Menu
Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds and Parmesan
Fettuccine with Sage Butter
I was talking to a friend the other day, asking what’s new (answer: nothing), and we agreed that January is grin-and-bear-it time. Spring is still months away and (for non-essential people like me) so is the vaccine, so we just have to suck it up and power through.
If it were a normal January John and I would be getting ready to head up to Vermont for a mid-winter break. For years we’ve had a tradition of spending Super Bowl weekend in Stowe. For some reason I can’t remember, we skipped it in 2020, before we had any idea that the door was about to slam shut on travel. So that means the last time I packed a bag was in August of 2019, and until John bought me a new suitcase for Christmas I had completely forgotten that my old bag had a damaged wheel. Then it came back to me, the horrendous clacking noises I made as I dragged my suitcase along the miles of hard floor at Penn Station on our last trip to New York, and John walking a few paces ahead of me so he could pretend we weren’t actually together.
My initial reaction to the new suitcase was that I needed it about as much as I need a dress that doesn’t fit or a book written in a language I don’t know how to read. See? That’s the headspace I’ve been in. It took John – who isn’t usually known for optimism – to remind me that this is not forever. We will travel again. And – clearly – he would prefer that when we do, I go quietly with no clacking.
In the meantime, the only thing that keeps me from climbing the walls these days is cooking, so let’s get on to the recipes. For a recent Saturday date night at home, I made this Italian-themed menu that featured a Milanese-style Veal Saltimbocca served on a bed of fettuccine tossed with sage-infused butter.
For a first course, this cool and crunchy celery salad (from an old recipe in Bon Appetit) was different and refreshing with its light lemon dressing. The celery is an unexpected base for this salad but the genius ingredient is chopped dates, soft and sweet in contrast to the crisp celery, the salty almonds and the sharp bite of Parmesan cheese.
And then there was cheesecake. Mascarpone cheese makes the filling supremely creamy. I know it’s a stretch to fit this cheesecake into an Italian menu just because of the mascarpone – an authentic Italian cheesecake would have a ricotta filling and no crust. But that would not be allowed in this house, since a cookie crust of some sort is John’s favorite part and he’d rebel if I ever made a cheesecake without one. This one has a thick, buttery Nilla wafer crust in place of the usual graham cracker one, and extra crumbs scattered on top make a streusel-like topping. A drizzle of raspberry sauce adds jewel-like color and tart fruity flavor.
For my playlist this month, I was inspired by two shows we’ve watched on Netflix recently. First was The Queen’s Gambit – we binged along with everyone else, and I crushed on all the great 60s music. Another night we watched Echo in the Canyon, Jakob Dylan’s documentary about the musicians who lived in the Laurel Canyon section of Hollywood in the mid-60s – The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, The Beach Boys, The Mamas and The Papas to name a few. I named the playlist California Dreaming because it captures the sound of that time and place – even though I’ve included some artists that weren’t actually from California. Listen to it on Spotify.
The Game Plan
- Make the Mascarpone Cheesecake early in the day, or the day before.
- Start prepping the veal at least 2 hours before you plan to start cooking, or early in the day.
- About ½ hour before dinner, prep all the ingredients for the celery salad. Then, bread and pan-fry the veal.
- Serve the salad.
- After the salad course, cook the fettuccine and finish the veal under the broiler.
- For a complete game plan including detailed instructions for timing all the dishes in this menu, click on the image below:
