MARE VERDE
(number 72. may.)
This spring was a hard one for me. I was experiencing an excess of stress in my usually very fun daily work. I wanted to get back some of the fun missing from my days by cooking a feast, a no-holding-back celebration! Vibrant green vegetables of spring + “fish that is either too expensive or too much work to cook under normal circumstances” was the pairing, through an Italian lens. A look at some ingredients full of simple goodness as the color returns to the fields.
It seems like whenever we cook Italian food it is in late summer, with the tomatoes and eggplants and basil free flowing in the garden. Thinking about doing an Italian dinner in the spring, it was great fun to dive back into some old favorite books for inspiration. Angela Hartnett’s Cucina (Angela Hartnett), Bocca (Jacob Kennedy), Polpo, Venice: Four Seasons (Russell Norman), Five Quarters, Two Kitchens (Rachel Roddy)…these are titles from a section of my cookbook shelf that is “English people cooking Italian food and writing about it eloquently.” Russell Norman, whose restaurant Polpo we did an homage to in 2015, was a particular source of inspiration. Since the Polpo dinner I’ve had the chance to meet and share a handful of meals with him. I am inspired by the way he runs his business, the way he approaches the cuisine he’s celebrating, and the way he writes about it. I think a lot of that inspiration made it into these dishes.
We are very grateful to our hosts, Jen and John Vitale, for inviting us into their beautiful house. They helped out so much with the mechanics of setting up the dining situation, getting grills going in the backyard, making new surfaces for us to stage food, lending kitchen pieces for serving and cooking, DJing from their excellent record collection…we are very lucky to have come to know them! Please check out Jen’s work at Association Studio and John’s at The Killing Floor Skateboards. Sammy the dog doesn’t have a website, but if he did, we’d send you there too.
1:
Raab, anchovy, bread
A crusty white bread with 80% biga (essentially a mostly-prefermented mess of dough, shaped into loaves and baked off, with a rustic yet also oddly elegant result). Gentle treatment of raab, briefly blanched, dressed with olive oil and lemon. House marinated anchovies (salt-packed large anchovies de-boned, stripped, soaked, and marinated in very good Sicilian olive oil).
2:
Grilled prawns and vignole
We got these absurd and amazing jumbo head-on prawns from Hawaii that Lucas marinated in a secret spice/olive oil marinade, then grilled on the outdoor grill about 2 minutes before they were served. Most of the prawns had a pocket of roe you could drink up like some magic nectar. They sat atop vignole, a traditional dish of spring onions, peas, herbs, and tender lettuces blanched and then cooked lightly in butter with a touch of wine vinegar.
3:
Young greens with fresh cheese & agro dolce spring onions
Lettuces, sorrel, and arugula from The Whiskey Farm in a simple shallot vinaigrette made with very good vinegar and olive oil. We made a batch of fresh ricotta using the milk used to soak the salt cod for the salt cod tortelli, then mixed it with fresh goat’s cheese, to make a lovely and mysterious fresh cheese experience. Both were served alongside spring onions treated in a remarkably delicious way. Kept whole and gently cooked with olive oil, butter, sugar, salt, and red wine vinegar until sticky and nearly falling apart. Eaten at room temperature. Explosive flavor.
4:
Polpo salad with greens & new potatoes
Tender, gently poached octopus (it is cooked with a loaded bouquet garni and vegetables) served with small purple potatoes dressed in gassy olive oil, with ribbons of greens from the Whiskey Farm dressed with lemon. Flaky salt and pepper to finish and nothin’ more.
5:
Burrida (clam and monkfish soup with leeks, fennel, asparagus)
Fish stock made using the heads and bones of many fish from previous Secret Restaurant dinners. Gentle ringlets of leeks and boomerangs of fennel, tender tops and diagonally cut stems of asparagus. Fresh clams and bite sized pieces of monkfish, a kiss of parsley at the end.
6:
Nettle tortelli with salt cod and nettle pesto
Our classic nettle pasta (we’ve done this almost every spring since 2011, and we don’t imagine ever *not* doing it) made into rustic tortelli pillows, filled with a mixture of salt cod and nettle pesto. Served in a bath of melted butter, a touch of good wine vinegar, more nettle pesto, and grana padano. And yes, Lucas and I foraged all the nettles from the same secret spot we’ve been getting them every year, and processed them in the backyard wearing silly science gloves.
7:
Spumoni
Lucas can be brilliant with ice creams. I had the fantasy of making some take on spumoni, after a visit to my hometown where I ate at my favorite old school Italian restaurant (where, as a child, I would sometimes get a scoop of spumoni for dessert). He made this fantasy come to life, with a healthy dose of thanks to Lindsey Shear’s incredible ‘Chez Panisse Desserts’ book. We made our spumoni by layering the 3 flavors in our long loaf pan and serving it in long slice. Instead of Cherry, Chocolate, and Pistachio we used strawberry + hibiscus for pink– Pumpkin seed + cardamom for green – and Amaro for brown.
WINE
Mani di luna, il Baratto, Umbria, 2017
Croci Lubigo, Venti Decici, Liguria, 2017
Progetto Calcarius, Puglia, 2017
Ciro Picariello, Hpinia, Campania, 2017
Wines were selected by Andrew in collaboration with Victor at Ardor Natural Wines, presented in this order. They were all minerally and delightfully acidic white wines, with the exception of the Croci Lubigo, which was a funky sparkling orange that everyone drank with gusto.
A shout out, as always, to Will Boal, our 3rd cook and secret glue that holds Secret Restaurant together. Also to Holly Myers for taking such excellent photos and lending a kitchen hand at the same time!
