April 7, 2004
My Easter Menu (second draft)
A lot of this depends on availability of ingredients. For instance, finding stinging nettles is easy, if I have the time to harvest them, which I might tomorrow. I know of only a couple of folks who sell them, though.
Antipasti - mixed cured meats, olives, ceci with balsamico, thyme and olive oil, grissini, and lardo bruschetta.
Soup - Green garlic soup from the Chez Panisse cookbook
Primo - Pancetta and stinging nettle risotto, served with fresh pecorino sarde OR Fresh fetuccine with pancetta and fresh peas.
Secondo - Roast leg of lamb (possibly roasted over a potatoe gratin, following the recipe in Patricia Wells's Bistro Cooking, perhaps just with an herb rub. It depends on my mood)
Vegetable - ragout of fave, garlic and rosemary
Vegetable - parboiled and sauteed asparagus spears
Vegetable - sauteed pea shoots with garlic and anchovy
Salad - mixed spring greens in shallott vinaigrette with toasted pine nuts and avocado.
Colombina - Italian Easter cake baked in the form of a dove. We buy ours from the Victoria Pastry Company on Vallejo and Stockton in San Francisco.
The menu is subject to change. If anyone wants a recipe for the things that are not directly from commercially available books, let me know and I will post them.
Posted by erik at April 7, 2004 1:14 PM | TrackBackRyan,
Don't bother with tomatoes. You will only be disappointed. It is April. Don't even think about the fresh ones until June at the earliest.
Meanwhile, please give me a call in the next day or so. I can't find your number.
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at April 8, 2004 12:44 AMErik,
I am "roasting" my leg of lamb on the grill this year. I had the butcher butterfly it and I kept the bones, which will be poached and have the marrow sucked out of them. Anyway, it will be rubbed with garlic, hawaiian red salt, olive oil, and pepper. Us knuckle scraping Siciliano don't have risotto on our menu, instead I am thinking the old American standby of Manigooooot will be demanded by the family. Your vegetables seem to be the way to go. The farmers' market has been getting good looking tomatoes recently if I cross my fingers I might be able to find some good ones and serve a insalata di capri. Desert will feature a lemon and blueberry tart this year.
Ryan