Bucatini all'amatriciana

One of the dialogues in my Italian textbook was about someone ordering spaghetti all'amatriciana in a restaurant, and this prompted our teacher, Carlo, to launch into a passionate description of how wonderful this Roman dish consisting of guanciale, pancetto, onion, tomato and hot pepper is. So I went to Domenica Marchetti's The Glorious Pasta of Italy for a recipe and found a good home version.

Her recipe calls for pancetta and Canadian/back bacon, but I thought I would be smarter and go to Vace, which I know carries guanciale. Sadly, they were out the day I was there, so I used 8 oz of pancetta, which gets sauteed 10 min until it renders its fat. Then you add 1/4 c olive oil, 1 c chopped red onion and 3 partially crushed garlic cloves for 5 min, then 2 c diced tomatoes with juice, sprinkled with salt and "a generous pinch" of red pepper flakes. Simmer for 10 more min. Meanwhile cook the bucatini to al dente, drain, reserving 1 c of pasta water, put the noodles in the skillet with the sauce and toss to combine over low heat. Transfer to heated bowl and sprinkle 1/2 c shredded pecorino romano over it and serve.

Bucatini are large-diameter spaghetti with a hole down the middle, which makes the cook more evenly and also helps pick up the sauce. This was a tasty, easy pasta dish. Next time I will try it with guanciale and either a bigger pinch of red pepper flakes, or, as Carlo described it, including a red pepper in the saute.

Roast leg of lamb with rosemary and prosciutto

Roast leg of lamb was a standby for me in Paris when I lived across the street from a wholesale butcher. Nothing could be simpler -- insert slivers of garlic around the leg, pop it in the oven and a little more than an hour later, feast like a king. The lamb is self-basting with the layer of fat, tender and pink and delicious.

Diana Henry has several recipes for leg of lamb, including this one, which involves wrapping a strip of prosciutto around the garlic sliver with a twig of rosemary and inserting them around the leg. She recommends roasting at 425 degrees for 15 min, then lowering it to 350 for 50 min more. In this recipe, she also has you pour 1/4 c balsamic vinegar and 2/3 c white wine over the lamb and baste during cooking. It helps to form a tasty crust. We served it with flageolet beans from Rancho Gordo. Superb.

Fiola

To celebrate a special event with some friends we splurged on this "modern trattoria" of Fabio Trabocchi's in Penn Quarter and it was sensational. Everything -- decor, drinks, appetizer, pasta, main course, wine, dessert, service, ambiance -- was terrific. It even had the Washington power elite it's famous for, with a Supreme Court justice coming into the restaurant right behind us.

The friend who suggested this outing had done some research and steered us to truly outstanding signature dishes. To start with, as an hors d'oeuvres for the table, we had the veal meatballs, with an egg sunny-side up. These were tender, flavorful concoctions smothered in a delicious garlicky tomato sauce that I mopped up with the slightly toasted delicious bread. We had these with cocktails that I discuss more at length in my wine and spirits blog.

My first course, one of the signature dishes, was the agnolotti of Venetian cod "Baccala" with mussels, cockles and Spanish octopus, and it was stupendously good. The creamy salty cod in the perfectly cooked pasta took you to the sea and the various other ingredients enhanced the fishy ambiance. The octopus, in particular, a baby octopus that had been blanched, was tender and mild in flavor but with enough of that exotic Atlantic taste to give the dish some kick. The broth and flavoring, too, all worked to create a wonderfully balanced and, even the half-portion, very generous serving of seafood. Andrea had the vitello tonnato, made with tuna tartar and a creamy mayonnaise, that also was fabulous from the taste of it I had.

Let me say in passing it was such a relief to go to a restaurant that was not serving small plates. This was a meal, a real meal, that had nothing "precious" or sampling about it. This was great food, served with flourish, but not fussed over. So in that sense, it was truly like a trattoria. No white tablecloths, only some smart finished wood, and a cheerful, bustling air that was not too hectic or noisy.

My main course was Wagyu beef tenderloin with rosemary zabaglione that was beautifully tender and, even at medium rare, a healthy red with a robust beef flavor. Andrea went for the porchetta that was the genuine article, a real stuffed pork loin with the fennel and anise flavors, and extra savory from the homemade sausage used in the stuffing. For dessert, we actually passed up the dark chocolate ganache in favor of the bomboloni -- Sardinian ricotta doughnuts -- that were simply exquisite -- warm, puffy, creamy in the middle and set off perfectly by the burnt honey gelato that accompanied.

We had a moderately priced Super Tuscan that I don't find on the online menu, but which was quite nice. The service was genial, efficient and never intrusive, though the courses did come out somewhat quickly. The manager stopped by twice to check on us and was very personable.

Fiola is definitely in the top rank of DC restaurants, right up there with Komi, Marcel's, Corduroy and the others. Too pricey to go often but definitely one to visit again.

Chicken baked with red onions, potatoes and rosemary

This the second recipe I tried from a new cookbook, Pure Simple Cooking by Diana Henry, and it truly was simple and very good. Henry is a food columnist and TV host in Britain so her recipes are somewhat derivative. This one, for instance, she credits to Antonio Carluccio. The book is another one of these lavishly illustrated Ten Speed Press productions, which I seem to be a sucker for.

The recipe calls for a chicken cut into 8 pieces or 8 thighs, rubbed with sea salt to crisp the skin (it really works!). I opted for the thighs, though since WF in its wisdom does not sell thighs with the skin on, I had to get the whole leg/thigh and cut them apart, but the price was great ($1.99/lb) and the chicken was delicious. The dark meat wonderfully absorbs the flavors from the aromatics, which consist of 2 red onions, each cut into 10 wedges; 2 bulbs garlic, separated into cloves but not peeled; and 5 sprigs of rosemary, a couple whole and the others stripped of their leaves. You put these ingredients with 1-1/4 lb of new potatoes into a roasting pan, salt and pepper, pour in 1/2 c olive oil and 2 Tbl balsamic vinegar, toss, and nestle chicken pieces into the vegetables and put into a 400-degree oven for 45 min.

Obviously it fills the house with a great smell. The onions caramelize and you can squeeze the roasted garlic out of its peel. I couldn't find new potatoes and the closest I could come (WF had nothing, of course) were some purple finger potatoes at Rodman's. They were just OK and I would like to do it again with new potatoes.

I had tried another recipe last week, roast cod with smoked bacon, that I wasn't crazy about. It seemed maybe a little too simple, given that this seems to be common pairing of ingredients. Pan-searing then baking the cod did not result in a very appetizing dish and it tasted like a collection of ingredients rather than a balanced dish. So we'll see how the other recipes go.

A Stachowski's weekend

With Andrea away for the weekend, I treated myself to a pastrami sandwich at Stachowski's, the artisanal butcher/charcutiere in Georgetown, and brought home some other goodies for the weekend. I got the hot Italian sausage to grill and it crisped up nicely and tasted good. These modern sausages tend to be a little too politically correct, however, and this had too little salt and too little fat. Instead of dripping juices, it was a little dry after grilling.

The duck confit was terrific. I wanted to reproduce the way confit was served on the goose farm I stayed at in Perigord one vacation -- the confit crisped on top of potatoes which had absorbed the fat while roasting. I peeled and diced some baby red potatoes I had into 1/4-in cubes, and browned them in the skillet in some olive oil. Then I put the duck leg/thigh on top and popped it into a 425-degree oven for 15 min. or so. To get the right golden color on the duck, I put it under the broiler for a few minutes to finish. The duck was tender, remained moist and was good-sized.

I also got some delicious hand-crafted mortadella, one of my favorite salumi. This had much more flavor than the mass-produced. It was sliced very thin the way it needs to be and was a great antipasto all weekend. It's a good thing, really, that Stachowski's isn't any closer!

Dino's "Big Pig" event

In a culinary tour de force, Dean Gold offered a tasting menu of several dishes featuring the Mangalitsa pigs that originally hail from Hungary and which a local farmer is raising.

The pigs are odd-looking because they have curly hair that looks like sheep's wool. Dean explained that Bryan Kerney, who was at the dinner, has been raising them at Truck Patch Farms.

Every one of the 11 dishes was excellent, though I liked some more than others. The portions, of course, were quite small, but as long as you keep in mind that a tasting menu is more like a culinary seminar than a meal, it works fine.

Serving some 50 people with such an elaborate menu clearly challenged the capacity of Dino's kitchen. The evening stretched to three hours, which was simply too long, especially if you don't want to drink with abandon on a school night. Fortunately, we had some good table companions -- a father and son who each in his own way was a certified foodie -- and the time passed pleasantly enough.

A charcuterie trio featured a pig liver terrine in pancetta, a mushroom and pig terrine, and duck fat hock rillettes. All three were terrific, though my favorite was the one with pancetta -- it had an earthy, pate flavor and robust texture that I like. The rillettes was very good. Dean explained he used duck fat (from D'Artagnan) to lighten the otherwise porky menu.

A second set of starters was the chicharrones -- crispy pig skin (cracklins, pork rind) -- and burnt ends with Tuscan barbecue sauce. Both good but Arthur Bryant has nothing to worry about.

One of the stars of the evening was the grilled radicchio leaves wrapped in a Tuscan bacon made with pork belly that was braised, sliced then cooked to crispy. Here's where you want to exit a tasting menu and just get a large order because the single serving per person was frustratingly small.

The cheesy Calabrian meatballs, Dean explain, had a lot of bread filling because traditionally it was a dish for poor people. These were very tasty, but had a tendency to fall apart. What stole the show was the San Marzano tomato sauce.

Duck fat matzoh balls in spiced pig stock would probably be my top candidate for the ax if you wanted to lighten the menu and shorten the evening. The matzoh balls were a bit heavy, and the dark, spicy broth was not at all bad, and probably fine on a winter evening as a starter. I get it that this was a way to introduce some starch into a menu that otherwise was almost pure meat and fat.

The head and neck stewed in chickpeas would be second on the list for the ax. I like chickpeas and the little bits of meat were tasty enough, but the presentation was unappetizing and this was the only dish that was not fully eaten.

The Tuscan tomato sauce with trotters and spices on shell pasta (canestri), on the other hand, was a big hit. The pasta was terrific and perfectly cooked, and dressed nicely with the by now familiar taste of these Mangalitsa pigs

The pork shoulder pot roast with vinegar and herbs -- called the jailhouse stew in Italian -- was the crown of the meal and appropriately delicious, though I would fault the planning for not making this a bigger portion. At least one dish should be more than a tidbit to give the illusion at least of a meal, and this was the obvious candidate.

The pork from the Mangalitsa has a rich, deep flavor. You would never call this the "other white meat." Dino's is offering the choicer cuts on the menu this week, though I'm not sure I'll go back right away. Truck Patch Farm sells its products at the Mt. Pleasant market starting in May, so that is probably where I'll get my next Mangalitsa.

For this tasting menu, Dean offered an optional Sicilian wine flight. I'm sure the wines were quite good, but at $30 for three 3-oz. pours, seemed a little pricey to me. We opted instead for the 8-oz carafe of the open reds, taking a Corte alla Flora "Giugiolo," a 2010 Prugnolo Montepulciano described as "explosive" and which opened up very nicely, and the 2009 Per Alessandra Barbera d'Alba described as "delightful," which was quite smooth. At one of the neighboring tables, a group of six men had the genial idea of each ordering a bottle for the table to sample. That is probably the way to go if you don't have to work too hard the next day.

Pork Pot Roast with Apricots, Cardamom and Ginger

This Molly Stevens recipe was a big hit, a different flavor direction for our beloved pork. The recipe's 4-1/2 to 5 lb boneless pork shoulder roast (Boston butt) became a 4 lb bone-in roast at Wholefoods' take it or leave it butcher counter, but I kept the other proportions.

Brown the roast on all sides in 2 Tbl olive oil, for 15 to 20 min. total. Remove to plate and pour off all but 1 Tbl of fat, add 1 leek, 2 carrots and 1 medium onion, all coarsely chopped. Stir in 6 cardamom pods, shell removed and insides crushed, 1/2 tsp turmeric and 1/4 tsp cayenne, and cook for 5 min until vegetables start to soften. Add 1 Tbl shredded ginger, 2 cloves garlic peeled and "bruised," 3 strips of orange zest and bay leaf and cook for 2 more min. Pour in 2 Tbl cognac or apricot brandy (I used equal portions of cognac and apricot liqueur) to deglaze, about 1 min, then add 1/2 c white wine and boil 4 min. Pour in 2 c chicken stock (I used my homemade stock), bring to a boil and add 6 oz dried apricots and cook them for 2 min. Place roast back in pot (pour in juices from plate), cover with parchment paper hanging 1 in over the edge, place lid on top and pop into 325-degree oven for 2 hrs, checking and turning every 30 min. When done, remove roast and let it rest for 10 min. Degrease sauce and boil down if necessary. Slice pork and nap with sauce and apricots. Serve couscous on the side. We also followed Stevens' recommendation to accompany with an off-dry Riesling, with a Dr. Loosen Mosel wine filling the bill.

The pork was tender, moist and redolent of the flavor from the aromatics. The sauce turned a rich brown (from the apricots?) with a gentle interplay of sweet and savory. I dressed the lettuce salad with a blood orange-infused olive oil and a Pinot Grigio vinegar to round out the meal. A real keeper we'll duplicate some day for guests.