Pranzo Allo Zio

This past weekend I went up to the Ithaca area to look at houses with my buddy Nick Roth. It was and exhausting weekend to say the least as we packed our schedule with listings, seeing about six a day in pursuit of the perfect house. My uncle Hitch also lives in the Ithaca area so Valerie and I usually stay with him when we travel upstate. He is a wonderful cook and a fine gourmet with a taste for Italian cuisine and French wine, two passions we hold in common. In addition to his culinary talents Hitch is also a renowned gardener and landscape designer; his garden upstate is not to be believed with over a dozen species of lilacs. This past Saturday Hitch cooked a lovely dinner for us to celebrate our arrival to the area and wish us well on our house hunt. The first course, in Italian fashion, was pasta with ramps and ricotta. These were not just any ramps; the three of us harvested them in the local woods. After I mentioned how much I loved ramp season, Hitch promptly grabbed a shovel and threw Valerie and I into the back of his station wagon. We pulled up outside the local cemetery, sounds weird I will admit, and began trekking into the swampy woods. After about fifteen minutes we stumbled upon a few green shoots and dug up their tasty roots bursting with onion and garlic flavor. We took our wild leeks home and sautéed them in a pan with olive oil, fresh ricotta, parmesan, and nutmeg which we then tossed with penne. It was a scrumptious pasta made special by the fact we had foraged the principal ingredient ourselves.

The second course consisted of pan roasted lamb chops and semi-wild salad. The lamb chops were rubbed with rosemary, thyme, sea salt, and coarse black pepper and sat at room temperature for about a half hour. Hitch cooked them in two cast iron pans over high heat to give them a toothsome crust without jeopardizing the tender pink meat inside. They were cooked medium-rare and served with an intriguing salad. Hitch took me out in the late afternoon sunshine to forage for wild herbs, shoots, and greens. We walked around his property with a large bowl kneeling down to identify and pluck a number of wild plants like bishops weed, primrose, dandelion, and a little pink flower that tastes of fresh peas to name a few. There were literally ten wild varietals to which we added bagged mache to constitute the “semi” part of the salad. I tossed the greens with a little olive oil and coarse sea salt to highlight each and every leaf’s unique flavor. The dish went excellently with the meat, serving simultaneously as a fibrous vegetable side and green salad.


The final dish, a rhubarb tart, looks a little weird but it was really tasty. Hitch is an accomplished baker in the pie and tart department so I always look forward to dessert when I am invited to his dinners. He painstakingly prepared a demi-feuilletée or half puff pastry with layer upon layer of butter interspersed in the dough, an integral element of French pastry making. The dough makes for a thin and crisp crust or tart shell that can then be used in a host of applications. Hitch went with a custard of rhubarb, sugar, eggs, and cream which he poured into the blind-baked crust and cooked for an additional fifteen minutes until golden brown. It did look a little weird but the tart flavor of the rhubarb and eggy sweet custard matched perfectly with the airy crust of the demi-feuilletée. This was an exceptional meal and I am thrilled by the proposition of moving upstate and eating Hitch’s food at least once a week. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Spring Snacky

Spring is a wonderful time of year to be a foodie. The farmer’s markets start to overflow with fresh produce, spring cheeses, and other tasty treats as the season shifts from cold to rainy and sunny. And let us not forget the gorgeous pencil thin asparagus and oniony ramps that dominate the market place every late April into early May. Spring also brings the dormant bulbs to bloom around the city parks and gardens in a floral spectacle brightening the urban landscape. Aside from the delicious ingredients on offer in springtime, the season also connotes a sense of renewal. Spring cleaning is of course what I am referring to which extends to the mind, body, and soul, not simply the attic or living room. Whether it is the guilt of being cooped up all winter or the pounds gained throughout, spring is a great time to be active and take advantage of the beautiful weather. It is also a great time to explore the fresh produce abounding the farmer’s markets and gourmet grocers, facilitating an increased intake of fruits and vegetables. In honor of spring cleaning I have started running again and have been playing tennis as well as eating much better overall. This sandwich however is not an example of my recent dietary regime. I was going for a run and needed something to put a little bounce in my step both calorie and taste-wise. I love making sandwiches and am in pursuit of the ultimate sandwich which is a tall task given the number and variations out there. This one was made with arugula, ricotta salata, Tuscan salami, and roasted red peppers on a sourdough roll dressed with Dijon mustard and olive oil. The sandwich was salty, peppery, meaty, and sweet all at once making a tasty pre-run snacky. Go out there and enjoy the bounty of spring! As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Mother's Day Dinner

Mother’s day is of course a Hallmark holiday but unlike some of the more commercially driven celebratory occasions it has good intentions driving it and I don’t feel as bad buying into it as I do for Valentine’s day. There is really only one good restaurant near the hamlet of Andes, where my mom’s farm is located, so Emma and I thought it would be nice to treat her. We ended up staying in and cooking which was totally cool with me since I always welcome an excuse to cook and eat at home. As I have mentioned in numerous past posts she is a wonderful cook and I relish the opportunity to eat her food let alone watch her whiz around the kitchen. The main dish for mother’s day dinner was a stunning glazed ham, one of my mother’s signature dishes which is her go-to for any number of special occasions. It was studded with cloves, roasted, and then glazed with a mix of brown sugar, dry mustard, whiskey, and orange juice. The spicy tang imparted by the cloves and orange juice paired nicely with the caramelized crust achieved by the sugar and alcohol. I have been eating this ever since childhood and am willing to bet that it is the best glazed ham out there.

Aside from the massively large ham that we carved off in thin slices, my mother prepared a couple of side dishes to complete the meal. The first was steamed new potatoes with sweet butter and fresh herbs, a dish commonly made in France to accompany fish or poultry. Her garden has started to come up and there are tons of delicate herbs just waiting to perfume dishes like tarragon, chives, and curly parsley. The dish was simple yet elegant with tons of bright flavor, a perfect accompaniment to the salty ham. The second side was my mother’s famous coleslaw, the same recipe that she has been making for years which she inherited from my grandmother Violet. The recipe is sort of a secret but I will say that it contains purple cabbage, carrots, and onion. That is all I can share but that should by no means stop you from making your own variation of coleslaw which you and yours can keep secret. The three of us sat down to a huge supper in honor of our mother and by the end we were all stuffed and a little drunk which is exactly where you want to be after a home cooked meal at the farm. Emma and I did not regret staying in for dinner one bit after enjoying a fabulous meal with our mum in the comfort of her charming farmhouse. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Saturday Lunch At The Farm

My sister Emma and I drove upstate this past weekend to celebrate our mother at Red Hen Farm, her property in the Catskills. The farm was exceptionally beautiful in the pristine spring weather with lettuces and flowers beginning to pop from the rust red earth of the gardens and the hilly surrounding ablaze with wild dandelions. It is the best place to enjoy the tranquility of the countryside with the added bonus of good food and even better company. Upon arrival, Emma and I were greeted by our old English setter Annie and a fabulous lunch of ribs and pasta. She roasted pork ribs in the oven until they browned nicely and coated them with a combination of barbecue sauce and Chinese duck sauce. The glaze was smoky, sweet, and exotic all at once, caramelizing well under the broiler.

The second dish was a simple roasted cherry tomato pasta. Roasting tomatoes is an awesome way to draw out their natural sweetness while condensing their flavor. My mother layered a baking dish with tons of fresh basil and then added whole cherry tomatoes, minced garlic, fennel seeds, and good olive oil. The tomatoes were cooked at 350 for 10 or 15 minutes until they collapsed a bit. I have been using this technique for years thanks to her and it always turns out wonderfully. Just toss the saucy tomatoes with your favorite noodle and you have a tasty meal ready to roll in under a half hour. The lunch was a nice treat after being on the road for a few hours and marked the start of a mighty weekend of eating. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Pregame Dinner With Sis

I happen to follow NBA basketball and have a deep affinity for the Los Angeles Lakers, my hometown team. Baseball never really did it for me and neither did hockey. Football is fun during the playoffs (Super Bowl) and I find soccer amusing if it’s French national team action. There is great enjoyment in plunking down with friends to watch a basketball game, especially if the Lakers are involved. I have suffered from a glaring handicap throughout the season however, no cable box or suitable television. My sister Emma has been kind enough to allow me access to her living room a few nights a week to watch my beloved franchise. Quite frankly her television is ginormous and her sofa miry which make it the ideal place for viewing. To thank her for the use of a sizeable portion of her apartment for long hours at a time I thought it would be nice to cook her a meal. I do not cook nearly enough for Emma and it means a lot to her when I do which made it a nice reciprocation of her kindness. For the pregame dinner we had a couple of rustic Italian dishes loaded with all things delicious. We had an arugula salad of tender baby leaves tossed with grated Parmesan, lemon, and olive oil; why mess with a classic when it tastes so good each and every time.

This saucy red mess with the little fluffy white plop in the middle is a gnocchi dish that got ahead of me as I was bringing the meal together. I oversauced the pasta severely after getting caught up in how delicious it was going to be and effectively hid the potato pillows completely. The dish I was going for was gnocchi with marinara and fresh ricotta known as “the priest stranglers” at Supper, a pizza/pasta joint on the Lower East Side. They make theirs with squiggly noodles and house “Sunday” marinara, a combo that is nearly impossible to recreate at home. No matter how much I try, I am just not from Naples. The mild creamy ricotta mellows the acidity of the tomatoes nicely making an absolutely stunning sauce. I cheated and used Scarpetta marinara sauce which is actually pretty tasty. I prefer to make my own of course but hey, sometimes laziness beats la gourmandaise. The dish had good intentions but was completely overpowered by the sauce however delicious it might have been. I think Emma was happy with it and was buttered up enough for me to watch some wicked ball at her apartment. Just kidding. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!