cooking class

I had a really fun time cooking with my new friends, Ross and Jimmy, in their beautiful kitchen. It was a cooking class (with me) for a few of their friends --a gift for Jimmy's birthday.

Having grown up in Florida, Jimmy loves seafood and wanted to make that the basis of the dinner. Having grown up in Colorado, I am not a seasoned seafood cook, but I have spent a lot of time in Italy where seafood is plentiful. I find that the best recipes, which happen to be mostly Italian in my world, are the ones that are the simplest to prepare and highlight the quality of the minimal ingredients.



With this is mind, I chose to do a first course of spaghetti 'allo scoglio'. A seafood pasta eaten all over Southern Italy, it is named after the rocks that jut out from the sea, containing lots of tasty creatures clinging to their surface--clams, mussels, shrimp and squid... I could not get mussels that day, so I settled for shrimp, littleneck clams and bay scallops.



The sauce is a simple red sauce. Start with onions and garlic and sautée in olive oil, then add 1/2 cup white wine and let it reduce a few minutes. Then add tomatoes -- fresh or canned - or a combination of both, plus 1/2 cup of clam broth (I purchase this and it comes in a bottle found in most grocery stores). Let the sauce cook for a bit over moderate heat.

A key ingredient in this sauce which I think is key for any seafood pasta is the heat that a hot oil brings, either added directly into the sauce, or afterwards when serving --or both, which is what we did. To make it, simply mix 1/2 cup of olive oil with 1/4 cup of chopped parsley, 2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper and 2 tsp of sea salt.

For our second course, I had picked up some beautiful swordfish steaks at the market and knew that would be a treat. We made a lemon-oregano-olive oil marinade for the fish that gave it just the delicate flavors it needed. This light, lemony sauce for fish comes from Sicily where lemons are a prized fruit and sometimes reach the size of small footballs. They are gorgeous! But lemons in our market now, while not the Sicilian variety, are still big and fragrant. It's the perfect time to use them.



We let the fish sit in the marinade for an hour before broiling it alongside some simple yellow potatoes, roasted in olive oil, sea salt and rosemary. That's it! As you can see, these classes are not about learning fancy techniques or secrets --just simple, everyday dishes that most people can prepare using high-quality, seasonal ingredients.

For dessert: a cake. Again, a simple cake, but one that tastes and sounds like it took a lot more work: Almond cake with pears and creme anglaise, from a F&W recipe I found around the holidays. It's like a spongecake, light and airy, only made with almond flour which gives it something special. Substitute pears for anything at other times of the year--raspberries, apricots, apples or lemon custard--and it's your go-to cake!
(see a picture here)



What a fun night! I loved this class--good people, good food and great conversation. Being in the kitchen together with friends is what it's all about. Thanks to all of my new friends: Ross, Jimmy, Katie, Susan and Beverly. I hope to see you in the kitchen again soon!

ps: A thank you to Jimmy for the photos!

Christmas Eve dinner

As in most Catholic families as far as I know, Christmas Eve is the big night in our house. Growing up, we would sometimes have 15 to 20 people over for Christmas Eve dinner. My mom did all the cooking and when my brothers and I were young, we got to open almost all of our presents on that night too. Christmas morning was reserved for the presents that Santa brought.

It's still the night that my family celebrates with a big dinner. When my mom was alive she did the cooking and it was always traditional Italian fare: stuffed manicotti or shells, baked ziti, breaded chicken cutlets, and always an assortment of beautiful homemade cookies and desserts.

Now that I am the cook, I still make something Italian. One year I did baccalà (it was a disaster, but some day I'll try again), and last year I did a Sicilian pork roast with olives and grapes. But the family's favorite is probably my Cioppino.

In the South of Italy it is traditional to eat the "Feast of Seven Fishes" on Christmas Eve -- usually seven courses all with a different seafood ingredient representing the seven holy sacraments. I have not been that ambitious (yet) so I make a seafood stew and throw all seven (almost) fishes into the pot. This year it was shrimp, scallops, mussels, halibut and clams.



My recipe is from Michael Mina and the best part is this little spicy basil oil that gets drizzled on at the end before serving. It's also nice to bake some large crostini with garlic and olive oil to serve alongside the soup.

And this year, we had my brother's slow-roasted Heritage Farm pork as a second course with the most delicious orange-glazed sweet potatoes. It was one of our best Christmas Eve dinners to date. It was fun to cook together with my bro this year. I hope that's a tradition that continues.



And, for dessert, I made the special almond-orange cake with pears and creme anglaise pictured above. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful meal. Our family chose not to do gifts this year and there was something really refreshing and simple about that. Everything then revolves around the food, which is fine with me! To cook together and eat together as a family was the best gift we could get.