I went to the Italian restaurant owned by the guy I had a beef with last summer. We had these vendors in and they wanted to take us to dinner and since they were paying I figured why not. Let them give the guy money and make his Tuesday night. So we had a nice old school Italian dinner. Hot antipasto with eggplant rollatini, baked clams, stuffed artichokes, shrimps and mussels. Also some fried zucchini and mozzarella in caroza for starters. Then I had gnocchi and the wife had linguine with black olives, garlic and oil and grilled chicken. The other people had various stuff like grilled sea bass, lasagna and a big salad for the vegan. Plus a tartuffo bomba for desert. So a good time was had by all.
Just put me in mind of a spicy Italian. Enjoy.
13 comments:
Che cattura!
Gotta love the Italians and food. You know the old saying, the Italians taught the Frogs how to cook. It goes back to Caesar's conquest of Gaul when he told them to quit kissing his feet and go make him a salad.
True story.
There's a great Italian restaurant that I get to maybe twice a year. I have never had a bad meal and I am not much of a fan of the cuisine usually. Their antipasto comes gratis which to my mind is quite a generous "Welcome to my place".
My very favorite thing though is Mama. Yes, Mama. Her sons sit around with their wives and girlfriends, laughing, drinking and telling jokes all night. Mama, who is in her 80's works in the kitchen she told me from 6am to closing time. She then changes and comes out to greet the guests still hanging out for the entertainment. She never fails to take my cheeks in her hands and squeeze them, followed by a big kiss. I love Mama.
She is quite the tartuffo bomba.
That's a great story Penny. I am filled with love for Italians. Italy was my first real taste of "away from home" freedom at 19. I lived in my parents basement during college, and going away was never really an option. After my first year, and at my mother's urging, I made it to Italy alone that summer, meeting up with an Italian friend I had known as a high school exchange student.
I had saved up the money, a princely sum of $856 which covered round trip airfare, some train travel and 8 weeks of spending money. I stayed free anywhere I could, including places I shouldn't have.
In those days, Italians still loved Americans (in my heart I believe they still do), especially one who was trying learn their language and culture. I met a couple of the "Mama's" of which you speak, and one even gave me some recipes.
Italians are wonderful people, and have contributed a great deal to our country. To them I say salute (cheers)
Whoa, very brave, chickenlittle! Especially for someone leaving home for the first time.
Would you consider sharing any of those recipes with us?
I loved Italy when I was there many, many moons ago.
The place, the people, the weather--not walking the streets, though since they'd run you over.
Thanks for asking Penny, and I'd love to, but unfortunately I've lost the originals that I wrote down. One was for a delicious little appetizer called bagna càuda. There's a description here at the bottom of the page. Bagna càuda is regional specialty that you don't find in many Italian restaurants. The family I was staying with didn't serve it up in fondue pots though- the "mama" slathered the stuff on peppers which had been cut lengthwise and roasted such that the slices lay flat.
You can tell from the ingredients that it's unusual. When I brought this back to friends and family, some went for for it while others were repelled. It was like cultural litmus.
The second recipe was for a "from scratch" meatless tomato sauce which included rosemary and thyme. The two spices were cooked separately and then combined in the end. The real tricky part was cooking the tomatoes long enough to get their acidity down without overdoing it. It's tough to do because different tomatoes have different acidities. The woman I learned it from had it down to an art. It takes hours. If anybody out there, Chip Ahoy? has any tips, I would greatly appreciate.
CL--
That sounds interesting, that sauce recipe. Have you tried googling for it?
blake--I've googled around for it, but I always run into too many recipes that are not it, e.g. ones that combine everything and cook together. This stuff was like nothing else I had had before, and I recall her stressing the importance cooking down the tomatoes and the separation of spices. I've checked Hazan, but she's pretty much bolognese instead of piemontese.
On the other hand, maybe I should just try one of those recipes and see if it does it for me. When I make Hollandaise sauce, I'm always careful about phase separation; I once described this to a friend who also made sauces and she said "just throw it all in blender and don't worry". And you know, her's was pretty good too. :)
Is that cellulite?
Actually I have thought about making bagna cauda many times, chickenlittle, just haven't gotten around to it. I love garlic and I love anchovies, so hard to imagine that I wouldn't enjoy it.
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