Memories of Monticchiello con Risotto al Limone

Podere San Guisto

The Picky Eater's idea of heaven on earth is our friends' Ann & Pier Paolo's farmhouse in the Monteleone, about halfway between Pisa & Florence.

La Foce

Our last visit was in the summer of 2011, and one of our forays was a field trip to La Foce, the famous house and garden of the Anglo-American writer Iris Origo. (I highly recommend her autobiography, Images and Shadows: Part of a Life, which details her early years traveling the globe with her wealthy gypsy parents, her youth in Florence when her mother held court with the likes of Bernard Berenson, and the years of hard work she and her Italian husband spent reclaiming the impoverished lands and people that were La Foce.)

Montecchiello view

The daddy will be happy to tell you that any day trip with me in Spain, France or Italy always includes the obligatory two hour lunch, and this day was no different. As usual, we arrived our at destination just in time for lunch- at La Taverna di Moranda in the beautiful village of Montecchiello in the southern Tuscan region of Pienza. Not only is Montecchiello sited on a gorgeous hilltop with amazing views, it also has the best linen shop I have yet to encounter anywhere and a tiny altarpiece "Madonna con bambino" by Pietro Lorenzetti.

The Picky Eater ordered her standard pasta with tomato sauce but for some unknown reason (perhaps a desperate attempt on the chef's part to make it more interesting?) it tasted "too spicy" to her, and seeing her untouched plate, the chef's wife / hostess told us that her seven year old daughter loved it and didn't find it too spicy! Ann, a fellow vegetarian, ordered lemon risotto, which she liked very much and later tried to recreate at home using a recipe for lemon-asparagus risotto from Alice Water's The Simple Art of Food, without the asparagus, and with mixed results.

Ann & the Picky Eater trying to digest
 her spicy pasta 

Linen shop con gatto

Ann is here in Palo Alto visiting her father at the moment and last week we made another go at it. Please note that some hardy soul has to be prepared to wield a spoon and stir for almost all of the 17-20 minutes that it takes to cook the risotto to a creamy finish.

Here is the very delicious result of our experiments-

Amalgamated Lemon Risotto
(a distillation of 2 recipes- one from Patricia Wells' Trattoria 
& one from Nigella Lawson courtesy of the Food Network)

3 shallots, finely chopped
2 ribs of celery, small dice
6-7 cups of vegetable broth
3 Tb butter
2 Tb olive oil
2 cups Italian Arborio or Canaroli rice
1/2 c. white wine
1-2 Tb grated lemon zest
2-4 Tb fresh lemon juice
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, grated
Fresh ground pepper
Salt to taste

Optional:
1 egg yolk
4 Tb heavy cream
4 Tb grated Parmesan cheese

Ann stirring up a storm

In a large saucepan, heat the stock and keep it at a low simmer.

Melt 2 Tb of the butter and all the olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over moderate heat. Saute the shallots and celery until the shallots are soft and translucent, about 3 minutes, but do not let them brown. Add the rice and stir until it is well coated with the butter/oil mixture, glistening and semitranslucent, about 1-2 minutes. (Do not skip this step! It helps separate the grains of rice.)

When the rice is shiny, add a ladle of stock, and cook, stirring constantly, until the rice has absorbed most of the stock, which will take 1-2 minutes. Add additional ladlefuls of stock one at a time, stirring constantly, as each ladleful is absorbed. Adjust the heat if necessary to maintain a gentle simmer. Continue adding stock, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan. Taste the risotto regularly until the rice is almost tender but firm to the bite, about 17 minutes. The risotto should have a creamy, porridge-like consistency.

The delicious results!

Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the remaining tablespoon of butter, half of the lemon zest and half the lemon juice, and the Parmesan. Taste and increase the lemon zest and juice to the desired level of "lemony-ness," and add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve immediately.  Serves 4 to 6.

As an alternate finish, you can beat the egg yolk with the cream and Parmesan, and stir it into the risotto along with the lemon zest and juice. This makes for an even creamier and richer tasting risotto.

3 Italian Favorites (Restaurants, Not Tenors)

The Picky Eater is a HUGE fan of most foods Italiani, with the exceptions of eggplant, the usual meat-type products, gooey cheeses, peppers, etc. But, an Italian restaurant is by and large a safe bet for her, which is a great comfort to her parents.

We recently added a third jewel to the crown of favored local Italian eateries which are conveniently scattered along some of our frequently traveled paths - the newest is in San Francisco, the closest is in Redwood City, and the trendiest is in Carmel.

Located at Upper Grant at Vallejo in San Francisco's North Beach, a meal at Ideale (Eye-de-a-lay - correct pronunciation courtesy of Roberto S.) transports you for a meal at a neighborhood trattoria in Rome, and it is definitely well worth the sojourn. With mustard yellow walls, Italian apertif posters, bustling waiters with lovely Italian accents, and straightforward classic food, Ideale is just too much fun for foodies.

Calamari

On a recent Saturday evening the Picky Eater and family enjoyed a bountiful multi-course repast. Under the watchful eye of the P.E. the parents began with a half bottle or prosecco, calamari e rughetta (grilled calamari with arugala), and zucchine e tartufale, shreds of zucchini and parmesan tossed in truffle oil and accompanied by a crostini thickly spread with truffle paste.

While the Picky Eater waited expectantly for her pasta, we split a primo piatto of gnocci alla ricotta with ragu. Then it was on to the secondi piatti, heavenly homemade pasta with chanterelles for the Picky Eater, a perfectly medium rare bistecca for the mommy, and costoletto di vitello, grilled rack of veal chops. Those in the group who imbibe washed their meat down with an obscure (but tasty) Barolo. For the finish, a complimentary serving of tiramisu left us well sated as we rolled into a cab to head back to our Union Square hotel.
Ideale Restorante
1315 Grant Avenue (@ Vallejo)
San Francisco, CA
415-391-4129
Open daily for dinner. Reservations available through Open Table.

Our go to local restaurant is Donato Enoteca in downtown Redwood City, a neighborhood which has seen a renaissance in recent years as an alternative its overrun counterparts in Mountain View and Palo Alto. Donato's various dining areas offer the potential for three distinct environments. In nice weather you can dine alfresco on their pleasant patio. The front room and bar, with small tables cheek to jowl and a view of the kitchen,  offer the atmosphere of a lively trattoria. The dining rooms at the rear, decorated in dark wood and tapestries and with round tables seating 5 or more, evoke a more formal and leisurely experience. Likewise, the menu allows you to eat formally or informally, with a varied array of appetizers, homemade pastas, pizzas, and main courses.

Oxtail & asparagus pasta

Roasted chicken

But, we do have our favorites. Tops for the carnivores are the Bigoli e Coda, thick homemade spirals of pasta with a sauce of Nebbiolo braised oxtail and asparagus, and a recent addition to the menu, gnocchi with duck ragu.  These are succulent meaty  sauces, with a deep undertone of vino rosso, obviously slowly simmered for hours,  and nothing short of amazing.

The Picky Eater's regular go-to pasta is Foide ai Funghi, homemade buckwheat pasta with wild mushrooms. Actually, with so many delicious possibilities in each menu category, ordering here can be a challenge if you aren't up to a full three courses. Often our solution is to order, pass, and share antipasti like Bruschetta di Cinghale (pulled wild boar) and Fritto di Gamberetti e Sadano Rapa, fried rock shrimp and celery root. Then we might split an oxtail pasta and move on to the secondi- a whole grilled Bronzino fish, roasted chicken, or a thick Costoletta di Maiale, a pork "Porterhouse" steak. While their excellent desserts, gelatos, and sorbets may beckon, but we are usually so stuffed at this point that everyone demurs salvo per me, but I limit myself to a decaf Affrogato ordered off-menu, a decaf coffee with a scoop of vanilla gelato.

With Donato in easy striking distance of our wine locker, we usually bring our own. That said, Donato's wine list offers a wide selection of familiar Italian varietals, many available by the glass, carafe, or bottle.

We feel very lucky to have such a fabulous restaurant just minutes from our house, especially one that bears the seal of approval from my friend Roberto's Italian aunties!
Donato Enoteca
1041 Middlefield Road
Redwood City, CA
650-701-1000
Open daily starting @11:30. Reservations available through Open Table.

Cantinetta Luca is a regular stop on our annual visit(s) to the Monterey peninsula. Despite the clusters of older men in golf sweaters around the bar, this restaurant has a more trendy vibe than the previous two. Given the decibel level created by said gentlemen, we usually prefer to sit in the back room cum wine cellar.

Salume

It was in that room on one of our early visits that I first laid eyes on (and tasted) an actual timpano, which was being served to a large party of high rollers seated at the next table.. And what, may you ask, is a timpano? Made famous in the Stanley Tucci film Big Night (a must for lovers of Italian food, Louis Prima, or 1950's nostagia), a timpano is an enormous pasta timbale baked in a basin, which is filled with layers of sugo, cheeses, meatballs, salume, and pasta. To protect the innocent (me) and avoid embarassing my family, I cannot reveal the entire story of my role in the timpano tasting, but suffice to say it was both fun and delicious.

Octopus & potatoes

Pumpkin ravioli

Usually we opt for starters off the menu- grilled octopus with potatoes and Calabrese salame, roasted mussels, or the salume (proscuitto, speck, coppa, etc.) many of which are made in house.

The Picky Eater has been known to sigh over a plate of white truffle and wild mushroom risotto or pumpkin ravioli. With her arm wrapped protectively around her pasta dish to prevent poaching,  her parents then tuck into something carniverous. The Daddy has even been known to down an entire bistecca alla fioretina, as is traditional, large enough to hang over the sides of the platter by himself.

While The Mommy usually follows his lead, at Cantinetta Luca I occasionally head for the pesce side of the menu, and have enjoyed the prawns with fagioli and salsa verde, while snitching bites of beef from my spouse's plate.

A nice light plate of shrimp leave lots of room for dessert. the dolci menu at Cantinetta Luca offers some nice cheese options which are perfect with the remains of your bottle of Barolo or Dolcetto d'Alba, as well as a delicious seasonal selection of variations on traditional Italian desserts.
Just hope that your car or hotel room is not too long of a walk as you happily roll out the door!
Cantinetta Luca
Dolores Street between Ocean & 7th
Carmel, CA
831-625-6500
Dinner daily from 5:00 pm. Lunch Friday-Sunday 11:30-2:30.
Reservations available on Open Table.