- Hi, I am Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

Papa, do you ever get tired of trying out new recipes and flavor combinations?

- Is that a hint?

- Well, yeah.

Would you show me how to make a few dishes that I loved when I was growing up, like that classic asparagus and ham gratin, or the gratin of penne pasta that was like our family's macaroni and cheese when I was a kid?

- [Jacques] Yes, how about a salad of endive, radicchio and walnuts for balance?

And a simple dessert of grapes and raisins in citrus juice.

- Sounds like a great menu to me.

Join us for a new look at some old favorites next on "Jacques Pepin's Kitchen."

- "Encore with Claudine."

(train horn honks) (upbeat music continues) Today, we're going to do "Old Favorite Revisited."

And Claudine is already peeling asparagus with that vegetable peeler.

See, I use, that one is good too.

You know what you do?

You're taking too much out of it here.

- Why?

- Because, well, the end of your asparagus, for example, this one here, you can see it's whiter and there is a fiber here is tough.

So you want to peel it up to here, but you don't really want to peel the green.

- Okay.

- Okay?

Good.

- All right.

- So this one again, both work quite good this way, you know?

- Yeah.

- And we put them- - Is that too much?

- [Jacques] No, that's good.

- Okay.

- Okay.

About four, five asparagus per person, and those large one here.

Be aware, and I'm gonna put them to cook directly in there.

They won't take long to cook.

I'll cover them.

I have about a cup of water in there.

That's it.

And a little dash of salt.

And what do we do next, Titine?

- Make pasta.

- Make pasta.

So I think the first thing we're going to do is to put that pasta to cook.

We're going to do a gratin, a penne and cheese au gratin.

- Macaroni and cheese.

- Macaroni and cheese.

That's it.

And I have about six ounce of pasta here.

Actually, when you do a gratin like this, you use less pasta, don't expand a great deal.

Stir it first just in case.

You stir it in the bottom.

- Do you have salt in there?

- You have salt.

Yeah, we have salt in there.

(lips smack) - Okay, good.

(lid clunks) - Okay?

So let's see how those things are doing.

Yeah, they come back to a boil.

They need a couple of minute to cook.

(hands clap) During that time, we are going to grate some cheese here.

- All righty.

- We put some Parmesan cheese on top of it.

- [Claudine] Hope they're listening.

- [Jacques] This the new style gratin.

You know?

Remember when we used to have gratin?

- Yeah.

- We used to have it with a white sauce, you know, a cream, and so forth.

And this is thinner.

This is a nice little cheese grater.

You close it, you open it.

- You close it.

But you have to, yeah.

- Yeah.

You put it this way.

- Okay.

And you squeeze.

- Can I have that piece?

- Yes.

- [Jacques] Yeah, you have to squeeze it.

- I am squeezing.

- Okay, good.

- [Claudine] I like it 'cause it makes little curls.

- Yes.

Okay, let me check on this.

We still need a little more.

So when you buy asparagus to start with, as you can see, I have a bunch of asparagus here.

I have some very thin one and some very thick one.

Yeah?

Now, which you think are the most standard?

- The thin ones.

- No.

That has nothing to do.

Your asparagus come out of the ground.

They come out of the ground big or small, then they go higher and higher.

So a thin asparagus is not more standard than a big one.

So I like the big one much better.

What you look in it is the point of your asparagus.

You see this one here?

- Uh-huh.

- And you see this one here?

- Yeah.

- This one or even that one is even worse.

It's like a flower.

You know, where the petal are opening already?

- Oh.

- You know?

That's an older and it's softer.

- Okay.

- That's an older asparagus.

Now look at this one.

This one is like the tight head of a flower, like the bud of a rose?

- Right.

- That's a young asparagus when the head is very tight in this way.

And that's what you want, regardless of the size.

Okay.

- Do I have enough cheese?

- You have, yes.

- Okay.

- [Jacques] You have more than enough cheese.

- You didn't tell me to stop, so I didn't know.

- All right, so let's see now.

They are beautifully green.

Of course, we can serve those this way.

They're going to go back in the oven a little bit.

Yeah, they're fine.

They're still pretty crunchy, but that would be fine.

So I'm gonna take them out right there.

- Ooh.

- It's hot.

You want to get the gratin dish?

- Okay.

- Let them cool off one second.

And in the remaining water here, I had a cup to start with.

So I have about third of a cup.

We put a little bit of olive oil here, and a little piece of butter, and a dash of pepper, a dash of salt.

I'll bring that to a strong boil.

It's going to melt and emulsify.

That will be a sauce we're going to use with the asparagus.

- Mm.

- So now we need the ham, Titine.

- There you go.

- Put that here.

We have beautiful ham here.

- Mm.

- Oh, we just cutted that fresh ham.

So what we do, four asparagus per person.

- One slice of ham?

- One slice, you do a nice little package like this, you see?

- This is like what we have in Brussels.

- Like in Brussel.

But except that on top of it, usually you put a cream sauce, you know?

- Right.

- Which you're not going to do here.

- I need one more.

- One more.

Four per person, right?

There we are.

This one.

- So this is kind of a lighter version of that?

- It's a little version.

Okay, my sauce is kind of emulsify.

You see it together?

- Oh, yeah.

- It's shaken like this.

I stop it.

It's ready.

There's one left.

- Remember our cat used to eat the asparagus?

- Oh, yeah.

- Buds?

- Cheese.

- It's weird.

- A bit of pepper.

- Just on top?

- Yep.

- Okay.

- Yeah, now cheese like this.

And we wanna put that under the broiler for a couple of minutes.

You could have a dash of oil, but we're going to serve it with this.

- Okay.

- So.

- I got it.

- You got it.

Okay.

So during that time, we're gonna continue with our pasta.

Let's see the pasta in there.

- How's the pasta doing?

- You wanna stir it so that they don't stick together.

Yes, occasionally, you stir it.

(utensil tapping) And we're gonna start the white sauce here.

- Okay.

- A bit of oil.

Oh, that's it.

A little piece of butter.

- Ooh.

(utensil tapping) (lid clunks) - That's good.

It's gonna take a few more minutes.

I think that's more than enough.

Into this, I'm gonna give you two tablespoon of flour.

It's a bit hot.

And mix it right away.

(whisk scratching) You have your roux there, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay.

The roux is hot, so I'm putting the milk directly into it.

That's two and a half cup of milk.

About a cup of milk per tablespoon of flour will give you a light cream sauce, you know, okay?

- And it's whole milk?

It's not cream, it's not, it's just whole milk?

- You can use skim milk, you can use two percent, you can use three percent, you can use half an half.

You can use cream or a mixture of any of this, depending how rich you want it, you know?

- Okay.

- Okay.

I'll keep that uncovered now.

Fast as you could uncover.

(utensil tapping) And while this is cooking now, let me check in the oven.

Just stirring it a little bit.

- Okay.

- Yes.

(whisk scratching) One more minute.

So let's bring that to a boil.

- So I stopped stirring, it won't lump anymore.

- Well, no, you stir it.

And you know what you do with the palm of your hand here.

This is where you go.

You see the way I go in the corner here?

You drive it into the corner.

That's where it stick first.

- Okay.

- [Jacques] You wanna bring that to a boil.

Did you put salt in there?

- No, I didn't do salt or pepper.

- Okay, here is salt.

Here is some paper, a bit of salt.

Stir it.

And I think now I can get the gratin, gotta be ready.

- Okay.

- Okay?

(whisk scratching) Okay.

This is nice.

- Ooh.

- See, you wanna see that?

You can prepare that ahead if you want, you know?

And ready to go into the broiler.

Remember, my asparagus, we're very hot here.

Just finished cooking, so I don't need to leave them long.

If, on the other hand, you would, here they are.

- Oh, that is great.

- If on the other hand, you do them cold, you prepare that ahead, then you have to cook it slightly longer.

And here it is, Claudine.

Little bit of the juice that I put right on top of it here.

- Mm.

- And I'll put the rest of it right there.

- It's a much lighter version of what we had in Brussels.

- Much lighter version.

(pan clunks) We put it right here.

This is a great first course, the gratin of asparagus (bright music) and ham.

- Whoa.

- And now we go to this.

That's good.

- That has come back to a boil.

- That's come to a boil.

So reduce it to very low now because it's ready.

I'm gonna give you cheese to put in it, about four ounce of cheese.

So I'll give it to you into little piece.

And you can start stirring it into it.

The smaller the piece of cheese, the fastest it's going to.

Now you can stir it with a spoon, you know?

- Yeah.

Give me a wooden spoon.

- Okay.

You just stir it in.

Did you check the pasta now?

- No.

I'm stirring.

- Well, you, it's fine.

You know, you let it melt a little bit.

There is all kind of cheddar cheese, of course.

And this one is the yellow cheddar cheese, give you a better color, you know?

- [Claudine] It looks like macaroni and cheese.

- It look like macaroni and cheese this way.

We're gonna put a tomato in it.

And what I'll do, I'll take the inside of the tomato, the seed.

Here we are.

You see that?

This is nice and empty like this?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Just press it one way, and turn it, and press it the other way.

And with your finger, you can go, if there is anything left in there that you keep for stock, you know that very good chicken stock, veal stock.

Any of this.

(knife tapping) Is the sauce melting nicely?

- It is.

- Good.

So you can leave that for a second.

You wanna grate the cheese?

- Okay.

- Okay, you can come here.

And we wanna grate a little bit of cheese.

And I want to mix the grated cheese like I need a tablespoon or two, you know, not much.

- Oh, okay.

- And mix it with a little bit of paprika.

And we'll put that in there too.

- Doesn't that look nice?

- Yeah, this looks great, yeah.

Okay.

(wooden spoon tapping) Did you taste it now?

- Nope.

I trust you.

Mm.

- Yeah.

- Mm-hmm.

- I use the other hand.

Ah, dash of pepper here.

Okay.

- How's that?

- Oh, that's more than enough.

(Claudine chuckles) Yeah, okay.

- That's my song.

- And then put that a bit of paprika in there.

Here, and mix it.

We can mix it together nicely.

Good.

- And this is just for on top?

- Just to put on top.

Yes.

- Okay.

- I'm gonna check the pasta.

It should be pretty soon, because the pasta, you want to cook about seven, eight minute.

It's still a bit tough, but remember it's going to be in the oven for a while.

And it also depend on your own taste, whether you like your pasta, very... - Al dente.

- Al dente or two.

I think it does need another couple of minute.

Well, let me check the pasta now.

It should be pretty close.

It's a bit soft now.

Yeah, that's good.

- Yeah?

- Yeah.

- All right.

- You wanna burn yourself and taste it?

- No, thank you.

- Okay.

- I'll wait.

I'll wait.

- All right, so I'll drain it out on this.

And I'm gonna, I'm just going to mix it directly into this, Titine.

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah, the pasta in there.

You have your gratin dish ready?

- I have it.

Here it is.

- Okay.

- How about the tomatoes?

- Well, we put it right on top.

- Okay.

- We'll divide it this way.

Let me put it in there.

- [Claudine] I'm sorry.

- Soupy, but the pasta is going to swell up a little more.

You know?

- Mm-hmm.

If you put it into the oven.

Actually what happened... Yes, arrange around.

Just sprinkle it all over the place here.

That's good.

What happened normally is that if you do that ahead, then your gratin is cold, and you can put it into the oven on a high oven and it need 30, 35 minute to really be totally hot through.

But when it's really hot, like we have it here, you can put it under the broiler and it goes faster because everything is hot anyway.

Okay?

And the side here, don't look at me.

(Claudine chuckles) You have to look at what you're doing here.

- I was looking, I didn't wanna get it all over the place so I didn't do the side.

- Oh, okay.

Good.

Do you have a tray for that?

- Yes.

- For the oven?

- Good.

- Which doesn't get all messy.

- We put it on the tray so that if there is any spillage, it goes on your tray, and it's easier to get it in and out.

I'll open the door for you.

- Okay.

- Let's see here.

We put it there.

On top.

- Oh.

- Good.

- Good.

- So this one we put also under the broiler because it's hot and it only going to take a couple of minute to do.

During that time, we do a salad.

Right?

You know what those are?

- That's radicchio.

- Radicchio.

And this?

- It's red endive?

- Chicoree de Treviso from Trevise in Italy.

- Chicoree de Treviso.

- Yeah, chicoree de Treviso, and it's very good to eat.

The same thing then, this is in France, we call chicoree de Verona.

Verona, and that, chicoree de Treviso.

So we're going to do a couple of endive.

This is all the same family.

You know when you have chicory, we do.

In France, you do your chicory, which is a bitter salad I have in my garden.

And that bitter salad, sometime, I plant it, you can plant it in the cellar, the root of those salad, and planting them in the cellar, they grow without any light.

And if you grow without any light, there is no photosynthesis, nothing getting green, and that come out of the ground.

It come white out of the ground.

If there is any sun, that would turn green, of course.

So here is what I'm doing here.

I'm cutting the front part of it.

I'm going to keep some of the big leaf to decorate here.

- Oh.

- Keep the center.

Get again the big leaf here like this.

From the outside, you know, just keep the nicest one here.

What did you put in your dressing here?

- I just did the basic home dressing.

Vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard.

- [Jacques] All right.

- Sometimes I make a whole lot of this, and I keep it in the refrigerator in a plastic thing.

And then I have salad dressing already.

- Take the root.

You see that root is a bit discolored so you can take it out.

And otherwise, I'll cut that into pieces for you.

We'll mix it.

- Let me taste.

- I'll give it to you.

(knife tapping) - Yeah.

Good.

- Is it good?

- Yep.

- Okay.

I'm gonna mix that in there.

Do we have some walnut here?

Just crack some walnut in there.

- Okay.

- Walnut goes well.

That piece goes in there too.

Chicory, the radicchio, I'm going to keep also some of the top to put in the plate.

- Ooh.

- Decorate also a little bit.

You see?

And all of the other part, the root part here, you will put it in there.

Watch out, if you have too much of a root here, this may be a bit strong.

Actually I like it.

There's more bitter there.

(mouth crunching) A bit bitter but it's good if you like- - It's bitter.

- So they are bitter.

Yeah.

- I wouldn't recommend it.

- Oh, yeah?

I love it.

(knife tapping) - Okay.

- And you can start mixing it, Claudine, we have plenty.

And I'm gonna give you some carrot also.

- I need a bigger spoon.

- So here's a carrot.

You want to peel the carrot.

When you peel the carrot, you cut both ends first.

- Okay.

- Okay?

First thing.

And you use your vegetable peeler, you put your carrot, you do one strip.

(peeler scratching) See?

- Mm-hmm.

- And, of course, the carrot is pivoting on your hand like this.

The whole idea that your finger never get higher than the carrot in the way- - Well, yeah, that would be bad.

- All right.

So shredded carrot in there.

Can have a little more even.

(carrot scraping) Actually I think we have- - I have enough.

- Plenty.

- Ooh.

- Here we are.

- Great.

- And I'll bring a plate.

- Thank you.

- To arrange a nice plate.

Here we are.

This way.

- Okay.

- So, - Now.

- we're gonna put a little bit, you would want to arrange all of your plate like that, of course, ahead.

You want to arrange this on or on the outside.

- Hmm.

- You know?

You do have to like the bitter salad to do this one.

Yeah?

- [Claudine] I like a bitter salad when it's all put together with the dressing and walnuts and everything else, but I just don't necessarily like a piece of the root.

- You put the walnut in there, did you?

- Yes.

But I saved a couple just to put on top.

- Okay.

We could serve it just as it is now.

If you want to have it a bit crunchier, that's when you put those things around, you know?

- Oh.

- You arrange them around like this.

Claudine, you could help me, eh?

(Claudine chuckles) And you have a beautiful salad.

People don't know what's- - It's a surprise.

- Surprise.

It's a surprise.

That's it.

- And this is- - Now let me check the gratin here.

(bright music) - [Claudine] And this is our endive, radicchio, and walnut salad.

We're ready?

- It's pretty good.

Yes?

Okay.

Here I have your gratin.

- Clear off some space so that you can put it.

- But I wanna put it this way.

- Okay.

- But I can get - Ooh.

- the gratin here.

There we are- - Oh, that looks really yummy.

- That's really, really yummy.

And here, we're going to put it here.

But you can see the inside is going to be really nice and creamy, you know?

- Oh.

- That's what you want.

- That is exactly what I want actually.

(chuckles) - I leave it here.

- [Claudine] And here is our macaroni and cheese au gratin.

- No, this is penne and cheese au gratin.

I wanted to talk to you a little bit about Parmesan cheese here.

- I love Parmesan.

- And cheddar.

- It doesn't look like cheddar.

- It doesn't look like cheddar?

- No.

- You like the orange one?

- Cheddar is orange and it's a block.

- Yes.

Well, there is different type of cheddar.

This is actually the best one.

Real British cheddar, you know.

And actually it should be that color, you know?

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah.

I mean it, it came a bit whiter or creamer or a bit yellower depending on the milk, time of the year.

You know, whatever the cow eat.

But when it's really very orange, that is because you have usually either annatto in it or beta-carotene, one of those coloring to make it this way.

It's a natural coloring, but it's different, and it's great.

Now, the Parmigiano-Reggiano- - Parmigiano-Reggiano.

- Yes.

This is the best from the area of Parma in Italy.

You know, and this is age, well, from six month, you can start eating it up to two years at least.

You can see, you know, the grana, when it's broken like that, when there is a little drop still of liquid, which is kind of acid-related?

- Mm-hmm.

- I think that when the best time to eat it, in my opinion.

It cook well.

- And it's got a great flavor.

- The cheddar melt very well.

But those processed cheese, otherwise you can't really cook them at high temperature.

They tend to break down in the sauces, you know?

- Is cheddar aged as well?

- Well, yes.

From six months to like two years.

- As well.

Okay.

- Yes.

It depends on the type.

And it's a very specific place in England where they do the best cheddar, you know?

Well, you see those grape here?

- Mm-hmm.

- Sometime they get a little tired.

So that's what I'm going to do for this here.

Just, here, you can remove this one.

- That one's... Yeah, and that's all we're going to do.

It's fine.

- Wait, no, we're gonna... That's it?

- Yeah.

- Oh, no, we gotta put something on it.

- So, all right.

What do you wanna put in it?

- I don't know.

Let me find stuff.

- Okay.

So I'll keep picking it up.

Those are seedless, of course, which is what you would want to do for that.

Seedless grapes.

- Okay.

- Nice and sweet.

What do you- - Here's a lemon.

Here's the zester thing that you're better at than I am.

- Okay.

- Here's some sugar, which I'm a pro at, and some raisins.

- Okay, well, oh, good.

- Some tired raisins to go with the tired grapes.

Here we go.

- Put some raisins in there.

Great.

- This will be good.

- I'll put some of the, you know, the zest?

- The zest?

Yeah, like this?

- That's good.

- And this.

- That's a nice, simple dessert.

It's gonna be very good actually.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- Here's some sugar.

- I put some lemon juice.

If you put sugar, I'll put some lemon juice in there.

Just press it.

- Is that- - Right through my impeccably clean finger.

- There you go.

- Okay.

- Very nice.

Here's a spoon.

(spoon clinks) - I think that'd be about fine here.

- And here's some bowls.

- Well, mix that in.

Okay.

Thank you, well, I think we are going to be ready to eat, so you can go sit down now.

- Okay.

Oh, - I'll serve you.

- I didn't know what kind of wine.

So we have two bottles open, which you know is always nice.

- [Jacques] It's always nice to have more than not enough.

- Exactly.

- [Jacques] So tell us, what is the first one?

- I have a Sangiovese 1995, - Oh.

- which is gonna be really good.

And found this- - That's the wine from Tuscany, right?

- This is one from Spain.

- Yes, but this one is actually from the Napa Valley.

- Oh.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

That's from Spain.

- From Correggio, this is a Tinto or Tinto de Toro or Tempranillo grape from the center of Spain.

So I think I'm going to take that one too.

And tell us a little bit on our menu now, people say not to drink wine with the asparagus.

- Well, I like wine, so I'll have it with my asparagus, and it'll be fine.

- Okay, good.

So we have the asparagus and ham, and we have that old style gratin of pasta that you- - Macaroni and cheese.

- That you love when you were a kid.

Then we have a beautiful salad.

And finally... - [Claudine] We have nice grapes.

- We have nice grape.

- With raisins.

- So what the old saying goes, what goes around, comes around.

Remember, you can always return to your old favorite in a new way.

Until next time... (glasses clink) - Happy cooking.

- Happy cooking.

(upbeat music)