“Breaking Bread” with Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello

November 13, 2014 Heather Chin
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The holiday season is the perfect time to start breaking bread with your neighbors – and Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello’s new cooking show, “Breaking Bread” is the perfect way to get some recipe ideas.

Airing on NET TV (at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays on channel 30 on Cablevision and channel 97 on Time Warner, and on demand for Verizon customers; episodes can also be viewed on netny.tv), “Breaking Bread” is now in its fifth season, with Gigantiello, a professionally trained chef, cracking jokes while practicing his pizza-making skills at Brooklyn’s own Grimaldi’s, sharing his grandma’s best Sunday recipe or showing off his own spin on pancakes.

Each week is also a journey into another neighborhood, culture and restaurant of Brooklyn, from Sheepshead Bay’s Yiasou featuring Greek cuisine on Emmons Avenue to barbecue at the annual Saint Bernard parish feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Recipes include brick-oven style pizza, seafood stew and cold orzo salad.

In Episode 1, which aired on September 10, Gigantiello highlighted Coney Island, by taking to the kitchen at Grimaldi’s. In addition, he treated the children of St. Bernard and Mary Queen of Heaven to a day of fun during “Altar Servers’ Appreciation Day,” when he is in the kitchen with Youth Minister Kenny Wodzanowski.

Here is a recipe for Seafood Stew that Gigantiello cooked up during the first episode.

Mangia!

SEAFOOD STEW

4 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
1 lb. Monk Fish cut into 2” pieces (other white meaty fish can also be substituted)
2 dozen littleneck clams
1 lb. shelled and deveined large shrimp
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 Tbl. finely diced chorizo
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups bottled clam juice
½ cup water
¼ cup pesto
Salt
½ cup frozen baby peas
Crusty bread for serving

In a medium soup pot, heat olive oil.

Add the shallots, garlic, chorizo and crushed red pepper and cook over high heat until the shallots are softened, about five minutes.

Add the wine and cook until reduced by half, about eight minutes.

Add the clam juice and water and bring to a boil.

Add the clams to the soup pot and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until they open, about eight minutes; transfer the clams to a bowl as they open. Discard any that do not open.

Add the shrimp and fish to the broth, season with salt and cook until the fish is opaque and firm, about five minutes.

Return the clams to the pot, add the peas and cook until warmed through.

Ladle the stew into deep bowls, drizzle with the pesto and serve with crusty bread.

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