It started innocently enough. My husband’s job as an airline pilot necessitated frequent travel, and when his trips started taking him to Europe, he was thrilled to see new things, and sample new food. Bobby would come home talking about a restaurant where he’d eaten, and as he described the meal, I could practically taste the food. When he wasn’t flying, he would be home for a week at a time, so he started helping me out around the house and running errands, including the grocery shopping. One thing led to another and pretty soon we were trying to reconstruct those meals he’d enjoyed. We have both always loved Italian food, so we tended toward the pasta, grilled meats and vegetables. Then one day, while watching the Food Network, after Paula Deen showed us how to make everything taste better with lots of whole milk and butter, and before Rachel Ray taught us to make a complete meal in less that thirty minutes, he discovered Giada.
Giada De Laurentiis, granddaughter of the Academy Award winning Italian movie producer Dino, had a 30 minute show called Everyday Italian, during which she prepared a main dish, a side and a dessert, right there in her very own kitchen. She often had guests over to sample her culinary treats.
In case you don’t already know, I should probably mention that Giada is a lovely, petite woman with long upswept hair, and a big, bright smile. Oh, and she has a preference for cute dresses and tops with rather low cut necklines – not trashy, but definitely attention getting. Bobby tells me that what he really loves is the way she enjoys food, and how she describes each bite, and the way she makes you believe that yes, you can actually prepare those meals. Yeah right.
What started as a little joke, “How’s Giada today?” took a turn when he started actually making some of her recipes. Not a complete novice in the kitchen, this was still a far cry from grilling chicken on his Hasty Bake. He announced his intention to attempt Giada’s Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree. It sounded interesting, but I was definitely skeptical. Thankfully, most of Giada’s recipes are found on www.foodnetwork.com, so we didn’t have to completely rely on her ten minute instructions on TV.
The recipe has three parts: broth, puree and salmon. After figuring out what a shallot was, he started the broth by sautéing a couple, then adding chicken broth and fresh lemon juice. While that was simmering, he pureed the peas in the blender with garlic, salt and pepper, olive oil, and Parmesan. He learned that yes, it does make a difference whether the peas are thawed or frozen – thawed works much better all the way around. Grilling the salmon was the easy part. He would have happily headed outside to more familiar territory, but the recipe called for searing the salmon in a skillet, so he obliged. After about two hours, the kitchen was strewn with saucepans, skillets, blenders, bowls, utensils, not to mention the bits of pureed peas in unexpected places, but we had a delicious plate of very tasty salmon, sitting atop a dollop of pea puree swimming in a shallow bowl of lemon broth. I’m starting to suspect we might be on to something.
But then there was the Nudi Incident. Who knew there was such a thing as naked pasta? It involves mixing cheeses, and spinach, a little flour then forming little balls and dropping them into almost boiling water, where they are supposed to float to the top. He followed Giada’s instructions to the letter, even rewinding and replaying the episode on the DVR. But try as he might, those little “stuffed pasta without the pasta” balls of cheese and spinach just disintegrated in the boiling water.
But his all-time favorite recipe isn’t even Italian. It’s Giada’s Banana Bread. While perhaps unexpected from an Italian food expert, Bobby was so inspired he wrote down the recipe, made a batch, and it was an immediate success. Now he makes it whenever we have ripe bananas, and we keep a loaf in the freezer for when our kids are home or if friends need help with a meal. He’s probably made a hundred loaves of banana bread, still referring to the same yellow paper with his scribbled recipe. He swears the secret is letting the eggs come to room temperature before starting.
In the kitchen, my motto is All’s Well That Ends Well, as often the process is not as important as the final outcome. So I suppose if it took a beautiful Italian woman in fetching attire to motivate my husband to explore his culinary side, I say good for us. I’m reaping the benefits of his little fling, and I couldn’t be happier. Mmmm let’s see, looks like he might be whipping up some of Giada’s Chicken Romano with Prosciutto for dinner tonight.
Reprinted from Mia Magazine, Fall 2009.
