Sixty-six people, including Broder's each subscribed last year for one "pig's worth" of meat. La Quercia in Iowa organically raises the herd of Berkshire & Berkshire/Chester White Pigs feeding them only acorns for the last three months of their lives, as they do in Italy and Spain. Subscribers get the cuts of pig that are best eaten fresh first & then cured bits come on throughout the next two years. Our meal featured lots of different parts of the pig including many we had never had before.
We started with some passed appetizers featuring coppa, lardo & more
A lollypop of grilled pork liver. The sauce here was amazing.
Porchetta Di Testa - pig's head that is boned out then marinated for 2 days with rosemary and garlic rolled and tied then braised for 14 hours in a sous vide bag at 200 degrees to keep it all together. Thought I'd be squeamish about this but it was really tasty with the fennel & greens.
Green & white asparagus wrapped in Guanciale, an unsmoked Italian bacon prepared with pig's jowl or cheeks, served with a sunnyside up quail's egg. This was amazing & might have been my favorite course.
A pork & truffle broth with agnolloti filled with pork & chicken (I think there might have been a third meat too but I wasn't taking notes.)
Roasted Loin, Braised Rib & Grilled Sausage. An amazing trio for the entree here. The pork loin was so wonderful & we loved the pistachios in the sausage.
The cheese course featured a natural gorgonzola served with a strawberry gelatin & cracklings. The gelatin went so well with this cheese!
Our last course was the Fig & Pig. Oh, that crisp bacon with the vanilla bean ice creams was sooooo good!
Finally, we were given a box of cookies & chocolate made by Molly Border to take home with us.What an amazing way to spend a chilly, rainy Sunday afternoon, especially when each course was paired with a great Italian wine. Boy, is my weekly menu going to look pale in comparison.
Oh well, on to Menu Planning Monday anyway...
Risotto with Sausage & Mustard Greens - Was supposed to make this last week but it was so nice we grilled burgers.
Moroccan Chicken with Olives & Lemon
Pork Ribs with Pomegrate BBQ Sauce & Potatoes Au Gratin
Chicken & Corn Chowder
Vietnamese BBQed Pork & Noodles
Crockpot Shredded Beef
7 comments:
Pork is usually not my favorite but there are some good looking food on this menu. Looking forward to your weekly food.
That is a good looking meal......and lardo is hard to find, we usually only can get it at Batali's restaurants in nyc.
Minneapolis sounds pretty cool to me, except for those winters!
Oooh pork 8 ways. Delicious!
It sounds like you and Matt ate like kings yesterday!
What a great meal. Pork is currently my favorite meat (good pork, that is), and I am quite jealous. :)
Nice looking menu!
fig and pig- thats too funny. The dinner looks amazing. Wow you sure have some itneresting meals and unique foodie experiences!
That is amazing. Crispy bacon with icecream and figs? Wow! You are so lucky to have experienced this.
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