Blackberry Gobble Gobble

 

So we were at the grocery store on Sunday.  Do you ever notice how crowded the store is on Sunday??  (we need to start shopping on Tuesday).  Anyway, we were in the fruit section and decided to get some blackberries because they were on sale.  We said we would figure out what to do with them when we got home.  And so we decided to make a cobbler!  The great thing about cobbler is that it is waaay easier to make than a pie.  And you can make it on a whim with ingredients you already have.  And it’s also yummy.

Apparently there is a great debate over what is a “true” cobbler.  There are several different variations out there:  a cake with fruit interspersed throughout; fruit with a pie crust over the top (so…a pie without the bottom crust); or fruit with biscuits resting on top.  My personal favorite?  Isn’t it obvious?  Biscuits of course!

Do you know what is the hardest part of making a cobbler?  Finding a recipe.  I had a heck of a time finding a cobbler recipe of the biscuit variety that only called for 2 cups of berries (because that’s all I had) and didn’t use cream or buttermilk (cause I didn’t have those).  I eventually settled on this one.

The first step is to sprinkle the berries with sugar and let them sit for about 30 minutes.  This lets them release their juices a little bit.  There’s also some lemon juice, cinnamon, and tapioca in there.  The tapioca is just a thickener.  You could also use cornstarch, but it will give it a cloudy appearance.

Onto my favorite part:  the biscuits.  You thought the berries were the star of this show?  This is all standard stuff:  flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. 

Cut in some butter.  Add milk.  Oh yeah, this recipe also called for one egg.  I don’t normally put eggs in my biscuits, but I can only imagine that it makes it more tasty!

Then you just dollop the biscuit dough on top of the berries before putting it in the oven.

Out of the oven.  Oh no!  A mouse took off with some of my cobbler!

So easy.  So delicious.  Add some vanilla ice cream and it’s even better! 

More Roma? No Problema!

 

Ok, so we’re going to milk the Rome thing for one more post.  We’ll get back to cooking soon!  Here’s a peak at some of the delicious bites we had in Rome.  We didn’t take pictures of *everything,* but rest assured that it was all delicious! 

We’ll start with breakfast.  This is what we ate every morning – a croissant (usually filled with chocolate) and a cup of cappuccino.  Mas typical!

Or perhaps an espresso.  Buono.

And now we’ll skip straight to dessert:  pistachio gelato!

Or perhaps you prefer coconut and mango gelato?

Or maybe a tiramisu if you’re feeling down?

Ok fine, a chocolate and pistachio crepe!

Let’s switch to pizza.  Only half a pizza for you!  This one has anchovies and capers.

The Italians eat their pizza with a knife and fork.  They are so civilized!

This is a pepperoni pizza with arugula.  Although, there is no pepperoni in Italy…they call it “American spicy sausage.”

This is an aerial view of the pizza oven that made that last pizza.  Cool, huh?

Here’s a charcuterie plate:  a couple different salamis, cheeses, olive, sundried tomatoes, and eggplant.

This is a chickpea soup.  It was awesome!  Chickpea in Italian is “cece” (pronounced che-che)

This is risotto with asparagus pesto, mussels, and dried tuna flake.  It was also awesome!  We ended up taking it home because we were too full, and then we ate the leftovers on the side of the road on our way to St. Peter’s Basilica.  It was the fanciest picnic lunch ever!

Sometimes simple food is the best.  This is cheese and spinach ravioli with a creamy tomato sauce.

A “Roman style” artichoke (because that’s a thing).

Puntarelle Salad – a roman green served raw and dressed in anchovy

Some fancy appetizers:  fried squash blossom and a fried risotto ball.  Because after you’ve gone to the trouble of making risotto, you might as well take it one step further and fry it!  The fried Risotto ball is called “Suppli al Telefono,” because when you break one in half, the cheesiness causes little strings between the halves that look like telephone lines.

And lastly, Pasta Amatriciana.  I know you’ve seen this before, but it wouldn’t be Rome without another bowl of it!

I’mma treatcha to Amatriciana

 

We.  Live.  Again. It’s been a while, but we’re back with style!

Things got a little hectic around here what with the holidays.  Also, we took a bit of a food-finding mission to Rome.  Whilst in Rome, we were determined to eat as the Romans do, and boy did we!

One dish we sampled was Pasta Alla Amatriciana.  This is not a dish we had really heard of or experienced before, but apparently it is one of the simple staples of a Roman repast.  When we got back, we knew we had to take a crack at making it!

There are a couple of variants of this dish.  With onions or without.  With spaghetti noodles? rigatoni? or the Roman favorite, the unwieldy bucatini?

The constants however are: tomatoes, pecorino romano, and guanciale.

Now, what, you might ask, is guanciale? 

Guanciale is like bacon, but made from the pig’s cheek instead of its belly and cured in salt instead of smoked.  It brings great flavor to the sauce.  It’s like spaghetti with bacon, but better.  It is also VERY hard to find in Austin, Texas.  Luckily, a local specialty cheese store also has an excellent charcuterie selection.

A dicey proposition!  As you can see, this is some fatty bacon.  The recipe we used (sorry, no link) had a novel solution to efficiently render the fat.

The diced guanciale simmers in 1/2 cup of water until the water evaporates completely.  The water helps evenly distribute the heat and allows a good deal of fat to render prior to browning.

Once the water is gone and only the grease remains, you fry the guanciale until golden and crispy.

Then, to the same pan, add red pepper flake and tomato paste.

Then add red wine, canned tomatoes, and the guanciale and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Another (strange) trick we picked up from the recipe is to take the cheese that we want to incorporate into the pasta and combine it with some of the rendered guanciale fat. This makes it easier to distribute the cheese throughout the hot noodles without it clumping.  It also adds more pork flavor!

Spaghetti, ‘natch.  Bucatini (long noodles with a hollow center) is preferred by the Romans, but it’s not easy to find and it’s a mess to eat.  You get it all wound up on your fork, and on the way to your mouth it unwinds and whips sauce all over your shirt!

Ahhh, buona sera!  A delightful and hearty dish.