02 October 2010
Bay Willows, Breakers and Minestrone
Ah, I-95! Won’t bore you with 400 miles of concrete joy through Baltimore, Wilmington, Philly, New York and The Sundry Connecticuts. I will tell you that the GPS worked fine, even if the time-to-destination feature occasionally ran backward, mounting instead of diminishing. I will tell you that the new Slim Shady/Marshall Mathers album is really quite good, though I would not have purchased it myself, and listening to M&M and JayZee while stuck in traffic in the South Bronx seemed entirely appropriate.
I am seated outside the room at the Bay Willows Motor Hotel. I searched for suitable lodging in the region and bounded my search to older places where you can park in front of the room. The Bay Willow met the criterion I have established. Old, low, a little funky, no smoking room, but easy access to the fresh air.
You could not get a bigger contrast to some of the other dwellings in the town of Newport, Rhode Island.
And fresh it is. This far into New England the water is chilled off the Atlantic and there is a hint of salt in the air. The lingering tropical depression and the bands of persistent rain that pummeled the windshield of the Bluesmobile in the creeping traffic.
I am underdressed for the crispness of this New England Fall, and my fingers are numbing as they strike the keyboard. Carlos the Innkeeper, the sole permanent-party employee on the property is up and polishing the windows of the tour bus
There is a Dunkin Donuts across the road, regular coffee comes with sugar and cream. The strains of the national anthem are wafting across the parking lot from the Base as they hoist the flag at 0800 sharp.
My son is going to have a chilly fall on the Grinder. I am letting him sleep.
Newport is a dichotomy; a Navy town, and one of the ocean vistas and vast wealth.
Later this morning I will roll over to Cornelius Vanderbilt’s massive “cottage” The Breakers, and take a look-see at what a Robber Baron constructed for his amusement and leisure hours.
I am hungry, though, and the chill makes me think of slow-simmered soup with a nice baguette on the side.
We had only a sandwich on the road, and eschewed dinner last night. My son wants to ensure he makes weight on reporting tomorrow, and I decided to accompany him in abstinence. But this morning I could really go for something picante.
I saw a recipe the other day for some minestrone soup that would have looking right in place on the vast dining table of the Breakers. I had to think about it when we saw the skyline of Manhattan across the river from the freeway in Jersey yesterday.
It was in the Times, the real one, and is from the fashionable Maialino restaurant, an enterprise of a man named Danny Meyer, who is apparently one of the notables of The City.
His new restaurant is in Gramercy Park, which is one of those neighborhoods you read about out here in the rest of America. It is billed as Roman trattoria and is off the lobby of the Gramercy Park Hotel, a place where I will probably never stay. It used to be Chinese, and was undoubtedly something before that, New York being the mutable city that it is.
Nick Anderer is the Chef, and this was reported by Melissa Clark. She claimed she was going to have deep-fried pig’s foot for her main course, which is about the last thing I would consider, but this looks pretty damned tasty.
Minestrone with Shell Beans and Almond Pistou
Time: about 1 hour
For the soup
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 sprig rosemary
3 bushy sprigs thyme
4 parsley sprigs
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium zucchini or yellow squash (or half of each for color), diced
1 carrot, diced
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 pound fresh shell beans like cranberry or cannelloni, shelled (about 1 1/2 cups)
4 plum tomatoes <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/t/tomatoes/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> (about 3/4 pound), diced
1/2 cup thinly sliced green beans
FOR THE PISTOU
4 cups fresh basil, packed
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup chopped plum tomato
2/3 cup grated Parmesan
2 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil.
1. In a large pot over medium-low heat, heat the oil. Tie rosemary, thyme and parsley in a bundle with kitchen string if desired (this makes it easier to fish out later). Add the herbs, leeks, garlic, zucchini or yellow squash, carrot, salt and pepper to the pot and sauté until the vegetables are golden, 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Add broth, shell beans, tomatoes, green beans and 4 cups water to the pot. Simmer partly covered until the beans are tender, 30 to 45 minutes. Discard herbs. Thin with a little water if the soup is too thick.
3. Prepare the pistou: Pulse the basil, almonds, tomato, Parmesan, garlic and salt in a food processor until basil is chopped and all the ingredients are combined. Drizzle in olive oil while the motor runs and continue processing until a paste forms. Serve the soup with dollops of the pistou, letting people add more as needed.
Shoot, now I have to go out and buy a damned food processor. Henderson Hall some weekend I am in town. I will be thinking about the fresh ocean breeze and my son out in it for the rest of the season.
Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
Recipe copyright NYT 2010
www.vicsocotra.com
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