LOCAL WEDNESDAYS*: Duck Egg Pasta Carbonara

     So Local Wednesdays (like Sicilian Sunday Dinners) is another attempt to focus Morta Di Fame, give it some structure, a routine. If only I could do that for the rest of my life! Needless to say, if you have visited the Wednesday Farmer's Market at Union Square you know it is the best in the entire city. So, even if I have to get up at 5am to get there before work (who am I kidding?) I'll do my best, then make a meal with ONLY local ingredients that evening. Invite yourself over on a Wednesday (you will have to come to Queens) and enjoy a local meal with me! Or we can do it at your place.
     I am very proud to say that all components of this Carbonara Pasta dish are local, even the pasta was homemade from Knoll Crest Farms. So here is the deal: my dad hates chickens and my mom hates eggs. Hence, I have never eaten this type of pasta and until recently had no idea what it was. Did you say bacon? And eggs? And cheese? And garlic? And fresh ground pepper? On pasta? When? NOW! OKAY! 
    I used duck eggs, which is very exciting! Their eggy robustness took some getting used to. And they were gigantic; the yoke was the size of a ping pong. The shell was really resilient and I almost needed a hammer to break it. But they were beautiful and really delicious. I knew they would be perfect for Pasta Carbonara. 
     This dish is so easy, too. It takes only 20 minutes, I promise! Fry some chopped bacon until crisp, then drain on a paper towel. Meanwhile, boil your pasta. Remove some of the bacon fat from the frying pan and add chopped garlic, fresh black pepper, the fried bacon, the cooked pasta. Turn the heat off. Then crack a few eggs on top and mix into the pasta too cook them. Most recipes call for a swirl so as not to scramble your eggs, but mine were a tad scrambled. Mario Batali, as described in Bill Buford's Heat, separates his yokes and whites, mixes the whites in first, then just drops the raw yokes on top. Add some pecorino romano cheese. Serve warm and gooey with some nice local greens or broccoli rabe.

*All ingredients from the post are made exclusively from local seasonal meat and produce.

ITS A GOOD DAY FOR BEE'S IN NYC

    Actually, March 16th was a great day for bees. Thats when the Dept. of Health lifted the beekeeping ban thanks to the help of everyone who wrote in support of the legalization of beekeeping in NYC. Join the New York City Beekeeper's Association on Tuesday April 6th at 7pm (123 East 15th St) to celebrate this victory for the bees, for the plants that the bees pollinate, and for all of us who benefit from all that hard work the bees do that we take for granted. Thank a bee today!
   While at the Farmer's Market, I was so happy to see NYC Honey being sold! Talk about local.

Baaaaaaaack...Thanks, Sorry, Cheers!

    LA was awesome. Here's what went down: We worked in Malibu, stayed in Venice Beach, motorcycled to Santa Barbara, biked to Santa Monica then ran the marathon (and won!), sat in traffic, pet baby sea lions, watched NCAA basketball, got a quick face lift, starred in a commercial at the Bronson Caves, became official Scientologists, got a smog check, hung out with a whole bunch of cholos and got gang tattoos (on our necks), stalked Farmer's Markets, surfed with dolphins, and ate and drank at every stop along the way, of course.

Noteworthy places for food and drink in Los Angeles*:

Sunday Santa Monica's Farmer's Market (Ocean Park and Main St) Valet bike parking. Huge breakfast burritos. Fresh organic dates. Citrus everywhere. Cheese bread! The sweet smell of strawberries. A lawn for a picnic.
Father's Office - Thea's recommendation. Best burger maybe ever. Fries come in fry baskets with the most delicious herb mayo dipping sauce. NO KETCHUP! Gigantic "small" plate of cheese on the biggest plate ever. Duck Confit Salad with Figs and Hazelnuts which was sadly overshadowed by the burger. Classic Cocktails were on the money. The service was weird because you order at the bar and everything comes out at once, so next time we will order as we go.
The Rock Store - Greasy spoon on a winding canyon road in Malibu. Lots of bikers. Good french toast.
El Tarasco - Divey taco joint in Manhattan Beach with really awesome ground beef tacos.
Tasting Kitchen - Nice vibe. Great cocktails. Cheese plate! Sea urchin. OYSTERS! Wheat pasta with hedgehogs (mushrooms) and pork. Market plate. Best romaine salad with anchovies ever. No chopping, just full on romaine.
Urth Cafe - Always awesome for a great salad and looking at hot people. Fun celebrity sightings, too. The obscure kind, in which you are racking your brains all day going, "I know that person from some movie, but which one?!?!?" This can drive you crazy.
AXE - Market Plate. Cauliflower Gratin was heaven. Asparagus, Fried Egg, Chantarelles, Caper Brown Butter. Thats all we could stuff into our mouths. Great wine selections.
Cliff's Edge  - So this place is all about eating al fresco, underneath a gorgeous wide bowed tree that reaches into every romantic nook in the garden. The food was okay. We did eat snails (right off the tree), which was fun. The hostess was a straight up b%$*h and wanted us to eat inside but "no" is not in my vocabulary and I was able to look pathetic enough that the old man owner found us a table right away. I love old men! And how can I get a job (in Cali) where I am valued for always getting my way? I could really excel at that.
Big Foot Lodge - This is where Smokey the Bear drinks beer.
Silver Lake Lounge - This is where we met the cholos and got our gang tattoos. Don't go here if you don't like reggaetone music videos that put R.Kelly to shame in the objectification department, transvestites and Mexican gangsters plus some meringue for good measure. Those are all positives on my list so this place made the cut.

As far as the search for the ultimate classic cocktail in Los Angeles, I couldn't hit up every place because that would be a check on the alcoholic checklist, but really it would mean sitting in too much traffic trying to find each place. So here is a list I think is helpful:

La Descarga
Comme Ca
The Hungry Cat
The Liquid Kitty
The Varnish
Seven Grand
The Edison
The Tasting Kitchen
Father's Office
Little Dom's

Here are LA Food Blogs I referenced:

Eating LA
LA Food Blogging
Low End Restaurants
LA Food Crazy
Edible LA
Cocktailia

Thanks friends who helped recommend so many great places!
Double Thanks to Rocco for taking care of my gatitos lindos.

*Sorry for not more photos.

Cheers!

LUDLOW, VERMONT FARMER'S MARKET

     Walking around Ludlow, Vermont, I noticed a prevalent message, "NO MICKY Ds!" As a kid, McDonald's was one of the best treats and a birthday party haven. Some of the most memorable photographs in our family album are of us sitting with party hats  wearing early 80s shades of brown and orange terry cloth outfits underneath this weird fairy forest tree getting ready to blow out the yellow cake with chocolate frosting birthday cake candles. Its a good thing that these Ludlow tots won't grow up with double hamburger meal nostalgia. 

     It was our first day in Vermont and I was in search of a Farmer's Market and after seeing those signs I had a good feeling one would be lurking nearby. Lucky enough, that afternoon white tents went up on the front lawn of the elementary school. We had just come back from Buttermilk Falls and I was starving. I sampled one of the most delicious broccoli quiches I've ever had. The quiche lady was also selling whoopie pies and chocolate chip cookies. So many food bloggers have been tempting me with photos of their homemade whoopie pies, so I was craving one. I got a banana and a chocolate whoopie pie and a box of cookies for Mike. The banana whoppie pie was the winner. The chocolate was too dense. Whole Foods actually has their whoopie pie skills down. The chocolate chip cookies were delicious and were good at disappearing.

    We bought some Garlic Parmesan Pork Sausages and Grass Fed Hamburger Meat. There was a slight misunderstanding with me and the meat man who I thought instructed me to make the burgers thick, since they are lean, and not cook them for too long so they don't shrink, but he meant thick in diameter not in height, and that night we basically ate steak tartar. It was actually amazing. The sausages were out of this world, too. The raw leftover hamburgers and one odd sausage went into making a delicious hash for breakfast.

    A cool stand was selling clever jewelry made from kitchen utensils. Spoon earrings are all the rage in Vermont apparently.

    There was not a lot of produce up for grabs except some lettuce, but we had CSA veggies to get through. We did get some amazing bread. The whole wheat baguette was something very special. A crisp crust and chewy inside. Perfect. I also got a Kale, Cheddar and Garlic Foccaccia. It was superb.

    We picked up some farm fresh local organic eggs, those light blue ones which I have been dying to try, but in NY they are $8/dozen. These were only $4/dozen. They had the most beautiful yokes I have ever seen and such a distinct egg flavor, not like the poor excuse for eggs you get in the supermarket. I love it when eggs still have dirt and chicken feathers stuck to them because you know how fresh they are.  

   A visit to lemonade stand yielded an unbelievably perfectly sweet and sour glass of cold lemonade and some brioche to make French Toast in the morning. The lemonade man instructed us to slice the bread and let it stale overnight. I would need Maple Syrup and I wanted Grade B. I had seen a Bobby Flay Pancake Throw Down recently versus the owner's of the Clinton Street Bakery, and they preferred Grade B with which they made a Maple Butter. But the maple syrup ladies at the Farmer's Market didn't have their act together, so the next morning I walked to a house a few miles up the road where I had noticed a sign that read, "Maple Syrup For Sale Here." Sweet Rita and her rambunctious grandsons hooked me up with a jug of Grade B and it delivered. Along with all the other local goodies, our stay in Vermont was a delicious one.

Who says you can't find nature in Queens?

    My one requirement for moving from Middle Village to Rego Park (I know I am sellout!) was a backyard. The yard in the new place is really nice, and I have a lot of edible plants and herbs growing, a few that were adoptions from the Rooftop Farm. The rain has kept me inside, but has made my garden very happy. Now that it has stopped raining finally (as I write this dark clouds are descending), we can enjoy some dining al fresco. 

The first outdoor dining experience was the Farm Fresh Local Breakfast, which featured all local CSA and Farmer's Market food, but that didn't last very long because by the time we finished the last of the bacon we were blistering in the sun. So I just got an umbrella and we had our first special guests Mo and Yelena over for a mostly local impromptu al fresco dinner. I made some couscous seasoned with turmeric, cumin, fresh basil, parsley and pignola nuts. The kale, from the Woodside CSA and the star of the show, was sauteed in butter (that'll do it), fresh garlic, peperoncino and toasted pignola nuts. The round zucchini, which I got at the Unfancy Food Show from the Queen's Farm stand, was made the old fashioned Stewed Zucchini way, and the chicken sausage was from Trader Joe's. (I the sausage is not local and probably not humane, but Yelena is with child and I felt it was only right to give her some protein.)

   For dessert I whipped up a variation on Strawberry Shortcake, inspired by Jennie's Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes. I cut up some local strawberries and marinated them in sugar, fresh mint from the yard and lemon juice. Then I made whipped cream with sugar and some lemon zest and I used a store bought Angel's Food Cake (from Trader Joe's) as the shortcake. 

   While we were dining a gigantic raccoon ran over the garage roofs in the back! It was bigger than "C" my twenty pound cat. He is getting vaccinated for rabies this week. We also saw a few field mice scurry in the plants. (there are no rats in Queens!) Field mice are so little and cute. 

    And while tending to my parsley I bumped into this gorgeous caterpillar. I should be mad at him because he is single handedly eating all my greens, but he looks too much like a cartoon character. Who says you can't find nature in Queens? Maybe my dream to be a wildlife photographer will pan out afterall. (Wait, I just had a flash back of the Wild Turkey Attack, so I will just keep food blogging!)

CALL ME A BROCCOLINA

    I LOVE BROCCOLI! That being said, if I couldn't get the name Morta Di Fame for my blog, my next choice would be Broccolina. That's the nickname Nonna used to call me because all I ever wanted in life as a child was bowl of pasta with broccoli. Good thing its so easy to make. This is Nonna's version and I used a fresh local broccoli and garlic from the Union Square Farmer's Market.

    The night I made this, I actually cut out the garlic, which is a grave offense, however I was attending my 10 Year High School Reunion that night and didn't want my classmates to remember me in the way of garlic breath. There are enough embarrassing high school memories, but mostly really awesome ones, and I wanted to keep it that way. 

    More on my high school friends. I attended Townsend HS at Queens College in Flushing, NY, a specialized school for Liberal Arts and I can only say that I am so extremely proud of calling myself a THHS alumnus. I am so excited but not surprised at how well everyone is doing because I went to school with such bright people who fulfilled their potential to be where they are right now doing really inspiring things. (I hope my grammar and latin is correct because if it isn't I know someone from high school will be correcting it.)

PASTA WITH BROCCOLI

1 head of broccoli cleaned and trimmed into bite size pieces

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 lb. spaghetti

extra virgin olive oil

peperoncino

salt and pepper

In a medium size pot bring salted water to a boil. Add the broccoli and boil for about 5 minutes until its almost soft, then add you spaghetti. Cook until the pasta is al dente, then drain. Put the pasta with broccoli back into the pot and add the garlic, plenty of extra virgin olive oil, peperoncino, salt and plenty of fresh ground black pepper. The garlic will steam very nicely in the hot mixture. 

COLLARD GREENS WITH BACON

Another purely local dish. Collard Greens from the Woodside CSA, sauteed in lard, fresh garlic from the Union Square Farmer's Market, some peperoncino, then steamed in the pan for a few minutes and finally topped with bacon from the Flying Pigs Farm. It was nice and peppery and irresistibly baconey.

After hours at Una Pizza

   Ever wonder what the chef and wait staff at your favorite restaurant eat? Mike and I were honored to join our friends, the staff of Una Pizza Napoletana, the best pizzeria in the world, for a spectacular after hours meal. Apparently they don't eat pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner like we imagined, although that would be perfectly acceptable because of how divine it is.

    Owner, pizzaiuolo and great friend Anthony Mangieri bought fresh produce, meat and cheese that day from the Union Square Farmer's Market and cooked most of the meal in his 900 degree custom built wood burning pizza oven.

    On any give night Una Pizza runs like a well-oiled machine, so we were laughing while watching Anthony and Greg having "meetings" each time they put a new dish in the oven. 

    They prepared amazing local asparagus and bok choy in the oven and two types of chorizo, a hot chorizo David brought and a chorizo from Flying Pigs Farm. That day I also bought some unbelievable bacon at Flying Pigs Farm in Union Square and after asking if they were nice to their pigs, they explained that the pigs are well-treated and spend their days outdoors, pastured in fields and in the woods. Nice.

    We enjoyed the freshest hard boiled eggs from the Queens County Farm Museum. After eating local farm fresh eggs, its really hard to enjoy store bought eggs. The yolks were so vibrantly orange, rich and delectable.

    David's girlfriend, who lives in Queens (I always have to point out anything Queens), prepared authentic Mexican tortillas. They were so good I didn't get a chance to photograph them before we ate them all, but he did bring them in a dedicated tortilla tupperware.

   And, I single handedly polished off the cheese plate, which included an amazing buffalo ricotta. 

     For dessert I brought this Mixed Berry Cobbler with a Short Bread Crust, which from the way it turned out, is not worth mentioning. I decided to go with this dessert because its made in a cast iron skillet and in line with  pizza oven theme. 

     Its not that it was that bad, but not as amazingly magical as the the original recipe that I modified that evening to make it less buttery. Paul Dean would strangle me if she heard! Its not because I didn't want it buttery, I just didn't have enough butter in the house (the recipe calls for 2 sticks!) so I used some earth balance. I also didn't have enough granulated sugar so I substituted some powdered sugar. And the flour I had was a weird "White Whole Wheat Flour" (I don't even know what that means?). The berries, spiked with Jim Beam were really tasty but the crust suffered a bit and bringing a bad crust to a place that specializes in making outstanding pizza crust is a mala figura. Next time I will walk the 1 block to the store to get the missing ingredients.

    The reason I mention the Berry Cobbler is because the recipe surfaced after we discovered a grove of wild blueberry bushes while hiking in Pennsylvania with Yui and Miguel. We collected all the berries we could carry and I looked up this Berry Cobbler recipe of Emeril's. It came out unbelievable. I can still remember how it tastes. I made it a second time, and it was even better. So I didn't think there would be a problem a third time.

    After warming it in the pizza oven and serving it with fresh vanilla ice cream, everyone seemed to enjoy it and there were second helpings involved so thats a good sign. And Anthony saved the leftovers for the little old Sicilian ladies who live upstairs. I have never met them but I know I love them. 

    What made this a truly remarkable and memorable meal aside from the outstanding quality, freshness and taste of all the local fare served family style right out of the pizza oven was the great company, our wonderful friends, whom we were relieved to sitting down and enjoying a great meal after a long night on their feet serving the best pizza in the world. Did I already say that? Well, its true!