John Carafoli
I got THE BIG GREEN EGG for my special day. The Menu: Crostini of chopped roasted red peppers, parsley, basil, anchovies and a dash of red wine vinegar. My friends, Leslie and Kevin brought the most wonderful, VERY special wines. Appetizer wine: Livio Felluga Colli Orientali del Friuli Terre Alta 2008. Believe it or not, current vintage. Wine Enthusiast: “One of Italy’s greatest white wines. We did a salad on the deck and the main course was a roasted striped bass. Wine: Domaines Ott Clos Mireille Blanc de Blancs 2010. A white blend of Semillon and Rolle with stone fruit, spice, and wild flower notes. An unusual wine from the rose powerhouse.
Photos: Kevin Plumb
Dinner with Leslie and Kevin and a rare $200 bottle of French Wine! This is my Roasted layered Halibut with sliced potatoes and onions on the bottom, fennel, garden tomatoes, sliced lemons splashed with a little white wine.
Garden with Whiskers lounging on the white lawn chair. His favorite spot lately.
The fist sign of spring are these three threes: two ornamental cherries and the red maple.
An unusual Easter dinner. I cooked a mini Bolito Misto. Boiled chicken for the broth and meat. First course a matzo ball soup. Second course was the chicken, cotechino served with whipped potato, lentils, sautéed cicoria in garlic and olive oil and accompanied with condiments of my homemade mostada, salsa verde and chilled Lambrusco. Desert consisted of Lemon Sponge direct out of the Joy of Cooking. Delicious! 
I left for Italy for a month, October/November to study Italian and do research on the Zampone dating back to the 15 century in Modena. Before I left I pitched the article to Darra Goldstein editor Gastronomica. She said, “Do it!” I did but it took me five months! I even stuffed the pigs trotter and made cotechino (made with the same meat stuffing). This completed my story. It is being published in the November issue.
I use this as a appetizer on toast points. It can also be used tossed into fresh pasta.
Bagnet or Salsa Verde
I am not sure how this Salsa Verde (green sauce) got its name Bagnet. It could come from what I wrote about in an earlier issue on Bagna Cauda. This recipe has a few more ingredients. As a child my Aunt Mary use to make this recipe. It was served with a hunk of Italian horn bread typical of the bread from the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy. I like serving it on toast points (crostini) as an appetizer. It is also wonderful served as a condiment with meat and poultry.
Ingredients:
2 to 3 cups fresh Italian parsley
3 cloves garlic
2 green peppers
1 large carrot
2 medium onions
1 cup olive oil
2 cans (2 ounce each) anchovies (with or with out capers)
2 (8 ounce cans) tomato sauce
¼ cup red wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Put the parsley, garlic, peppers, carrot and onions through a meat grinder, alternating small amounts of each ingredient as you proceed. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil and anchovies, dissolving the anchovies completely. Add the vegetable mixture, tomato sauce, vinegar and red pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and cook uncovered for about 25 minutes, stirring frequently. When cool store in refrigerator or freeze it. (It freezes well!)
Yields about 5 1/2 cups
FRESH WHITE CLAM (QUAHOG) SAUCE
3 pounds (about 13) quahog
¼ teaspoon fresh thyme
Fresh ground pepper
¾ to 1 cup dry white wine
Fresh pasta like linguini or one pound dried
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Wash and scrub the quahogs and the cherrystone clams. Put the quahogs in a large pot with wine. Place the cherrystone clams in a bowl and set aside. Cover the pot and steam the quahogs until they open, shacking the pot several times, and cook about 10 to 12 minutes. (discard any that do not open.) Remove the meat from the shells, mince it, and set aside; there should be about 1¼ cups.
Sauce
¼ cup olive oil
2 carrots, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Red pepper flakes to taste
2 cups fresh parsley, minced
2 teaspoons lemon juice
¼ cup white wine
Minced parsley for garnish
In a large saucepan combine the olive oil and carrots, cook over medium heat until carrots are tender about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic, pepper flakes and cook until garlic starts to turn light brown. Add the lemon juice and white wine cook for 4 minutes then add the onion parsley puree with the liquid the quahogs were cooked in and the and fresh parsley. Cook over high heat for 12 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the cherrystone clams and cook until the clams have opened. Turn off the heat stir in the minced quahogs and cover the pan. Do not cook the quahogs further, or they will be come rubbery.
Toss into cooked warm pasta and garnishing with the cherrystone clams (three per person) and sprinkled with fresh parsley. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese if desired.
Ingredients for 4 persons
I decided to give you this recipe from Roberto, who gave it to me after he made it for a group of us at the home of a friend for a late night dinner. This is his mothers recipe who lives in Sicily.
I did not edit but left it in his language and pretty much in his style.
- 452 grams of pasta (1 pound penne style)
- 1 aubergine (eggplant)
- ½ pound of sausage
- 1 onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 pound of tomatoes
- one quarter of chilli pepper
- 1 red pepper
- a touch of oregano
- parsley(hand full)
- half glass of dry white wine
- olive oil (3 tablespoons)
- salt& pepper to taste
- gratedParmisan Cheese
Preparation
Chop the aubergine into little cubes and leave them into water and salt for an hour
Chop the tomatoes.
Chop the parsley and the garlic together
Scald the red pepper and then skin it and cut it into little stripes.
Scald the sausage, then skin it and scramble it.
Chop the onion and fry it with 2 spoons of oil until it gets golden colour, then add the scrambled sausage leaving everything to fry just for a few minutes, then add the white wine and let it evaporate. Then take the cubes of aubergine out of the saulty water, dry them with a towel and add them into the pot.
Then add the stripes of red pepper and the chili pepper, mix it and cook it for 5 minutes, then add the chopped tomatoes, the oregano, salt and pepper and let everything cook at low flame for 20 minutes in the pot with cover on.
Finally sprinkle the chopped parsely and garlic, keep cooking it for further 10 minutes and then dress the pasta together with grated Parmisan Cheese.
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