Winter Nights Dinner

 

 

 

Roger joined us for dinner. The winter weather in Los Angeles was still cold and intermittently rainy.

Gerry and Nancie had sent us apples and pears and we used them in a great new salad from Sunday Supper at Lucques. Somehow we had missed this recipe in the cookbook. It is called: Barbara's apples and asian pears with radicchio, mint, and buttermilk dressing. The title essentially tells the recipe. We added candied walnuts and raisins to make it very much like a Waldorf Salad. It was delicious, fresh and crisp. This salad is a keeper!

For the main course we had one of our favorite pastas: Pasta with Lentil and Prosciutto Sauce from: Cucina Simpatica by Johanne Killeen and George Germon. I needed a small chunk of Prosciutto and when I asked to buy it The Cheese Store of Silverlake, Chris gave me a prosciutto bone with lots of meat left on it. We cut off what we needed for this pasta, This was the second use of the prosciutto he gave us, we had previously used some in the meatloaf we made last week. We still have some left, and plan to make a soup out of it.
The pasta is great. One thing I really like is that it is topped with chopped red onion rather than cheese.



Pasta with Lentil and Prosciutto Sauce
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From: Cucina Simpatica – Johanne Killeen and George Germon

Ask your butcher for an end piece of prosciutto. Usually these pieces are less expensive, and they are fine for this sauce.

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 stalk celery, diced
1 carrot, scraped and chopped
1 large onion (4 to 5 ounces), peeled and diced
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
One 3-ounce piece prosciutto or pancetta, chopped (1/2 cup packed)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
8 ounces (1 heaping cup) lentils ^
1 red onion
11/2 pounds imported spaghettini or linguine fini
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut up

1. Heat the olive oil in a small heavy stockpot and add the celery, carrot, diced onion, garlic, jalapeno, red pepper, prosciutto, and salt. Gently saute, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft and aromatic, 15 to 20 minutes.

2. Add the lentils and 5 cups of water, bring to a boil, and simmer until the lentils are soft but not mushy and falling apart, 18 to 22 minutes. The sauce may be completed to this point and chilled in the refrigerator until ready to use.

3. If you have refrigerated the sauce, heat it slowly over a low flame. Bring 5 quarts of salted water to a boil in another large pot, and chop the red onion for garnish.

4. When the lentil sauce is hot, drop the pasta in the water and boil until it is still quite firm, 4 to 5 minutes.

5. Drain the spaghettini in a colander, then add it to the sauce with the butter. Toss the pasta in the sauce for 1 to 2 minutes until al dente. Serve very hot, topped with the chopped red onion.

SERVES 6 AS A MAIN COURSE


Barbara's apples and asian pears with radicchio, mint, and buttermilk dressing
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1 xtra-large egg yolk
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
2 tablespoons finely diced shallot
1 to 2 lemons, for juicing
1/4 cup creme fraiche
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 apples, firm, crisp, and juicy
2 Asian pears
2 heads radicchio
2 tablespoons sliced mint
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper


When I was growing up, apples seemed so bland and boring—1 could never get excited about a mushy Red Delicious the way I could a summer peach. But today, thanks to small farmers around the country like Barbara and Bill Spencer of Windrose Farms, we have a lot more choices where apples are concerned, and a lot more to get excited about.

Determined to revive the disappearing heirlooms, the Spencers painstakingly planted more than forty varieties of apple trees on their farm in Paso Robles, Cali¬fornia. It took 6 years for the trees to produce, and that glorious fall, when Barbara turned up at the back door of Lucques with boxes and boxes of their impressive crop, I was blown away. The apples looked dazzlingly beautiful and tasted even better. From russeted emerald greens to mottled pinks to deep burgundy-blacks, we sampled our way through them all, picking our favorites and taking note of which were better raw and which were better cooked. Some of our favorites for eat¬ing out of hand were Braeburn, Arkansas Black, and Gernes Red Acre. Crisp, sweet, and tart, these revelatory fruits were the inspiration for this fall salad.

And if it's not enough that they're growing all these beautiful heirloom apples, Barbara and Bill also grow some of the best Asian pears I've ever tasted. Juicy and delicately perfumed, they're a fun surprise, sliced and tossed with the apples, buttermilk, mint, and radicchio in this thirst-quenching salad.

Place the egg yolk in a stainless steel bowl. Begin whisking in the grapeseed oil drop bv drop, as slowly as you can bear. Continue in this manner until the mixture begins to thicken. Once the mayonnaise has emulsified, you can add the rest of the oil in a slow steady stream, whisking all the time.

Combine the shallot, i tablespoon lemon juice, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small bowl, and let sit 5 minutes. Whisk in the creme fraiche and buttermilk. Gently whisk this mixture into the mayonnaise, and taste for balance and sea¬soning.

Slice the apples and Asian pears away from the core. Cut into 1/8-inch thick slices and place them in a large salad bowl. Tear the radicchio into large bite-sized pieces and add to the bowl. Toss the salad with three-quarters of the dressing, and season with salt and pepper. Add a squeeze of lemon and a little more of the dressing if necessary.

Transfer to a large chilled platter and scatter the mint and parsley over the top.