Spotlight on Boston Chef Tom Fosnot

Tom Fosnot's culinary career began at the early age of 15 on the Island of Nantucket. Now at Rocca Kitchen and Bar, in Boston's booming South End, Fosnot serves up Ligurian-inspired cuisine that is fresh, clean and simple. And now he shares some helpful tips and one of his signature recipes with SingleEdition.com.

Q: Best piece of advice you would give to a novice home alone cook?
The best advice I would give for a home cook is to find recipes that are not too complex or require too many ingredients or items that you will not use again. Recipes such as homemade pasta are easy to make and do not require many ingredients, but will provide a challenge and something different.

Q: When entertaining in your home, what is the simplest but most impressive dish to serve dinner guests?
I think that roasting a chicken is pretty simple, but always seems to impress and is very easy to do. I have included a recipe for trofie with green, beans and potatoes which is also great.

Q: Interestingly, loneliness led you to develop a love for cooking. Care to share how that came about?
When I worked for the National Park Service in Washington State, I was the only person in a park employee complex. In addition, I had no television and no friends. I had been a dishwasher on Nantucket, and I was very interested in cooking. I made mealtime the central entertainment of my day so I experimented with different recipes to give myself something to do at night.

Q: How can individuals preserve fresh food from the farmers market for longer?
The best way to preserve food is to make items like soup and freeze it. Items can also be pickled to make them last longer. Vegetables that can be pureed, like asparagus, can also be used as a ravioli filling and frozen.

Q; Care to share one of your single-serve recipes with our readers?
This is a great recipe for the single chef. The ingredients are simple, its something different and the pasta can be frozen and the pesto could also be frozen if you have extra. This dish is also guaranteed to impress and would make a great first course for a multi course dinner with Roast Chicken. You could also serve this with a simple green salad for an excellent light dinner or lunch.

Trofie with Pesto, Potatoes and Green Beans

Step 1: Trofie
2 cups all purpose flour
½ cup water
1 tablespoon salt

Instructions
1. Either using your hands or a mixer, slowly add water into flour and salt.
2. Once dough is well mixed and smooth, wrap in plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
3. Once dough is mixed, roll dough into ¼ inch thick pieces of dough. Cut dough into pea-size pieces.
4. Roll pieces between palm of hands and roll into inch long spindles.
5. Store on a baking sheet, lightly dusted with flour to prevent from sticking together.

Step 2: Pesto

2 cups packed basil leaves
Pinch of salt
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts
1 tablespoon pecorino cheese, grated
1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, grated
½ cup extra virgin olive oil

1. In a mortar and pestle, tear basil into manageable pieces and place a ¼ cup of basil in the mortar and add a small pinch of salt. The salt is important because it will help break up the basil. Pound the basil with the pestle gently so that the basil breaks down, but is not pulverized. Slowly add basil in ¼ cup increments until all is broken up. They should me well ground, but still retain their color.
2. Add garlic clove and pound, might need to add another pinch of salt.
3. Add nuts and pound.
4. Add cheese and mix.
5. Add Extra Virgin Olive Oil and mix.
6. Store in a refrigerated sealed container with a little EVOO covering top to maintain color. Pesto will keep refrigerated for three days.

Step 3: Assembly
2 cups of trofie
¼ cup green beans, cut into ½ inch pieces, blanched
1 potato, diced and cooked, reserve 1/4 cup of cooking water
2 tablespoon pesto
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup grated parm

1. In a sauce pot bring some salted water to boil.
2. Add trofie and cook until trofie rise to the top.
3. In a separate pan, bring potato water to simmer, add green beans and potatoes and then add trofie.
4. While hot, finish trofie with pesto and butter and garnish with grated parm.

Rocca Kitchen and Bar
500 Harrison Avenue,
South End / Boston
Phone
617-451-5151