Festa Italiana, part 2 -- the meat!

Okay.. next up.. prepping for dinner,  We didn't really have much idea of what we wanted to make -- just some random ingredients and a few ideas.

So, the soup.  Christina had found this great recipe online and we did our very best to follow it but you know, I think we have RDD -- recipe deficit disorder.  We start out with ALL the best intentions .. but we get led astray so quickly.  She had bought a bunch (about 10 - 12 of them, a little bigger than golf balls) of little vine tomatoes at the Italian grocery and the recipe called for us to roast those, a sliced onion, garlic cloves and some carrots in the oven til they were nice and soft.  We drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled a little salt on them (and added a little more granulated garlic, just for good measure) and roasted them for about 45 minutes.

Once cooked, we dropped them into the blender with about 2 1/2 cups of milk and 2 cups of water and a few leaves of basil.  Blend, blend blend, into the bowls, add a dollop of greek yogurt and a sprig of parsley.  Done!!

Christina had this gorgeous little fragrant muskmelon, about the size of a large softball.  We sliced it and wrapped some fresh, thin prosciutto around it, topping it off with a slice of cherry cheddar cheese.

This was one of those discoveries from the fridge -- not on the plan at all but came up really delicious.  The muskmelon was sweet but subtle and no one flavor overpowered the others.. the cherry cheddar gave us a little sweet and a little tang and the prosciutto gave just a teensy bit of salty.  It was like the perfect bite.

Next we sliced a small baguette and brushed extra virgin olive oil on top.  We popped that into the oven at 400 to toast while we started to prep the meat-a-balls-a.

Now, this occurred organically -- and I don't mean we got it all from the fields.. I mean we found a recipe that told us how long and at what temp to cook meatballs, and we made up the rest.

We started with about 4# of meat -- a combination of beef and pork that's usually sold as "meatloaf" at the store. You could certainly use any ground meat for this, but I think I would shy away from using turkey or chicken and in fact I might have preferred to use a combination of beef and lamb or even beef and venison.  These meatballs were hearty chunks of meat.  In the bowl, we combined one egg, a mixture of different spices that included parsley (1/4 c. fresh), dill (1TB), garlic powder (3 tsp), chopped onions (one small onion), rosemary (2tsp) , sage (2tsp), salt (pinch/dash -- you don't need very much), white pepper, italian breadcrumbs (3/4c), paremesan cheese (1/4c), olive oil (drizzled over top) and spinach (a good sized handful, shredded by hand as shown on the left).

Now, you have to know, you gotta use your hands to mix this all together and it's messy so if you aren't one who likes to gets their hands messy or get food under your fingertips, wear latex gloves.. there's no other way to do this effectively. You won't get all the spices mixed in well enough. Once they're all mixed together, roll the meat into balls, about the size of your palm when you cup your hand.  Yeah, I have man hands, my meat-a-balls-a gonna be BIG!

Lay them on a baking sheet (you might want to put down some tin foil to help with cleanup, as we learned, this will create some mess) about an inch apart from each other.  They go into the over for about 25 to 30 minutes at 425 .. but you have to watch them.  They'll turn a gorgeous color of dark golden brown and they'll get firm when they're done - but you're still going to have to take one out and bust it open to test it -- don't worry, you won't regret it.

So the bread comes out of the oven and we put a small amount of triple cream brie on top, then pop them back in quickly to get the brie to melt down a little.  Meanwhile, we sliced some fresh figs thinly and when the brie had melted for about two minutes, we pulled the bread and placed a slice of fig on top.  The heat mellowed the brie considerably -- it was like rich butter, but the fig on top gave it just enough tart and sweet.  It was the hit of the night.  I could have made a meal of just these little bruschettas.  There wasn't a thing missing.

While the meat-a-balls-a were baking, we boiled up a package of pasta, al dente.  We heated the sauce I brought down from home and set the table for the festa! 

I can't believe I actually forgot to mention dessert!  In fact, dessert was SO delicious, and gobbled down SO quickly, there was no time to get the camera out before there was nothing left but crumbs.  Once again, the mystical combination of salty and sweet has found its way onto my table again (big surprise, right?)  We basically took a square container of ice cream and cut it into slices, then quartered it.  Each of those little quarters was pressed between a pair of saltines.  Yes, that's what I said; a pair of saltines.  Ed wasn't convinced of the potential for scrumptiousness of this combination and asked for ice cream between graham crackers instead.  I liked my two little sammiches so much, I bequeathed my graham cracker sammich to Ed without even trying it.  This is ingenious and delicious -- and the size is just right, too!

So this was Festa Italiana, folks.  Please let me know if you need or want clarification on any of the dishes we made -- I'll be happy to give you what you need or if you have an idea or a question about what I think might work as a substitute.

Festa Italiana, Part 1

WOO!  It's been a long couple of weeks for me, kiddos!  Drum corps season ended (abruptly leaving a BIG HOLE in my life..  when's audition camp again?) and then I started my new job so .. not much time for food (WHAT??).

That all changed last night.  Christina, Ed and I decided to have a "party" which consisted of she and I cooking, and all three of us eating.. Ed helped by reading one of the recipes aloud so we could work and chatter without having to stop and look at the recipe (right.. like we actually USE recipes!)

For dinner, we planned:

Home-a-made-a Meat-a-balls-a

Fresh Marinara Sauce

Tomato, Carrot and Basil Soup

Prosciutto Wrapped Melon

Fig and Brie Bruschetta

Yes.  All of it.  We also had two bottles of red wine:  von Stiehl's Naughty Girl and Cedarburg Winery's 2007 Hillside Red.

I KNOW they say "you shouldn't drink after surgery" but you know what?  It's going to happen.  Depending on your situation, wine may be a part of your life after surgery.  I drink it with a good meal because I think it adds a flower to the flavor bouquet of the whole experience but you know, that's just me.  I realize there are people who can't drink it and I realize there are people who SHOULDN'T drink it (hello!!  ex-boyfriend, anyone?) but if you decide you will add wine to your post-op life, I hope you'll explore all the beauty and complexity that can be found in a wonderful vintage paired with a delicious meal.

In this case, the Naughty Girl was a blend of delicious grape and brightly fruity raspberry wines tied up with a bow of grape brandy. The initial taste is almost like candy - it fills your entire face with flavor and touches all points on your palate.  The finish is much darker and dry at the front of your tongue -- very naughty, indeed!!  I will be obtaining more of this delicious red blend, for sure! I'll talk more about the pairing with the food further on.

Hillside Red is a longtime favorite of mine because I think it's robust, grapey body makes it very easy to drink and it doesn't sit on your palate like a linebacker waiting for the next play.  Unfortunately, we opened this bottle second and in comparison, it came up a little flat.  Taken in solo accompaniment to the meal, it would have been fine and in fact quite nice.

The festa began on Thursday at my house up in Wisconsin as I took about 20 of those deliciously plump and sweet hybrid Roma tomatoes out of my garden and let my mom chop and marinate them (and no it's not slave labor to employ your mom to do your dirty work in this!) in red wine overnight.

We also pulled fresh basil, flat leaf parsley and red basil for the party.  I had picked up three different varieties of garlic at the farmer's market last Saturday as well and those were incorporated.  What kind?  Couldn't tell ya.  They smelled great and one of them is supposed to be a "red" garlic -- either way.. delicious.  I chopped up two cloves of each plus a couple of cloves of my standard, store bought garlic.

It all started with the garlic onions and shallots in olive oil.  I probably used about 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil, half a white onion, four stalks of scallions, and my gorgeous little shallots from the garden (about 6 cloves worth) and a dash of salt -- by dash I mean a few pinches til I could just smell it in the mix.  Let that saute in the bottom of the large pot while I prepped the rest of the tomatoes.  I do usually add San Marzano tomatoes to the mix.  If I can find them fresh, without a doubt, that's going in.
In 99% of my attempts, though, grocers look at me with puzzled expressions and I end up in the "Italian" aisle, loading up my cart with cans of stewed, whole or chopped San Marzano tomatoes.  For this batch, I used an entire #10 (industrial sized) can of whole stewed tomatoes.  I used my Martha Stewart Pastry cutter to chop them up in the bowl.  Nobody ever said you have to use your tools for only the thing they're named after!

You'll learn that I'm not a fan of everything being all chopped up perfectly.  I prefer everything rough chopped so that the flavor varies with every bite.  You still get the overall experience, but the food LOOKS more interesting to me when it's laid out on the plate.

I stirred the onions and added some fresh parsley and basil to the mixture to let the flavors simmer together.  This is the base of your sauce and the more flavor you give it now, the better I think it holds up when you start layering in the other fresh ingredients.  As soon as those fresh leaves were wilted and dark from the heat, I added the chopped tomatoes marinated in wine.  Stir, stir, stir!!  Get those flavors all wrapped around each other!  Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally to let those tomatoes cook down.  Don't take the cover off too often as you don't want to lose much of that juice to steam just yet.

When it's good and boiled down, add the smashed San Marzano's, more wine, olive oil and more salt and pepper.  You're going to need to taste this as you go because even if you're opposed to cooking with salt and pepper, you NEED to or the sauce won't develop the way it should.  Have some plain bread to dip if you can't eat it right off the spoon.  Continue to taste and add basil, garlic and parsley -- again, FRESH IS BEST.. the flavors are brighter and will infuse more flavor with less volume.

You can leave this to simmer, covered for a while more -- maybe 30 or 45 minutes on med low.  If you're using a copper or copper bottom pot, the heat is already in the metal, you don't need more.  Stir periodically to make sure you're not overcooking and getting stuff sticking to the bottom.  If you notice that you are, reduce the heat.

As a side note, I don't add ANY water to this sauce.  The water that has reduced out of the tomatoes should suffice.  I DO add wine -- a lot of it.  I usually use at least half a bottle.  Don't worry about the alcohol as it cooks right off, leaving you with that delicious robust flavor.  Not a bad idea to have two bottles of whatever you cooked with.. one to cook, one to drink with dinner.  If you're not sure what kind of wine to use, go with a hearty Italian red -- you can never go wrong with a Chianti or a Sangiovese for cooking, even if you drink something else.  Try to stay away from overly oaky reds (I wouldn't use a Cabernet, for instance.. you want more fruit, less wood).

For the last 15 minutes of simmer time, I take the lid off.  I like a very thick sauce so allowing some of the water to boil off is a good thing. If it's not thick enough, at this point, I generally will add about 16oz of tomato sauce to thicken and add some more tomato-y goodness.

Now for some photos of the dinner to come...

More to come!!