Cooking With Debi Mazar & Gabriele Corcos

Actress Debi Mazar came to Access Hollywood Live’s kitchen on Thursday. Debi & Gabriele Corcos are promoting their cooking show, “Extra Virgin,” premiering January 19 at 10 PM ET, 7 PM PT on The Cooking Channel.

Their recipes… below.

PASTA ALLA GRICIA:
Recipe courtesy Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar

1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces guanciale (cured pig cheeks), sliced into thin strips
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 handful fresh sage leaves, chopped
3/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound pasta

In a large nonstick pan, heat the olive oil, and then add the guanciale and garlic. Cook for about 10 minutes, making sure that the meat does not get too crunchy and the garlic does not burn. Cook’s Note: If you see that the garlic is browning too fast, remove it from the pan, finish the pork, and then add it again to the sauce.

When the guanciale and the garlic are nice and golden brown, add the sage.

Cook’s Note: Since you probably rinsed it before, make sure the herbs are well dry; otherwise you’ll end up bathing yourself in a sprinkle of boiling oil.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta to the water, and cook it about 2 minutes less than indicated on the box. Strain the pasta and add it to the saucepan over a medium-high heat, toss it around for a few seconds, then add the grated Pecorino, toss for one minute.

Garnish with some grated Pecorino, a drop of extra-virgin olive oil, and some ground black pepper. Serve with a bottle of robust red wine.

Yield: 4 Servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ease of preparation: easy

LIMONCELLO:
Recipe courtesy Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar
prep time – 20
brewing time – 45 days

Ingredients:
1.5 liters (6.3 cups) of alcohol 75% vol. (two bottles): Everclear Grain Alcohol.
14 Lemons
1.5 liters (6.3 cups) of water
1050 grams (2.3 pounds) of sugar

How To:
This recipe occurs in two different stages: first the macerating of the lemon peels in alcohol, and then the actual brewing with the rest of the ingredients.

– First movement –
Peel the lemons, making sure to only separate the yellow part of the peel from the fruit, and not go too deep.
A potato peeler does the trick, even if it behaves sketchy in the hand (lemons are much rougher than potatoes) still, you can try with a small blade, like a pairing knife, but you will probably end up cutting too deep.

Place the peels in glass jars, possibly big enough to accommodate all the ingredients in the recipe, seal tight and let rest for two weeks. Find a dark corner in your house, even a basement or a cellar where to let your Limoncello rest, absolutely do not leave it exposed to sunlight… also, try to resist the temptation of opening your jars and sniffing it. It is called “resting” for a reason, be respectful, you will be rewarded later! We actually keep our jars on a library, to decorate our dining room…

After macerating for two weeks, the alcohol is now ready to be drained and mixed with the water and sugar.

Heat the water in the pan and mix the sugar, then let cool off for about one hour, stirring every now and then to make sure that the sugar collected on the bottom of the pan “stays in the game”.

Drain the lemon peels from the jars and mix in the sugar water. Be careful, this is a moment you have to keep an eye on your volumes: figure out how many jars you are working with and maintain the proportion of ingredients! To simplify your life you, can brew everything in a big enough pot to accommodate all ingredients and then bottle it back into the jars.

And again, for the second time, you have to exercise control and patience. Sniff all you want, than close your jars tight and let rest for a whole month. You can shake the liquid gently when you start noticing some sugar deposited on the bottom of the jars. Where did you decide to let you Limoncello rest, in the basement on on a kitchen shelf? Remember, no sunlight!

After a month, it is time to bottle, and it is totally up to you, just make sure you can fit your bottles in the freezer.

Our first batch will be ready this coming weekend and we decided to keep only one bottle for us, most of the limoncello will be small bottled and given to friends… Our recipe will evolve, and in a few days we will have already an excuse to start brewing more.

This recipe is fun and simple, good to drink and good to watch while in the making; we have been so proud of ourselves this past summer, looking at our liquid gold decorating our house. Now we also have figure out a great, well thought out, made with love, and on a seriously controlled budget, Christmas present.

Brew Responsibly!
Debi and Gabriele