Ahhh, Italia-9/17/09

This is the blog post where I tell you about my incredible trip to Italy and all the wonderful food I ate there. Sadly, I can't. I've never been to Italy. I've been to much of Western Europe but never made it to the boot. Italy is a "must see" for foodies and it is on my short list of places to go next.
Just because I haven't been to Italy doesn't mean I haven't eaten some great food while traveling, though. My best travel food memory was while attending the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. I was a member of a Christian drama team that was performing in and around the athletic venues. When not in the city, our group stayed at an old villa on a hillside twenty minutes out of town. A local woman and her daughters cooked for us each day and the food was incredible. I had never eaten paella before and I will forever be in search of a dish that perfect. I would love to take Richard and Eyrleigh back to Barcelona to experience the flavors of that summer.
Tonight's meal was inspired by the cuisine of Italy. For dinner, I made the Linguine and Zucchini with Bagna Cauda Sauce on page 114. This was an excellent cream based sauce incorporating threads of zucchini. It was simple but probably one of the best sauces I've made in this project. The garlic and anchovies added good flavor to the cream sauce and the zucchini added texture and complexity.
The Italian Parsley and Beet Salad is probably one of the prettiest salads I've ever made. My hands stayed purple for an hour after making it so they were somewhat pretty too. I neglected to take the recipe's recommendation to wear gloves. This was also a great tasting salad. I have to admit I was a bit concerned that the beets were not cooked. No worries, they were cut into very small matchsticks and softened while marinating in the dressing. The citrus in the dressing worked well with the sweetness of the beets and cut some of the bitterness of the parsley.
I had hoped to make one more dish, the Squash Blossoms Stuffed with Ricotta, but it appears that finding squash blossoms is a bit trickier than I thought and there is not a good substitute for squash blossoms. I was able to make dessert though. The Sorbetto Di Uva, or in English, Concord Grape Sorbet, was extremely simple. Blend grapes, pour through sieve, and add sugar. After a quick turn in the ice cream maker, this sorbet was one of the purest tasting sorbets I've ever had. Richard said I should have just froze grapes. It had a beautiful purple color and tasted just like grapes, without the skin.
Linguine and Zucchini with Bagna Cauda Sauce-A
Italian Parsley and Beet Salad-A
Sorbetto Di Uva-A

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weeknight Euro-2/24/10

Image
A good friend of mine has a deep love for all things Hungarian and tonight's meal reminded me of her (Hi Stac !). What a simple but delightful set of recipes to transport you to Central Europe. Okay, none of the recipes were classic European recipes themselves but the use of red cabbage, caraway seeds, and hazelnuts and chocolate combined for an easy dinner with some really great flavors. The Caraway Chicken Breasts with Sweet-and-Sour Red Cabbage took just over half an hour and simply cooked with spices and bacon. The cabbage was equally simple with broth, vinegar , and a bit of sugar. I paired this meal with the Milk Chocolate-Caramel Tart with Hazelnuts and Espresso. This fancy dessert was really quite simple, though it took awhile to make and chill. Each section was made separately and then layered and chilled. Richard was hooked and I thought it was almost like a Rolo in dessert form. Yum! Caraway Chicken Breasts with Sweet-and-Sour Red Cabbage-A- Milk Chocolate-Car...
Read more

Hambrick's-Party of Four!-8/1/11

Image
On August 24th of last year, I wrote a innocuous little post on this blog about my husband being a good sport about my creative culinary exploits.  And then....nothing....for over 11 months.  What happened, you may ask?  Well, the picture at left tells a rather significant part of the story but not the whole thing so I'll try to summarize here in case another 11 months go by before I post again.  (Okay, I will seriously try not to do that!)  The year 2010 started off on the wrong foot with the loss of our fourth pregnancy (Thankfully, pregnancy #2 had resulted in Eyrleigh!) at 18 weeks.  We were still reeling from the devastation of that event when my only sibling, my brother Ben, committed suicide at the end of February.  Then in April, Richard's company hired a new CEO and things professionally went south from there for him.  Since a blog is a public format and could therefor be accessed by anyone, including this individual, let me suf...
Read more

The Last... and the First Recipe- 4/23/09

Image
Tonight I made the last recipe of April that I will be making. If you are keeping track, I have made 50 out of 51 recipes in the April 2009 Gourmet. The one recipe I will probably not be making is the Cocktail of the Month, The Waldorf. This recipe is made with absinthe, a spirit that until recently was illegal in the United States. The local liquor stores do not carry it, they only carry an absinthe style liquor called absente that costs $40. I just can't rationalize spending $40+ for one ounce of liquor. I am still going to try to to find this drink at a bar on our trip. I should really entertain some bartender somewhere with that request! Ok , back to the last recipe. Tonight I made the Ham and Rice Croquettes on page 4. I was really struggling with where this recipe would work best. I am not very familiar with croquettes and initially assumed they were a breakfast food. When I looked them up online, I found they are more of a snack than a real side dish but I made these littl...
Read more