Last Saturday night we gathered some current and former Chapter One-ders and another couple who have been friends for years, and celebrated the new cookbook, "Bottega Favorita," by restaurateur Frank Stitts, published by Artisan, and made a night of it.
Chapter One co-owners Russ Lawrence and Jean Matthews hosted and provided the main course and beverages--lots of beverages! They were joined by co-owner Shawn & Laura Wathen, former employee Christine Coffin & her Significant Other Rick Furhman, and friends April & Craig Johnson.
"Bottega Favorita" is an Atlanta restaurant that fuses northern Italian cooking with southern U.S. cooking. The publisher, Artisan, challenged a select handful of bookstores to attempt a dinner party using recipes from the book. We bent the southern U.S./northern Italian fusion a bit further, in an attempt to adapt it to Montana. We think it worked out pretty well--here's how it went:
If you ever wanted to jump-start a party, the Mirtillo (blueberry) Martinis will do the trick. Our variant used huckleberry vodka (made in Idaho, from Idaho spuds!), with frozen huckleberries we collected last August as garnish. That got a good "buzz" established, one that never let up through the course of the evening.
Marinated veggies (Vegetables A La Grecque, p. 23 for those following along in their hymnals) were prepared by April Johnson and her son, Nash, and served with the recommended Sauvignon Blanc, over the protests of those who demanded more of the martinis. Alas, the vodka was drained, every last spud and huckle squeezed from the bottle.
Hostess Jean Matthews showed off the cookbook between courses, and recapped the fisticuffs that took place before the menu was finally settled. There were, of course, no wrong answers.
Roasted Beet Crostini, using local beets, came up next on the menu, providing some crunchy contrasts to the previous course, with a smooth ricotta base loaded with diced beets. Very colorful, very flavorful. Not the best crostini ever, but we had the beets, so why not give it a try?
Salad: Fennel with blood oranges, pistachios, endive, and gorgonzola. A monster. How Laura Wathen came to freeze some pomegranate seeds last fall we'll never guess, but out they came for inclusion in this fabulous salad. Mmmmm, and oh! that gorgonzola cheese!
The main course, prepared by Russ & Jean, was Short Ribs & Oxtails, with gremolata and green olives, in a reduction of sherry, red wine, chicken stock and vegetables. The meat came right off the bone, succulent, rich, and served over a bed of creamy polenta. The recipe also included porcini mushrooms, but we substituted morels, harvested by Jean and Laura last summer in the woods near Hamilton. The parsley and orange zest gremolata were destroyed seconds after the garnish was applied, as the guests dismantled the platter like wolverines descending on their prey. Good-looking wolverines, mind you, with excellent table manners . . . for wolverines.Former Chapter One-der Christine Coffin served as the Queen of Tarts, bringing us the "Warm Cream cheese Tart with Cinnamon and Almonds."
Author of the cookbook and Bottega Favorita restaurant owner Frank Stitts notes that "Our pastry chef, Dol, and I often shake our heads about this dessert--how can anything so simple and easy be so good? . . . Even when it appears in a lineup of much fancier, more complex, and more exotic dishes, it always stands out."Well, ask Christine about the "simple and easy" part, but was it ever good! Once she had mastered the tart crust, she decided that she might as well bake another, so she followed it up with a huckleberry variation, which didn't last any longer than the original.
The long evening of slow food and fast friends finally wound down, and the guests waddled out the door, as pleased as people can be by an evening of great conversation, great food and libation, and a minimum of intrusions by Lenore, the cat. We're not sure how much credit goes to "Bottega Favorita," but it's what brought us together and that was worth about 2,500 calories of fun!
Though the idea of ten bookstores holding dinner parties to celebrate the cookbook wasn't pitched as a "competition," per se, I think we have to ask why they even bothered to don aprons if they didn't have wild huckleberries and morels, gathered in their back yards, with which to cook!The company: L-R Rick Fuhrman, April Johnson, Jean Matthews, Christine Coffin, Russ Lawrence, Laura Wathen, Craig Johnson, Shawn Wathen.
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