Yes, these are the first two tomatoes to ripen in our garden this summer and it’s already late-August! The weather was pretty unseasonable this spring, cold and rainy. I started the vegetable seeds inside under grow-lights on March 15 and when I planted them outside in the garden two months later, the tomato plants were only about three inches tall. On May 23, a week after we arrived in Italy, I saw that the low was 30 degrees—thought the plants would all be toast, but most of them made it. When we arrived back in Reno on June 7 though, everything looked pathetic and it took more than a month for things to really get growing.

Everything is in full swing now, however. Here’s the garden today; on the bottom left, Padron peppers and eggplant, middle, squash and beans, the rest are all heirloom tomato plants, thirty-three of them.

These beauties will go into one of my favorite sandwiches, made with lettuce, tomatoes, and hummus. The one I made today featured Trader Joe’s Mediterranean Hummus, butter lettuce, and the toms, on sourdough bread—messy, but delish!

Last week, Vicki and I spent a couple of days in Sonoma County, one of our very favorite areas. Originally this was a business trip for Vicki, but her Thursday appointment cancelled, giving us a free day. The trip was quite a whirlwind—we managed to pack in a great deal of good dining, shopping, and other fun in about thirty-six hours.

 We arrived at our Santa Rosa Hotel on Wednesday evening and immediately started looking for a place to have dinner. I have a Yelp iPhone app that lists restaurants nearby, so we chose Monti’s Rotisserie and Bar, just a 5 minute drive away. Located in an upscale shopping center, the restaurant has a large open floor plan, but enough dividers to also give diners some privacy. The menu is substantial and wide ranging, everything from pizza to sandwiches, house-made charcuterie, fish and meats. Having a hard time making up our minds we ended up with a cornucopia—flavorful Calamari Frito Misto, Kumomoto oysters, and Crab Stuffed Deviled eggs started us off, followed by my Spit Roasted Fulton Valley Farms Chicken with sautéed spinach, pine nuts, and preserved lemon, and Vicki’s Spinach and Shrimp Salad with bacon, goat cheese, dates, almonds, and pancetta vinaigrette. Well-prepared, with great flavors, it was a fabulous meal to start us off on our Sonoma adventure.
 

Next morning we awoke to the wonderful chill of foggy skies, Northern California’s natural air conditioning. We headed out early for Dierk’s Parkside Café, touted as one of Santa Rosa’s best breakfast places. Dierk’s has all the usual egg dishes and a few surprises like Sonoma Duck Confit with potato hash and a Warm Poached Egg Salad. I chose the morning omelette special with prawns, mushrooms, and goat cheese, served with perfectly cooked shredded hash browns—superb! Dierk’s offers great food in an unpretentious atmosphere. It’s definitely a local’s place, we had a couple of building contractors sitting at the table next to us and two guys across the room who arrived in a less-than-new-and-shiny Ford pickup.
 

After breakfast, we headed through beautiful green vineyards and lovely hills of the Valley of the Moon to the town of Sonoma. We made our way around the town square, stopping and shopping, Vicki finding a scarf and I, a Sonoma ball cap (never enough caps). We wandered into a well-stocked kitchen store, emerging with a French tomato knife and a compact picnic basket. There are numerous shops on the square, including a large bookstore and an art gallery with the work of local artists; the busy tourist information center is in the town’s old Carnegie Library building.
 

It was a lovely to see all this, but shopping was making us hungry and it was getting close to lunchtime! Sondra Bernstein’s restaurant, the girl & the fig, serves French-American cuisine and is a tribute to local ingredients, which are found throughout the menu. Deciding to have a light lunch, I started with the heirloom radishes, anchovy butter and grey sea salt. The radishes, from the restaurant’s own garden, were crunchy and flavorful; Vicki’s cold potato and saffron soup was outstanding, with great texture and a lovely yellow color. Her subsequent dish was a piece of smoked halibut served with a Spanish radish terrine, house pickles and a toasted baguette, all used to make delightful little open-face sandwich bites. My grilled local sardines, with roasted red onions, parsley & caper salad, red wine vinaigrette, was simply a marvelous melding of Mediterranean flavors. Our light dessert of plum and orange sorbet was just that until we discovered that underneath the edible cookie bowl it was served in was a pool of delicious chocolate! We accompanied our lunch was glasses of Miner Family Viognier, which had nice fruit and mineral flavor.
 

On our way back to Santa Rosa, we stopped at B. R. Cohn Winery, which is perched on a hill a few miles north of Sonoma on Highway 12. Bruce Cohn, the longtime manager of the Dooby Brothers, has been growing and selling grapes on his 90-acre Olive Hill Estate Vineyards since 1974. In 1984 he established his own winery and along with creating award-winning Cabernet, he has led efforts to reestablish the making of premium olive oil in Sonoma County. It has certainly paid off, as we tasted and bought a very flavorful bottle of unfiltered extra virgin oil.

Returning to Santa Rosa in mid-afternoon, we decided to take in the Sonoma County Fair, which was being held just near our hotel. It’s a big affair, lasting a day shy of two weeks, and features lots of exhibits, rides, and horse racing. We got there just before the last two races and after watching the first, we decided to place a wager, confident that we’d go home big-winners. Well …
 

Vicki’s a horse woman and enjoyed meeting all the thoroughbred horses in their stalls at the Fair, we were even asked if we wanted to purchase one.  I just wanted to see farm animals and there were plenty of them, cows, sheep, pigs, goats, rabbits, and chickens, plenty of good humanely raised meat on the hoof and paw.
 

We celebrated our anniversary with dinner at Zazu, a restaurant that emphasizes local, sustainable food and wine. We had a fantastic dinner there last March and were anxious to return. The restaurant, which bills itself a roadhouse, is located on the Old Guerneville Road on the outskirts of Santa Rosa. When we arrived, the action was in full swing and we were seated at a narrow table in the middle of the restaurant. The wine list is rather pricey and we were disappointed they didn’t have the wonderful house Pinot Noir we had on our previous visit, so selected another. For our main courses Vicki had the hanger steak and I had a lamb “clump.” I’m not sure what that is, but it was a very flavorful cut, cooked nice and rare. It was accompanied by a dish of farro, greens, and goat cheese—nice to see farro on restaurant menus these days. Vicki raved about her steak, perfectly cooked and very tasty. This is a really wonderful restaurant, innovative, with a great menu. The only downside for me, however, was the noise, which was almost deafening.  A large party sitting directly behind me was talking so loud that it was very distracting—perhaps that’s the “roadhouse” atmosphere. We’ll definitely return, but next time we’ll ask for a window table.

 When it comes to food and wine in the Sonoma area, I feel like a kid-in-a-candy-store, there are just so many incredible choices. Even though Sonoma wines rival the best in California, I find the area much more comfortable area than the Napa Valley, a little less pretentious, and a little more local feeling. As we drove by beautiful fields and lovely vineyards, I dreamed about a little house on an acre where we could grow vegetables and flowers to our heart’s content.

Vicki and I have been cooking quite a bit since we arrived at our cottage in Chianti. As usual, numerous food-buying trips have created a log-jam in our little refrigerator, not to mention the counter tops. We love the Iper-Coop in Montevarchi, which is large, even by American standards, and carries food, household items, clothes, and electronic items. I suppose in some ways it’s like Walmart, but without the stigma, as it is member-owned.

I found a copy of Marcella Hazan’s wonderful book, The Classic Italian Cookbook, on the bookshelf here and have been delving into it with some regularity. Marcella is considered the first icon of Italian cooking in the modern era, and is frequently called the “Julia Child” of Italian cooking. The book was first published by Harper & Row in 1973, but the author was very displeased with its poor distribution, so she bought the rights back and at the suggestion of Julia Child, offered the book to Alfred A. Knopf, which published its edition in 1976. The book remains in print and has gone through numerous reprintings.

Last week we stopped at the butcher (macelleria) in Montevarchi and bought a beautiful veal roast, which the butcher trimmed and tied. I used it to make Vitello Tonnato, a classic dish with origins in Lombardy and Piedmont—Vicki has been raving about it ever since she tasted it.

The roast is braised for a couple hours then sliced and layered in a dish with a sauce of homemade mayonnaise, tuna, anchovies, capers and lemon juice.  It sits for twenty-four hours to develop flavor, then is served cold as an antipasto or summer buffet dish. It will keep in the fridge for several days and makes wonderful sandwiches. Always use the best Italian tuna in olive oil; high-quality American versions are now coming on the market, try Dave’s Gourmet Albacore from Santa Cruz, CA.

Adapted from The Classic Italian Cookbook: The Art of Italian Cooking and the Italian Art of Eating by Marcella Hazan. NY: Harper & Row, 1973.

2–2 1/2 lb. piece lean boneless veal, preferably top round, firmly tied
1 medium carrot
1 stick celery, without leaves
4 sprigs Italian parsley
1 bay leaf

Homemade mayonnaise made with 2 egg yolks, 1/2 pint olive oil, 2–3 tblsp lemon juice
7 oz. tinned Italian or American albacore tuna, (high quality), packed in olive oil
5 flat anchovie fillets
1/2 pint olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons capers
Salt, if necessary

In a pot just large enough to hold the veal, add the veal roast, vegetables, and water to cover. Remove the veal, set aside, and bring the water to a boil. Return the veal to the pot and boil again, then reduce the heat to simmer and cover. Keep at a gentle simmer for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Remove from the heat and let cool in the broth.

Prepare the mayonnaise according to standard methods, either whisking by hand or in a blender or food processor. Set aside.

Add the tuna and the other remaining ingredients to a blender and blend until creamy—it may still retain a minimal amount of chunkiness. Fold this into the mayonnaise and taste to see if salt is needed.

When the veal is cold, remove it from the broth and cut it into thin 1/4 in. slices. Smear the bottom of a serving dish with some of the tuna sauce and place down the veal slices in a single layer. Cover the layer with sauce and continue this process until all the veal is covered with sauce.

Cover the dish tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours. To serve, layer the veal slices and sauce in a single line on a serving platter and garnish with lemon slices, olive slices, whole capers, chopped and whole parsley leaves.

This dish will keep nicely for a week, refrigerated. Place the leftovers between slices of crusty bread and serve with a nice green salad and vinaigrette.

Sometimes we’ll go a long way to experience great food. For some time, Vicki and I planned to spend the day in Naples while staying in Rome on the first leg of this year’s this trip to Italy. Excellent Italian train service provides an easy trip from Roma to Napoli, traveling through beautiful, rural countryside with an occasional glimpse of the sea. So last week, after a quick cab ride to Rome Termini from our apartment, we boarded a regional train—one way, 21 Euro—and two hours later disembarked at Napoli Centrale.

Our main goal was to dine on world-class pizza, which for us meant a visit to Da Michele, described by many to be the “sacred temple of pizza.” We first read about the place in Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Eat, Pray, Love, where she describes a visit to Da Michele with a friend and loved the pizza so much they each had two!

Leaving the crowded train station, we got our bearings and headed up the Corso Umberto toward our destination. Naples has an insane chaotic atmosphere, people crowding the streets and traffic everywhere—speeding cars and motorcycles driving at breakneck speed, running red lights and attempting to mow down any pedestrians silly enough to try to cross the street on a green crosswalk light. The sidewalks were cluttered with vendors, Need sunglasses, a designer purse, or perhaps a cap with Italia on it? How about an iPhone?, “Sure buddy, we’ll take a two, is the warranty included?”

After a few minutes, a right turn and there it was, Da Michele—shockingly without the line and long wait we thought would be inevitable. We entered and found a table in the small room with a high ceiling and a wood-fired oven in the corner. Posted on the wall, the menu offers only two pizzas, Marguerita and Marinara, each with three variations of each.

We both ordered the Marguerita with “doppia” extra mozzarella, which arrived from within five minutes, the topping glistening with oil, the crust with the characteristic burnt edges from the super hot, wood-fired oven. The taste was glorious, the crust medium thin and filled with air bubbles, crisp on the outside and chewy within. Our consensus was yes, this was the best pizza we’ve ever had, perfectly cooked with exquisite flavor. The basis is a crust made with double-0 pizza flour; the pie is covered with a sauce made daily San Marzano tomatoes; fresh mozzarella, basil complete the toppings, then the pizza is cooked in a 700 degree wood oven for 1 — 1 1/2 minutes.

We left the restaurant happy and fulfilled. Our bill was 13 euro for two exquisite pizze, a litre of water and a coke.

After cocktails we eventually ordered dinner, pizza for Vicki and chicken breast with artichoke for Bob, and a lovely little red wine from Puglia. Walking back to our apartment we stopped for a drink at the Campo de’ Fiori, which was now transformed into a major gathering place for tourists, students, and locals, who were eating, drinking and generally taking in the loud and exciting atmosphere.

Everyday our morning began on the Campo with Pizza Bianca from the Forno and coffee at Bar 36. It is wonderful to get there early enough to watch the daily market being set up. As we sat and drank our cappuccinos, the fruit and vegetable vendor in front us of was busy trimming, peeling, and chopping vegetables, which they would be selling for the next six hours. The freshest produce, flowers, spices, fish, cheese, and cured meats are offered here, along with Roma/Italia clothing, jewelry, and many household items. The market, open every day except Sunday, has existed on the Campo for hundreds of years. It’s a joy to walk among the stalls and look at fresh sustainably-raised produce, much of which was picked the previous day.

On Wednesday morning we saw a stunning exhibition of paintings by Caravaggio, which we had been greatly anticipation. This was followed by lunch at the Osteria Margutta, a favorite restaurant of ours located on a street of the same name that was once the location of Federico Fellini’s home.

Evening found us back at the Campo where we had drinks and excellent snacks at lovely little bar on Via del Bisscione. Always hunting for great pizza, we later found ourselves at Pizzeria Fiammetta near the Largo Argentina where Vicki had an outstanding pizza with greens, pork sausage, and mozzarella, and I had an equally good Marguerita. The recommendation I’d found for this place on Chow hadn’t let us down.

On Friday, our final day in Rome we decided to go to St. Peter’s Basilica, which we hadn’t visited in a couple of years—good idea, bad timing. The place was a mob scene, Rome seems over-populated with tourists this year and I think most of them were there, as the line to get into the basilica stretched around half the obelisk. So, we decided that if St. Pete’s was unavailable, perhaps we should trot off to lunch—brilliant! Vicki had a review of a restaurant near the Pantheon, so off we went, stopping at a charming little antiquarian bookshop along the way. Located on Via del Seminario, La Sagrestia is just a couple blocks from the Pantheon, which that day, had a sea of people in its piazza. We were hankering for artichokes and were pleased to see a pile of them being prepared near the kitchen as we entered. For starters, Vicki had Pizza Fortunado, a thin crust, covered with mozzarella, zucchini flowers, and anchovies. Having just had the best pizza of our lives the day before in Naples, this one was a close second. I had fettuccine with carciofi and vongole, perfectly cooked pasta studded with artichoke and clam pieces in a delicious sauce. These were followed by Carciofi Guida, the traditional Roman Jewish fried artichoke, served spread out like a flower—exquisite!

We did have a wonderful stay there, however, good weather, great food, a stunning Caravaggio exhibition, and a side trip to Naples. I’ll have some individual posts about Rome over the next few days.

Now we’re in Tuscany region of Chianti at the little cottage we love so dearly. We had a wonderful reunion with our friends Bob and Ally, our landlords, who live adjacent to the cottage, Podere La Rota. We had dinner with them last evening at a pizzeria in nearby Terranuova Braciolini. This is the best pizza place they’ve found yet, fabulous Neapolitan style pizze and three bottles of  Rosso de Montalcino wine made for a wonderful, laugh-filled night.

Today, we’re off with Ally to Montivarchi to shop. It’s wonderful to go with someone who speaks Italian—we’ll stop at the organic market, among other places.

Ciao!

Canned tuna was a staple in our house when I was growing up and tuna sandwiches have always been a favorite of mine. We always had cans of Starkist, packed in oil, that mom would mix with mayonnaise and spread on white bread for sandwiches. As the mercury problem raised its head, these sandwiches became more occasional and I switched to the tuna packed in water and later the bags that seem to have a fresher tasting produce.

 The best, or at least most memorable tuna sandwich I ever had, was in 2004 in the Italian village of Rosia. Vicki and I had been out exploring and stopped at a restaurant/bar in this little town to have a snack. We decided to order a tuna sandwich, “sandwich de tonno,” which was prepared for us by a very chatty lady behind the bar who enjoyed using her halting English on the Americans. The results were fantastic, large pieces of tuna on focaccia, dripping with olive oil and pungent with the flavor of capers. We still talk about that wonderful sandwich.

Recently the Food & Wine section of the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle had substantial article on tuna salad, which presented various styles and recipes. I decided to try the Fennel  & White Bean Tuna salad, which was made of of fennel, onion, and oil-packed tuna, mixed with mayonnaise, white beans, and a splash of red wine vinegar. It was really excellent, crunchy and creamy at the same time, with a nice blend of flavors and a little kick from the red wine vinegar and the capers I added. I went well with the slices of Whole Food’s sour dough.

I bought most of the fixings for the tuna salad at Whole Foods. I was looking for a can of Dave’s Gourmet albacore, which had led the pack in a tuna-packed-in-oil tasting in the Chronicle’s F&W section last November. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any so I settled on a Sicilian import, Flott Solid Light Tuna in pure olive oil. I found it a little heavy and would like to try the same recipe again with Dave’s.

Fennel & White Bean Tuna Salad

Serves 2 to 4, or enough for 4 sandwiches

Crunch comes from fennel and red onions in this Italian-inspired tuna salad. Serve it on toasted country bread or over a pile of lightly-dressed arugula.

2 (5-ounce) cans oil-packed white tuna
1/3 cup small-diced fennel
1/3 cup small-diced red onion
1 tablespoon capers, drained
3 tablespoons minced parsley
1/2 cup cannedsmall cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, + more to taste
– Kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Drain the tuna, and flake lightly with a fork in a bowl. Add the fennel, onion, parsley, capers, and beans and gently mix. Fold in the mayonnaise and red wine vinegar until well combined, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Add more vinegar if desired. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

On Thursday evening we found a little Italian trattoria called Ristorante Roma, it’s located in a rather nondescript building on a busy Portland street, but the small restaurant is filled with artwork and has lovely little tables with white table cloths and red accents. We had an excellent meal, which took us back to Rome; Vicki had Pappardelle Funghi e Salciccia, pasta with mushrooms and sausage; I dined on Ravioli all’Astiche; crab and artichoke ravioli with a lobster cream sauce—divine!

The following morning we headed out to find a place for breakfast, but were stopped in our tracks by the falling rain. We had, of course, left the umbrellas in our room. So we dove into the Dragonfish Asian Café, the restaurant in our hotel building, where I had an tasty and well-presented Shoyu omelet filled with tomato, asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, scallions, bell pepper and monterey jack cheese.

Later that day I had a lunch meeting with two colleagues at Sandoval’s Café and Cantina, near the Oregon College of Art & Craft campus. I was warned that it wasn’t the best Mexican food in Portland, but hey, it isn’t the worst either. I had a veggie tostada and it was great, loaded with good, fresh ingredients.

On Friday evening we had a real dining experience. A member of our steering committee had dined with writer Barry Lopez and his wife the previous evening and Barry had recommended Simpatica, in Portland’s east side. On Friday and Saturday evenings at diners arrive at Simpatica’s dining hall, walking down to a windowed basement room where they seated at a long wooden table that holds about twenty-four people. At seven-thirty, they are welcomed by the owner/chef, who explains what the prix fixe dinner will be. Our four-course menu that night consisted of a starter of grilled calamari with roasted cauliflower, capers lemon and parsley; a salad of winter endive pear salad with warm pancetta dressing; a main course of braised pork shoulder with fennel and tomato brood over savory grilled polenta; and a dessert of olive oil cake with orange marmalade and Chantilly cream. Each course was accompanied by a wine chosen to match the food. Whew! The dinner was superb, unquestionably  the best we had in Portland.

While I was at the conference, Vicki was exploring downtown Portland, going to art stores and of course, Powell’s Books. All that walking gave her a good appetite, so on Thursday, she had lunch at Clyde Common, a “European Style Tavern” located in the Ace Hotel. She had a lovely salad with farro, cauliflower, pomegranate, walnut, herbs, and radicchio. The next day she took her midday meal at the Portland institution, Jake’s Grill, where she had an excellent pan-seared rex sole with bay shrimp.

The main part of the conference ended on Saturday, so that evening a dozen of us headed to Jake’s Famous Crawfish, for an evening of drinks, wine, and seafood. Vicki and I started with a half-dozen luscious Quilcene oysters, which were briny, with a nice salty tang. Vicki’s main course was one of her favorites, Petrale Sole Parmesan, pan-seared, with lemon, butter, and capers. I had Columbia River sturgeon, a flavorful and moist piece of grilled fish, served with a Dijon black peppercorn, basil butter—wonderful!

I had a board meeting on Sunday morning, then met Vicki at the hotel. Our plan was to hop-in-the-car and get out-of-town, but, what the heck, we decided to have one more meal before we left Portland. We decided to head over a couple blocks to the Heathman Hotel, where we’d had an outstanding brunch a couple of years ago. The Heathman was built in 1927 and is on the National Register. The kitchen and innovative menu, which features seasonal Northwest ingredients, is overseen by Executive Chef Philippe Boulot, winner of the 2001 James Beard Award for Excellence—best Chef of the Pacific Northwest. Even though we’d be driving soon, we decided to share Bloody Heathman, a tasty and spicy version of the Bloody Mary. We started our brunch with Roasted Pear and Cabecou  Feuille —warm peppered goat cheese grilled in a chestnut leaf arugula and pomegranate reduction, toasted almonds. The textures were wonderful, and the grilled goat cheese divine. Vicki decided to have the Smoked Salmon Hash, which had a crispy crust and was topped with two perfectly poached eggs. I hadn’t had enough seafood yet either, so decided on the Hangtown Fry. The egg and vegetable wrapped oysters were fried perfectly, with a crisp outer-coating and a creamy center, yum! It was served with excellent fried potatoes. This was an outstanding way to end our visit to Portland, one of the great food cities of the West.

Click here to view a Google Map showing all the restaurants mentioned above.

Ristorante Roma
622 SW 12th Ave.
Portland, OR 97205
503.241.2692
www.ristoranteromaportland.com

Dragonfish Asian Café
909 SW Park Avenue
Portland, OR
(In the Paramount Hotel)
503.243.5991
www.dragonfishcafe.com

Sandoval’s Café and Cantina
460 SW Miller Road
Portland, OR 97225
503–292-2128
 http://www.sandovalspdx.com/

Simpatica Dining Hall
828 SE Ash Street
Portland, OR 97214
503.235‑1600
http://simpaticacatering.com

Clyde Common
1014 SW Stark Street
Portland, OR 97205
(In the Ace Hotel building)
503.228.3333
www.clydecommon.com

Jake’s Grill
611 SW Tenth Avenue
Portland, OR 97205
503.220.1850
http://www.mccormickandschmicks.com/locations/portland-oregon/portland-oregon/swtenthave.aspx

Jake’s Famous Crawfish
401 SW 12th Ave.
SW Stark (cross street)
Portland, OR 97205
503.226.1419
http://www.mccormickandschmicks.com/Locations/portland-oregon/portland-oregon/SW12thAve.aspx

The Heathman Restaurant and Bar
1001 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97205
503.790.7752
www.heathmanrestaurantandbar.com

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Vicki’s family at her mother’s house. Vicki really outdid herself this year, making three fabulous desserts and a wonderful salad. She made the salad based on one we had at Soizic Bistro in Oakland, where we recently had an outstanding dinner. It includes frisee lettuce layered with roasted acorn squash, prosciutto, and pomegranate seeds. It is sprinkled with feta cheese and served with kale pesto and a vinaigrette. Wonderful flavors and texture!

One of the three desserts she made was a pecan pie that uses rum and honey. It was delicious, crunchy and sweet, outstanding with whipped cream. The recipe suggests using Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which is a good alternative for the evil corn syrup. It’s made in England from cane sugar and has a nice golden color; available from Amazon.com.

Pecan Pie

Adapted from John Thorne’s “Best-Ever Pecan Pie” recipe, found in the book, Classic Home Desserts

Home-made pie dough for 1 crust, or frozen pie dough
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup Lyle’s Golden Syrup
2 tablespoons complex honey (lavender, herbed, etc.)
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon dark rum
3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened
3 eggs (at room temp.)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups broken pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Follow directions for home-made dough (i.e.: roll out, fit to buttered 9-inch pan, trim edges and chill), or remove your froze crust from the fridge.

In large saucepan, combine sugar, Golden Syrup, honey, maple syrup, rum, and butter over medium heat. Let mixture come to a boil for a minute, scraping down sides. Remove from heat and let cool for 20 minutes.

In a bowl, beat eggs till creamy. Incorporate slowly into the cooled syrup. Stir in the vanilla, pecans and salt.

Pour filling into pie shell and bake in middle or lower rack, and bake for 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Serves eight.

Last October, food writer Mark Bittman asked readers of his New York Times food blog to comment on their favorite “under the radar” food blogs. The blog that was chosen to be featured first was Alexandra’s Kitchen, the blog of Alexandra Stafford, a journalist, photographer, designer (and cook), who lives in southern California.

I really like her blog, it’s well-written, has fabulous photographs, great recipes and is written by someone who cares about food. Alexandra shops the farmer’s markets, buys grass-fed beef, believes in sustainable food systems, and quotes Michael Pollan on her website.

The first of Alexandra’s blogs I was introduced to was about Balzano Apple Cake. This peasant dessert has its roots in northern Italy and was highlighted in a New York Times article on Rick Carsberg and his Seattle restaurant, Lampreia, where the dish is served with caramel ice cream.

I enjoyed making this, and followed her recipe very closely, cooking it for an hour. This cake has a luscious vanilla taste and a wonderful, creamy texture. As Alexandra describes the cake’s texture, it’s a cross between a French clofouti and a pancake—the best apple pancake you ever tasted!

Here’s her recipe, which was adapted from the one that appeared in the NYTimes article on Rick Carsberg.

Balzano Apple Cake

Source: Adapted from The New York Times 2004
Serves 8

1 stick butter, plus more for greasing pan
parchment paper
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean 

4 Fuji apples
½ cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon sea salt such as fleur de sel (or 1/2 tsp. kosher salt)
½ cup milk at room temperature
powdered sugar

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Grease a nine-inch-circle pan with butter. Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pan and place inside pan. Grease sides of pan and parchment round with butter.

2. Melt butter in small saucepan. Set aside. Beat together eggs and half of sugar in a bowl. Continue to beat while slowly adding remaining sugar until thick — it should form a ribbon when dropped from spoon.

3. Split vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Scrape seeds into the egg-sugar mixture and add pod to melted butter.

4. Peel apples and cut straight down around the core into four big chunks. Discard the core then slice the apple pieces thinly.

5. Remove vanilla pod from butter and discard. Stir butter into sugar-egg mixture. Combine flour, salt and baking powder, then stir into batter alternating with the milk. Stir in apples, coating every piece with batter. Pour batter into pan.

6. Bake for 25 minutes, then rotate the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes more, until cake pulls away from pan and is brown on top. Cool for at least 30 minutes, then cut into wedges sprinkling each with powdered sugar if desired.