Day 35

This pizza is purposely rolled into the shape of Sicily. What? It doesn't look like that? Oh. Well, maybe I am just a shitty roller. I am not Italian. I have no nonna.

But I did make a kick ass pizza with arugula, prosciutto, mozzarella, and a little bit of tomato sauce. Don't wish your pizza was this rustic looking? It wasn't by accident. Okay, it was. I also made two more awesome pizzas. I put roasted mushrooms (shitake, portobello, and crimini), thyme, tallegio, and fontina on one. On the other I put sauteed leeks (in butter), goat cheese and thinly sliced pancetta. They were all good. And different from each other. The mushrooms were earthy and the fontina stinky. The leeks were delicate and the goat cheese tangy. My family and I went through a pizza phase this summer where we grilled pizza for like 3 weekends in a row. So this was a nice revisit of homemade pizzas. They usually buy pre-made dough. No more, I tell you. It was simple and worth it. I will make the dough for them come next binge. And maybe if they are lucky I will roll out the dough into beautiful abstract shapes that I obviously am very good at.
This is a fab fall recipe. Its a Chianti risotto. You make a regular risotto, using 1/2 bottle of Chianti before switching to stock. You finish the risotto with sage and Parmesan. Lots of sage. Its great. We made it to plate with a veal costelleta. That is a bone in steak from the end of the veal loin, like a bone in NY strip of veal. Its a perfectly tender and juicy cut of meat that I will make again for sure. Its a nice size too. A little big for one serving for me, but nice for most eaters, I think.
We grilled it and finished it by roasting it in the oven.

We made a porcini sauce to go with it. Just dried porcini, shallot, red wine and demi glace. It was very flavorful. Rich tasting without fats. This is one of the ugliest plates I might have ever made, by the way. And I fucked up by covering the perfectly symmetrical grill marks with sauce. Duh. The sage leaves are pretty, though.

To finish our time in Italy we made tiramisu. It was an easy one. I don't like it really, but people freak out over tiramisu. They love that creamy shit. You separate a bunch of eggs. Beat the yolks with some sugar until sugar is melted. Stir marscapone into the yolks. Whip egg whites to soft peaks and then add sugar and take it to stiff peaks in a separate bowl. Fold whites into yolks. Take ladyfinger cookies and dip them into a mixture of liqueur and espresso (or really strong coffee). Layer into pan. Spread creamy mixture on top. Repeat. Chill.

When chilled up, dust the top with cocoa powder. I think cinnamon would be nice on top too. We used Marsala for the liqueur but my mom uses Kahlua and rum sometimes.

Italy was fine. I am looking forward to Spain next week. Not for the paella (which I think is overrated) but for the yummy paprika and small tapas style plates. Small plates are a great way to convince yourself that you are just way too petite to consume a regular sized portion of food. Pack for sunshine!