After a meal with Eric at Nancy Silverton’s restaurant Mozza, I knew I had to feature it very early in my 2020 series. The weird thing about this one is that I prepared the meal for an esteemed group of guests in Flagstaff, AZ on March 15, 2020 right as the global pandemic was knocking down our doors. We even questioned, “should we do this?”, and, opting in, we found ourselves awkwardly elbow bumping and keeping a certain distance from each other. Thankfully we enjoyed an amazing meal without any harmful health outcomes. Descriptions below…
My theme for this meal, in keeping with the culinary philosophy of Mozza, was to highlight simple, delicious ingredients prepared plainly with love. With potatoes, tomatoes, chicken thighs, popcorn, and shortbread prominent in the menu, I suppose ‘comfort food’ is another way to describe this.
I was in Flagstaff for construction & remodeling at Azimuth ranch. On the Sunday of the meal, I dropped those tools and picked up my knife, softened plenty of butter, and poured an extra cup of coffee, and totally took over the kitchen
With the sharpest knife on the planet I started with fresh cilantro, parsley, oregano, mint, and lemon juice to marinade the chicken and cut whole celery units (bulbs?) in half to prepare them for their ultra long low roast. Potatoes and tomatoes stayed whole awaiting future attention. Here is the full menu w/ page references for the book, Mozza at Home, https://la.osteriamozza.com/
Panicale Popcorn, p. 292
This is popcorn meant to be the first snack as guests arrived along with Eric’s home brewed beer. The corn is popped with garlic, rosemary, chili flakes, salt, and pepper for a bit of a kick.
Braised Celery, p. 222
celery braised in vegetable stock w/ thyme, lemon, olive oil, and Maldon salt flakes. That’s it! Nearly 2 and a half hours of cooking transform this into celery like you’ve never seen before.
Slow Roasted Tomatoes, p. 189
garlic, thyme, olive oil, and Maldon salt. Again, very simple, and simply delicious.
Twice Roasted Smashed Potatoes. p. 97
Olive oil, sage, butter, butter, butter, and Maldon salt. I can imagine a bunch of dishes that have potatoes, tomatoes, and celery all in one. On this night, I featured each one separately in ways that magnified the essence of each ingredient.
Flattened Chicken Thighs w/ Charred Lemon Salsa Verde, p. 288-290
I digress here in that I am remembering going shopping at Whole Foods on Sunday morning 3/15 and realizing that ‘something’ was already happening to create a surge in shopping. Toilet paper was already gone and the meat guy said he could hardly keep up with demand. Little did I know then how much behaviors will be forced to change to this day and ongoing.
Back to the food! This chicken has been marinading since morning in lemon juice, garlic, parsley, cilantro. thyme, fresh oregano, sage, and olive oil. The lemon slices go into a 500 degree oven on a pizza stone to caramelize and char. These are chopped and mixed with fresh oregano and mint and a bit of anchovy for the depth of the sea. I could eat this on anything! Bright minty, lemony, salty, deeply green chimmichurri like salsa on the chicken was ephemeral.
The chicken itself was seared in cast iron pans on high heat and then weighted down (flattened) with more cast iron and whatever else I could find in the kitchen. I’m remembering cooking this phase of the dinner as everyone arrives and starts eating popcorn. By this time I am 7 hours into it and probably sweating and certainly having a blast!!!
Salted Walnut Shortbread, p. 373
There are a bunch of desserts in this book that I am sure are amazing. This one had me at shortbread. COuld be something to do with my affinity for butter… Toasting the walnuts first built a rich flavor, and using Nina’s magic baking mixer bowl, made the whole thing mix up so easily. I love this dessert! It was even better the next day.
The tomatoes were cooked low and slow while the lemons were roasted in an apocalyptic inferno to be macerated into a lemon verde salsa for the chicken. Oh my! The potatoes were also subjected to 500+ degree heat to utterly transform them into bliss inducing pillows to be smashed and doused in butter and garlic. This heat, it’s not rocket science, yet its still not typical in our daily kitchens. I really enjoyed exploring the extremes of temperatures with these ingredients that are so familiar. Take another look at this celery…
When has celery been a main dish in your life? Never? That’s me…
This dish of braised celery was was a revelation (Eric’s fave). Go forth and celebrate the celery :-)
Now check out this walnut shortbread again…
I haven’t been a dessert guy until 2020. My date/caramel cake in February and this toasted walnut shortbread were both off the charts tasty. Cooked this butter-rich, toasted walnut shortbread for over an hour at 225 degrees F and the result amazed me. We had already eaten a full meal and this turned into the perfect late night treat along with the last of the wine.
I’ve been flummoxed by public pandemic expectations (PPE) since returning to Tucson after this deeply satisfying meal. I’ve been unsure about planning another uncommon meal event. I feel that there are some viable options for us and admit to settling into a kind of funk. Just know, that I’m back after being sidelined for nearly 6 months and I need to be cooking for people! I’m exploring doing a takeaway version soon, or an outdoor dining version as soon as ambient temps in Tucson drop below 100 blasted degrees. Stay tuned, for we will surely be eating together again soon.