Braised oxtail with gnocchi

Braised oxtail is soooooo good, and it's pretty easy to make. Gnocchi, on the other hand, is a bit more difficult. There are a number of gnocchi recipes on the web, so I won't put anything specific here, although there are a couple of things worth noting when it comes to gnocchi making. One of the objectives of making gnocchi is to have it as light and "cloud like" as possible. This, I found, involves a trade off in structural integrity and appearance. Basically, the lighter the gnocchi, the more you have to coddle it as you prepare it.
The basic ingredients in gnocchi are potato, flour, and egg. Egg is a binder that helps all the ingredients stay together. More egg, along with kneading the dough more, will give the gnocchi more structural integrity. It will also make the gnocchi heavier. Less egg and less kneading will lead to lighter gnocchi. I tried adding a minimal amount of egg (real pros can get away with no egg) and kneading, and while the gnocchi was very light, the first batch basically fell apart or was squashed into flat little discs when I tossed it in the pan.

Here's the recipe for the rest of this dish.

INGREDIENTS:

-oxtail (~3 lbs)

-1/2 bottle red wine

-1-2 cup veal or beef stock

-1 carrots, diced

-1 stalk celery, diced

-1/2 onion, diced

-1 small can crushed tomatoes or 1/2 small can tomato paste

-1-2 bay leaves

-1 Tbs black pepper corns

-1 clove

-2 cloves garlic, smashed

-1 sprig rosemary

-2 sprigs thyme

-canola oil

-flour

-salt and pepper

Season the oxtail with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. Heat up 1 Tbsp of canola oil in a heavy pot or dutch oven large enough to hold all of the oxtail in a single layer. Sear the oxtail on all sides at medium high heat. Remove the oxtail and add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook the vegetables, over medium heat until soft. You don't want to brown them.

Add the wine, stock, tomato, rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, clove, and peppercorns and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and place a cheesecloth over the top of the braising mixture. Put the oxtail on top so that it is partially submerged in the liquid, but separated from the onions, etc.

Cover and place in a 250F oven for 3 hours. Remove, the oxtails, strain out the solids in the braising liquid, and then reduce the braising liquid until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. While the braising liquid is reducing, use a fork to remove the oxtail from the bone and break it into small chunks. Toss with the reduce braising liquid and let simmer.

While the oxtail is simmering, heat up a nonstick skillet, add butter, and the gnocchi. Brown the gnocchi, then add the oxtail. Toss everything together and let sit in the warm pan for a minute or so. Place in a serving bowl, garnished with grated parmesan cheese, parsley, and olive oil.

Black spaghetti with shrimp, soppresata, and green chile pesto

You can find the recipe for this dish here. It's one of the signature dishes at Babbo. Ideally, I would have used the tastier, smaller rock shrimp that the recipe calls for, but they didn't have any at the fish market. You can get the squid ink pasta here. As I've mentioned in previous posts, they (Maestri Pastai) make the best pasta out there.

Handmade spaghetti with ramps

Signs of spring have finally begun to show up in the local grocery stores. The other week, I bought a bunch of English peas at the market, and yesterday, the market had a bunch of ramps.
Ramps with spaghetti is a pretty classic combination, and I think that they go especially well with fresh pasta.

RECIPE (2 servings):

1 cup flour

2 eggs

2 bunches of ramps (about 16)

1-2 strips bacon (optional)

salt

pepper

red pepper flakes

grated parmesan cheese

Form the flour into a mound and create a well in the middle. Add the eggs to the well along with a pinch of salt. You can also add some pepper at this stage if you like. Beat the eggs, slowly incorporating the flour. Knead the dough for about 5 to 10 minutes. Keep adding flour if the dough feels too wet. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for at least 30 minutes. After resting, roll out the pasta and cut it to the desired width.

While the pasta is resting, bring a large pot of water to boil and add a generous amount of salt. Rinse the ramps thoroughly, and cut them in half crosswise to separate the leaves from the bulbs. Cut the root ends off of the bulbs and wipe off the outer layer of skin on the bulbs. When the water has reached a rapid boil, blanch the root ends until tender (about 4 to 5 minutes). Remove and place in an ice bath to stop the cooking, then let drain in a colander. Blanch the leaves for about 30 seconds, place in an ice bath and drain.

Meanwhile, cook the bacon. When the bacon is crisp, remove and drain on paper towels and then crumble into small bits. Remove any excess fat, leaving 1/2 to 1 tablespoon in the pan.

For the final step, you need to do a couple things really quickly. You don't want to over cook anything, so pay attention to timing here. Make sure the pasta is at a very rapid boil, and add the pasta. Next, add a pinch of red pepper flakes and saute for about 30 seconds over medium high heat. Add the ramps and the crumbled bacon, and saute over high heat for about two minutes, tossing frequently. After the pasta has been cooking for two to three minutes, it will be done. Reserve about 1 cup of pasta water, then add the cooked pasta to the saute pan, and toss thoroughly along with about 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese and pepper. Add a bit of pasta water if the mixture looks to dry, and keep tossing the mixture until everything is well incorporated. Serve immediately.

Gnocchi with lamb ragu

We had a lot of lamb leftover from our last dinner party, so I made a batch of lamb ragu and served it with some homemade potato gnocchi. The recipe for the ragu was pretty standard: dice one red onion, thinly slice three cloves of garlic, brunoise one carrot. Saute the these ingredients over medium heat until the onions are translucent, add a few anchovies, add one large can of canned tomatoes, hand crushed, along with some sprigs of thyme and the lamb. Season with salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar. Let everything simmer and reduce for a couple hours. You want to keep the heat fairly low, otherwise the lamb will get tough and stringy.

Venice: Our last supper at Osteria da Alberto

Nearly four months after returning from our trip, I finally am getting around to the last post from our Italy trip. Staying true to our strategy of eating at Slow Food endorsed restaurants, we decided to stop in at Osteria da Alberto for our final meal in Italy. The food here was simple, flavorful, and provided a fitting end to a fantastic culinary trip.

We started our meal with mussels with parsley and lemon and a big bottle of white wine. Like just about every other restaurant we went to in Italy, the house wine here was high in quality and low in cost.

Next, we had a seafood risotto. Usually I'm not that impressed with risotto. It's something I make often, and usually, I think that the stuff I make at home is just as good as anything I invariably pay too much for at a restaurant. That was not the case here. This was, hands down, the best risotto I have ever had. The rice was perfectly cooked. A lot of the time, risotto is overcooked so it gets all mushy, making it impossible to distinguish each grain of rice. Here, each grain had a little bit to it, but it was cooked just long enough so the interior wasn't chalky. The rice was perfectly flavored with a subtle seafood broth and bits of assorted seafood such as mussels, scallops, and fish.

We finished with squid cooked in its own ink served with polenta. Again, this dish was perfectly prepared. The squid was nice and tender, and the lightly grilled polenta was perfect for sopping up the tasty squid ink sauce.

Venice: Cicchetti

I've neglected my foodblog for a while, so here are a couple more posts to finish off our Italy trip and then I can move on to Chicago, our new home (for this year, at least).

Anyhow, back to the food. As I've already mentioned, Abby and I were really surprised about how much we liked Venice. The food here is fantastic, and, like Spain, they have a great tradition of "small bites" that you can wash down with a glass of wine.

Referred to as "Cicchetti," these small bites could be described as the Venetian take on tapas. Like tapas, they come in a variety of forms, and they are perfect for food oriented travelers who would spend all day hopping from one restaurant to another if constraints - both on your wallet and stomach capacity - didn't interfere.

We spent most of our time in Venice wandering through the back streets and stopping in at every cicchetti bar we could see. There is a considerable variance in quality, but two of the more memorable places we went to were "Cantina do Mori" and "All' Arco"

These two places are right next to each other. We had seen Cantina do Mori on an Anthony Bourdain show, and it has to be, by far, the oldest eating establishment I have ever been in. It has been in business for around six centuries!
All' Arco was significantly more modern, and we were drawn in by the numerous "Slow Food" awards posted in their window. We ordered several different varieties of bruschetta
and an amazing tomato salad. While Cantina do Mori was good, I think All' Arco takes the award for best cicchetti in Venice.
Cicchetti isn't just bruschetta, though. We went to places serving poached artichoke, grilled fish and shrimp, croquettes, arancini

as well as seafood salads and fried anchovies.

Venice: Wandering the streets and markets

Venice was the last stop on our trip. We almost didn't come here. We heard it was overrun with tourists (true), smelled bad (not true), expensive (true), and was not nearly as romantic as everyone made it out to be (not true).

In spite of all the tourists and the obvious "Disneyland" feel that the whole city has, Venice was a thoroughly enjoyable place with great food and stunning architecture. As I've mentioned before in posts about Siena, there is something very peaceful about a city without cars. The air feels cleaner, you notice your neighbors more since you have to walk everywhere, and everything just seems to slow down a little bit. In Venice, you get all of those benefits plus canals. There's no other place like it, and as you walk around the city you are constantly struck by the opulence of it all. To build an entire city state on water at the time that Venice was built takes an extraordinary amount of wealth and no small measure of conceit.
In building there city, it is clear that Venetians wanted no visitor to have any questions about the extent of their wealth. While modern Venice may be overrun with tourists, they are all concentrated in a very small swath of the city. It's almost as if they are cattle, being herded along the widest streets and canals which are lined with shops, stands, and restaurants all selling the same thing.

If you go off these well trodden paths, however, Venice offers a maze of quiet streets full of curiosities....like these doorbells.

I'm not sure how anyone could walk by these and not press them. Among the many places to visit is the Rialto market. This market, which is more than 900 years old, is THE place to go for fresh food, and, when we went, it was surprisingly uncrowded.

The Rialto market is divided into two sections. One sells a large selection of seasonal produce ranging from assorted mushrooms

to squash blossoms, tomatoes, and cucumbers

and a colorful assortment of chiles.
The second part of the market is filled with tables piled high with fresh seafood, much of which comes from the waters surrounding Venice.

Fresh scallops are in abundance, and, unlike many of the scallops I see for sale here in the U.S., these are sold in there shells, so you can use the whole scallop, not just the abductor muscle. I actually didn't know you could eat the other parts of the scallop until we had an amazing scallop tasting at Sushi Yasuda, where Chef Yasuda served us every part of the scallop.You can also get octopus
freshly caught sardines and anchovies

and monkfish. I really wish I had a market like this near my place.

Cinque Terre: Osteria a Cantina de Mananan

Unlike its four sister villages, Corniglia sits high up on the hillside, affording amazing views of the coastline, but at a cost. In the the summer, or, at least, in August, the long staircase up from the train station can be an unpleasant effort, and it acts as a deterrent to many of the tourists that pack the waterfront cafes of Cinque Terre's other villages. Those who take the hike up the hillside are able to stroll down the single street of this tiny village in relative solitude and, if you make a reservation at Cantina de Mananan, you can have some of the best Ligurian food around
One of the first things that catches your eye as you pass by (actually, the only thing, since there isn't much else) is the doorway, which is plastered with endorsements and awards from the various groups that hand these things out to deserving restaurants.
Hidden behind the door is a tiny little dining room with stone walls, a chalkboard with the daily menu, and precious few tables. Every seat in this restaurant is by reservation, and they are only open for a few hours around lunch and dinner each day. Most table don't get a single turn in, so don't expect to eat here as a walk in.
In keeping with the Cinque Terren tradition, this place specialized in seafood dishes. We began out meal with a seafood antipasti consisting of anchovies three different ways (with vinegar and lemon, olive oil and garlic, and fried), smoked tuna, white beans with tuna...
...and, on the side, salt cod with olives, tomatoes, and capers in a light broth.
we also had artichokes, which were good, but still no match for the legendary artichokes of Volpetti, in Rome.
Next, it was on to the main courses. It's worth noting, if it wasn't clear already, that this place takes its food very seriously. They even offer eating instructions on their place mats.
The directions were printed in English, German, and French, and perhaps they were prompted by one too many tourists asking for cheese or pepper to put on their pesto or seafood pasta. These are perhaps the two most popular dishes here. We didn't order the seafood pasta since you could only order it in servings for two and we wanted more variety. Instead, we opted for the pesto, which, they boast, is the best in all of Liguria.
We also had a whole, grilled branzino, which was served with nothing but a slice of lemon. The fish was so fresh and well prepared that it needed nothing else.
We ended our meal with a panacotta with blackberries, huckleberries, and blueberries. This was a really light, tart dessert. Neither of us really like sweet food, so this was perfect for our palates.
I would say that this was one of the best meals of our whole trip. If you are in Cinque Terre, this is a restaurant that you cannot miss. Just make sure to make a reservation ahead of time or you will miss out on this gem.

Cinque Terre: La Lanterna

On our second day in Cinque Terre we decided to get lunch at La Lanterna in Riomaggiore. While it wasn't a Slow Food restaurant, it was recommended in our guide book and it was just down the street from where we were staying. La Lanterna is located in the marina area of Riomaggiore, pictured above, and if you can land a seat on the patio you get a nice view over the marina.

Like most of the restaurants in Cinque Terra, La Lanterna excels in preparing seafood dishes. Many of them were displayed in bright lettering on the chalkboard by the entrance.

Of all the choices, the fried anchovies have to be the best. These things are sooooo good. I have no idea why they aren't everywhere in the U.S. The only other time I had fried anchovies was in Spain, where a beachside bar near my apartment in Malaga would serve up plates of these. Few things go together better than fried anchovies, an ice cold beer, and a nice hot day at the beach.

We followed up the anchovies with a dish that was described as green "gnocchetti," or tiny gnocchi, with tuna in red sauce. This dish was another winner.

All in all, I thought La Lanterna was a solid place, and I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a meal in Riomaggiore.

Cinque Terre: Enoteca Internzionale

Cinque Terre is one of the places that gets rave reviews from just about everyone who has ever travelled through Italy, and with good reason. This is a place of breathtaking beauty, and the food and wine don't disappoint either. For those of you who haven't read about this place, Cinque Terre (Five lands) are a string of five small villages built into the steep hillsides of Italy's Ligurean coast. Villages are connected by a single train line and a footpath, and, if you're the active type, you can spend your day hiking through all five villages, winding your way along the coastline and through the terraced vineyards that hug the hillside. These vineyards produce some excellent wines, which go well with the seafood dishes that Cinque Terre specializes in.

We had read that anchovies were a popular snack in Cinque Terre, so we ordered up a plate at the first place we could find, a beachside bar filled with tourists. This was a total waste of money, but it was also the last bad thing we ate on our trip. It was at this point that we started following the snails to our meals. Our first "Slow Food certified" snack came shortly after our failed attempt to get good anchovies on the beach. As we were wandering around some of the interior streets of Monterrosso, we happened across Enoteca Internazionale.

This little shop claimed to be the oldest wine shop in town, and they proudly displayed a Slow Food sticker in their window and their chalkboard advertised a trio of anchovies.

This seemed like as good a place as any to have another go at anchovies. These more than made up for the crappy anchovies we had at the other place. They were awesome. All of the anchovies were cured in house, and the trio consisted of anchovies with slow roasted tomatoes and capers

anchovies on a thin slice of lardo (yum!)

and, last but not least, anchovies on toast with butter. This last preparation was awesome. I've made anchovy butter a number of times, but for some reason, serving anchovies on toast with butter never occurred to me. It is such a good combination (if you get high quality ingredients, that is).