Making Dinner

This is usually the time of year I’m closing down the freezer. By this time we’ve usually managed to eat the sauces, vegetables, zucchini bread, and fruit that I put away in August and September. This winter, though, I didn’t turn to the freezer as much. I had a lot of potatoes, for one thing, and onions, and so many jars of tomatoes. I didn’t make as much chili, which is where I usually use my corn stash.

But we’ve been feasting on pasta sauce this winter. And tonight I had a hankering to cook, so made fresh pasta, my favorite chicken breasts stuffed with red pepper sauce and gruyere, and the end of the frozen spicy tomato sauce.

My taste buds are compromised, but there is just something pleasing about making food, and the aesthetics of putting together a dish. Tonight I watched an episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table with Massimo Bottura of Modena, Italy. It’s a great program because it really goes into depth of what is behind the food and the history of the restaurant (in this case Osteria Francescana). He has a very artistic approach to dishes, and his aim is to deconstruct / reconstruct traditional Italian cooking. Among the scandals of his restaurant (to the locals) is a dish called “six tortellini.” He wanted people to slow down and experience the tortellini, not slurp them up by the spoonful (10 to a spoon!) with broth.

The dish that caught my eye, though, was based on the burnt, crunchy corner of the lasagna. He claims this slice is the best corner, the best bit of grandma’s lasagna. I did have a love of that crunchy corner on my mother’s delicious lasagna. (Does that photo look like lasagna to you?)

I feel the same about this chicken dish. To make it I filet and pound flat the chicken breast, then smear it with pepper sauce and grated gruyere. You could use roasted peppers straight with gruyere or any sharp cheese. Inevitably, though, when you pan fry the chicken, some will ooze out. And it flavors the chicken breast and gives off a burnt tangy scent. It just wouldn’t be the same if you tied it up neatly and it all stayed inside.

And so I guess I learn that I am also just a plain old aesthete. When it comes to food, there are more senses than taste to engage. The satisfaction of pasta going through the blades and separating with the flour on the counter, the scent of the sauce oozing, all of it is part of the experience.