From the Serie - Menu du Jour...

MENU du JOUR

Sunday 01.01.09

Mortadella di Bologna

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Tagliatelle alla bolognese

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Porchetta

Cime di rape ripassate in padella

Not even the heavy snow the covered Geneva this Sunday morning intimidated us to the religious trip to the Plainpalais market. A visit to the Amicucci stand is a must, we'll talk more about them another time, and we started with a thick and foamy espresso, kindly offered by the owner, probably noticing our need for cafeine, before we could start. "-200 grams of transparent slices of Mortadella di Bologna", the striking aroma that starts making you hungry.

Still not sure about the menu, and checking out the ingredients available to put a lunch together, we were asked to try one of their specialities of saucisson, a wild fennel and the other piquant.

That was the enlivening of our main course, snowy days require rich and comforting food, so we decided to make a ragoût, a stew with fresh sausages. By adding some minced meat and lardon we just needed to chose the pasta to be eaten with our ragoût alla bolognese. "-500 grams of fresh tagliatelle", a nice chunk of Parmesan, home made tomato sauce (with the instructions of the owner on how to prepare it) and that would be the dish of the day.

The kind lady still offered us a generous slice of roasted porchetta, which now with all the respect to the bolognese, has taken actual main course place. Some cime di rape, olive oil, garlic and chili pepper were going to be the perfect accompaniment for the porchetta. Champagne Billecart Salmon Brut Réserve and a great sparkling wine, a Brut Millesime 2004 from Jacques Germanier - Conthey / Switzerland (merci Stephanie) complemented this typical bolognese lunch.

Special thanks to the same irréductibles that are always there, even on snowy days