The afternoon was delightfully sunny, the company both cheerful & uplifting . . . then we walked into Spago. The 1982 Midwestern Casino decor didn't exactly excite me and what in the hell is this squiggle little thing embossed, engraved, painted & perturbed onto every surface? (turns out it's "the flame of life") The setting at the table mildly distrupted, the service and speed not exactly "on point" for the level of expectation . . rather lacking the anticipation mostly notable of veteran waiters & bussers. As for the food, we were served the tuna tataki as a complimentary amuse bouche (my gentlemen company being a Spago VIP). This was quite nice, the brandy laced tuile embedded with a tuxedo spattering of seame seeds . . maybe a little wakame in their, ponzu, sesame oil and obviously tuna tartare. 
My first course was the beet "cake" which was delicious and absolutely stunning to the eye by all standards. The next Wolfgang Puck signature dish was the sweet pea agnolotti; I feel great pain for the prep cooks/chefs that have to assemble some 10,000 little pasta pockets of what I can only believe to be pea baby food. Peas - bad memories of canned peas and while these still had the bright green kermit th frog color, the flavor was the same as those canned peas. Why not add mint, tarragon, leek, shallot, sake, pinot grigio, basil, lemon thyme . . . anything green with flavor to assist, to augment, to enlighten this ever so pale pate verde. The beurre blanc was traditional and pleasant but again - overly simple as a dish . . and probably meant to be so for the grazing and gazing clientel of quaffed hebrew heritage, sporting magenta lipstick and overly sprite upholestry . . . I mean clothing.Dessert was point on even if the coffee took 6 minutes to land before me. A fig tart with a PERFECT crust (couldn't have been better, two heaven floors above the best Pate Brise) and the ice cream so very, very incredibly vanilla bean . . . yum to the tum (minus my lactose intolerance issue). The chocolate gelato was great but nothing compared to my vanilla conoccotion and whilst currant look beautiful - they certainly are not in season yet and bastardingly tart to thought let alone tongue.
Ok - that's a wrap on Spago, apparrently they are gutting the space in two weeks for a revamp. GREAT IDEA!!!!! My friend, bless his soul - thinks the world of this place and for what's it's worth . . . I'm sorry for being a bitchy inspector of prudence & overtly vocal veneer (BTY - the entering artwork with the caviar containers looks like a 3rd grade art project I made for my Grandma LaVerna). Here's my remake of Wolfgangs sweet pea agnolotti dish.
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INGREDIENTS 1 whole Rabbit (or substitute chicken if you have too much love for Thumper) 1 bottle white wine 4 cloves garlic 2 tablespoons of fresh tarragon 4 shallots 1 pound Cippiolini onions 1 pound fresh, local adriatic figs (green figs), sliced 1 cup water 2 Tablespoons whole unsalted butter 8 Fresh square pasta sheets Kosher salt and cracked black pepper to taste English Pea Strut your Stuff sauce: 1 pound of fresh English Peas 1 cup of White Rhone Wine 2 tablespoons of Shallot, chopped 1 Tablespoon of Mint, chopped 1 Tablespoon of Basil, chopped 1 solid dash of white pepper 2 tablespoons butter Maldon sea salt to taste METHOD To prepare rabbit confit cannellonni: Salt the rabbit and place it in a small heavy braising pan with oil. Sear until golden brown on all sides. Add the onions and garlic and caramelize. Add the butter, tarragon and sauté the figs. Deglaze with white wine and add enough olive oil to cover the rabbit ¾ of the way. Add salt, water and pepper to the liquid. Gently simmer for about one hour, or until the rabbit meat is falling off of the bone. Take the rabbit out of the liquid and allow it to cool. Reduce the cooking liquid by 1/3 then strain the ingredients and set aside. Pull all of the meat off of the rabbit and shred loosely into a mixing bowl. Roughly chop the reserved ingredients of fig, onions and shallot and roughly chop. add the mixture to the rabbit. Reduce the liquid to sauce consistency. Add liquid to the rabbit mixture - add enough to suspend the mixture to make a filling. Reserve the liquid. Place mixture on the pasta and roll to form the cannelloni. Chill until ready to serve. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place one cannelloni per person in a shallow baking pan and cover with the reserved braising liquid. Cover and place in the oven for twenty minutes. To prepare english pea sauce: Reduce white wine by half, then add peas, shallots, herbs and pepper. Immediately remove and blend away before tosing in a few cubes of butter. Salt to taste. To plate: Place cannelloni on plate and sauce with english pea, sport a bit of mache and tear some fresh herbs herbs (tarragon, italian parsley and touch of mint) sprinkle over cannelloni, and drizzle with olive oil. Garnish with Maldon sea salt & one adriatic fig cut on a bias. |
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