The Hemingway Cookbook (7 page)

“I have saved your table. We have a very fine lobster if you would like him to commence with.”

“Is he really fresh?”

“I saw him this morning when he came from the market in a basket. He was alive and a dark green and completely unfriendly.”

“Would you like lobster, Daughter, to start your dinner?”

“I would love some lobster” the girl said.

“Cold, and with mayonnaise. The mayonnaise rather stiff.” She said this in Italian.
²³

Hemingway at Harry’s Bar
.

THE MENU

Dinner at the Gritti Palace
Hotel, Venice

Lobster Salad
Scaloppine with Marsala
Cauliflower Braised with Butter
Artichoke Vinaigrette

Wines
Capri Bianco
Valpolicella

The Colonel and Renata do indeed commence with the lobster before moving on to the veal and vegetables. He’s a big lobster and the Colonel likens him to George Patton. The Gran Maestro stems Renata’s concern that he may be too tough: “He’s truly not tough. He’s only big. You know the type.”
²⁴

Lobster Salad

2
SERVINGS

2 carrots, diced

1 parsnip, diced

1 leek, white part only, diced

1 rib celery, diced

1 onion stuck with 2 cloves

Bouquet garni (a few sprigs of parsley, thyme, rosemary, and a few bay leaves bundled and tied together or in a cheesecloth bag)

1 clove garlic

2 cups dry white wine

Salt

Pepper

Pinch of cayenne pepper

2 small live lobsters (1¼ pound each), or 1 large lobster (about 2½ pounds)

Juice of ½ lemon

Hard-boiled egg and capers, for garnish

Wine

Capri Bianco, secco and really cold

To a large stockpot filled with 8 to 10 cups water, add the diced vegetables, onion, bouquet garni, garlic, wine, salt and pepper to taste, and cayenne. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Add the lobsters and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until the lobsters turn bright red.

Drain the lobsters and chill. Remove the tail and the tail meat. Crack the claws and remove the meat from the claws and the knuckles. Cut the lobster meat into uniform pieces. Arrange the meat on a bed of lettuce and season with salt and pepper to taste and a little fresh lemon juice. Cover with mayonnaise, garnish with quarters of hard-boiled egg and capers, and serve.

For the mayonnaise

MAKES
½
CUP

1 egg yolk

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard

½ cup olive oil

1 teaspoon tarragon vinegar

Salt

Dash of freshly ground white pepper

Combine the egg yolk, salt, and mustard in a food processor. Pulse briefly to combine. With the food processor on, very slowly add the olive oil until the mixture is thickened and silky. Add the vinegar and salt and pepper to taste and process briefly to blend.

The Colonel and Renata continue their meal with the attentive assistance of the Gran Maestro. The Countess orders a simple meal of steak with mashed potatoes and a plain salad. The Colonel orders the classic Scaloppine and accents it with braised cauliflower and an artichoke. He accompanies the food with the light, dry Valpolicella.

Scaloppine with Marsala

This recipe is adapted from
Cuisine of Venice.

4
SERVINGS

2 pounds veal, thinly sliced

3-4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup dry Marsala

Salt

Pepper

Carefully trim any white skin from the veal. Place the slices of veal in a single layer between two pieces of wax paper. With a flat wooden mallet, pound the slices to approximately
-inch thickness. Make several small incisions along the edges of each slice to prevent it from curling up while cooking. Dredge each slice lightly in flour. Shake to remove any excess.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and heat almost until it begins to smoke. Add several slices of veal to the pan, being careful to leave plenty of room between the slices. Sauté for 3 minutes on each side, moving often to prevent sticking. Remove the veal to a warm serving plate while continuing to saute in batches.

Deglaze the skillet with the wine, scraping up all the bits that have stuck. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the Marsala over the scaloppine and serve.

Cauliflower Braised with Butter

2
SERVINGS

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ head cauliflower, cut into crowns

Salt

Pepper

1 cup chicken stock, or enough to cover

Combine the butter and olive oil in a large saucepan. Place over high heat until the butter is melted and frothy but not browned. Add the cauliflower and toss until well coated. Sauté the cauliflower for 2 minutes, or until just lightly browned. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour in the stock. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes, or until tender. Remove cauliflower with a slotted spoon and serve immediately.

Artichoke Vinaigrette

This was one of Hemingway’s favorite vegetables
,
²⁵
and the Colonel enjoys this dish, once thought to be an aphrodisiac, “taking a leaf at a time, and dipping them, heavy side down, into the deep saucer of sauce vinaigrette”
²⁶

4
SERVINGS

Vinaigrette

¾ cup finest olive oil

¼ cup wine vinegar

Salt

Pepper

2 cloves garlic

Artichokes

4 artichokes

4 lemon slices

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Prepare the vinaigrette 2 hours before serving. Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the garlic and steep for 2 hours.

Clean the artichokes by plunging them repeatedly, upside down, into cold water. Cut the stems off, leaving a flat bottom. To prevent discoloration, tie a slice of lemon to the bottom of the artichoke with kitchen string. Break off any tough bottom leaves. Cut off the top third of the artichoke and trim the top ¼ inch off the remaining leaves with scissors.

Bring a large pot of water, salted and with 2 tablespoons lemon juice added, to a boil. Add the artichokes and boil for about 30 minutes. The artichokes are done when an outside leaf pulls away easily. Remove the artichokes, drain upside down in a colander, untie and remove the lemon slices and rinse the artichokes thoroughly in cold water. When cooled, open them slightly, remove the very thin center leaves, and scoop out the choke with a spoon. Serve whole, one per person, with vinaigrette in a saucer for dipping the leaves.

The Market

Early one morning, before daylight, the Colonel embarks on an excursion that was one of Hemingway’s favorites while in Venice. He would cross the Grand Canal at the Rialto bridge to the spectacular fish and vegetable market on the far side of the city by the Adriatic. Ernest loved the market, and shared its sensory feast, as well as his own taste for clams on the half shell, with the Colonel:

He loved the market. A great part of it was close-packed and crowded into several side streets, and it was so concentrated that it was difficult not to jostle people, unintentionally, and each time you stopped to look, to buy, or to admire, you formed an îlot de resistance against the flow of the morning attack of the purchasers.

In the market, spread on the slippery stone floor, or in their baskets, or their rope-handled boxes, were the heavy, gray-green lobsters with their magenta overtones that presaged their death in boiling water. They have all been captured by treachery, the Colonel thought, and their claws are pegged.

He went past these, stopping to ask one seller where his clams came from. They came from a good place, without sewerage and the Colonel asked to have six opened. He drank the juice and cut the clam out, cutting close against the shell with the curved knife the man handed him.
²⁷

Clams on the Half-Shell

Shucking clams requires little more than a firm grip and a basic clam knife. Yet the rewards for this simple labor are exquisite. To prepare clams on the half-shell, first rinse the clams thoroughly under cold water and discard any clams that are broken or that will not close when squeezed shut a few times. Hold each clam with the hinge firmly wedged in the palm of your offhand. Holding the knife in your strong hand, wedge the knife into the seam of the narrower side of the clam. Pull the blade into the seam using the fingers of your off hand. Work the blade up and down slightly to separate the shells, keeping the clam level to hold the juice. The clam has two muscles on either side of the hinge, which must be severed. Place the tip of the blade against the inside of the upper shell, and sweep the knife first to one side to sever that muscle, then to the other side. Sever the second muscle, then open the clam and discard the top shell. Run the knife under the clam to release it from the lower shell. Serve about 6 clams per person, and accompany them with lemon wedges
.

The Colonel returns from the market “in the cold, hard Venice light of morning”
²⁸
to meet Renata at Piazza San Marco to have breakfast at the Caffe Florian and to watch the crowds of people. Renata, though, decides that breakfast there is “worthless” and that she dislikes the square so crowded. She is very hungry, and they decide to return to the Gritti: “We’ll give breakfast the full treatment,” the Colonel said. “You’ll wish you had never heard of breakfast.”
²⁹

The Gran Maestro seats them in the empty dining room, gives the Colonel the situation report on bothersome compatriots and other potential intruders, and details for Renata her “breakfast to end breakfasts:”
³⁰
“We can make our
fabricar rognons
grilled with champignons dug by people I know. Or, raised in damp cellars. There can be an omelet with truffles dug by pigs of distinction. There can be real Canadian bacon from maybe Canada, even.”
³¹
Renata accompanies her meal with tea rather than coffee, and the Colonel orders a decanted flask of the Valpolicella to go with an order of the Canadian bacon.

THE MENU

Breakfast to End Breakfasts:
The Gritti Palace Hotel,
Venice