FoodMan

We were there by 6PM on a Friday and it was mostly empty. However, it is small and fills up fast. So, by 7:30 or so when we left it was full with a wait. moral of the story: get there right after they open, preferably no later than 6 and you'll be fine. BTW, I really wanted to try what looked like a fresh anchovies in escabeche that another table had but my wife bulked at the idea . So, when you do go, give it a try and let us know how it is pretty please.

Well, all the stars aligned, we were in the area and my wife said "Hey, I am craving some good pizza!" So we gave Dolce Vita our first try. Got there before the rush (around 6PM) and enjoyed a very good dinner. This -like Walsh said- the best pizza crust around. I could not waste a single bite. We had: - Octopus with Rapini. Very very tender and tasty with a good kick from crushed chile flakes - Shredded brussle sprout salad. Even my wife who thought she does not like brussles sprouts gobled this up. It had a nice falvor and crunchy texture with a good dose of pecorino in there. Both the previous two were eaten with the "pizza bread" (note to self and others: Pizza bread is not free ) - Tallegio, arugula and pear pizza with truffle oil. The pizzas were bigger than I expected actually. Still this lovely pie was consumed in totality by myself. - Proscuitto with arugula pizza. My wife orederd this and we both enjoyed it. She took the leftovers home and ate them the next day. Even from the microwave, this is still delicious. - We shared a pistachio, coffee and chocolate gelato. I would've liked this much better without the goopy whipped cream on top. I drank a glass of very good Sedara Sicilian wine with my meal. We will most definitly be back to Dolce Vita as soon and we can.

At least the Umbrians recognized the food as Sicilian Yes, Kevin you should give cannoli another try. They come off with no problem. Hathor's shells are nice and crackly. I certainly want to aim for that thinness next time I make mine.

Kevin- I love these Tuna-balls, do they have any breadcrumbs as part of them, or is it just on the outside? On another note, what's up with Itlians breaking the "no cheese with seafood" rule whenever they like? In this case Ricotta salata with tuna. I've also seen Mario use Pecorino as part of stuffing for clams....

Magnificent! I like the serving tray, too; is it Sicilian? ← I have to second that...wow. Did you use lard in the crust as well? Hathor- the meatballs have 1lb of veal, 2 eggs, parsley, breadcrumbs, Locatelli Romano, and salt. they are cooked in olive oil to brown then a cup of water with a tablespoon of tomato paste is added. After simmering that liquid is drained off. Now place the meatballs back in the pan and add a cup or so of toasted ground almonds. Then a 1/2 cup red wine vinegar with 2 tablespoons of sugar and let it simmer till mostly evaporated. Pontormo- I just use whole cow's milk for ricotta. I do have a recipe posted in RecipeGullet for it and it lasts at least a week in the fridge. To make it "salata" I placed some between two identical bowls with a cheesecloth in between and a weight on top in the fridge overnight. I needed better drainage and longer time I think. BTw, making this ricotta-like cheese is not hard at all. Much easier than making yogurt and the result is better than most of the grainy stuff you buy at the store.

I've not contributed as much as I wanted to to this thread since I have been a little pre-occupied lately. BTW, Andrew those Tunisian-Sicilian crostadas look great. As for that rice pasta pie...well Atkins is rolling in his grave. This means that I love it! Here is my latest Sicilian meal from yesterday Started off by snacking on these fried breads I saw Mario make recently on one of his Sicily shows. It's basic yeasted dough with olive oil, cut and fried. I served it like he did topped with Locatelli Romano and a caramalized-onion-tomato-anchovy topping. Very very good stuff Penne alla Norma. If you are wondering why my "Ricotta Salata" looks a little wierd, well becasue it is homemade. I figured I make my own ricotta, so why not salt it and dry it. I think it needed more drying . It was still a lovely dish in any case. From "Many Beautiful Things" I made the almond crusted sweet and sour veal meatballs. I served them warm even though according to the recipe, these needs to be chilled. I like them either way. Dolci: homemade from scratch cannoli, tubes, ricotta (using homemade ricotta of course) filling and all. The recipe I followed was from Mario's first book "Simple Italian Food". I had absolutly no problem frying and removing the fried tubes from the metal molds. The only thing I will change next time around is make the dough rounds a little thinner to get them a tad more flaky/crispy. Check out my authentic cannoli round maker, aka a Mexican tortilla-maker . Works like a charm and I do not have to worry about rolling and cutting. I formed the dough into a log, cut into 12 equal disks and pressed in the tortilla press. What do Sicilians use to make the rounds? Maybe I can export some tortilla makers to Sicily? More pictures We had this wine with dinner. Pretty good and affordable but then again I am no expert. BTW, cannoli make a GREAT breakfast. Just fill them right before you eat them.

Absolutly lovely food Lorna. Pefectly made arancine and so well photographed. Glad the party was a success. I like that risotto baked eggplant too. This past week Mario made a very similar recipe in an episode dedicted to Sicily and eggplants. He roasted the eggplant whole, and opened it like you would a baked potato then stuffed it with cooked risotto. Then the whol thing was braised in tomato sauce. good looking stuff.

The vegetarian couple are in LA this weekend, so we invited another couple. Originally, the plan was to make the cannoli from scratch, but we couldn't find suitable metal tubes for the frying. So we purchased cannoli shells from a gourmet Italian market...I hope they'll taste OK. I agree on the alcohol issue, but I want to respect her dietary concerns. ← Ah, that's why we are having the very unvegetarian friendly ribeyes I think I will give Mario's cannoli recipe shell a try from his first book. I'll report how it works out with my metal tubes. If a friend asks me not to use alcohol in cooking because she is pregnant, I would most certainly respect her wishes as well Ling. I was just thinking out loud, 'wine is not a poison people'.

That is an amazing menu and I am looking forward to the pics. But I thought the majority of your guests are vegetarians. Is that not the case anymore? Also, about those cannoli's. Will you be making the pastry as well? If so, do you have a tried and true recipe? It's always amusing to me when someone says they cannot eat a dessert that contains alcohol because they are pregnant. I mainly see that here in the US. Alcohol is not a poison. Unless a woman binge drinks, the baby should not be affected. The doctor assured my pregnant wife that she can have a glass of wine on our anniversary a month ago if she wants to. She did. Andrew- I will PM you the adapted recipe for the baked rice as soon as I can.

Great looking cannoli Andrew. I just bought some cannoli tubes and I am planning on trying my hand at those soon. Lasrt night we had another recipe from C. Wright's "Cucina Paradiso", Baked Rice. He has two recipes in there. A festive one with a very long list of ingredients and a simpler one that contains some veal, proscuitto, cheese and a few other things. So I made the second one. The rice is arborio, cooked till tender and mixed with chopped boiled egg, pecorino (Locatelli), and some of the meat cooking sauce. The filling was supposed to be veal but I used chopped up turkey thigh meat instead. Here is the casserole before putting the final layer of rice and bread crumbs Out of the oven Served If you've never tried this before, you should. It is so flavorful, delicious and light at the same time. My favorite bits are those around the edge that get nice and crispy. I will be making this again for sure.

That's ingenious! The way you set the whole thing up. Pretty cool. What to use it for? All kinds of baked goods like spinach pies, saj bread, meat pies, cheese pies. Those good dessert ones filled with chocolate and banana as great.

Welcome Catherine, There is no recipe in the book for mojama. However, I did a bit of Googling and it appears to be a fairly straight forward concept. EVERY description I found called for the loins to be layered in salt for 2 days, rinsed in fresh running water for 12 hours then hung to cure for 2 weeks. I agree with Mark. With what we know now, from the book and our experiences, we can cure just about anything. I'm game for this one. As soon as I can locate a suitable loin I'm going to give it a try. I've got my second attempt at lomo curado in the chamber now. This time I used a loin instead of a tenderloin. ← What "recipe" are you using for this? I would think the recipe for Bresaola might work. right? BTW, That is some cool looking bluefish up there! I have no doubt it tasted as good as it looked.

Mike, for me it really boild down to this in what Chris said: It is not a bother, more like fun learning experience whose results you can eat. In many instances (bacon, pancetta, cured fish,...) the result is much better and much cheaper than what you can buy at your average market. Sure I can order top quality bacon online for $10/lb, but why bother.... I apply the same logic to those who ask me, "you can buy your son's birthday cake for $10 at the Megalomart, why bother making it??".

Last week I made this gorgeous thing for my wife's baby shower at her work. Sorry I did not take more pics since it was not "carved" at home. What a to reverse Dorie's words 'simply deceptive' cake to make. What I mean is that it looks simple (cake/ganache) but it is anything but. I think this is one of my top chocolate cakes of all time. So rich (3 sticks of butter in that ganache) but so light in texture at the same time. She was nice to bring back a large chunk back for me and I ate it all in one sitting. I've never seen a "base" chocolate cake recipe like the one in this book, it looks dense but is very soft and moist and strong enough to handle filling/topping. Did I already say how good that ganache was?....

Thanks for the picture Pedie, looks so much like so many areas in the town I grew up in in Lebanon (see my signature). Although I am sure you meant "as high as 110 F" not 110C

Going home at lunch to hose the shirt down with it, as a matter of fact! The chickpea fritters are great and another item that winds up working better than you could possibly think, especially with cheese grated over them hot out of the fryer. Both Rome and Sicily (coincidentally two of my favorite cooking regions) really get my frying jones going. But, dammit, I still think Ling should make the pasta with sardines. ← Oh, yeah chickpea fritters AKA Panelle are pretty nice. If you have the fryer going already, make some. BTW, I do not think Ling said that her friends eat fish. They are vegetarians. So Sardines are out. Ther are a few baked pasta dishes in "Cucina Paradiso" that do not use meat. One is Penne with cauliflower that sounds great.

You are suppoosed to use wild very flavorful strawberries for Fraguledda according to Schiavelli's "Many Beautiful Things" (awsome book BTW). Lacking that I used 1 lb of mixed organic berries (about 75% strawberries and the rest raspberries and bluberries) to get a nice intense berry flavor. Place those in a jar and top with 2.25 Cups of Everclear and leave for 15 days. Gently shake the jar every couple of days or so. Make a syrup by heating 1.5 Cups water till nearly boiling and stir in 2.25 Cups of sugar until dissolved. Let cool. Strain the liquid in the jar through a fine sieve or a cheesecloth-lined colander into a bowl. It should be a deep lovely maroon color. Mix in the cooled syrup. If it is still too strong for your taste, make more syrup. Use a funnel to place the drink in bottles. Should make about 1.5 750ml bottles and the recipe can be doubled. The result is one of the best liquours I've made with a lovely color and intense berry flavor. PS if you use 100 proof Vodka instead of the 190 proof Everclear, you will probably need less syrup. good luck

I had to add one more thing after re-reading and goggling the pictures some more. If I had to point out one weekness in our menu last year it would've been the cheese/dessert bit. It felt too short to me and too few on dishes. This year it seems these final courses are one of the strongest, look at that awsome hummingbird. WOW! I do agree, at El Bulli we felt so relaxed an laid back as well. I would say unpretentious and friendly are two very good adjectives to describe it.

Thanks for the awsome reports Corrina and Mukki. The food looks great and seems that both had a wonderful experience. It's intersting that he decided to keep the olive sferico dish from last year. I sure never forgot it. Regarding the fish dishes, they most certainly CAN cook fish and the price is still a bargain. I do agree that their fish dishes esp. mussles and oysters are more briny and ocean-like than any I've had before. They are not fishy in a bad way, just very intense. My wife could not finish her mussle with algea salad last year and did not like her oyster for the same reason Mukki listed. I, on the other hand thought, they tasted like the essence of seafood. Very briny, very rich and delicious. Needless to say I was happy to finish her mussles (an later her lamb brains with sea urchin ).

Chufi, please please PM me this recipe. Looks outstanding. Boy are there so many baked items I'd like to get to in Sicily (baked rice, Sfincione, pastries)

Perfect for Houston! Are you sure about that though. Temperature here is in the hight 90's, maybe even low 100s in July-August. Is that still ok? Chris to make a 4 gallon batch, there is no need to double any other ingredients (spices, yeast, malt). Use the same amount of everything except what you outlined above?

I finally got to try the second recipe this past weekend, here is a picture of the Rich Red Ale (still more like brown with a faint reddish hue ) The best way to describe this one is by the term "adult". It is more of an adult/mature drinking beer. It sure is rich, hoppy with a nice bitter edge. Almost like an IPA. Compared to this, our first beer is more simple in taste. I have a feeling that more people would like the first one more. Afterall it was sweeter and not as hoppy. Also for some reason this was much more carbonated even though I used the same amount of priming sugar for my first and second beers. Probably due to the different yeast strain? I had to pour it very gently so as to not create too much foam. Overall I could not be happier with my beer, sitting on the carpet, watching the world cup final and drinking my own brew was pretty awsome. Note the "non-hovering" beer glass this time around. Now on to the next beer. BTW, Chris I really want to make my own Porter in the future. Do you have a good recipe you can recommend? Maybe with the addition of some oak chips (these are sometimes used, right?)

Let it cool completely and use chocolate that is not chopped too fine and you'll be fine. Remember chocolate melts at body temperature, so anything above 80F is not a good idea. I worried about getting it incorporated as well but decided to follow the recipe closely since it was the first time making this. The result was perfect.

Yeap, what he said Shaya. Just regular fine semolina or semolina flour will work. Here's a tip for you though that's worked for me before with those loaves. Do not make 3 loaves from the recipe, make only 2. Going for 3 will make your loaves smaller and "slimmer". Kevin, why did the chocolate melt in yours? Did you not wait till the pudding cooled before adding? If you make it again, do not eliminate them, they really work great with the flavor of the pudding. Just make sure the pudding is completely cooled like the recipe says.