If you've been reading this blog for more than a month, you know that I am something of a fan of Italian food, and something of a critic of Italian-American food. Italian food is about simple preparation of excellent ingredients. Produce is grown on small farms, picked ripe and sold quickly and locally, often in markets by the farmers. Meat is either cooked very quickly, often grilled, or braised all day in a fairly simple tomato sauce. We had a terrific secondi in Rome that was simply chicken cutlets sauteed in butter and sage. That was it -- the entire dish had three ingredients. I've since recreated it, and the recipe is below, and even I had to add something (mostly garlic).
Italian-American food, and I mean the kind served in restaurants, not the kind made in people's homes following their parents and grandparents recipes, seems to be about volume. Lots of pasta, lots of sauce, endless salad bowls and breadsticks (not that I'm picking on any chain in particular). Meat and pasta are mixed together willy-nilly. The most amazing thing is how they can start with ingredients that have flavor, and end with dishes with no flavor at all. I believe most Italian-American restaurants in America come standard with some large flavor sucking machine. Otherwise, I can't explain how garlic and cheese turn into what they serve.
The scene in Spokane has been pretty bleak. The Italian Kitchen has a standard menu, and what I've had there has been competent, but it is so expensive. Why would I spend twenty five dollars on a plate that I could make, better, at home, in twenty minutes with a dollar or two worth of ingredients? Luigi's is worse. I think many of their dishes have spent a considerable amount of their extended lives in a freezer. I won't even bother discuss the big chains, and I've already expressed myself about Cassano's restaurant, Mission Bistro. I had a lovely meal in Coeur D'Alene at Angelo's last year, but even that was safely Italian-American.
All of this is old news. The new news is that Italia Trattoria, in the old Cafe Marron location in Brown's Addition, is actual Italian food. I've been dragging my feet about trying this place, because I had so little hope that it would be anything but more of the same, bleak Italian-American food. I was wrong. The first hint that Bethe and Anna, the owners, get it comes from the menu, which is split into Antipasti, Primi, Secondi, and Contorni (side dishes), although the secondi are much more complete plates than you would find in the vast majority of restaurants in Italy. The second hint was the food itself. Nothing about the secondi said "Italian" -- a few sun dried tomatoes, a couple of olives here and there. What made them Italian, really Italian, was the preparation: simple and careful, designed to enhance the ingredients rather than mask it.
We started with a charred polpo (octopus) salad. We first had polpo in Rome, during our first trip last summer. There, they sliced the octopus very thinly, marinated it in lemon and salt, and served it (I think) over a few greens. I loved it; Jeremy found it a very intense engagement with octopus. At Italia Trattoria, the octopus has been grilled and chopped, and is served with thin sliced potatoes, parsley, sun-dried tomatoes and red onion. It was blissful, both in terms of flavor and texture. The octopus was chewy and warm and flavorful; the potatoes were creamy and added just a touch of substance; the parsley was fresh and bright; the sun-dried tomatoes added a surprising touch of sweetness that supported the sweetness of the octopus. Off to a good start.
I ordered the coho salmon special. The very fact that they had a coho salmon special speaks to the spirit of their Italian cooking. Salmon is not an Italian ingredient. Atlantic salmon are a cold-water fish, and much more likely to be found in northern Europe, not in the Mediterranean. But, we have delicious salmon in the Northwest, so it is very Italian to use salmon here. On any normal night, I would have been thrilled with my dish. The salmon was beautifully, perfectly underdone, just as I had requested it. It came with rich, buttery lentils. The richness was offset by a bitter, crisp endive salad. Wonderful. But Jeremy's secondi was so sublime I found myself jealous. He ordered the lamb, which was lamby and gamy and beautifully grilled. He too had a bed of lentils, but what made his dish sing was the lemony yogurt sauce which cut through the gaminess, and the balsamic onions, which intensified the meatiness. Our meal was rounded out by a lovely bottle of Montefalco, a red wine typical of Umbria, and a decadent chocolate almond torte for dessert. I even celebrated with a grappa as a digestivo. Our service was on the casual, friendly side, but highly competent, and we had two chats with Bethe, the partner handling the front of the house.
I was feeling a little down last week. The end of daylight savings time is not a good time for Spokane. It's dark by five, and only getting worse. The weather has turned cold and grey. My beloved Sapphie has been having weeks of health problems, although I think she is stabilized again. And, I'm not in Rome, where the air is warm and the light is soft and the pasta is the way the pasta is in Rome. I became even more down as Jeremy and I were going through our restaurant options. There are just so few places with food that is worth the money they charge, and you can only go to the same places so many times. But the dinner we had at Italia Trattoria last night was special: truly thoughtful food and no restaurant missteps. I'm excited to see what Anna will prepare next, and I want to take risks with her. I hope she stays true to her vision, and that Spokane will support her even if she doesn't put the usual Italian suspects on the menu.
As for those usual Italian suspects, there is a spaghetti and meatballs with red sauce on the menu. Would that be found in any but the most touristy of restaurants in Italy? Absolutely not. But, as Bethe said to us, if we need to have spaghetti and meatballs so that people get what they want, then they will be the best possible spaghetti and meatballs. Bethe and Anna, I wish you the best of luck, and I'm already looking forward to my next dinner with you. Thank you for giving me a much needed lift, and reminding me that Spokane really is a beautiful place to live.
And now, my recipe for Petto di Pollo con Burre e Salvia:
Start with two boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Slice them on a long diagonal to form two cutlets (three if the breasts are huge). Pound them lightly, so that they are a consistent thickness but not thin. Dredge them lightly in flour seasoned with salt and pepper.
In a small pan, melt half a stick of butter. Add six or so fresh sage leaves and four cloves of garlic sliced thin. Keep on medium heat until the butter is lightly browned and the garlic is well caramelized. Turn off the heat.
In a different large, non-stick pan, heat olive oil until it is smoking hot. Carefully add the chicken breasts. After about two minutes, turn. After two minutes more, both sides should be lightly golden, and the chicken should be cooked through -- if either of these things hasn't happened, leave them in for a minute or two longer. Put them on a plate with a couple of spoonfuls of the brown butter sauce and serve. Now, could anything be easier than that?
No comments:
Post a Comment