The Cooking and Cuisine of Emilia-Romagna

[hathor]

Wow, you guys have been busy!!

Wendy, that little stick with your gnocchi board? That's for someone to sit next to you and beat the time so you keep rolling your gnocchi's even and quickly! Seriously, they look beautiful! That stick looks a little thick to make garganelli, I think you'll wind up with 'sagne'...Pugliese style. It's all good. I could eat polenta and sugo at least once a week, however the husband, he's not so fond of it.

Pontormo, your comparitive ragus are great, really fun to read about and informative, not to mention thought provoking. Is it a good thing that we are walking around thinking about the greater mysteries of a ragu pot? I hope so.

Everyone getting ready for the holidays??

I think a earned an E-R badge of honor yesterday.

A small mountain of tortellini, stuffed with a veal and parm mixture. About 250 of the little buggers, destined to go into brodo.

A batch of pear and ricotta ravioli, these guys are headed for a gorgonzola/pancetta sauce. Only about 125 of these.

And for dinner last night, spaghetti bolognese with fresh pasta. Ran out of pear filling, so we got some tagliatelle.

This ragu recipe is from the 'peasant handbook'. Bits of left over everythings have gone into the pot...braised oxtail, veal, osso bucco sauce.... Sort of like the soup pot on the back of the stove.

Today's plans call for some Sardinian raviolis. We'll see if I get there....

Ripe persimmons?? Mmmmmmm...... Stirred into yogurt in the morning, excellent! Mushed up and served in little bowls, with amaretto cookie crumbles on top. Simple desert, but really good.

The persimmons in the U.S are a totally different variety than most of the ones I saw in Italy. The Italian 'cachi' are really, really soft and difficult to get home without destroying them.

Can't wait to hear about the 'stored' cakes! What fun!!

[Abra]

Wow, Judith, how long did all that pasta take you? That's an amazing amount to make in one day! I love the idea of pear and ricotta together with pancetta.

[FoodMan]

I've been so busy this week I had no time for a single hom ecooked meal (lucky for us we have a few leftovers).

Abra- I cannot wait to see your comments about the cake. I was tempted to make it instead of the chocolate one, but the 'chocolate' part in the other cake made me try it instead. It is still resting/maturing/ripening on my kitchen counter. I am hoping to slice it this Friday and share some pics and notes.

Kevin- Nice meal, and so easy to prepare. Did you use lard in your Piadini? If so, did it remind you at all of good flour tortillas?

LMS- first time polenta maker, huh? Looks great and it's amazing what happens to cornmeal when cooked right and mixed with some butter and cheese.

Judith- You are the queen of Parma now! This must've taken you an inordinate amount of time and all looks so perfect. We all would love to see the final results though. So, don't forget the pics of the tortellini in brodo.

[Pontormo]

More awe, Judith. The pear-filled pasta and sauce are inspired; so much more appealing than a gorgonzola-pear pizza I once ordered.

Edited December 21, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[little ms foodie]

Judith you are amazing!!! I have yet to try to make tortellini....must soon!

Quick question back to the gnocchi- what is the best way to freeze them? before cooking or after cooking?

The Sugo by the way was made with sirloin that I ground up and porcinis, the juice, mire poix and chicken stock. very tastey and a nice quick sauce (40 mins)

[Kevin72]

As Pontormo describes on the Gnudi thread, I also freeze my gnocchi raw on a cookie sheet, then dump them into a freezer bag. They cook up just fine right from the freezer into the boiling water.

Elie, I did indeed use lard in the piadine dough and that is definitely what makes the dish! I didn't quite get mine as thin as a tortilla, and this year I don't think I used the proper proportion in the dough itself, but other years I've made it, it's been close to that effect.

Finally, I'll add to everyone's awe on the volume and different kinds of tortellini you're making, Judith. Bet you're done with stuffed pasta for a while, though!

[hathor]

Thanks guys, I needed a pat on the head! Holidays can be a little stressful, if you know what I mean.

Took one long afternoon to make those pastas...with a lot of interuptions.

But...I was going thru Artusi's "Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well" as I was looking for some inspiration for Christmas Eve dinner, I need a good amuse...but I came across this passage: "Sugo di Carne or Brown Stock. In Romagna, which is a stone's throw from Tuscany, they do not much care for dictionaries, and so they call meat sauce "brown stock," perhaps because of its brown color." The footnote goes on to explain, "The 'meat sauce' described here is not what we have come to understand by that name, i.e. the 'ragu' or 'bolognese' sauce often served with pasta. It is, in fact, more like a 'dark broth' and is used as a base or flavoring for many other dishes. Artuse makes frequent mention of it in the recipes that follow."

So, it seems like the ragu-sugo-bolognese debate has been going on for awhile.

Everytime I pick up this book, I get lost in it, as in 'whoops'...an hour has just slipped away. Highly recommend it...in English!

[Pontormo]

Our public library is frustrating when it comes to acquisitions since I think the head of the "cookery" division knows more about Betty Crocker-type books than she does about authors such as Paula Wolfert or Peter Reinhart, let alone what new books are worth buying or not. Yet, we have 2-3 copies of Artusi (it is fun) and 2 of Splendid Table, so I can keep renewing one or the other until I cave in and buy it.

I did notice that one of the blurbs on Amazon.com for a book on Le Marche (Esposito's?) said the whole debate on ragu, sugo and brodo was "solved" in its pages.

* * *

Heads up, though, I just saw the January issue of Gourmet at the supermarket and I swear these guys are either reading these regional cooking threads or just fully aware of how well Italy sells these days. The issue, once more, is devoted to Italian regional cooking. I don't remember all in the list, but Puglia was among them.

[Abra]

Has anyone made the Unusual Tortellini Pie? I'm thinking of making that on Christmas day. Or maybe Christmas Eve. Am I the only one who doesn't have their holiday menus together?

The Torta Barossi is on there for sure, and the Spongata, with maybe some sort of gelato that marries the two, between the two days.

[Pontormo]

Just a quick note on something simple that I tried with risotto con ragu, based on a recipe for a different type of risotto in The Splendid Table. Mrbigjas would like it, I'm sure.

Oven at 450 F. LRKasper advises covering baking sheet with foil to ease process and clean-up.

Strew sheet with single layer of torn leaves of escarole and raddicchio. Combination beautiful and perfect for Christmas season.

Drizzle with olive oil. Toss. Sprinkle with a little salt. Bake for ten minutes, checking after five. Let edges start to turn golden brown.

Lift foil from sheet & keep these to the side. Repeat with remaining leaves.

When risotto is done, cover bottom of warm plate or bowl with the wilted leaves before portioning out servings of the rice. Bitterness and texture provide wonderful contrast to the sweetness of ragu and creaminess of the cheesy, brothy rice.

[NYC Mike]

Kevin,

I've dropped almost completly out of italy, between work and my new found love of Southern Food I can't find time to cook! I don't know how my wife does it!!

The New Year will bring me much more time, I do hope these threads continue on until the regions are completed and hopefully beyond perhaps in the form of favorite regions (I know I wanna go back to Rome again!)

On a different note, my very first dish cooked solo was part of this thread and learning how to cook was my top 06' resolution. Thanks to everyone on this thread for your help and inspiration over the year. I can say with pride that I can cook!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Emilia-Romagna oh my what have I missed! Everything looks amazing!

-Mike

[Kevin72]

In the spirit of Mike's comments, I'd like to thank everyone for making it a great year and making these threads as successful as they've been. I'm out of town right now with sporadic internet service, but Happy Holidays to everyone!

[Abra]

At last I've got a menu together. Nothing like waiting until the last minute for inspiration!

Christmas Eve dinner for 7 I'm making the Unusual Tortellini Pie, the Salad of Tart Greens with Warm Balsamic Dressing, and the Spongata. Guests are bringing the appetizers and vegetables, as well as homemade eggnog ice cream to go with the spongata.

I have the Baroqu Ragu all made, and I followed the directions to hand mince the meats, but maybe my mincing skills are deficient, or maybe mincing chicken thigh meat is just really friggin' hard, but my sauce has a lot of texture. I did simmer it about 2 1/2 hours - no way it was done after the prescribed 45 minutes, so the meat is as tender as it's ever going to get. I'm wondering if I should pulse it a few times, or just leave it chunky. Any opinions? Also, in recipe deviations, I added a couple of good meaty slices of beef shank, for the marrow and the gelatin and the melting meat.

Then Christmas morning will be all panettone. We have 4 different kinds from Italy, and I might bestir myself to scramble some eggs to go with, or I might not.

Christmas dinner will be for 6, and I'm making the Christmas Capon, Sweet and Sour Onions, Spiced Spinach with Almonds, and Torta Barozzi. Guests are bringing appetizers, homemade bread, and homemade pasta with guanciale. Oh, and thanks to a timely trade of libations (my vin de noix for eje's nocino) I will be serving his nocino with the Barozzi, which is evidently traditional. That cake, by the way, is a PITA to make and used up just about a dishwasher full of dishes. It reads easy, but it's fussy. And it's really flat now that it's done and looks underwhelming. I'm keeping the faith, though, and will serve it with whipped cream and any leftover spongata there may be.

Is anyone else doing holiday meals from the E-R?

Edited December 24, 2006 by Abra (log)

[Pontormo]

I. POLPO

Judith, while I am guessing that you already cooked your octopus, I just wanted to share what I just read while eating French toast made with leftover panettone for lunch.

I've tried beating them with mallets, puncturing them iwth tiny fork holes, and marinating them with base or acid--the only thing that makes octopus tender is a cork.  Cooking the octopus at a low boil with a common wine cork in the water results in edible flesh in as much as twenty minutes less cooking time and much less of the toughness associated with OPC (other people's cephalopods).

--Batali, Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages.

II. SPAGHETTI WITH SHRIMPS & BLACK OLIVES

Low-key holiday for the most part. No searching for traditional recipes or elaborate feasts such as the ones that will be documented shortly in this forum. However, I did respect the tradition of having seafood on Christmas Eve and tried another recipe from the Splendid Table. I was less than satisfied with it. Even when a combination of white wine and lots of precious turkey stock is reduced by a third as the shells of shrimp impart flavor, there is still far too much liquid in the final dish because the shrimp are sauteed and left in the pan as the sauce is put together. This means it must be cooked rapidly without reducing much more. Also, when you're working with canned tomatoes in December, throwing them in for a minute or less just doesn't do much for them. I'd take some methods from Asian stir-fries to tweak the instructions in the recipe a bit. Take the shrimp out after 20-30 seconds, cook the sauce, and throw them back in at the very end.

III. LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER...

Is More of a Greek Deity than a Pope, i.e. Fallible. Since so many of us are in awe of her glorious book, including me, I'd like to ask if anyone else is having problems with some of the author's idiocyncracies. I was sure some of the cooking times are off due to the date of the publication, but then I noticed it's copyrighted in 1992. Were I to have cooked thin slices of a pork loin chop for 15 minutes as suggested, the results would not have been pleasant. I also wish foods were seasoned at least a little bit during cooking rather than at the end. It's made me suspicious when preparing recipes in which salt really isn't required at all. (I'm glad I trusted the recipe for the following, though:)

IV. TORTELLI ALLA MODENA

Sort of. That is, for a Christmas dinner with friends, I was responsible for the first course. I read the foreword to the recipe for Bologna's tortellini and adjusted it so that the filling was basically:

8 oz. veal stew meat

4 oz. pork loin

4 oz. Prosciutto di Parma

4 oz. Parmesan

1 extra-large egg

Pinch of nutmeg plus ample amount of butter used to cook the first two meats

The recipe is supposed to make 140 tortellini for 8-10 people so I stopped at 71 with enough leftover filling to make at least 69 more, though not enough dough. (It looks like 1 1/4 recipes for sfoglia, at least, are required.) Shaya, man o man! Now I understand why so many people make the pasta from square shapes of dough rather than circles!!!! What stamina you must have! The circles are supposed to be 1 3/4 inch in diameter. I soon graduated from a spice jar lid to a small Australian Corning Ware (virtually 2 in. D) shot glass since I figured it would take forever otherwise. It would have been so much quicker to just slice out a grid pattern than to press the glass firmly down, swizzle it around a bit, carefully peel off the extra dough, cut around the parts of the circle that didn't get cut out, ball up the scraps and wrap them in plastic, etc., etc. Thank g-d for The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan and Greg Brown. Didn't make it to Cecilia Bertoli or the Tom-Tom Club.

The little knobs were adorable, nonetheless, and the filling was extraordinarily delicious. Butter and cheese provided the sauce.

I have the fixings for a classic brodo to accommodate what remains.

V. PASTA EXPERIMENT #3

I've come to the conclusion that the formula last recorded as experiment #2 is perfect, so I am not going to alter it for some time. However, when experiment #1 failed so miserably, I suspect part of the reason has to do with brands or types of AP flour used. With #1 I weighed the flour in grams and there was much too much for only two large eggs. Well, actually, that doesn't explain anything about how dry the first dough was. With #2, I scooped to measure flour by volume in cups. This time, I scooped the (already weighed) cup to discover that when it is filled and leveled, it weighs 4 5/8 oz. and NOT the 4 oz. LRK says it should. I scooped out 5/8 oz. before puttting the dough together.

Tomorrow, class, there will be a quiz to see if you actually read all this. (Apologies for the length!)

[Pontormo]

I have the Baroqu Ragu all made, and I followed the directions to hand mince the meats, but maybe my mincing skills are deficient, or maybe mincing chicken thigh meat is just really friggin' hard, but my sauce has a lot of texture.  I did simmer it about 2 1/2 hours - no way it was done after the prescribed 45 minutes, so the meat is as tender as it's ever going to get.  I'm wondering if I should pulse it a few times, or just leave it chunky.  Any opinions?

←

Sorry I didn't read this sooner, Abra.

1) The texture should be a little chunky, not minced to granular texture of other ragus--at least that was my take. This may be one reason I thought the sauce just good and unusual on top of tagliatelle, but amazingly when it is a flavoring component of a more complicated dish. I hope you discovered that once your pie was completed. The larger chunks serve as superior mortar for gaps between tortellini in the pastry.

2) By the time you get to the final 45 minutes in preparing the ragu, different components have already been cooking for a considerable amount of time while you're boiling down the wine, stock and milk. I don't remember extending that final period of time by very much as a result. I may have added half an hour out of habit, without really needing it.

I do hope you and your guests were pleased with the pie. I can't wait to see it!

[FoodMan]

Abra-

I am very anxiously awaiting the report of your dinner as well as pictures. It all sounds great.

Pontormo-

As usual, your post is very interesting to read and informative. I cannot say I run into any of the problems you mention in your post with LRK's book. Then again all cookbook authors are fallible and I almost always use the recipe as a guide and just use my judgment.

I have not cooked any E-R things for christmas, but my Cotechino will be served on New Year's Eve or sooner. I did make a quick meal from ST this past weekend though and will post about it when I download the pics.

[little ms foodie]

me too! me too!

[Abra]

Why yes, I did have quite a few issues with LRK's instructions! Mostly I overcame them with no ill effects, but in one case it was a bit of a trainwreck. The food was mostly all delicious, though.

Christmas Eve brought us the Unusual Tortellini Pie. Let me say first that this is a HUGE production to make, and I even bought the tortellini. Plan on two full days if you're making your own tortellini, and a day and a half otherwise.

I made the ragu and left it chunky. I made the truly delicious dough with all its sugar and egg yolk, I made the meatballs full of ground prosciutto, I made the cinnamon custard and the Parm/egg goop, and at last I was ready to go.

First, I did bring one problem upon myself. I was making one individual-size vegetarian pie, as well as the big one, and I didn't make extra dough, just rolled thinner. So although the bottom of the pie is supposed to have a 1" overhang of dough, I didn't have enough dough to manage that.

Here's the pie with one layer of meatballs, cheese, tortellini with ragu, and the second layer of meatballs. And the measly overhang.

Here I've added the final layer before closing up the pie, the cinnamon custard. And here's another issue with directions. The recipe calls for 2 1/2 lbs of tortellini, and says at the very end that you will only use 2/3 of the ragu. Actually, I only had room for 3/4 of the tortellini, even though I was using the correct size pan, so now I have a nice whack of tortellini in ragu in the freezer, but it was entirely unintentional.

I closed the pie, but without the high, fluted edge she calls for, just a little edge, the type that browns way too fast. When put in the oven at the prescribed temperature the whole top crust, which is egg-washed, began browning way too fast and had to be covered with foil for a major part of the baking period. Then, although the instructions said to butter the edge of the pan and I did that really liberally, and my springform was even a non-stick one, the entire edge of the pie shattered in removing it from the pan. If you make this, be sure your fluted rim is not touching the edge of the pan at all, if you want it to survive springing the pan open. Despite the heart attack potential and the burst into tears potential of this little catastrophe, once FWED helped me pick off the offending broken bits, the thing was still beautiful.

You're supposed to decorate it with cut out laurel leaves and set it on a bed of fresh laurel leaves. As you can see, I decided to use holly and berry shapes instead.

It was messy to cut after only a 25 minute rest, and was messy to look at too, although the flavors and textures were wonderful.

The crust is exceptional, both sweet and savory, and would be excellent with a fruit tart of some kind. If I had made homemade tortellini, I'm sure they would have been more exciting, especially if I'd followed Eden's excellent suggestion to make them with a spinach pasta, for some color contrast. It's really not pretty on the plate when warm. The chunks in the ragu were great, and I do recommend adding a couple of shanks if you can, as the special texture of their meat made for a nice textural contrast. The cinnamon custard, about which Mr. Eden said "you could just freeze this as ice cream" pretty much disappeared into the mix. That really surprised me, since the recipe called for 2 good pinches of cinnamon, and I used 3, not finding the original to have enough of a pronounced cinnamon flavor.

However, Christmas morning I received emails from both the Eden and FWED households, mentioning how fabulous their take-home leftovers had been when eaten cold for breakfast, thus I confidently served it chilled before Christmas dinner. Now look:

Wham, pow, that's a lot better-looking isn't it? I enjoyed the soft, flowing filling the first night, and thought it had marginally better flavor when warm, but I think chilled is the best way to show off your work. It looks a lot more like the BFD it is when sliced neatly.

Starters were done by FWED, and were crostini with crisp pancetta, Italian stuffed eggs, and parm and pear slices with balsamico. My picture-taking really suffered during the meal itself, so you'll just have to imagine how nice that was before the Monster Meat Pie. With which we had

Eden's delicious asparagus bundles wrapped in prosciutto.

And the Salad with Tart Greens and Warm Balsamic Dressing. Know what? I think that was the best thing of the night. I had made a huge bowlful, just for the beauty of it, but I never expected the group to eat more than half of it. Every scrap disappeared and everyone exclaimed over it. Make it right away while we're still in E-R! It would be great for a NYE party.

Dessert was the Spongata, which I thought disappointing, and a freshly made eggnog ice cream made by Mr. Eden.

This was really dry. With coffee, almost as a fruit biscotto, it worked. But compared to the lush flavor and texture of the filling when fresh, I found the cake itself a bit dull. I will certainly make that filling again, but I'll be doing something else with it.

Whew, I need a break from typing before posting Christmas dinner!

Edited December 27, 2006 by Abra (log)

[NYC Mike]

Wham, Pow, you aren't kidding Abra!! Your pie looks amazing and you make it look and sound easy!

[GourmetLight$]

Why yes, I did have quite a few issues with LRK's instructions!  Mostly I overcame them with no ill effects, but in one case it was a bit of a trainwreck.  The food was mostly all delicious, though.

Christmas Eve brought us the Unusual Tortellini Pie.  Let me say first that this is a HUGE production to make, and I even bought the tortellini.  Plan on two full days if you're making your own tortellini, and a day and a half otherwise.

I made the ragu and left it chunky.  I made the truly delicious dough with all its sugar and egg yolk, I made the meatballs full of ground prosciutto, I made the cinnamon custard and the Parm/egg goop, and at last I was ready to go.

First, I did bring one problem upon myself.  I was making one individual-size vegetarian pie, as well as the big one, and I didn't make extra dough, just rolled thinner.  So although the bottom of the pie is supposed to have a 1" overhang of dough, I didn't have enough dough to manage that.

Here's the pie with one layer of meatballs, cheese, tortellini with ragu, and the second layer of meatballs.  And the measly overhang.

Here I've added the final layer before closing up the pie, the cinnamon custard.  And here's another issue with directions.  The recipe calls for 2 1/2 lbs of tortellini, and says at the very end that you will only use 2/3 of the ragu.  Actually, I only had room for 3/4 of the tortellini, even though I was using the correct size pan, so now I have a nice whack of tortellini in ragu in the freezer, but it was entirely unintentional.

I closed the pie, but without the high, fluted edge she calls for, just a little edge, the type that browns way too fast.  When put in the oven at the prescribed temperature the whole top crust, which is egg-washed, began browning way too fast and had to be covered with foil for a major part of the baking period.  Then, although the instructions said to butter the edge of the pan and I did that really liberally, and my springform was even a non-stick one, the entire edge of the pie shattered in removing it from the pan.  If you make this, be sure your fluted rim is not touching the edge of the pan at all, if you want it to survive springing the pan open.  Despite the heart attack potential and the burst into tears potential of this little catastrophe, once FWED helped me pick off the offending broken bits, the thing was still beautiful. 

You're supposed to decorate it with cut out laurel leaves and set it on a bed of fresh laurel leaves.  As you can see, I decided to use holly and berry shapes instead. 

It was messy to cut after only a 25 minute rest, and was messy to look at too, although the flavors and textures were wonderful.

The crust is exceptional, both sweet and savory, and would be excellent with a fruit tart of some kind.  If I had made homemade tortellini, I'm sure they would have been more exciting, especially if I'd followed Eden's excellent suggestion to make them with a spinach pasta, for some color contrast.  It's really not pretty on the plate when warm.  The chunks in the ragu were great, and I do recommend adding a couple of shanks if you can, as the special texture of their meat made for a nice textural contrast.  The cinnamon custard, about which Mr. Eden said "you could just freeze this as ice cream" pretty much disappeared into the mix.  That really surprised me, since the recipe called for 2 good pinches of cinnamon, and I used 3, not finding the original to have enough of a pronounced cinnamon flavor. 

However, Christmas morning I received emails from both the Eden and FWED households, mentioning how fabulous their take-home leftovers had been when eaten cold for breakfast, thus I confidently served it chilled before Christmas dinner.  Now look:

Wham, pow, that's a lot better-looking isn't it?  I enjoyed the soft, flowing filling the first night, and thought it had marginally better flavor when warm, but I think chilled is the best way to show off your work.  It looks a lot more like the BFD it is when sliced neatly.

Starters were done by FWED, and were crostini with crisp pancetta, Italian stuffed eggs, and parm and pear slices with balsamico.  My picture-taking really suffered during the meal itself, so you'll just have to imagine how nice that was before the Monster Meat Pie.  With which we had

Eden's delicious asparagus bundles wrapped in prosciutto.

And the Salad with Tart Greens and Warm Balsamic Dressing.  Know what?  I think that was the best thing of the night.  I had made a huge bowlful, just for the beauty of it, but I never expected the group to eat more than half of it.  Every scrap disappeared and everyone exclaimed over it.  Make it right away while we're still in E-R!  It would be great for a NYE party.

Dessert was the Spongata, which I thought disappointing, and a freshly made eggnog ice cream made by Mr. Eden.

This was really dry.  With coffee, almost as a fruit biscotto, it worked.  But compared to the lush flavor and texture of the filling when fresh, I found the cake itself a bit dull.  I will certainly make that filling again, but I'll be doing something else with it.

Whew, I need a break from typing before posting Christmas dinner!

←

Look what that darn in-law family made us miss out on!!!! Next year I'm telling them I've reserved the time for my Bainbridge family......

Cheers,

[Abra]

Then onward to Christmas dinner, ye merrymakers! I have almost no pictures of this dinner, which will save on bandwidth considerably.

We started with a very appetizing version of caponata with fresh-baked bread, brought by our friend Jim, and the sliced tortellini pie. While enjoying that, we were, naturally, talking about what we'd eat next. Sparrowsfall was worried that the pasta he'd rolled and cut before leaving home was all clumped together, so on the spur of the moment, and with the Christmas Capon in the oven, we decided to re-make the pasta. This gave the guys a chance to play with the KA pasta roller attachment and strew flour about, and resulted in a delicious dish and general hilarity.

Sparrowsfall con pappardelle

Jim, resting from the rigors of pasta making and hoping for a glass of rosso di Montalcino.

Once the pasta was cut and the water on to boil, we sat down to a little broth. LRK mentioned specifically that the broth from cooking the tortellini for the pie should be saved for another use, and I had a huge pile of Parm Reggiano rinds in the fridge, so I made a little broth with those, plus the neck and gizzards of the capon and a splash of white wine.

Then on to the pasta, which was a creation of Sparrowsfall, ground crisped guanciale (only in this case he used my home-cured unsmoked bacon) plus an ungodly amount of olive oil-simmered garlic cloves. I almost wished that were the main course, it was so pungent and savory.

Then the Christmas Capon. Hmmm. Issue time. LRK says to put it breast down in a shallow roasting pan, and she has you baste it a minimum of 6 times, adding white wine and Marsala each time. The poor bird was swimming, and the breast was more poaching than roasting by the time I figured out to suck a whole bunch of that liquid outta there. When I turned the bird, for the last 30 minutes, of course the skin had softened and split. Now, she has you chop the whole thing up and serve it on a platter with juices poured over, so it really doesn't matter, but it took me by surprise as this was my first capon and I didn't realize how fat they are. It tasted like...chicken. Very good chicken. Not special, though, in any presentation sense. Even the fact that it's stuffed with prosciutto was a bit lost in the liquid rush of it all.

With it I served the Spiced Spinach with Almonds which was very good, and the Sweet and Sour Onions, which were inadvertantly transmogrified into onion relish. Reading the recipe hurriedly I had bought large white onions instead of the little guys, so I made and served it as a chopped relish, which was a very tasty save on a dumb mistake.

Then we had Torta Barozzi

which the chocophiles went nuts over. It's very intense, and no one guessed the mystery ingredient. You definitely need whipped cream with it to lighten it up a bit. I served it with slivers of leftover spongata and some cute little Spanish apricot tarts that Eden had brought as a gift.

LRK says it's traditional to serve the torta with nocino, and I just happened to receive a bottle in the mail from eje just a couple of days before the dinner, and it really was an excellent pairing. Here's his nocino, shown with the last course

a tiny cheese course of what should have been gorgonzola dolce but was really Valdeon, with a drizzle of Tuscan chestnut honey.

Then tonight I recycled it all by taking the leftover parm soup and adding it plus all the juices from cooking the capon into the pot to make a broth with the capon carcass, then serving it with some leftover tortelloni, in brodo.

And now I'm done with all things capon, if it please the court!

Edited December 27, 2006 by Abra (log)

[Pontormo]

O, if I could but be the dog under the table, begging for scraps and licking the plates when they were through! Both nights, that is.

How gorgeous, beautifully planned and entertainingly presented here for us. Thank you, Abra. It really does look like a whole lot of fun--as well as work.

While you defer to chefpeon in your marathon cookie-baking escapades, it seems that you, too, have a genuine gift for presenting baked goods. Your tortellini pie and exquisitely decorated cake (the stenciled powdered sugar!!! ) are so lovely. While the slice of cold leftover pie sort of reminds me of the latest advances in medical photography, it is especially tempting--and cool to see segmented meatballs, et al. Remind me of the "secret ingredient" in the cake, please. I remember the pictures you took before sealing up the cake, but...

Two things: 1) I believe you when you say the variation on the Baroque ragu was really good, but if you ever are inspired to try something different after making the other ragus in the book, I urge you to try the recipe (mostly) as is for the Duke's lasagna. 2) Yeah, capons taste like chicken. Really good, fresh, fat capons are spectacular, though. I bought one at the farmer's market in St. Louis that was one of the best things I've ever roasted. A French news program a couple of nights ago showed crate after crate of capons being stacked since it is the principal focus of many European Christmas dinners, served after the oysters, crabs, etc.

* * *

Modest report to get lost in the fray: 178 tortellini, total. You win, Hathor!!

[little ms foodie]

bravo Abra!! everything looks and sounds awesome!! and great job on that tortellini pie- OMG!!! since I know most of the folks at your dinners I already know how much fun, laughter and good times was had by all! Happy New Year

[Kevin72]

Amazing, pics, post, and meals, Abra! What fun to have all these great cooks together in the kitchen!

Sorry that the tortellini pie and capon was a bit frustrating for you.

Maybe it's my food snobbery at work, but I really like capon and prefer it to turkey. It's a lot richer in flavor and texture, I think, and isn't as prone to drying out.

[FoodMan]

Abra-

While I understand your frustrations, you have to realize how spectacular your dinners look. That torta and the Barozzi chocolate cake are just heavenly. I really think writing recipes for stuff like the Tortellini torta is tricky, I had similar issues with my Timpano when I made it for Campania. Very, very well done and thanks for sharing.

I almost feel ashamed sharing my simple Saturday night dinner after Abra's extravaganza, but here goes.

Saturday was a busy baking day for me, I was more or less responsible to bake a few breads and a cake or two from X-mas eve at the in laws house. I still managed to make a quick meal from The Splendid Table.

I used her recipe for Balsamic Glazed Beef to cook a nice piece of flank steak under the broiler. It came out perfectly cooked, nice and juicy. The marinade had red wine, garlic, herbs and olive oil.

The contorno was the Sweet Squash For Yum Kippur. I made this because I had a butternut squash on hand and because it was so darn easy. Bake the squash, mush up the flesh and saute it with onions, lemon zest and orange zest. This easy dish was perfect and a certain must repeat.

The Dolci was definitely very easy, the Pampepato (Christmas Chocolate Spice cake) I made on Sunday. Per the recipe instructions, I sliced this like a loaf of bread instead of wedges into thin slices and served it with some whipped cream. It was pretty tasty, strong and the chocolate went very good with all the spices and candied peels. For a cake that has no dairy or fat of any kind it was dry, but not as dry as I expected. It made for very good snack through out the weekend as well (very good with my morning espresso too).

Getting the glaze on to let it set

Started cutting then remembered to take a picture

That's the best I could do to give you an idea how the inside looks