For both ec- and gastronomic reasons, Alli and I like to bring a lunch to our day jobs, and for time reasons we often like to make more dinner than we should or could eat and call what’s leftover “lunch.” Well and good, right? But sometimes I feel almost a literal embarrassment at the riches; like, let me set the scene for you:
I’m in day job office kitchen, sitting at day job office kitchen table, eating a lunch of buttery beluga lentils, sautéed Mariquita agretti, and seared duck breast with a red wine sauce. Yum. Enter co-worker, with bag from Subway.
Co-worker: “Oh, what are you having for lunch?”
Co-worker: “…”
That’s often how it goes. This also has caused Alli discomfort—though I do get a kick of how she described being really embarrassed at work one time eating leftover braised oxtails: “It’s boy food!”
Discuss. Or to tide you over:
The bacon they truly crave, a response to PETA from Chef Chris Cosentino
A classic, on beefsteak. (Careful, this one's a PDF)
5 comments:
Ciao Brandon,
Where can I find Agretti? I have been craving those for a while, my grandma used to make them pretty much every day in Italy!
Thanks!
Hi Vanessa!
I wish I knew what to tell you! We get agretti from our CSA box, which we receive from Two Small Farms CSA / Mariquita farms near Watsonville. I had never heard of it before getting the box (though now I see it's in the Silver Spoon under another name), and so far haven't run across it in farmer's markets, much less stores.
I am doing my part to spearhead a full-fledged agretti revival. Okay, it's a small part, you know, just, uh, this blog.
how did your grandma make agretti?
ciao Brandon,
We could head over to email for this (vanessa@italyinsf.com), but in brief: My mum's part of the family is in Tuscany, and grandma used to do them as simple as they get- in a salad, boiled and then served lukewarm or cold with olive oil, slat and lemon juice. I LOVED them... to remind me of the taste I usually cook spinach (boil them, drain them, and then serve them the following day with the same topping. But it's not the same! I will ask my mum for further agretti recipes- stay tuned!
Vanessa
Look what I found for you...
http://www.italiannotebook.com/Notes/agretti.html
Apparently the way grandma used to make them is the typical Italian way!
Have fun!
Vanessa
Great lead on ItalianNotebook.com, especially the notes about the "Girlfriends" recipes from the marketplace like this one: http://italiannotebook.com/lists/archive.php?x=297&listID=2&layoutID=6&pagerows=10&pagenum=2
Yumm!
Post a Comment