What do Italians know about meatballs, that I don’t? Italians can be passionate about meatballs. They do not contain exotic ingredients, it seems they are easy to make, but then there is passion about what is the right way. It seemed a little rigor was needed here. There it seemed an analysis of how...
Continue readingMonth: May 2020
Lemon Meatballs with White Wine reduction
Not every meatball recipe requires tomatoes. In this preparation, a lemon white wine sauce provides the acidic accent instead. It seems a perfect fit for sunny day. Notes on Ingredients Made by combining Lemon with veal, pork, or a combination of the two and finished with a white wine reduction this lighter approach to...
Continue readingVenetian Cicchetti Meatballs
Venetian Cicchetti meatballs are the bar snack version of meatballs. These Cicchetti (nibbles or snacks) meatballs are smaller and fried, made to snack on while sipping a refreshing glass of wine. Or can be used as a main course for a lighter meal as pictured above with roasted young carrots. Exploration of this sub-topic...
Continue readingItalian Meatballs in Tomato Sauce (Polpette al Sugo)
Quite a few passionate Italian cooks will get indignant about the mention of spaghetti and meatballs. They insist that is not how meatballs (Polpettes) should be served. So what makes meatballs authentic Italian meatballs? In this recipe, Italian Meatballs in Tomato Sauce, the meatballs are cooked in the tomato sauce. Following the Italian line...
Continue readingPerfecting the Tart Crust
With the right tart shell, pretty much anything brought home from the market can be turned into a simple but impressive main dish, a starter or a dessert. But I find myself fighting to find the right shell recipe of the right size for the tart pan I plan to use. While the basics...
Continue readingSautéed Beet Greens
One of the advantages of purchasing from a market is that the produce found is usually younger, more tender, and of course fresher. Those qualities lead to this simple recipe for sautéed beet greens that focuses on one simple great ingredient that could easily be discarded. The beet greens are very tinder and their...
Continue readingVidalia Onion Lemon Chicken
If you are lucky enough to get an early spring Vidalia onion complete with greens, that is what you are going to use for this dish. If the greens are not available, a small to medium Vidalia onion will do. This Vidalia onion lemon chicken recipe also uses spring market vegetable stock that hopefully,...
Continue readingVidalia Onion and Bacon Tart
Fresh Vidalia Onions contain a very large amount of water and sugar. Caramelizing (browning) in a little bacon fat and butter reduces the water and releases wonderful flavors. Notes on Ingredients This recipe calls for bacon bits. These are the leftover hunks of bacon that cannot be sliced into traditional bacon slices. Usually more...
Continue readingTurnip and Chard Tart
This turnip and chard tart variation uses two of the most common items from spring and summer markets. It is one of my favorite vegetable tarts. Using the perfect savory tart dough these are formed into an excellent light dish. It can be made ahead of time and is frankly better at room temperature....
Continue readingThe Perfect Savory Tart Shell
Evaluating the components of the simple the flour, egg and butter shell produced by Escoffier and the latest recommendations, a general-purpose shell was developed producing a flexible, sizable, flaky, tasty and easy to work with tart dough. You can follow my process here. Sounds perfect huh? By replacing some butter with crème fraiche, but...
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