We had some leftover veal and mushroom sauce from the gnocchi dinner on July 9 to finish.  I roasted polenta (creamy style), and served the sauce over the polenta. The finished dish was topped with chopped basil and Parmesan cheese and was delicious!  Bruce made roasted broccoli with anchovies, garlic, and Franny’s pepper paste; it was a bit hot, but tasty.  We enjoyed a very nice bottle of super Tuscan wine: L’oca Ciuca or The Drunken Goose 2006.

We bought some beautiful beans from Matt-Cyn Farm at the Corvallis Farmer’s market.  We bought their beans last year and they were all delicious, so we were excited to buy them again this year.  There is nothing like a freshly dried bean…..it makes the dried beans you buy in bulk at grocery stores and co-ops taste like cardboard in comparison.  Anyway, the beans I used for the soup were called Amethyst and they were a beautiful purple color dry, but turned an unattractive  gray after they had been cooked….    Fortunately, they tasted better than they looked and really held their shape after being cooked for a couple of hours.

I put a chopped onion, shredded sliced prosciutto, and chopped fresh rosemary in a soup pot and sauteed the mixture for about 10 minutes.  I added the cooked beans (and the Parmesan cheese rind I cooked with the beans), chicken stock, and black pepper and let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes.  I cooked pasta in a separate pot (I don’t like to cook pasta in the soup as it gets very soggy) and served it with the soup along with a freshly baked loaf of Italian cheese bread.

Bruce made an incredible salad of arugula, basil, black mission figs, lemon zest, blue cheese, dried blueberries, and smoke almonds.  The dressing was strawberry balsamic vinaigrette and the wine was a very berry tasting Spanish rose: Conde de Valdemar Rioja 2008.

We had leftover sausage from Sunday’s pizza feast, and leftover roasted pork from Saturday.  I made fusilli pasta with the sausage, pork, sauteed Swiss chard with onion, garlic, Franny’s pepper paste, olives, cheese, and white wine.

Bruce made a Caesar salad with leftover dressing, and we drank a bottle of Parallele 45 cotes du rhone 2006.

Our friends, Dave & Debbie, came over for some of Bruce’s pizza.  We found out, once they showed up, that pizza is Dave’s favorite food & he was ready to eat what Bruce whipped up.  Bruce made 2 different kinds of dough: the traditional Napolitan and a neo-Napolitan (it had olive oil and honey in it).  Two cheese mixtures were made as well:  #1 (Fontal, Parmigiano Reggiano), and #2 (Pecorino Romano, Provolone).

Pizza #1: Napolitan dough, cheese mix #1, tomato sauce, mozzarella, prosciutto, and arugula.

Pizza #2: Napolitan dough, cheese mix #2, homemade Italian sausage, mushrooms, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

Pizza #3: Neo-Napolitan dough, cheese mix #2, Genoa and paprika salami’s, mixed olives, tomato sauce, and mozzarella.

Pizza #4: Napolitan dough, cheese mix #1, basil and artichoke pesto’s, mushrooms, fresh basil, arugula, and mozzarella.

Pizza #5: Bruce made this pizza for Dave & Debbie to take home.  Neo-Napolitan dough, cheese mix #2, homemade Italian sausage, mushrooms, mixed olives, and mozzarella.

We drank several bottle of wine and had homemade cream cheese, hazelnut brownies with Frangelico for dessert.  No one went to bed hungry!!

We picked up a nice boneless pork loin roast from Sweet Briar Farms at the farmer’s market in Corvallis.  I seasoned it with vanilla salt, pepper, and the last of the candy cap mushroom dust.  I seared the pork on both sides and then roasted it in the oven at 450F for 45 minutes.  I separately roasted sliced apples, fennel, and onion that had been seasoned with vanilla salt and pepper and tossed with orange olive oil.  We found some really beautiful sweet potatoes at the market as well.  For those, I rendered some prosciutto fat, seasoned them with vanilla salt, aleppo pepper, dried French herbs, and then roasted the sweet potatoes in the fat.  The slightly sweet-salty taste of the prosciutto fat really went well with the potatoes.  The pork roast was sliced and served on top of the roasted apples, fennel, and onion with the sweet potatoes on the side.  The pork was juicy, delicious , and perfect with the accompaniments.

Bruce made a bold Mediterranean inspired salad of arugula, olives, green onion, manchego,  aged gouda, and Irish cheeses, roasted scallop mushrooms, and fried garlic.  The dressing was lambrusco vinaigrette and the wine was Cuneo Bricco sangiovese 2004.