Italy Part 15

The month of August has, in large part, become an Italian-cooking hiatus since I have been sharing many meals in various eateries around the foothills in celebration of the many beloved guests that have been trickling into Denver to visit Joe and me. I am planning to introduce you to them in a future post, as well as showcase some of the great eats! However, with one foot still in Italy, let me first catch you up to speed on the two Italian meals that were prepared this month for quiet meals shared between husband and wife in between our entertaining.    

Meal #1

Fried stuffed olives (p. 92)

Stuffed sardines (p. 92)

Served with sauteed mint lima beans 

(see previous blog titled "Sublime limas") 

and whole-grain crackers. 

Fresh sardine fillets were nowhere to be found in my local grocery stores,
so I settled on canned fillets packed in olive oil. Because of this,
the sardines were fragile and I could not "stuff" them without making
them crumble, so I had to "top" them with the stuffing ingredients instead.
I also found myself searching high and low for sultanas until
I realized later that the name is synonymous for golden raisins.
Overall, this dish is quite salty,  flavorful, and fragrant.
We ended up pairing them with whole-grain crackers.

The fried olives turned out to be quite the little rascals as I could not find extra-large
olives (and hence, extra large openings), and not to mention that I had to stuff each
olive with the meat mince by hand! This stuffing step could have been accomplished
in a fraction of the time if only I would have had a pastry bag fitted with a small
nozzle for piping. However, these olives and I made up later... when I got to eat them ha!
They were so wonderful after being fried in an flour, egg, and breadcrumb coating, with their
 innards bursting with the juice of fried mince meat, pancetta, herbs, and garlic.
Magnificent little flavor bombs!
I had so many olives that I tried a second batch roasted in the oven instead of fried.
Both versions of this dish were noteworthy.

Meal #2

Roman lamb (p. 129)

Rosemary potatoes (p. 129)

Sauteed silver beet (p. 129)

Fresh cantaloupe melon

Brownies

Preppy prep.
I started using these colorful melamine bowls to organize pre-measured spices.
They make a pretty presentation, no?

Starting to brown the tender lamb cuts.
The recipe calls for "spring lamb" meaning lamb so young it has only been fed milk.
However, I could only choose between "chops" or "roast" in my grocery store.
Not ever having spring lamb, I wouldn't be able to notice a difference.
 I was all giddy to make this dish since tenderly cooked
lamb is my favorite red meat, hands down (sorry, Dad).  

The goods.
I used swiss chard instead of silver beet greens.
Any dark leafies will work for this recipe.
As for the potatoes, next time I will try substituting for fingerlings!

The feast fit for a Roman king! Just add wine.
This meal has been tagged as a "must make" for
future dinner parties or romantic nights in.