cena di cinque

Finally I am getting around posting the wonderful dinner that Logan and I concocted on July 21, 2007. Sheila and I had spent nearly all of June in Italy, and I was dying to try some “stolen” ideas with Logan and Marcela. We had spent several days in Tuscany, a few in Rome, two on the coast in Cinque Terra and three lovely days in the Lake Como region (I strongly recommend that for all Italian visitors!!) I was struck by the lack of tomato gravies in the North of Italy, as that is what is usually associated with Italian cooking in my experience here, Stateside. We started the meal with proscuitto wrapped cantaloupe. That was offered everywhere we went and was always delicious and a very light starter. If you can, the Tuscan cantaloupe (it has the stripes on the sides, we called muskmelon growing up in Nebraska) is juicier and sweeter, and compliments the proscuitto better.




Logan then served one homemade ravioli, stuffed with mushroom and Muenster over a roasted tomato slice. We had meant for that to be a one bite starter, but the roasted tomato didn’t cooperate.




Having finished the antipasto portion of our evening, we next served al dente orzo, which had been cooked with minced fresh sage and basil, plus slices of dehydrated tomato. We stirred in parmesan and asiago cheese just before serving.




This was followed by the secundo, which in this case was a veal saltimbocca served over wilted spinach and accompanied by grilled eggplant, zucchini and red onion. Since I am not sure how to spell saltimbocca, had to concoct that recipe from my memory of the taste of a saltimbocca sauce that I had in Spolenta. The key to all such sauces I have had is the hint of lemon. I had pan fried the veal, then recaptured the meat juice with dry Vermouth and cream, added some minced basil and reduced it over low heat. (I think that I could have spent another 30 minutes on the reduction to develop a more creamy sauce.)




Our dessert was a late harvest zinfandel (Tobin James “Liquid Love”) served in small martini glasses to allow dipping of biscotti’s in the wine. That is a traditional dessert of Cinque Terra, and normally uses a sweet Italian wine (the name of which escapes me, but like late harvest zins, it is an 18% alcohol wine, and the secret is to dunk the cookie, not swig the wine!)




We pared the antipasto courses and the primo and secundo with a Chianti Classico. It led to a full evening, with great conversation and sharing. I can hardly wait for our next foray. I’m dying to try a Thai peanut sauce and something that uses Logan’s wasabi dressing for meat. Hopefully the next event will occur soon!