The most wonderful time of the year
Christmas Eve is the big day for food in my book. Over the years, I've taken the square peg of my family's Christmas Eve dinner and shoved it into the round hole of a southern Italian Vigilia. The traditional, old-country Vigilia has grown into the Feast of Seven Fishes in the US. Since Christmas is a holiday that lends itself to changing traditions, my version consists of whatever exotic foods I can get my hands on at the specialty grocers in St. Pete in the lead up to Christmas Eve. I'm crazy for cured meats, real cheeses and anchovies in as many forms as I can find. My skill at throwing together a cheese course has led my friends to refer to my Christmas Eve shindig as "What a Friend We Have in Cheeses," and I find that hilarious.
Last week, the pleasant ladies over at Design Boner clued me into a brand new supply for subsequent year's Vigilia victuals. Check this out:
Mostarda d'uva
Snow cone sauce.
From the villages of the Italian Piedmont, where it's been around for centuries,
mostarda d'uva (grape mustard) is a thick, savory-sweet condiment that's eaten extensively with polenta, boiled meats or cheese. I'd be content to put it on a piece of toast or a grilled cheese sandwich, too. One look at the ingredient list will tell
you this is special: Barbera wine grapes, freshly cut quince, sugar, cloves, dried pears, orange and lemon peel, and an array of spices, all simmered till it's the texture of chutney. Roberto Santopietro, who makes it, told Ari, "You know, it's excellent with snow." Thinking he'd misunderstood, he said, "You mean with granita?" "No," he responded firmly." With snow." You see, in the mountains they go out and gather freshly fallen snow, then serve up a cup of it topped with a spoonful or two of this.
Man! That sauce sounds incredible and it's right up my alley. The sauce and the instance come from an internet meals emporium referred to as Zingerman's. Zingerman's is an actual store in Ann Arbor, MI; however their online catalog will ought to keep me over until I find myself in Ann Arbor. Their website is this food-lover's idea of heaven. They have the whole lot from salt-cured capers, salt-packed anchovies (!), and Finocchiona (a fennel and pork cured sausage) to sparkling breads of greater sorts than I should be counted. These humans convey the styles of things I'd live on if I should. And just once I concept it couldn't get any better, I stumbled upon this:
Garum Colatura
Ancient Italian fast food.
This is one of those meals for parents looking for some thing both old and new ? And flavorful. It?S an historic convenience meals that gets deep taste without lots work.
I?D never heard of garum colatura until I visited the Italian coast south of Naples. There I discovered it?S the liquid that?S tired off the barrels of historically cured anchovies. Made a lot the equal manner it changed into 2000 years in the past, it?S used as a brief way to present terrific anchovy flavor to a dish while not having to fillet, soak and chop the fish. Locals nonetheless use it frequently, totally on pasta.
The best meal of my Neapolitan trip was a bowl of pasta cooked al dente that had been tossed quickly with garum, some very good olive oil, chopped garlic and a touch of dried red pepper. Our accountant, Jim, likes to mix it with olive oil in a 3:1 ratio oil:garum. He uses it as a dipping sauce for raw vegetables. Jim isn't your everyday accountant
Garum is what the Ancient Romans used as an all-purpose seasoning. I suppose it become the Roman equivalent of ketchup. Now that I think of it, American ketchup evolved from garum to start with, so I assume it's a quite accurate analogy. Whether or now not it's correct is immaterial but because those human beings promote garum! Amazing! My God, the in addition into their web page I dig the higher it gets. They have a section of licorices for die hard lovers too. Guilty as charged on that count number! Give me real licorice any way you can consider it and I'll be a satisfied man. This internet site is the stuff of my sugarplum visions. Licorice, salami, anchovies, real cheese and crusty bread, life would not get much higher. Check them out.