9-Course Tasting Menu at Solare (San Diego)

The origin of tasting menus is quite obscure and there are many different theories going as far back as to the Ancient Greeks and Romans who have been reported to serve multi-course menu consisting of 16-20 dishes. Individual courses might not have been as sophisticated as those of today’s cuisine, but these “tasting menus” already showed a similar progression that we are used to seeing today. Another important historic influence were traditional Japanese Kaiseki menus with their specific order, focus on seasonality, and elaborate presentations, highly reminiscent of today’s Western tasting menus - Thomas Keller cites them as a significant influence as “the Kaiseki dinner is very similar to the way we serve food in the French Laundry”. Over the last century, tasting menus were heavily influenced by French cuisine, and Escoffier is often credited as having “invented” tasting menus in modern times while working at the Ritz hotels. The French influence is also apparent with chefs like Paul Bocuse in France, and Thomas Keller in the US, who were both at the forefront to establish tasting menus at their restaurants and who thereby had a tremendous influence on later generations of chefs. Tasting menus present a unique opportunity for chefs to represent their individual cuisine and philosophy. However, except for French restaurants and those influenced by Modernist Cuisine, tasting menus are not that common to find on other types of cuisine.

Chef Accursio Lota was born in Menfi, a small town in Sicily, and was exposed to fresh ingredients and cooking early on in life as both his mother and grandmother used fruits and vegetables from their own garden, fish from the local sea, and olive oil harvested and produced from their own olive trees. So it seems like a natural progression that he ended up graduating from culinary school. One of his most influential, early mentors was Chef Sergio Mei at the Four Seasons Hotel Milan where Chef Lota was able to dive deep into the Italian culinary tradition. But Chef Mei was also instrumental in motivating him to move to California to work at the Biltmore Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara which gave him a different perspective to cooking. Not unlike in Sicily, the Biltmore kitchen also focused on local produce with Mediterranean flavors, but it also incorporated numerous other influences from the melting pot of California. In 2009, he returned to Sicily to work as Sous Chef at Hotel Imperiale in Taormina where, for the first time, he had the culinary freedom to develop his own style. In 2011, Chef Lota moved back to California to join Chefs Guillas and Oliver as Sous Chef at the Marine Room which gave him a wide exposure to fusion cooking. In 2012, he decided to fine tune his personal cooking style even more by starting Limone, an underground restaurant, focusing on multicourse dinners. In the same year he accepted the offer from owner Randy Smerik to join Solare as Executive Chef.

Solare was started in 2008 by Chef Stefano Ceresoli and his wife Roberta Ruffini, but in2012 the couple decided to sell Solare to only focus on their other restaurant at that time, Caffe Bella Italia in Pacific Beach. They recently closed the latter one as well to start Piazza 1909 in La Jolla. Solare was bought by Randy Smerik, and his two sons Brian and Tommy Smerik. Randy Smerik has an unusual background for a restaurant owner as he had originally worked in the IT field for 25 years, including being a vice president at Intel, a founder and CEO of Tarari and Osunatech, but he is also on the Board of Directors for Fortaleza Tequila. Since offering Chef Lota the Executive Chef’s position at Solare, he has given him free hand to realize his cooking style which also included implementing an Italian inspired 9-course tasting menu.

Solare has a rather unique set up for their tasting menu which is served at the Chef’s Table. The Chef’s Table is a kitchen counter with two bar stools and a perfect view of the action in the kitchen. These types of kitchen counter/Chef’s tables are one of our favorite ways to dine as it gives you a very close look to the processes of the kitchen, and interaction of the chefs and cooks.

1^st Course: Shrimp, squid, clam, zucchini carpaccio, onion confit, tomato, caperberry, dehydrated lobster broth

Three impeccable pieces of seafood were the stars of this plate and showcasing the variety of flavors and textures of seafood, ranging from tender and subtly flavored squid to soft and briny clams. Instead of the obligatory lemon, caper berries, tomatoes and onion confit added some desired acidity to the dish. The dehydrated lobster broth sprinkled over the seafood added some salinity and enhanced the natural flavors.

2^nd Course: Squash blossom, ricotta, mint pesto, pomodoro sauce

One of the classical Italian appetizers which is often served with greasy, soggy blossoms, tasteless ricotta and drowned in sauce. Here we had a prime example how to make it right – flavorful homemade ricotta was wrapped in a delicate squash blossom which allowed us to taste the floral flavor. Small dots of slightly acidic tomato sauce and herbal, but not overpowering, mint pesto helped to accentuate the dish yet provided a playful way to mix and match different flavor combinations so that every bite was different – a beautiful dish.

3^rd Course: Carpaccio di Wagyu, wagyu beef sirloin, borrage flowers, arugula, Parmigiano Reggiano, rosemary salt, balsamico pearls

The wagyu beef carpaccio had a surprisingly strong, pleasant beefy flavor, whereas the arugula provided some textural contrast, and the Parmigiano added the necessary saltiness. We liked the idea of adding the acidity by balsamico pearls instead to just some liquid amount of acetic balsamico as it was much easier to include the desired amount of balsamico in each bite which gave way to a perfect balance of salty, bitter, acidic and Umami.

4^th Course: Risotto, vino bianco, scorza di limone, squid ink reduction, scallop

The risotto had the perfect consistency of creaminess with some bite from the al dente rice corns. The mixture of white wine, lemon marmalade and squid ink gave a very interesting combination of bitterness and acidity from the wine and marmalade with the savori- and saltiness of the squid ink. All these flavors worked really well with the beautifully seared scallop.

 

5^th Course: Ravioli with ricotta & spinach, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, sea beans, pecorino

Pasta can be such a simple and yet difficult dish – just semolina, eggs and water - but rarely do you find such delicate finished pasta like in this dish - substantial yet thin enough that it didn’t overpower the filling of the homemade ricotta and spinach. The lightness of the dish continued with the accompanying vegetables like asparagus, tomatoes and sea beans. By far not the only dish where we wished we could get a second helping.

6^th Course: Tuna, broccolini, fingerling potatoes, nostralina olives, limoncello, special olive oil, sea asparagus

A rather classic dish with the combination of tuna, broccolini, potatoes and olives – well executed dish with moist fish, not overcooked broccolini -  but what really elevated it was the olive oil Chef Lota added at the table – DOP Val di Mazara from his home town. A very complex olive oil with notes of pistacchio, citrus and artichoke, and a low acidity which brought the dish together.

 7^th Course: Rabbit loin, carrots, kale, potato, brussel sprout, demi glace

Rabbit is often decried as being as tasteless as badly prepared chicken, but in this dish the rabbit loin had a nice distinct meaty, slightly sweet flavor which stood up surprisingly well against the other ingredients. This dish was another example of the ability of Chef Lota to create very complex but yet balanced flavor profiles in his dishes spanning from sweetness by the carrots, to bitterness by the brussel sprouts and kale, to Umami by the demi glace.

8^th Course: Pistacchio crusted rack of lamb, lamb loin, potato-saffron timbale, pickled cipollini, pesto

Placing the pesto in the middle of the plate clearly indicated the overarching theme of the dish. The pesto worked equally well with all other components – lamb loin, rack of lamb and potato-saffron timbale and connected these parts to a coherent finish of the savory part of the tasting menu.

9^th Course: Chocolate mousse, crispy almonds, candies pistacchios, berries, orange peel, amaretto cherry

The combination of fruits and chocolate ensured that the night didn’t end in an overly heavy dessert. The different nut preparations reminded us of some type of granola, and the dish was a continuation of the savory courses – excellent execution with very balanced flavors.

Every cuisine is associated with certain attributes which are obviously often strong generalizations since there is no such thing as a singular type of cuisine: every country has many regional or even local variations. French cooking is often described as complex and relying on technique and elaborated sauces, whereas Italian food is more focused on simpler dishes which let seasonal ingredients shine. Chef Lota impressed us with how he was able to capture this general “Italian” philosophy throughout the tasting menu, but at the same time was able to instill his own style. He presented us each course explaining the seasonality and the local farms where the ingredients came from, and with his thoughts on how the different components of the dish should work together. Focusing on few key ingredients in each dish required flawless execution of each of them. What really made all these dishes stand out, and seems to be a reflection of his style, was the complexity and yet effortlessness of the seasoning of the dishes. Many dishes had seemingly secondary components, like for example the dehydrated lobster broth or Val di Mazara oil which was essential in bringing the dishes together. Or dishes like the risotto were the combination of scorza di limone and squid ink reduction created something greater than the sum of its parts.

This tasting menu was a prime example how the menu format of a tasting menu allows a talented chef to showcase the cuisine from his/her native country, yet instilled with his/her own interpretations. We wish more chefs, especially from ethnic restaurants, would use this concept to present the many facets of their cuisines. We are looking forward to follow Chef Lota in his interpretations of Italian cuisine throughout the seasons.

Solare Ristorante
2820 Roosevelt Rd
San Diego, CA 92106
(619) 270-9670

Italian-Style Lamb Stew with Green Beans, Tomatoes, and Basil

Stews and braises are often considered as typical fall or winter dishes. Both are soul food which help you to warm up and fill you throughout the cold time of the year. For us stews are not so much a question of the season but of the day of the week. The beauty and at the same time also the limitation of a good stew is that you need a lot of time. During the week there is seldom enough time to simmer a stew for several hours but come weekend we often use a relaxed Sunday afternoon to get a stew started. It is always very satisfying when after some time the appetizing smell of the cooking stew is permeating our home. And since we are used to eat dinner late around 8 or 9 pm, even on a warm summer day at that time the air starts to cool down and it has something relaxing and satisfying to end our weekend with a bowl of stew.

We like to use all kind of meats for stew but recently we have been using lamb more often for our stews enjoying its more distinctive flavor compared to most other meats. This Italian-style lamb stew with green beans, tomatoes, and basil is a nice example of very tender and slightly gamey lamb meat but at the same time the green beans, tomatoes and basil give this stew a summerlike twist. One interesting aspect of this recipe is the choice of the lamb cut. Normally we tend to use boneless lamb shoulder for our stews but this recipe suggested a round bone chop which contains a part of the arm bone. The arm bone includes also a lot of bone marrow and when cooked in the stew for a few hours most of the bone marrow was cooked out and gave the stew a much stronger lamb flavor than we had with any other cuts before. The bone marrow also helped with the potatoes to thicken the stew to give it the right creamy consistency.

Cut meat from bones and reserve bones. It’s not necessary to be very accurate because you can remove the remaining meat from the bones after the cooking. Cut meat in 4cm (1.5 inch) cubes and season with salt and pepper. At the same time preheat oven to 150 C (300 F).

Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat and cook lamb meat in two batches (so that the pot is not too crowded) for two minutes on each side until the meat is well browned from all sides. Remove all lamb from pot and transfer to a bowl.

Add remaining oil to Dutch oven at medium heat and add onions and ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook for about five minutes until onions start to soften and scraping bottom of the pot at the same time to loosen all browned bits.

Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Add flour and stir for about two minutes until onions are evenly coated.

Stir in one cup water and wine, scraping bottom of pot to loosen all remaining browned bits. Add remaining cup water and stir constantly to dissolve all flour. Add rosemary, tomatoes and one teaspoon salt and bring to simmer. Add meat, bones and accumulated juices and return to simmer.

Cover Dutch oven, place in preheated oven and cook for one hour. Remove pot from oven and place potatoes and green beans on top of meat.

Cover pot, return to the oven and cook for one hour. Remove bones, stir in basil and season with salt and pepper.

Recipe adapted from “Cook’s Illustrated”

Serves 6

2 kg (4.5 lbs.) lamb round bone chops, about one inch thick

3 tbsp Canola oil

3 medium onions, chopped coarse

3 garlic cloves, minced

4 tbsp all-purpose flour

480 ml (2 cups) water

120 ml (1/2 cup) dry white wine

1 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes

900 g (2 lbs) Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into one-inch cubes

400 g (3/4 lbs.) green beans, halved

½ bunch of basil, minced

Risotto with sausages (risotto con salsiccia)

Italian cuisine is often characterized as driven by seasons and being focused on very few ingredients in each dish. There are pasta dishes like Spaghetti Carbonara which fall under this category. For us the dish which symbolizes this philosophy most is risotto – the Italian way to cook rice.

There are many different ingredients one can use for a good risotto but ultimately only three of them are really required to make a risotto:

- Rice: There are many different rice varieties in Italy but outside of Italy you normally get only two varieties easily – Carnaroli and Arborio. Carnaroli is often considered the supreme variety for risotto and is also the preferred one in restaurants. Arborio is the most well-known rice variety and considered the “standard” risotto rice also due to its good availability.

- Stock: Cooks often use homemade stock (often chicken stock) but some also prefer just plain water so that the taste of the stock doesn’t interfere with the mild taste of the risotto. Since making your own stock is not always possible, commercially available stock is also good enough especially if you dilute it with water to lower the salt content and to soften the flavor.

- Parmesan: Parmesan added at the end of the cooking to the risotto is important to get the flavorfulness. The parmesan should be freshly grated and the real thing: Parmigiano-Reggiano.

These three ingredients are already enough to make the classic “parent” risotto – risotto al bianco. All other risottos are just more complex variations of this white risotto.

Risotto with sausages (risotto con salsiccia) is eaten throughout Italy but is specifically well known for the Tuscany region and considered a winter dish. It is in general a good showcase of two specialities of Italy – risotto and charcuterie. If you are doing your own charcuterie this dish is a perfect way to use your home-made sausage. This is something we are looking forward to try ourselves in the future. But even good store-bought sausages will work fine in this dish. In this case we used mild Italian sausages which had a nice subtle fennel flavor that worked well with the red wine and the parmesan. This sausage risotto is a good example of a dish which doesn’t look great on photos but tasted outstanding.

Heat two tablespoons of butter in a pot at medium-low heat and cook onions and sausages for 5 minutes stirring occasionally until onions start to turn translucent. At the same time bring diluted beef broth to boil and keep it a low simmer during the whole cooking process.

Add the rice and cook with stirring for two minutes until grains start to become translucent.

Pour in red wine and cook until it has evaporated.

Add one ladle of hot stock and cook with stirring until it has been absorbed by the rice.

Repeat adding one ladle of hot stock at a time and wait until it is absorbed before adding more stock. Continue until the rice is tender and the risotto has the desired consistency. This can take between 20-30 minutes and not all broth will be used. When the rice is tender remove pot from heat, add parmesan and remaining tablespoon of butter, let sit for 2-3 minutes and then serve immediately.

Recipe adapted from “The Silver Spoon”

Serves 2

1.5 L (6 cups) diluted beef broth

3 tbsp butter

½ onion, diced

150 g (5 oz) Italian sausages, skinned and crumbled

250 g (9 oz) Arborio risotto rice

100 mL (3/8 cup) red wine

20 g (1 oz) parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Homemade Orecchiette with rabbit ragu from Puglia (Italy)

Puglia is often known as the heel of Italy occupying the south-eastern part of Italy. Interestingly it is also sometimes called the “California of Italy” according to some sources because of its long stretched shape or because of its comparable climate. Puglia is mainly known for wheat, olive oil and wine. It produces about 40% of all extra virgin olive oil in Italy and about 14% of the entire world’s production. It is also one of the largest wine producing regions of Italy even though most of the wines produced in Puglia aren’t well known outside of the region and are sometimes even shipped to the north to improve the wines of the cooler regions. Beside winegrowing wheat fields are prominent in Puglia especially durum wheat which is milled to semolina. Semolina is one of the most used flours in Italy to make pasta.

The cuisine of Puglia is sometimes described as “La cucina pugliese nasce come cucina povera” – The cuisine of Puglia was born as the cuisine of poverty. This is also noticeable from the region’s most famous pasta – orecchiette. In contrast to many other pasta varieties in Italy orecchiette are made without any eggs.

Pasta is one of these ingredients which you can buy in the supermarket and it will give you good results but if you make it fresh at home it will really bring any dish to the next level. Pasta-making can be quite time consuming and we don’t make it as often as we would like and normally only with dough which includes eggs. When we saw this recipe for eggless orecchiette with rabbit ragu we were intrigued to try it and compare it to our standard dough. It turned out that the eggless dough is easier to work with and creates some outstanding pasta.

Orecchiette with rabbit ragu

In Puglia you will get orecchiette often served either with vegetables or some rabbit. Rabbit is often characterized as tasting like chicken but we think it is oversimplified. Rabbit has a slight gaminess which makes it distinctively different from chicken. This ragu was a good way to accentuate this taste and we really liked how the flavors melded in this dish to give a light but still substantial ragu. But the star of the dish were the orecchiette – perfectly al dente with the right thickness and shape to carry the rabbit ragu. One of the best pasta we made so far.

Homemade orecchiette

Mix semolina flour, flour and salt in bowl and make well in center and add lukewarm water. Slowly stir in flour using a fork until a dough forms. (Not all flour will be incorporated).

Transfer dough to work surface. Sift remaining flour mixture through sieve into another bowl and discard all clumps.

Knead dough for about eight minutes until it becomes smooth.

Divide dough into eight pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap and let stand for one hour at room temperature.

Take one unwrapped piece of dough and roll under palms on work surface into a ½ inch thick rope about 2-3 feet long. Cut rope into 1/3 inch pieces. Lightly toss with some of the remaining flour mixture.

Put one piece of dough cut side down on work surface. Dust thumb with flour mixture and press down on dough, pushing away from you and twisting thumb to form a curled shape. Transfer to tray lined with clean kitchen towels, dust with some additional flour.

Repeat previous step with remaining cut pieces and all seven remaining dough balls to get many trays of fresh orecchiette.

Bring pot of well salted water to boil and drop orecchiette carefully into boiling water. Cook until al dente for about 4-5 minutes. Orecchiette will start to float when they start to become al dente.

Recipe adapted from “Gourmet Today”

Serves 4-6

Pasta dough:

350 g (12.5 oz.) semolina flour

280 g (10 oz.) all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

240 ml (1 cup) lukewarm water

Season rabbit pieces with salt and black pepper. Heat 4 tbsp olive oil over medium high heat and brown rabbit in two batches for four minutes on each side. Transfer pieces to platter.

Add three more tbsp olive oil and sauté onions, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves, rosemary and ¼ tsp salt for about 10 minutes until vegetables are starting to brown.

Add wine, bring to a boil and, while scraping off any brown bits, let nearly all liquid evaporate.

Add tomatoes, broth and ½ tsp salt and bring to boil. Return rabbit pieces with all accumulated juices and try to cover the rabbit pieces as good as possible with the cooking liquid. Cook for about 20 minutes and turn occasionally.

Transfer saddle pieces to platter and cook remaining rabbit pieces for ten more minutes before also transferring to platter. Remove cooking pot from heat. Remove all meat from bones and cut into small pieces.

Return meat with all juices to pot, bring carefully to boil and adjust seasoning with salt and black pepper. Discard bay leaves. When orecchiette are al dente combine ragu with pasta. Serve with Parmigiano Reggiano.

Rabbit ragu

1.5 kg (3 lbs) rabbit, cut into 8 pieces

7 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, finely diced

2 carrots, finely diced

2 celery ribs, finely diced

2 garlic cloves, finely diced

2 bay leaves

1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1 cup dry white wine

1 can (28 oz) whole tomatoes in juice, drained and chopped

240 ml (1 cup) chicken broth

Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated

Spaghetti Carbonara with Homemade Bacon

The cuisine of most countries is often associated with a certain style/focus, like French cuisine is mostly linked to elaborate, complex dishes, German to heavily meat based dishes with hardly any vegetables besides potatoes or Italian to simple dishes with few ingredients. Most of these generalizations are based on stereotypes and don’t even take into account that most countries have many diverse regional cuisines. But even though you have to take these stereotypes with a grain of salt they still have some relevance often related to some of the most well known dishes of a cuisine. Many risottos and pasta dishes in Italy for example tend to focus on the quality of one or two main ingredients. One of the best known pasta dishes falling under this category is Spaghetti Carbonara – just pasta, pancetta/guanciale, eggs and Parmigiano-Reggiano define this dish.

The origin of Spaghetti Carbonara is quite controversial. It seems that most people can agree that the dish originated at the end of the Second World War somewhere in the area of Lazio. Everything beyond this – does the name (carbonara means charcoal in Italy) come from a restaurant name carbonara or was this dish popular with charcoal workers – is still part of many discussions.

Since we recently started to dive into the world of charcuterie, and our first successful attempt was a nice homemade bacon, we decided to deviate a little bit from the classical use of pancetta/guanciale and were very happy with the results.

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and add bacon and ½ tsp. black pepper. Cook bacon for about 5 minutes until it starts to crisp.

Add onion and cook for 5 minutes until onions are soft. At the same time cook pasta until al dente. Reserve a ¼ cup of the cooking water and drain the spaghetti. Beat the eggs until smooth and set aside.

Remove pan from heat and add 1-2 tbsp water and scrape brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Heat pan to medium heat and add pasta to pan. Toss pasta to coat the spaghetti with the fat for about a minute. Make sure that the pasta doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. If the pasta is too dry and starts sticking to the bottom add 1-2 tbsp of pasta water.

Remove skillet from heat and add eggs to the pasta and start immediately tossing pasta for about a minute until eggs thicken and sauce has the consistency of a thin custard. Season with black pepper.

Recipe adapted from “Fine Cooking”

Serves 2

1 tbsp olive oil

220 g (½ lb) bacon, sliced ¼ inch thick and cut into 1 ½ x ½ inch rectangles

½ small red onion, finely diced

2 large eggs, chilled

220 g (1/2 lb) dried spaghetti

35 g (1.5 oz) finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano