La Festa di San Giuseppe (pappardelle&polpette)

La Festa di San Giuseppe

Zeppole
Pappardelle al sugo di porcini
Polpette d’agnello

Since Saint Joseph’s Day fell on a Sunday, there was no need to fast and so we didn’t. Rather, we celebrated with a couple of nice meals, the first of which was comprised of some perfectly sliced imported prosciutto and some fresh mozzarella (di mucca) from Conte di Savoia, a couple of kinds of Greek olives from Athens Market and some fresh Italian bread. We also got a couple of zeppole, the Neapolitan and more generally Southern Italian sweet treat that is traditionally enjoyed on the feast day of Saint Joseph.

Zeppole from Ferrara’s (Taylor by Ogden).


The evening meal was simple and restrained but sufficiently festive for the occasion. As a sort of joke, inspired by the recent discussion of Il Mulino, I made pappardelle and meatballs, though in the end I didn’t care to make this an upscale version of American spaghetti and meatballs. Instead, the pappardelle I made as a primo with a sauce of a little tomato and porcini mushrooms, and the meatballs followed independently as a secondo, sans any sauce.

Some of the ingredients:



The sauce was made with garlic and parsley in olive oil, with a chopped tomato added. I added a little passata di pomodoro to extend and thicken the sauce and let that cook a little before adding the soaking liquid from the dried porcini, as well as the porcini themselves, cut in small pieces. The sauce, which I wanted to be tight and not voluminous, was intentionally reduced to a considerable degree through the cooking. Fresh sage was added at the very end.

Early in the cooking process.



After considerable reduction.


As can be seen here, the overall amount of sauce was – as it should be, especially with sauces of this sort – quite restrained.


The meatballs were made with ground lamb, some old whole wheat bread, parsley, egg, a touch of garlic, nutmeg, pecorino, salt and pepper.


Here they are after having been fried in olive oil.


The pappardelle were finished at table with a little freshly grated pecorino and, between the consistency of the noodles and the intensity of the flavour of the sauce, this was a very satisfying little plate of pasta.


We had these polpette d’agnello with a squeeze of lemon and alongside some salad and bread.


The very mild flavour of lamb in the meatballs is nicely complemented by the delicate seasoning of this recipe.


E acussì ci simmo magnato buon.

Antonius



Links to other recipes and cooking notes by this writer: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=55649#55649

Madonna mia! If these scrumptious pictures and mouth-watering descriptions keep up, I'm going to need to turn on my Antonius filter. It's gotten so that there is no sooner a new post from Antonius than all work stops at my desk and my colleagues want to know why they can hear my stomach rumbling. The computer tech is tired of my drooling into the keyboard. My wife is tired of "let's do what Antonius did."

Thank you, Fra Antonio, for yet another delicious post. May the food gods continue to smile on your endeavors.

Gypsy Boy wrote:Madonna mia! If these scrumptious pictures and mouth-watering descriptions keep up, I'm going to need to turn on my Antonius filter. It's gotten so that there is no sooner a new post from Antonius than all work stops at my desk and my colleagues want to know why they can hear my stomach rumbling. The computer tech is tired of my drooling into the keyboard. My wife is tired of "let's do what Antonius did."

Thank you, Fra Antonio, for yet another delicious post. May the food gods continue to smile on your endeavors.

Many, many thanks for all the kind words! Maybe we should organise a Pan-Romance feast... dishes from Romania and Italy and all the rest of the Romance-speaking lands...

Time to make sacrifice and pour libations to the Gods!

A

Maybe we should organise a Pan-Romance feast... dishes from Romania and Italy and all the rest of the Romance-speaking lands...

Now THERE is an idea I could sink my teeth into! What a wonderful idea...so many foods, so much choice, so much...yummm!