If you're in Salt Lake City some evening...try Caputo's

Congrats to TIPICA, a Caputo Dining Project!

Felipe and I had dinner in Caputo's and I must say it's an interesting project called Tipica...which means Typical in Italian. In the evening Caputo's Italian Market & Deli turns into a lovely little restaurant...prices are reasonable too! and so are the wines!

There are no second patters--that is to say, the menu consists of only pasta, risotti, insalate, contorni, zuppa and dolci! So who cares about meat and fish when you can do as Felipe and I did.

We split a saffron risotto (moderately priced at $17) with Rock Shrimp and Louisiana Lump Crab, and split a Piemontese beef and porcini ragout (also $17)--my comment on this was--don't bother using the porcini mushrooms--they get lost in the sauce. I'd use plain old champignon. Save the porcini to use (as they do in Italy!) by themselves with garlic, hot pepper, parsley and good olive oil! Or do them up in a light cream sauce.

The Deli has some very interesting cheeses, delicious sausages--I'm using some in the sauce tonight: Barolo, porcini, tradizionale, and Calabrese...which are a little hot), and all sorts of wonderful De Cecco pasta, and some fancy made artiginale...artisan! For instance if you're looking for a black ink (from squid) fettuccine...they have it. I've also bought some extravagant and wonderful salts there such as Fleur de sel, porcini salt and truffle salt...all under $20

They also have cooking classes: http://www.caputosdeli.com

Speaking of mushrooms and stuffed artichokes

This morning I spoke to Roberto Angelilli, my main mushroom man here in Utah, and here's what you can use if you want to make the old impress: BEECH MUSHROOMS.

Next time you have a dinner party, buy some beech mushrooms--brown or white. They are small clusters of white or brown mushrooms and look similar to Enoki. These are also in the oyster family but they are super-duper gourmet. So easy to prepare--either broil, grill or pan fry a small bunch of them wrapped in a thin strip of bacon. Simply cut of most of the root, but leave the mushrooms intact as a group. Serve hot for a delectable appetizer. No fuss or muss.

More about these mushrooms. they have a sweet yet mild nutty taste and keep well in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. Maybe longer. I always take all veggies out of plastic wraps and then put them in brown paper bags! Make sure the veggies are completely dry--not spritzed with the water the supermarkets use to keep them looking fresh.

Latin name: Hypsizygus marmoreus. Also known as Buna shimeji (brown) and Bunapi (white), and Hon Shimeji.


***
Now here's an old recipe from my Grandma: Sicilian stuffed artichokes, but first some comments on California artichokes.

They look gorgeous in the store, albeit expensive, but they aren't like the ones we get in Italy! They are tough--leaves especially and stem, if you're lucky enough to find one attached. They have a huge choke of hairlike projections in the heart. And most of the inner leaves have spines. I've tried my Italian recipes on these and they NEVER! come out the same way...at least not the whole ones cooked upside down alla Romana.

So deal with it or move to Italy.

I stuffed two of these beauties after I washed and then soaked them in water and lemon for a few hours.

Instructions:

Cut off all the VERY tough outside leaves and as many of the inner leaves with spiny projections.

Inside each row separate the leaves and pour in or push in mixed breadcrumbs. This should start to make them bulge.

For the mix:

breadcrumbs
grated cheese
salt
pepper
garlic granules or powder
oregano
parsley
paprika

Do it by eye and feel it, and if you must, taste it. No, I cannot even begin to give you measurements. Sorry. When I make this mixture, it's as natural to me as breathing. If you don't use it all, refrigerate.

Then irrigate the entire artichoke with olive oil and 1/2 squeezed lemon. Finish with a generous splash of white wine. I cooked these covered in about 1/2 inch of water and a little oil for two hours. They were STILL too HARD at the bottom of the leaves! So now I've decided the only way to make these decently is to cook in the pressure cooker. Peel the stem to its inner core and cut into 2 inch pieces and circle the artichoke with them.

Use at least an inch or two of water for the pressure cooker. I would place the artichoke on a rack. Probably 1/2 hr from the time the little doohickey thing on the top starts to dance...lower to lowest heat when it does and then begin to time. Let the cooker rest completely before removing the top, or you may run the cooker under cold water so that the valve lowers and it's safe to open.

Your kids will love eating with their hands! Let them pick the artichoke apart leaf by leaf and scrape and pull the inside of the leaf and stuffing off from top to bottom with their teeth. When you get to the choke cut it out with the knife tip in an fairly deep and rotate it till all the "hair" comes out and only the heart, like the deep well of a volcano, remians. Makes a great appetizer

Go for it.

Mare e Monte: Cockles and Enokitake mushrooms

Mare e monte ... literally means Sea and Mountains

Yesterday walking on Main Street in Park City and enjoying the open craft market, Felipe and I found and re-made our acquaintance with Robert Angellli--robertangelilli@netzero.com --the mushroom-seller we met at last year's summer market. His wife, Amber was with him. She's a professional baker who will have more free time early September when we will have them for dinner. I bought the mushrooms from him. Excellent quality, as always.

For this dish I used cockles (3-4 lbs.) from New Zealand
2 small bunches of fresh Enokitake mushrooms

Wash the cockles thoroughly in cold water...then let sit in a bath of cold water for at least an hour. Rinse again. Pop them in a large fry pan and let them open. Rinse again if you need to. Save the water and filter it. (I use a paper towel and small sieve.)

Clean pot and add:

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of butter
1/2 sweet onion minced
2 cloves of sliced garlic
4 slices of center cut lean bacon cut up as small as possible
Enokitake mushrooms, clean and separated
3 tablespoons of tomato sauce cooked with basil
chopped Italian parsley if desired
salt, pepper to taste

Cook the bacon, onions, garlic in olive oil and butter on medium-high for about 3 minutes

Cut off the base and separate the tiny mushrooms. Fling in the clean mushrooms, raise the flame to high and cook till mushrooms start to brown. salt and pepper to taste.

Add sauce, add 1/2 -1 cup of the clam broth and bring to a boil, lower to medium and add the cockles...you may discard half of the shells beforehand, if so desired.

Make a pound of spaghetti or linguine and drain it tight, add to the mare e monte...
Garnish with parsley and serve. (4-5 people)

Here's what I found on Wickipedia about these funghi, which when not cultivated are fatter, darker and more robust according to the pictures.

Enokitake (Chinese: 金針菇, Pinyin: jīnzhēngū;Japanese: えのき茸 enokitake; Korean: 팽이버섯, Revised Romanization: paengi beoseot) are long, thin white mushrooms used in Asian cuisines, particularly those of China, Japan and Korea. These mushrooms are cultivars of Flammulina velutipes also called golden needle mushroom. Wild forms differing in color, texture, and sliminess are called winter mushrooms, velvet foot, or velvet stem among other names.
Enoki, or Enokitake

Last night's dinner and the Willamette Valley IPNC

Our friend Maria Johnson stopped by last evening after work. Her family is all on vacation in OR and she's working--will leave on Tuesday. She's a top sales woman for Red Ledges in lovely Heber City. She's originally from Oregon and we've just come back from the International Pinot Noir celebration in McMinnville, OR in nestled in the Willamette Valley. So we happened to have on hand some lovely Pinot Gris (Maria prefers white over red...)

We invited Maria stay for dinner which consisted of: an appetizer of black olives, Delices de Dieux cheese and wheat crackers, a delightful dish of of beans, escarole and shrimp--olive oil, garlic and a splash of the wine we were drinking...of course. I served this with fresh brushetta, prepared by FR's sous chef's hands, followed by a crisp salad of cold scallops, butter lettuce, red onions, slivered almonds, and tomatoes drizzled with an aged apple must and my homemade Dom Perignon Champagne vinegar! The wine: two and 1/2 bottles of Willamette Valley Pinot Gris chill3ed to perfection.

A note about the Wine Celebration--in a word--fabulous. Felipe and I met interesting and personable wine-makers Michael Etzel from Beaux Frères, Luisa Ponzi from Ponzi, and Eric Hamacher from Hamacher. We also visited Domaine Serene. What lovely, dynamic people. And it was such a pleasure to see that they are using wonderful bio-dynamics and organic methods of grape-growing. Not only that the wine-makers of Oregon are not afraid to concur with each others and they speak openly of their successes and failures. A true feeling of fraternity and cooperation exists and I applaud it!

Our first elegant evening we had an intimate dinner at the Ponzi winery, hosted by Luisa Ponzi where we were served gourmet food with wonderful wine-pairings. During the festival weekend that followed, there were wine seminars, tastings and bountiful breakfasts--tables laden with apricots, peaches, blueberries, blackberries, Oregonian specialty Marion berries, raspberries, strawberries, black quarter-sized plump, meaty cherries, fresh yogurt and pastries. Two Italian espresso machines were set up and the barrista who served me every morning made an espresso that we call: "una creama di caffe!" Excellent!

Other elegant meals were the lunches served alfresco under huge pine trees on the Linden College campus, and a gala dinner with a dish of Cattail Creek Lamb that literally needed only a fork to cut it and melted in your mouth. So where is this outrageously scrumptious Oregon lamb? If you go to Costco in Florida or Utah, you'll find only lamb imported from Australia and New Zealand. What happened to America first???

And last but certainly not least to conclude the festival weekend we were given a memorable parting champagne and oyster Sunday brunch!

Speaking of which, today FR is taking me out for brunch! at the Stein Erickson Lodge in Deer Valley! Yeah!

Enjoy your Sunday!