{"id":14596,"date":"2017-11-18T01:59:53","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T01:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=14596"},"modified":"2017-11-18T01:59:53","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T01:59:53","slug":"costolette-dagnello-a-scottadito-con-inguazato-mizuma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=14596","title":{"rendered":"costolette d’agnello a scottadito con inguazato; mizuma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thursday’s meal started with some really luscious inguazato (basically\u00a0a tomato couscous with capers, chilis, and green olives) left over from an earlier meal<\/a>. We both thought that a grilled meat might\u00a0give\u00a0it a fresh take the second time around.\u00a0 Then I thought of\u00a0a Roman dish that had always sounded intriguing,\u00a0but had so far eluded me:\u00a0lamb chops scottadito. <\/em>The problem\u00a0<\/em>had always been finding chops thin enough for the authentic experience (about one centimeter, or less than a quarter of an inch thick), since so many prosperous Americans have long been accustomed to thick chops, lamb or otherwise, and that’s all that can be found today, even among the meats offered by local farmers in the Greenmarket.<\/p>\n

That day I was headed that day for Ottomanelli’s<\/a> anyway, to order a wild hare for Thanksgiving dinner, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask our local – and very traditional – master Italian butchers\u00a0to cut some chops exactly for ‘costolette d’agnello a scottadito<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>last night\u00a0con inguazato.<\/em><\/p>\n

My inspiration was Lorenza de’ Medici<\/a>‘s simple outline\u00a0inside her beautiful book,\u00a0‘Italy the Beautiful Cookbook<\/a>‘.<\/p>\n

The tradition would be to use rib<\/em> chops,\u00a0as they would be juicier than loin chops, less likely to dry out while cooking on a hot grill (or grill pan<\/em> in my case), and\u00a0because they would be\u00a0easier for the diners\u00a0to pick up, although\u00a0risking the ‘burned fingers’ of the dish’s title, but Frank left a good amount of fat on each, and we were expecting to eat with knives and forks anyway.<\/p>\n

I resisted the temptation\u00a0to add something, an herb or a spice, to the lamb, because\u00a0I wanted the dish to be authentic, and the taste of\u00a0some very good lamb to be fully appreciated. It all worked, and the dish was delicious, but I might not be so restrained the next time.<\/p>\n