Taste With The Eyes: Thank You Buitoni & Foodbuzz!

6.14.2009

Thank You Buitoni & Foodbuzz!

Hi Lori Lynn!

Buitoni and Foodbuzz are excited to announce that you are the GRAND PRIZE WINNER of the Buitoni Riserva pasta sauce contest!

Your recipe, Wild Mushroom Agnolotti with Veal, Portobello, Fried Sage and a Pinot Noir Cream Sauce, was a wonderfully creative and original showcase for Buitoni’s Wild Mushroom Agnolotti. Thank you for creating such a great recipe!

As the winner, your Grand Prize is a delicious array of VIP Buitoni coupons and an All-Clad Copper Cookware set, perfect for creating more fantastic recipes!

We made your recipe as a taste test—it was truly amazing!

Here is the recipe once again:

Wild Mushroom Agnolotti with Veal, Portobello,

Fried Sage and a Pinot Noir Cream Sauce

Portobellos are seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper then grilled until tender.

Veal medallions, cut into the same size as the portobellos, are seasoned with salt and pepper, dusted with flour and sautéed until golden brown over medium heat in a mixture of half olive oil half butter. Squeeze 1 T. fresh lemon juice over the veal then remove from the pan. Keep warm.

Add 1/4 c. minced shallots and 1/2 t. thyme to that same pan and sauté briefly. Add 1 c. Pinot Noir, raise the heat to high, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of pan.

Continue cooking over high heat until the wine is reduced to about a quarter cup.

Add 1 c. veal stock to the pan and reduce again.

Meanwhile, cook the Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti according to the instructions on the package in boiling water with 1 T. olive oil.

When the veal stock has reduced by half, whisk 3 T. crème fraîche into the sauce. Strain the sauce through a fine mesh sieve. Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Keep warm.

Sauté a handful of fresh sage leaves in 1 T. butter, turning once, until crisp, about 2 minutes. Remove sage leaves to a paper towel.

To assemble: Place the warm portobello in the center of the plate, top with a fried sage leaf then a medallion of veal. Take 3 wild mushroom agnolotti and surround the mushroom cap. Sparingly ladle warm Pinot Noir Cream Sauce over the pasta and veal. Crumble fried sage leaves by hand and sprinkle over dish. Garnish with a whole sage leaf. (The concise recipe can be found here).

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

And thanks again to my brother Bill. I couldn't ask for a better Sous Chef! Happy to cook for you anytime you're in town, Billy!

It sure is fun to be a grand prize winner. But, you know, beyond winning, it is quite satisfying to create a dish, and hear that others truly enjoy it. The wonderful and generous prizes pale in comparison to the pride and joy in sharing our creation and finding out that it was honestly appreciated and savored. I am grateful to Buitoni and Foodbuzz for the recognition and to all of you who left encouraging comments on the original post and on the Foodbuzz recipe link. That is the true prize!

A Hearty Congratulations to the Other Winners! Don't these recipes sound delicious? You can read more and link to their sites from here on Foodbuzz.

PrincessBacon

Luscious Smoked Tomato Sauce with Portabellas & Fennel

FoodMuse

Fried Wild Mushroom Agnolotti with Tomato, Fennel, and Olive Gremolata

dvmamg2001

Wild Mushroom Agnolotti with Garden Vegetables in a Creamy Sweet and Savory Sherry Sauce

From Whence the Sweet Bird Sang

Wild Mushroom Agnolotti with Cognac-Cream Sauce and Baby Pea Shoots

eCurry

Agnolotti with Sundried Tomatoes, Peppers, Almonds & a hint of Saffron

SippitySup

Wild Mushroom Agnolotti with Spring Vegetable Ragout

Chefectomy

Wild Mushroom Agnolotti with Caramelized Shallots, Thyme and Mushroom Broth

The Feast Within

Manchego Mornay Sauce for Buitoni’s Wid Mushroom Agnolotti

FotoCuisine

Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti with Champagne Chile Cream Sauce

Julia Child Quotes - TOUJOURS BON APPETIT!

“You should never apologize at the table. People will think, ‘Yes, it’s really not so good.'"

"In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport."

"It's easy to get the feeling that you know the language just because when you order a beer they don't bring you oysters." Paul Child on speaking French

"I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate. "

"Life itself is the proper binge."

"It was a Morsel of Perfection."

"I was in pure, flavorful heaven at the Cordon Bleu."

Julia Child sees herself on TV, July 1962, she saw room for improvement, and still she can say it was fun : "There I was, in black and white, a large woman sloshing eggs too quickly here, too slowly there, gasping, looking at the wrong camera while talking too loudly and so on...But it had been fun."

She has her own opinions on kitchen equipment: "Clairborne sniffed at our use of a garlic press, 'a gadget considered in some circles to be only one cut above garlic salt or garlic powder.' I happened to like garlic presses..."

Understanding Julia's captivation by French food: "This is the kind of food that I have fallen in love with: not trendy souped-up fantasies, just something very good to eat. It was classic French cooking, where the ingredients have been carefully selected and beautifully and knowingly prepared. Or, in the words of the famous gastronome Curnonsky, 'Food that tastes of what it is.' "

"You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made. Even after you eat it, it stays with you - always." Julia's instructor, Chef Bugnard at Le Cordon Bleu

"Oh, 'crise de foie,' that French sole was so delicious!"

Julia's passion comes through loud and clear as she describes a fish dish: "La Truite's true glory was the Sole a la Normande, a poem of poached and flavored sole fillets surrounded by oysters, and mussels, and napped with a wonder-sauce of wine, cream, and butter, and topped with fluted mushrooms. 'Voluptuous' was the word. I had never imagined that fish could be taken so seriously, or taste so heavenly."

Julia's unique way with words, on Crepes Suzette: "The creature named Suzette may or may not have been the mistress of the Prince of Wales, but whoever she was, she long ago inspired a magnificent dessert that is still one of our favorites."

"I am probably one of the few people around who saw the real Caesar Cardini making his salad. I was about 9 when my parents took me to his restaurant in Tijuana. They were so excited when big jolly Caesar himself came to the table to make the salad. And it was dramatic: I remember most clearly the eggs going in, and how he tossed the leaves so it looked like a wave turning over."

"With a handsome package such as Jacques's, you can neatly cut the top open at the table with a pair of scissors..." Julia on Salmon en Papillote

"There's no reason to be intimidated by the idea of making pâté. You can just think of it as meat loaf."

From Julia's dear friend Jacques Pepin, "You are what you cook."

"Understanding egg yolks will make you a master of hollandaise sauce."

Julia encouraging us not to be intimidated: "When you know how to saute your meat so it browns rather than steams, you're cooking. What's difficult about that? You heat the pan, you dry the meat, you don't crowd it into the pan, and you're browning it. Is that difficult?"

Food Quotes

"Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch."

Orson Welles

"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

"Chefs, as a whole, say yes to any project, fundraiser, or tasting because they have such a generous spirit."
Charlie Trotter

"Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore. "
Thomas Keller

"I love to make people happy."
Wolfgang Puck

"Fish sauce is to Vietnamese cooking as olive oil is to Italian."

The Little Saigon Cookbook by Ann Le

"I wish, I wish lunch could last forever...waiter, bring us one more bottle of wine..."

Jimmy Buffett

"My philosophy from day one is that I can sleep better at night if I can improve an individual's knowledge about food and wine, and do it on a daily basis."
Emeril Lagasse

"Gordon Ramsay makes me laugh because he knows that I'm not a chef."
Nigella Lawson

"You know, when you get your first asparagus, or your first acorn squash, or your first really good tomato of the season, those are the moments that define the cook's year. I get more excited by that than anything else."
Mario Batali

"I always knew the importance of it, since I was three or four years old my mother used to feed me wine and water. I grew up with wine as liquid food."
Robert Mondavi

"No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at his/her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, and the wisdom of cookbook writers."
Laurie Colwin

"Food is a central part of our lives. It provides the body with fuel and raw materials for maintenance, growth, and repair. It draws together family and friends, anchors celebrations and rites of passage, and sometimes soothes the soul."
Ethan Becker