My turn to host and the theme was Stanley Tucci Italian. I was reading What I Ate in One Year for inspiration, following him on Facebook, watching Tuscany Trek and taking lessons on making Capanata from Tucci and his mom. Fan girl.
We made a trip to St. Lawrence Market for some of the ingredients the day before, and while there we picked up some fruit, cheeses, salumi & fresh pasta. That night Laura, Peter, Rob and I went over to Kaarina's and Mike's to watch Tucci's Big Night and enjoyed a simple meal of olives, prosciutto and focaccia, fresh fusilli with red sauce, and a cheese course of creamy gorgonzola with grapes. A suitable preludio!
Our own Big Night came the next evening, and what a menu!
Laura had originally made Delizia Limon for the dolce, but we were having none of that! We'd had to postpone our get-together due to some sniffles. The dolce was fairly complicated to re-do, and "just not worth the effort." As a result Laura would be making some cannoli pastry from scratch. Also as a result, Kaarina's olives had been marinated for well over two weeks, and my caponata had been prepared and frozen. The day of the Epi meal we prepped ahead by making the cannoli filling, roasting the zucchini, and seasoning the meat.
I called 5 different butchers to find the right cut of bone-in milk-fed veal, and it was only when I spoke to the Italian butcher at McEwans that I managed to find the right cut (Grazie Franco!). When it came to frying the Milanese Cotoletto, Laura gave me a hand as I didn't want to over or undercook the meat - the signal is not only the right browning, but a gentle press with the thumb as you would with steak (this is still beef, after all).
Take-aways from this meal: I was a bit surprised there was no garlic in the food we prepared that night. Not the salad, the pasta, or the cotoletto. It's a common misconception that Italians always cook with garlic. According to Kaarina, they tend to be critical of French cooks for using too much!
The scratch cannoli pastry took the dolce to the next level, and grating with fresh chocolate and pistachios enhanced it even more.
I would definitely make the capanata, focaccia, pasta and cotoletto again! Olives are delicious when marinated for two weeks. I could have gotten away with just one or two cheeses, but couldn't resist increasing the formaggio options.
Ciao Bella!
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