Rainy Night In Little Italy

It is raining here today in San Luis Obispo. But my heart is in Little Italy....San Francisco.

i want to be right downtown..... with the sound of cablecars clackity clacking along the tracks...pigeons cooing from the rooftops,rain soflty falling, and the sweet scent of pastry wafting from the italian bakeries....

after i posted about that bakery, all thoughts went to being there. in The City as we call it out here in california. today i am pretending that i am in little italy in a small upastairs tiny apartment. i have just made my way home from the molinaris deli down on columbus avenue and have bought a couple of cans of San Marzano tomatoes and a nice big piece of parmesano reggiano cheese. for the sauce i will simply saute up some yellow onions and celery in olive oil, add the tomatoes, a little chicken stock,some thyme,parsely and oregano that is coming up all over in the garden and let the whole thing simmer gently on my stovetop. just before serving it I will add a nice big dollop of soft organic butter from petuluma..just up the coast..making sure it barely melts and top off the pasta with the parmesan...and to go with it....focaccia. but this time i am making it from my Rao's cookbook. it is the one i always make. it has 1/2 cup instant mashed potatoes in it.i have no idea why. it is a great recipe that i am happy to share. so the sauce is simmering, Buddy is snoozing, the rain is falling gently in the garden and the focaccia is rising on the drainboard.We will open a bottle of red wine, build a fire and eat...in our little apartment..in little italy tonight. ciao, my friends

Take Me To Fisherman's Wharf

Well, we got hit hard by the Big Storm yesterday. It was windy and it poured. But we made it through...and it was cozy last night. We built a fire but my dinner plans had to be scraped because John was late...Highway One was slow going...so we veered off into Macaroni and Cheese territory. And not homemade either. I keep alot of food in my pantry that I call "emergency food", "storm food", "sick day food" and as a friend of mine calls "Do-Go-Mar day".. translation....Don't go to the market.And last night I was into the pantry. Found a box of macaroni and cheese...you know the one, the blue box..the one we've all had at one time or another...so that was it...

The storm looks like it's letting up so now I am pretending I am in San Francisco at the Wharf. I got out my old Fisherman's Wharf cookbook...The vintage date on this one is 1971. I have had it since before we were married. We've been married 29 years.
I never left the house yesterday so today I think I'll venture out. Feel like seafood. Maybe Petrale or Dover sole. But I don't know if it is in season..or maybe it can't be caught with the seas so stormy. I'll go see. I am going to go to either Old Port Seafood in Avila at the end of the pier or go to Morro Bay.If they don't have sole, I'll be happy with scallops or baby clams. I'll let ya know what I get.

Pot Roast To Sunday Gravy

Remember the other day when I boarded myself up in the house and put some pot roast in the crock pot? Well, as the day rolled on so did my mood. I went from an old fashion in Vermont kinda day into a North Beach in San Francisco kinda day. I just love the old Italian neighborhood of North Beach in The City. All the old restaurants and deli's. My favorite deli..I think everyones favorite is called Molinaris. It has been there forever. My Auntie Erma and Uncle Leo lived in North Beach when I was a little girl. They lived in a section called The Marina. It is down by Fishermans Wharf. And could Auntie Erma ever cook. She was originally from Genoa, Italy. Came over on a boat. We used to get to go visit her when we got really lucky and got to go to the San Francisco Zoo.We would take the train from Los Gatos which was about a 40 minute ride. Me and my brother Mark and our cousins. We loved that so much. What a special treat that was. And when visiting Auntie Erma we would go with her to North Beach to Molinaris for cheese and bread and raviolis. The raviolis were Lucca brand. And they would sit in the box on a bed of flour. And when you took the box to the counter the man would tie string around it. I thought that was so fancy. I don't know why that struck me as fancy...but it did. So the other day, I got that "North Beach" feeling. When we visit there now, I always imagine what it would be like to live there. I picture myself usptairs in one of those tiny apartments that sits over a coffeehouse. The places were the people sit outside and sip espresso and read the Chronicle. I would think to myself, I could do that. I could live that life. I could live in North Beach. So on an ordinary Wednesday afternoon, I took myself there. I got out my Rao's cookbook and turned the pot roast into Sunday gravy. And served it over pasta. I used the last of my summer tomatoes in the sauce. And John and I had dinner in North Beach that night....

SUNDAY GRAVY

Adapted from Rao's Cookbook

1 pound piece of lean beef, such as eye of round. ( I used pot roast )
1/2 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves
3 Tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup water
2 35 ounce cans imported San Marzano Italian plum tomatoes, hand crushed
Salt and pepper

1.Saute the meat in the oilve oil till brown. Add in garlic. When garlic turns brown discard it.
2.Combine tomato paste and water, stir. Add to the meat.
3. Add in San Marzano tomatoes
4.Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Let simmer 3 to 4 hours adding water as needed so there is always some liquid.
6. Serve over pasta
7. Top with grated parmesan

To be perfectly honest here, I just cooked a pot roast in a crock pot with Lipton Onion soup all day and added red wine thoughout the day when the pot got dry. About the last 20 minutes I added fresh ripe tomatoes, chopped.