The first time Luke met my parents was for my 29th birthday (March 2008). We spent the day skiing at Keystone and then met up with my parents for dinner at my favorite restaurant in Summit County: Ti Amo. ( Little did I know that this would be our last time at Ti Amo before it closed. ) My favorite dish is chicken and strawberries, but Mom and I were shocked to see that it was no longer on the menu. So when the owner came around, a typical Italian looking man named Luigi (sp?), we questioned him on the lack of our favorite dish. In previous trips he had told us how it was his Grandma’s recipe and would always be on his menu. He explained that no one really ordered it and his chefs had changed, so he took it off the menu. But we then got very lucky, because when I asked him for the recipe he provided it and the recipe for another dish. I wrote them down on the envelope of the birthday card my parents had given me. I’ll have to write them in another blog post.
Back to Ti Amo though… later in the evening I went to the restroom and while I was away Luigi came up to Luke and gave him the name of a cookbook he should get me. So a couple days later on my actual birthday, I get a big present. A cookbook called the Silver Spoon or in Italian “Il Cucchiaio D’argento”. This is the cookbook that if you grew up in Italy your mom or grandmother would get you on your wedding day. For those of you from the midwest, it’s like the Better Homes & Garden Cookbook. 
The first edition of this book came together in the 1950′s with over 2,000 authentic Italian recipes. There have been 7 revised editions over the years. It was translated to English for the first time in 2005. The thing about the cookbook though is that it is fairly vague on measurements, cooking times, etc. How you would imagine authentic Italians would cook. But, I’m not a chef, so for me every time we cook it is a great experiment. Oh, and don’t think by Italian I mean a bunch of pasta recipes. There is the primi piatti section, but the vast majority is meat, vegetables, etc.
When we first started cooking from The Silver Spoon, we soon realized that we should take notes on what we’d done so we could learn from it. I didn’t really want to write it in the book so I remember writing stuff down, but I have no idea where those notes are now. So, now I’m going to write a blog. Since that movie just came out about Julia Child’s cookbook, I feel like a copycat. Or maybe I’m just in style? Nevertheless, I’m going to record our notes from each recipe. Here’s what I remember from those first few meals (page numbers from the book for each recipe are included).
Chicken Roulades with Sage (Pg 914) – Involtini di Pollo alla Salvia
This is a dish where you pound out chicken stuff with sage and roll up with pancetta. Awesome. The first time we made it was perfect. The oil in the skillet was going everywhere making a nice mess to clean up, but the chicken came out nice and juicy with lots of flavor. One of the next times we tried it though it was really dry. So, a few notes. When it says to turn frequently until brown all over, you should really get the heat up high to sort of sear all sides of the roulades. Then when you cover and cook all low, the juices won’t drain out so the chicken will stay moist.
Strawberry Risotto (pg. 332) – Risotto alle Fragole
This is one of Luke’s favorite dishes. I think almost every time we have made this one it has turned out great. A couple notes though – really use vegetable stock. When it says one onion it probably never imagined the huge hormone filled onions that we grow over here, so either go organic or just go a little lighter than a full onion. We made light cream by mixing lactaid with heavy cream the other day. That seemed to work ok too. Oh, and mashing the strawberries with a hand masher is much better than trying a blender.
Radicchio and Walnut Rolls (pg. 549) – Involtini di Radicchio alle Noci
This was my first big mistake in trying to modify from the book. You mix walnuts with ricotta cheese and stuff them into radicchio leaves. Well, I thought I would be healthier and choose the fat free version of ricotta. The radicchio came out so dry and the middle just seemed to stick to your tongue. It’s better to eat less and just buy the good stuff. I’m guessing the part-skim would have been fine but the combination of chopped walnuts and fat free ricotta was just too much like a dry paste. I re-made the dish when Luke was gone with the real stuff and it was a lot better. Since I’m a bigger fan of almonds than walnuts, I could see trying to use that some time as well.
Eggplant and Ricotta Lasagne (pg.272) – Lasagne con Melanzane e Ricotta
I made this one per the books. Yet it came out a quite dry. We’re used to lasagne’s that are really rich and full of lots of sauce. The way my mom makes it with real Italian sausage, it sometimes even drips with some grease. So we weren’t quite ready for a dry lasagne. When we re-heated the leftovers we put some diced tomatoes and a little tomato sauce over the top of it. Mmmm – much better. We’ll probably just add a little more sauce next time.
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