Sautéing marinated chicken breast
Chef Darren Norris puts three skillets side by side on the stove at Hank’s Pasta Bar. A huge vat of pasta water sits on the back burner ready for ladling into the emulsions for the pasta dishes cooking on the burners.
Norris has started linguine Cacio e Pepe with chicken which he says has been one of the favorites in the week since the restaurant has had a soft opening. He has started rigatoni bolognese on the far burner. “Normally I do several pastas at one time.”
In the first skillet he is heating olive oil and adds about 4 ounces of cubed chicken breast that has been marinated 24 hours in freshly chopped rosemary and minced garlic. He sautés the chicken several minutes, adding a little water and turning the pieces over to keep them from sticking to the pan. 
“I don’t use non-stick pans. They aren’t good for the food or for people either.”
In the middle skillet he starts the emulsion for the cacio e pepe with about 1-1/2 Tablespoons of olive oil. He adds fresh Tellicherry pepper. “I always grind it fresh and put the heat on high to get the pepper to bloom.”
Norris adds a ladle of pasta water to get the emulsion going and then tosses in about 6 ounces of Mancini pasta. Norris says the pasta is about 70 percent precooked “so it is very useful for what we do here.” He explains the pastas from Mancini are single estate pastas made from the grain on the land where they are produced a little east of Tuscany. We tasted about 20 different kinds before we chose this one. It is delicious.”
Norris moves back and forth from skillet to skillet as he scoops bolognese, which he has already prepared, from a large vat into a third skillet and turns the heat to medium. The bolognese has been made from a trio of finely ground veal, beef and pork sautéed with a combination of tomato paste and San Marzano DOP imported tomatoes of protected origin, and soffrito (chopped celery, onion and carrots) which has been sautéed in fat from rendered pancetta. Then some added pasta water.
“I add both chianti and Pinot Grigio to the sauce. Then instead of cooking the pasta in water, I cook the rigatoni in the bolognese sauce to add the flavor of the sauce to the pasta.”
He adds a few pats of butter to the bolognese. “It gives the dish a better mouth feel with a rich flavor profile. Finally I sprinkle on a little bit of Kosher salt.” He tosses in a generous handful of Parmesan and sprinkles an additional portion on the finished dish.
Norris turns back to the fettuccini which has been cooked in the emulsion and adds the chicken cubes, tossing in a handful of Pecorino Romano and tossing until it gets creamy. Norris plates the pasta in a large white bowl, adds a sprinkle of additional cheese and a hint of parsley.
He turns to the burrata with slow fermented tomatoes. Norris has fermented local San Marzano tomatoes in 2 percent sea salt in a vacuum sealed bag at room temperature for 48 hours. “See how they glisten, and it brings out the flavor.”
He puts the resulting tomato juice into an extractor and filters the liquid through cheesecloth, then reducing it to make a tomato glacé. Norris perches an imported Artigiana buffalo milk “with super creamy texture” on top of the tomatoes, squirts a bit of tomato glace around the edge and adds a drizzle of Sicilian pistachio pesto with a taste of DeCarlo olive oil.
Norris has come to Hank’s Pasta Bar from Shibuya Eatery, his Japanese restaurant in Chevy Chase, which he says was pretty much on auto pilot, and he was ready to do something else. “I’ve been friends with the owner for over 20 years. She came into my restaurant to eat lunch and I told her I was looking for something to do. Now here I am.”
He dates his interest in food back to when he was a teenager traveling the circuit through Europe and around the US with his father who was a professional tennis player. “He was a great food and wine connoisseur. I didn’t intend to be a chef but I got a job in an Italian restaurant when I was studying to be an architect and discovered I liked cooking more.”
Norris moved to DC in 2005 where he was Executive Chef for Ridgewells. Then he opened up Kusshi in 2010 and was chosen as Best New Restaurant of the Year by the Washingtonian and as a James Beard quarter finalist for Best New Restaurant.
Hank’s Pasta Bar is a re-creation of a similar restaurant which closed down during Covid. But the concept of a sit down pasta bar inside the already existing Hank’s Oyster Bar is a new one. The restaurant features signature dishes as well as build your own pasta choices, with options to dine in, carry out or take and bake and delivery. It is located at 600 Montgomery Street. The grand opening was scheduled for May 15.