(The Tucci Cookbook, page 3)
Grilled Mozzarella Cheese
(The Tucci Cookbook, page 8)
Fettuccine With Asparagus And Shrimp
(The Tucci Cookbook, page 152)
Joanna's Chocolate Refrigerator Cake
(The Tucci Table, page 192)
Isabel's New York Cheesecake Ice Cream
(The Tucci Table, page 199)
As the name of this chapter (The Whole Shebang) suggests, we were about to take on a herculean task ... prepare a birthday dinner, complete with two desserts, for Tom's wife, Tam. This would involve five separate dishes (six, if you include the making of the fettuccine noodles).
The pressure was on ... this had to be good!!
We started the night before, with the two dessert items, both of which needed to be prepared in advance and set aside to cool in the refrigerator. For the chocolate cake, we special-ordered McVitie's Digestive Biscuits and Lyle's Golden Syrup from the U.K.
We had no idea what golden syrup was and when we opened the can we saw the most gorgeous, super-transparent, ultra-thick, liquid sugar we had ever seen.
Michelle poured the syrup into a pan along with four sticks of butter and melted it down into a smooth mixture, and then added cocoa powder, while Tom crushed the digestive biscuits into crumbs. Then we combined all of the ingredients together into a firm dough that we formed into a pan and placed in the fridge.
The next morning, Tom returned from his weigh-in at Jenny Craig (his strategy is to diet during the week and do the culinary adventures on weekends) and began the process of making pasta.
We were frustrated with our lack of success in making pasta for previous recipes. One thing was obvious, we needed to make it flatter and thinner. Another was that our (chicken noodle soup) dough ball was very dry and seemingly needed more kneading before letting it rise.
Our first decision, as we continued our pasta saga, was whether to use the mixer or go old school. With a furled brow and resolute voice, Michelle snapped 'hand-mixed flour nest'. Tom concurred.
With steeled determination, we built a near-unbreakable mound of flour and trepidatiously dropped in four eggs. Michelle super-carefully mixed the eggs with a fork for what seemed hours, then slowly, the eggs became thicker (like batter) and then even thicker yet.
A dough began to form, but it was dry and tended to flake apart. No matter how hard we kneaded, it seemed to defy our efforts. Tom worked on it for ten minutes, but it just wouldn't cooperate.
Someone uttered desperately under their breath, "She's breaking up, Captain."
Indeed, it seemed like a lost cause ...
Then Michelle pulled out her iPhone and Googled 'dry pasta ball'. The solution, it seemed, was easy. Just a few drops of water.
It worked wonders! A beautiful, slightly sticky, pasta ball emerged. We set it aside for forty minutes. It blew our minds that such a simple thing was the solution.
In the meantime, Michelle had brought home more digestive biscuits and decided to make another refrigerator cake, exactly the same as the one we had made the day before, but without the cocoa. Her 'blonde' version turned out great and was set alongside the other one to cool.
We returned to our pasta ball and began the process of making fettuccine. We tore it into segments, patted it flat, and ran it through our pasta-roller. We put it through six times, with each pass, making the setting narrower.
On the seventh and final pass, we ran it through the fettuccine cutter and the result was a massive four-foot long strand of noodles. We laid them out on the kitchen island, cut them to size, and then separated them to dry.
They looked fantastic!!
Tom then moved on to the main course, deveining and peeling the fresh shrimp, while Michelle cut and peeled the asparagus. Neither of us had ever seen or eaten peeled asparagus before.
For best results, it was recommended in the cookbooks that each of the appetizers, as well as the main course, be served immediately after preparation, so we planned accordingly. Our game plan was to serve the dinner in progressive fashion, bruschetta and grilled mozzarella first, then cook and serve the pasta, and then finally, dessert.
The two of us began the two appetizers. Tom grilled the bruschetta bread in olive oil, rather than dry-toasting it, with excellent result. It gave the bread a slightly crispy exterior, but with a melt-in-your-mouth (as opposed to hard) chew. Michelle sliced and diced the toppings. As she finished and plated the bruschetta, Tom made the grilled mozzarella sandwiches by dipping them in whisked egg (like french toast) and lightly pan frying them in olive oil.
Although they were properly cooked (nicely browned), the thick bread slices probably required that the sandwiches be grilled slower in order to get them to heat-through and melt the cheese more completely.
Even as they were, the sandwiches were delicious! Both appetizers were beyond expectation, in fact. We paired them with Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio, 2015, our go-to white wine for casual dining.
Now, the big moment! Michelle dropped our dried home-made pasta into a large pot of boiling water while Tom monitored a timer. They seemed to melt into the water.
We crossed our fingers and waited for precisely three minutes. Then Tom pulled the colander from the pan and set the pasta aside as Michelle began to prepare the asparagus and shrimp sauté.
We used two pans, side by side, so that everything would cook more evenly. It was probably a smart move considering the quantity we were cooking.
As we began to add the fettuccine to the mix, we noted that the pasta stuck together while it was sitting. We agreed that next time, we would add a small amount of olive oil and gently stir it with the noodles after removing them from the water to keep them separated.
It was all coming together now, the pasta glistened in the sauce. As garlic and basil wonderfully wafted throughout the kitchen, we combined our pans into a large serving dish and gave it to Tam as our birthday gift to her.
With baited breath, we took our first bite of the pasta.
Yes. We had done it! Slightly firm, yet tender and flavorful. It was an al-dente masterpiece! Even the shrimp and asparagus were tender and not overlooked. And yes, peeling the asparagus made them less tough and improved the dish.
Oops. We almost forgot. Our dessert encore was served as Tam opened her birthday cards. It was some of the richest and best ice cream we had ever eaten. The refrigerator cakes were like dense sugar brownies (which is exactly what they were), and Michelle was right, the blonde ones turned out better than the chocolate ones.
Tam, our resident 'choco-holic' disagreed.
We high-fived and toasted our meal, particularly that we could share it as part of Tam's birthday celebration!
Carbo-licious!! It was all more than we could take. While the kids crawled off and went into food comas, Tom stayed behind to clean the kitchen (the second part of his birthday gift to Tam).
P.S. Tam couldn't bear to let him wash the dishes alone and helped. She truly is the greatest gift of all.
The pressure was on ... this had to be good!!
We started the night before, with the two dessert items, both of which needed to be prepared in advance and set aside to cool in the refrigerator. For the chocolate cake, we special-ordered McVitie's Digestive Biscuits and Lyle's Golden Syrup from the U.K.
We had no idea what golden syrup was and when we opened the can we saw the most gorgeous, super-transparent, ultra-thick, liquid sugar we had ever seen.
Michelle poured the syrup into a pan along with four sticks of butter and melted it down into a smooth mixture, and then added cocoa powder, while Tom crushed the digestive biscuits into crumbs. Then we combined all of the ingredients together into a firm dough that we formed into a pan and placed in the fridge.
Simple enough.
The author suggested pairing the cake with home-made cheesecake ice cream, thus creating a 'deconstructed cheesecake'. How could we ignore great advice like that?
The author suggested pairing the cake with home-made cheesecake ice cream, thus creating a 'deconstructed cheesecake'. How could we ignore great advice like that?
Tom had hunted down the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker from the top shelf of the kitchen cabinets a few days earlier, and cleaned six years of dust off of it. Tam wisely reminded him that he needed to freeze the mixer bowl for the thing to work.
With the very first step, Michelle and Tom were again reminded that baking is far more difficult than cooking. We needed to beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl and heat it ... 'very gently' ... 'stirring all the time until we had a light custard, thick enough to coat the back of a spoon'.
Huh?
Yes, we could understand literal instructions, but how would we know the difference between a 'light custard' and ... let's say ... a 'medium custard'?
The two of us kept sticking a spoon into the mix and repeatedly looked at the back of it. How thick was thick? We had no idea what we were doing and finally resorted to WWSTD.
We read the recipe further: 'Do not allow it to boil. If it looks like the mixture will separate, DO NOT PANIC! Just pop the pan into a bowl of very cold water and whisk like hell'.
This brought us to a near panic. We stirred like crazy and watched like hawks for some sort of separation, that thankfully, never happened. Instead, it became a delectable custard.
Never had a doubt.
Never had a doubt.
Once it cooled, we added cream cheese, and sour cream too ... and then poured it into our ice cream mixer. The cooking bowls and spatulas were then licked clean.
Thirty-five minutes later, we had a quart of frozen cheesecake custard that tasted out of this world! We put the ice cream in the freezer to let it set up further and hoped that it would survive the night.
-----
The next morning, Tom returned from his weigh-in at Jenny Craig (his strategy is to diet during the week and do the culinary adventures on weekends) and began the process of making pasta.
We were frustrated with our lack of success in making pasta for previous recipes. One thing was obvious, we needed to make it flatter and thinner. Another was that our (chicken noodle soup) dough ball was very dry and seemingly needed more kneading before letting it rise.
Our first decision, as we continued our pasta saga, was whether to use the mixer or go old school. With a furled brow and resolute voice, Michelle snapped 'hand-mixed flour nest'. Tom concurred.
With steeled determination, we built a near-unbreakable mound of flour and trepidatiously dropped in four eggs. Michelle super-carefully mixed the eggs with a fork for what seemed hours, then slowly, the eggs became thicker (like batter) and then even thicker yet.
A dough began to form, but it was dry and tended to flake apart. No matter how hard we kneaded, it seemed to defy our efforts. Tom worked on it for ten minutes, but it just wouldn't cooperate.
Someone uttered desperately under their breath, "She's breaking up, Captain."
Indeed, it seemed like a lost cause ...
Then Michelle pulled out her iPhone and Googled 'dry pasta ball'. The solution, it seemed, was easy. Just a few drops of water.
It worked wonders! A beautiful, slightly sticky, pasta ball emerged. We set it aside for forty minutes. It blew our minds that such a simple thing was the solution.
In the meantime, Michelle had brought home more digestive biscuits and decided to make another refrigerator cake, exactly the same as the one we had made the day before, but without the cocoa. Her 'blonde' version turned out great and was set alongside the other one to cool.
We returned to our pasta ball and began the process of making fettuccine. We tore it into segments, patted it flat, and ran it through our pasta-roller. We put it through six times, with each pass, making the setting narrower.
On the seventh and final pass, we ran it through the fettuccine cutter and the result was a massive four-foot long strand of noodles. We laid them out on the kitchen island, cut them to size, and then separated them to dry.
They looked fantastic!!
Tom then moved on to the main course, deveining and peeling the fresh shrimp, while Michelle cut and peeled the asparagus. Neither of us had ever seen or eaten peeled asparagus before.
For best results, it was recommended in the cookbooks that each of the appetizers, as well as the main course, be served immediately after preparation, so we planned accordingly. Our game plan was to serve the dinner in progressive fashion, bruschetta and grilled mozzarella first, then cook and serve the pasta, and then finally, dessert.
The two of us began the two appetizers. Tom grilled the bruschetta bread in olive oil, rather than dry-toasting it, with excellent result. It gave the bread a slightly crispy exterior, but with a melt-in-your-mouth (as opposed to hard) chew. Michelle sliced and diced the toppings. As she finished and plated the bruschetta, Tom made the grilled mozzarella sandwiches by dipping them in whisked egg (like french toast) and lightly pan frying them in olive oil.
Although they were properly cooked (nicely browned), the thick bread slices probably required that the sandwiches be grilled slower in order to get them to heat-through and melt the cheese more completely.
Even as they were, the sandwiches were delicious! Both appetizers were beyond expectation, in fact. We paired them with Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio, 2015, our go-to white wine for casual dining.
Tam, the birthday girl, and her clean-up crew
Now, the big moment! Michelle dropped our dried home-made pasta into a large pot of boiling water while Tom monitored a timer. They seemed to melt into the water.
We crossed our fingers and waited for precisely three minutes. Then Tom pulled the colander from the pan and set the pasta aside as Michelle began to prepare the asparagus and shrimp sauté.
We used two pans, side by side, so that everything would cook more evenly. It was probably a smart move considering the quantity we were cooking.
As we began to add the fettuccine to the mix, we noted that the pasta stuck together while it was sitting. We agreed that next time, we would add a small amount of olive oil and gently stir it with the noodles after removing them from the water to keep them separated.
It was all coming together now, the pasta glistened in the sauce. As garlic and basil wonderfully wafted throughout the kitchen, we combined our pans into a large serving dish and gave it to Tam as our birthday gift to her.
With baited breath, we took our first bite of the pasta.
Yes. We had done it! Slightly firm, yet tender and flavorful. It was an al-dente masterpiece! Even the shrimp and asparagus were tender and not overlooked. And yes, peeling the asparagus made them less tough and improved the dish.
Oops. We almost forgot. Our dessert encore was served as Tam opened her birthday cards. It was some of the richest and best ice cream we had ever eaten. The refrigerator cakes were like dense sugar brownies (which is exactly what they were), and Michelle was right, the blonde ones turned out better than the chocolate ones.
Tam, our resident 'choco-holic' disagreed.
We high-fived and toasted our meal, particularly that we could share it as part of Tam's birthday celebration!
Carbo-licious!! It was all more than we could take. While the kids crawled off and went into food comas, Tom stayed behind to clean the kitchen (the second part of his birthday gift to Tam).
P.S. Tam couldn't bear to let him wash the dishes alone and helped. She truly is the greatest gift of all.
Next Chapter: The Pelican Brief