…should I go out on a limb and just go to culinary school? It’s now been my “backup” career for YEARS, and lately all I want to do is have people over so I can cook for them and fill their bellies and then fill them all over again if I can con them into staying for another meal.

The above quotation is from my last post. Since it hit the internet waves, I have gotten an overwhelming response from friends and family that I should indeed attend culinary school. The thought of switching careers has become more sharply realistic since my coworkers and I are facing the elimination of our jobs (if the district initiates full-day Kindergarten for the 2009-10 school year). As I continue to scratch my head about all of this, I am also continuing to cook up a storm… perhaps more than ever.

Three of my most wonderful friends came to visit this weekend (hi guys!), and for once I chose to welcome them with a lunch instead of a dinner.

Photo Credit: Gourmet Magazine

(THIS RECIPE AND OTHERS AFTER THE JUMP!!)

The Monte Cubano was featured on the cover of March’s Gourmet. I used some of the Pain de Campagne that I baked a couple weeks ago (bread-baking post to coming soon), and the other highlights were Boar’s Head Black Forest Ham and Claussen Kosher Dill Pickles (as far as I’m concerned, these are superior to ALL other supermarket pickles). I also added some fresh thyme to the egg bath. These sandwiches were delicious… savory and rich and I’d like three more right now. You can find the recipe here, and I’m not sure if it will stick around after the next issue comes out, so print it for your records.

I ended up paging through my Mario Batali cookbook, Molto Italiano, to look for a dinner recipe. But I need to give you some history about my love affair with this book. Slowly perusing it in great depth has come to be habitual for me. Last spring, someone I know cooked a recipe from this book, and as the pleasant aromas of bacon and tomato wafted through the air, I paged through it for the first time. The pages are full of vibrant food photography, delicious descriptions, charming anecdotes, fascinating history, and delicious recipes. It would be the first of many times that I looked through every single page in the book, admiring its breadth and depth.

I’ve always held high regard for Italian cooking. When I was a little one, I would crank the pasta machine to turn out smooth, fragrant sheets that would become my dinner. My dad would feed the dough into the machine and I would watch it, look for snags, and sneak bites of the uncooked dough. In fact, this was probably the beginning of my culinary interest overall. Please take note of the fact that I have no Italian heritage whatsoever, not even a drop: I don’t have stories about gazing into stock pots of my grandmother’s marinara or stuffing my face with prosciutto with my cousins under the kitchen table. My stories are about cranking out the pasta dough for my Scottish, Irish, and German (read: American) father. There was nothing authentically Italian about who we were… or even what we were doing. The results, however, were always wonderfully delicious. To be honest, the results did not motivate me to help in the kitchen. My parents divorced when I was little, and my dad lived 6 hours away for most of my childhood. I can only say this in 20/20 hindsight, of course, but I believe I spent time in the kitchen because all I wanted was to be around my dad.

My interest in Italian cooking, however, stirred at moments, and was subdued at others. I really started cooking towards the end of high school. I would regularly smoke up my mom’s kitchen, but it never stopped me from trying again. In the winter of senior year, I went on a two-week trip to Rome with 9 of my classmates. I ate my heart out, and would give anything to go back right now. Even then, however, I didn’t fully appreciate the food I was eating. If you tell me you want to go out for dinner, my first two or three suggestions will be Italian restaurants. Living in the Boston area for nearly five years, I have eaten in the North End many times. To have so many Italian restaurants and specialty stores in one area is very novel.

Getting ahold of Molto Italiano last month was such a treat. It arrived on my doorstep in the morning, before I left for work. I grabbed it and took it with me. I started to page through the book again, putting post-it flags on the recipes I would soon make. It took me about 200 pages before I realized I didn’t need to flag anything because I wanted to make it all. Somehow, with each subsequent look at the book, I find more recipes I want to make.

On Saturday, after we had all digested the Monte Cubanos, we began to think about dinner. I grabbed Molto off the shelf and began flipping through. We settled on page 226: Gnocchi di Ricotta con Salsiccia e Finocchi (Ricotta Gnocchi with Sausage and Fennel). I didn’t have the time to make my own gnocchi (something I have not yet attempted), so we got some from the freezer section at the supermarket. The sauce turned out deliciously. Click the above link for the recipe and enjoy it with people you love.

One of the best meals I have made to date is also featured in this beautiful book: Bucatini all’Amatriciana. Excellent bacon will substitute for the Guanciale or Pancetta.  You have to try this recipe the next time you’re wondering what to make for dinner. I feel protective of it, but since it’s published on Babbo’s website and in Molto Italiano, I’m not exactly allowed to be. PLEASE COOK IT. You won’t regret it.

For me, cooking and eating is about love: love of family and friends, food, and myself (when I eat it, of course!). We shall see how far that goes as a factor in my decision to attend culinary school. I will keep you posted, as promised, but in the meantime, make some of these recipes and invite me over to eat with you. Or at least, let me know how they turned out.