The menu was:
Pepper & Goat Cheese Crostini
& Crostini with Olive Paté
2005 Redi Briareo Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
Fig, Prosciutto, & Salami Salad
Veal Marsala
1999 Pio Cesare Barolo
Carrots with Pancetta (Carote in Stufato)
Turin Terrine (Dolce Torinese)
I had not made either of the crostini before. Both were delicious and easy to make. I had not made the terrine either. It was delicious, but involved a bit of work.
An important component of good crostini is the right bread. I knew I could get a good baguette at Ooo La La French bakery, but that was a bit of a drive. I also know that Publix baguettes are a very poor choice. I decided to try Fresh Market. They have two types of baguettes - their regular baguette and an "artisanal baguette." I decided to try the artisinal baguette. It worked very nicely.
(Publix baguettes share only two attributes with the real thing - the name and the shape. The taste and consistency are completely different.)
Below are the recipes for the new dishes I tried:
Crostini
For both types of crostini, I:
- coated both sides of the bread with olive oil
- baked the bread in the oven at 375 for 10 minutes
- coated one side of the bread with garlic after taking the bread out of the over.
Olive Paté
This dish was really easy to make. I prepared it the previous evening and kept it in the refrigerator.
I found the recipe at: http://www.cookiesfromitaly.com/recipes/olive.htm
In addition to spreading this mix on toast, the web site where I found the recipe says that it can be used as a pasta sauce. The web site also says it can be kept in the refrigerator for a month.
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb of black olives. I used canned, pitted olives.
- 1/2 lemon
- 4-5 Tbsps of extra-virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper
(The web site also lists 4 Tbsps of butter, but does not explain how to use it. It seemed irrelevant to me.)
Directions
Pit the olives if they are not pitted. Then chop them very finely.
Add to the olives - the juice of half a lemon and the grated peel of half a lemon.
Add salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.
If not using the mixture immediately, put it into a sealed jar and refrigerate.
Roast Peppers & Goat Cheese Canapés (Crostini di Peperoni)
This recipe is delicious and easy. It's from:
I have modified the wording slightly to match what I did.
It serves 6.
Ingredients
A couple of small sweet peppers, preferably one red, one yellow
2 cloves of garlic
Parsley or Basil
Goat cheese - I used soft, spreadable Chavrie cheese from Publix. It comes in a small container. There are two versions. One is plain and the other contains basil and roasted garlic. I used the latter. The original recipe calls for slices of goat cheese.
Directions
- Roast or grill the peppers. Put them in a plastic or paper bag, or a closed container to cool, and let them “sweat” for a couple of minutes. They will be much easier to peel.
- Peel and deseed the peppers. Then cut them into fine strips.
- Dress the pepper strips with salt, pepper, and a little raw finely chopped garlic (optional) good olive oil and fresh basil and/or parsley. Leave a little while to marinate.
- Top the bread with a little slice goat cheese and pepper strips. If you use baguette slices rather than something larger, cut the pepper strips in half or thirds so they will fit on the bread.
Chocolate Terrine from Turin (Dolce Torinese)
Ingredients
- 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup rum
- 16 Tbs unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 Tbs caster sugar - can be made by by blending regular sugar in a blender for 1-2 minutes (Caster sugar is superfine sugar. I ran regular sugar through a mini food processor. It worked fine.)
- 2 eggs, separated
- 1 1/2 cups almond slivers
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 12 butter cookies or Vanilla Wafers (I used Vanilla Wafers.)
- confectioners sugar for decoration (I forgot this ingredient.)
- whipped cream (optional) - I used the whipped cream.
- berries (optional) - I used raspberries.
Directions
- Lightly grease a loaf shaped pan.
- In a double boiler melt the chocolate over low heat.
- When the chocolate is dissolved stir in the rum and remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Cream the butter and sugar by beating until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg yolks and beat in one-at-a-time.
- Stir in the almonds and cooled chocolate.
- In a separate bowl beat the egg whiles and salt until the whites are stiff enough to begin to form peaks. Test by dipping the beaters into the egg whites and pulling them up. Do the whites form little peaks?
- Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture with a spatula. Mix gently but thoroughly. There should be no white showing.
- Break up the cookies into 1/2" x 1/2" size pieces.
- Fold the cookies into the chocolate mixture.
- Spoon the chocolate mixture into the loaf pan. Spread it evenly and smooth the top.
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 5 hours.
- Unmold an hour before serving by running a knife around the sides of the pan and dip the bottom into hot water for a few seconds. Place a chilled serving dish upside down over the pan and, holding the pan in place, flipping the plate and pan over. The terrine should slide out. If it doesn't slide out rap the plate on the counter. (An option is to use a springform loaf pan.)
- You can smooth the top and sides with a warm metal spatula. Simply run the spatula under hot water and then smooth the terrine.
- Return to the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Just before serving sprinkle confectioners sugar over the top.
- Cut the terrine into thin slices and serve, if desired, with whipped cream and berries.
The Wines
- K & G brought us a very nice Redi Briareo 2005 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, produced by Vecchia Cantina. They had visited Montepulciano in March and we had been there in October 2010. We enjoyed this wine with our crostini and salad.
- For the main course, I served a 1999 Pio Cesare Barolo. It was very nice.
No comments:
Post a Comment