Italian-born Massimo Navarretta has the heart and soul of a wine-loving farmer. Navarretta, is the chef-owner of highly regarded Italian restaurant, Onotria Wine County Cuisine, in Costa Mesa. He recently joined me in my home kitchen to share his flavor-packed heirloom tomato-based dish, augmented with burrata cheese, house-cured salmon, and bergamot vinaigrette. A garnish of salmon roe lent the perfect note; a pop of sweet and salty flavors, plus rich umami.
He rhapsodized in an Italian-accented lilt about the joy of spring cooking and eating. When he talked about his dish, it sounded like a love song. He described the dish as reflective of the spring season, a delicious treat that readers can make and enjoy at home.
Indeed, it is a dish that would be a welcome addition to a home cook’s repertoire. They would have the option of either buying cured salmon or making the gravlax-style treat at home, a simple accomplishment that requires four to five days and very little work. The salmon is rubbed with a salt and sugar mixture and then snoozes skin-down in a zipper-style plastic bag in the fridge, undisturbed and weighted down. And once it’s cured, the salt-sugar rub is simply wiped away.
His vinaigrette was judiciously spiked with bergamot juice, squeezed from the highly aromatic fruit that tastes like a mix of tart lemon and orange with a subtle floral edge. It is sold online and in some specialty stores. To make the sauce, the chef put the juice in a small bowl and then topped it with just enough extra-virgin olive oil to make a thin sheet resting atop the juice. A quick whisk and it was ready.
As he worked in the kitchen, his joy fueled long bouts of philosophical conversation. He explained that he loves working in the kitchen, appreciating the physical aspect of taking something and transforming it into something different,
Yes, something different and absolutely delicious.
Credit: Curt NorrisBest Hangout: I like to be close to nature, so the Back Bay (Newport); I adore solitude.
Early Childhood Ambition: I wanted to be a pirate. I loved to look at a beautiful map of the world and daydream. At 15 ½, I went to the culinary academy, thinking that with that job I would get to go around the world.
Worth-It Splurge: Great food and great wine—for me it has no price. I just bought a milk-fed lamb from Spain.
Who or What Most Influenced Your Cooking: My childhood village (in Italy). We made our bread. If you dropped a piece of bread, we would wipe it off, make the sign of the cross, give it a kiss and eat it. You honor the labor.
Best advice: Do your homework, study, and understand it. And always have fun.
If I wasn’t a chef, I would … Be a politician.
MASSIMO’S TOMATO, SALMON, AND BURRATA SALAD
Yield: 1 serving
1 large ripe heirloom tomato, yellow preferred
Coarse salt
Bergamot Dressing
2 tablespoons bergamot juice (see cook’s notes)
2 tablespoons mild extra-virgin olive oil such as Taggiasca
3 or 4 thin slices house-cured salmon, such as gravlax cured with sugar and salt (see cook’s notes)
1 medium sphere fresh burrata cheese, torn in half
2 teaspoons salmon caviar
1 to 2 fresh Italian parsley leaves and one edible flower, for garnish
Cook’s notes: Use sushi-grade Atlantic or Norwegian salmon to make gravlax-style cured salmon; it’s made by coating a super fresh, skin-on salmon fillet with a salt-sugar rub. Once the salmon is rubbed with a mixture of kosher salt and sugar, slide it into a zipper-style plastic bag and place on a rimmed baking sheet skin side down. Weigh it down with a heavy can or two placed on top. Some cooks like to use a saucepan filled with water. But whatever the weighty object, it sits atop the salmon in the fridge for a three- to four-day cure. Some insist that the fish needs to be rotated in the process, but I just let it snooze skin-down, undisturbed. And once it’s cured and has the rub wiped away, it can be thinly sliced, turning the sharp knife when it hits the skin (to remove the slice from the skin).
Bergamot is a citrus fruit frequently used in the perfumer’s palette. Bergamot juice is sold online.
1. Slice tomato from side to side in thin slices. Arrange on plate. Season very lightly with coarse salt.
2. Prepare bergamot dressing. In a small bowl whisk together the bergamot and olive oil. Spoon a small amount on the tomato slices.
3. Cut cured salmon into very thin slices slightly on the diagonal, making 3 to 4 slices. Place salmon on top of tomatoes in single layer, parallel to one another. Place burrata cheese on opposite sides of the plate. Stir bergamot dressing and spoon a small amount on top of burrata. Top burrata with caviar. Garnish with a parsley leaf or two, and an edible flower. Serve.
Credit: Curt NorrisCathy Thomas is an award-winning food writer and has authored three cookbooks: “50 Best Plants on the Planet,” “Melissa’s Great Book of Produce,” and “Melissa’s Everyday Cooking with Organic Produce.” For more than 30 years, she has written about cooking, chefs, and food trends. She was the first newspaper food journalist to pioneer taping how-to culinary videos for the web. cathythomascooks.com
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