culinary flights of fancy

Home Cooking Adventures in Berkeley Heights

Tag Archives: Mario Batali


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Products Worth Mentioning: America Farm to Table By Mario Batali

My wife bought this book for me and I love it thus far.  I started reading it last week and it’s great.  I haven’t cooked a recipe from it yet but they look interesting and creative…exactly what you would expect from Mario Batali.  The best part of the book, however, is that contains anecdotes regarding farms and farmers from around the country.  The farm to table movement isn’t new but it has certainly gained steam in recent years and this book celebrates the farm, eating seasonally and locally produced food/ingredients, etc.  If you read this blog regularly you know that I’m a fan of farmer’s markets and getting ingredients as directly from the source as possible and that’s the reason I was interested in reading this book…and it doesn’t disappoint in that way.  At any rate, it’s a good read and certainly worth your time if you are interested in purchasing another cookbook.

…and a little housekeeping:  recipes for chili, a classic French apple tart straight from culinary school, apple butter, pita bread, and curing your own bacon are all forthcoming.  Winter vegetable salad is on the horizon as well.  Putting that out there will hopefully set expectations so that I can keep to a schedule and catch up on writing the recipes and getting them to you!  I’m woefully behind and I apologize for that.  This fall has been crazy busy…I’m not sure where the time goes but it certainly is moving quickly these days.  Anyway, stay tuned for new recipes and I hope all is well with everyone!


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Mario Batali’s Olive Oil Gelato recipe (from Otto)

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First things first:  as the title suggests, this is not my recipe.  I really have never messed with making ice cream or gelato except while in culinary school.  Things change and I have put my big toe into the frozen dessert pool.  I made up a recipe using farm fresh strawberries, balsamic vinegar, and cracked black pepper to get the ice cream party started.  It turned out well but it wasn’t as creamy as it might have been (which frankly was my error for cutting back on sugar and probably not allowing the custard to get to the proper temperature before cooling but live and learn).  My next great ice cream experiment HAD to be Otto’s Olive Oil Gelato.  Tara and I have gone there a good number of times…great place.  It’s a casual pizza/pasta eatery with great charcuterie, fabulous bread, a great wine list and the beat goes on.  Anyway, one of the most wonderful unexpected treats came out of our first visit to Otto.  We ordered a trio of gelatos and our waiter strongly encouraged us to try the olive oil.  Up to that point, I’d never thought of olive oil as a flavoring for a frozen dessert nor had I ever tried anything like it.  So, loving olive oil and with a sense of adventure we decided to take the recommendation and dive in head first into olive oil gelato.  Our decision ended up working out.  If anything, the waiter probably undersold just how good the olive oil gelato is there.  In my opinion it’s nearly perfect.  We have gone back to Otto a good number of times since and every time, we don’t leave without ordering a scoop.  As an aside, if you are in the city, you can swing by Otto restaurant and buy the real thing in quarts to go.

When I made this recipe, it turned out great.  It was creamy and smooth.  It was buttery with a hint of pepper from the olive oil and it had the sugary vanilla custard flavor as well.  This is not a time to skimp on olive oil…break out the good stuff as the taste is front and center.  Let’s face it, with 10 egg yolks, 4.5 cups of good cream and whole milk, and a half a vanilla bean in the mix, you may as well go for it with regard to your olive oil choice.  This is a decadent dessert and using the best quality ingredients you can really will make the difference (which is basically true for every dish you’ll ever cook but that’s ok).  Of note for my batch, I used sel gris for the salt.  I’m loving this type of salt and will post more about it in the coming days but it’s definitely become my new favorite friend. 

Here’s the link for the gelato recipe.  Enjoy!  http://www.iloveicecream.net/recipes/gelato/olive-oil-gelato/

Oh, and a special thank you to Kay and Tony Charvat, my Mother-in-Law and Father-in-Law.  They gave us our ice cream maker when we moved into Berkeley Heights and I’ve definitely been enjoying it!

 


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Coming Soon…after some delay:

Sorry for the long delay!  I had surgery and between recovery and everything else, time just escaped my grasp.  However, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t in the kitchen.  In the coming days, I’ll have recipes posted for a great Cowboy ribeye, olive oil gelato (that’s Mario Batali’s but I’ll still share my experience and his link), a trio of bread toppings made from seasonal vegetables, scapes and scape mayonnaise, my grandmother’s cinnamon roll recipe…modified a bit, and a really great recipe/method for cooking a fresh ham!  That and possibly more in the next few days…promise.  I’ll get some of this posted later today.