Our Italian Thanksgiving...

So my mother fought with me long and hard about whether to host a Thanksgiving dinner this year. In the past she was used to large portions of Turkey, stuffing, squash mash, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie, looooads of gravy, and even MORE dishes (followed by the food hangover to combat all food hangovers). Generally you sit down and eat everything in one sitting, and wine is based on preference rather than pairing. I assured her nothing of the sort would happen and, that if she let me do my thing, she would be very happy.

"But can't we just go OUT to dinner, Erin!? All those dishes....or we could go..do something....ANYTHING but the Turkey!!!!"

I think she's just had one too many bad turkeys. Which in itself, is a great tragedy. Turkey can be BANGIN! Regardless.....

She finally consented on the condition that it would be a nontraditional feast including absolutely no turkey. Excellent.

For this atypical meal I was inspired by my french maman who was 50/50 Italian and French and who I'm pretty sure is the root of all of my culinary loves. Not only was she an amazing cook, and made everything from scratch, but nothing was ever really that heavy when she cooked. Everything was also, ALWAYS fresh.

I figured a mix of land and sea would be a perfect way to maintain excellent variety throughout my "tasting" menu of sorts. I also decided to keep each course exceptionally small, so that we could make it through a six course bonanza without passing out, face down in our cheese plates.

So the menu went as follows:

ANTIPASTI

Prosciutto San Daniele, Calabrese Salame, and Hot Pepper with Anchovies

PASTA

Linguine with Baked Clams in a lemon, anchovy, and white wine broth

PESCI

Charred Octopus over a salad of fava beans, charred artichoke hearts in a sherry vinaigrette, aged balsamic vinegar

PRIMI

Roasted Rack of Lamb over a brown butter butternut squash gnocchi, port and cranberry gastrique

SECONDI

Roasted Pheasant stuffed with wild mushrooms, port and cranberry gastrique

DOLCE

Raspberries in Viognier, lemon twist

(The wine line-up for the evening)

Setting a beautiful table is important to me, as it sets a positive tone and guests get excited for what's to come. Food, and dining, is similar to wine tasting as you enjoy the experience with all five senses. I used rosemary and oyster shells to garnish each place setting, using the shells as place markers. All glassware was placed at each setting and I prepped the antipasti on the table for when guests arrived.

For the antipasti, I included NO STARCH. Bread is your worst enemy when trying to make it through a marathon meal, so I intentionally served the charcuterie and mis en bouche with small forks and no crackers or baguette. Generally for a three course meal, I would offer a starch with the antipasti, but remember, people have no self control (myself as the number one example!!!!)!

Aside from the standard Prosciutto San Daniele and the Calabrese Salami, I included what, I believe, is more of a traditionally spanish mis en bouche. I took pickled hot banana peppers on a spear, or toothpick, and stuck two or three on with a whole filet of anchovy. This is not for the faint of heart but absolutely delicious and the PERFECT palate cleanser before starting a meal. It's tart, hot, and salty, and the extremes from all sides bring it to a balance. All my guests were open minded, and ended up loving the combo. Don't cringe, it's delicious ***cough***anchovy haters***cough*** With this course I paired a lovely Brut Champagne. Nothing too expensive (was a staff favorite at my local wine shop, Mo's) but beautifully crisp, clean and (importantly) dry. 

For the first course, I wanted to go with the lightest possible pasta with clams. Tomato bases were out of the question. I originally envisioned more of a soupy pasta, with clams and pasta suspended in a light clam broth. Instead, I ended up baking the clams and sauteing the leftover juices with lemon juice, a few anchovy filets, white wine, olive oil and salt/pepper in a sauce pan. As the pasta finished, I tossed it in the sauce pan with the light sauce and added the baked clams (kept warm under a warming lamp). Everyone just got a small bit of pasta with a few clams, and was delicious! The clams weren't fishy at all, with a subtle fishiness to the pasta sauce but balanced by the lemon and white wine. I served this course with an Artner Gruner Veltliner which was bone dry with great minerality to compliment.

For the "fish" course, I originally wanted to do a softshell crab dish. Alas they are not in season, and sometimes people just aren't that into eating THE ENTIRE crustacian. Fair enough! So I settled on octopus. I'm not a pro at things like octopus, and my local Eataly (MAN DO I LOVE LIVING IN NEW YORK!) sells it cooked. Now I would never just eat their octopus straight off the ice, because it is cooked with no seasoning and intended to be further manipulated. So I threw it on an open fire, straight on the grate to char up the skin and give it a nice smoky, savory flavor. I seperated off each tentacle and served them individually over a salad of fava and kidney beans with charred artichoke hearts (tossed in a sherry vinaigrette). I drizzled my version of aged balsamic over the top (balsamic vinegar reduced down to a thick syrup) and voila! It ended up as a great balance between smoky and acidic which worked very well with the meaty octopus. I paired that with a Volnay 1er Cru Burgundy Pinot Noir, which was light and earthy enough to pair with the dish.

For the third course, I roasted a rack of lamb (which I covered in herb butter before putting it in the oven). I generally roast racks around 375 F until medium rare. I then served two meat popsicles each over a small bed of butternut squash gnocchi tossed in a sage brown butter sauce. I got the idea off of a website and it sounded like a perfect light pairing for the gnocchi that wouldn't overpower any flavors associated with the lamb. I drizzled the port and cranberry gastrique on the plate as an optional garnish (my homage to traditional Thanksgiving with the squash and cranberry sauce). Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the gastrique to thicken as much as I would have liked, but the taste was all there (Gastrique: a kind of sweet and sour sauce generally made from fruit).

For the butternut squash gnocchi, I did follow a recipe pretty closely. There a quite a few things I would do differently in the future, but you learn as you go! I had never made gnocchi before, so best to stick to the opinions of someone who has. It was messy as hell, especially because I decided to do the "roll out" method. Don't do this. When you make your dough, stick it in a plastic pastry bag with the end cut off and squeeze out morsels directly into salted boiling water, rather than rolling out individual nuggets and flouring them. Just...just.....just don't. I served the lamb and the gnocchi with a Casa Emma Chianti Classico (my favorite budget Chianti out there!). 

See the recipe I started from HERE.

For the main course I roasted a pheasant. Native to Europe, so within my theme, and the next closest thing to Turkey you can get in wild game birds. I LOVE pheasant. I've had it several times over the course of my young life, and it has always left an impression. The sad thing is that it is so damn hard to find. And for this reason D'Artagnan online ordering exists <3 I ordered a fresh (not frozen) pheasant from them for $38.00 (after shipping costs) and it arrived overnight on my front doorstep. So much easier than plucking it yourself!

I laid out the bird to come to room temperature for a few hours and, once there, stuffed a load of herb butter between the meat and the skin (very carefully...you don't want to rip the skin). Pheasant is so lean and very easy to overcook or to dry out that I was very generous on the butter. I also did this a few hours before roasting. I then rubbed the outside of the bird with MORE herb butter (my own mix of thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano and unsalted butter), finishing then with salt and pepper. I laid it on a rack and cooked it at 375 F on both sides for thirty minutes each, and then finally laying it on its back for 10 minutes-a grand total of 1 hour and 10 minutes. I kept it in the oven while we ate the lamb so that there wouldn't be a great time lapse between courses. I stuffed the bird with a wild mushroom blend that had been sauteed in butter with mixed herbs, garlic, spring onions, leeks, white wine and panko bread crumbs. Before tying the legs together, I sealed the cavity with half of a lemon. 

To serve, I unstuffed the pheasant and divided the mushroom mix between all of the plates. I carved up the bird, which was the perfect amount for five people, and served (again) with a little bit of the cranberry port gastrique on the plate. I was so pleased with how this turned out. The bird was so moist and tender (even the white meat). Just the perfect combination of rich and gamey. I ordered more birds and can't wait to repeat with a variety of different sauces and sides...not that it even needed sauce! I will admit that I watched the bird in the oven like a raging psychopath. I served the pheasant with a Crozes Hermitage Rhone syrah. Delicious, jammy, perfect for all game meat.

Finally, to wrap up the meal, I poured a Tete du Rhone Viognier over raspberries in a martini glass with a lemon twist. The lemon and fruit took very well to the wine, and it tasted much more like a dry after dinner cocktail than anything else. Super easy and very light. Originally I wanted to do a limoncello pairing with a lemon madeleine and a limoncello sorbet, but it would have been more time consuming and possibly overkill. No one was too full...but we were all very happy there was no more food to be nommed. 

I have so much to be thankful for, but this year I am especially grateful for all the people in the last five years that have inspired me to ditch the more "traditional" career path that I had been following and go after something I was far more passionate about. To my wine instructor in Burgundy, Paul, Colm, and Chris from the Corkscrew Dublin, my coworkers in DC...the education, love, support, and advice you have given me is invaluable and has been quite life-changing!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and bon appetit!