Lee's Chopping (on April, 31st)

I realized one thing today: haute cuisine is not sustainable. Take for example a tomato: Paolo does not uses canned tomatoes, but prefers fresh ones for best quality. So these tomatoes are peeled and de-seeded, a process in which you take out all the pulp and the seeds. Which is of no big matter when you have these watery, greenhouse-grown, never-have-seen-the-sun-or-touched-the-soil tomatoes. The nice, juicy tomatoes I was peeling though were full of red pulp that actually looked quite yummy. Not being able to throw food out, I put all of it in an extra bowl, figuring if no one else uses it, it would be my dinner, sexed up with a splash of Cosimo's extra virgin olive oil and Guido's balsamic dressing sauce.

When it came to prepare a fast pasta for the staff, Paolo grabbed the bowl to cook a quick pasta sauce with it. One which I actually thought was very yummy - what else can you expect when a great chef like Paolo cooks. So while I was munching happily (great food and I saved the planet having saved the pulp!) Paolo came up to me and inquired: "so, what do you taste?" "Homemade egg pasta, with a dash of tomato sauce and shrimps??" I answered shyly. He shaked his had as a response and patiently pointed out to me that the sauce had a much higher acidity than it would have, if I had used only the outer tomato. Turns out the inside pulp is much more acid, so if you want to get the best of the sunny tomato taste in a dish, you need not use the inside pulp.

So learning for myself and everyone who is interested: when you want to bring out the best in your tomato based dish, do not use the pulp. You can put it aside and use it the next morning to spice up your breakfast omelette! j985ktbscm

Lee's Chopping (on Thursday, April, 16th)

Yesterday's evening at the Locanda Montalto was absolutely worth all the hard work Pablo and Valeria have put me through, cause they let me prepare the "pomodorini confit" AND even allowed to share the recipe with you! They are dried cherry tomatoes spiced up with cinnamon, salt, sugar and thyme, and they are just delicious. Very nice little detail for a simple pasta or served on small slices of bread as - almost - "vegetable petit fours". You just take ripe and tasty cherry tomatoes, cut them in half, set them side by side (cut part up) on a cookie sheet, sprinkle them with olive oil, fresh thyme, sugar, salt and freshly ground cinnamon and then put them in the oven for 90 min at 210°F.

You can prepare a bunch and keep them for a week in a sealed container in the fridge! They are looking very sexy (and tasting very yummy) with pasta dishes – add them to sauces whose taste arrives a little later, like mushrooms… The tomato has an immediate sweetness that is a great overture to the mushroom to come! Or cut them into smaller pieces, mix with some olive oil and serve on crostini. Make sure you use a dense bread! mmmhhhh........jammm!

Lee's Chopping (on Thursday, April, 9th)

Another Thursday, another day in Paolo's kitchen. I have to say, I only really started to appreciate the hard work professional cooks put into preparing our (the customers') meals, since I chop, clean and stir at the restaurant La Locanda Montalto here in San Miniato. You might have enjoyed readings such as "Kitchen Confidential" or "Devil in the kitchen" (and they ARE good reads), but being in the middle of the (organized) madness is an experience.

This Thursday we started preparing for the long Easter weekend and I can know add “cutting up 180 lamb cutlets” to my experience. Quite an exercise and one interesting learning: do not use your best knife for cutting the cutlets, as you might ruin the blade with the bones. Better keep a more robust one on hand for the occasion! Thanks to Valeria my good Japanese knife is still alive and chopping.

Oh, and what a fabulous feeling: as we were overrun by guests that evening (kind of unexpected as the days running up to the traditional easter feasts are usually slow), I got to manage the line for the dolci (desserts)… Although much of it was just finishing off the dishes with the individual components already prepared in the line, I felt extremely proud when I called out “via” – indicating to Ilaria that she could serve the plates to the guests….