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!!