Restaurant Week Is Coming....

The murmurings have been getting progressively louder and more numerous. Boston Restaurant Week is coming. Current plan is for it span 2 weeks and run from March 15-20 and March 22-27. I hate how they don't include that one Saturday night!

The restaurants will be announced in mid-February and you can check out the Unofficial Guide at that time for a list of participating restaurants.

It's a great opportunity to try a new place for a fixed cost and sample what the restaurant has to offer. Working with such a limited number and fully-booked tables gives you a good sense for what the restaurant is capable of -- I've seen some hits and misses over the years.

Hits

• Pigalle -- still holds its charm as one of my favorite places
• Marco -- the first time. Everything was superb!
• Tangierino -- unexpected success, but everyone loved their meal.

Misses

• Marco -- the second time. The menu was pretty boring and they were 45 mins late with our reservation.
• Chez Henri -- meh. I really didn't get the whole French/Cuban combo
• Icarus -- this place seems to be past its prime.

Work in Progress

After hearing about our failed pasta-making experience with the Kitchen Aid mixer, my mom graciously offered me her old metal, manual crank pasta maker. But really, I think she just wanted to clear stuff out of her garage.

Back in 1990 or so, we got this pasta maker and I remember the fun we had as a family making homemade pasta, drying it on broom handles spread across two chairs and eating fresh angel hair pasta with shrimp fra diavlo. After the Kitchen Aid debacle, Glenn was skeptical.

We made the pasta (mostly) following the package instructions for the semolina and then turned our attention to the pasta cranker. Basically, you divvy up the dough into thirds and then crank it through a flattener, progressively thinning the dough the more times you feed it through. Once the dough is thin and plat, the machine gives you the option of cutting it yourself (for lasagna), or feeding it through one of two presses -- one for angel hair, the other for fettuccine. Like the Kitchen Aid, this was a two-man job -- one to feed the dough through, the other to catch the output. It was a fettuccine kind of night! We weren't making a big batch, so we were able to dry ours on the back of the kitchen chairs.


After it had dried for 10-15 mins, we dropped the pasta into boiling, salted water and cooked 3-4 mins until tender. We dressed the fettuccine with olive oil and topped with roasted vegetables (portobella mushrooms, eggplant, onion, red pepper) and some dice mozzarella. The veggies were super easy -- cut into 2" pieces, toss with olive oil, salt & pepper on a baking sheet and roast 20-25 mins at 425.

The veggies were wonderful, the pasta consistency perfect, but the pasta itself needed just a little more flavor. We are still refining our technique, but it's the journey, not the destination that counts, right?

A Taste of France

A few weeks ago, Boston.com ran a mini-article featuring local restaurants' picks for holiday fare. I copied down a few recipes to try later, one of which was the French Onion Soup courtesy of Petit Robert Bistro. Petit Robert has locations in Fenway and the South End -- I've been to each once and had the French Onion Soup at the Fenway location. They recently opened up another location right here in Needham and it's on my list of places to check out -- it will be interesting to see how it compares to the city locations.

French Onion Soup is one of my all-time faves (the crusty cheese is the best part!). I've tried making it in the past, but it has always turned out rather thin and lacking in flavor. Other recipes called for red wine, but this one specified white wine. While I'm not sure if that was the main differentiating factor, this recipe produced a soup that had sweetness and depth to it -- good job Petit Robert!

French Onion Soup (modified from Boston.com)

• 5 peeled Spanish onions, sliced into halves first and then into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• Olive oil
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• Salt & pepper
• 1 c. white wine (I used Chardonnay)
• 1 quart beef stock
• Swiss Cheese slices
• Toasted baguette slices

Cook the sliced onions slowly with the olive oil, over low heat until they have rendered all water and are brown and thick (about 1 - 1.5 hrs); spread the flour over the onions and mix well to avoid lumps, cook 1-2 mins; add the wine and bring to a boil; add beef stock, bring to a boil and add salt and pepper to taste. Boil 3-4 minutes. Fill the onion soup bowls, put a slice of baguette top and top with 1-2 slices of Swiss per bowl. Broil in the oven for 3-4 mins until cheese is golden and bubbly. Serves 4. As you can see from the picture, I was too eager to eat the gooey cheese and only remembered to take a photo midway through the meal. I enjoyed mine with the leftover wine and a green salad. Delicious!