Maggie's Farm

I found a few Cockle shells on the bay beaches of Cape Cod. I have no idea about how plentiful they are, but they are not a commercial shellfish despite tasting the same as clams.

Here's a quick guide to North American clams. 

I've dug plenty of clams in my life, mostly steamers and quahogs.  

This is Irish:

I am in  a life phase when I prefer steamers to oysters or littlenecks. Who knows why tastes change? Mrs. BD and I used to love digging them up in the salt marshes. You can get happily covered with good marsh mud.

I think maybe I have had enough lobsters and oysters for one life. God knows, I have tried to. Photo at Pearl, on Wellfleet Harbor. Fun place. Great live music, excellent seafood, good people-watching.

The Gin Martini. It's the best. These days, I only indulge in this treat about twice yearly. I can't handle alcohol the way I used to.

I like 3 olives, to make it healthy. 

From Roger Angell in 2002:  Dry Martini. The ultimate cocktail, down cold.

I'd bet you all would like one tonight. 

A Sicilian classic as an appetizer, relish, or side.

Not new, just new to me. We've posted about all of the varieties of Italian pestos (?pesti) in the past but this one is worth trying: Olive Pesto. Marcella says it's best with grilled or fried vegetables.

Chop one hard-boiled egg roughly in blender. Add to blender 6or 7 pitted green Italian olives, 2 tablespoons capers, 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, 1 tablespoon wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and plenty of ground pepper. Blend briefly - it should have some chewiness and some creaminess.

Yes, a Grilled Cheese Sandwich is great, especially with some ketchup for dipping. The bread ought to be almost burnt and crunchy.

Almost better, depending on mood, is a Tuna Melt. I don't know about the scallions. I prefer capers or, better, some chopped jalapenos.

Hungry? 

While I will confess that I do kinda like that overly sweet "mint" jelly they have at the supermarket, I have grown to prefer the much more interesting taste of homemade Mint Sauce with legga lamb.

It's the simplest thing in the world to make.

Does it mean anything that so many Christians bring out the lamb for Easter? Is it like Communion, consuming the Lamb of God?

We bought two big ribeyes at Costco a few weeks ago. They were Top Choice, not Prime. I measured them - 3 1/2 inches thick. I forget the weight, but I have never cooked a steak that thick. (I should have put the ruler next to the photo.)  For us, that's 4 meals.

Readers know that pan-seared is the only way to go with good steak, especially ribeye.  Chefs agree. Here's a good discussion of the topic.

Thing is, you can't really pan-sear a piece over 2 inches thick. My chef consultant suggested pan-searing the heck out of it in butter + olive oil, then finish in the oven. She said 130 (F) in the center with the meat thermometer, which I could not find. I thought we had two.

So I seared all sides of it in the cast iron pan (very smokey), and put the pan in the oven at 400 degrees. Winging it.  After 20 minutes, I checked the inside and the meat was not even rare yet. It took a while to get medium-rare. When I checked it again it was perfect. I do remember that meat keeps cooking for a while after you remove it from heat.

Here's Cast Iron Pan-Seared Steak (Oven-Finished)

Tasty. 

I like Black Beans. Goya, from the can. I always add jalapenos to any Black Bean recipe.

Black Bean soup is traditionally served with a scoop of mashed taters, but I like it on top of a pile of white rice. I hate brown rice. To my mind, rice, like pasta, is supposed to be a vehicle for flavor and not a source.

Here's a Black Bean soup recipe. For me, hold the cilantro please. 

Here's an ordinary Black Beans and Rice recipe. No appeal to me.  I like a pile of beans dumped on top of some rice.

While cleaning out some piles of paper, I found a menu from a nice place where we had lunch a couple of years ago in Modica, Sicily. Go there sometime. I know two couples who have done biking tours of Sicily but, for me, a nice car.

I had their Gorgonzola pizza (gorgonzola, pears, and honey), but I like the look of this one with sliced eggs, pancetta, and olives: 

A classic southern Italian secondo: Grilled Octopus with chopped tomatoes.

A Primo which is new to me: LEMON GARLIC CREAM SAUCE

That's the way you prep pasta or gnocchi: Put them in the saucepan with the sauce when they are done.

Salt Cod has been an important export of the northeastern US for centuries. I think most of it went to Spain, Portugal, and Italy.

The main thing to know about salt cod (bacalhao, bacalao, baccala)  is that it has to be well-soaked in water or it will be too salty to eat. 

Here's Pastéis de Bacalhau ~ Salt Cod Fritters

Aioli sauce is best with them. 

Readers know I am not a pasta fan. In America it's a filling thing, but in Italy it's just a little carrier of some tasty sauce as a primo. 

The classic Tuscan pasta is Pici. Can't find it around here. It looks like earthworms.  Here's a pici primo.

Some readers view me as a food snob for disliking Italian-American food. I find it monochromatic, uninteresting, and there is always so much of it that it is unappetizing to look at. OK, for growing kids I guess they need anything in volume.

Sunday Gravy (aka Red Sauce) with meat and meatballs was a traditional Sunday Italian-American feast. I think one of my grandmothers-in-law (who I never knew) made this on Sundays for after Mass. Here's how Rao's makes it:

We are fortunate to have a pasta shop nearby. They make fresh daily, and make takeout meals too.

While I have never seen any meaningful difference between dried spaghetti, linguine, and things like that, fresh ravioli and gnocchi do matter.  These Italian guys make excellent ravioli (many varieties, from pumpkin to mortadella, to cinghiale) and the fluffiest gnocchi.

Last week Mrs. BD decided to cook up a nice Italian supper for her Dad who had just been allowed to leave the old folk's home. I think it was also in gratitude to me for getting rid of at least a third of my stuff (excess boots, clothing, etc.) as we slowly move back into our refurbished living quarters. I noticed that lockdowns for old folks are terrible for them. They lose muscle and balance. For no reason, at this point.

Apperitivo:  Olives and marinated artichoke hearts.

Primo: Fresh gnocchi with gorgonzola cream sauce. About 8 gnocchi per person is plenty.

Secondo: Trieste-style Osso Bucco. It's different.   Spinach in garlic as the contorno.

Vino:  All I had around was some Pinot. I do not have a wine cellar. 

It's a favorite of diving ducks, and of mine. The US lacks tiny European clams and cockles, but we have Cherrystones - small clams.

Clams, shrimp, squid, scallops, mussels. It's the seafood broth that makes it: Seafood Risotto (Risotto ai Fruitti di Mare)

Best idea is to go to an Italian seaport town, and ask for it. 

Some random norceria, cheese, bread, a glass of wine, and thou

And other amazing holiday hot Hors D'oevres

In recent weeks, I have posted lots of Italian food in Italy. 

Without wanting to be a food snob (I am not a "foodie" - I like burgers and pulled pork), I need to explain again that Italian-American food is not to be found in Italy. The latter is an invention mostly by immigrants from southern Italy who were trying to make do. They used lots of pasta to fill people up, same as they did at home. Not a bad invention.

But, for example, try a pizza in Italy. Inedible. A pizza in NYC can be amazing.  

Depending on where you live in the US, "Italian" can mean entirely different things. Generally-speaking, the fancier the restaurant the better unless you love red sauce. I have made the effort to post some real Italian food here on Maggie's over recent weeks. Northern Italian I suppose. I avoid any tomato sauce. I can make southern Italian killer "pasta fazool." Even Mrs. BD says it's better than her Neapolitano grandmother used to make for her grandfather.

This does not really explain it:  Italian-American cuisine

Since we are approaching Christmas, check out our old post about Italian Christmas Eve food. Fried baccala - great. The feast of the seven fishes. I can't find my own old link right now.

The Atlantic Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) lives from the Northeast US down all the way through the Texas coast.

They grow faster and larger in the south, and, in my view, are tasteless.  In fact, they need to be cooked with something to be any good at all.

Our Wellfleet Oysters are the best in the world, raw on the shell. Some afficionadoes call it "merroir," like terroir with grapes: These oysters grow slowly in mostly cold water, are splashed twice daily with fresh water from the Herring River, and spend low tide in the air. A rare combination of things. They are generally not too large.

Due to demand, they are farmed now in commercial oyster beds, although my father-in-law and I have had some fun snagging a bag of them at low tide because there are still some wild ones. (Wear sneakers.) Don't go near the commercial beds or they might kill ya.

Blue Points are second best, but not perfect.  The history of the Wellfleet Oyster