Shoestring Gourmet: Cooking Contest Special

By Alan Gore

Our May Shoestring, at the lovely Old Phoenix-style home of Linda and Gerry Brazelton, featured the cuisine of northern Italy. No red checks or tomatoes in sight – just rich piedmontane food and the music of that celebrated Tuscan, Andrea Bocelli.

As our hosts opened the first crisp Frascati and Valpolicella wines, we started with Kebba Buckley’s homemade Italian bread dipped in olive oil and Romano cheese. Linda Brazelton served polenta: corn meal, raisins, pine nuts, and four colors of bell pepper. Gerry Brazelton responded with a gnocchi with spinach and sweet Italian sausage with penne. This was followed by Jim Morgan & Marilyn McDonald’s pork ravioli with truffle oil and Parmesan. Syd Golston prepared cavolfiore frito (fried cauliflower) in Parmesan batter. Our new editor, Glenn Case, followed with lamb, browned in oil and rolled in flour with wine & chicken broth, with homegrown lemon sauce. All was accompanied by the fine red wines of the region, then capped off with Marilyn’s sumptuous tiramisu and Syd’s unusual lemon liqueur from Milan, Maglia di Limoni.

In June, we go for the unusual. As you know if you’re a Gourmet regular, Jim Morgan made the final round of a cooking contest held for the PBS Master Chef show, and was sent to New York to cook for the contest on the air. The show will air on PBS at 1:30 Saturday, June 17. We will prepare food related in some way to the show, and meet at 1 pm on the appointed date so we can watch the show as we get ready to eat. We will meet at Syd Golston’s home, but please be sure to call Jim Morgan at 480-831-2170 by Thursday, June 15 to coordinate the dishes.