Now, I want to take

Now, I want to take a moment to talk about Easter, from a food perspective. You need to start planning your menu, so that if you need hard to find ingredients, you can get them in time. You should also make your Easter feast time table. You will need to figure out when to do your shopping, your cooking, and still fit in Holy Thursday mass, Good Friday passion, Easter Vigil mass, and Easter Sunday mass.

To help you with logistics, let me offer some menu suggestions. The recipes I use are mostly Italian, but some French thrown in for variety. After all, French cuisine is a close cousin to the Italian.

The way to build a menu is not to sit at home and think about it. The way to build a menu is to visit the farmers' market and see what is fresh and good. I suggest a trip to the farmers' market THIS WEEK, so that you can see what your area has to offer. I am building this list here based on the seasonal food of the Bay Area.

The thing that has become a tradition in our house is the green garlic soup from the Chez Panisse cookbook. Nothin says spring like that. This is a cookbook that should be in the library of any serious cook. Paul Bertolli, while no longer at Chez Panisse (he has a fantastic restaurant in Oakland called Oliveto), has written a masterpiece.

Asparagus is also really good around here. We get ours from around Stockton, and I think it is hard to beat. The best way to do it is to peel the bases, cutting off the very bottom half inch (it looks best to cut it at a 45 degree angle), parboil and refresh, then sautée until done in half olive oil/half goose fat with a couple of peeled whole garlic cloves. Finish with sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and sprinkle with freshly grated reggiano parmeggiana (no substitutions). Remember, according to Miss Manners, asparagus spears should be eaten with the fingers!

I always serve a risotto as the primo piatto. For the past few years I have done a classic Tuscan baby artichoke risotto. It is simple and the baby artichokes do not wage a war with the wine in your mouth the way the mature ones do. Our artichokes come from Monterrey or San Mateo counties. I remove all of the tough outer leaves, and thinly slice the artichokes (thin, thin, thin!) and drop in acidulated water. For two cups of arborio rice, I use about 18 small artichokes, I think. In two tablespoons each of goose fat, butter and olive oil, I gently fry a handful of finely chopped pancetta (this is optional if you do not want it, but it is very good), then a large finely chopped shallot, then the artichokes (towel dried). Add the rice (arborio or other Italian variety), cook until it is coated with the fat and turning translucent. Add a cup of dry vermouth and let the alcohol cook off. Then lower the heat, and add hot chicken stock, following the usual risotto protocol (if requested, I will publish the entire directions for cooking risotto). Adjust for salt. Finish with parmesan (the real stuff! Reggiano! Reggiano! Reggiano!), two tablespoons of butter, and fresh cracked pepper. Serve with a chilled white, preferably a flintier one. I have found success with Pinot Grigios as well as some of the interesting dry whites from Bonny Doon).

Of course the centerpiece of the Italian Easter feast is a roast leg of lamb. Over the course of the next week, I will give a couple of suggested recipes for roast leg of lamb.

I prefer to eat fava beans with my lamb, but it wasn't looking promising this year. We will see what the market brings on Saturday.

I finish the meal with a lightly dressed salad of baby arugula and dandelion greens.

For dessert we have a colombina (an Italian cake baked in the shape of a dove. We get ours from Victoria Pastry Company in San Francisco - I make a trip there on Holy Saturday - convenient, since I often help with moving statues back into The National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, which is a block away). It is imperative to serve good strong coffee with the colombina, and a shot of grappa.

More Easter suggestions later, but this will give you something to think about.

Posted by erik at April 7, 2003 5:02 PM | TrackBack