I finally found a recipe for pizzocheri. I'm super-excited to try it...but I wonder what Erin will think. I also have to find the dang pasta.

Made some good scrambled eggs this morning. Cooked with a bit of cream over a double-boiler. Perfect! Also working on my breakfast potatoes. So far: boil some red potatoes (start when water is cold), dice into 1/2-inch cubes, rinse and dry, cook in a bit of veg oil on low-med. Don't move them! Add herbs at end, or salsa, or whatever.

Labels: food

It was a big day yesterday for the large Le Creusset French oven Erin and I received for our wedding. I put it through the paces making, or trying to make, French onion soup. Old School. Three pounds of onion. Three hours of sauté. One pot.

I've got to say I was pretty well pleased both with the oven and, if I may be allowed to pat my own back, the soup. There's really something magical about the onion, how it slowly changes character, releasing more and different flavors the longer and slower it's cooked. Something beautiful, too, in the deep ambers of its fond, slowly darkening in the cast iron to walnut brown. Really, the soup is just one stage of this process, and eating it another. A continuum that starts when the first onion is sliced.

I should also add that Erin made a magnificent Greek salad to accompany the soup. I was skeptical of her choice at first (I had in mind something with beets and fennel), but it was a natural combination. Erin always surprises me in this way. She has a real nose for taste, and can pick out flavors way better than me, and often surprises me with her observations and choices. But she makes no distinction between Taco Bell and Higgins, fois gras and fake cheddar. They each hold equal appeal for her. She's like a Zen gourmet.

Labels: food

Notes on pasta rustica:
So, this is a dish I think I remember Alberto making at LaVecchia, but I never got the recipe, so I was left with just the flavor. I've tried to reverse engineer the dish from my memory, and after about 50 iterations I think I'm pretty close, or maybe not. At least I think it tastes okay.

Bacon or pancetta, about 2 slices per person
shallot, chopped fine
garlic, chopped coarse
portabella mushroom, about 1 per person, sliced 1/4 inch strips
balsamic vinegar
roasted red bell pep
kalmata olives
rosemary sprig
heavy cream
grated parmesan.

Slice or chop bacon or pancetta and brown, then remove and wipe down pan, pouring out excess grease

Put a little olive oil in the pan and saute the shallot for a minute, then add garlic for a couple seconds.

Add mushrooms and cook to sweat, then crank up heat and add vinegar to deglaze pan. Add a bunch of vinegar, more than you think you'd want. Unless you're Erin, then add somewhat less than you'd want. Cook to reduce vinegar until it thickens a bit and gets a tiny bit sweet.

Add other stuff except cream and cook for a minute or so. Add cream and reduce. Remove from heat and add parmesan. Serve over heavy pasta like spag no 8 or penne.

You can also make the dish with chicken, which you'd add before the mushrooms. Don't cook too long before adding mushrooms.

Labels: food