fine dining.

Last night, we opted for comfort food on a cold night (and with Mom here for a visit, that seemed apropos). So we did a little three-course dinner: fettuccine alfredo (nothing more than Italian panna da cucina and freshly grated parmesan), then veal scallops with a lemon-caper pan sauce, finished off with a bit of Madisono's gelato (the hazelnut is to die for).

Panna da cucina is a wonder: packaged in a little aseptic box and shipped over from Italy, it's an incredibly dense cream for cooking (hence, the "da cucina"). It takes heat well and doesn't separate, and renders a perfectly smooth cream sauce. Bill introduced us to it in Tuscany, where we stirred it into sauteed broccoli and dumped it over pasta. We've also used it to make a pasta sauce with dried porcini and canned tomatoes. We've found it at Italian markets in New Jersey and in Pittsburgh, but it's tough to come by. Too bad. (Tho maybe it's for the best.)