Search for speck - 43 results found

speck; spicy lobster tomato spaghetti; cheese; cheese cake

It was St. Valentine’s Day, so there was a lot of red, -ish.

The antipasto was created elsewhere, although assembled in our kitchen.

  • five or 6 ounces of thinly-sliced Recla Speck Alto Adige IGP, from Bolzano, purchased at Eataly, drizzled lightly with a very good Sicilian olive oil, from from Agricento, Azienda Agricola Mandranova (exclusively Nocellara olives), arranged on a fan of sorrel leaves from Two Guys from Woodbridge, sprinkled with Maldon salt and freshly-gorund black pepper, also drizzled with the Sicilian olive oil
  • slices of a rustic whole loaf of bread which included both potato and oregano, from Eataly

The pasta course was also dominated by goodies from Eataly, since that afternoon I had neither the time nor the energy to wander any further abroad for ingredients. The dish was based on an Epicurious recipe I found on line once I returned home, which I then proceeded to halve for just the two of us.

  • I added a little cognac just before introducing the tomatoes to the pan, and then turned the heat up high to evaporate its alcohol, but otherwise I made almost no changes to the recipe; the ingredients included approximately 9 ounces of fresh spaghetti pasta from Luca Donofrio‘s fresh pasta shop inside Eataly’s Flatiron store,   sea salt, Portuguese olive oil from Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’, half of a shallot from Norwich Meadows Farm, half of a teaspoon of crushed dried pepperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, 9 ounces of  ripe Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market, just under half a pound of picked cooked lobster meat (almost entirely claw meat) from Eataly, freshly ground black pepper, half a teaspoon of zest from an organic Whole Foods Market lemon, garnished with parsley from Whole Foods Market, with lemon wedges served on the side once the pasta had been placed on the table

There was a small cheese course that featured absolutely nothing red-ish.

  • ‘Mammuth’ goat cheese from Ardith Mae
  • toasted slices of a loaf of French sourdough, ‘Levain’, from Bread Alone

 

The sweet was put off until the next day (I had actually forgotten to serve it), but I still want to include it here.

  • two heart-shaped chocolate cheese cakes with a raspberry froufrou on top that had been sprinkled with sugary glitter

Speck; shrimp, chipotle, habanada, saffron, cumin; tomato

I had learned from the Union Square Greenmarket app that there would be no fish sellers there Saturday (almost certainly because of the extreme cold), but I figured if I got there early enough, I might still be able to buy some local (Newburgh, an indoor aquaculture farm) shrimp for dinner that day.  I also had to pick up some fresh vegetables for meals over the next 3 days, so the walk in the bitter cold and snow was going to be worth it anyway.

I was lucky with the entrée search, and came home with some”colossals”, just about the last of Jean Claude’s stock that day.

The first course, dominated by slices of an Italian smoked ham, made the meal something of an odd surf ‘n turf event, but the fact that there was also a strong smoky aroma and taste in the main course (a  smoked pepper) brought it all together.

  • five or 6 ounces of thinly-sliced Recla Speck Alto Adige IGP, from Bolzano, purchased at Eataly, drizzled lightly with a very good Sicilian olive oil, from from Agricento, Azienda Agricola Mandranova (exclusively Nocellara olives)
  • a few leaves of ‘baby Romano’ (oak leaf speckled lettuce) from Eckerton Hill Farm dressed with the same olive oil, Maldon salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
  • slices of a buckwheat baguette from Runner & Stone Bakery

The Speck was followed by a plate of the shrimp and a side of tomatoes and baby leek.

I prepared the shrimp in the same way I had for the 2 years I’ve been enjoying ECO Shrimp Garden’s harvests.

  • one teaspoon of chopped Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm, heated inside a heavy (13 1/2″) cast iron pan over a very low flame until the garlic had colored nicely, a pinch of Spanish saffron, pieces of one dried chipotle pepper from Northshire Farms in the Union Square Greenmarket (I have always used a whole one, but this time tried the broken pieces of one of the peppers in the package), one crushed section of a dried orange-gold habanada pepper, and a teaspoon of freshly-ground dried cumin seed from Eataly added, all of it stirred for a minute or two, then 15 ounces (10 count) of Hudson Valley farmed ‘colossal’ shrimp from Eco Shrimp Garden (that I had cut the length of their backs, from head to tail, for ease of shelling later, added, seasoned with salt and pepper, the heat brought up a bit, and the shrimp cooked until firm while turned twice [they were delicious, but  slightly overcooked, probably because I had overcompensated for their larger-than-normal size], served with a generous squeeze of lemon, garnished on the plates with chopped parlsley from S. & S.O. Produce and micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge [the micro green touch was my own, after completing Mark Bittman’s terrific recipe, and may seem like overkill, but they worked with the other flavors, and look pretty good]

NOTE: There was more than enough sauce in the end, so I gathered what I wasn’t going to use, allowed it to cool a bit, and swirled it into a couple tablespoons of softened butter, to use as a flavored butter in some future meal.

  • one Japanese scallion from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed, dried, sliced lengthwise, then halved, cooked in heated olive oil until wilted, 6 Maine Backyard Farms ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market, halved, slipped into the pan and heated briefly, then a generous amount of chopped thyme from Stoke’s Farm, some sea salt, and black pepper added and stirred into the vegetables, served with a little more of the chopped thyme

speck, dandelion; pasta, cabbage, garlic, anchovy, chilis

It was the third time I had prepared this pasta dish, but the first time that I had introduced it with an antipasto.

  • thinly-sliced Speck from the Südtirol/Alto Adige, via Eataly, drizzled with a fine Puglian olive oil (Alce Nero biologico DOP ‘Terra di Bari Bitonto) from Eataly, served with red dandelion leaves from Norwich Meadows Farm dressed lightly with some of the same oil, plus Maldon salt, freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, and a little juice from an organic lemon from Whole Foods, then sprinkled with petals of nasturtium flowers from Windfall Farms
  • slices of a multigrain baguette made with unbleached wheat flour, whole wheat dark rye, white starter, honey, sugar, and a grain mix (millet, sunflower, coarse rye, oats, flax seed, sesame), from She Wolf Bakery

I used Mark Bittman’s recipe for the pasta, following it pretty much to the letter, although I reduced its proportions by 50%. I used a very different pasta from the one he indicates, and I finished it with lovage rather than parsley, mostly because my supply of the former was fresher than that of the latter.

  • the ingredients for the pasta dish were 8 ounces of emmer reginetti from Sfoglini Pasta Shop in the Union Square Greenmarket; 2 organic garlic cloves from Norwich Meadows Farm; 2 canned salted anchovies, rinsed, from Buon Italia; one and a half small dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia; 2 Italian bay leaves from Buon Italia; a 12 ounce Savoy cabbage from Norwich Meadows Farm; and a couple tablespoons of lovage from Keith’s Farm

 

speck with arugula, bread; ‘spaghetti with rubies’ (beetroot)

I’ve prepared this wonderful dish several times before, and at least once since initiating this food blog, and it never fails to dazzle me, visually as well as tastily. It’s perfect: it cannot be made more complicated, or improved. It’s Michele Scicolone‘s “Spaghetti with Rubies”, and I don’t know of an entrée which better shows off the beauty of the red beet.

There’s another thing going for it: Theater. Each time I make it, even I will forget that it’s going to happen, until it does so once again: It’s an amazing experience to watch the very neutral shade of cooked pasta gradually take on color as the beets are stirred into the mix, and then suddenly it ends up a solid ruby red.

  • eight ounces of beetroot, most of them from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, a few from Alex’s Tomato Farm (the latter in Chelsea’s Down to Earth Market), roasted in a 400º oven for about an hour while wrapped in tin foil, cooled, peeled, then roughly chopped, tossed, and heated inside a large enameled cast iron pot in which 2 cloves of chopped garlic from from Norwich Meadows Farm and part of a dried Sicilian pepperoncino from Buon Italia, crushed, had been warmed in olive oil until fragrant, followed by 8 ounces of Afeltra spaghetti, from Buon Italia, cooked al dente and drained, the whole then warmed, stirring, along with some of the pasta cooking water, until the spaghetti had turned an even deep ruby red

There had been an antipasto.

  • three ounces of La Quercia ’Speck Americano’ from Whole Foods, drizzled with a very small amount of Alce Nero DOP ‘Terra di Bari Bitonto from Eataly, and accompanied by arugula from Stoke’s Farm, the greens seasoned with Maldon salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, and dressed with the same good oil and a squeeze of organic lemon from Whole Foods Market
  • slices from a quarter section of a Balthazar rye boule purchased at Schaller & Weber

 

spaghetti alio e olio pepperoncino; preceduto da speck

A remarkably delicious meal for one so simple and easy to put together, which was the reason for my picking it last night.

It’s a classic in our home, and there’s also this equally-classic version which skips the anchovies. But it seems I hadn’t served either in some time.

  • while the water for boiling 8 ounces of Afeltra spaghetti chitarra from Buon Italia was being readied in a large stainless pasta pot, 3 large garlic cloves, coarsely-chopped, were heated over a low-medium flame inside a large enameled cast iron pot until they had begun to soften and turn golden, after which 2 salted anchovies, rinsed thoroughly, filleted, and roughly chopped, were added and stirred until they had broken up, followed by part of a dried Sicilian pepperoncino from Buon Italia, crushed, a tablespoon or two of roughly-chopped parsley from Phillips Farm and about a quarter cup of the pasta cooking water, the mix then allowed to simmer and reduce slightly while the pasta finished cooking (to be removed from the pot after only about 4 minutes, while still a little chewy in the center), at which time the spaghetti was drained, tossed into the pot with the sauce, and, the heat turned up slightly, everything cooked, stirring, for another minute or two, then arranged in 2 shallow bowls, another tablespoon or two of parsley sprinkled on top of each

There had been an antipasto. I didn’t photograph it however because, still distracted by a bad cold, I hadn’t made it look pretty enough on the plates. This is what the Speck should have looked like, but it still tasted absolutely delicious.

  • three ounces of La Quercia’s always wonderful ‘Speck Americano’ from Whole Foods Market, drizzled with a very good olive oil (Alce Nero DOP ‘Terra di Bari Bitonto’, from Eataly), served with a lightly-dressed salad of purple lettuce from Norwich Meadows Farm combined with arugula from Lani’s Farm, accompanied by slices of Orwasher’s ‘Grain Bread’ (8 whole grains and honey) from the 23rd Street Saturday greenmarket