Spuntino: New York comfort food from eggplant chips to fennel pizzetta

From Russell Norman's restaurant Spuntino, comes a book of the same name offering up recipes on the intoxicating tastes of the Big Apple

Eggplant chips have been on the menu since day one

Restaurateur Russell Norman had fallen in love with new York before he even visited it. But what he found when he did first visit in 1999, was that most of the so-called American food was in fact Italian, from meatballs, to pizza and macaroni cheese.

Inspired by what he found in New York, across the pond back home, he opened a restaurant named Spuntino – Italian for snack – in London’s Soho area serving up his beloved American dishes in a similarly seedy area to New York’s East Village.

The book is made up of 120 recipes of those snack type dishes made up of luscious meats and the vibrant salads he found and recreated in his small restaurant.

Mozzarella & Cavolo Nero Crostini

When it is in season, cavolo nero is one of my hero ingredients. Its deep, dark green colour and its long crinkled leaves are incredibly glamorous, and it is surprisingly versatile. Florence Knight, one of my favourite chefs, picks the smallest, most delicate raw leaves and tosses them in a delightful anchovy dressing with bread fried in butter. Delicious. This recipe specifies a swift blanch; you really mustn’t overcook the cavolo nero, otherwise it loses much of its flavour and many of its nutrients too.

The cavolo nero only requires a quick blanch, otherwise it loses its flavour and nutrients

Makes 4

1 bunch of cavolo nero, about 200g, stems removed
3 garlic cloves
Good handful of grated Parmesan, about 20g
Flaky sea salt and black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
8 slices of ciabatta
2 x 125g balls of buffalo mozzarella, at room temperature

Place a pan of salted water over a high heat. Cut the cavolo nero into 2cm strips. Once the water has come to the boil, add the cavolo nero and, when the water comes back to the boil, blanch for 2 minutes. Drain and, when cool enough to handle, squeeze out the excess liquid. Transfer the cavolo nero to the small bowl of a food processor. Add two of the garlic cloves, the Parmesan and some salt and pepper, and whizz to a purée. With the motor still going slowly add 100ml of the olive oil, then transfer to a mixing bowl and fold in the lemon juice.

Now place a heavy-based griddle pan over a medium heat. Lightly coat the sliced bread with a few brushes of olive oil and grill on both sides until lightly charred. Halve the remaining garlic clove and rub over the hot grilled bread. Top with broken-up pieces of mozzarella and a generous amount of the cavolo nero purée. Serve immediately.

The Tuscan sausage is a dry-cured lean pork spiced with fennel and aged for a year for a full and robust flavour

Fennel Salami, Caper & Chilli Pizzetta

Fennel salami (or finocchiona) is one of my favourite sausages and one that is much celebrated in Tuscany, from where it comes. Dry-cured lean pork shoulder and fatty pork cheek, spiced with fennel, then aged for up to a year, are the secrets to this fantastically flavoursome salami. Cooking it makes it even tastier. I find the best capers for this pizzetta are the very dainty Sicilian variety.

For one pizzetta:

1 pizzetta base
1 tablespoon basic tomato sauce or tomato passata
25g grated block mozzarella – the hard, cheap kind
4 slices of fennel salami (finocchiona)
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon capers
½ teaspoon chilli flakes

Preheat your oven on its highest setting. If you are using a pizza stone (which I highly recommend), allow 15 minutes for it to get really hot. (An alternative is a good metal baking sheet.) The temperature should be at least 240-250ºC, which is Gas 9 or over, but get it higher if you can.

Onto your pizzetta base, gently spoon a thin layer of tomato sauce (or passata), then sprinkle over the grated mozzarella. Place the slices of finocchiona on top. Scatter over the grated Parmesan, capers and chilli. Cook on the pizza stone in your preheated oven for about 6-10 minutes (depending on how hot your oven can go) or until the edges start to bubble and burn.

Eggplant Chips with Fennel Yoghurt

This has been on the menu at Spuntino since day one and is a much-requested recipe. For me, it’s a dish about contrasts. The hot eggplant chips versus the cool yoghurt. The crunchy sesame coating versus the soft centre. The smoky flavour of the eggplant versus the aniseed tang of the fennel. You can have fun with the presentation of this dish too, by using a shot glass for the fennel yoghurt and then stacking the chips around or to the side.

Makes 6-8

2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 eggplants (aka aubergines)
100g plain flour
1 teaspoon fine salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
3-4 medium eggs
150g panko breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons sesame seeds
1 litre vegetable oil, for deep frying

For the fennel yoghurt

1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
125g mayonnaise
200g plain Greek-style yoghurt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Large pinch of flaky sea salt
Pinch of black pepper

First of all, toast the coriander and fennel seeds for both the aubergine and the yoghurt. Put them all – 3 teaspoons of each – in a non-stick frying pan and dry fry over a medium heat for a few minutes, until you can smell their spiciness. Do keep an eye on them, as they can easily burn. Remove from the heat, then grind in a pestle and mortar.

Now make the fennel yoghurt. Take 2 teaspoons of the ground seeds and combine with the rest of the fennel yoghurt ingredients. Put it in the fridge. Cut the eggplant into thick 10cm-long chips.

Now take three bowls. Mix the flour, salt and pepper in the first. In the second bowl, beat the eggs. Mix together the breadcrumbs, the remaining ground coriander and fennel seeds and the sesame seeds in the third bowl. Dip the eggplant chips in the flour, coating well, shake off any excess and then place in the egg wash, shaking off any drips, and then coat well with the breadcrumbs. Set aside at room temperature, not in the fridge, if not cooking straightaway.

Heat the vegetable oil in a medium pan to 190ºC (or until a cube of bread dropped in the oil turns golden brown in less than a minute). Now fry the coated eggplant chips, in batches, for 2–3 minutes or until golden brown. Lift out, drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with a little salt. Serve hot with the chilled fennel yoghurt.

Spuntino: Comfort Food (New York Style) by Russell Norman, Published by Bloomsbury, £25. Photography by Jenny Zarins