Summer Nights Ensue...

Come for a casual dinner

Social life in a small Tuscan town makes me think of my father’s expression, “This will kill the weak and cripple the mighty.” Hard to grasp the round of “come for drinks,” “let’s have lunch,” or best of all, dinners under the stars in a moonlit garden. Everyone is planning a party. Constantly. We do too, and this week we launched summer with two back-to-back dinner parties. This is such a good plan, if you have the stamina, as most dishes can be prepared at once for both parties. Back to back, the flowers, candles, cheeses and other preprandial tastes can be handled once. Here’s how I started the summer round of dinners.

I’m enamored with the variations of involtini di pollo, rolled chicken breasts, which my friend chef Silvia Baracchi introduced me to. I have innovated around the classic recipe successfully. Here’s a basic recipe:

Serves 6 or more

12 boneless chicken breasts of medium to small size, flattened with a mallet or the bottom of a glass

12 slices prosciutto

1/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts

8-10 oz. Gorgonzola

Salt, pepper to taste

Flour

Extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup white wine

1 T each thyme and sage leaves, slivered

Lay a slice of prosciutto on each breast, spread with Gorgonzola, and press in the nuts. Add salt and pepper. Roll each breast and lightly dredge with flour, securing the rolls with twine. Sauté on all sides in evoo on medium high heat, then turn down the heat until cooked through, about ten minutes. Turn up the heat and add the wine, bringing it to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes or so. Serve with a sprinkle of herbs.

I have loved trying variations of the stuffing:

Thin slices of Tallegio and prosciutto

Parsley, pear slices, Gorgonzola

Breadcrumbs, pesto, chopped tomatoes

Artichokes and Parmigiano-Reggiano

Zucchini, mozzarella, sage

Involtini, rolled up! This method is quite popular in rural Tuscany. Any of the chicken suggestions can be accomplished with slices of eggplant as well. I often roll eggplant slices with mozzarella and prosciutto, bake, and then serve with a spicy tomato sauce. This is in my The Tuscan Sun Cookbook.

Roasted vegetables! On my list at least once a week in summer—a huge oven full. Start with thickly-sliced fennel and onions, and a handful of peeled garlic. Toss in a bowl with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper then spread it on one end of the baking sheet. Sprinkle with thyme, rosemary, marjoram. Roast at 380 or so degrees for ten minutes, then add prepared peppers and carrots, also tossed well in evoo. Continue roasting for fifteen minutes, then give halved cherry tomatoes and sliced zucchini their turn in the evoo. Another fifteen minutes should let everything arrive at its best moment.

I learned from my friend Gilda to put the mixed vegetables, once roasted, into a baking dish, top with crunchy breadcrumbs and grated parmigiano, and reheat in the oven just before serving. Leftovers are grand in focaccia sandwiches.

The other vegetable I served at these inaugural dinners: green beans steamed with chopped shallots and a tablespoon of fresh tarragon, then tossed with my precious extra virgin olive oil. I pull these out of the fridge the next day and add to salads or just stand there eating them cold!

From the Sicilian cookbook I mentioned in my last post, I tried the almond cookies from the famous Sicilian baker, Maria Grammatico. What a surprise. Her pretty, pale domes, in my result, were flattened and crunchy. Probably because I used sugar that was organic and not really white. And I think I didn’t chill the dough well enough.

Here’s Maria Grammatico’s Almond cookie recipe that I found in Food from an Ancient Island by Manuela Darling-Gansser:

1 pound (450 grams) peeled almonds

1 pound superfine sugar

3 egg whites

1 T honey

1 T lemon zest (organic)

Confectioner’s sugar for dusting, if desired

Whir the almonds and half the sugar in the food processor until powdery. Add the remaining ingredients and pulse to mix well. This is so easy! (The recipe calls for moving the dough into a bowl before adding the remaining sugar, honey, lemon and mixing it with your hands.)

Shape the dough into three balls and chill well in a covered bowl—an hour or so. Form the dough into rounds about the size of a cherry tomato. Bake on parchment-lined sheets for 10-12 minutes. Dust with XXXX sugar, or not. You might want to halve the recipe—this makes around 60 cookies.

The cookbook’s photo of how they were supposed to look!

Whatever I must have done wrong, the results were delectable! The ingredients are the essence of Sicily: almond, lemon, honey. I think it’s the honey that gives an old world taste that transports you to that sunny island. My rogue flat, crispy-edged cookie made a complementary sensation with panna cotta topped with strawberries. For an enhancement of flavors, Gilda—I am so lucky to have a Tuscan queen of the kitchen to learn from—taught me to trim and slice the strawberries, then to muddle about a third of them in a sauté pan with a little sugar until they’re jammy. Add this to the rest of the raw berries. I’m not a big lover of balsamic vinegar, but some would love a tablespoon added to the cooked strawberries.

Dinner with friends, especially under a full Tuscan moon, is prime pleasure. And so summer begins, another blessed season in this paradiso. Last night’s blue moon from our table under the trees:

Notes:

Thanks again for all the good wishes. I am recovered!!

My friend Silvia Baracchi is a Michelin-star chef and the owner of the sybaritic inn Il Falconiere just outside Cortona. It’s a divine place to stay—and eat! Guests can take classes at Silvia’s Tuscan Sun Cooking School.

Read about Maria Grammatico in Bitter Almonds by Mary Taylor Simeti.

The sage green plates on the table are Vietri.