New recipe, October 19, 2012

Tonight's new recipe comes from Mario Batali's Molto Italliano: Roman Style Veal Cutlets with Sage. Served with a kale red bell pepper salad with lemon dressing. We liked the veal--we give it a 4.

Wine: Droin Chablis 2010- great match!

New recipe, July 9, 2012

We had Scallops Alla Caprese from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano--always wonderful, still a 5! The new recipe is Quinoa and Grilled Pepper Salad from Epicurious. This was a nice recipe, but needs more lime, cumin and soy to really reach a good balance. We give this a 3, as written.

Wine: Van Ruiten Chardonnay

New recipe, February 28, 2012

Veal Scallopine with Mushrooms, Marsala and Thyme, from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano, with an arugula salad, and leftover Mushroom Barley Soup from David Waltuck's Staffmeals.
Veal gets a 3.5--great flavors, I may have overcooked it as it was not very tender.
Wine: 2010 Guy Drew Russell Vineyard Riesling

New recipes, October 17, 2011

The Devil's Chicken (Pollo al Diavolo) from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano, and Delicata Squash and Roasted Mushrooms with Thyme from Epicurious.
Wine: went back to the Undone Rheinhessen Dry Riesling 2009, which worked well with the spicy chicken as well as the earthy sweet flavors of the squash dish

New recipe, October 16, 2011

Spicy Sicilian Chicken, from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano.  I used the requisite number of hot peppers, but this was not as firey as Mario wants it.  It was still very tasty.  I remain in awe of what mint can do in a savory dish!
Wine: Undone Rheinhessen Dry Riesling 2009. An unlikely match for a chicken dish with red wine, but it has lovely aromas of honey and citrus blossom. While it is dry, those aromas and flavors are a nice counterpoint to the earthy, salty, spicy meal.

March 26, 2011 new recipes

Since tonight was Carl's birthday (55!!), everything was new! The main dish was Duck Scallopine with Green Apples and Malavasia from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano (sorry, I can't find a link online!). I served it with Mashed Potatoes with Brown Butter and Scallions from Epicurious.com, and Mario's Spiced Cabbage from Lake Garda (sorry, also no recipe on line!), though I did it with red cabbage, since that is what we had. Though each of these was delicious, the cabbage was a tad too spicy for the relative sweetness of the main course. The potatoes were fabulous with the duck!

The wine was 2008 Sciarpa Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, which complemented everything very well.

We had dessert with a Clairette de Die--Molten Chocolate Cake with Cherries from Epicurious.com. Dirty little secret--molten chocolate cake is insanely easy to make. Try this!!

March 2, 2011, new recipe

Tonight, we took our inspiration from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano, looking, I might add, for something quick! We did Tuna Sicilian Style with Shallot Frittata (sorry, no link out there!). We had a nice arugula salad with the Chipotle Honey Vinaigrette from Shinin' Times at the Fort that Carl made yesterday. A lovely meal!

The wine was a 2009 Liana Pinot Grigio--a nice match to the meal!

February 27, 2011 new recipes

Once again, Mario Batali comes through in Molto Italiano. We can get duck and duck legs (but not breasts for some reason) at Har Mart, a great asian market not too far from here. So we made Braised Duck Legs with Dried Orange Peel and Almonds. The sauce cooks down during the braising to the thick near-stew you see on the duck. Fabulous! We had Roasted Asparagus with Capers and Eggs on the side, also really delicious. We would do both again!

We drank a Willamette Valley Vineyards 2006 Pinot Noir with this meal, a really nice match. Asparagus is notoriously difficult to match with wine, but when you roast it and then dress it like this, it becomes quite different, and does not seem to me to be as hard to match. It worked well with this wine.

February 26, 2011 new recipes

Tonight's recipes are from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano. For a kid who hated fish and still dislikes very strong fish flavors, I find myself fascinated by seafood. This evening, we made Barbecued Octopus with Grilled Escarole and Mint, and Broccoli Sauteed in Wine and Garlic. We drank a 2006 Regilli Frascati with this (it was also in the broccoli), which was really past its prime. So we switched to a 2009 Fontana Candida Frascati, which was much nicer, with aromas of peaches and a little grapefruit.

The octopus came out much more tender than I feared it would, and the flavors were nice, but it didn't quite pop, to use an overused term. Makes me wonder if it is the dish or the execution--I may have to try this again some time. I did learn how to clean an octopus from the folks at the Sydney Fish Market, since my frozen octopi came fully equipped with eyes, beak, and innards. It was still a fun dish to make.

February 21, 2011 new recipe

This evening's new recipe was Goat Cheese and Scallion Ravioli with Black Olive Butter, from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano. If you use the linked recipe, we did not use the sun dried tomato in the sauce, thought I think it would be a very nice addition. We had it with a celery, tomato, grapefruit and cucumber salad that Dwight and Anne made from scratch.

Here is Carl making the pasta. And the finished product!

The wine, which was a very nice match, was the Santa Alicia Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2008, from the Maipo Valley in Chile.

Several kind people have told us that they can't believe we are doing a new dish every day. This is not so hard for us, as we cook almost every day anyway--for us, it is just a matter of deciding to try something new instead of fixing something familiar. Now that we are in the swing of it (and planning ahead for new things), it is pretty easy. But it flows from the fact that we cook every day anyway. If you don't cook every day, try something new every week. We are having a lot of fun!

Though we've made fresh noodles before, this is our first foray into ravioli. It is not as hard as we expected. Carl had made the pasta before I got home, and started the filling. I finished the filling, and then put a little dollop on each little piece of dough, while he and Anne came behind and folded and sealed them. This would have been a big deal for one person to finish, but with a little assistance it was quick and easy!

February 19, 2011 new recipes

This was a fabulous dinner! I continue to be amazed by Mario Batali. I've really liked pretty much everything in Molto Italiano, which is the source of these 2 dishes. We started with Eggplant Bruschetta . Since we did not find Italian eggplant, we used 2 small regular eggplants, which worked just fine. We enjoyed that while we were making Duck Ragu. The original recipe was Garganelli with Duck Ragu. Rather than handmake the garganelli, we substituted penne. And this evening we used chicken legs instead of duck legs. We will certainly do this again with the duck!

The wine was a Santa Margherita 2006 Chianti Classico. This wine was a gift and if I could remember who gave ti to us I would be thanking you again!! It is a rich wine with the flavor and aroma of dark cherries, cocoa powder and oak, with gentle tannins. I am definitely going to look for this wine. It was a wonderful match to the food.

We finished dessert with homemade Profiterolles, which Anne showed Carl how to make. Time to go for a run!

February 13, 2011 new recipes

Tonight we had several more new recipes from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano. We had Braciole di Vitello (Veal Rolls in Tomato Sauce) and Fenocchio alla Sambuca (Fennel with Anchovies and Sambuca). These are definite home runs (Mario has a lot of those!!), and the two of them worked complemented each other very nicely.

The wine was a 2000 Basilisco Aglianico del Vulture--a very robust red wine with lots of dark cherry, leather, tobacco and cocoa. I wondered if it would overpower the food, but it complemented it really well.

Anne made a homemade Tiramisu to finish the meal.

The entire meal was wonderful! Would make them all again!

February 12, 2011 new recipes

Today, we celebrated the fact that Mike wanted to and was able to come home! He has been doing better and better, and was ready to leave the hospital. Here is Mike with his son, Jordan.

Our meal had 2 new recipes, both from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano. We started with Asparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto with Citronette (Mario uses Pancetta) from Mario's Italian Grill--we made this before, and it definitely works better with really big asparagus spears. The new recipes were Tuscan Style Artichokes, and Fettucine with Mushroom, Sweet Garlic, and Arugula. They were all fabulous, and worked well together. Our wine was the 2009 Santi Apostoli Pinto Grigio Delle Venezie, which worked really well. The combination of dishes and wine all worked very well together!

February 7, 2011 new recipes

Today was Anne's birthday. She asked for seafood and lemon cheesecake, so we made Zuppa di Pesce, a lovely seafood stew. The recipe for the sauce is from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano. The seafood, of course, was what looked best at the market--scallops, halibut, clams, shrimp, and dungeness crab. It was fabulous.

Dessert was a Lemon, Ricotta, Pine Nut Cake. I first saw this recipe in the March 2007 copy of Tastes of Italia magazine, but it comes from Italian Two Easy: Simple Recipes from the London River Café, by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers. This link is to a recipe that is similar and adapted from the original, though it looks a little less rich. Let's just say there was very little of this cake left!

The wine with this meal was a 2007 Sinfarosa Zinfandel. A number of bloggers recommended a zinfandel with cioppino and similar seafood stews (such as our zuppa), so I thought it would be good to use an Italian zin. It was very nice with this meal.

Happy Birthday Anne!

February 3, 2011 new recipes

This evening we celebrated the 25th birthday of Zachary Clark, Carls's nephew (that's him sitting with Carl, waiting for dinner). We also celebrated the fact that Mike Guillen, the husband of Carl's niece Melissa, is at home with us recovering from a concussion he had today snowboarding at Winter Park. The celebration, of course, is not that he had the concussion, but that he is recovering at home. He is very lucky, and so are we all that it was not a worse injury!

This evening's new recipes are both from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano. We were looking for vegetarian (ovo-lacto) and these fit the bill nicely. We had Zuppa di Cicoria con 'Uova (Chicory Soup with Egg)--the recipe is also on the Food Network site. The recipe calls for pancetta, but we have found a nice way to get that bacon flavor without the meat--add a little olive oil, and the add some smoked paprika to the dish. In this case, I added about 1 teaspoon to the onions. The surprise element in this recipe is that you stick a crouton in the bowl, crack and egg over it, and then pour the soup over it the cook the egg. The egg is a nice surprise! We had this with Pasta Norma, also called Baked Penne with Eggplant. There are a lot of recipes for this on the web--the one in Molto Italiano is a little different from them all, even from the Mario Batali recipe on Epicurious.

The pasta is the photo on the top, and the soup is below it--I thought it looked so colorful in the pot!.

Suffice it to say, both recipes were very good, and we would make them both again!

We had this with a Clif's Cuvée Pinot Noir (no year, produced by Eola Hills Wine Cellars). It was a very nice match to both dishes!

February 1, 2011 new recipes

Dinner on 2/1/2011. Two new dishes today. From Mario Batali's Molto Italiano, Pheasant Farmer Style. This is a wonderful rich dish! It worked very nicely with a green salad with our usual dressing, and a Farro Salad with Peas, Asparagus and Feta, from Epicurious.com.

The wine was a 2007 Stoller Pinot Noir.

January 22, 2011 new recipes

Dinner on 1/22/2011 was all from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano. I made Spaghetti Alla Carbonara, and Braised Baby Fennel. They were both very tasty. I do not recall the wine.

January 18, 2011 new recipe

Dinner on 1/18/2011 was a new recipe for us from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano, Game Hens with Pomegranate. It was very tasty, indeed! It was nice with some cooked Farro on the side.

The wine was a 2000 Sommer Merlot. Though the wine has been around for awhile, the flavors blended nicely with the hens.

January 17, 2011 new recipe

Dinner on 1/17/2011 was Tagliatelle with a Fresh Tuna Ragu, another first time recipe for us. This is also from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano. We served it with an Arugula Salad dressed in our usual dressing. Both were very tasty!

The wine was a 2009 Côté Est Catalan, a blend of Grenache, Chardonnay and Marsanne.

January 13, 2011 new recipe

Dinner on 1/13/2011 was Scallops with Angel Hair Pasta and Piccata Sauce, Broccoli Rabe Puglia Style, and the Crispy Leeks again. I used spaghetti, but the scallop recipe came from EatingWell.com. The rabe recipe is courtesy of Mario Batali's Molto Italiano.

The wine was a pinot grigio.