Kevin72

Allow me to return the compliments on your food, FM. I used Steingarten also last year for my Napoli pizza outing and aged it overnight, as well, and it turned out the best of my crusts. I'll probably be proactive and head off my wife's inevitable pizza request this weekend, as well. Do you do only the bottom with a pizza stone or one on top, as well? I only have the one and am perfectly happy with it, but I do wonder from time to time about how much difference a second one above would make.

I kicked off Campania on Labor Day with one "inspired by" dish and one traditional dish. The "inspired by" item was a pasta with a vegetable and mozzarella condimento, the idea taken from Marcella Cucina using broccoli and mozzarella. The broccoli is cooked to a falling apart stage and half is pureed in a blender to make the sauce. Then everything is tossed with pasta, mozzarella, and the cooking water to melt the cheese (this is the recipe where she declares her disdain for the "pasta roux" as she calls it: using the pasta cooking water to augment the pan sauce). Instead, I used peeled red bell peppers, garlic, and chilies in the sauce, and added basil at the end; sort of a pepper-based Sorrento sauce, I guess: The main was pork chops alla Beneventana, seared pork chops dusted with ground fennel seeds (standing in for fennel pollen) off the heat: Broccoli with lemon and chilies was the contorno.

Even though my wife would probably want otherwise, I'm going to save timpano as a once-a-year, New Year's Eve only treat. But, you DO have cause to celebrate, and I believe that Lynn Rosetto-Kasper even says in Splendid Table that it's traditional to serve a baked pasta for a new birth . . .

For Q4, here’s how the voting’s shaking up so far: Tuscany is in the clear lead and will most likely be the region up for October. The runner-ups, conveniently, are Le Marche and Umbria. A couple people voted for doing a combo thread on both as I suggested. Pontormo came up also with the interesting idea that we do two threads in one month for these two. I still think that one of these two options is best, again due to the limited availability of resources for Le Marche in particular. That would leave both of them for November, or Le Marche in November, Umbria in December. Should we do some sort of a combo, the bonus would be that in December, we’d get to do Emilia-Romagna, which a few people specifically requested for this month, and I think the two go well together with all the festive, Holiday eating. Not to sway the group, of course, but that’s my opinion on how it should run. I’ll leave things open for the next week and everyone can PM me their thoughts, then we’ll come to a final decision.

In September, we are covering the cooking of Campania, whose best-known city is of course Napoli or Naples. Do I really need to do best-known dishes? Pizza, calzones, pasta with tomato sauce, spaghetti with clams . . . it’s amazing how many mainstays are listed here. But then, immigrants from Campania formed a sizeable portion of those Italians who left the poverty of their home country for America and other destinations at the beginning of the 20th century, so their cooking naturally is at the heart of our “red sauce joints”. But there’s much more to the cooking than tomato sauce and buckets of garlic (which is in an of itself a misunderstanding of the more delicate native Campanian cooking): the mountainous regions have hearty fare with goat forming a basis of their ragus. Along the coast, you have wonderful, herbal, light seafood and shellfish dishes. One of the isle of Ischia’s most famous dishes is braised rabbit, of all things. Cookbooks listed as dedicated to Neapolitan cooking on Amazon: Guiliano Bugialli's Food of Naples and Campania The Food and Wine Guide to Naples and Campania by Carla Capalbo Naples at Table : Cooking in Campania by Arthur Schwartz Schwartz's book is really good; I don't have experience with the other two.

Wow, this sounds really interesting. May have to plan a trek to Ft. Worth around it soon. Thanks again for the notice.

Thanks for the report. That is interest that Ft. Worth has managed two big dining destinations in the past couple years. Where's Tim Love worked before? Maybe I missed it, but what's the price like?

It's hard not to bring Puglia to mind when you're surrounded by grapevines, olive trees, and incredible produce around every bend. Though alot of times when just cooking out of hand, I revert to a Tuscan style of cooking. Hey, I didn't get any followup details after she mentioned it, so as far as I'm concerned, my challenge went unanswered!

No, just the low and slow technique for cooking it: after searing the meat off, toss it in a low oven (200 or so) and let it gradually come up to the desired internal temp. The meat emerges tasting incredible that way. You really should get it; it's one of the very best cookbooks I've bought over the last couple years.

In another case of eG/Alison Cook synchronicity, she drools over Himalaya in her latest blog entry and gives special notice to the chef, Kaiser Lashkari. Geeze, another place on my ever expanding list of Houston places to try. I need like two weeks there now just to catch up.

Well, the month's pretty much up. Seems like alot was happening with everyone involved, myself included, which naturally took away from being able to cook from this region. But please, give it a shot sometime, particularly in late spring/early summer when vegetables are exploding. It's really alot of fun and an underrated cuisine I think. Special thanks to Franci's outstanding contributions, advice, and knowledge which really added something new to the threads. See you all in Campania!

Our trip last week was to Sonoma in California, otherwise known as Heaven on Earth. I cooked a few farmer's market inspired meals, and one of them actually was Pugliese: the vegetable stew called ciambotta. Though it completely lacked the sine qua non of the dish, potatoes. For some reason no farmer's market I went to carried them. It did have the bounty of wonderful heirlooms we saw everywhere, as well as zucchini, eggplant, and mottled peppers. I also tossed in some basil but the recipes I've seen for Pugliese ciambotta lack any herbal accompaniment. Last Sunday, we started the meal with baked pasta with eggplant: The eggplant is grilled first, giving the dish a smokier depth of flavor than the similar Pasta alla Norma which I made last month in Sicily. We continued with lamb and peppers from Ada Boni: Though I used a hunk of lamb sirloin and cooked it low and slow, as Paula Wolfert directs in The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen. Sear lamb off, lay it over a bed of roasted peppers, then cook them in an oven together until done. Make a vinegar, anchovy, and garlic emlusion in the pan afterwards with the glazed bits and drizzle over the top. Roasted potatoes topped with pecorino on the side. Our wine: Liked it quite a bit. Last night's meal: I see no one's picked up the 'ncapriatta gauntlet that I threw down at the start of the month; everyone's so busy "giving birth" and whatnot. So I made it, and my wife declared it one of her favorite meals when she got home and saw the spread waiting for her: The standard accompaniment for 'ncapriatta (dried fava beens simmered until they collapse) is sauteed bitter greens and stewed peppers. Jenkins recommends poblanos to stand in for whatever kind gets used in Puglia, and having tasted both, the similarities are remarkable. And the 'ncapriatta, spread over a piece of hot bread, then topped with some of the greens, is such a simple but satisfying combo. I also like everything topped with coarse sea salt to add a textural and even more earthy crunch. Also, I whipped up a mint frittata to go with, but in hindsight it wasn't necessary.

I caught the 'cue episode by chance and it was pretty fascinating. A little too much jumping around but I enjoyed it.

I'll add to the chorus of glowing reviews for General's Daughter. I scoped out this thread while researching dining options for our family stay in Sonoma and all the positive reviews for it caught my eye. Chef Dishman was accommodating and welcoming of my PMs to him and we ate there last Tuesday, 8/22. There wasn't a thing on the menu I didn't want. I finally got to taste foie gras done right and it was beyond words. Now of course it'll get banned . . . my wife's pork with "squealing pig" risotto was also a highlight of the evening, but honestly, everything we had was done perfectly; there wasn't a single misstep in the food all night. And the service was polished, helpful, and attentive. Chef Dishman came out and spent some time talking to us after the meal, showing us around the grounds, and was overall an engaging and gracious host. Fantastic evening and best meal I've had, not just on this trip, but in quite some time. Thanks to eG as always for the helpful resources, and most especially thanks to Chef Dishman, his wife, and all the staff at General's Daughter.

I've been out of town on vacation the past week, so belated congratulations to Foodman and Bigjas of course! Welcome back Franci, thanks again for the great pictures of Puglia. And hats off, not just for prying open raw mussels and stuffing them, but then individually tying them shut again?! Bigjas, I have that problem as well with homemade orecchiette and have reverted back to using store-bought. I can't decide which version I like more: the kind braisede with anchovies and topped with breadcrumbs, or with the sausage.

Great pics Kent. Cafe Madrid's been on the radar for some time but I can never quite get myself to go; maybe now those photos will get me out there sometime.

Chronicle critic Alison Cook enthuses about Raindrop as well and gives Mr. Francis a thank you shout-out on her blog.

I blanked on which one they're notorious for. I'm curious to try that one for sure, but I think I may need to supplement it with another pizza just to get my proper pizza fix.

Monday night's meal started with baked mushrooms, based on a recipe from one of the sites posted at the beginning of the month: I augmented the bread crumb topping with some eggs, don't know why. Continued the meal with orecchiette with sausage and turnip greens: The greens were a happy accident: the store was out of both broccoli rabe and dandelion greens, and only then did I find the turnip greens and recall Franci's remark that those were more typically used in Puglia. To drink with the meal:

Looking good, deens! Welcome to the threads. I'm starting to be a fan of aging pizza and calzone doughs overnight myself, also.

FINALLY got to go here and was not disappointed. Had the roasted mushrooms with "ricotta rosso" and mint, beets with horseradish, prosciutto platter, and fried anchovies to start, then split the pancetta/leek/robiola pizza. All the choices were tough; there wasn't a thing on the menu I didn't want. All the pastas sounded great, too. Most definitely Batali-inspired menu and flavor combinations and he did everything well. I was particularly impressed with the mushrooms; you'd think when you see them come out, nestled in a bowlful of tomato-tinged ricotta that it won't work, but they play very well off each other. All the flavors used that night were very pristine and distinct, I thought. Excellent pizza; I thought it tasted like "onion soup on a pizza" but no one agreed with me. And service was great; our waiter was very knowledgeable and attentive and we did not feel rushed at all. We talked at length with him about Sabor, Wiley's newest addition, a Mexican seafood and tapas place that just opened in the past month or so. Ah, Houston. You've done it again. Missed ya, FM!

Yeah, when I lived in Georgia and ate barbecue there, there was no sausage to be found anywhere. I was even asking locals about it and they looked at me funny.

And now, the unfortunate hangover from your road trip: finding cue anywhere near as good in DFW.

Well, you've definitely earned your place on the boards for sure, now! Look forward to hearing more about these upcoming projects. Richard Kilgore is a good contact on some of the Taquerias in the DFW area. I enjoyed the thread greatly as well. But, I'm not letting you off easy: any final thoughts? Do you crave cue at all even? Any standouts? All around best place? What single item was the best? Which place do you wish you'd eaten the cue on site at? ETA: Nice kitchen!

Like Foodman, I made some Pane di Altamura this weekend. This is a bread I seem cursed to never be able to do correctly. Either it's so dense it barely rises (and sometimes even gets tossed and started over) or is so loose that it spreads out and flattens more than it puffs up. This was a little of both. But I do use all semolina, and kinda like the idea of doing it with half AP--with apologies to Altamurans whose heart I'm breaking of course. Started the meal with a summer vegetable minestrone from Jenkins' book: At first I was worried that it would be too similar in flavor to ciambella, the vegetable stew favored in Puglia, since many of the same elements were in there. But it would up being quite different, thankfully, and tasty. For the main, we had "polpettone" and my variation on a stuffed "meatloaf" Mario made for his Puglia shows. I stuffed mine with bitter greens, to cut some of the rich, fatty, meat flavor. Braised in red wine and tomato sauce. Didn't do the separate pasta course with the braising liquids; I'm kinda pasta-d out lately. To drink with the meal: I still have the other (similar looking) bottle of the Primitivo you had, Nathan.