i met someone

new years eve was a lazy, rainy day here in chicago but i still found it to be exciting. mainly because i met someone. his name is dirk. he's tall, dark, handsome... and he has mussels. lots and lots of mussels.

and oysters and red snapper and tilapia and alaskan king crab..

as you can probably guess, i did not meet my future husband on new years eve. i did, however, fall in love with dirk's fish and gourmet shop.

my plans for new years eve included a night in with good food, good drinks and amazing friends. we planned on having bruschetta, prosciutto wrapped mozzarella, mussels and gnocchi. i was in charge of the mussels. having never bought mussels before, i felt a bit lost. you would think that if i were planning on making mussels i would firstly know how to get mussels. this was not the case. luckily chowhound helped me out and i found dirk's shop. i've lived in chicago for 5 1/2 years and i am just now finding out about dirk's?!! i'm sorry it's taken me this long to be enlightened but i'm ready to make up for lost time.

even on a rainy friday the line at dirk's was to the door. dirk and his wife terry were working. i love when owners are ringing up customers and available to chat. after i paid for my three pounds of mussels, i went back home, soaked them in water and reviewed the recipe i was going to use. i followed the mussels "peppetedda" recipe in julia della croce's latest cookbook, because we all know i can't get enough of her cookbook.

i forgot the parsley at my apartment but the mussels were still pretty good. and you can't go wrong with bruschetta, prosciutto, mozzarella, gnocchi and, of course, champagne. what a way to end 2010.

and now, the gratuitous first picture of 2011!

let's talk a little bit more about julia della croce, shall we?

i don't feel like that one teeny tiny line in my last post was enough. she deserves much more.

honestly, i had never heard of julia until i saw the sign advertising that she was coming to the chopping block for a book signing with her latest book italian home cooking. she's written 13 books about italian cooking. honestly, you would think a girl who loves italy, food and italian food as much as i do would have already been enlightened. oh well, no time like the present. i plan on making up for lost time.

first off, before we get to the food, can i just say how wonderful julia is, as a person? she is genuine and not intimidating at all. she has one of those personalities where i feel like i already know her. i wish she was my neighbor so i could borrow a cup of sugar and invite her over for coffee. i love how she is so passionate about getting people back in the kitchen.

during the demo she talked about how italians are no longer cooking in the traditional manner. for one, more and more people are working and don't have time to cook or learn how to cook. and those in the professional culinary world are being classically trained in culinary schools instead of by the sides of short, little old ladies shuffling around the kitchen. the authentic italian way of cooking is being left behind. she talked a lot about the italian method of cooking vs. the french method. italian cooking is all about ingredients. french cooking is all about technique. one isn't necessarily better than the other; they're just different. most culinary schools are based off the french technique, hence the loss of tradition.

(yes, my mind automatically says "traditioooon!" sorry, back to the post.)

many italian dishes are simple but like julia said the make or break element is the ingredients. make sure you have the best tomatoes.* make sure your pasta is from italy. make sure you have some damn good olive oil. as the saying goes, good with good makes good.

for her cooking demo, julia made lentil soup with crumbled sausage and ditalini pasta (p. 80). we were also able to sample pissaladella (p. 22) and batter-fried sage leaves (p. 12). everything was, of course, delicious. it made me really excited to try these recipes, especially the lentil soup. julia made us promise we would try to make it at home, within the next two weeks.

so who wants to come over for some special, homemade, authentic italian lentil soup??!

but no, seriously, who wants to come over for some lentil soup..

*news flash: canned tomatoes and tomato paste are not the devil! use them! canned tomatoes have a more concentrated flavor and help give body to your tomato sauces. same goes for tomato paste. just make sure, again, that they are high quality tomatoes.