Ramps!

I honestly had never heard of ramps before until Gabe half-jokingly told me to go look for some. All of a sudden, it's all over food blogs, food news sites, Chowhound, seasonal menus, etc. So I was pretty intrigued as to what this unappetizingly-looking vegetable would taste like. Do note that ramps are only in season for a mere 1-2 months during mid-late spring (aka now). It's unfortunately quite fleeting. Another interesting fact is that Chicago, my hometown, is named after ramps due to its strong smell. From the sounds of it, local and notable chefs in Chicago make a big deal out of ramps. There's even a Rampfest every year, which for whatever reason, I find amusing. When I described this wild leek to my dad, he said that we actually have them in our backyard!

Anyways, I finally picked up a bunch of ramps for $3 at the Union Square Greenmarket last Wednesday. The lady selling them was offering 2 for 1 for the less fresh ones (meant to be cooked that night), but since we weren't planning on cooking them until last night or tomorrow (Sunday), I asked for the freshest ones. Let me tell you, ramps smell so strong. It has this onion-y, scallion-y, garlicky thing going on. I was honestly embarrassed to carry the bag around Barnes&Noble in fear that it would bother fellow browsers.

After looking up a bunch of recipes online, we settled with Batali's Spaghetti with Ramps recipe since it was simple enough. Even though neither Gabe nor I had ever tried ramps before, he thought that maybe the pasta would be good with guanciale. After coming across this recipe, his assumption was correct. So spaghetti with ramps and guanciale it was. As I've said before, I don't really follow recipes or measurements to a tee, so Gabe and I pretty much just went with the flow and did everything to taste. We probably used 1/3 of the bunch I had bought and 1/2 pound of guanciale.

In brief, I cooked the guanciale until the fat was rendered, removed the pieces from the pan and let them sit on some paper towels. Then, we cooked the ramps (bulbs separated from leaves, but you eat everything) in olive oil, red chili pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. We then mixed everything with approximately half a box of spaghetti, and topped it with bread crumbs. I think we used way too much guanciale this time. It would've been fine with 1/4 pound. We both felt pretty nasty after since it's so fatty, but hey, at least it tasted good. And we also should've used at least double the amount of ramps. We didn't realize how much the ramps would shrink when cooked. But overall, the pasta tasted better than I thought it would.



We accompanied our meal with a nice bottle of a 2006 Lilla, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. It's a light, everyday wine that you could drink with almost anything. It's easy to drink and not dry at all.

Since we still have a bunch of ramps left, I'll have to find another way to cook them. Maybe we'll try the eggs or simply sautee them in olive oil and garlic.

Lupa

Gabe and I went to Lupa for our "Christmas Dinner." It's a Mario Batali restaurant, and Babbo (his most famed restaurant) is our favorite, so it was about time to try Lupa, which gets great reviews as well. It's much more casual than Babbo and is more of a trattoria specializing in Roman dishes. It is also much cheaper than Babbo, most likely due to the simpler food.

We settled on a bottle of medium-bodied red wine from Piemonte. I forgot to copy down the whole name, but I believe it's a 2004 Boroli Quattro Fratelli Barbera d'Alli. It was definitely a good recommendation by our waiter. The nice thing about Lupa is that they have a pretty good amount of wines under $40 which is considered relatively "cheap" in NYC restaurants. Our bottle was somewhere around $35. We were also given really tasty and moist foccacia bread with olive oil.

For our antipasti, we decided to have the Baccala with Potatoes&Lovage ($10). I'm assuming the lovage is the greens garnishing the baccala. Gabe and I love baccala, so that's why we picked this. This was a really enjoyable, tasty, and fresh antipasti served at room temperature. Lupa seems to have a great selection of antipasti. I think I'd be happy just sharing a few of them with someone as my whole meal.

I got the Ricotta Gnocchi with Sausage&Fennel ($15) for my primi. The serving is actually bigger than what many pictures indicate because it's served in such a huge bowl. I got this because it seems to be the favorite primi at Lupa, and it definitely lived up to its hype! The gnocchi was so soft and pillowy, not chewy or super heavy like other gnocchi. The sauce was perfect as well, though maybe I would have liked more sausage. This one was definitely a winner.


Gabe got the Bucatini All'Amatriciana ($15). Since we used Batali's recipe to make this dish ourselves for my birthday, it was interesting to compare our version to Lupa's. Lupa's was definitely better. The tomatoes were pureed, while ours were diced, but even so, somehow their tomato sauce was much tastier, most likely due to better/fresher/riper tomatoes rather than canned tomatoes haha. And of course the guanciale added a great flavor.


(Sorry, got a little excited and forgot to take a picture before we started eating it)
We shared the Saltimbocca ($17) for our secondi. According to the glossary, it's veal, prosciutto, and sage. This was such a flavorful dish, and the portion was really big. It shouldn't be for one person. It's definitely a unique dish - I recommend it for a secondi.

We were so full from our food that we didn't bother getting dessert. Overall, this is such a great restaurant with very simple Italian/Roman fare. I've read that their spaghetti al pomodoro is quite exceptional, and I think that's really saying a lot. That's the simplest dish ever, yet Lupa manages to make it stand out somehow with quality ingredients and cooking. Considering the quality of the food, really warm service/atmosphere, and even the reputation, the food really isn't expensive. You can spend the same amount on mediocre pasta at blah and even commercial/chain restaurants, so it's totally worth the trip to Lupa.

Please go to Lupa (as well as Babbo and Otto...I<3mario>

My 22nd birthday dinner with Gabe

Instead of going out to eat for my 22nd birthday, Gabe and I decided to cook a nice dinner for two. Since it was almost MCAT time, I think I was really just in the mood to do something low key. We decided on Bucatini All'Amatriciana and Garlic and Herb Crusted Lamb Chops. This was probably one of the more complex dinners we've done, but everything turned out really well. I think this is also one of the times I actually followed a recipe completely. If I did anything different than what the recipes said, it was probably just slight measurement adjustments.

We used this recipe for the bucatini - another Batali recipe. It was really quite a challenge to find guanciale, but I finally found it at a tiny Italian deli in the west 30's. I'm glad we used that instead of pancetta or regular bacon because it definitely made a big difference and added a really unique flavor. Normally I hate really fatty meat, but this was the one exception. Gabe and I were really pleased with the way this turned out - perhaps the best thing we've made together thus far.


We also followed this for the lamb chops. I had never cooked with lamb before, so this was fun. It turned out better than I thought it would, and it was very tasty. The only thing is that one of my chops was extremely rare. Normally, I do like rare meat, but if I were to make this again, I would keep it in the oven for a few minutes longer. The flash was a bit bright, but I think you can tell from the picture that it was quite rare.

We had a great bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (La Tour de By, Medoc, 2003, France) to accompany the food.