Ragu alla Bolognese - Ricetta Antica
We were watching a rerun of one of Lidia's programs the other night when she started making a Bolognese sauce - with milk. It was one of those "aha" moments - as in we're going to have to make this really soon.
Really soon translated to a mere two days, and armed with Lidia's cookbook Lidia's Family Table, Victor went to work. There are two variations on the ragu - the tradizionale with wine and tomatoes that is the most common, today - and the antica - an older variation that has fallen out of favor. We went for the antica!
The process is interesting... The wine gets poured and worked into the meat before it's cooked, the pancetta and garlic get processed into a paste - a pestata - and a three hour simmer with additions of hot milk or broth every 20 minutes. It's a process - but really worth it!
Ragu alla Bolognese - Ricetta Antica
adapted from Lidia's Family Table
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 6 ounces pancetta
- 5 large garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion minced
- 2 celery stalks, minced
- 1 carrot, minced
- 1 can tomato paste
- 2 cups of milk
- freshly grated nutmeg
- 2 large bay leaves
- 2 cups of beef broth
- salt to taste
- freshly ground pepper
Break up and mix together ground beef and pork in a large mixing bowl. Pour over wine and mix in with fingers to ensure it's evenly moistened.
Make the pestata: Roughly chop pancetta and place in a food processor with peeled garlic. Process into a fine paste.
In a large heavy pan, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and scrape in the pestata. Place over medium/high heat and break up with a spoon to render the juices.
Once the pestata has started rendering its fat, stir in the minced onion and cook until they start to sweat. Add the minced carrots and celery, stirring until they're all wilted and golden, about 5 minutes.
Turn the heat up a bit, push the vegetables to the side and add your meat mixture to the pan, giving it a few moments to brown on the bottom of the pan before mixing in with the vegetables. Cook on high heat, stirring frequently, for ab.out 30-45 minutes, until all all of the liquid has disappeared. Begin heating up your liquids (milk, broth) for the next steps.
Once again, push aside your meat/vegetable mixture and create a hole to place the tomato paste so it can lightly cook. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Pour in 2 cups of hot milk and stir into the meat mixture, making sure to scrape any brown bits off the bottom of your pan.
Grate the nutmeg into the pan.
Bring the sauce to a slow, steady simmer, consistently bubbling away. Cover and let cook for at least 3hrs, checking and stirring every 20 minutes. Use hot broth to maintain the sauces liquid levels throughout cooking.
To finish the sauce, uncover and allow sauce to simmer into a thicker consistency.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with your favorite pasta - tagliatelle is the traditional pasta - but use what you like. Top with plenty of freshly grated parmesan.
We used a Pipe Rigate pasta instead of the tagliatelle because Nonna doesn't do noodles of any sort. I really liked the pipe rigate, though, because the sauce went into the pasta and there were little sauce explosions in my mouth as I chewed.
The entire dish was swoon-worthy!
The recipe made a lot of sauce, so Victor froze half of it for another meal, and even after dishing out three huge portions, there's enough left for lunch, tomorrow.
We're planning a side trip to Bologna next year when we're in Milan - I want to see the huge Eataly complex - and I now want to see if they can make a sauce this good in Italy!
Pistachio Liqueur
When we were in Italy a few years ago, we bought a little souvenir bottle of pistachio cream liqueur. It was in a bottle the shape of Italy and cost a grand total of about 1 euro. It held exactly enough to make one batch of really good pistachio biscotti. We looked for more, but the state liquor store in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania does not stock it. We made our own and it was pretty good.
Fast forward a few years and Victor started thinking about the 2017 Cookies. Knowing how much I like pistachios, he decided a pistachio liqueur - not cream liqueur - was needed for this holiday season.
Again, it's something the state store doesn't sell. Time to make a batch.
The process is really simple... you soak pistachios in alcohol for a couple of weeks, strain, add a simple syrup, and you're done. Really simple.
Pistachio Liqueur
- 8 oz roasted pistachios
- 3 cups vodka
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1 cup simple syrup
Coarsely chop pistachios and place in a mason jar. Add raisins and vodka. Seal and let sit about 2 weeks, shaking now and a gain.
Strain pistachios very well through a cheesecloth-lined sieve. Strain, again, through a coffee filter.
Make a simple syrup with 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Cool.
Mix syrup with pistachio vodka. Pour into a 750ml bottle and enjoy!
About 2 weeks before our latest vacation Victor set the pistachios to soak. We shook them now and again, but left them to soak while we were gone. They ended up sitting for about a month, total - which only made the base that much richer.
The end result is an extremely rich pistachio beverage. Great for the planned cookies, but it will also be great as a drink on its own.
I see a lot of cookies and other goodies coming from this!
Lasagne
I took some ground beef out of the freezer before work this morning, figuring I'd throw something together when I got home. I had no plan - but we do have plenty of things to use up... lots of tomatoes from the garden, cheeses... we always have a well-stocked larder.
We're actually going out tonight - just like Big People. Tickets to see HAIR at Footlighter's Theater in Berwyn - right down the road from us.
I first saw HAIR in 1968 at the Geary Theatre in San Francisco with my high school Drama class. I'm thinking it may have been my very first actual real, live, professional theatre experience. It was pretty cool and it definitely set the stage - so to speak - for my love of live performances. The Geary back in those days had a third balcony that was pretty much right up against the ceiling and the back wall. The stairs were steep and if you tripped you probably would have gone tumbling over and into the crowd below.
Berger, in the San Francisco run, swung down from that third balcony onto the stage for a pretty dramatic entrance. I'm not sure if he was in his loincloth at that point or if it came later, but... I was enthralled. A live cute boy swinging through the air and in a loincloth on stage. I was definitely in my element!
I've been humming the music all day, revisiting those thrilling days of yesteryear, and was thinking of what to make on the way home. When I walked in the house, Victor had dinner all made - LASAGNE!!!
Talk about psyched!
Major Let the Sunshine In!
Ya know how something unexpected can sometimes be so much better than something planned? This was one of those times - especially since Victor makes such good lasagne!
The toothpicks show the dividing line between the hot pepper side and the Nonna-No-Pepper side. She won't eat spicy and we love it. We do what we need to do...
Layers of cheese and ground beef and tomatoes and tomato sauce from the garden...
It's the dawning of the age of aquarius!
Eggplant Timbale
Victor spent the day in the kitchen whilst I was at work, today...
We harvested another seven eggplants, so he set to work creating spectacular foods utilizing the garden bounty. It's rough being us...
First off was a vat of Little Gram's Eggplant Appetizer. It's our go-to for fabulous caponata.
Naturally, it came out perfect. It's great as a bruschetta, a pasta sauce, hot, cold, room temperature... It's eggplant perfection.
And then we had even more eggplant perfection in the form of a timbale. Victor really did spend the day in the kitchen!
A timbale is not difficult to make, but it does take a bit of time. There are lots of steps involved, starting with cutting and cooking - in this case - the eggplant.
Here's a basic recipe. Amounts will vary depending upon how big you make it. Victor baked off a 10" timbale. Your results may vary.
Eggplant Timbale
- eggplant
- pancetta
- peppers
- ground beef
- peas
- pasta sauce
- penne pasta
- shredded cheese
- olive oil
- bread crumbs
First step is to slice the eggplant and cook it. You can oven-bake, grill, or fry. Victor oven-baked it, today by brushing it with olive oil and cooking it in a 350°F oven for about 25 minutes.
Next, chop pancetta and peppers.
The peppers came out of the garden. they're not really hot but have good flavor.
Saute the pancetta...
Add the peppers...
And the ground beef...
And then the sauce and peas... Cook the penne and mix it all well...
Oil and liberally coat a springform pan with bread crumbs. The breadcrumbs help to release the timbale when it's cooked.
Line the pan with the cooked eggplant...
Add a layer of shredded cheese...
Next, a layer of the penne pasta mixture...
More cheese...
More pasta mixture...
More cheese and then fold the eggplant over the top, pressing down to compact and encasing everything.
A few crumbs on top...
And into a preheated 350°F oven for about an hour and 15 minutes. If you plan on inverting the timbale onto a serving platter, bake as-is. If you are not going to invert, add sauce and cheese to the top midway through.
Remove from the oven and let sit at least 20 minutes before serving or inverting onto a platter.
Cut into wedges, and enjoy!
This really is an awesome dish and one that anyone can make. Victor used just one eggplant for the entire dish, a half-pound of ground beef, maybe 2 oz of pancetta, a half bag of frozen peas, maybe 6oz of shredded cheese, 4 small peppers, a quart of sauce, and a pound of pasta.
It definitely needs to set for at least 20 minutes if not a bit longer, so plan accordingly.
If we were making it for company, we would have inverted it onto the platter and topped it with additional heated pasta sauce dripping down the sides for that dramatic effect. For the two of us, the springform pan liner was sufficient.
So get yourself an eggplant and get cooking!
Malloreddus and Sauce from the Garden
When the going gets tough, the tough get cooking.
Yeah... it's been tough the past few days. The bile coming out of the mouth of our Commander-in-Chief is enough to gag a maggot, as my father was wont to say. Pop was a WWII vet and would not be taking this well. Hell - I'm a Viet Nam vet and I'm not taking it well.
It's hard to stomach such blatant racism and disregard for human life in the year 2017. But I do take heart in the number of people who are seriously standing up and shouting "ENOUGH!"
Good will prevail. I really do believe that. But it's going to be a fight - and fight is something I am more than willing to do. Because trust me - I ain't going quietly.
Cooking and being in the kitchen has always had a calming effect on me. Funny, because I know a lot of people who start stressing at the mere thought of having to figure out a meal. I just find it easy. What can I say?!?
Monday afternoon, I pureed three gallons of tomatoes from the garden - they're starting to come in fast and furious - and today, Victor made his sauce. I came home and canned it. I got 10 quarts. A nice start.
This is the basic recipe. Obviously, three gallons of fresh tomato sauce is going to alter it a bit and in Summer the herbs are fresh from the garden, but the basics are here...
Victor's Sauce
- 2 – 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes
- 1 – Sm can tomato paste
- 1-2 cloves of garlic (or to taste if you like more) chopped fine
- Olive oil
- Dried Italian seasonings
- Hot red pepper flakes (a tsp or more or less to taste)
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Red wine (always cook with a decent wine, never “cooking” wine) about a cup or cup and a half
- Meat – such as Italian sausage or some nice beef or pork ribs or pork chops
Ok…I ALWAYS make my sauce with meat, so start with a deep, heavy pot and add about 3-4 TBS of olive oil. On high heat, once the oil is hot, start frying the sausage or pork, Let the meat get good and caramelized although you don’t have to cook it all the way through because you’ll add it back to the sauce to finish. Once the meat is browned take it out of the pot, put it on a plate and set aside.
Lower the heat to medium and sauté the tomato paste for a couple of minutes until it begins to “melt”. Add the chopped garlic and sauté with the tomato paste for just a minute (no longer or it will burn). Then add about a cup of the red wine and deglaze the pan with it, scrapping up all the good bits that stuck to the bottom when cooking the meat.
When the wine reduces by about ½ start adding the canned tomatoes. Add one can of hot water for every can of tomatoes you use.
Now start adding the dried Italian seasonings. I eyeball it but I would guess a good 2 TBS is fine. Add about another ½ cup of red wine, with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir everything into the sauce. It will be very thin at this point.
Add back the cooked meat. Now this is important….at the bottom of the plate you let the meat rest on will be some of the oil and juices that seeped out. Pour that back into the pot. It has a lot of flavor in it.
Bring the sauce back to a boil then turn the heat down low and let it simmer for at least 1 and a half hours, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes to keep it from burning. It should reduce by about a third or a little less and get thicker. The meat will absorb the sauce and get very tender.
When I make meatballs, I don’t fry them, I bake them on a sheet pan. When I do, I add them to the simmering sauce when they’re done so they also absorb the flavor.
I usually make the sauce early in the day and after it’s done, just let it sit on the stove until dinner then I re-heat it. This should make enough sauce for a couple of dinners or good sized lasagna.
And the sauce went onto homemade malloreddus - a Sardinian pasta.
It's great being married to a man who can cook...
Malloreddus
- Sea Salt
- 1 ¼ cups semolina flour
- ¾ cup tipa “00” flour or all-purpose flour
- Extra virgin olive oil
Gnocchi board or a table fork
Dissolve 1 tsp salt in ¾ cup warm water. In a large bowl whisk together semolina and all purpose flour; mound and form a well in the center.
Add water mixture and 2 tsp olive oil to the well. Using your hand or a fork, slowly incorporate flour from inside the rim of the well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead in bowl until dough forms a complete mass (dough will be slightly sticky).
Transfer dough to a well floured work surface and knead, dusting with a bit more flour as needed just to keep dough from sticking to your hands, for 5 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
Break off about 1/8 of the dough; tightly rewrap remaining dough. Roll dough into ½ inch cylinder, and cut into ¼ inch thick pieces. Pressing with your thumb, roll each piece on a gnocchi board (or down the back of a fork) to give it the characteristic ridges, and put on a floured baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough.
To cook fresh Malloreddus, bring a large pot of salted water to a bill. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 6 minutes after water returns to a boil. Drain, transfer to a large serving bowl and immediately toss with sauce and serve.
A fresh loaf of bread - store bought, alas, rounded out the meal.
And just as an aside...
I have always felt that food is the great equalizer - that sitting down and enjoying different foods from different countries and cultures can open our minds and our hearts to others different from us.
Go to Chef Google and type in the name of a country and type "recipes" after it. Cook something different. Learn what other people have for breakfast or dinner.
Learn.
Eggplant and Pepper Lasagne
Last night we were discussing tonight's dinner - Victor had said he wanted to make an eggplant lasagne - when he asked what I thought of adding some of the hot peppers from the garden. My eyes lit up, I started drooling, and said "YES!!!" Eggplant from the garden. Tomatoes from the garden. Peppers from the garden. Basil and oregano from the garden. It just doesn't get any better.
This is how easy cooking at our house is... A comment was made and a recipe was born... And it's a recipe that will be made again and again.
This really is the secret to cooking - take something you know you like and play with it. It's just not difficult. And for all those folks out there who say they're just not creative... Yes, you are. Just go for it - to quote a famous footwear and apparel company. Seriously, the worst thing - the absolutely worst thing that can happen is you throw it all out and call for pizza.
I have to admit that I've made a few things that I'll never make again, but I haven't had to call for pizza, yet.
Tonight, Victor made his basic Eggplant Lasagne and added peppers in the layers. He seeded and fried the peppers in olive oil and then added the oil to the homemade, fresh from the garden tomato sauce. It was outrageously good.
It's amazing what you can do with a single eggplant. And there's a lot more where this one came from.
I think tomorrow night I'm doing something with short ribs. And more goodies from the garden...
Stuffed Peppers
It's the garden that keeps on giving - and it really hasn't even started, yet!
While I was busy making desserts and looking at apartments in Barcelona, Victor was in the kitchen making magic with fresh peppers and tomatoes from the garden! It's a wonderful life we lead!
He started with a basic sauce of fresh tomatoes - whooshed in the blender and then cooked with smashed anchovies, garlic, a bit of tomato paste fried with the anchovies and garlic, red wine, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, and a handful of pecorino.
The stuffing was ligurian sausage, onion, yellow zucchini, onion, whole grain bread for croutons, garlic, a splash of the tomato sauce, and more pecorino.
Covered, and then into a 375ºF oven for 40 minutes.
Nonna all but licked her plate clean. Mine was so clean from sopping up every morsel with bread that we could have almost put the plate back in the cupboard.
It was molto favoloso!
Dessert to follow.....
More from the Garden
We're finally starting to see some ripe tomatoes - and the green beans are going crazy! We have two blue lake beans and two purple bush beans out there. The purple ones are easy to pick - they're purple. The blue lakes blend in with the stems and leaves making them more difficult to see. They're delicious - but a pain in the ass.
Let's face it - Farmer in the Dell, I'm not. Our little plot needs a lot of work - I can't even imagine twice as much, let alone an actual farm. Once, maybe 30 or 35 years ago, I worked all day with my sister, Arlene, picking honeydew melons in Marysville. I was reasonably young and in reasonably good shape. It almost killed me. I couldn't fathom doing it day-in and day-out for the pittance migrant workers get paid.
I read today that more Mexicans are returning to Mexico than are coming north to work the fields. Some California farmers are paying a lot more for workers - who typically work 50-60 hours a week. Others are letting crops rot for lack of skilled labor to pick. The realities of using minorities as scapegoats.
In the fields picking, sorting... I did it one day. One. No, thank you.
I'll bemoan our little plot and then remember what it was like that one day years ago. Suddenly, it's not so bad!
Today while I was working, Victor made a great green bean and tomato salad with cherry tomatoes from the plant that just decided to grow. It also had thinly sliced red onion, hard-cooked eggs, and freshly-shredded cheese. He made a vinaigrette of olive oil, sherry vinegar, anchovies, garlic, and S&P.
Totally awesome.
It was served with a lightly-floured whitefish, fried in butter and olive oil and a sauce made of white wine, capers, parsley, lemon juice and lemon zest.
Totally awesome, part deux.
It's great being married to a man who loves to cook.
And farm.
Eggplant Lasagne
I now have another recipe that I never have to make. Ya know how some folks just own a recipe? They make it the best and there's just no reason to try and make it, yourself. On this coast, it's things like Marie's Jelly Strips and Joanna's Wedding Rings. I'm not going to improve on them, so there's just no reason to make them. I'm satisfied getting them when they make them.
The latest in my getting-longer list of recipes is Eggplant Lasagne. Victor owns this one. I'm just not going to bother.
I've been going crazy looking for a post and a recipe because he's made this a lot - but I'll be damned if I can find one. I can't believe I haven't documented this one, before. It's just too damned good.
The premise is quite simple - build a lasagne, but use slices of eggplant as the noodles. It's stellar.
Layers of homemade sauce, floured, breaded, and fried eggplant, ricotta, mozzarella, more sauce, fresh basil... layers upon layers of greatness, covered, baked, and then served to the salivating crowd.
It's that good.
That's a 9x13 pan. Enough lasagne for the neighborhood. I'm going to portion and freeze some tomorrow. I've been emptying out the freezer to hold our summer bounty.
There are more eggplants on the vine - and more dishes to create.
I'm thinking an eggplant souffle... I wonder if I can convince him to start making souffles?!?
Hmmmmmmm.....
Lemon Basil Tagliatelle
I just read a great opinion piece in the NY Times about Blue Apron - the company that sends you your pre-measured meal in a box. It seems they just had their initial IPO and it was a bit underwhelming.
I have to admit that I just don't get the concept. As the author stated:
My deepest problem with meal kits, however, is that I worry they’re not teaching people how to cook, but are instead teaching them how to prepare meal kits. The recipe cards that came with some meal kit boxes sounded like word problems, full of measurements, times and temperatures, and if there’s anything I hate it’s this insistence on turning cooking into math.
I totally get this. I have written many, many recipes in my life - and the one thing that always stands out is you can't just follow a recipe - you need to be involved in the process. You need to look and feel, smell and taste. The most difficult thing in the world for me is to tell someone how I made something. I don't know... I just did it! Recipes are guidelines - not chiseled in stone absolutes.
But the neophyte cook wants chiseled in stone absolutes.
In this regard, something like Blue Apron can give someone the confidence to try something new, but cooking is about just going in and doing it.
I had a conversation with a woman at work today about cooking and planning meals for the week. She has a friend who every Sunday plans the weeks meals, buys the groceries, etc... both of us said that there's no way on Sunday that we know what we want to eat on Thursday... It seems totally alien, to me. She also said she just has stuff in the house and puts things together, but she wasn't a good cook. I told her that if she can walk into the kitchen and put dinner together without a plan from what she had on-hand, she was a fantastic cook!
We talked about reading recipes and changing things around - never really following them - using what was in the house or things we just liked better. It's all perspective, I guess. That's exactly how I cook - and it's how Victor's pasta came out, today.
The plan was that since I had to work until 5pm, he would feed Nonna early and we would have a leisurely dinner, whenever. He had picked up some shrimp the other day with the thought of doing a fresh pasta and shrimp dish. I had no knowledge of the dinner plans - if someone is cooking, I'm eating. I am not fussy and I do not make demands. I sit down, eat, and love every minute of it.
He started off with his egg pasta recipe for the tagliatelle, but when it came time for the sauce, he took a totally different route.
Fresh Egg Pasta
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tsp olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
Spoon 2 3/4 cups of the flour into the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Beat the eggs, olive oil and salt together in a small bowl until blended. With the motor running, pour the egg mixture into the processor. Process until it forms a rough and slightly sticky dough. If the mixture is too dry, drizzle in a very small amount of warm water and continue processing. Scrape the dough out of the work bowl onto a lightly floured counter.
Knead the dough with the heels of your hands until it is smooth, silky and elastic – 5 to 10 minutes of constant kneading.
Flour the work surface and your hands lightly any time the dough begins to stick while you’re kneading.
Roll the dough into a smooth ball and place in a small bowl. Cover and let the dough rest at least an hour before rolling and shaping.
We have a pasta roller - hand-crank, you can buy them for about $70 - or you can roll the pasta out by hand and cut it into strips.
The sauce was spectacular with the fresh pasta. Light and summery - with the basil and lemon making me smile with every bite. We don't have a mortar and pestle - got rid of it years ago - so he didn't turn the basil into paste, made it with two egg yolks, not one, and didn't measure anything else.
It was flipping delicious.
Lemon Basil Pasta
- 2 egg yolks
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 cup Grated Parmesan
- zest of 1 lemon, plus juice
- 1 small bunch fresh basil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Whisk together the egg yolk, olive oil, Parmesan, and lemon zest.
Finely chop basil and add to the egg mixture.
Cook the pasta until al dente, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking water.
Place pasta in a large bowl and stir in the basil-egg mixture. Toss well to combine, then add a bit of pasta cooking water until the pasta is coated in a creamy sauce.
Season to taste with salt and pepper, and top with additional grated cheese.
If you're really unsure about cooking, by all means get a Blue Apron meal and have some fun. But realize that you can do it on your own, too.
Just don't think that every meal you make has to be five-star restaurant quality. hat's not what cooking is all about.
Trust me on this.
I cook.
Spaghetti
We don't seem to eat a lot of spaghetti, anymore. We both love it but Nonna no longer cares for long noodles. Our pasta dishes have become more rigatoni and penne - and less linguine and vermicelli.
But, every now and again, the stars align and spaghetti ends up in the pot. Today was one of those alignments.
I had to work a bit late, so Nonna was fed early. That meant we could have anything we wanted - at whatever time we wanted!
Spaghetti with Anchovies, Porcini Mushrooms, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes!
A really simple throw-together of garlic, olive oil, anchovies, reconstituted porcini mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes in oil, freshly-grated parmesan, and fresh basil.
The kind of meal that can make a grown man weep - it was so good. I ate that whole plate - and then sopped up the oil in the bottom of the plate with french bread.
The plate - the pasta bowl - is another thing that doesn't come out often enough. It's a part of our dinnerware we had made in Florence. That really does sound pretentious, doesn't it?!? But... pretentious or no, even with shipping, it was less expensive than china we have seen registered for a few weddings... and we got to meet the people who actually made it! I can't even begin to describe how cool it was to sit down and talk about the sizes, the shapes, and the patterns for each of the pieces.
It sits on the sideboard and we see it every day - we just don't use it, enough.
The Franciscan Desert Rose has pretty much taken over as our everyday china - with the Cost Plus china coming in second, the Sur la Table plates coming in third, and the various other sets following. We have a plate fetish - seriously. Not long ago - after getting the Desert Rose - I bought a set of Anchor Hocking Royal Ruby Red glass dinnerware. It was exactly the stuff my grandmother had - as was the Desert Rose.
We have a complete set of Mikasa Fruit Panorama. And I do mean complete. Cups, bowls, plates, footed bowls, trays, platters...
And Aunt Dolores' china...
And my grandmother's china...
And Victor's Mom's china...
And our everyday stuff...
And the square glass stuff...
And the pressed glass Christmas service for 36...
And don't even get me started on platters and serving pieces... there are so many handmade bowls and platters we could open an art gallery. And every bit of it has a story - the platter we bought in Rome, the cake plate we bought in Caltagirone - and broke in our luggage and Victor put back together. The huge bowl and platter we bought in Little Italy in New York and carried back on the train.
One of these days we're going to have to seriously sit down and figure this stuff out. There is glassware and stemware that we'll never use. Plates downstairs in the basement that just collect dust. But where to even begin at this point? So much fun. So many meals. So many memories.
And so much dust.
Pesto Chicken
It's Victor's first week of retirement - and we're eating better than ever!
Monday didn't count because it was a holiday (I made a pot roast) and I worked late Tuesday, but Wednesday was seafood, Thursday was peppers stuffed with apple sausage, and Friday was Grilled Pesto Chicken.
I'm liking this!
It's great that Victor can cook and that he likes to channel his inner Jacques Pepin. And my motto is If You're cooking, I'm eating. There is not much in the food world I don't like, so there's free reign to do what he likes. And I like it!
Since we've started this year's garden, it's time to use up the last of last year's bounty - and the pesto in the freezer is almost finished. He marinated the chicken in pesto and olive oil, and after they were grilled, they got a hefty topping of more pesto. Delish.
We also finished off the broccoli cheesecake from the other night, as well.
It really can be a pain in the arse coming up with dinner ideas every night. It's especially difficult because we're locked into an early mealtime with Nonna. But creativity abounds when there are two people willing to come up with the ideas.
Here's to many more fun meals!