Jan & John Maggs

Antiques and Art

New Year’s Eve, 2022 -- An Italian Feast for two

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For more than a decade we’ve greeted each new year with a festive dinner for two, seizing the opportunity to explore new recipes, while savoring old favorites. This year we decided to prepare a five-course dinner featuring dishes found in one of our favorite cookbooks, Saveur Cooks Authentic Italian. While many of the recipes are found within the pages of this book, our dessert is based upon the recipe provided by our favorite Italian chef/teacher, Marcella Hazan.

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The Menu

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Italian cold cuts

Bruschetta with olive tapenade

  

We’ve not yet attempted to cure meats, so our sopressata, bresaola, and sweet coppa were purchased from a fine local market, as was the bread for our bruschetta. The tapenade recipe comes from a tiny cookbook Jan found in a Northampton shop decades ago, and the slices of bread produced an unanticipated litter of baby bunnies.

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Ribollita

We’ve eaten ribollita in Florence many times, but this was the first time we’ve made this Tuscan twice-cooked bread soup. It’s full of beans and leafy vegetables, and our first attempt turned out to be quite delicious.

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Mandilli de Saea al Pesto

The recipe for this fine pasta dish – “Silk Handkerchiefs with Pesto” – comes from a restaurant in Genoa. It had been a while since we made pasta, so the relatively large squares simplified the task. We made the pesto on Thursday, so it had plenty of time to develop its complex flavor. Yum!

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Veal Saltimbocca alla Marsala

Puréed swede

Steamed broccolini

After first tasting this wonderful dish at a small Italian restaurant in Pittsfield, we searched our library for a recipe that measured up. This special New Year’s version begins with leg cutlets, pounded thin and dressed with sage leaves and a single thin slice of prosciutto, then lightly seared in olive oil and butter. A pan sauce of Marsala, mushrooms, and minced shallot guarantees that the meat will really “jump to the mouth.” We’d never pureed yellow turnip before, but it made a delightful base for the dish. The brocollini were dressed with fine Tuscan olive oil and coarse salt.

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Panna Cotta

As easy to make as it is to eat, this delicious dessert of “cooked cream” is always a treat.

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Leffe blonde and Leffe braun abbey ales

Duvel Blonde Ale

Spencer Brewery Holiday Ale

We’ve had some fine Italian craft ales in Europe, but few have made it to this country. So, instead of accompanying our meal with Moretti, Peroni, and the like, we decided to source our ales from Belgium. We began with Leffe, the Belgian abbey ales most popular in America. Of the two, Leffe braun is Jan’s favorite, but, being a proper gentleman, I prefer the blonde. Duvel 6.66 Ale is another family favorite and, being slightly drier, was well-suited to our main course. The monks of St. Joseph’s Abbey in nearby Spencer, Massachusetts have been the only brewers in the US licenced to brew the classic Belgian Trappist beers. Sadly, they have decided to close their brewery, so this delicious holiday offering was probably our last from this unique American source. 

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We hope you’ve enjoyed our little celebration. We wish all a very happy, healthy, and peace-filled new year.

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