Recipes Spinach Cannelloni with Bacon and Walnuts Be the first to rate & review! This dish comes from the R¡o de la Plata, an area heavily populated by Italian immigrants. Don't be put off by the multiple steps here; the techniques are simple and the casserole is worth the effort. Delicious, Quick Side Dishes By Maricel Presilla Maricel Presilla F&W Star Chef » See All F&W Chef Superstars Restaurants and shops: Zafra, Cucharamama, Ultramarinos (Hoboken, NJ) Education: Doctorate in medieval Spanish history, New York University (New York City) What dish are you most known for? At Cucharamama, people love things from the wood-burning oven. We roast tons of things—fish, shrimp, even bananas. At Zafra, people seem to adore our Cuban-style fresh corn tamales, wrapped in a cornhusk and served with a spicy sauce. What’s your favorite cookbook of all time? A 14th-century Catalan cookbook called Libre de Sent Soví. It’s a collection of medieval Spanish recipes that I turn to again and again. With help from that book and others like it, I’ve been able to trace the history of Latin American ingredients and techniques back to Spain. Who is your food mentor? What is the most important thing you learned? Felipe Rojas-Lombardi. He started the tapas movement in the US. He was a Peruvian-born chef who owned a restaurant called the Ballroom in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. He had been James Beard’s assistant at his cooking school, and his companion—he traveled the world with Beard. He was also the founding chef of Dean & DeLuca. The Ballroom was the first tapas restaurant in the US. It was also very glamorous—it had a cabaret attached where people like Peggy Lee and Karen Akers would perform. I was doing my dissertation at NYU when I went to visit a mutual friend at the Ballroom kitchen. Felipe saw us and joked, “If you’re going to be here more than 15 minutes, you have to cook something.” So I made flans, and they sold out. Felipe invited me to come in on my days off, and we became close friends. He knew that I could write, so he asked me to help him with some writing. He taught me how to write recipes. He became my best friend. He was like my cooking school. He taught me to focus on flavor above everything else. Intense flavor—to leave nothing bland on the plate. What was the first dish you ever cooked yourself? Rice and red kidney beans. It’s called congrí in Cuban. My grandfather’s cook Ines taught me when I was a very small child. I had to stand on a stool to stir. I did the whole thing by myself, so I was really excited when the dish was finished. Everybody applauded and I said, “I did it! I’m a cook!” What’s the hardest cooking skill to learn? How to make rice. I spend a whole chapter on it in my book (Gran Cocina Latina). It’s important to find the right vessel. I prefer the caldero, the Cuban-style or Latin American-style pot. It has the right thickness and shape—wide at the top, narrow at the bottom, to help the water evaporate. The ratio of water to rice is also important, and the temperature, and letting the rice steam for 20 minutes after you stir. Once you’ve mastered that, it’s also important to adjust to your taste. Maybe you like fluffy rice, or more tightly packed. What’s the best bang-for-the-buck food destination? Lima, Peru. The street food is fantastic everywhere, from sandwich shops to the anticuchos (heart kabobs), it’s all there for the taking. It’s also safe. For restaurants, I like Pedro Miguel Schiaffino’s Amazonian restaurant Malabar, and Gastón Acurio’s La Mar Cebicheria. What is the most cherished souvenir you’ve brought back from a trip? My great-grandmother’s gigantic pestle. It’s made out of guayacán, or guaiacum, a very hard wood. It brought me a lot of problems in the Cuba and Miami airports because they thought it was a weapon. What ingredient will people be talking about in five years? I want them to talk about peppers. I grow hundreds every year. People’s lives would change if they incorporated more Latin American peppers into their cooking. What are your talents besides cooking? I raise pigeons here and at my father’s house in Miami. There, we have Cuban pigeons that are called Palomas, or thief pigeons. They fly out and bring other pigeons into the coop. Here, I have different breeds. Right now they’re mongrels because I rescued a couple of Rock pigeons and then I rescued a couple of heirloom Helmet pigeons, which are usually white except for their heads. And now they’ve mingled, so I have pigeons with helmets and different colored feathers. They’re incredibly beautiful. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on June 1, 2017 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: © Maura McEvoy Active Time: 1 hrs 45 mins Total Time: 2 hrs 20 mins Yield: 6 Ingredients 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 1/2 cups minced onions (2 medium) 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon sugar Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 1/4 cup dry red wine 1 cup canned tomato sauce 1/2 cup water 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 quart milk 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg Pinch of white pepper 2 pounds fresh spinach, large stems discarded 1/4 pound bacon, cut into 1/4-inch strips 4 large garlic cloves, minced 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts Basic Crêpes Directions In a medium skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Add 1 cup of the onions and cook over moderately high heat, stirring frequently, until golden. Add the oregano and sugar and season with salt and black pepper. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the wine and simmer, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomato sauce and water and simmer over moderate heat until slightly thickened, 10 minutes. Remove from the heat. Melt the butter in a medium sauce-pan. Add 1/4 cup of the onions and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, about 4 minutes. Whisk in the flour until combined. Add the milk in 2 batches, whisking constantly until smooth before adding more. Bring to a boil over moderately high heat, then simmer over moderate heat until thickened, about 2 minutes. Whisk in 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese, the nutmeg, white pepper and 3/4 teaspoon of salt. Remove from the heat and press a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the white sauce. In a large skillet over high heat, add the spinach by handfuls and toss until wilted. Wipe out the skillet. Squeeze the spinach dry, then finely chop. In the same skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the bacon and cook over moderately high heat until golden, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of chopped onion and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the spinach and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of the white sauce and 1 teaspoon each of salt and black pepper. Remove from the heat and stir in 1/2 cup of the remaining Parmesan cheese and the chopped walnuts. Preheat the oven to 400°. Lay 16 crêpes on a work surface and spread 3 tablespoons of the spinach filling in a strip down the center of each one. Tightly roll the crêpe around the filling, tucking in the edges as you roll to form a neat cylinder. Repeat with the remaining filling and crêpes. Spread 1/4 cup of tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch glass or ceramic baking dish. Arrange the cannelloni over the tomato sauce. Spread the remaining white sauce over the cannelloni. Drizzle the remaining tomato sauce on top and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup of Parmesan. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the cheese is golden and the cannelloni are heated through. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Make Ahead All the components can be made up to 2 days ahead and assembled just before baking. Suggested Pairing A soft red with smoky overtones and some tannins will mirror the bacon. Consider a Malbec from Argentina. Rate it Print