Friday, June 13, 2008

Italian sans tomato

This one is from the archives, as you can see it was taken on our $10 Ikea plastic table that doubled for dinning table at our old shoe box, ahem, place.
If you've been following the news you've surely seen the recent outbreak of salmonella due to---of all things holy---tomatoes. And in an ever unsurprising response to such news what do American tomato growers do? Why, they send them to Mexico, of course. Sorry, I'm not going to get on my soapbox but I will say that if we were all able to eat locally grown food this kind of thing would not be such a big deal.

Back to the task at hand. My favorite food, before the bizarro pregnant aversion to chicken set in around month 2, was stuffed chicken. I do a fake out stuffed chicken where I really just slice the breast in half, stuff in the selected fillings and use a toothpick to hide the evidence!

So easy and so delicious, this is my version of Chicken Saltimbocca over creamy corn risotto:


My favorite little Italian restaurant in Soho was recently rendered obsolete. (e.g., like us they could no longer afford the rents in our fine city and were told to take a hike). This took such a shock on my palate that I think my heart missed a beat when in the window I read a handwritten sign proclaiming:

"Thank you for your patronage for the past 25 years, it has been our pleasure to serve you"

The end of an era, and my most beloved dish, the saltimbocca. That plate full of papardelle nooddles smothered in sliced mushrooms with sauteed proscuitto, sage, and chicken, swimming in a light marsala type sauce of pure heaven. My only hope is that they might open an outpost here in Brooklyn, fat chance, but a girl can dream.

My version is much simpler than the amazing original. I don't dare replicate it for fear of utter failure. But this saltimbocca has all the key ingredients with a few small surprises and sits beautifully on a pile of creamy risotto when I haven't had time to roll out some homemade papardelle, HA!

(Follow the link under the photo for the recipe if you are so inclined. And no, it's not kosher!)

8 comments:

ChefSara said...

I miss tomatoes!! Fortunately, we're supposed to get some in our CSA bag next week (salmonella free). If you're over your poultry aversion, I have a recipe for chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes on my blog...one of my all-time faves!!

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

Greetings Lindsay! It's good to see you back online again.

I love Baby P's in utero portrait - yes, technology really is amazing these days!

Welcome back.

Amanda Jean said...

I have made chicken cordon bleu without beating the chicken into a thin pancake, instead I just pile the fillings as a topping, (then drench it with hollandaise sauce. you really can't go wrong!) I'll have to try your sneaky method next time of slicing and filling instead.

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Katie Zeller said...

A voice from the past...
I', on my laptop, being in the middle of moving house - with no relief in sight, so I don't have your email address. I hope you get this. I have had a request for a 2nd edition of Season's Eatings. I know that you probably have your hands quite full with more important things now (Judah, - cutie) but I said yes and will handle it all myself this year. I'm planning on doing a post, with a bit about your new addition and announcing this year's event. If you would like to add anything, have me not write about you, participate, whatever, please let me know....
And I hope your life, with your little guy is settling back down so can have a wonderful holiday!
Cheers, Katie
thyme2(dot)kate(at)gmail.com

MrSound said...

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John said...

It looks very goods
I'll definitely to come back to your blog again.
www.ahacook.com

Unknown said...

Hope all is well with you and family! It has been about a year since you posted. Will you post about the home made baby food?