THE LAST SUPPER
We had an amazing last meal in Vancouver on Monday. We left behind our apartment on Sunday morning, and settled in with friends for a couple of days, before boarding our flight to our first holiday destination (Alberta) on Tuesday Morning.
Knowing that our friends were planning to cook a fabulous meal we made a trip to firefly wines at their new location at 12th and Cambie to pick up some wine - tough job, but someone had to do it. We knew a bit about dinner, ricotta balls with nutmeg, in a sage butter sauce with lemon. Immediately I thought white burgundy, or muscadet sevré et main. I couldn't find what I was looking for in the muscadet, and then simon threw in a curve ball, Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier... delicious!
Dinner turned out to be Gnudi, loosely based off of Jaime Oliver's Recipe. These gorgeous little pillows of ricotta were lightly flavoured with nutmeg and lemon zest, before being rolled in semolina flour, and left to rest in the fridge overnight. The moisture in the ricotta caused the semolina to almost turn pasta like, so that it could then be boiled, and lightly fried. However, as we learned, if the ricotta has too much moisture, they melted in the frying pan... disaster!
We were able to overcome this with a bit of quick thinking, and some team work. With the light semolina coating we figured that we could toss the gnudi directly into the frying pan with a bit of oil. This, with the sage butter would add a nice crust, and prevent them from melting.
Pure perfection! The idea worked out, and we were left with crusty outsides, and pillowy gorgeous insides. Topped off with a bit of lemon juice, crispy sage, and parmesan, these were a real treat. The Viognier worked with the rich cheese, and highlighted the lemon rind in the gnudi.
The gnudi were very filling, so don't serve too many at once - you can always go back for seconds.
We are so grateful for having amazing friends, with amazing culinary abilities, who also appreciate food and wine pairing.
For the next few days, we are in Alberta, the land of snow, before we make our way off to the UK. Stay tuned for our holiday dinner!