Kevin72

Alot of dialectical Italian also uses "J", particularly in those border regions that are near other countries. Puglia, for example, uses "j" quite a bit.

And, mine were even smaller than you described: about the size of your thumbnail. But they did look like that.

They're from a region I believe that's even called Gaeta, in between Rome and Naples. I hear wonderful things about them but when I've bought them in the U.S. they've not been very good; very soft. I cooked with them recently and they dissolved into the dish and turned it a repulsive purplish-black color. Not to cast aspersions on the real deal; every time I've had olives in Italy they're a far cry from the usual suspects I get here. I guess it's just a long winded way of saying to test them before you buy them.

Pancetta is known to be served "raw" (it's still cured so it's not really raw) in Italy. A Previous Discussion on Pancetta. Very thinly sliced and draped over something hot, it wilts right in. Mario Batali has two recipes I really like: 1) Cut it fairly thick (even thicker than American Bacon is cut) and grill it, then use as a topping for bruschetta with caramelized onions in balsamic vinegar. 2) Cut it into large cubes, sandwich between quail on a skeweker, marinate overnight in vinegar and honey, then grill. You have to be sure of the quality of the pancetta you're using if you cut and cook it like this, however: I've had it go very stringy and tough on me recently.

Hey, our taquerias do that, too! And, yeah, I go for pork chops whenever I make this dish. It's really good with a little arugula salad on the side with lemon juice. What are Alba Pioppini mushrooms? Never seen or heard of them before. Do they have much flavor?

Scallop Scallopini . . . heh. I actually didn't think about that until you wrote it. What were the two wines the pork was braised in? I'm drawing a blank on which Marcella book it's from. Any malfatti casualties when you cooked them?

What a great write-up. I keep wanting to try different tapas places but we can never branch out from our maintstay, De Tapas in Addison. That said, just about everything you had at Rouge isn't on the De Tapas menu. I may have to hit this place next time we get a tapas urge (shouldn't be long). De Tapas always seems empty at prime dining hours, too, but they get absolutely packed later at night, so maybe, hopefully, Rouge has the same type of business.

I hope this doesn't take things too OT, but if anyone comes across articles profiling the foods of Torino as part of the Olympics I'd love to get links. Too, if there are TV profiles on FoodTV or one of the networks coming up, please share the schedule.

Fantastic as always Hathor. Thanks for the contribution.

No, you're not the dunce. I once ordered a campari drink from a bartender WHO HAD A DAMNED CAMPARI POSTER ON THE WALL BEHIND HIM and he didn't know what I was talking about. Then they had to dispatch a busboy to go to the nearest liquor store and buy some since they didn't stock it. And this was an Italian bar/restaurant. Errm, it shouldn't be that hard to find though. Pick a well-stocked liquor store in Austin and they should have it. It's put in weird places in liquor stores though, so you just have to look carefully.

Not to get too OT, but how do you slice the bresaola to get it thin? And, another request for a curing project: lardo.

I try to be open-minded and all, and I know that alot of fish soups are supposed to be made with the heads to give it a good consistency, but that sounds so, so foul.

That sounds awesome and better than my thinking of doing them "alla Milanese": breaded and sauteed in butter. Maybe wrap them in your bresaola and broil or grill them?

I've never noticed much of a price difference at CostCo with wines, even compared to Central Market, unless I'm just looking at the wrong ones. Spec's, particularly on Smith Street, is a real must-go and does have great deals, particularly if you pay using cash or an ATM card. However, I've not been to Grapevine.

Housekeeping note: March's region is officially Friuli Venezia-Giulia. One thing that is emerging, now that we're no longer bound by this being any kind of "New Year's Resolution" project, is that we have unlimited time and number of different months to explore a region. With that in mind, then, Trentino will get its separate due at some point, I'm sure.

I can't tell how many times I've done this. Now I just do it over two bowls to ensure I'm keeping both.

Beautiful as always, Chufi. And that's a great tip on flouring large ingredients to keep them from sinking; a perennial problem when I make similar items.

Danielle Osteria totally slipped under my normally well-tuned Italian radar; this is the first I'd heard of it. Now with that sort of endorsement also, I'm wanting to get there soon.

My understanding is that it came there via Spanish rule or interaction with the Spanish court, who were themselves enamored of saffron at the time. Common folklore involves a man named "Zafferano" (sp?), who either first made risottoa alla Milanese in honor of a nobleman's marriage, or had it made for him by some anonymous chef for his own wedding or daughter's wedding. I've seen two different accounts of this though and don't know how accurate it is.

In D Magazine's Restaurant Issue, Nancy Nichols and Teresa Gubbins profile the best 10 new restaurants in DFW, "Fresh" and "stale" dining trends, 10 young chefs to watch, and a profile of Steven Pyles' return to the restaurant scene. eG fave Lanny's Alta Cocina Mexicana gets a nod twice, as one of the best new restaurants and as part of a wave of regional Mexican restaurants in the "Fresh" trends section. The Green Room's Colleen O'Hare (yay!) is one of the 10 Young Chefs. Another "Fresh" trend: Authentic Italian cooking, featuring a slew of restaurants I hadn't heard much of: Tutto, Campania, and Danielle Osteria. Steven Pyles is getting no shortage of media treatment lately: Richard Kilgore had a previous thread on his article in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram, and last week, Mark Stuertz reviewed/profiled the restaurant in the Dallas Observer. Thoughts? Omissions? Places you want to try?

Love it! Into the lexicon it goes!

I don't mind it, but again, he was just so smug about it, like this was all the effort he was going to put into it.

Yeah, how you managed to cure in Houston was part of what I was getting at. That thread fascinates and scares me at the same time. It's really for the best if I don't take up charcuterie; I'd have to just quit my job then with all the cooking stuff I'd be pursuing. I just have to keep saying it: how cool is it that you post a question about a cookbook or recipe and pretty shortly none other than the author turns up to answer you?

You can't just bring up "home-cured bresaola" and not go into it further, FM. Let's hear it!

My worst that comes to mine is not so much for the food, but the general atmosphere and attitude behind it. Since we do have people over so often for dinner parties and I cook so much, our friends can get a little intimidated about having us over in return. I certainly try to be sensitive of this and appreciate anyone going through the effort of making food for us and inviting us over. Strike two of eventually three for a couple that we eventually parted ways with was a dinner at their place. The husband cooked, and took great, smug pleasure in pointing out how very little effort went into the meal. At first, it was funny since it's been no secret that I'll spend all day cooking for a dinner party making my own bread, pasta, etc. But he just kept hammering at that point. The garlic bread was that frozen, pre-seasoned kind you just toss in the oven; the main was pasta with chopped up chicken breast and canned ragu sauce. I think he even said at one point the whole meal took him 20 minutes to make. Then he went ballistic when I accidentally dropped a smidge of butter on their placemat. Strike three: at their son's first birthday party, they made the guests sit quietly in the living room and wait 30 minutes for the birthday boy to take his nap. Everyone had to whisper, if they spoke at all. We got into a fierce, whispered back-and-forth with the same husband with him insisting that CostCo's pizzas were every bit as good as any pizza I could make.