Moroldo's

Last summer, just before Michael and I moved to Virginia, and when Tessa was coming home from her study abroad program in Tonga, Lauren, Ben, Michael and I went up to Montana for a few days. One night while we were there, we ate at this Italian restaurant called Moroldo's. My parents discovered this restaurant sometime in the year that they've lived there and have eaten there pretty regularly ever since. They have become pretty good friends with the Owner and Executive Chef, so when he found out that the whole family was coming to dinner, he prepared a special "Chef's Selection" 5-course menu for us. The food was SO YUMMY and we all LOVED it.

When we were in Montana for Thanksgiving, my mom planned for us to have a live cooking demo at Moroldo's and I was really excited, to say the least. For insurance purposes, we weren't actually able to do any hands-on cooking; so Fabrizio, executive chef and owner of Moroldo's, took us back into the kitchen to demonstrate how to make each dish, one by one, and then sent us out into the dining room for the tasting. By the end, we had completely stuffed ourselves on a delicious 4-course Italian meal.



First, Fabrizio showed us how to make this yummy appetizer that was like a Napoleon--with a layer of puff pastry, then a layer of thinly sliced zucchini, then a layer of a tomato/basil mixture, then another puff pastry, etc., until there were three complete layers. It was so delicious! Then we went back into the kitchen and Fabrizio showed us how to make gnocchi and a simple tomato sauce (with just grape tomatoes that had been pureed in a blender and then sauteed in a skillet--that's it!). I couldn't believe how fast and easy it was to make this dish...not to mention how the gnocchi just melted in my mouth!



Our third course was a chicken breast that had been baked in the oven and then finished off in a skillet with a gorgonzola cream sauce...also, so simple and SO DELICIOUS! All Fabrizio did to make the sauce was to melt some gorgonzola cheese into a little bit of heavy cream (just enough to get the melting started) and then let the cooked chicken breast warm through in the sauce. By this time, we were pretty full, so I don't think any of could possibly finish..and of course we had to save room for dessert! For dessert, Fabrizio first had us come in the kitchen and taste a mixture he had prepared to see if we could identify the ingredients. We each guessed one or two, but we weren't able to get them all. Finally, he told us how to make this creamy, custard-like dessert. First, he put some lady fingers in the bottom of each individual serving dish. Then he made a simple syrup with poppy extract to pour over the lady fingers, and topped it with a cream mixture of marscapone cheese, lemon juice, and pine nuts. Over the top he sprinkled some chocolate shavings and come crushed Italian cookie bits.

We had such a blast! And I can't wait to try these dishes at home!