Butter and Eggs Ville

Petaluma, as known by Peanuts fans, was the birthplace of Snoopy. But more importantly, for me, it’s in the beautiful Sonoma County. Sonoma County is known for wine making and olive oil pressing, but at one time Petaluma was the egg producer in California. Alas, that went away a few decades ago, but cheese making is very big in that area, hence the Artisan Cheese Festival held at the Sheraton this recently.

Some fellow-foodie friends told me about it, thankfully, so I signed up Paul and myself for the grand tasting Saturday night. There were 20-something restaurants represented, all offering a bite of deliciousness incorporating cheese. Our faves were the appetizer with melted raclette and the goat cheese ice cream with cherries. Little tiny scoops on little tiny cones! We snagged 3 each over the course of the evening. I also learned that I like hard cider, at least the ones I tried.

There is a restaurant in Petaluma where we always stop: Giacomo’s. It’s on the southeast end of town, on Lakeville Rd. Paul claims their food is as good as any he’s had in Italy. Seems like an extravagant claim, but it really is wonderful. We shared the fried calamari steak and an appetizer and were stuffed and happy. I highly recommend Giacomo’s.

This was our first time spending the night in Petaluma, as we’re usually on the way to someplace else, and based on my online research for price and quality (equals value) I settled on Quality Inn. Paul is a highly veteran traveler and he doesn’t like Quality Inn but the reviews for this property were really good so we booked it. It was comfortable and clean with big rooms. And the breakfast – I always turn up my nose at motel breakfasts and insist that we go out. Well, you know why. It was actually decent, with scrambled eggs and sausage. So we saved some serious money there and I wasn’t pitching a fit! The coffee was awful but there are 2 Peet’s Coffee in Petaluma, so no harm, no foul.

We decided to do a drive around the area and visit some cheese places. We only managed to go to the Marin French Cheese Company outside of Petaluma, but it was a pretty place. They make soft cheeses like brie, and I love their Rouge et Noir brand of camembert. Paul bought one of their t-shirts only after going into the Cowgirl Creamery (love their cheese) in Point Arena and discovering their t-shirts are boring.

Our last day there we were looking for a great place for lunch. The Wild Goat Bistro popped up on our gps while downtown. We parked (parking in old downtown is a little challenging) and started walking. Well, we didn’t find it but had panini at the Corkscrew Wine Bar. That was really nice and we enjoyed the owner. He highly recommended the Wild Goat Bistro! After finding out exactly where it was, we walked over and it was busy. The menu looked really good, my kind of place. Go there and tell me what you think.

We accidentally found the Cottage Gardens of Petaluma; Paul saw a sign that said “vegetable starts” so I made a u-turn and drove up a little hill. And there was this lovely nursery. We bought a couple plants and I nabbed a gorgeous planter. Very happy we stopped in. Be sure you do too when you visit Petaluma.

A Case of the Clams

Paul and I were watching You Gotta Eat Here on the Biography Channel and caught a little place in New Brunswick Canada that serves clam pies, as well as other delights. It seems it’s an east coast thing, as I saw the Barefoot Contessa enjoying clam pizza in New York City on her show as well. It looked so interesting that I wrote down the instructions and gave it a whirl. It turned out pretty good so I’m sharing it with you. This recipe makes 2 each 12” pizzas.

Clam Pizza

Serves 2 or 3

2 or 3 cans chopped clams (6.5 oz cans)
3 cloves minced garlic
pinches red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2-4 oz diced pancetta (optional)
about 8 oz shredded mozzarella
about 2 oz or more shredded grana padano cheese
lemon slices for squeezing

Pizza dough for 2 each 12” pizzas. You can get my thin crust recipe here.

I used 2 cans of clams, if you want to really bury your pie with clams, use 3 cans and add extra garlic, etc. Drain claims and mixed with garlic, red pepper flakes, parsley, and olive oil. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Brown your pancetta, if using, and set aside on paper towels.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Roll out half the dough in a 12” circle. If desired dust the outside edge with a little cornmeal. Layer with mozzarella and some grana padano (a type of parmesan), then top with half the clam mixture and some more grana padano. Bake in the oven, preferably on a baking stone, for about 10 minutes, until crust is brown and cheese is melted and bubbly. Top with pancetta, if using, before serving. Be sure to liberally squeeze lemon on your slice before eating. It really enhances the flavor.

Crema de la Crema

In Italy there is a favored after dinner drink called Limoncello. It’s distilled alcohol infused with lemon rind and sweetened up with simple syrup, basically. You can buy it or make your own. I’ve always found limoncello to be a little harsh tasting so when my neighbors poured me a little Crema di Limoncello last summer I was wowed. They bought it at Bev Mo, but when my lemons started ripening with a vengeance I decided to try my hand at making it. I found a recipe online which looked easy but also looked a little sweet – I didn’t want to drink a creamsicle! So I made the milk and sugar as instructed but didn’t add it all at once, tasting as I went, and I ended up using about 25% less sweet milk than called for. The result was delicious, sweet but not too sweet, a little lemony, you can taste the vodka but not overpowering. Serve in shot glasses. Note: classically it’s made with high octane Everclear, but I used Tito’s, a good quality, reasonably priced vodka. Don’t drink the cheap stuff. Just sayin’.

Crema di Limoncello

Makes 1 ½ quarts. Doubles just fine.

5 lemons
½ bottle (750ml bottle) good vodka
3 cups whole milk
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
½ tsp vanilla

Zest lemons using zester or microplane. Use lemons for juice or some other delicacy. Place the zest and vodka in a covered container in a cool dark place for at least a week. Strain the vodka through a double mesh strainer into another non reactive container.

In a sauce pan warm the milk, sugar and vanilla over medium heat, stirring until dissolved. No boiling! This doesn’t take long. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature, which takes about an hour or so.

Combine the infused vodka with the sweet milk. I didn’t have any curdling but if you do just strain it out. Keep in the freezer, leaving room in the bottle for expansion. Mine freezes solid so take it out a while before you plan to serve. It tastes best very cold. Cheers!