Kevin72

Thanks everyone!

I'm going to be busy all day Wednesday and so won't have time to get to the store for that night's dinner. It involves mussels, and so I'll buy them tomorrow then plan to try to keep them overnight for use the following day. I don't normally do this, but what's the best way? Packed on ice? Submerged in (salt) water? Do either mussels or clams traditionally keep better than the other?

You know, I'm kind of in the same mood lately myself. Wasn't so into cooking this meal and got frustrated when the pansotti (made with 00 flour) started sticking and coming apart easily while resting before cooking. My wife loved them, they were good enough I guess but nothing so enormously different from other stuffed pastas to run out and make. Plus, you've made more than enough stuffed pastas after your party I'm sure!

Reviving this thread after a disappointing first visit to Peggy Sue this weekend. Everything I read raved about the sides, but they're in these miniscule bowls. With Babe's visit fresh on our minds, the sides couldn't even begin to compare. And the barbecue sauce was pretty bad; too much cumin and chili powder.

In the pansotti: prescinseua cheese (as a substitute, Plotkin suggests ricotta and yogurt mixed together, which I did), then wilted watercress and spinach, fresh oregano flowers, and lemon thyme.

Even harder to come by than Ligurian olive oils are, it seems, Ligurian wines. I did manage to find, if not a Ligurian olive oil, at least one made with the regions taggesca olives. No luck on the wines, though. Tasted a little of it and it was buttery and even vaguely sweet. Unforunately, it's a small bottle and probably a good portion of it would go to making a regular batch of pesto, so I'm not sure what I'll do when I do get to it. The primo for Saturday's meal was pansotti with walnut sauce: The pansotti were not in the traditional ravioli or triangular shape but rather folded into a triangle, then the base ends looped together as for capelacci (my triangles are always sloppy and misshapen, and this technique masks it well). The walnut sauce is green from the chives I substituted for garlic in hopes of a more delicate and herbal flavor. The main were tomaxelle "di tacchino", with turkey substituting for the $24.99/lb veal scallopinni the recipe usually calls for. As a side note, I think cookbook authors should be required to live in, say, Kansas City or St. Louis or some other "normal" city besides New York when writing about ingredients. Plotkin recommends veal leg for the cutlets. Veal itself is hard enough to come by; and he so casually recommends getting not just veal but the leg? Grrr. But I did use ground veal in the stuffing, along with porcini and breadcrumbs. Ada Boni has cow's udder in her recipe, but sadly, I had uses the last of that to make a sandwich that afternoon. They tasted like a really good meatloaf encased in a nice, firm coating of turkey to keep everything moist. For the contorni, zucchini with green olive pesto and basil.

Artichoke, I agree with you almost completely. I made rabbit for the first time last fall (and, on topic, did get a little queasy breaking it down, also.). Didn't see any appreciable difference between it and dark meat chicken, unforunately. I do think there's got to be some raising issue because when I've had it in Italy it was much richer and more full flavored.

Yeah, the odd observation I have from our Roman trip is that even though every place we went had Amatriciani on the menu, invariably it was on penne, rigatoni, or some other short tube pasta instead of bucatini. Faves: Pappardelle, tagliatelle, orecchiette, ziti, penne rigate.

The Kahn's Reuben pretty much begins and ends this discussion for me.

First meal in Liguria. Focaccia with olives: Chickpea soup with mushrooms: To lift the earthy, base flavors in the chickpea soup I made a parsley "oil" with raw garlic in it as well. Pretty addictive stuff.

Oh, man that sucks. That's got to be up there with losing a bottle of wine or spilling stock all over the floor. Ugh. Even worse is what a pain in the ass it is to clean up. I feel ya there.

Didn't see if anyone answered this yet but I finally did some research. There's a dish in Plotkin's book that looks like fried ravioli, but I think the Ligurians refer to it as a foccaccia. And, yes, they are fried in olive oil. That was some quest for olive oil! Last year I spent all day one Saturday looking for Ligurian oil as well to no avail. I haven't seen anything like hummus for Ligurian cooking. You have the dried fava spreads down south, but oddly, I don't recall anything with dried chickpeas . . . I can't conceptualize liking this, but then I'm not a fan of cracker-crust pizza, either. Looks fine as it is. Part of that is that Liguria is largely a vegetable based cuisine. The waters off the shore are not as rich in seafood as other areas. Too, as it is so steeply mountainous, it's hard to have pasturage for sheep, cows, or pigs, so alot of game and birds, and they use alot of cured meats from trade routes with Emilia Romagna and Tuscany. Huge tart and savory pie culture, as we've seen. Finally, everything is sure looking green! Thread's going so fast again that I can't keep up. But I was really happy to see a famous Adam seafood meal earlier on!

That was Adam who made the pesto. Quick rule of thumb: spectacularly arranged, mouthwatering photos=Adam. Fuzzy, off center, static shots with messy arrangements on the plate=me! Great looking pizza; I love the arranged rows!

Rouge--upscale Tapas. Very fun and different. Killer mojitos. York Street--Local, seasonal food. Green Room--for their always fun Feed me, Wine me meal Babe's Chicken--Fried chicken place we just tried. I'm about to start a thread on this one! I second Lanny's and Thai-riffic. Richard Kilgore should be able to name some of the local taquerias he frequents that are a great experience. And, yeah, your friend should make a weekend and go to Austin, but particularly just to sample 'cue in Lockhart. I've heard Austin is a neat little town, also.

I know I'm not setting a good example, and apologies to Liguria, but I had to get a last Roman meal in this weekend. Hey, I made foccaccia earlier in the motnh, so essentially I've already made something Ligurian, right? Anyways, we started with carciofi alla Romana, Roman artichokes braised with mint and frascati: Not much to look at, but oh, momma. I need to remember to start serving this with bread to mop up all that tasty olive oil left at the bottom of the dish. When I think of Roman food I think of one thing immediately: bucatini all'Amatriciani. I used the last bit of my "treated" bacon slab to make this. I will make it with real guanciale, someday. But I have some to like the smokiness of the bacon in this sauce. In fact I'd rather make it with slab bacon than pancetta at this point (though I did use some pancetta this time to augment the small amount of bacon I had left). Like mrbigjas said earlier, I, too, had a revelatory experience eating this dish in Rome where I was relieved at how much the real deal tasted like mine, minus the smokey flavor, of course. The main were grilled lamb chops, wrapped with pancetta to keep them moist, then served with a simple arugula salad. Last year when I made these for my Roman month, I called them "scotaditti", ("burn the fingers", another dish name/descriptive along the lines of saltimbocca, here meaning they're so good you'll burn your fingers grabbing them off the grill) but Hathor pointed out, and my own experience confirmed, that to be really "scotaditti" they needed to be gristly, boney, shoulder chops. I considered going that route but then recalled that my wife's not such a fan of gristly, fatty cuts of meat and backed down. All right, now I'm done. On to Liguria.

Looks wonderful as always, Chufi! I had my eye on that very same fish dish for this month, as well. Congratulations on being the first out of the gate with a Ligurian dinner! Do they sell frozen edamame in Amsterdam?

I think Sneakeater just became my favorite poster. I mean, it's a Manhattan. THE cocktail, as far as I'm concerned. That's like finding out a chef hates to make a steak.

I have a question. We inherited a peach tree and a fig tree with our house in Plano(one of the big selling points, next to the gi-normous kitchen ). This is the first year we're in the house to see the peaches and figs through. Any recommendations on how to keep the critters away? Any special other treatment involved, or just let 'em go? When should we be looking for the peaches to be ready?

Sounds like it! May not be spiced the same, and it could be smoked . . . ? Even so, lucky you again! Looks like we need to re-open your blog!

Guanciale is a different product made from pig's jowl instead of belly (as pancetta is). Pancetta is sold rolled or flat, like standard (American) bacon, in Italy. Not sure which regions the flat kind is more prevalent in, though.

← Zwaaa? That makes no sense! What about the live crabs laying on their backs in the Rialto market? Or the live fish flopping around in bins? Don't tell me there's a movement to get rid of the fish markets next!

I think that in all likelihood we'll probably unfortunately see a wave of foie gras bannings across the country next. Maybe some attention will then be turned to veal, but I'd like to think that there can be alterations made in the process (i.e., "free range"). Then again, the same could also be said of foie gras. Still, these things have a way of petering out. In general, PETA isn't so well looked upon, so a well-funded countercampaign revealing them as the source of these movements would probably eventually put a stop to this.

According to Plotkin, the "bread" is really more of a cracker that is traditional in this region. It sops up all the sauce and juices of the magro. In his recipe he stacks the vegetables separate. Here's my spazzy attempt at it from last year.

Lucky! Did he use pancetta or guanciale? And did he bring all that with him or buy it local?

An Amazon search usually offers the "New and Used" option under the searches. I've used Halfpricebooks.com and Booksamillion.com before. Neither of them have Downie's book, however.