This started out as a Groundhog’s Day menu with as much chocolate in it as possible from the recipes in my Try file–because my sister has decided that Groundhog’s Day is the chocolate holiday, and who am I to argue with solid logic? But we had to postpone, and it ended up being Valentine’s Day weekend–also chocolate-appropriate. As usual, it’s a challenge to theme a bunch of random recipes from the Try file, so I ended up in the environs of Northern Italy with this menu.
The torte was tricky to make (mostly adapting when I couldn’t find chestnut paste, and getting the chocolate whipped into the cream without seizing) but really worth the effort IMHO; as the recipe doesn’t seem to exist anymore on the Internet, if you’re interested, you can leave a comment with your email and I can send it to you. The shortribs were not at all tricky to make and quite yummy with polenta. The soup was a surprise hit (though I did find the original recipe a bit bland and jazzed it up a bit with lemon juice and white pepper–plus I migrated it from Hippyland into Tuscany by topping with crème fraîche and toasted hazelnuts instead of pumpkin seeds and turmeric). The roasted cabbage converted even the cabbage-dislikers in the group. The Tuscan Martini was the bomb (this recipe is close to ours), and everyone liked the fennel salad with grapefruit (this recipe is close). So, overall, a success.
The Rookery 