A couple of weeks ago, we had the inaugural dinner of the T-Town Supper Club. The T-Town Supper Club consists of 15 people sharing a common bond: the bond of the unpretentious foodie. Our first dinner of course had a theme, and since my lady T and I hosted, what better than a nod to T’s heritage: A Night In Sicily. For the uninitiated, Sicilian cuisine is a wild mix of cultures: Italian, North African, Greek, Norman, and Arabian. All of these different civilizations invaded and occupied the island of Sicily at one time or another (sometimes simultaneously!). And the traditional foods of Sicily combine the best of all of these cultures into one big, bold pot of sauce. Our mission: to provide a list of key ingredients that each guest would volunteer to incorporate in a traditional Sicilian dish. The list was as follows: almond, anchovy, artichoke, capers, cinnamon, clove, eggplant, fennel, fig, lemon, mussels, olive, blood orange, orange blossom, pecorino, pine nut, pistachio, raisin, saffron, squash, squid, swordfish, tomato, tuna and of course the unanimous group favorite garlic! Each guest committed to using three or more of the key ingredients in a dish that they in turn brought to the dinner party. The night’s menu was as follows:
-
Apertivo: Prosecco, Blood Orange Margaritas with Fresh Basil
-
Antipasti: Bruschetta with Anchovy-Fennel Butter & Roasted Peppers
-
Antipasti: Citrus-marinated Shrimp with Capers & Olives, Herbed Flatbread
-
Primi: Mussels in Tomato-wine Sauce
-
Primi: Pasta with Artichokes, Raisins and Cauliflower, Saffron Sauce
-
Primi: Calamari with Garlic, Herbs and Preserved Lemon
-
Secondo: Bracciole of Beef
-
Contorno: Eggplant with Capers and Mint
-
Dolce: Cassata (Cake that takes 3 days to make)
-
Digestivo: Moscato di Asti, Rosolio di Pistachio
Pasta with Saffron
Bracciole
Cassata
The entire experience took about 4 hours. Everyone arrived on time (we have a very responsible bunch here) and we were off to a nice start with our Apertivo of Prosecco and Rob’s Blood Orange/Basil Margaritas. Antipasto was sampled casually; the remainder of the courses were served formally at the dinner tables. Additionally, most people brought at least one bottle of wine, so we had an amazing variety of wines, most of them of Sicilian origin. All of the courses were very big on flavors, which of course is the Sicilian tradition! The real standout of the evening though was the mussels - they were absolutely fantastic. Every last drop of sauce was sopped up with warm bread. All in all it was a most excellent dinner party, with the grand finale of Sara’s Cassata cake. Yes, this cake took 3 days to make - a most involved process - but the effort was well worth it. Bellissima! As they say in Italy, “Abbiamo mangiato molto bene!” - we have eaten very well!
And eat well we did! John, Teresa– you are beautiful hosts and blogged us well. All 15 of us were good to food and the food was beyond good to us.
braciole is the best. a total italian-american tradition in my neck of the woods! in fact we had some in our sunday gravy just last weekend. i’ll post a recipe soon b/c it’s easy and SO delicious.
hi! i’ve been on a mad search for a supper club in t-town, are you open to new members?
Maybe. Shoot me an email at motorhead1818@gmail.com
Special blog. As Well showed up adequate in my new web browser SuperHighway Browser.
Les amis, si vous faites une fête improvisée et avez besoin d’un service de livraison d’alcool à domicile super rapide : livraison d’alcool à domicile sur paris et banlieue