New Feature: Saintly Feasts

Sometimes things that you love in your life fall by the wayside - be it too little time or maybe too many self-defeating habits, sometimes it just takes a little effort to get back into the swing of things. Our little blog has languished in purgatory for too long, and I am hereby resurrecting it with a new bi-weekly, or possibly monthly, or possibly just whenever-I-feel-like-it recipe feature I'm calling Saintly Feasts.

While I'm a pretty strident atheist, I've always had a huge fascination with catholic saints - the strange and mystical powers so many claimed to have, the gruesome deaths, the veneration of relics from pieces of cloth to pieces of foreskin that are housed in tremendously elaborate, beautiful, and mystifying shrines. I just love these guys and what better way to put that love to use than resurrecting the centuries-old tradition of the catholic feast days.

Essentially, every saint has a specific day where those who follow them feast in their remembrance. Most days have more than one saint to venerate, but I'm just choosing the most personally interesting to me. For each of these feast days I will be featuring a recipe that ties in to the saint's story and history - learn some cool cocktail party quips about some fascinating dead people, make some yummy food in their honor, and eat! That's really what all this is about, anyway.

So, Saintly Feasts feature the first: May 18, Saint Venantius of Camerino
Patron of: Camerino, Umbria, Italy
usually portrayed: hanging upside down with smoke/flames coming from his head

In 250 CE at the age of 15 after being accused of the crime of preaching, Saint Venantius was whipped within an inch of his life, his head was set on fire, he was tossed into a pit of lions, tossed off a cliff, beaten so that all his teeth fell from his head, and was then beheaded. At some point he died and a basilica was built outside of Camerino, Umbria where he was buried. Waters from a spring near this basilica could supposedly cure lepers. Which is cool, but not really as cool as this simple, raw Umbrian anchovy sauce or salsa d'acciughe which takes 5 seconds to throw together, turns into the prettiest pale yellow color, and can be used it for nearly anything - use it as a marinade, a baste for some grilled summer vegetables, or toss it with some pasta (this should cover about half a pound) and top with peccorino cheese. I added a roasted tomato to mine for a litlte extra umph. This recipe is adapted from Mary Ann Esposito's Ciao Italia in Umbria.

Salsa d'Ancciughe, Umbrian Anchovy Sauce (makes about 2/3 of a cup)

4 anchovy fillets packed in olive oil, drained

1 tablespoon capers in salt, rinsed and dried

2 large garlic cloves, crushed

2/3 extra virgin olive oil

juice of 1 large lemon

4 mint leaves

sea salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Food-process this stuff up (not too much - you don't want to obliterare everything, just process a few seconds to mix and get everything minced) and then let it sit at room temperature for a few hours to marinate.

Now eat it up and don't forget to think of poor Saint Venantius' burning head while doing so!

xoxo

CCB: Chocolate-Covered Bacon, The Saga

Salt and chocolate has got to be one of my favorite flavor combinations - think about it, chocolate covered peanuts, the chex mix that has bits of chocolate worked in, the trail mixes where you pick out all the salt-crusted chunks of chocolate out first - its just a really good combo.
Which is why chocolate covered bacon, as ludicrous as it sounds, has been haunting my dreams for the past month. I saw the stuff on a random food network challenge show and have not been able to stop salivating over it. And now, at last, the dream has come true. And yes, it's really, really delicious. Its also really, really messy, so here is a photo that some other, obviously less clumsy, bacon lover took of their product. Mine did not turn out nearly so pretty, but it all tastes the same anyway.

Chocolate Covered Bacon: The Recipe

-however much bacon you feel like enshrouding in chocolate - I used the applewood smoked kind that is slightly sweet
-semi-sweet chocolate chips or pieces - I used 1/2 a bag for 1/2 lb of bacon.
- some sea salt

1. pan fry the bacon until crispy and drain on paper towels to soak up all the extra grease
2. in a medium sauce pan, boil some water. when its boiling, put a small saucepan into the boiling water, and add the chocolate, stirring constantly as it melts. (this process is basically a poor man's double boiler - if you have one of those, please it use it instead!)
3. dip the bacon in the chocolate! you can neatly and easily just do half the slice like in the picture above, or you messily (and more deliciously) drench the whole piece like I did. Put your dipped bacon on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.
4. sprinkle your still-warm bacon pieces with sea salt for extra salty-yumminess.
5. stick the cookie sheet in the fridge for 15 minutes so that the chocolate hardens up.

Be sure to share your new favorite food with others - they'll think you're super clever for making such a weirdly wonderful treat!