Yesterday was one of those days. Fortunately, the guests were not real guests....they were relatives.
I ran over to L'Amande Bakery in Torrance and got 2 orders of their "Charcuterie Plate". It had black forest ham, prosciutto from Genoa which is aged 13 months, dry salami from Lyon, olives, mustard and Cornish pickles. As luck would have it, L'Amande had their new apple tart which I had previously ordered. It looked too small as I could very well have eaten 1/4 with no problem, so I decided to get an extra one to feed 5. Then I went to Trader Joe's next door to get a variety of cheeses. I also had some left over chips and salsa which was still good. That....and a nice bottle of Bollinger champagne brought the hors d' oeuvres to the next level.
At around 4:45 p.m. I had to either turn into Julia Child or drive to a nearby restaurant. I excused myself and drove to Gaetano's Restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance. Vince, was happy to suggest what I could feed my foodie relatives. I only knew for sure I had to order their famous and very addicting fried artichoke hearts. He suggested the Penne Asparagi, with grilled chicken, fresh asparagus, Roma tomatoes, mushrooms, parmesan & garlic. He also suggested Eggplant Parmigiana which was cooked with their homemade marinara sauce, mozzarella, ricotta, served with linguini.
Two orders of everything should have been enough but as I glanced at their menu, something caught my eye.....the Tagliatelle & Chianti Short Ribs (which I have had before and just loved) Homemade tagliatelle paste, pancetta, beef short ribs, herbs, light cream and pureed tomatoes.
Everything was delicious. I had no complaints and believe me, one relative in particular (who shall remain nameless) would have complained if something was not very good.
I almost forgot to take pictures of the dishes. By the time I remembered, the fried artichoke hearts had vanished into thin air!
Dessert was the apple tart. I have talked about how to eat this tart (like a pizza) . I purposely did not give anyone forks but Elliot managed to grab a spoon and tried to cut the tart when he was startled by me yelling at him to stop. I got everyone's attention, so I explained how the tart should be eaten properly; picking it up like a pizza and just biting into the flaky crust. FYI, it was also easier to cut the tart with a pizza cutter.
So the moral of the story is: Don't panic.....think inside the box....what's close to you...think of places you enjoy in your neighborbood. By the way, the tart served 5 with a couple of left over slices.
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