Sunday Extra #2: A Late Winter Menu
Pasta with White Ragù, Orange and Radicchio Salad, and a Luscious Custard Dessert
Welcome to the second issue of Buona Domenica Sunday Extra. This is a monthly feature in which I delve a little deeper into Italian cooking. One of my aims is to take a closer look at traditional Italian dishes and to put them in context. This is also an opportunity to share more involved recipes, occasional seasonal menus, and more. As I mentioned in my first newsletter of this year, I’m putting few limits on this feature; I just want to see where it takes us. (Today it’s taking us to an imaginary Italian ‘diner’ somewhere in the Virginia countryside.)
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Next week, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled free Sunday newsletter.
Years ago when my kids were little, I used to dream about opening a small Italian diner in the Virginia countryside. It would, naturally, be called Buona Domenica, and there would be no menu other than what I happened to be cooking that day, a sort of Lost Kitchen concept before The Lost Kitchen.
The food would be simple and (obviously!) excellent. There would be good wine and good coffee. Somehow, people would find it and they would be happy with whatever was served and no one would ask for substitutions or if they could have a side of pasta.
I’ve not been to The Lost Kitchen (reservations are notoriously difficult to come by), but I have dined at plenty of old-school restaurants in Italy over the years, where the husband is front-of-the-house and his wife (and sometimes his mother) are in the kitchen and you are fed what they cook. One was a small place in Umbria, the name of which is lost to me but which served delicious crostini topped with chicken liver paté, and silky handmade pasta alla Norcina. Another was one of my all-time favorite restaurants in Abruzzo, Plistia, which I’ve written about over the years but is now closed. (The recipe for hand-rolled spinach noodles (codette) with sausage and peas in the Showstoppers chapter of The Glorious Pasta of Italy came from my first visit to Plistia.)
I can’t say for sure, but my guess is that there are fewer and fewer of these homestyle restaurants still around in Italy. It’s a difficult concept to sustain, I imagine, especially these days. For me, it was just a romantic notion; I’ve never been business savvy and, in truth, I didn’t relish the idea of being tied down to a place that would keep me from actually going to Italy.
But I do love putting together a menu. It’s a satisfying endeavor, a sort of puzzle in which you have to figure out which dishes go together, not just in terms of course (appetizer, main, side, dessert) or ingredient and flavor combinations, but also considering seasonality and how things look and feel together. All the components need to fit. So, I thought: why not treat this newsletter as a sort of virtual Italian diner from time to time and create menus, with recipes to share?
Readers: If you’ve been to Italy and have a favorite homestyle restaurant, please tell us about it in the comments.
I’m calling this inaugural menu “A Late Winter Menu.” I chose these dishes because they reflect the transitional period we’re in, with unpredictable weather and days trending towards warm but nights still cold. My in-house sommelier has made wine pairing suggestions. I would definitely serve this menu at my make-believe restaurant.
ANTIPASTO
Mushroom and Black Olive Crostini: The spread for these crostini is actually Chef Cathy Whims’s pasta sauce, which she shared last fall, slightly adapted and repurposed into a crostini topping. It sets up in the refrigerator to a perfect spreadable consistency, and its piquant flavor, with a bitter edge from the cured olives, whets your appetite.
ENTRÉE
Maltagliati con Ragù Bianco: Egg pasta, rolled thin and cut into diamonds with a fluted pastry wheel, feels slightly more casual than pappardelle or tagliatelle. The shape pairs well with the white (tomato-less) ragù, a cousin to classic ragù Bolognese.
CONTORNO
Orange Salad with Radicchio, Red Onion, and Taggiasca Olives: The salad comes from my latest cookbook, Williams-Sonoma Everyday Italian. It adds a splash of color and a bright citrus tang to counter the rich pasta.
DOLCE
Lattaiolo | Milk Custard: There’s something about a milk and egg dessert in late winter/early spring that feels just right. It’s rich, but also light, and it seems to anticipate the new season.
What I especially like about this menu is that while there is a certain amount of work and effort involved, much of it can be prepared in advance: the mushroom and black olive paté; the pasta and the ragù; even the dessert, which benefits from an overnight rest in the refrigerator.
Do you have a favorite menu that you’ve devised and return to now and then (or often)? Tell us about it in the comments.
And now to the recipes…
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