Your whole meal sounds delicious!
First night of visit to fam. Surprisingly meh dinner of steak and salad. Kids ate mexican - cheese quesadillas and black beans. I ate half a bagel (I carried some of course) late to compensate.
Not much cooking this weekend probably, they have a busy couple of days.
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What a lovely combination. It’s not one that I have seen in the U.S. I want to try making mussels and paccheri sometime!
While I too would omit cheese, one of my little tricks is combining panko bread crumbs, olive oil, and Parmesan grated with a microplane as a topping for baked white fish filets or scallops. I don’t use enough Parmesan for the flavor to be detectible—it just adds richness to the topping. Shhh, please don’t tell anyone. 
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We had a planned dinner out at our favorite Italian restaurant with a group of friends last night. Inspired by Barca’s beautiful mussel and pasta dish, I got a craving for our famous Penn Cove mussels up here in Washington state. They happened to have them paired with fresh clams in a slightly spicy tomato and fennel broth. Absolutely delicious preparation and paired with grilled bread. Only 3 out of the 6 of us eat them, with one friend wanting only the clams. So I had a goodly share of mussels, which satisfied my hankering. Had a fantastic salad with Gorgonzola dressing, followed by Arctic Char, one of my favorite fishes and sustainable too. It was served on a bed of parsnip with a vanilla gastrique, and a delicious kumquat chutney or relish. Truly fabulous and perfectly cooked. It was a special and wasn’t printed, so I’m trying to remember the exact description and names of the various elements of the dish. I may have left out an ingredient or misused a term, but you get the idea. Excellent wines to drink and lots of stories and laughs. Ate. Every. Bite. Everything but the tiramisu which I was too full to finish. Fixing to eat the rest of it now. The evening was the best medicine ever! Sorry for no pics, we were having too much fun. One of the group took a pic of the exceptional wine we drank, which I’ll try to post in the wine thread tomorrow.
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BF’s turn to cook tonight. Chicken and mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce over some novelty red chili fettuccine that we bought in one of those overpriced Italian specialty shops ages ago. And homemade breadsticks (out of this world!). This is why I’ll never be thin.
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Would you mind sharing the recipe for the breadsticks or posting a link @gcaggiano? I wasn’t thrilled with the ones I made several years ago. Pasta looks delicious as well. One of my favorite preps with the mushrooms.
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PORK TENDERLOIN, CLASSIC FLORENCE, ITALY … LUNCH SATURDAY 29th February.
ITALIAN PORK TENDERLOIN CLASSIC OF FLORENCE, TUSCANY …
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Super grissini = bread sticks …
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The fresh mussels and clams ( my preferred ) in a fennel broth sound amazing.
Glad you enjoyed !
Have a nice wkend.
Sounds very appetising …
I decided 1 Mediterranean long lunch of pork tenderloin was enough for 1 day …
Breakfast on Saturdays is always pantomaca (toasted bread of choice with a fresh tomato salsa spread with a drizzle of Evoo & a sprinkle of salt ) … Double Espresso … and a fresh squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice …
Have a lovely wkend.
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Our first 80 degree day yesterday and I had a craving for chicken noodle soup. 
So, I grabbed a rotisserie bird. Made a quick stick with carrots, celery, the chicken wings and legs, and a spoon of BTB chicken base. drained everything out of the stock, and added fresh carrots, celery, parsley, and fresh egg noodles. This was today’s cup for lunch so it was a bit less soupy, but still yummy.
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You had me at Mediterranean long lunch. Perfect. 
And now you’ve inspired another breakfast idea, with your pantomaca.
Cheers to the rest of your weekend!
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I slow-cooked galbi-tang today while we were out canvassing. The short ribs were a bit greasy/gamey, so I’d just use chuck roast next time.
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Dinner tonight was shrimp entoffe.
This is my twist on the classic recipe
finely diced 4 stalks of celery with leaves, 1 green pepper, 3 yellow and red sweet mini peppers that is sautéed till soft in Evoo, medium heat, then I added precaramelized onions and preroasted garlic in Evoo from freezer. Set aside.
To same skillet, I added 4 tbsp.butter, 4 tbsp peanut oil, and 1/4 cup four to make a medium roux. Stir under low-medium heat.
Mix vegetable to roux,
To this, I added a cup of home grown and oven roasted ( 3 hours tomato sauce ( from freezer), 2 cups of shrimp shell broth, 3 bay leaf, pinch of smoked paprika, tabasco, tin of anchovy in Evoo , zest and juice of a lemon, then added 2 bs of 16-20 count unshelled patagonia red shrimp , 1/4 lb shelled shrimp , ( I personally love shrimp with shell on as the goodness of the sauce sticks to it but son prefers his shelled. The shrimp shells were split so the sauce would coat the shrimp) ) This is added for a few minutes until the shrimp turned red as Patagonia shrimp can become overcooked. Added a glass of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio. Adjusted seasoning with salt and Worcestershire. Stirred a teaspoon of fine gumbo file at the end of cooking.
Fonds of fennel before serving for garnish although I did not show as son stirred the pot.
Served with coconut rice and Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio
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Yes I will ask the baker for it!
Dinner with mom tonight since the BF is at work. Costco rotisserie chicken in the oven after a long day at work, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus. She chipped in with cauliflower croquettes.
Down with one Old Fashioned. Working on the second.
There may be pics later.
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Last night was a great dinner of tapas, sangria, and Licor 43 at Dali with several friends. Good to get out and be sociable, as well as enjoy good food and drink.
Even though I swore I was going to eat out of my freezer until it emptied out a bit, I couldn’t pass up getting several packages of split chicken breasts at $.99/lb. at Hannaford. I’ll figure out where to put them tomorrow, said Scarlett.
Roasted up 2 of 'em in the convection oven with minced rosemary, garlic, s/p, and a squidge of lemon juice tucked under the skin, with lemon juice and s/p on top.
The lone side was sauteed green beans, red bell pepper, and shallots with a blend of Penzeys Mural of Flavor, orange zest, and s/p sprinkled in at the end.
Yup. Wine.
(Pictures uploaded from my laptop)
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