Contrary to what the infrequency of posts lately might indicate, La Piccina Cucina is still alive and well. At least, still functioning. I've been cooking plenty, just not many new things. And I have a long list of recipes I haven't gotten around to yet, because, well, there's just an awful lot of fun, new things to do here in California. There is also a lot of incredible food to be eaten. Hooray!
Anyway, this I actually made tonight! And it was good enough that I wanted to go straight to the computer to write it up. It's from this amazing vegetarian cookbook, Plenty, which has the most beautiful, interesting, I-want-to-try-that recipes. Seriously, I want to make like everything in that book.
So first, I made this. At its most basic level, it's potato salad with pesto sauce. That already would be great. But it also adds quail eggs, and whaddya know, Berkeley Bowl sells them. And we pass by them every week, and want to buy them but have no idea what to do with them, until now.
Served this with broiled pork chops that sat in a nice sugar-salt-balsamic brine (brine recipe here) all day, then got popped in the oven with some mini lemon slices from the tree out back (eeee!!!).
For 4-6 (I halved it, ish):
15 quail eggs
1 cup petite peas (frozen)
1 3/4 lbs new potatoes, washed (I don't know what "new" potatoes means. I just bought small ones.)
1 cup basil leaves
1/2 cup parsley leaves, plus some extra for garnish
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
2 garlic cloves
1 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar (I completely forgot to add this, btw)
1 bunch sorrel leaves, finely shredded (he says you can also use mint, which I think would be really interesting - I couldn't really taste the sorrel)
Salt and black pepper
Place the quail eggs in a small pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Simmer between 30 seconds and 2 minutes, depending on if you want them soft- or hard-boiled. Put them in cold water; peel them when you have a pause in the action.
Start the water boiling for the potatoes. When it boils, blanch the peas in the water for about 30 seconds, then drain and run under cold water. Set them aside for now.
Cook the potatoes until they're soft, about 15-20 minutes. You want them warm, ideally, when you put them in the sauce.
Make your pesto sauce while the potatoes cook. Put the basil, parsley, pine nuts, Parmesan, and garlic in a food processor and process to a paste. Add the olive oil and blend in the processor. Pour the pesto into the bowl in which you'll serve the salad.
Drain the potatoes, and cut in halves as soon as they won't scald you to touch (this can be a good time to peel the eggs). Add the potatoes to the bowl with the pesto, and toss with vinegar, sorrel, and peas. Mix well. Salt and pepper to taste.
Cut the eggs in half and gently mix them into the salad. Garnish. Eat.
