My favorite part of Christmas food...

I really love the feast we share with our family and neighbors at Christmas, even the intense days of cooking that lead up to it. However, my favorite thing is always the goose risotto that I cook up a few days later. We had it tonight, with a simple salad and a bottle of wine that was left over from Christmas.

Normally I use goose stock from the leftover bones, but a long trip to the park and subsequent nap meant that it would not have been ready in time for dinner, so I used the double extracted chicken stock leftover from the wild mushroom risotto and added a generous spoonful of the concentrated juices that had been carefully gathered from the bottom of the roasting pans. It made a strong, meaty brown stock that worked perfectly for the risotto.

I start with the typical arome of Tuscan food: diced pancetta, diced shallot (onion is traditional, but shallot works better), diced carrot, diced celery and two peeled whole cloves of garlic. To this I add a generous handful of fatty goose skin and tough bits of meat, diced very finely.

It goes in this order:

Per each cup of arborio rice heat a Tablespoon of butter, a Tablespoon of goose fat (I prefer the fat that I reserve from the roasting pans, as it has the roasted goose flavor in addition to the rosemary, fennel and garlic of the subcutaneous stuffing, but the pure, snow-white goose fat that I render from the free cavity fat and fatty skin flaps works well too), and a Tablespoon of fragrant extra virgin olive oil. When it is hot, I add the chopped pancetta and the chopped goose bits. One the fat has rendered from this, I add the garlic and shallot. When the shallot has turned transluscent I add the carrots and celery. When the aroma is so good that I can't stand it I add my rice and a few finely chopped dried porcini mushrooms. Once the rice takes on a pearlescent quality, I add a cup or so of dry white wine (I normally use extra dry white vermouth, but we had an opened bottle of Orvietto Classico, so I used it and was a little more generous than usual). When the wine cooks down, I turn the heat to low and add ladlesful of hot stock, stirring every few minutes and adding stock until the rice is cooked al dente. When the rice is nearly ready I stir in big chunks of goose meat, let it warm in the risotto, then, off heat, stir in a generous helping of grated reggiano parmeggiana and fresh cracked pepper. Normally I top it with chopped celery and offer freshly grated cheese at the table, but I was too lazy to go out in the cold to pick parsley, so I skipped that. I also will finish it with either butter or veal marrow, but there was enough rendered fat in it, so I let it stand.

For the salad I used a mesclun with a generous addition of radicchio, sliced fuyu persimmons, pomegranite seeds, and shaved pecorino romano. For a dressing I made a standard shallot/balsamic vinaigrette with a dollop of Dijon mustard.

I really cannot recommend a better meal for a cold night!

We finished with a Napolitano ricotta and candied fruit pie that my cousin made, following his mother's recipe and Sambuca. If he gives me the recipe along with permission to post it, I will, but otherwise, use your imagination and keep it from being too sweet.

Seared Tuna with heart of Cardoni and bagna cauda

My parents' next door neighbors have two children who I used to babysit. Now they are in college and the son is taking an interest in cooking. He is a sashimi fanatic, but has, like me, also taken to enjoying the occasional seared tuna. He asked me to show him some techniques on searing tuna, so we made a deal. He bought the fish and I did the teaching.

Searing tuna is remarkably easy, and can be customized to a variety of tastes. Phillip and I like ours nearly raw, with only a slight crust of seared fish around a red core. Others like their cooked through. It is easy, once one is set up to cook to order.

First, you need fresh, sashimi grade fish. Lesser cuts need to be cooked through (might I suggest tuna confit?).

Then, over very high heat, brush the skillet with olive oil. For the nearly-sashimi set, 30 seconds on each side is enough. For the cooked through set, 2 minutes on each side. Don't forget the edges, no matter which option you go for.

For a sauce you can steep a chopped shallot in balsamic vinegar and dress the fish with that and olive oil, you can make the red wine reduction that I use in the tuna tiramisu and use it without the zabaglione, you can finish with a splash of sesame oil, or whatever. Basically, if you like tuna, this is one of the great quick meals.

I had some leftover heart of cardoni and a jar of truffled anchovies that had to be used, so I made bagna cauda:

Roast a head of garlic by chopping off the ends, drizzling with fragrant olive oil, wrapping in foil, and placing in a hot oven.

Chop the truffled anchovy (or use salt-packed anchovies revived in milk), and gently heat in olive oil. Add creme fraiche and squeeze in the roasted garlic.

I topped the seared fish with the cardoni and drizzled the bagna cauda over it.

We ate this with potato latkes (the neighbors are Jewish, and this was Chanukkah), parboiled and sauteed salsify and a mixed green salad with persimmon slices and shaved pecorino romano cheese. Yum. Left to my own devices I would not have done the latkes, but I am glad we had them, as they were the perfect foil to the strongly flavored meal.

With the leftover tuna pieces we are going to make a confit out of them by slowly finishing them in olive oil, then we are going to make a spuma di tonno, a tuna mousse, which I learned from watching Michael Chiarello.

Cardoni

Last night I made Gobbi tripatti, which literally means "triped hunchbacks" which is what Cardoni in ragu is called in Tuscan dialect. They are called hunchbacks because when cut, the cross section of some parts are little crescents. Triped refers to cooking them in tomatoes and aromatics the way trippa alla fiorentina is done. I parboil the trimmed and de-strung cardoni in acidulated and salted water, then saute them in extra virgin olive oil and add ragu and either chopped tomatoes or tomato sauce and simmer. I then serve them with a sprinkling of chopped parsley and shave reggiano parmeggiana over them. Always a good dish for a cool night.

Last night I did something else. I read recently about using the heart of the cardoni, which I had never realized was edible. Basically, aftere trimming the stalks, I pared what was left of the core to a good-sized plug, cut it in half and threw it in the pot. I can't believe that I ever threw this away, as it is the best part of the plant, sort of like a gigantic artichoke heart. I did not add this heart to the dish, but am saving it for a version of one of the dishes I had at the restaurant I reviewed Tuesday, a seared tuna, topped with bagna cauda and cauliflower.

What I will be doing is searing the tuna, then placing a slice of cardoni heart and a little bit of truffled anchovy, roasted garlic, Spanish extra virgin olive oil, and creme fraiche on each piece. I will give a report on Tuesday.

Tuna Tiramisu

Every so often I forget to post recipes and get reminders from anonymous folks in the comments box with things like "where are the recipes?" or reminders from not-so-anonymous folks like "ranting a plenty, but the other side?"

So, here is a recipe that I was not going to give out. It is something that I invented about nine years ago, although it was originally closer to sashimi. It changed when I was researching the Futurist banquet and realized that tiramisu was probably a futurist invention. In the spirit of the Italian Futurists, I modified this recipe to something more like what it is now.

It's final form was the result of watching Paul Bocuse make a red wine and herb reduction for a fish dish.

Why Tiramisu?

Everyone knows what tiramisu is (or at least how it has degenerated in most restaurants): layers of espresso soaked ladyfingers, cocoa powder, and a mixture of zabaglione and mascarpone folded together. Often restaurants add rum and whipped cream and chocolate sauce, but those are silly little distractions. The only liquor should be the marsala in the zabaglione.

So I build this with layers (although I usually do it in one layer, constructed on the plates in individual servings) of seared Ahi tuna for the ladyfingers and a savory red zabaglione and mascarpone mixture. I have settled on serving it on a lightly dressed bed of arugula, since the peppery greens add a lot.

So, start by putting a diced shallot, a peeled whole clove of garlic, a few sprigs of thyme, a bay leaf, and fresh cracked pepper in a large non-reactive skillet with a bottle of fruity red wine (Two Buck Chuck Cab is perfect). Simmer and reduce to about a quarter of a cup. Strain and reserve this reduction.

Prepare a large work bowl with ice and water. Set in a place where you can get to it from the stove.

Over a double boiler whisk four egg yolks continually over moderate heat. You are making a custard, but without the sugar that normally goes into it and the addition of the acidic wine syrup, you must take great care to avoid scrambling, as an unctious texture is essential to this dish. Granularity in your zabaglione will be unpleasant. When it is starting to thicken, trickle the syrup into the yolks, continually beating. When it has reached the consistancy of creme anglaise, take your double boiler top and, all the while whisking, put the bottom of it in the ice water. What you are doing is completely halting the cooking so that you can stop having to provide continuous motion.

Fold a tub of mascarpone into the zabaglione. If you want it more pungeant, use a small tub (those little ones that are about an inch and a half tall), if you want creamier, use the larger one that is about four inches tall. But either way, fold it gently but thoroughly. You will have enough of the mixture to feed an army. We have been having an average of 16 people to Christmas and we always have a bit left over, as this stuff is rich (it keeps for a couple of weeks). We are using tuna tiramisu as the first course in a large meal, however, so if you make this your main course, you will probably not be able to serve 16.

Now, dress your arugula in a light dressing:

Dice a shallot. Let it steep in a puddle of balsamic vinegar for 20 minutes. Add a dallop of Dijon mustard, and Extra Virgin olive oil and whisk together. Adjust to taste, keeping the acidity low by using balsamic vinegar instead of lemon juice or stronger vinegar.

Set up your work area, so that you have the bowl of dressed greens, the bowl of zabaglione/mascarpone and a stack of plates. Your assistant's job is to prepare a bed of greens in 30 seconds and then to stand at your side. When you place the seared tuna on the bed of greens, he is to cover the tuna with the zabaglione/mascarpone, get the dish to the table, return and have another plate ready to go in 120 seconds or less. You can do this solo, but obviously it works best with two or three assistants (I have a system where one assistant handles two plates and I have a line up two deep so I can manipulate four medallions at a time. Until you have practiced and have a system, do not do more than two at a time, because it becomes very easy to fuss over one and to let another get overcooked).

Your job is to sear the tuna medallions on all sides, allowing only the outsides to change color. I do it on a non-stick skillet at high heat. I might lightly brush the skillet with oil, but not too much. You do not want the cooking to penetrate much at all. For this reason you must start with high quality, sashimi grade, fish.

If a piece is done and a plate is not ready, put it on a holding plate and don't start the next piece until the line is ready.

If you are going solo, have the arugula already on the plates. Sear a medallion, cover with the mixture, then go on to the next one. The cold mixture will help halt the cooking, and will bring the surface back down in temperature (if the seared parts are hot, that is fine, but I prefer a more room temperature dish - naturally this only works if you are planning on no leftovers, because you are risking it if you put seared tuna in the fridge that has been out at room temperature).

I am thinking of adding seaweed or salsify to the salad greens this year, although I am not sure. I never take plates back to the kitchen with anything but perhaps a stray arugula leaf on them, so part of me thinks that I should stop tampering.

If you want to explore the earlier version it was simply a piece of raw fish over lightly dressed mung bean sprouts and arugula, with ribbons of soy-sauce mascarpone and wasabi mascarpone (you can get creative with the brown and green ribbons, or circles or what have you). To make the mascarpone, just beat in soy in one batch and wasabi in another. Simple. This was basically a Westernization of the classic sashimi. It is quite tasty, although once I invented tuna tiramisu, I have not gone back to this. If I ever want the Japanese way of eating, I simply eat sashimi, which is one of those great joys in life.

This is a complex recipe, so if you have any questions before you try it, feel free to email me at EKeilholtz@aol.com.

Cardoni

Cardoni (Cynara cardunculus) appeared in the market near my parents' house, so I bought a bunch to cook up tomorrow. They are quite a bit of work (unless you get them very young and tender), but worth it. They are the ancestor of the artichoke and are cultivated for the leaves and stalks rather than the flower buds. Their flavor is sort of like artichoke heart, but with pronounced herbal notes. The texture is akin to celery (and the trimmed heads look a lot like monster celery stalks).

I am going to parboil them (after trimming and cutting into 2" long pieces) in acidulated water, then tomorrow I am going to bake them in a gratin with a touch of garlic, gruyere, reggiano parmeggiana, a bay leaf, a little thyme, and creme fraiche. I will probably do a pork roast over a wood fire and a green salad with fuyu persimmons and pomegranite seeds.

This is just about the perfect fall menu, as far as I am concerned (especially if finished with a slice of almond torte and a glass of calvados).

As you all know, I am constantly awed by the changes in seasons, and the most by late autumn. Right now we are in the period that the East had a month or so ago. The skies are blue, the leaves are changing (every year it gets better as Californians figure out what trees to plant for fall color), and the smell of wood fire in the air is no longer a terrifying omen.

One of my favorite way to watch the change in seasons is the change in the stained glass windows at church. As the light switches direction, different colors are highlighted. It is like a jewelled sundial.

Today we are going to be outside almost all day. Amalia is finally over her cold, I am caught up in my newspaper assignments, and there are several days of exploring the world to make up! I am thinking that we may need to go foraging for nettles and acorns.

I love this season!

Pork Chops with herbs

I have needed to do some fast cooking these days, as I have been pressed for time so often. Tonight I fried pork chops (boneless loin chops from Niman Ranch) in butter (I have been using cultured, unsalted butter - never use salted butter. If you need salt, add salt. The salt in butter is used simply to extend shelf life and can mask rancidity, which can destroy a dish) and then dressed them with this:

1. Chopped winter savory, French rue, lovage leaves, fresh thyme, fresh sage, fresh Italian parsley, fresh marjoram.
2. Greek Kalamata Extra Virgin Olive Oil (good cooking oil, cheap at Trader Joe's)
3. A dash of balsamico (the good stuff, decidedly not from Trader Joe's)

and served them with a simple salad (mesclun with Dijon, balsamic (this one Trader Joe's) vinegar, and kalamata EV olive oil and a sweet batard. The wine was Croc Rock Shiraz (another good cheapo from Trader Joe's). It took a total of 25 minutes to cook and was delicious.

I also want to share with you how I have been doing sausage recently. My preference is to grill sausage over a wood fire, but the rain has put a damper on my enthusiasm there, so I have been browning them, then adding a generous splash of dry Marsala, covering the pan and simmering until done. Not only does it make the sausages taste great, but it yields a nice simple sauce for dipping bread into.

I have also been experimenting with my own sausage blends, but have yet to make one with Marsala (I ran out of Marsala and keep forgetting to get more when we are at the store), but I will report once I have done so.

Wow! When was the last time I posted a recipe?

Cowboy Stew from the Comargue.

I may have posted this recipe already, but I have made it twice in the last month, so here it is:

Brown beef stew meat in a pot in butter, a few cubes at a time, remove when browned to a work bowl.

Heat more butter in the pot.

Throw in 1 1/2 large cloves of garlic for each pound of meat (peeled and maybe cut in half, but not chopped) until the smell of cooking garlic is clearly in the air.

Saute a sliced onion (or equal weight in shallots, which add other flavors that are nice) in the pot. When it is transluscent, add the beef, a good sized can of chopped or crushed tomatoes, a generous splash of red wine (I used a whole bottle of two buck Chuck for nearly four pounds of beef), a couple of bay leaves, broken up, fresh thyme, the juice and finely julienned zest of on orange, lavender salt (maybe some lavender blossoms if needed), and simmer for hours.

As it gets close to done (the meat should be falling apart), add the juice and zest of a second orange, a handful or three of good olives (last night I used a mix of Kalamata and Hondriolia), and serve over rice, finishing with freshly chopped parsley.

I made this for my parents and Amalia, since Melanie and I were reviewing a restaurant last night. The restaurant was good, but at that price, I think I would have rather stayed home and had my stew and a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape (or even the $4 Australian Shiraz (Yellow Tail, from Trader Joe's, not bad) I opened for my parents (I did not have a fancier Cote du Rhone style wine, so it had to do)). Fortunately I get paid for eating at these places, so I can't really complain, but more times than not, I find eating out a less than satisfying experience.

Mexican feast

This weekend we went to Santa Cruz to visit Ann and Jaime. We were going to cook dinner on Saturday night, but got caught up watching that stupid baseball game. Instead we cooked up a bunch of food Sunday afternoon:

1. Ceviche. I soaked strips of fresh tombo tuna in lime juice with onions, cilantro and salt until the fish is chemically cooked by the lime juice.

2. Mango salsa. Diced organic Brazilian mango, diced California organic Haas avocado, finely chopped jalapeno, diced onion, finely chopped cilantro, crushed garlic, salt, lime juice.

3. Guacamole. Avacado, diced onion, crushed garlic, lime juice, finely chopped cilantro, chopped jalapeno, salt.

4. Salsa fresca. Molino Creek organic dry-farmed tomatoes (if you are not in the greater Bay Area, you will have to find some other intensely flavored ones. These, from the Santa Cruz mountains, are the best tomatoes I have ever eaten), diced onion, crushed garlic, finely chopped cilantro, finely chopped jalapeno, extra virgin olive oil,salt, lime juice.

5. Carne asada, thin steaks of beef, rubbed with salt and pepper and grilled. Finished with a drizzling of extra virgin olive oil.

6. Toasted tortillas.

Served with chips and beer. Followed by a three mile walk to Capitola Village and back (with a hot chocolate and espresso break at Mr. Toots, one of the most pleasant coffeehouses in the world).

Great meal, great weekend. Amalia really gets along with Ann and Jaime, but seems to think that their house is owned by Kobu the cat (although Amalia calls it "Kubu's house"). One of these days I will have to get Ann and Jaime's secret for getting the cat to buy you a house. Hepcat didn't even kill mice. I want a cat like Kobu.

Sage

Sage is an interesting herb. I think of it as a dry aroma, with a resinous quality, as opposed to smells like cinnamon that have a sweetness to their smell. I know that I am mixing up the language of taste sensations with smell sensations, but I think we can chart smells on a graph with sweet (or floral/fruity) on one end and dry (resinous) on the other. Then on the Y axis, perhaps we can chart minerally and organic. This is an embryonic system, and one with many errors, but it will due for now. A system of olfactory classification needs to be developed, and it needs to be independent of too much reference to concrete smells.

Sage tends towards the dry. If a dish I were cooking had too much sage, I would temper it with a sweet spice, like cinnamon. Sage is a naturally friend of pork, and I can only imagine what the flesh of sage-fed pigs would taste like.

A simple pork dish is to tuck sage and garlic cloves into a pork roast (round is fine, but loin is especially nice), and rub the roast with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Brown the roast in hot butter, and add a half cup of white vermouth and a splash of balsamic vinegar and a few more sage leaves. Cover the pan and cook the pork over low heat. When it is cooked, remove the pork and cover with foil, and reduce the pan juices to a good syrup. Strain and whisk in a few tablespoons of softened butter. Salt and pepper to taste and serve over the sliced pork. The leftover sage sauce can go in polpette di lesso.

I generally serve this with roasted potatoes and short braised lacinato kale.

Polpette di lesso

I have the vague feeling that I posted this recipe before, but it is one of my all-time favorites. It tastes good, and it is a way of using up leftovers (other than reheating them for the third night).

These meatballs can be made with just about any leftover cooked meat: boiled beef, roast beef, pork, hamburger, even chicken, but I would only use so much. You can even mix the meats, provided the seasonings don't conflict. What you do is roughly chop up your meat and mix it in a bowl with some mashed up boiled potato (or crustless Tuscan country bread soaked in milk and squeezed), a couple of eggs, chopped SAGE, chopped parsley, chopped lemon zest, grated Reggiano Parmeggiana cheese, sea salt, freshly cracked pepper and nutmeg. If you have any leftover buerre rouge, or sage sauce, add it. If it seems like it is not going to hold together, add more egg. If it looks like it is approaching omelettehood, add other ingredients. Roll balls of the mixture in bread crumbs and fry in extra virgin olive oil. All you need, then is a green salad or ensalta caprese, a young red wine, and chilled sparkle water (for those of you who do not speak Amáliaese, that would be "sparkling mineral water."). Perfect autumn dish, with the sage and meat.

Tomato Grappatini Modifications

Today I got a whole flat of delicious, organic heirloom tomatoes. Since I had just posted it, Melanie and I set on the tomato grappatini recipe with a vengeance. I think I have it perfected, except for the color. I will get a bottle of Rosso Antiqua and see if that works. I also want to try sweet vermouth, but there is only so much experimenting with potent grappa cocktails one can do in a day. I basically develop cocktail recipes in a progressive fashion: I start with the simplest thing and add as I sip. Therefore, when I get to the end of one cocktail, I stop, which is about a good limit on a hot day (unless we are talking gin and tonic. We aren’t talking gin and tonic, are we?).

I basically made a raw tomato and basil juice, as described in the earlier recipe, but I was out of coffee filters ( I rarely drink drip coffee), so I used cheesecloth, which did not quite filter it to clear. So I had what looked like pink grapefruit juice. Fine. I can work with that. So I put one shot of it in the shaker with one shot of grappa and a dash of extra dry vermouth and stirred. It tasted pretty good, but needed acidity, so I added some freshly squeezed meyer lemon juice. Just about there, so I did the olive oil finish. Yum (but not the best looking, I admit). The color was not attractive, so I added a couple of dashes of angostura bitters. Excellent for the flavor, and helped with the color. Further experimentation did not yield happy results, although nothing as to make it undrinkable. Swell. Tomorrow I will experiment with sweet vermouth and rue flavor instead of basil. Full report later.

Right now I am making arista on a wood fire, which will be served with the gazpacho I made as a result of having a lot of tomato pulp around.

Tomato Grappatini

Go to the farmers' market and pick out the most flavorful organic heirloom tomatoes you can find. Core and juice them, and strain the juice. Do not mash the fruit up, as we are looking for clear juice (use the fruit for some other cooking). Add some celery leaves (or lovage or French rue or fresh basil), and some finely chopped cucumber (optional). Let sit in the refrigerator. Strain the juice again through a coffee filter. Chill for a few hours. Mix the chilled, clear fresh tomato juice with a shot of grappa and a couple of drops of highest quality balsamico and serve in a chilled martini glass. Garnish with an anchovie-stuffed olive, a cube of fresh mozzarella and an orange cherry tomato. You may optionally float a tiny bit of high quality extra virgin olive oil or even a single drop of black truffle oil on top.

Where soup meets salad meets cocktails!

Orrechiette with mushroom sauce

This is one of my favorite types of pasta recipes: you can create an amazingly rich and elegant dish all in the time it takes to boil your water and cook your pasta.

So, put on your water to boil. When it gets to a rolling boil, stop what you are doing at a convenient moment, salt the water and add the orrechiette (thumb prints, known as little ears or sometimes priests' ears). Stir to keep from sticking together (never, ever, under fear of eternal Hellfire, add oil of any sort to your pasta while it is cooking). When the pasta is not quite al dente, remove it, drain it and finish cooking it in the sauce in the skillet.

Thinly slice whatever strongly flavored mushroom you want to use. I recommend mastutake, but fresh porcini or chantrelle are good, and even brown crimini are fine (but add some reconstituted dried porcini to give it some oomph).

Finely dice two cloves of garlic.

Finely chop either a generous pinch of fresh calamint or fresh thyme.

Warm olive oil in a saute pan.

Add the mushrooms, calamint and garlic and fry gently.

Deglaze your pan with a generous splash of grappa.

Cook the alcohol out.

Add a generous splash of heavy cream and grate parmeggiana reggiano over it.

Finish with freshly ground nutmeg, finely chopped parsley, freshly cracked pepper and a very light drizzle of black truffle oil.

I probably have posted this already, as it is my favorite autumn pasta (second to a true bolognese, made with Tuscan ragu, of course). Serve with a minerally white wine or a crisp red.

Recipes

I have not posted much for recipes since I have let Melanie do a lot of the cooking this week. It is pretty good wholesome food and all that, but I will be resuming my post starting this weekend. I am craving risotto! So, more summer recipes will come.

Duck Risotto

For those of you following my recipe series on summer foods (which will be amended to include some no-carb stuff for various folks who need that), I would like to use this next one as an example of frugality in the kitchen. As you know, the other night I cooked a duck with a pluot sauce. It was a lot of food for the two of us (Amália had eaten something earlier, so it was just Melanie and I), so we had leftovers.

Last night Melanie picked the meat off the carcass and made stock from the bones. Tonight I will make a duck risotto:

Finely chop about 1/4 of a pound of thinly sliced pancetta and all of the duck skin that is left. The finely dice a carrot, a celery stalk, and an onion (or shallot). Finely chop a few dried porcini mushrooms. Peel two cloves of garlic.

In a large saucepan (or whatever you use to make risotto) heat up 2 T of the duck fat leftover from cooking the duck to begin with, 2 T butter and 2 T extra virgin olive oil. Gently fry the pancetta and chopped duck skin. Add the garlic cloves and fry for a minute. Add the onions and fry for a few minutes. Add the carrot and celery and fry until aromatic.

Add two cups of arborio rice, a generous pinch of fresh time, and the chopped mushrooms. Cook for about four minutes until the rice starts to get translucent. Pour in a cup of white vermouth and cook off.

Lower the heat and add hot duck stock, ladle by ladle, stirring occasionally, until the rice is cooked al dente. Take it off the heat. Salt and pepper to taste, finish with 2 T butter and a generous helping of freshly grated reggiano parmeggiana.

Serve with a pinot noir and a green salad.