Posts Tagged ‘Michael Chiarello’

I Love You Budino

Oct 24, 2007 general food, recipe, restaurants, trips

Tra Vigne 1

As previously mentioned Ellie and I honeymooned in Napa Valley. We made the decision to go there and also San Francisco mostly for the following reasons:

First was the organic Robert Sinskey Vineyards. Situated along the lesser-known Silverado Trail in Napa Valley, Robert Sinskey Vineyards is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. Their wines are some of the best I’ve had, and their pinot noir specifically is an all time favorite of mine.

A few years later we had the pleasure of dining with Robert Sinskey and Maria Helm Sinskey at a wine dinner at Harvest, and while that’s not the point of this post, I will say that it was refreshing to find out first hand that their philosophy is to make the wines they like: wines best enjoyed with food rather than alone. It was obvious when we’d visited their vineyard.

Second was of course the bigger reason: food.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to dine in Napa Valley, the thing I remember most from our experiences, was how relaxed everything seemed to be. While you certainly have the French Laundry and all their pomp and circumstance, the places we went were incredibly relaxed considering the level of quality. Unlike any city we’ve ever dined in, there we’d be, sitting at the bar in a beautiful restaurant in which someone had lovingly spent a great deal of time an energy on every minute detail, and in would waltz some guy in shorts or a t-shirt. The most striking thing: nobody seemed to really care. Everyone was just there to eat the finest food they could find.

And it was so easy to find.

At Bouchon we had a warm rabbit rillette topped with a fig compote. It was preserved in a flip top mason jar. Heated intact it was only opened once arriving at our table allowing us the first pleasures of its perfume. If unfamiliar, rillette is a method of cooking submerged in fat for preservation similar to confit. Each bite was spread on crisp crostini before dazzling your palette as the sweetness of the fig cut through the soft fattiness of the rabbit.

Another item we recall from Bouchon was a lemon tart. Such a simple dessert, it was made spectacular by the use of meyer lemons and the portion size — literally one fourth of a full tart.

But the real reason we went for the food was that at the time we were addicted to the pre-lame Michael Chiarello PBS program Season By Season. We wanted desperately to eat at Tra Vigne, and what better excuse to go than a honeymoon?

While you’d be hard pressed to find a location in Napa Valley that isn’t beautiful, Tra Vigne delivered in full as you were transported to Italy the second you walked through their outer gates. It was a massive restaurant filled with the sounds of busy servers and happy diners echoing throughout.

Ellie had a roasted pear and gorgonzola risotto that is probably the best we’ve ever had. Cooked perfectly, it was neither to stodgy or to wet the way it so often is in restaurants. I recall I had a rabbit pappardelle that I wish I could remember more vividly, but the point of this post is not that the pasta sealed our love for Tra Vigne. What sealed it, was the Warm Pecorino Budino we’d had as one of our appetizers.

Budino is Italian for pudding, and cheese pudding was certainly nothing we’d ever had before. It was like a taste of heaven as the acidity of the grape tomatoes they served it with cut through the creaminess of the peppery sheep’s milk pecorino pudding. We loved it so much we were lured back two days later for lunch to have it again, and it was just as good.

After returning to our regular lives in St. Louis we couldn’t stop thinking about budino. It was one of those perfect food memories I’ve spoken of previously. Each time we thought of it, craving for more, we could almost taste it.

So, I called the restaurant to see if I could find out, at the very least, what kind of cheese they used. To my surprise, they graciously sent me the entire recipe in its entirety along with some back story on how it came to be. It seemed they loved it just as much as we did. I made it that very weekend, and while the missing ambiance of the restaurant kept it from being everything we’d hoped for, it was still touching to be able to relive the experience in some small way.

In the years since, with a move and a lot of life lived, I sadly lost the recipe, but I was delighted to find it last week while cleaning my office along with my note regarding how I obtained it in the first place.

It is amazingly simple to make, and is sure to be a crowd pleaser at any holiday gathering you might attend. But please don’t serve Asparagus until the Spring.

Warm Pecorino “Budino” with Grilled Asparagus
serves 6-8

1 c. milk
1 c. cream
1 c. fresh, white bread crumbs (no crust) from baguette or Italian bread
1 c. grated Fulvi Pecorino cheese + a little to sprinkle on the unmolded budino
3 egg yolks
pinch of pepper
18 spears ofsmall-medium asparagus tough ends trimmed and stalks peeled
1 lemon
2 T chopped Gaeta olives

Heat milk, cream and Pecorino until it just simmers. Remove and strain through a chinois. Discard the cheese solids and save the strained cream. Add the fresh bread crumbs to the warm cream. Set aside to allow the crumbs to soften in the cream for 30 minutes.

Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Discard the whites. Pour the cream mixture and a pinch of salt and pepper in the yolks and whisk until thoroughly incorporated.

Pour four ounces of the budino custard into well buttered ramekins and bake in a water bath for 1-1 1/2 hours at a temperature of 300 degrees or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.

Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes. The resting is not imperative but is good for unmolding the budino.

Blanch the asparagus briefly in boiling water. Remove and place asparagus in a bowl. Toss with a little olive oil and grey salt. Grill over hot coals for 2 minutes just to singe the asparagus on one side.

Place three spears onto a Warm plate. Run a toothpick or thin knife around the outside of the custard to loosen from the sides of the ramekin. Unmold it onto a plate and finish with a great extra virgin olive oil chopped Gaeta olives and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Note: I e-mailed Tra Vigne Restaurant in St. Helena, CA wondering if they could point me in a direction on even the type of cheese for this pudding. Ellie and I had eaten it on our honeymoon, and I wanted to make it for her again. I had thought to get a menu before leaving so I would not forget, but I lost it somewhere between CA and MO. Not only did they fax me a complete recipe portioned out for home use, but I got this info regarding the recipe:

“Chef Carmen Quagliata created the dish. It is the Pecorino pudding. Carmen now owns a restauant in Boston named The Vault. If you have a fax, I can fax you the recipe. It is very tasty!!!”

Carmen Quagliata was more or less a prodigy of Michael Chiarello. He was sous chef under Chiarello for many years before becoming Executive Chef of Tra Vigne.

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