Dgourmac's Blog

Last week was a good time to prepare a few old favorites, some with a new twist.

For example, I bought some Countneck clams and tried an approach from Al Forno (both the restaurant and the cookbook). This variation called for cooking the clams and accompanying vegetables in a very hot oven, 500° F. It took longer than expected, but the flavors were good and the colors were appealing.

Another lunch featured a few of my favorite radicchios in a salad, washed down with a glass of Birichino Vin Gris, a good match.

To fill out that meal I also made a small recipe of Caponata (Romagnolis-style), which is always delicious and healthy.

Barbara made a lovely diverse salad for dinner another night, with lettuces, carrots, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, scallions, celery, parsley, and steamed artichokes. No photos here, but it felt French enough for me to open a 2016 bottle of Saumur Rouge — always a delightful treat in a Parisian bistro.

I dedicate this post to Victor Hazan, my inspiration for the beauties of Italian wine, and the mentor who enabled so much of Marcella Hazan’s marvelous contributions to our understanding of great Italian cucina.

My visit to the fish store in Cambridge early in the week was very productive. I bought fresh swordfish, countneck clams, Maine mussels, a frozen 2-lb. bag of Ez-peel shrimp, and a gorgeous halibut steak — almost 2″ thick. This post is all about the halibut, and the accompanying wine — Soave.

I decided to make dinner because Barbara was out most of the day, and she had a meeting to go to after dinner, so it was easy for me to make what I wanted. A quick search of my favorite halibut recipes produced this one:

The recipe was designed for 4 people, so I cut everything in half (including the thick chunk of halibut), which was perfect for us. What I love about this recipe is the gentle braising of the fish and the rich flavors of the butter, leek, and mustard, sautéeing in my copper pot.

It was an easy meal to put together. Cook the fish, boil green beans, reheat leftover whole wheat orzo, flavored with chopped plum tomato and fresh basil. To make things a little more exciting, I chose to add a few Medjool dates I just received from California, which I wrapped in bacon and roasted in a hot oven until crisp.

Having just been to Social Wines in Southie, I had a new bottle of my favorite Soave, a 2020 Inama Soave Classico, which was just right for the recipe and the resulting dinner. However, what made this the most fun was my short exploration after dinner, to see what Victor Hazan had to say about Soave. Here are two short excerpts from his book that say it all so beautifully and gave me much pleasure after the meal. Grazie mille, Victor!

We have a new fish supplier who delivers excellent fresh fish to customers, using a local apple orchard store as a drop off location on Thursdays. Best of all, it’s a mile and a quarter from our house. Today was my first pickup. The choice for tonight’s dinner was halibut.

We have dozens of ways to prepare halibut, but tonight I was looking for a simple preparation. I decided to grill it, since this was one of the few days above freezing in the past week. The other reason is that my wife is easily distressed by cooking smells, so using the gas grill on our porch is a good way to keep the fish smells out of the house.

My CFO (Chief Fish Officer), Chris, had taught me the best way to grill halibut and keep it moist at the same time. I rubbed a little lemon juice on the fish, sprinkled it with Kosher salt and ground pepper, and then smeared a thin layer of a mixture of mayonnaise and Dijon mustard on the side without the skin. After preheating the grill on high heat, I placed the fish with the mayonnaise/mustard on the grill, and then turned it once, when the first side was done.

Another important step was to find an exciting potato dish to accompany the fish. Looking for something brand new to me, I searched Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and I discovered a recipe of hers I had never seen before: Baked potatoes, onions, and tomatoes – Apulian style. It was a perfect way to use a bunch of cherry tomatoes that were getting over-ripe, and it added flavor and color to the meal. I particularly enjoyed the surprise of seeing a recipe from Puglia, in the South of Italy — not a region featured often in Marcella’s many great cookbooks.

The last step was to select the right vegetables for the plate. Zucchini? Carrots? No…I decided on frozen peas. The bright color and sweetness was just the right partner here.

The meal was preceded by bowls of Leek and Potato Soup, finished with Maras pepper flakes and extra virgin olive oil.

The wine was from even further south, Sicily. It was a Valenti l’innesto, a white wine made from red grapes — Nerello Mascalese. Imported by Mucci Wines, and perfectly delicious.