Kevin72

Athinaeos, were the octopus and artichokes stuffed? I love the idea of walking in off the docks and getting such a fantastic homey meal. And Elie wins for "most gusto" this month! Bread and digestivi already! That bread looks fantastic; I just remembered that I needed to stock up and make a few loaves this month as well. I'll be interested to see you tackle Puglia's famous breads next month! I liked that watermelon pudding as well, though I would omit the chips next time I made it; maybe it was because they melted into the pudding and made it look unappealing when I did it, but they just took away from the harmonious flavors of the rest of the dish.

All the veggies in that dish didn't appeal to me when I was trying to decide which of Mario's numerous Sicilian-style braised chicken dishes to make last year. I finally decided to go with his chicken in vin'cotto, wherein a separate braising liquid of red wine, cinnamon, and sugar are prepared, steeped, and then added to chicken after it has been browned. Even though you may be sick of braises and braised chicken, this is a worthwhile pursuit and really sends up an incredible aroma. Incidentally, I forgot to mention that Mario's Sicily shows are real standouts and I think a couple are even coming up on FTV this month. He's absolutely giddy and enthusiastic about the region and it's hard not to catch that feeling.

Chronicle restaurant critic Alison Cook enthuses about her visit to Phoenicia in her blog. ("Hail Phoenicia")

Thanks as always for the wine info, Brad. Any experience with malvasia? In Dallas we have a hard time coming by the dessert wines due to the alcohol content, and so don't get much beyond marsala for sweet Sicilian wines.

Currently dealing with the potato salad issue ourselves from July 4th. I like the 1/4 lb per person recommendation mentioned earlier. In April I had a tapas party and made enough for probably 20 people at least, only 8 showed up and we wound up eating tapas for lunch and dinner every day for the next week. Urgh. Last fall I made the Tuscan bread and tomato soup papa al pomodoro and I swear that damned stuff regenerated in our fridge. Two weeks of lunches it took to get rid of it and I think I finally just threw it out in disgust at the thought of eating it one more day.

And we're off! Elie, what liquor did you use, proportions, etc. for the digestivi? I had meant to make at least a batch of limoncello for this month but time got away from me last month. I love fish in a salt crust, too. May be my favorite fish presentation. Great meal, also, Andrew. And that cat's expression is perfect. Pontormo, if you check out Sweet Sicily by Victoria Granof, there's lots of recipes for pistachios, including a pistachio pastry cream.

Oh man. Loved it. Loved how basically 3/4ths of the episode was just eating the meal itself. And yet one of my favorite parts was the visit to Jamonissimo.

That is extremely odd. And you're right, it doesn't say anywhere that I could see on the menu that they'd be a meat loaf. That almost strikes me as being unscrupulous.

Plowed through this over the weekend and also enjoyed it. I also really liked the "additional notes" and commentary at the end and helped salvage some of the harder-to-swallow editorials, notably "Sleaze Gone By" where he originally revels in the edgier, grittier NY of old, including druggies and muggings, then takes himself to task for being too full of bravado. (Though it does beg the question of why include it at all in the collection . . . ?). Loved the Masa piece, the favorite spots in NY, hearing his take the new celebrity culture and how he's toned down on Emeril and Flay, the Woody Harrelson diatribe, a different look at the Sicily ep from No Reservations. It was weird to read the Ferran Adria piece and then to turn around and watch it that night; pretty much a transcript of the episode.

Delicious looking stuff there. Those clams! They have to be pretty small: look at them compared against the pasta!

July brings us the cooking of Sicily. I’m really pumped about this month of cooking, most especially to see how everyone else does with it. Last year when I cooked from Sicily (also in July), I had a great time; I would just find myself grinning while prepping the food. It’s so aromatic and exotic and full of weird combos that you don’t see elsewhere in Italy. Things you’d never think would work together wind up being the best dishes; I’d encourage finding some out-there Sicilian recipes and giving them a spin (my favorites from last year: duck with chocolate, cantaloupe caponata, baked pasta with and orange and cinnamon-scented sausage ragu). I’m going to try to acquire an actual Sicily cookbook this month, since usually I just go by the references in my other books. A booksearch on Amazon for Sicily reveals the following books: Ciao Sicily by Damian Mandola, Johnny Carrabba Sweet Sicily: The Story of an Island and Her Pastries by Victoria Granof Sicily: A Way of Life in 50 Recipes by Janine Saine Foods of Sicily and Sardinia and the Smaller Islands by Giuliano Bugialli, John Dominis The Flavors of Sicily by Anna Tasca Lanza "Pinch" of Sicily : A Collection of Memories and Traditional Recipes by maria sciortino Cucina Paradiso: The Heavenly Food of Sicily by Clifford A. Wright The Heart of Sicily : Recipes & Reminiscences of Regaleali, a Country Estate by Anna Tasca Lanza Sicily (Flavors of Italy , Vol 2, No 4) by Mariapaola Dettore, McCrae Books Southern Italian Cooking : Family Recipes from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by Jo Bettoja Pomp And Sustenance : Twenty Five Centuries Of Sicilian Food by Mary Simeti Taylor Cucina Siciliana by Clarissa Hyman Bitter Almonds: Recollections and Recipes from a Sicilian Girlhood by Maria Grammatico Sicilian Feasts by Giovanna Bellia La Marca Sicilian Home Cooking: Family Recipes from Gangivecchio by Wanda Tornabene, Giovanna Tornabene, Michele Evans Many Beautiful Things: Stories and Recipes from Polizzi Generosa -- by Vincent Schiavelli So, quite a bit to choose from, over and above the chapters on Sicily in the regional cookbooks we’ve been referencing. I have Schiavelli’s book and really enjoy it, Sweet Sicily is dessert-oriented but still very worthwhile. Classic dishes and preparations would take up pages, but suffice it to say, lots of seafood, especially compared against Sardinian traditional cooking. Sicily’s been ruled by nearly every Mediterranean power at one point or another and has embraced an elaborate layer of influences and dishes. Sweet and sour is a common preparation, but what is interesting is how varied the theme plays out: it’s a lot more than vinegar, sugar, raisins, and pine nuts. Chocolate is thrown in for a dash of bitter to balance out the dish in some recpies; in others the sweet comes from fresh fruit or honey instead of just sugar; in others the sour comes from citrus instead of vinegar. There’s a wealth of antipasti to choose from: many of them deep-fried. Pastas abound, but there’s also an interesting tradition of rice dishes and timabelle. Finally, vegetables are abundant and you could almost make a month out of vegetarian dishes, and a month more just on the variations on caponata, the sweet/sour condimento found here. Even more pages could be devoted to the elaborate Sicilian sweet tooth: gelato, cannoli, zeppole, bigne, cassata just scratch the surface of some of the more famous sweets originated or perfected here. Let’s get cooking! I’m really excited to see what everyone does . . .

Sorry, been out of town. I'll get my notes ready and start one in the next day or two here.

Walnuts can be a common element in various pestos either on their own or as a substitute for pine nuts. However, I do think they were the culprit in the bitter flavor. And, no parsley next time.

My brother and I both liked Paddington Bear when we were growing up and I was always mystified by his peanut butter and marmalade sandwiches, not quite knowing what "marmalade" was ("It's like jelly" was all I could get when asked). Then once we were staying with friends and I was excited to see that they had both peanut butter and marmalade in their pantry and whipped up a sandwich for myself one day when no one was around and, well . . . I learned that his craving for these sandwiches was supposed to be weird.

The antipasto and the dessert are pretty authentic and you'd find them for the most part in Italy, just not in the same region. Mi Piaci uses alot of traditional Italian ingredients and techniques and give them an American spin. The grilled the grilled radicchio and polenta, for example, are a common pairing in the Veneto area of Italy. Yeah, you probably wouldn't normally find salmon there, but a grilled local fish of some kind would be a natural accompaniment. Though polenta is often served by itself as a first course. Something I part way with Italian tradition on myself. Good as the tortelloni are, however, most self-respecting Italians would faint at seeing their beloved pasta dish so gussied up: totelloni are invariably served with either just butter and sage or in a broth.

It isn't really hard to make, per se, but it is pretty time consuming and not something you can leave to just cook, since you're putting stuff in the oven, removing it, separating it quickly, etc.

Update: Owner Michel Monzain has unloaded the operation to a local nightclub owner, according to the Dallas Observer and he's wasted no time in trying to undo some of the negative publicity and quality the place had garnered. Though some former associates of Monzain's have also moved up to Plano and are trying similar tactics at Premier Wines.

Pastry's more the problems I have; I'm pretty okay with bread doughs and such, though.

What time of year will this be? Puglia is a great, somewhat off the beaten path destination that may be good to decompress from the tourist crowds of Rome and Amalfi. I agree with Steven that while you should see Alberobello, it's kind of turning into a tourist trap. I'd also add Ostuni to your destinations to go to in Puglia and you could make it your base of operations to go to Alberobello, Monopoli, and other places along the peninsula. You would best benefit by getting a car for this part of the trip, however.

Of the regions we've done so far, Rome continues to be my favorite. I love the simplicity, robust, straightforward flavors and cooking style. However, lately, probably due to roasting in 100F summer weather already, I've been thinking fondly of Piemonte and its rich braises and roasts and looking forward already to a hopefully very cold winter here in Texas. I suspect everyone's favorite region will change after next month . . .

Pane curasau, aka Sardinian Sheet Music bread, is one of the more widely recognized culinary exports of the island; at least here in Dallas I've spotted it packaged and for sale in a number of gourmet grocers. I used the recipe from Marcella Cucina. Make a semolina dough with a little less yeast than normal for this batch, let it rise, cut the dough in half, then half, then half again and keep going until you have 16 equal pieces of dough. Shape them each into a ball, let rise again. Roll out the balls into a small disc. Then, flour the top of one disc, put another disc of dough onto it, and roll them together into an even wider, thinner disc. Slide them onto a baking stone in your oven set to kill. They poof up immediately: After about a minute and a half, remove the poofed up disc from the oven. Working quickly before it deflates, cut around the edges to open it up and let steam out, then pull the disc apart into two halves again. Set aside and work through the rest of the dough. Lower the heat on the oven and, working in batches, put the discs back in to crisp up, again about a minute and half or so. Now, you wind up with a stack of stiff, crackly, "sheets" of bread: What to do with these now? They keep forever, if carefully wrapped, and originated for the shepherds to take with them on their long forays into the wilderness. Refresh them by dipping them in hot water. I guess in the shepherd's meal, these and a piece of cheese were probably the meal. In a more elaborate fashion, though, you can top the refreshed bread with a lamb ragu. When made in this fashion, they are now called pane fratau. This is what I did with them Monday night after making the batch most of Sunday afternoon. I'd dip a disc of dough into boiling water to refresh them, then laid it onto a baking sheet. Topped with a spoonful of lamb ragu (lamb shoulder, ground lamb to augment since lamb shoulder has somehow become impossible to find, pancetta, chilies, bay leaves, red wine, and yet more of the tomato mint sauce) and grated cheese. Refresh another disc and repeat, until you have three layers of discs. I then baked them, though Marcella's recipe just calls for you to toss the discs with the sauce. Out of the oven, I followed Hathor's writeup from the start of the month and topped it with a poached egg. There are few things in this world that can't be improved with an egg over them. Delicious, robust, rustic. The bread had a decidedly different texture than crepes, which you would worry would have had the same effect, but instead it lends a nice rough texture to the whole thing. Now, what to do with those other ten sheets . . . .

The fonduta tortellini variations that they do there are always a standout; they had another one one time that was spicy eggplant and veal that was amazing. I find, particularly since their original Chef Kevin Ascolese left several years ago, the quality to be frustratingly and wildly inconsistent. Last time we went a year ago it was all very bland and underseasoned; the time before that it was one of the best experiences there and the service in particular was notable. I always like their salumi platters and particularly the semolina and cheese wafers that come with them.

Here's a meal I usually cook on or near Midsummer's Eve. The primo is inpsired by the stuffed pasta mentioned above in Michele Scicolone's Italian Holiday Cooking book. I use the flowers from my herbs (mint and oregano), parsley, and cheese for the filling. I experimented with rosewater in the pasta dough but it didn't really come through, even though the dough really smelled of it whenever I was kneading and rolling it out. The condimento is butter sauteed with zucchini and nastertium(sp?) flowers. The main is yet another grilled fish (see Sardinia thread for Friday's meal), this time striped bass, with golden tomato and basil oil. I winged dessert: grilled peaches topped with yogurt, brown sugar, and barely whisked cream. Pretty good, actually. The caramelized parts of the peaches were surprising, nearly like toasted marshmallows.

Sardinian-inspired experimentation continues. For Friday night’s primo, I used the frozen leftover malloreddus from the beginning of the month to make a sweet pepper and squid ragu: Red bell peppers are slowly stewed with olive oil and oregano, pureed with white wine, and then used as the base for braising calamari. Again, the malloreddus, despite cooking for nearly 10 minutes, were a little too unpleasantly firm. The main was grilled bluefish topped with more of the tomato-mint sauce (also batched up and frozen at the beginning of the month), augmented with chilies and bay leaves.

That's pretty much it; she often improvises dishes she's had or seen prepared, and usually explains why (a method I'm no stranger to myself). But in her Northern cookbook, her recipe for ragu Bolognese includes porcini and balsamic vinegar. Urk.