Menu - May 16
- Pan-roasted chicken with sweet sausages and peppers (p.20)
- Broccolini salad with burrata cheese (p. 144)
- Blueberry cobbler (p. 295)
We started out by making the Soffrito, a four-hour recipe (which we ended up putting off until really early on Sunday morning). The kitchen smelled amazing as the onions, tomatoes, and garlic slowly stewed together over the low, low heat.
Next was to put together the Peperonata Rustica, which is composed of roasted red and yellow peppers stewed with the soffrito. Again, another recipe that took 2 hours! We started out by roasting the peppers with olive oil and salt.
After roasting, we put the peppers in a covered pot so the skins would separate from the peppers. Then, the skins were hand-peeled from the peppers, which were combined with chicken stock and soffrito and cooked together so the flavors would coalesce into a sweet, delicious mixture.
Meanwhile, the chicken (cut from a whole chicken bought at the farmers market and brined for a few hours) was pan-roasted with the sweet sausages.
The meat was tucked into the peppers, and popped into the oven to warm and let the flavors combine for a few minutes...et voila! Pan-roasted chicken with sweet sausage and peppers!
The broccolini salad was a quick and easy. The broccolini was blanched and shocked while we used our mandolin to thinly slice the mushrooms and onions. We whipped up the sherry vinaigrette (though we really used red-wine vinegar) and tossed together the vegetables. We couldn't find burrata cheese, which is a pouch of fresh mozz with a center of creamy, rich cheese, so instead we subbed fresh ricotta cheese we picked up from Lucy's Whey in Chelsea Market at the recommendation of the cheesemonger. His love for the ricotta was a bit too evident as he described the pleasure the cheese would bring us.
For dessert, Miss Annie B made the Blueberry Cobbler. Since blueberries were still a little out of season, she subbed some of them out for blackberries and raspberries. The fruit was tossed with sugar, flour, and lemon zest and then topped with biscuit-like batter. They went into the oven, which the directions said would take 40 minutes, but ended up taking almost double that. The result was truly delicious!
Yuck or Yum
- Pan-roasted chicken with sweet sausages and peppers (p.20):
d- YUMMM! I've always loved sausage and peppers, so it wasn't surprising that this would be delicious. I'm not sure I would spend another 4 hours making the Soffrito from scratch...you can buy it in a jar, so that's what I would use next time.
h- I liked it a lot. It was tasty and I even liked the peppers! Not sure the time/money spent was ultimately worth it, but still a tasty dish.
annie- Yum. Really tasty and flavorful, loved the combo of the different types of peppers.
amy- yum yum yum. The chicken had a nice flavor from the pan, and was moist because it was finished in the oven. The combination of the chicken, sausage, and peppers accounted for a wonderful contrast of flavors that went very well together.
- Broccolini salad with burrata cheese (p. 144):
d- Sooo good. The cheese was delicious and creamy with just a hint of sweetness. The cheese really gave a nice creamy balance to the tartness of the vinaigrette and the slight bitterness of the broccolini.
h- The veggies themselves were really tasty, but together with the cheese the dish came together well.
annie- Yum. So good, didn't know I liked broccolini so much! The ricotta was a great complement.
amy- blanched to perfection :) Very crisp and fresh-tasting from the light dressing of olive oil and vinegar. The ricotta gave the broccolini a more complex flavor of added sweetness.
- Blueberry cobbler (p. 295):
d- simply delicious, especially paired with vanilla ice cream. I would have preferred the cake batter to be a little sweeter but this was still a winner!
h- awesome. a great way to usher in the summer season!
annie- Next time I would try making it in two smaller pans.
amy- Not overwhelmingly sweet in the best possible way. Perfect balance of berries, pastry, and vanilla ice cream!
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