Good Morning, everyone! I have a little confession... we cooked on Monday. (Ugh, I know, what the hell?) It's just that everyone ended up having Super Bowl parties to go to, so we figured, hey its a crock pot meal, let's just do it on Monday. And you know what? It can absolutely be a weeknight meal for anyone! (We'll go back to Sundays this weekend... promise.)
Cocktail - Angelo Azzurro
Okay, John found this recipe online. It's a classic Italian cocktail with gin, triple sec, and blue curacao. Very tasty. (Jenn and I watered it down a little with orange seltzer.)
Appetizer - Roasted Cauliflower and Caramelized Onion Flatbread
Okay, so originally we had a fabulous cauliflower souffle in mind - however, time wasn't on our side. (Don't worry... we'll make it soon.) So we opened up the fridge and winged it to fabulous results. We baked up some puff pastry and then brushed it with the garlic infused oil from Romanacci that we had last week. Then we topped it with caramelized onions, roasted cauliflower, and shaved parmesan cheese and baked it until golden. It was simple, it was tasty, it was delicious!
Entree - Osso Buco
You let something like this sit in a crock pot for 10 hours and try to tell me that you don't almost faint when walking in the door to the smell! Osso Buco is basically braised veal shanks. We picked up the shanks from Costco, followed the recipe (used beef stock, because that's all Jenn had), and it was perfection! Full of flavor, very little fat, and melt in your mouth! Perfect over the risotto!
Side Dish - Risotto
Okay, so maybe we got a little bold when we decided to wing risotto, but it worked! We sauteed up some onion in butter and then added 1.5 cups of arborio rice. After the rice toasted, we added about 3/4 cup white wine and let the wine cook out. Then we slowly added approximately 3-4 cups of warm beef broth. (Using up the broth from the osso buco... waste not, people.) After the rice had absorbed all the broth and was the perfect texture, we took off the heat, added a solid cup of grated parmesan cheese, about two tablespoons of butter, and a generous amount of salt and pepper. (We didn't have any saffron or fresh parsley in the house.) It was fantastic!
Final Plate
Wine - 2010 Monsecco Barbatasso Colinne Novaresi Vespolina
So this was sitting in the wine stockpile, and we figured what the heck - it's an Italian wine. It must go well with an Italian meal. Did this wine pack a punch! It had tons of spicy black pepper, earth and sandalwood with deep black cherry aromas. It had a great heaviness that complemented the light flavors of the entree and was just such a different flavor profile for us that we really enjoyed it.
Dessert - None
Eeek. I know. Epic fail. We were so full from dinner that we couldn't get around to figuring out a dessert. Original plans included homemade cannolis, but we were short on time. Those will be coming, too... promise!
Overall, a fantastic meal. This classic Italian dish ended up being very easy to make and fun to eat!
Next week - Chef Glenn
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