime meal. A weekend meal? Maybe but it would need friends to accompany it. People who could appreciate the subtle simple beauty of the dish. Everytime I turned on my laptop, there is was, staring at me. I had to make it.

It didn’t take long for the perfect occasion to present itself. My writing-slash-therapy- slash-playday group was finishing a six week series of Saturdays where we shared our writing, our goals and a little of our lives. Six women who did not know each other ending up being friends and lovers – lovers of the written word.

Amy, our fearless leader, and her “grief book”. Good grief I say! It’s a book about her love affair with life. CeCe and her memoir that reads like a fine Hank Williams song about your cheating heart. Heather and her brave, inspiring piece about healing and homelessness. Elaine’s gritty beach novel that makes you want to clean the sand from between your toes and read another chapter. And Sallye’s Mavis, the invisible little black girl that sees all.

Well, of course, my writing has always been about food and that short distance between brain and mouth. Woody Allen says the brain is his “second favorite organ”. I think the mouth might be mine.

Of course, I digress. Back to writing group. We decided our last meeting would be a celebration and that we would have lunch, each of us contributing to the event. I wanted to do something special for my new friends. Something that symbolized our achievements. So I decided that Tagliatelle with Carmelized oranges and almonds was my destiny.

Life was conspiring to keep me from making that dish. A business trip to Texas at the first of the week. A second trip at the end of the week. And long hours and chaos at the office in between.

I made my list. I had decided to serve duck breast with the pasta. You know, a little nod to the traditional Duck L’Orange. My husband Calvin smoked our duck to a perfect smoky pink.

The day of the event I jumped out of bed, James Brown, my sous sampler and Dogfather of Soul, in tow. There was much to do.

The last day is very special. Two of our group read. Powerful stuff. I can tell we have lapsed into that easy-going place in friendships where we can be honest with each other, in a caring, bantering way. There is respect as well as bacon in the air.

It is a day of passions. It’s Valentines Day and we have been shot with arrows meant for Cyrano, Whitman, Conroy, Updike, Sandburg and Prioux. We love the power of words and it has become a magnificent obsession.

I have my first stuffed dates with bacon and almonds. OMG! That’s in my recipe box! Then it’s time for lunch – that lovely orange scented pasta, smoked duck, a fabulous spring green feta salad, warm buttery bread, and wine. And for dessert, a fabulous Paula Deen banana pudding that could be the reason she always seems so slap silly-happy. It matches our mood.

It is a special celebration, a feast for conquering heros (or heroines, as the case may be.) We have killed dragons. Climbed slippery slopes. Exposed our egos and calloused our fingers. And it occurred to me that we were in a better place than any sunny patio in Italy.

We came to the sessions with guilty pleasures and little hobbies. We were afraid to share our writing, let alone read it. But now look at us. We are working on manuscripts. We are talking about re-writes and query letters. We have a goal. Dare we say it? WE ARE WRITERS! Seconds anyone?

Tagliatelle with Caramelized Oranges and Almonds

• Shredded zest of 3 large Valencia or navel oranges
• 8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter
• 1-1/2 cups fresh squeezed orange juice
• 2/3 cup sugar
• Generous 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 6 quarts salted water
• l pound imported dried tagliatelle
• 3 to 4 tablespoons sugar
• l/2 to l teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup (5 ounces) freshly grated Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• l cup whole blanched almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped

Working Ahead: The sauce can be made several hours ahead, covered and set aside at room temperature. Reheat to bubbling before adding the pasta.

1. Making the Sauce: Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Use a wooden spatula to stir in about l/4 cup of the orange juice and the 2/3 cup of sugar. Melt sugar in the butter over medium heat, stirring in spoonfuls of orange juice frequently to keep the sauce from crystallizing (reserve about l/3 cup orange juice for finishing the sauce).

Once sugar is dissolved, heat can be turned up to medium high or high. Stir occasionally as the mixture bubbles and slowly turns amber. When mixture becomes deep golden amber, stir in the pepper and two-thirds of the orange zest. Cook only a second or two to protect rind from burning. Then step back from the skillet and pour in the last 1/3 cup of orange juice at arm’s length. It will bubble up and possibly spatter, then it will thin the sauce to ideal consistency. Turn off the heat. If making ahead, remove the pan from the heat, cool and cover.

2. Cooking the Pasta: Have a large platter and dinner or dessert dishes warming in a low oven. If serving with the capon, have it ready to serve. Make sure pasta water is at a fierce boil. Drop in the pasta and cook until tender but still resistant to the bite. Drain in a colander. Reheat the sauce to a lively bubble. Add the pasta to the skillet and toss to coat thoroughly. Turn onto the heated platter, and sprinkle with the remaining sugar, cinnamon, cheese, almonds, and lastly, the remaining orange rind. Place the capon atop the pasta and serve. Carve the bird at the table. Spoon a small mound of pasta onto each dinner plate and top it with slices of capon. If serving pasta as a dessert, mound small portions on heated dessert plates and serve hot.