osteria cucina; a fire relief supper club
attempting panisse! and butternut squash cavatelli
as some of you might remember, if you have been following along on IG, i held two fire relief supper clubs out of my home a few weeks ago (supper club is always out of my home). and my dear friend emily of the angel summed it all up really beautifully in her post here.
however, i wanted to talk a little myself about the reasoning for my wanting to do this type of supper club, and indeed—a little breakdown of each night menu too.
los angeles is still, very slowly, healing from the horrific wildfires that took place in here in january of this year. after having helped with a lot of the immediate fire relief efforts, which felt useful at the time—it felt good to be able to help in such an immediate and impactful way. but, i knew i wanted and needed to do more. i also knew that this is a marathon, not a sprint, in terms of people needing continued support as the relief continues, and so here came the idea for my first iteration of supper club for fire relief - osteria cucina.
italian food has always been a source of deep comfort for me. i studied at the ICI in calabria a few years ago too, which was also the most magical experience. i knew i wanted to bring the comfort of italian food, and the warmth that eating it brings, into this dinner party—and so decided on a full italian menu for both nights.
as prep got underway, i always like to take photos and document as memories.
menu’s
below are the menu’s for both night one & two of osteria cucina (which means kitchen restaurant in italian), emily and i came up with the name when we were texting one day and we both liked the simplicity and straightforward-ness of the title, but still sounded like a potential restaurant name. and so, that was it—osteria cucina was born!
as you can see, the menu’s stayed largely the same apart from the pasta sauces changed each night. we also had wine so kindly gifted for each night.
—
night one
for night one, we had beautiful wines gifted from my dear friend isabelle, whose family owns hourglass wine up in napa. isabelle was also seated at the table as a guest and there to talk through all of the beautiful wines that were being poured for us. i sent her the menu a few weeks before, and she picked out some incredible wines to pair with my menu.
we had a sweet vermouth gifted by lofi apertifs’s for the welcome drink, which paired with all of the welcome snacks so perfectly.
i made my nanny junes recipe for her fennel minestrone—pretty much a classic minestrone recipe except in her version she would blend up fennel seeds in a grinder and use this as the base of the soup when cooking out the onions. it imparts such a fragrant essence yet is so complimentary, of course, to all the other ingredients in the soup. classic italian flavors.
the pasta sauce for night one was my version of the river cafe kale sauce, but i add a little ricotta into the base. this was then stirred into some homemade, hand-rolled cavatelli and then some fresh english peas sprinkled into the final dish also.
we had a lovely bitter leaf salad with a grain-mustard caeser-ish dressing and then finished with my classic coffee-chocolate torte, covered in swathes of the best inez olive oil, finished with whipped cream and flaky salt.
i was dressed by my friends at marazul clothing, based in the uk—they kindly offered to gift me the chic-est jumpsuit for the occasion.
plateware from my pals at year & day and pretty glassware by loq
my husband andy and best friend kate took most of the photos for night one, and between them we got some really lovely shots.
it really was the best night!
—
night two
on night two we were kindly gifted some of my favorite wines in the world by my sweet friends at martha stouman. this is the second time martha has so kindly gifted wine for an event of mine. martha makes some of the most beautiful natural wine coming out of california right now—she is based within the central coast and makes really pretty, dare i say some of the most feminine / delicate wines around. the ‘post flirtation white’ has been a long time favorite for my friends and i, and i was honored i got to work with them again in this capacity.
we had some lovely venetian cicchetti as the welcome snack, accompanied by my favorite of all time, siesta anchovies
the sauce for the pasta on night two was a roasted kuri squash sauce. i roasted the squashes in the oven until soft and then blended with a little cream, some fresh garlic, and olive oil until smooth. it really is the most simple sauce but i cannot explain how delicious it was—and all the guests agreed.
my best friends at ozma of california dressed me for night two in one of their new knitted tops from their spring collection and some of their tailored linen pants. i could not have felt more chic or more grateful. i had loq on my feet both nights, as i pretty much live in my loq pumps at this point—i have them in 5 colors and they are my most worn shoe by far.
we had my dear friend jenn edelson photographing night two, and she did such an incredible job. see her photos below.
community
these two nights were nothing short of some insane hard work—turning your home into an italian restaurant for two nights is not easy! i had never done back-to-back supper clubs before, but have always wanted to.
this was no small feat and i could have not done this without my bestest friend kate who acted as maitre’d for the night, and so much more.
and then my sweet husband who was my sous for both nights and general voice of reason and calm when things felt intense or crazy—he will always tell me to take a deep breath and reassure me that i can do it. they both do this often (kate and my husband), and i am so lucky to have such incredible people in my life that so generously want to help me in this way. as i always say but i always mean it, none of this kindness gets lost on me. i am so eternally grateful.
as a parting gift for both nights i made some fennel seed infused salt for guests to take home with them and my friends at spring & mulberry kindly gifted some of their chocolate for the gift bags too.
and to everyone who bought tickets to support my fire relief efforts, i am eternally grateful. once all was done and dusted (food costs, paying out staff, paying myself), i was able to donate a total of $2k to five different GoFundMe’s that had yet to reach their goal.
totally incredible!
two recipes!
i wanted to include two recipes into this weeks substack, as both of these were too important not include, and i know by next week i will have more recipes that i want to share, so this weeks needed to be two.
also, with these two recipes, i wanted to offer my apologies for not updating my substack as often as i would like this past month. work was simply too busy to even take a beat let alone sit down to write all that i have been wanting to write.
i am writing this from my upper east side sublet, as i am currently in nyc for the next month for a series of pop-up’s and residencies. sometimes when I am in the midst of these crazy busy periods, i feel so overwhelmed, overworked, and extremely tired. but then i look back weeks later and think, oh wow—it did that! well, im in the overwhelmed period right now with my first pop-up happening on thursday and only just getting feet on the ground in nyc a few days ago. it will all be alright on the night, but it’s hard not to get anxious with so much going on and so much to prepare for.
however, this is just a small stepping stone to an even bigger summer! i won’t say too much yet but what i can say is that i will be in europe for 2.5 months over this upcoming summer—cooking in many locations and indeed, with many cool people. you just wait! more on that soon.
kuri squash sauce with homemade cavatelli
i will post the recipe for the fresh pasta dough soon, i promise. but in the meantime, you really can pair this sauce with any dried pasta shape that you like. i paired this with my homemade cavatelli but this is divine with a longer shape like spaghetti or bucatini, or indeed a shorter shape like fusilli. one shape it will not pair well with, because it is the worst shape known to man is penne. never pair any sauce with penne, it will never be good (haha).
—
2 kuri or butternut squash, cut lengthways and seeds removed
1/2 cup of olive oil
1 cup of vegetable stock
1/2 a cup of heavy cream
2 cloves or garlic
1 tbsp salt
—
begin by roasting the squash, cut side down in a 375-degree oven for approximately 35-40 minutes or until a sharp knife goes all the way into the skin and then the flesh. once cooked, remove from the oven and let cool for long enough that you can handle.
next, remove the flesh from the skin and place it into a bowl. you might need to blend in batches, depending on the size of your blender; if so, use half of the squash with half of all the other ingredients divided equally so that you can get a perfect sauce from each blend.
blend the squash with the olive oil, heavy cream, salt, garlic and blend. the sauce will be quite thick at this point, and so slowly add in a little of the vegetable stock and blend, and repeat until desired consistancy.
stir this sauce into a pasta of your choice, top with some fried sage or rosemary, a shower of parmesan or pecorino and a big glug of olive oil to serve.
panisse (chickpea flour fritters)
these are just the most delicious thing! ive had them many times whilst in the south of france, but my favorite panisse, as some of you will already know, are from king restaurant, theirs are cripsy and crunchy on the outside and very soft on the inside. served with fried sage, you really cannot get much better.
a salty snack from the south of france. a version of the recipe originally made it's way to provence thanks to italian workers from piedmont and liguria who came to work in the estaque factories. thats why socca, panisse, panelle and farinata are all very similar in taste & form.
—
2 1/4 cups chickpea flour
1 tsp coarse salt
2 tsp olive oil
1 quart water
olive oil, for frying
rosmary or sage or a mix of the two
coarse salt and freshly cracked pepper, for serving
—
begin by pouring the water into a large-ish pan, and start by stirring the chickpea flour directly into the water over medium heat. add in the salt and 2 tsp of olive oil and keep stirring.
you will slowly feel the batter get thicker and tighten, but keep stirring. we are looking for a thick hummus-like texture. once the batter reaches this hummus-like texture, move quickly, and pour the batter into an oiled 9” sheet pan. smooth out the top as much as you can, sometimes i put some oiled plastic wrap over the top and it helps. then pop into the fridge and let cool and solidify for at least 4 hours.
once ready to fry, heat up a good glug of olive oil in a shallow frying pan over high heat.
get the chickpea batter out of the fridge and turn out onto a clean surface. it should turn out pretty easily with a few taps and patience. cut into your panisse into whatever shape you desire, i like a chunky fry shape, and in batches, fry the panisee on all sides.
set out some kitchen paper and once each panisse is a golden brown on each side, set it on the paper to drain a little. once all the panisse are fried, use the last bit of oil to toss in either some sage or rosemary for a few seconds to crisp up and remove.
serve with the fried rosemary and sage and a good pinch of flaky salt. these will be your new favorite thing!
talk soon
xo