Valentine's 2026: Corzetti

This year for Valentine's Day, a day when we are excited to stay home away from the hordes of diners in restaurants, fresh pasta was calling to us.

When I was a young man, in my early 20s in the early 1980s, fresh egg pasta was all the rage in America. You could not claim to be a cook if you did not make fresh pasta. In those formative years, I made scads of pasta, tagliatelle and pappardelle mainly, primarily unflavored but at times with tomato paste, spinach, squid ink, saffron, and you name it.

Happy Valentine's Day to Us!

As awareness of real Italian food grew, the food cognoscenti, today called foodies, came to understand Italian cuisine as something other than practiced at red sauce joints of the type that Tony Shaloub lamented in "The Big Night." Or to quote Tucci in response to a request for spaghetti and meatballs on the same plate, "sometimes the spaghetti likes to be alone." We came to learn about antipasti, primi, and secondi and so many other things.

Demand and awareness drew more imports of good quality Italian box pasta about the same time as I was commuting three hours a day to and from DC and had two babies to feed when I got home. Dried pasta was a godsend for a quick and largely stress-free meal. I switched from fresh to dried for the longest time, decades really, loving the bronze die pastas from Gragnano.

Now that I am in my 60s, the pendulum has swung back to fresh pasta, no doubt influenced by travel to Italy and the availability in retirement of time to devote to making pasta. Early in my life, fresh pasta was synonymous with northern egg pasta. Now, I am concentrating on southern pastas of semolina remacinata and water, with no eggs. I have a goal to make my fingers speak orecchiette fluently.

For our Valentine's Day pasta, Ann chose corzetti, a classic and ancient disk-shaped pasta from Liguria (also home to trofie). Making corzetti is a two-step process. First, you cut rounds from a sheet of pasta. Then, using a wooden stamp, you press a design into both sides of the pasta. The designs vary, but were often carved representations of the family crest. Our corzetti mold is rather simpler, a cheap mold with a star on one side and a spiral on the other.

Corzetti are not a shape that I have ever seen on a restaurant menu, though I suppose they might be found in restaurants in Liguria, a province that I have not visited. The only way for us to experience them is to make our own, which we set out to do after opening a bottle of nice Champagne with which to toast ourselves.

Here's to Us!

Les Frères Mignon L'Aventure Premier Cru
Crisp Extra Brut Blanc des Blancs Champagne

The Champagne opened, Ann set about scaling out the flour for the corzetti dough while I whipped up a quick batch of artichoke pesto to serve on bruschette for an antipasto. Ordinarily, I do not serve artichokes or artichoke heavy dishes with wine; artichokes can wreck many wines. A safe bet is always a really crisp unoaked white and the Champagne held its own.

Scaling Flour for the Dough

Assembling Bruschette

Artichoke Pesto Bruschette

Artichoke pesto is a no-brainer, dead simple antipasto that takes seconds to make in a food processor when made with canned artichoke hearts. It is best made and eaten right away, though it will store for a few days in the cooler. If I were using fresh or frozen artichoke hearts, I would add lemon juice to keep the pesto from turning brown. Canned artichokes always contain citric acid, so adding an additional anti-oxidant is not necessary. I do not add much olive oil or cheese; I want this to be fresh and less caloric.

1 can (400g) artichoke hearts, drained

leaves from 3-4 sprigs fresh basil

1 ounce (30g) raw pine nuts

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

pinch of Kosher salt

grated pecorino, enough to sit in palm of hand

drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Put all the ingredients except the olive oil in the food processor and blend to a smooth paste. Drizzle in olive oil until the pesto takes on the consistency you want. I wanted this batch to be a drier paste rather than a smoother sauce. Season to taste.

Ann continued on with putting together the dough as I was assembling the bruschette. Corzetti dough can contain eggs or not, depending on how your great grandmother made it. We followed a recipe from a Ligurian woman who uses 00 flour, eggs, and white wine. I took over kneading the dough for its final ten minutes, after which, I put it to rest on the counter under a towel. While waiting for the dough to rest, we sat at the counter and enjoyed our wine and bruschette.

After appetizers, I rolled the pasta into a fairly thick sfoglia and we tag-teamed cutting and stamping the corzetti.

Cut Rounds for Corzetti

Stamped Corzetti

Corzetti Stamp

Admittedly, we have a cheap corzetti stamp with a star or flower on one side and a spiral on the other. Some of the hand-carved pearwood Italian stamps are incredibly beautiful and are much more intricate than ours. That said, the really pedestrian looking spiral is quite amazing at trapping and holding onto the sauce.

A traditional sauce is olive oil, marjoram (maggiorana), garlic, and pine nuts. Some use walnuts instead. For our part, neither of us are big fans of marjoram, but we love sage (salvia). In fact, the very first meal Ann ever cooked for me so very long ago was a pasta in sage browned butter.

Our sauce I made quickly by heating olive oil and adding chopped fresh sage until it crisped. Then I added a handful of pine nuts and two large cloves of minced garlic. Both those additions browned in seconds after which I transferred the sauce to a cold steel bowl to keep it from cooking further. Moments later, I added the cooked pasta and tossed it.

Cooking Sage in Olive Oil

Sauce Ready: Sage, Pine Nuts, and Garlic in Olive Oil

Corzetti, like many pastas, come with a built-in timer. As they cook, they float, just like gnocchi. These floated in about two minutes, but wanted just another scant minute longer in the boiling water for a grand total of three minutes of cook time.

Cooked Corzetti Floating

Corzetti with Sage, Pine Nuts, and Garlic

Making corzetti with Ann was a lot of fun. Her take is that they are too labor intensive, but as an ex-restaurant chef, I do not mind putting in the work.

Valentine's Day 2022

As forecast last post, I took six weeks off from blogging to get us relocated from McMinnville, OR to Bend, OR, from the rainy and damp Willamette Valley, across the snowy Cascades, to the arid high desert of Central Oregon. We just got moved into our new house over the weekend. The fact that I am sitting here typing this post is a sure sign that we now have a functional office set up. In fact, getting our internet connection was a big fustercluck, Bend Broadband being a monopoly with terrible customer service.

Sitting at our New Bar for Valentine's Dinner

After spending about twelve hours unpacking and storing our kitchen goods, we were able to use our new kitchen for the first time on Valentine's Day. It's probably safe to say that needing to use the kitchen for Valentine's dinner speeded up the unpacking or at least informed the order in which we unpacked boxes. We could have gone out to celebrate, but we've been out a lot over the last week and don't feel all that well eating somewhat poorly. And then there's COVID, which thankfully is on the decline. We're still trying to avoid being indoors.

Those two reasons aside, Valentine's Day is possibly the worst day of the year to go out. Restaurant staffs, both front and back of house, are stressed, and nobody is doing the best work. Having spent a career in the business, I would never recommend to anyone to go out to eat on Valentine's Day. Yet still, I love to celebrate the day with Annie, unlike all those Valentine's Days where she sat home alone while I catered to all the people celebrating with us at the restaurant, only to stagger home like some nearly dead thing. What a terrible Valentine's Day for her, the chef widow! And so we planned a special meal at home, just for the two of us.

In cleaning out our freezer in preparation for moving, I found a couple of filets mignons that inspired Ann to ask me to make steak tartare for Valentine's. And then remembering the fabulous Argentine red shrimp that we had in Alaska, she also asked for a simple dish of pasta, shrimp, garlic, and butter. How easy was that menu planning? So simple, unlike at the restaurant where we were expected to create seven-course, high-end menus of exotic sounding but approachable dishes for our guests, one regular and one vegetarian.

Our home-cooked celebratory meal gave us a brief chance to test drive both the shopping in Bend and our new kitchen. We came from farm country with minimal shopping opportunities and a house with a top-flight kitchen to a new town with ample shopping opportunities and a sub-optimal kitchen. Now having used the new kitchen, I think we're going to have to gut it and start over in the near term. The awkward layout, barely functional storage, and silly downdraft range on a way-too-small island do not augur positively for my affection.

Steak Tartare, Broadley 2010 "Claudia's Choice"

Steak tartare is one of my favorite ways to prepare beef filet, simply because filet has very little character on its own. Although I find the texture a bit too soft for my liking in tartare, adding capers, shallots, salt, pepper, Dijon mustard, olive oil, and egg yolk is a great way to give the very bland beef a bit of fat and flavor.

Ordinarily, I would have served a lemony Chardonnay blanc de blancs sparkling with this dinner, but I just wasn't foresighted enough to have purchased any. Our usual preference in Champagne tends to the more berry flavors of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, and so that's what we have at the house. And with the moving, buying more wine just to schlep it across the Cascades was a non-starter. As it was, the back of Ann's car was wall-to-wall with cases of wine. Although sparkling would have been my go-to pairing for this dinner, the bottle of 2010 Broadley Pinot Willamette Valley "Claudia's Choice" was  delicious.

Pasta and Shrimp with Garlic Butter

Our main course could not have been any simpler or frankly, better. Our usual diet is low carb, so pasta is a special treat for a special occasion. We were both smitten with Argentine red shrimp up in Alaska this summer when we both tasted them for the first time. These wild-caught shrimp are superbly tender and have a taste much more akin to lobster than typical shrimp. Researching on the internet, Ann found that these shrimp which were unavailable to us in McMinnville are a stock item at the Bend Trader Joe's, a store only dreamed of in McMinnville.

While we were there, we decided to get pasta as well, our nuts-and-bolts grocery store (WinCo) not having a very good selection of brands or cuts. Although our normal instinct would be to make this dish with a long cut, Ann was intrigued by a bag of Trader Joe's brand pasta labeled fusili corti bucati, like little hollow springs. I have had very long versions of this pasta, but never the corti ("cut" or short) version.

I liked the shape well enough, but the pasta itself did not cook very evenly and it was missing that really good al dente bite that I expect of great pasta. Time will tell if this is a one-off or if Trader Joe's brand is only good if we are desperate for pasta.

After several weeks of minimal dining as we packed our kitchen in preparation for the move, and then the few days around the move when we had no kitchen at all, it's great to be back at the range, even if it isn't the most functional!

Valentine's Day: Raspberry, Chocolate, Blood Orange Bread Pudding

I'm pretty new to the whole Valentine's Day thing. When I was in the restaurant business, it was easily our busiest time of the year. Imagine doing a month's worth of business in a one- or two-day stretch, each table being sat twice a night and served seven courses! It took a week before Valentine's Day to prep for the special menu and it took a week after to recuperate. Besides never being home for Valentine's Day, I was also a zombie. It is still a wonder to me that Ann stuck by me through all that.

This year, I wanted to do something special to surprise her. Because of COVID, going out is not an option. But realistically, because I was in the business and know how stressed restaurants are under the crush of business, I would never go out for Valentine's dinner anyway. Still, I cook dinner every night and so cooking dinner would not really be special. I opted instead to make a special brunch.

Raspberry, Chocolate, Blood Orange Bread Pudding

What was different is that for brunch I made something totally out of left field. We don't eat sweets, fruit aside, and our diet is very low in simple carbs. So naturally, I made a Raspberry, Chocolate, Blood Orange Bread Pudding because that would be the absolute last thing that she would expect from me. And I made it under Ann's nose. She didn't know anything about it until about 45 minutes into its baking when it started to perfume the house. I served it with blood orange segments on top to help cut the sweetness.

A Jam Bread Pudding

This bread pudding was inspired by my mother's mother. When I would visit my grandmother during college breaks, she would sometimes smear slices of white bread with butter and jam and shingle them in the bottom of a pan. She would then pour a custard over the bread and a few minutes later, a bread pudding would emerge from her oven.

The challah-based savory bread pudding that I made for New Year's Brunch cemented for me that soft breads such as the store-bought white loaf bread that my grandmother used do not make great bread puddings. A good bread pudding needs a hearty bread with a good crust. A lot of the charm of a great bread pudding is the contrast of the soft interior with a crunchy crust, something you do not get from indifferent bread.

I bought a good quality focaccia for this bread pudding. I used focaccia because it is the depth of my pan and so I could expose the focaccia crust through the top of the pudding. Assembling the bread pudding on the QT was something of a challenge. Each time Ann would leave the room, I would do a bit more: slicing the bread, spreading raspberry jam on each slice, chopping a block of chocolate, making the orange-vanilla custard base, putting all the ingredients together, and "hiding" the pudding in plain sight in the back of the refrigerator.

I made a quart of custard base: a quart of 2% milk, a splash of vanilla extract, the zest of one blood orange, five eggs, and a scant half a cup of sugar. Initially, the pudding took about half the custard, the remainder of which I put in the refrigerator and used to top off the pudding before I went to bed the night before. In all, the pudding took about 3-1/2 cups of custard base.

Valentine's morning while Ann was brushing her teeth, I put the pudding in the oven. She had no idea what was going on until it was just about done and started making the house smell great.

Mimosa, Crossword, and Ed-Made Valentine's Day Card

It's our morning ritual to have our coffee along with a crossword puzzle from the Sunday New York Times. I left a Valentine's card on the table where we do our crosswords. I always make Ann a card (having never felt that buying a card from the store expresses anything about me except that I was lazy) and this year was no different.

When Ann was upstairs printing the crossword puzzle, I brought in the bird condo that you see in the photo below as another surprise for her. She had expressed interest in having one (along with explicit instructions: "the center has to be red") some weeks ago and I demurred, having already a very long list of woodworking projects on my list.

As I was working on those other projects, I took time and converted scrap lumber to the bird condo for her. It now adorns our back gate.

Bird Condo Above Our Back Gate

Once the bread pudding came out of the oven, I made us some mimosas and we sat down to splurge for Valentine's brunch. As good as this bread pudding was, I'd rather have had a savory bread pudding. Note to self.

Valentine's Day: Cape Meares OR

Having come from the restaurant business, Valentine's Day has always been a thorn in my side. It's day on which Ann has wanted me to pay some special attention to her and it has heretofore been the busiest workday of my year, serving hundreds of couples celebrating the day. This year would be our first Valentine's Day together, ever.

And so I wanted to do something special. I made us some pastrami sandwiches on rye, grabbed a bottle of cold Prosecco, and we headed for the coast with the idea to go see the lighthouse at Cape Meares in Tillamook County, the county just northwest of ours. I wasn't sure that the weather would cooperate, but then, this is Oregon in the winter.

While the forecast was for partly cloudy weather with almost no chance of rain, it certainly rained for big stretches of the drive out Highway 18 in the direction of Lincoln City. By the time we hit the coast range, we could see light snow at elevation. At Grand Ronde, we turned northwest to cut through the mountains and to join Highway 101 at Hebo, where we headed north for downtown Tillamook. It was sprinkling on and off along 101 and pretty misty as we were leaving Tillamook headed west for Netarts and the coast.

The sun had just popped out by the time we reached Netarts and turned north for Oceanside and Cape Meares at the end of the road just beyond. Just as soon as we grabbed our mini-picnic out of the truck, it started raining fairly hard, so we retreated back to eat lunch in the truck. Fifteen minutes later, the sun was out again, but all afternoon, we watched raincloud after raincloud blow in off the Pacific and unload somewhere along the shore.

Cape Meares Lighthouse

Three Arches Rocks from Short Beach, Oceanside

Quite the Welcome Sign to Cape Meares

From the parking lot at Cape Meares, you can look down a straight trail and see the lighthouse. In the other direction are located the restrooms and the Octopus Tree, a very old Sitka Spruce with no central trunk. It's much more impressive in person than it is in the photo with no frame of reference for how big it is.

The Octopus Tree

Annie Contemplating Cape Lookout

Gorgeous Panorama Looking South

We Retreated to the Truck for Prosecco and Lunch

From the Overlook Looking North

Panorama Looking North

Watching the Waves Pound the Rocks

Full Grown Spruces Atop the Cliffs

Yet Another Rock

It's hard to appreciate how much swell there is in the Pacific here until you see it crash into a rock and send spray 40 feet in the air.

I've seen a bunch of Fresnel lenses (I admit to being fascinated by the optics/physics behind them) in my life, but this is the first time I've seen one with red glass. It turns out that this is the only one on the mainland and there is another in Hawaii.

Unique Red and White Fresnel Lens

Another View of the Lens

Another Look at the Rocks

Dramatic Backdrop for Sitka Spruce Cones

Pink and Green Sedum oreganum

Three Arches Rocks, Rainstorm Behind

Oceanside From Cape Meares

Annie Looking Out to Sea

One Parting Shot

Pre-Valentine's at Glen Manor

Doing what I do, I can always guarantee that I am working like a dog on Valentine's Day. That's just one of the many perqs of my chosen profession! Truth be told, it is at this time of year that Ann really starts hating the restaurant life and who can blame her? Although Valentine's isn't that much of a big deal for either of us, it's just one of the many ways that life reminds us that we don't lead "normal" lives. And sometimes, we just want to feel normal.

So if Ann and I want to celebrate Valentine's Day similar to normal people, we have to pick a time that fits into the restaurant schedule. This year, we decided to celebrate the weekend before Valentine's, knowing I would be beat the Sunday following a huge holiday weekend. And our idea of celebrating is some quiet time with great food and great wine.

We have been remiss in getting down to see Jeff and Kelly at Glen Manor and so it was an easy decision to go see them on a grey winter day threatening more snow. Chances were good that we would be able to get our quiet time and spend some time talking with Jeff and Kelly if the tasting room were quiet.

As we walked in, Kelly came out of the back room and greeted us as effusively as ever and exclaimed, "We only have Hodder Hill left for sale!" intending for that to be an apology. Darn, twist my arm, I only get to drink your best wine? I'll see if I can live with that.

"We Only Have Hodder Hill Left for Sale"

I asked Ann if she would make a loaf of her fabulous bread to bring with us and she did, one flavored with black pepper and parmesan cheese. And I told her that I would grab a couple pieces of cheese and maybe a piece of salame, if there were any in the cooler. All the while I was planning to make a couple of charcuterie items to bring along as a surprise.

Chorizo-Habanero Terrine

I decided to make a pork terrine, but I'm tired of the mellow ones that I have been making all winter at the restaurant and so I decided to do one spiced like Mexican chorizo with a bit of heat from some golden habaneros. I ground the pork rather more coarsely than I usually do and the fat as well. The meat is flavored with a sofrito of poblanos, onions, habanero, garlic, cumin, ancho chile, and pimentón. A healthy dose of Sherry vinegar makes it taste like chorizo.

Sinful Mousse of Chicken Livers

And going in exactly the opposite direction, I made a super-classic mousse de foies de volaille. The chicken livers marinated in a super-concentrate pork jus, Calvados, shallots, and thyme for 24 hours. Then I seared them and whipped them into a silken mousse and covered them with more of the pork jus, the remains from cooking our pork bellies. It hardens into a beautiful aspic in minutes in the refrigerator.

Boerenkaas Gouda and Virginia's Own Grayson

Hodder Hill Makes Everyone Smile Like This

Kelly Made Goodies

Two Nuts

2010 Hodder Hill Still Life