Monthly Archives: July 2010

Recently I’ve been able to get out to many of our wonderful local eateries.  In doing this I have come across one small obstacle.  That obstacle is the fact that even my stomach is not large enough to hold everything I want to try.  See, for me the whole point of dining out is to sample a chefs creativity and as much of it as you can.  So dinner after dinner I order everything I would like to try and either leave unbelievably full or leave a ton of food on the plates even though I may want to continue eating.  At some point one must succumb to reality.  This goes the same for wine I believe every meal should consist of champagne, white and red, as well as port or Madeira to wrap things up.  Half bottles for the beverage option usually works well for me. In order to encourage our guests to partake in this philosophy it was evident that I would need to create a sort of mini appetizers selection.  Since the beginning stages of development it only made sense that we would pair these small bites with samplings of wine.

Onto the menu development stage, Potenza is the place and Italian is the style.  It just so happens that now is a perfect time to be starting this because there are so many fun little things that are in season and will work well with this format.  I start collecting items, squash blossoms, figs, local summer squashes, local veal, summer truffles, cauliflower and some ahi tuna just because its good.  Now that I have a bunch of fun things to experiment what do I do with them?  Since I want each of these items to focused there will only be supporting flavors to the main ingredient. I started with the figs, balsamic is a must, then add just a touch of gorgonzola and why wouldn’t you want to wrap the whole thing with house cured pancetta? The first of seven bites was born.

Next, ahi tuna in all of its sashimi grade splendor.  This must be the simplest of all the bites. Black olive pesto on house made lovash finished with just a touch of maldon sea salt.  Then there’s the veal, I’m a huge fan of osso bucco, braised veal shank but now is not the season for a big plate of richly braised meat but what if you used that meat mixed with something.  I go right to arancini, those crisply fried risotto balls of love.  Local braised veal arancini because fried risotto is always in fashion.  A velvety smooth cauliflower puree topped with briefly seared diver scallops and a kiss of fennel pollen. Stone roasted local vegetables with house made mozzarella and creamy garlic.  In the summertime there just has to be a bruschetta so why not top it with our house cured salmon, some charred frisee and caperberries.  And lastly we need to stuff and crisp those wonderfully seasonal squash blossoms, truffled chicken and ricotta comes to mind immediately, why not place them on a lightly truffled asparagus sauce.  There was no reason not to.

Now that the bites have been written its time to eat.  See you at Potenza to try our bites with pairings!