Bitter bites
Artichoke tortilla and fennel salad, olive oil cake, eating alla Milanese
I spent the first week of May in Italy and when I got back to New York I knew I would be fiending for puntarelle salad. I’ve never seen puntarelle here before (though we clearly have a market), so I planned to get any chicory that looked appealing. Of course the coop was brimming with green almonds and pomelos—no radicchio.
There is the tension of the week before you leave for a trip, I think of it as forced economical decadence. I want an empty refrigerator, thus no big grocery shop, but I refuse to order out. This is how I end up eating a tin of Galician octopus1 standing up at 10 PM, dead tired after handwashing all my Yasmine Eslami. And I find the same is true of coming home. I want the fantasy of my own cooking.
So I had my salad: very thinly sliced fennel, dressing with garlic and a mashed anchovy, tiny purple olives. But it would need to be accompanied by something heftier that would keep throughout the week. I bought a bunch of baby artichokes (less of a hassle to clean than the regular size, but I don’t mind the prep. Lest we forget, Life Is A Project!) and roasted them. I’d abstractly been thinking about a tortilla for awhile, and had potatoes, an onion, and eggs.2 Campari over ice in a short glass fit my appetite for bitterness.
I started making olive oil cakes out of convenience of ingredients. Most also don’t require dairy (easy for a crowd), and even after barely paying attention you have a perfect lush, plush thing. I go two ways: chocolate (good cocoa powder is a must), or citrus. When I’ve been able to get fresh bergamots, I’ve tried infusing the zest and juice in the cake, but to me the result is way too floral. Orange, blood orange, or lemon (with lots of zest) are enough. I like the Abraço recipe, but it’s for breakfast only, with the sugar cut down to 2/3 of a cup. I’ve been making it often in a loaf pan—subbing in almond milk. The crust still turns out thick and craggy, a good foil to a double espresso.
Recent eating notes (Italia edition)3:
First night in Florence prosciutto, sliced to order; bread and oil; red wine
Marinated anchovies in Venice; white wine. Smashed onto the bread this was the perfect bite
Finally, risotto alla Milanese
Cornetto con crema; double espresso (birthday breakfast)
Perfectly sized panini (the “Chic” — brie, prosciutto, arugula, and truffle) at Bar Quadronno and baby beer. Is the “Matthieu” is named for Matthieu Blazy?
This one is called “La Curiosa” and is from Despaña in Soho. Expensive, even for a party but…worth it?
Penélope Cruz playing a photographer making a tortilla in Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers (2021). I watched this on a flight a few years ago in a state of romantic upheaval…and I always think of this scene when making tortilla.
And in New York: Roasted chicken with dates and charred lemon; a post-opera hot dog (ketchup, mustard, and relish) at Gray’s; anchovy-olive-garlic pizza; a Hal’s and Modelo nitecap
Bar quadrono!