A home cooked meal in Switzerland

I traveled to Luzern, Switzerland for some meetings back in May and was fortunate to get a home cooked meal at my friend and colleague Jason's house. All I knew was that he was making risotto, but as I would soon find out, I was in for a treat.

For Jason's first course, he put together a wonderful salad of lamb's lettuce (mâche), fresh figs, parma, and buffalo mozzerella with a drizzle of aged balsamic. This salad was outstanding! I had never had fresh figs before and I fell in love with them. The parma was also excellent and the mozzarella was so soft and delicate, it practically melted in my mouth. The aged balsamic balanced the sweetness of the entire salad very well, nice job Jason!

Here is Chef Jason hard at work in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on his award winning risotto.


Course two as I mentioned, was risotto. A sautéed fennel risotto with fresh ricotta. Jason first sautéed the fennel and held it aside while the risotto cooked. As Jason added the last cup of hot stock to the risotto pan, he added in the fennel, bringing all the flavors together. He plated the risotto with a few teaspoons of the fresh ricotta, some crushed red peppers, and some of the fennel fronds. This risotto was seriously good; the rice was cooked perfectly and the slightly sweet, sautéed fennel balanced out the richness of the risotto. I had seconds.

To end this fantastic meal, Jason served up some great vanilla ice cream with fresh berries and a little splash of aged balsamic vinegar. So good.

So to Jason and his wife, Keryn, thank you for this delicious home cooked meal in Switzerland, and for being so kind open up your home. Next time you're in Boston, dinner is at my house.

Perfecting an Almost Perfect Pizza

What is the perfect pizza? The crust should be thin and crispy, and it should hold the weight of the toppings above it. The sauce should be a perfect savory balance of flavors, low in acidic bite, high in flavor. Or, the sauce should be left out and the crust coated with a thin brush of extra good olive oil. And then the toppings, what are the perfect toppings? For my perfect, or almost perfect pizza, I top the crust with caramelized onions, arugula, black mission figs, and soft, crumbled goat cheese.

In June, I was so close to constructing the perfect pizza, but something was missing. I thought the pizza I describe above needed a little something to balance out the sweetness of the caramelized onions, the figs and the sweet and tangy goat cheese. A small dose of balsamic vinegar should do the trick, I thought. So last night, I made this pizza again, and caramelized the onions along with some good 10 year aged balsamic vinegar. Was the pizza perfect? I don't know. I may need to make one with the balsamic vinegar and one without, on the same night, and do a taste test.

Whatever the case may be, my pizza of caramelized onions, arugula, black mission figs, and soft, crumbled goat cheese, drizzled with good olive oil (no sauce,) is the best pizza ever to come out of my kitchen. Should I continue to try and tweak it or leave a good thing alone and just enjoy one damn good pizza? I'll think about it while I'm at Fenway Park tonight watching the Boston Red Sox play baseball, eating a Fenway Frank and drinking an overpriced, watered down beer - it's all part of the Fenway Experience!