The timid earth decides to thaw

This page is from a wonderful book called A Child's Calendar by John Updike. The poems and illustrations capture perfectly the feeling of each month.



"Some days are fair, some days are raw."

March. A month where deciding what to have for dinner is sometimes a challenge.

I'm betwixt and between

   on a meal at this time

An inspiring main course

is my plight.

I'm bored with

the casseroles, 

chilis and stews,

But there's nary 

a fresh green 

in sight.

Here's one answer for a March meal.

It has the earthy comfort of mushrooms, the warmth of a red wine reduction, and the liveliness of a springtime vegetable with lemon.

Chicken "Barolo Chinato" with Mushrooms and Parsley
Baked Potatoes with Rosemary
Lemon-Butter Asparagus

Barolo Chinato (pronounced “key”nato) is an Italian dessert wine. For this chicken recipe, you can substitute marsala, port or sherry. I happened to have a bottle of this on hand that I had been saving since my visit to Italy in 2009. I first tasted it at a wonderful restaurant in the Piemonte region located in the Northwestern corner of Italy. This is the home of the fabulous wines, Barolo and Barbaresco, and the white truffle. 

Ristorante Albergo "Miralanghe" in Guarene
- Piemonte, Italy-

Here's our server, Anna, with her daughter Chiara.

They're holding a plate of truffles that their dog discovered that day.

Anna was a wonderful server and I told her so. 

We ended up closing the place that night. 

In fact, before we left, the chef, who was Anna's husband, invited us to have drinks on the terrace. Is this customary in Italy?  Needless to say, I was thrilled. My favorite drink was the Chinato.The chef said that it was invented as a medicine and, for a long time, the only place you could buy it was at a pharmacy.

When we were leaving, he gave us two different bottles to take home. He handed me the Barolo Chinato. 

Chicken “Barolo Chinato”

This is an adaptation of  the “Medallions of Veal” recipe that was featured in a Boston Kitchen Cookbook back in the 1970's.

 

1 1/2 lbs. chicken breast, cut into small pieces and pounded 1/4 inch thick

1/4 cup flour

Salt & pepper

2 TB butter

1 TB olive oil

3/4 cup beef broth

3/4 cup Barolo Chinato (or port, sherry, or marsala wine)

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 TB finely chopped onion

fresh lemon

2 TB chopped parsley

Stir flour, salt & pepper in bowl. Coat chicken pieces in mixture. Shake off excess. In a non-stick skillet, melt butter and add olive oil. Place chicken in a single layer and sauté on both sides over medium-high heat until lightly browned. Remove chicken pieces to serving platter; keep remaining juices in pan. Return pan to medium-high heat, add mushrooms and onion and cook until tender. Pour in broth and wine, stir, and bring to a boil. Let it boil for a minute until it begins to reduce. Add a fresh squeeze of lemon. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Pour over chicken and sprinkle with parsley.

Baked Potatoes with Rosemary

4 large baking potatoes

olive oil

1 tsp. beef bouillon

salt & freshly ground pepper

fresh rosemary leaves

Rinse potatoes and slice them into rounds, about 1/8 inch thick. Drizzle olive oil into a large, shallow round dish - a quiche plate works well – and add your first round of potatoes around the edge. Sprinkle each layer generously with salt & pepper, and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Continue along towards the center until all the potatoes are placed. Add another drizzle of oil on the top and sprinkle with 1 tsp. of beef bouillon and rosemary. Pour just a little bit of water into the bottom of the dish to help keep the potatoes a bit moist as they cook. Bake at 450 F for about 30 minutes or until tender. You may want to baste it toward the end to keep the potatoes from drying out.

Lemon-Butter Asparagus

1 lb. of thin asparagus spears

fresh lemon

1 TB butter

salt & pepper

Rinse the asparagus.Take a spear with one hand and, with the other, bend the end of the spear until it breaks where it wants to. What you have left is a perfectly tender spear. There's no need to peel. Put the asparagus in a skillet and add about 1/2 inch of water and some salt. Cover and cook until asparagus is just tender. Remove spears from pan. Add salt, pepper, butter and a squeeze of lemon juice.