One year ago today, on a slightly cooler but equally sunny Saturday here in New York, Judd and I got married in the presence of exactly 100 of our friends and relatives. It was a magical day but it went by far too fast. The very next day we flew to Florence to begin our 12-day honeymoon in Italy. I took researching the local food very seriously came home 9 pounds heavier.
I have tried unsuccessfully to convince Judd that we should have another wedding every March 21st. In the meantime, on the eve of the anniversary of our first wedding, I decided to prepare a celebratory dinner inspired by our honeymoon. Initially, I thought about recreating the meal we made during our cooking lesson with Chef Richard Titi at Relais Il Falconiere in Tuscany.
Our cooking class was one of the highlights of our trip, but the meal we prepared, including pici pasta and stuffed pork medallions, was very labor intensive -- the pasta was hand-made and stuffing the pork involved the use of a pastry bag, which I do not have. So instead, I put on my souvenir apron and made something inspired by our honeymoon: imported burrata with prosciutto followed by asparagus risotto.
We picked up the burrata and prosciutto from Salumeria Rosi in the morning, a good time to shop there since there can be a long line in the afternoon. I arranged some of the sliced prosciutto on our plates and added a portion of the oozing burrata. A drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper later and voila! Our first course was ready.
I used this recipe for the asparagus risotto. Mark Bittman, better known to many as "the Minimalist," and a regular contributor to the New York Times, had a wonderful but short-lived show on public television a few years ago called "The Best Recipes in the World." In the first episode of the series he highlighted the best recipes in the world for rice-based dishes including risotto and paella. The featured risotto was prepared by Mario Batali and the segment was filmed in the kitchen of Del Posto. I generally like anything Mario Batali makes, and I particularly liked his idea of adding asparagus puree to the finished risotto to give it bright green color and make it extra asparagusy. I don't know that I'd consider a recipe that involves peeling asparagus stalks "minimalist" -- peeling two pounds of asparagus stalks took me a LONG time -- but the finished product was really rich, creamy, and delicious, so it was worth it.
For dessert, we opened the freezer and dug out the top tier of our wedding cake which had been tightly wrapped up in saran wrap for the last 364 days. It was also still covered in a layer of fondant, which I had hoped would further preserve the cake inside.
It didn't look much like our beautiful wedding cake anymore.
I thought Sterling Affair, our caterer, did a perfect job replicating the design I gave them for our cake - a lace pattern that I had seen in a bridal magazine. I ate very little at our wedding and only had one bite of our cake, which was carrot cake inside since I don't like chocolate. So I can't exactly tell you how what I tasted last night compares to the non-frozen-for-one-year-then-thawed version of our cake, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Definitely a freezer-burned flavor though.
Thank goodness my mother, who joined us for our pre-anniversary celebration, also brought over cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery.
Our wedding anniversary celebration is just beginning. Tonight, we're having dinner for two at Minetta Tavern, the new Keith McNally French brasserie/steakhouse in the village that I've been wanting to try for months. And on Thursday morning, we're setting off on a romantic getaway to Islamorada in the Florida Keys . . . can't wait!
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