This past weekend Pax Christi Chorale had our first concert of the season, welcoming the Gloucester Cathedral men and boys, to sing with us. These guys have been on a whirlwind tour, and many of the boys have been sick, but they are troopers and put on a lovely show. I like to think that we also pulled our weight, as the comments were very positive. We also released our new CD Winter Nights. The entire CD was composed by Steph, and I have to say I am quite proud to be a part of it.
While I was off rehearsing, Shawn was home prepping for Monday. Since we were serving hearty fare, we immediately thought of Shawn and Ilana, so after the show I extended the invitation. Unfortunately her sister was in town and Ilana was promised for the evening….. That is until I mentioned the magic word…. lasagna, Ilana’s favorite!!! Suddenly plans were changed and we had our guests for the evening. I must admit I did feel guilty for a moment there.
Once our guests were properly greeted by Enzo and settled in with a glass of wine, we sat down to Borlotti bean and Gnocchetti Italian country soup.
The soup is hearty and rich, but the star are the little gnocchetti (small firm Gnocchi). This was served with a small crostini. The good news is that we did not forget to buy the bread this week.
For our main, we braised short ribs with red wine, for hours, until they fell right off the bones and landed in the lasagna, to make short rib lasagna, with braised beans. This was paired with a 2011 Cave Springs – La Penna.
This is the first time we have made this dish, with our own pasta. Plus we tried out an eggless pasta recipe. I think I can safely say that we will never make this with packaged pasta again. The lasagna came out rich and hearty and the beans braised with tomato and onion, in white wine, is one of my new favorites. This is perfect fall fare.
We had planned this meal as eggless, hoping our dear friend Brian could attend, so for the dessert, we returned to one of our favorite eggless desserts, panna cotta. This one was a lemon panacotta, with homemade lemon marmalade, with Steph’s favorite herbal tea.
A nice light end to the meal, with a little zing from the lemon, you would never believe that no eggs were harmed in the making of this dessert. A hearty meal, with conversations including global events and elections, and deprogramming after our show, we have no time to take a Monday off, so must start right back to rehearsing for our Christmas concert (Berlioz – L’enfance du Christ).
And in answer to the title of the blog… How to win friends and influence people??? It turns out the answer has always been lasagna.
Shawn and David, thank you for a fabulous dinner, I was floating with my feet off the ground. Stephanie taught Lan and I a great deal about Henry V and how the recent election parallels his story. Great food, great company, and a great choir practice to follow. Again, thank you for sharing your gifts of hospitality food with us. We hope to host a similar dinner in the future.
Cheers,
Shawn
No guilt necessary. The food was divine and the company wonderful. My sister understood, although I think she was confused why I didn’t bring her with me! Thank you again!
As it turns out, we had an extra place, so we could have accommodated your sister. And I really only felt guilty for a moment, until I told Shawn the story.
The soup sounds delicious.