Sunday Dinner!

Sartu
Porchetta
Acorn Squash

The first dish made this weekend was sartu, a savory meat pie with risotto as a crust. I found this recipe perusing through the Silver Spoon (THE Italian cookbook if any of you are looking for a comprehensive encyclopedia of Italian cuisine) a while back and earmarked it for future reference. With the fall being in full swing my annual shepherds pie cravings have begun. I immediately remembered this recipe for a classic Neapolitan timbale using risotto as a crust instead of pasta and decided to give it a try.

Risotto for crust
4 cups arborio rice
4 cups beef stock
2 cups tomato sauce (reused ragu from last week!)

Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Pecorino Romano


Filling
1/2 lb ground lamb
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb Italian style sausage, casing removed
1 cup fresh peas
1 yellow onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, finely minced
3 cups of day-old bread
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3 large sized portobello mushrooms, cubed in to 1/2" squares
1/2 cup red wine
Fresh sage, minced
Fresh Rosemary, minced
2 eggs
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Pecorino Romano
Scant 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs

First brown the ground meat completely over medium heat, breaking up pieces in to a fine mix. Drain liquid and reserve, set meat aside to cool. Cube the bread up in to 1" squares and put in bowl, cover with milk and let soak for about 10 minutes. Heat olive oil in pan on medium flame, add onions and saute until translucent - about 10 minutes. Add mushrooms and peas, cook until mushrooms have reduced in size by half. Add garlic and herbs, saute for another 5 minutes. Add red wine and cook off most of the liquid. Add sauteed mixture to meats and mix well. Remove bread from milk and squeeze liquid out. Add bread to mixture, mix well, cover and set aside to cool.

To make risotto, first heat olive oil in pan over medium flame. Add rice and cover grains with oil. Stir and toast over flame. Heat stock, tomato sauce, and water almost to a boil. Gradually add a ladle of stock mixture to rice and stir, allow liquid to absorb and then add another ladle. Continue process until rice has increased in size and has cooked until almost al dente. Add cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Use oil or butter to grease a dutch oven or casserole dish and lightly dust with breadcrumbs. Cover bottom of pan with layer of risotto. Add 2 eggs to filling and mix well. Put meat filling in center of dish on top of risotto.

Cover the remaining opening with risotto, then bake in oven uncovered for 45-60 minutes.

Porchetta

This is a dish famous throughout Italy and among Italian ethnic communities around the world. Traditionally made using a whole, deboned pig, I took the easy way out and used a skinless pork belly and boneless pork loin roast. Now, I really hate pork loin roasts with a passion. I think that generally as a cut of meat it just stinks for cooking - too lean, gets dried out too fast, and makes terrible leftovers to boot. I took two precautions to make sure that this pork belly wasn't stuffed with pork-like sawdust. The first thing has already been mentioned, using a pork belly to wrap around the loin to keep it safe. The second thing was inspired by the farsumagru last week - butterflying out the loin and stuffing it. Using extra virgin olive oil, herbs and pecorino romano cheese further adds depth of flavor and a source of moisture for the otherwise uninteresting loin. Tie it up with some butchers twine and we've got a party.

Porchetta

5 lbs pork belly

4 lbs pork loin, butterflied out

8 garlic cloves

white wine

Olive oil

Salt 

Pepper

Pecorino romano

To make herb stuffing finely dice out herbs and mince garlic. Mix together and add olive oil until the herbs reach a paste-like consistency. Add pecorino romano, salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350. Lay the butchers twine out with 4-5 strings in parallel and one longer one crossing through the middle of them all. Spread the pork belly across the twine. Cover pork belly with herb paste. Lay pork loin on pork belly. Cover loin with herb paste. Roll pork loin up and place on edge of pork belly. Wrap pork belly around the loin roast and tie up with twine. Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven and brown all sides of the porchetta. Drop in leftover twigs of parsley, rosemary and sage in to pot, cover bottom of pan with dry white wine. I baked the roast uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes, dropped it down to 325 for 75 minutes, and finished it at 375 for 30 minutes. I can't really say if all that temperature switching helped specifically, but I was determined not to dry out the pork loin and I have to say, I was very happy with the results.

The acorn squash was done up with some olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and sage infused clarified butter, and baked underneath the roast.

Notes on the NPC New Englands - congratulations to all of the competitors in all divisions, and a big applause for Raleigh! Although the big guy didn't finish as high as we were hoping, it was a great show and an awesome introduction to the heavyweight class for him. The competition is steep and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how hes going to adapt and grow to compete at a higher level.

Last 4 weeks out of the Moultonborough powerlifting meet and looking forward to a good week of work and training...