Slices of Fresh Fruit with Red Flame Grapes
Did this ever happen to you when you were a kid? Something revolting was served on your dinner plate which you refused to eat and you were forced to sit at the table for hours until you ate it? Who the hell ever thought THAT was a good idea?! My "something revolting" was boiled cauliflower. Which does NOT improve as hours pass, I can guarantee you from actual experience. Nor will all the Kraft American cheese sauce in the world make it any more palatable. I haven't been able to eat cauliflower since. Hardly even raw with Ranch dip. Julie Powell had her eggs. I have cauliflower.
A close second is plums. Never did like the over-juicy, stringy texture when biting into a whole, somewhat over-ripe plum. Just biting into the skin made my teeth shrink back up into their gums. So I don't eat those, either.
But, as long as I'm studying the techniques of pan-frying and sauteing, I thought I might as well cowgirl-up and try sauteing some cauliflower. Luckily Alice lists a variation that adds parsley, garlic, anchovies, capers, hot chile flakes and olives, all to put over pasta. I used the last of some fabulous smoked olives lurking in the back of the frig. I do love olives in most all their many incarnations. Alice doesn't mention any measurements for any of these ingredients, so I was on my own. I can deal. This isn't baking.
Since I'm getting awfully tired of the same-old, same-old lettuce salad accompaniment with all our dinners, I thought that fruit would be a good alternative. One of my fondest Roman memories is the bowls of chilled whole fresh fruit put out for dessert in all the little trattorias. Small plates and small sharp knives were passed around so each diner could peel fruit, share fruit, whatever. My variation tonight was slices of apple, slices of slightly under-ripe plums and more of those Red Flame grapes, all heaped together in a bowl and sprinkled with a little yellow sugar.
Oh ma gosh! What a great dinner! The cauliflower and pasta dish was superb, truly. I'd make it again and eat it again in a heartbeat. The fruit was perfect. I did feel like we were in Rome. The plum was delicious. Randy thought it was a little under ripe, but for me it was perfect. Firm and flavorful. Life is good. Hell, even cauliflower is good. At least in this case.
Okay, that means I've tried a total of 3 Alice recipes. All with success. I am optimistic that I might actually learn to cook one day.
Carry on!
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