On Parsimony and the Beak
Oct. 1st, 2014 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperance"What's that you say? One duck, eight people? How much is that never going to work...?"
And yet, it shall; I have decreed it.
Thing is, tonight is no-longer-yogi dinner; and we not only have the regular guests, we have Parents of Regular Guest. So I am a little bit on my mettle, at the same time as being a little bit on my uppers. So: I am making a duck ragu, to be served over rigatoni. Also dinner rolls, from a new recipe, and a chocolate chocolate teacake, ditto ditto*.
Just now everything is in the oven except the duck, which is out of it. It has been roasted to the point of disintegration, on a bed of manymany vegetables and a bottle of wine; as soon as it's cool enough I'll disintegrate it utterly, shred the meat down and mix it in with the veg. Slathered onto pasta, dollops of fresh ricotta on top, we'll call that dinner. Anyone complains, I'll remind them that we're all Italian here, which means it's all about the pasta, not the sauce.
(Talking of which, has anyone hereabouts been in Rome and eaten rigatoni con pajata? If you don't know what it is, you might not want to look it up; I would adore to eat it, but most of my friends would shriek and back away from the table, and that should be all you need to know.)
*Hunh. It turns out - rather as I feared - that when they say a 9x5 loaf tin, they do not mean an 8.5x4.5 loaf tin. Fortunately, as I had feared this, I put it on a baking tray before it went into the oven. It is now cheerfully splurging all over the tray, as it rises beyond the confines of the tin. Hey-ho.
And yet, it shall; I have decreed it.
Thing is, tonight is no-longer-yogi dinner; and we not only have the regular guests, we have Parents of Regular Guest. So I am a little bit on my mettle, at the same time as being a little bit on my uppers. So: I am making a duck ragu, to be served over rigatoni. Also dinner rolls, from a new recipe, and a chocolate chocolate teacake, ditto ditto*.
Just now everything is in the oven except the duck, which is out of it. It has been roasted to the point of disintegration, on a bed of manymany vegetables and a bottle of wine; as soon as it's cool enough I'll disintegrate it utterly, shred the meat down and mix it in with the veg. Slathered onto pasta, dollops of fresh ricotta on top, we'll call that dinner. Anyone complains, I'll remind them that we're all Italian here, which means it's all about the pasta, not the sauce.
(Talking of which, has anyone hereabouts been in Rome and eaten rigatoni con pajata? If you don't know what it is, you might not want to look it up; I would adore to eat it, but most of my friends would shriek and back away from the table, and that should be all you need to know.)
*Hunh. It turns out - rather as I feared - that when they say a 9x5 loaf tin, they do not mean an 8.5x4.5 loaf tin. Fortunately, as I had feared this, I put it on a baking tray before it went into the oven. It is now cheerfully splurging all over the tray, as it rises beyond the confines of the tin. Hey-ho.