FoodMan

BTW, the Lardo-belly is hanging already to age and so far so good. I will probably hang the lomo tonight. Unfortunatly the pork belly has been curing for more than a week already and I will not have time to smoke it till the weekend. Should I wait or should I do an oven-roasted non-smoked bacon? Can I wait till the weekend for a total of 2 weeks?

I am not sure pork fat can get any better than this. Since pictures are worth a million words, here is the pork belly confit after resting for almost a week in lard, crisped up (boy these are some kicked up 'lardons'), but meltingly tender and served with stewed beans

Well, I have not made a proper complete Puglian meal yet. Kudos to all of you who have, oh that lamb and the foccaccia look perfect. But inspired by Franci's stunning baking posts and pics I baked a couple of items. Altamura durum bread. I used the recipe from Carol Fields "The Italian Baker" (great book BTW). I used half durum (fine semolina) and half bread flour. The bread had the most amazing aroma and texture and I am using it for sandwiches and for eating plain with sliced tomatoes. I used Franci's recipe to bake the tomato focaccia. Talk about simple and delicious. This was consumed within an hour of baking. thanks for sharing the recipe. you guys have to try this.... I also poached some peaches in primitivo over the weekend and served them with homemade cherry-chocolate gelato and whipped cream

Since I bought some awsome, perfect and delicious cherries in season I finally managed to try the calfoutis. I made half the recipe in a smaller skillet, using a heavy non-stick one. here it is right after it came out, still puffy Deflated and cooled My wife and I both loved it. It is much much better IMO when it is nice and cool, not warm. When cool, the flavor of the cherry and the hints of vanilla and Cognac come through much better. When warm/hot...it tastes too eggy. In any case this was easy and tasty and I will be making this again.

It didn't win? hmm...who the heck won it then? ← Bones by Jennifer McLagan won the category. I read it from cover to cover, then left it in the bookstore. Not only was it not in the same league as Charcuterie, it was barely useful. I'm astounded that such a faux cookbook could win any award. =R= ← Is that what the TV show BONES based on?....just kidding, now back to Charcuterie.

It didn't win? hmm...who the heck won it then?

Ronniw, great looking food. Absolutly stunning pate as well. IT is amazing what one can do when he or she knows the basics. In this case making an ok pate much much better. I mean it looks perfect, French-bistro-in-Paris-picture-perfect. I have to admit, I've had this Tapas book for almost two years and never cooked anything from it. This might nudge me to give something a try. I really have to make some pastrami after seeing those pictures. Again, just perfect. I'll make some onion rye and serve it as is....(Homer Simpson: drooooolllll)

I would like to know the address as well. I totally agree with you about Piccomolo. I was so dissapointed when I stopped by with my son a week or two ago and the flavor is no where near as intense as the Gelato in Europe or for that matter Beirut! Judging by appearance alone I was looking forward to give them a try since the colors and display were so intense. The flavors I tried were the really dark chocolate, tasted like Hershey milk chocolate's cousin, and Raspberry, had a very faint berry-like flavor despite its deep purple hue. The stuff at Ben and Jerry's down the street is much better.

It is with passages like the one I took the above peice from that make us really love and enjoy Marlena De Blasi's "A Taste of Southern Italy". She is so dramatic and romantic and fun. The plums are not peeled, they are slipped out of their skin. The flame is not high, it is lively! So, we are glad we didn't pass up making one of her gelato to end the month. We chose the Black Plum and Aniseed Gelato and it was fantastic. We questioned the lack of egg and the use of almond paste crumbs at the finish but based on past experience with the book and her 4th generation gelataio recipe we followed to the letter and were handsomely rewarded. -Mike ← Can I pretty pretty please have the recipe or a summary of it via PM? It sounds like a fantastic use of the plums available right now. I made a very good custard based cherry chocolate (a take on Cherry Garcia) Gelato this past weekend. I used the recipe on Molto Italiano as a base...yeah the one with 14 egg yolks .

A little of topic but I had to share I was browsing through the cooking class listing at Houston's Central Market and I came upon this : The above class is actually called "A SICILIAN SUMMER SUPPER". Well, yes I am no expert, but I had to chuckle. As far as I could tell, except for the Limoncello (sort of) nothing is remotely Sicilian! Why not call it "AN ITALIAN SUMMER SUPPER"? Pistou!!!! sheesh... edit: added link.

Thanks Franci. Bread is one of my all time favorite passions, so you know I will at least be making some stuffed Focaccia this month.

Yeah, squirrels are a pest too and they are tenacious. Unfortunatly, the idea of eating tree rats -even if it steals MY long awaited figs- is not too appealing. Now, fig fattened birds on the other hand....

Kevin, what an amazing spread! I love that risotto like couscous and your cake with figs. I am so jealous of your fig production this year. I have a three year old fig tree that started bearing fruits this year, but since it is relativly young, not many. Basically I only managed to snag a few fruits before the damn mockingbirds got to them!! (I wonder how Mockingbirds taste, boned and stuffed with fava beans in the style of Puglia ) How big is the tree in your backyard? I also cannot believe Sicily month is over. I barely got to half of what I wanted to make, no involtini, no fish empanata, no cassata....I will have to revisit soon.

Speaking of green pork, your comment reminded me of something. Well, I planned on cooking a large piece of bone in pork butt a week or so ago. I removed it from the freezer to defrost and placed it in the fridge. When I was ready to cook it, I removed the plastic wrap and one side, the one with most of the fat had distinct greenish edges and color like the ones we've seen here. This pork was NOT cured, aged or in any way treated as charcuterie. I bought a large butt, portioned it and froze it. That's all. This leads me to think that whatever you guys did to your pork product (cure, age,...) had nothing to do with the discoloration of the fat, and that it was indeed perfectly safe to eat, but not very good looking. I just shaved off the greenish part and cooked the pork as usual BTW.

Since I am running low on my smoked bacon, I gave the butcher at my local HEB a call and asked for a couple of pieces of pork belly. While I was at it I also asked for a piece of untrimmed-right-off-the-hog-with-skin-and-fat loin. He was more than happy to oblige and actually left a whole half hog un-butchered till I got there. So I ended up with: 11 lbs of nice thick pork belly 3lbs or so of untrimmed loin With these I started the following: - 6lb piece of bacon is being cured and will be smoked next weekend - about a 1.5-2.0 lb piece of belly is curing in the style of Lardo like the book instructs. I actually used Turbinado sugar here, because I like how it tastes and wanted to see if it carries through. I will update you of success/failure of this curing/aging attempt - about 2.5 lbs belly are cut up and curing/brining in preparation for making pork belly confit. Also recipe in the book - 1.5 lbs of the pork loin is curing to make lomo curado. I basically used the ratios from the Bresaola recipe but added no juniper and added a good dose of cayenne and paprika. If this works out I'll post my proportions. - Brined and roasted the rest of the loin on the grill yesterday till the skin got nice and crispy. Damn these people (HEB by Beechnut and the beltway for you Houston folks) sell some good pork with great thick milky white fat and excellent porky good flavor. Not sure it is better than the Neiman stuff, but for essentially a supermarket butcher, they are way more than fine. I really really hope and look forward for my Lardo and Lomo to workout.

Thanks for clarifying. Yes, that is better and allows more room for discussion. In any case, the complain arose from the Chronicle's Whine and Dine section, not from anyone on this forum. The way the "whiner" describes it the waiter/hostess behavior was unacceptable, whether it is Mark's or a pizza joint. Like I said, I enjoyed my experience very much and did not see anyone being asked to clear a table.

I really would not call the pizza expensive. IMHO, the pies are a very generous size, and absolutly excellent with a crust I've never tasted anywhere and lovely simple toppings. For 14 or 15 bucks, that is not expensive. Man, a large pizza from Pizza Hut is about that much and tastes of cardboard and grease. As, for service, yes it is casual , but I have nothing to complain about. BTW, I am not sure what greansnbeans was refering to with his "Guys? - it's pizza" comment or what he meant.

Use it to fill Calzones or as pasta sauce or crumble some Feta in there and use it as a side to grilled lamb... Thanks fro the "Odyssey" quote Andrew. It is intriguing that the men first and foremost thought was to steal some cheese, not lamb or sheep or beef. Tells you a lot about the appreciation for that glorious food.

Last night's dinner was an absolutly delicious Sfincione Di San Vito from Clifford Wright's "Cucina Paradiso". This is one of those recipes that I was not sure how good it was going to end up being or how well it will be recieved. I was honestly worried about the whole can of tomato paste in the filling. Boy was I wrong. This beauty is one of the best stuffed pies/pizzas I've ever made. The filling is also pretty simple and does not use as many ingredients as many Sfincione recipes online, just pork shoulder, pork sausage, tomato paste, onions, Sopressata, red wine and cheese. The pie before adding the top part Ready to bake (I actually formed and filled the pie the night before and placed it in the fridge, so all we had to do yesterday is bake) Finished pie (It was topped with some more of the sauce and toasted breadcrumbs 3/4 of the way in the oven) Sliced and ready It was recieved very well and each of us enjoyed two large pieces...a little more than we should've perhaps, but the crunchy well rested dough and savory slighlty tangy filling are too hard to resist. Definitly another keeper recipe from Mr. Wright.

As far as I could tell the bottom is good old American Gulf Coast flounder. Very good eating fish...and fun to fish as well.

yeap, I saw W&D. Click here. My service was very good, attentive and not obtrusive. The waiter answered all our questions and seemed knowledgeable. My first thought when I read the "whine" was, "well what did you do about it?" I mean the way she describes being treated is in no way acceptable and I would've asked to talk to the manager/chef/owner ASAP.

Well, I sure am glad to learn from your mistakes . I have not gotten to try this recipe yet since I still have a lot of beer from my second double batch and I've been pretty busy. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will though.

Mike, yours is one of the best Norma recipes we've seen in this thread. I did not check out the Molto Italiano recipe, but it seems like he uses a different procedure to make it, no? is it baked? For my fresh ricotta cheese recipe, click here. For an even creamier version (to use in desserts for example) substitute one cup of heavy cream for one cup of milk. I much prefer this buttermilk version over the ones that use vinegar or lemon juice. Both of those leave a trace of their distinctive tastes. The buttermilk version tastes of pure sweet milky goodness, not even a trace of buttermilk taste.

Absolutly, both look great! For the lomo, is that just a regular pork loin? It looks more sinewy and fatty than the one you typically find at the store. Details for this successful try would be greatly appreciated.

Sure. PM me when you are in town or a few days before and we can -hopefully- do just that.