Rooftop Gourmet

So I was looking for a reason to splurge, and I figured that if the New England Patriots got to travel to London to crush the Bucs, I could wander over to the South End and grab myself a behemoth ribeye. The Butcher Shop in the South End is one of my favorite places on earth.  Not only can you sit down and enjoy an amazing meal, it dually functions as an actual butcher shop, pumping out cut to order steaks. I called ahead of time and had them band-saw a 3-inch thick, prime, ribeye chop for me and an 8oz. hangar steak for my girlfriend.

Upon pick-up, I discovered some homemade black truffle butter that I had to get to finish my Flintstone Steak with.

When I brought this bad boy home I couldn’t believe my eyes… this was the most mesmerizing piece of meat I had ever seen. The marbling was perfect and I was drooling all over myself waiting to throw it on the grill. With the weather changing drastically, I was forced to snip off all of the fresh parsley from my herb garden, so I decided to make a quick parsley oil for the steak.

When you’re dealing with this much meat, you need a fresh herb like parsley to lighten up the dish. I made some sauteed portabello mushrooms with sage and Cognac, and some grilled broccolini for side dishes. After carrying  a full tank of propane up four flights of stairs, I was ready to get this monster seasoned and on the grill. Enough Kosher salt to put the Atlantic Ocean to shame, and handfuls of cracked, fresh black peppercorns shimmered on the top of the chop.

 It took me about 25 minutes on the grill, working constantly with positioning the meat and avoiding flare-ups but the end result was a perfect medium steak. I finished the steak with a huge pat of homemade black truffle butter, allowing the steak to rest, and the butter to melt into the flesh. My girlfriend’s hangar steak looked like a Mini Cooper compared to my Hummer, but equally as delicious.

I chose to pair this beast with an equally beastly red wine from Paso Robles California. The 2006 L’Aventure Estate Cuvee is a wine that you can throw a 3 inch thick ribeye chop at and it will come back swinging. This wine will uppercut this chop in the face and still deliver complexity and balance. The wine is composed of 49% Syrah, 37% Cabernet, and 14% Petit Verdot (pushing 16% alcohol by volume).

Huge, powerful tannins and syrupy, rich dark fruit make this wine a perfect match for this steak. Drink this wine with a Filet Mignon and your steak will disappear. All of the fruit in this wine is estate grown and over delivers for the price. If you’re ever in town and feeling barbarous, stop by The Butcher Shop, in the South End and pick up a steak. The butcher, and the entire staff are incredibly knowledgeable will help you with your selection. Now I am going to go lay down and have a heart attack.

Throughout the entire summer, I’d usually get a bowl of gazpacho from The New England Soup Factory down the street from my work at least three times a week. On a warm, sticky, summer day the chilled soup brings your mouth and whole body alive with intense flavors of tomato, onion, jalapeno, and garlic. The combination of flavors is refreshing and has stuck in my mind even though a cold soup in October is like wearing white after Labor Day. I decided to utilize the flavors of gazpacho that I love in a warm entree dish.

I took the major components of this famous soup and pureed them in a food processor. I transferred the pulp into a self made pouch of cheese cloth and let the water slowly drip into a bowl. I never even had to re-season the water because I added enough salt and lime juice to the food processor. In a single spoonful, I could taste every aspect of every single ingredient in its raw state… it was amazing! The flavors were so intense that I didn’t want to do too much to the fish, so I simply pan roasted the salmon and placed it into the chilled gazpacho water.

 I topped the salmon with some grilled balsamic green onions and the dish came alive. The contrast in texture and temperature was something new to me but extremely enjoyable. The sizzling hot salmon flaked off into the room temperature “broth” and heated it in your mouth, bringing all the flavors of the gazpacho water alive. The charred and sweet balsamic green onions added a whole new element to the dish as well. I decided to pair this dish with the 2007 Lucien Crochet “Le Chen” Sancerre. A recent article in Wine Spectator talked about how wines from the Loire Valley, France are some of the best all around value wines in the world.

Such precision and quality comes out of this region and it shows in its bone dry whites. This wine is 100% Sauvignon Blanc, with hints of grapefruit and tons of minerality and acidity. The wine was perfect with the dish because the acidity worked with the fish, and it was light enough to let the flavors of the gazpacho water shine through without masking them with oak. If I were to make this dish again, I would probably incorporate one of the other major components of classic gazpacho which is bread. Typically, pureed bread is added to the chilled soup to create more body and texture. I would probably make a homemade rustic crouton for the fish to sit on and soak up all the fresh flavors. Even though the Soup Factory packed up the gazpacho for the Winter, I found a way to recreate as a dinner entree.

What I call the “Bolognese Craze” began a few years ago when every restaurant in town served up their version of this popular dish.  You couldn’t walk into a restaurant without seeing it on a menu. Unfortunately, most of these restaurants took the classic, simple sauce and Americanized it by adding cans of tomato sauce, heavy cream, and even porcini mushrooms. Authentic Bolognese sauce uses very little tomato sauce at all; a tablespoon of tomato paste is sufficient.

 The base for classic Bolognese is beef broth and red wine, which is usually simmered for hours and hours, making the trilogy of ground meat super tender and rich (beef, pork, and veal). Instead of adding heavy cream or milk to thicken my Bolognese like most restaurants do, I sear a few chicken livers, chop them up, and add them to the sauce. I know what you’re thinking…”gross”, but trust me on this one, you wouldn’t know you were eating livers if I didn’t tell you.  The earthy and creamy livers slowly melt into the sauce, adding a rich, creamy texture along with another depth of flavor to the sauce.

The key to a great Bolognese is doing efficient prep work, layering the flavors, and allowing time to simmer. See my recipe for my Bolognese in the Recipe Section of the website.

The wine that I chose to serve with this rich pasta dish is a wine that I stand by vintage after vintage. Allegrini Pallazo Della Torre is one of the best values in Italian wines that I have ever encountered. At roughly $20, this red from Verona has made the Wine Spectator Top 100 List four years in a row! The grapes that compose this hidden gem are primarily Valpolicella or very similar clones of that grape. What I find special about this wine is that one third of the Valpolicella grapes are put through a process called ‘ripasso”. Ripasso is something that gives Amarone its rich, bold flavor and body. While 1/3 of the grapes are dried almost to the point of raisins, the rest of the juice is then poured into casks through the dried fruit, and then the dried grapes are then pressed, blending everything together.

This process adds extra richness, body, depth, and complexity. The wine has lots of fresh, young fruit, such as cherries and raspberries like typical Valpolicella but another layer of the wine is extremely rich from the ripasso. The nose emits licorice, anise and darker fruits with hints of vanilla and blackberries on the palate. Valpolicella typically isn’t very big and tannic but due to the ripasso, this wine holds up perfectly to the rich pasta dish. Bolognese needs a wine that is big enough and has a decent amount of acidity to cut through the its creaminess. Never underestimate a red wine from Verona.

After tailgaiting for eight hours on Sunday in the rain and snow, I was ready for something light and healthy. I couldn’t even look at a piece of red meat or pork if you paid me. I picked up some super fresh Haddock from Yankee Lobster right off the dock and brought it home with the intention of creating a flavorful, yet delicate meal. I found some black olive paste in my fridge and I figured that I could impart that salty, briny flavor into the fish. I snipped the last bunch of fresh oregano out of my herb garden before it’s time for the rosemary to dominate the pot and used it to season the fish.

After a quick sear in a hot skillet, I spread the olive paste on the fish and finished it in the over with tons of lemon zest. I served the Haddock atop some roasted baby zucchini which I had never worked with before. Typically, I grill zucchini and I must say that the roasting brings out a completely different flavor. Baby portabellos were then sauteed and finished with some Balsamic glaze to add a little bit of sweetness to the dish; balancing out the salty olive paste perfectly. I paired this dish with one of my favorite Italian white wines; 2007 Antiono Caggiano Fiano de Avellino “Bechar”.

This white from Campania is medium bodied and super complex. It is full of acidity which makes it a great food wine, but it is also great on its own. To me, the nose smells like dried apricots and Pecorino cheese, but the wine tastes like apples, pineapples, and toasted hazlenuts. This wine is very complex and can be enjoyed with numerous different dishes. After all the Bud Light and pulled pork at the Patriots game, this wine and fish was just what I needed to bring myself back into balance.

Fresh pasta takes alotof time and effort to make but it is becoming more readily available all over the city. Farmers’ markets, specialty food shops, and even supermarkets  are carrying different lines of freshly rolled and stuffed treats. Yesterday, I picked up some roasted pumpkin ravioli from Whole Foods and tossed it in a browned butter and sage sauce. Browned butter and sage is a classic and incredibly simple Italian sauce that is typically draped over pasta that contains a sweet element. The semi “burnt” butter mixed with the holiday like aromas and herbal notes in the sage compliment the sweet roasted pumpkin ricotta inside the ravioli and the sauteed butternut squash tossed on top.

 Since this dish was almost sweet enough to be classified as a dessert, I decided to pair it with something a little bit unique. Each bite was so full of sweet, creamy flavors that the dish needed some bright acidity and something to tone down rich texture. I chose the Nino Franco ‘Rustico’ Prosecco, which is hands down my favorite Prosecco. Prosecco is Italy’s version of Champagne or sparkling wine.

Some of them are made using the same technique, and some of them are a little bit fruitier as opposed to bone dry. I consider the ‘Rustico’ to be on the dryer side. Nino Franco ‘Rustico’ Prosecco has it’s place in history too. It has been the Prosecco by the glass at the infamous Harry’s Bar in Venice for years, and is said to have made the first Bellini (Prosecco & Peach Puree). Whether you want to serve this as an appetizer, entree, or dessert, the pumpkin ravioli is something that everyone should experience this Fall.