Le Fanfare (1103 Manhattan Ave.) is a quaint Italian gem in Greenpoint that offers live jazz on Sunday evenings and pasta happy hour specials on select weekdays.
On Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m., the restaurant has live jazz music from local musicians and occasionally a performance from Luca Fadda, one of Le Fanfare’s owners.
Le Fanfare’s pasta happy hour is available all night on Mondays through Wednesdays, featuring pappardelle with beans and mussels, tagliolini with mushrooms and parmigiano fondue, and spaghetti with octopus, bottarga, and chives for $15 each.
For this week’s addition to the Community Cookbook, Le Fanfare has shared the recipe for another one of their popular pasta dishes: their delicious spaghetti neri, which they touted as a “traditional seaside Sardinian dish.”
Learn how to make Le Fanfare’s spaghetti neri below and find last week’s Community Cookbook recipe here.
Le Fanfare’s Spaghetti Neri
Ingredients
Makes 1 serving
4 pounds of of mussels, scrubbed
5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, melted
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 cup of dry white wine
1/2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes
3/4 pound of homemade squid ink spaghetti
1/4 cup of fresh parsley leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons of bottarga, grated (Note from Le Fanfare: Bottarga is a typical cured fish roe that is a traditional ingredient used in Sardinia.)
Directions
- In a large sauce pan, combine the sliced garlic cloves and dry white wine, over medium heat. Cover with a lid.
- When it starts to boil, add the mussels. Cover and cook for a few minutes, until mussels open up.
- Drain the mussels, but save the broth. Put mussels and broth in two separate bowls.
- Let the mussels cool for 15 minutes, or until cool enough to handle with hands.
- Remove 1/2 of mussels from shell.
- Over medium high heat, add EVOO, butter, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook for a minute, and then add broth.
- Bring to a simmer, and cook for around 10 to 15 minutes, or until the sauce is reduced.
- Add all of the mussels into the sauce, and turn heat down very low.
- Allow to cook for 2 minutes, then remove from heat.
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil over high heat. Add salt to the boiling water, add your ink spaghetti. Cook until al dente.
- Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water, and drain the pasta into a colander.
- Transfer the pasta to the pan with the sauce.
- Toss the spaghetti over medium heat. Add some of the pasta water (around 2 tablespoons).
- Add the grated bottarga and chopped fresh parsley, and serve immediately.