Seven Course Meal
“The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you’re hungry again”. ~George Miller
What a treat to sit down to a 7 course meal. It’s wonderful to enjoy a feast with family and friends - and it can be as simple or as ambitious as you’d like. Choose a theme, like the sample Italian one outlined here, and have fun with it. And don’t forget the wine!
The first course: How about creating a simple but delicious polenta dish? There are a lot of great polenta recipes to be found on the web. You can opt to speed up the process with a bowl in the microwave, cook it the traditional way by slow boiling it on the stovetop, or you can also easily prepare it in a slow-cooker.
The second course: Soup is on! Choosing a soup that complements the polenta and the main menu we might make vegetarian minestrone, creamy tomato basil, or the popular Stracciatella Italian soup recipe. The latter requires beating eggs, grating parmesan and then dropping these ingredients into hot broth. Serve them up in festive covered soup bowls.
The third course: Time for a fresh and fabulous salad topped with a zesty cilantro vinaigrette. Whisk the olive oil and red wine vinegar together and then added the garlic, salt, mustard and cilantro. Top the salad just before serving.
The fourth course: Traditionally the fourth course will feature a sorbet to cleanse the palate. A nice lemon or lime sorbet would do nicely. Sorbet is made by boiling sugar, water, a pinch of salt, and then adding your flavor (lemon or lime juice in this case) after removing it from the stove. Once it’s been chilled, it gets poured into an ice cream maker and it’s ready to serve. It’s perfectly fine to prepare this dish the day prior your meal.
The fifth course: This will call for a meat dish such as poultry. A favorite at our house is Chicken Marsala with mushrooms. It’s a simple but delicious dish that you can whip up in a large skillet (or 2 skillets depending on how many you’re cooking for).
The sixth course: Another meat dish would be served, which can be red meat or fish. To keep this meal lighter we’d bake a dish such as baked bass, snapper or cod topped with sautéed tomatoes and onion. Baking in a covered dish really locks in the flavors and the delicious juices.
The seventh course: Dessert of course! It’s always hard to choose just one dessert. For this meal peaches with chocolate might be a nice way to finish (this dish requires a food processor to make properly). Another option might be mascarpone with raspberry sauce (you can use a blender and a mixer for this dish), preparing it the day before. Serve with fresh roasted coffee or espresso and sit and relax.And let someone else load the dishwasher, you’ve earned your rest!
