Where In The World Is Deb?

« The Trouble With Silverware | Main | A whole lotta everything with no time for blogging »

May 10, 2004

Heaven On A Plate

I ate dinner. Oh my did I eat dinner. In Sicily, dinner is an event that spans no less than 3-4hours. It involves no less than three courses and it is usually five. Saturday, a coworker had a going away dinner at a gorgeous restaurant (that is somehow not an adequate term for this place) in the town of San Giovanni La Punta. The restaurant is called Giardino Di Bacco (literally, "garden of wine"). The place is essentially a huge villa and each of the rooms are private dining areas. In Sicily, you have to make dinner reservations sometimes weeks to months in advance. You don't just walk into a restaurant and plunk yourself down. I had food that I have NEVER had before and I am a foodie so that is an amazing feat. Below is the menu:

On the table was freshly made bread, rolled in sesame seeds with extra virgin olive oil for dipping. We had to check the oil bottle to see whether there were any ingredients because it had such a delicious full body. The water had lemon slices in it and the table wine was a homemade merlot.

First course (antipasto) is appetizers and the chef brought out a sampler plate that included an arabic spring roll (new one on me), spinach with egg, a couple of other things and my favorite; a pumpkin flower stuffed with an eggplant/bread mix.

Second course (primi) was one of my absolute favorite Sicilian dishes; macaroni a la norma (it is usually penne a la norma though). The macaroni noodles were hand rolled and cooked right then and had chunks of eggplant (that's the norma part) and roasted cherry tomatoes. Just kill me now because I would go happy.

The third course (secondi) had several choices which included veal (sorry, don't do veal), meatballs, steak kabobs and the one that I chose which was a pork cutlet, pounded flat, rolled and stuffed with orange blossoms, pine nuts and bread. Okay. I am a Florida girl and I NEVER knew you could eat orange blossoms. The pork roll was then lightly breaded and baked so that the very outside only was crispy. I know I said you could kill me after the last course but THIS, now this was to die for.

The dessert course (dolce) was also a choice between several things, most including ricotta cheese, which I have decided is food of the gods. I chose a strawberry tart that tasted just like strawberry shortcake. The strawberries were no bigger than the tip of my index finger but packed with flavor. They were on a nice crispy shell with a sweetened ricotta cheese filling. Gah. So very good.

I am extremely glad that I can't eat that way everyday. I would have to buy two plane tickets just to get my fat butt out of here.

To make things much worse in the calorie count department, my neighbors and I had a barbeque on Sunday that included stuffed bell peppers (mine), stuffed eggplant, barbequed steak, and twice baked potatoes. We are definitely swapping recipes between the bell peppers and the eggplant. yummy.

Here is my recipe for bell peppers:

* 4-6 yellow or red bell peppers with fairly flat bottoms (green is okay too, I think the others are sweeter though)
* about 4 cups cooked rice (try not to make it too sticky like me though)
* 1/2 pound each ground beef and italian sausage (what ever flavor combo you like)
* diced onion (I like a lot - I use about a medium sized red onion)
* salt and pepper as you like
* Your favorite spaghetti sauce (I use Ragu Rich and Zesty - what you think I make my own? shoooooot)

Get the rice going. Start the meat and onions stir frying. Cut the tops of the peppers as close as possible, saving the tops. Dice up the eatable parts of the tops and add them to the meat. Take out your huge corn boiling pan (also known as the canning pan and the laundry room trash can - it holds the dryer lint hahahahaha) and parboil the peppers. Just completely submerge them for five minutes. Scoop them out while you tell your baby to stand back so he doesn't get burned, meanwhile burn the crap out of your finger tips (how else can you dump those puppies out without dropping them repeatedly back into the water?).

Stand the peppers upright in a baking dish. Add the rice into the meat mixture and then scoop it into the peppers. Resist the temptation to pack them tight though. Any leftover mix goes in the baking dish between the peppers (really helpful incase they are vertically challenged). Salt and pepper (you can also add salt and pepper to the meat mix). Spoon the spaghetti sauce over the tops of the peppers so that it runs over the sides (don't make a lake though - you want the peppers to roast not boil).

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes (or until the peppers are starting to look a little wrinkly).

Some things to consider: You can throw mozzarella over the top, you can use something other than peppers as shells (big tomatoes, baby squash and eggplant work well), you can use spicy Italian sausage or you can use whatever crumbly meat you want. Also, you can freeze the individual stuffed peppers after cooking - I just put them individually in a ziplock.

The stuffed eggplant recipe will get posted later. As soon as I make a covert night run into her kitchen to steal the recipe (just kidding).

Posted by DebC at May 10, 2004 03:39 PM

Comments

Posted by: Dad at May 11, 2004 04:08 AM

Posted by: belva at May 12, 2004 02:36 PM