Daniela

We visited Daniela's original location, a tiny storefront on 36th Street, when we were writing our first book, Food Lovers' Guide to Baltimore. Today, they're in a much bigger space down the road, in one of those cute buildings with covered porches on the north side of the street. The menu has expanded, and they serve lunch and dinner 7 days a week. We had originally gone to Hampden to eat at another restaurant across the street, but at 5:15 it was already packed and unbelievably noisy. I was not willing to wait to eat potentially mediocre food with the din of clueless hipsters all around me, so we instead sought refuge in the quiet at Daniela.

I imagine Daniela can get fairly boisterous at times, too, when full, but the atmosphere was serene during our visit.

The menu is a real pastapalooza, with a few meat and fish dishes. Knowing that Daniela makes all the pasta in-house, however, made our decision to stick with starches an easy one. But first, the appetizers.

Mr Minx was intrigued by the sound of Italian crab soup, zuppa di granchio. It smelled absolutely amazing, rather like scampi, very garlicky and briny. It was absolutely nothing like the familiar Maryland-style crab, though delicious in its own way.

I had the zuppa di pomodoro, a rich creamy tomato soup that contained a ton of cheese. It was like eating a grilled cheese sandwich with a bowl of tomato soup, only without the bread. I think it would make a great lunch on a chilly day.

We also got the fritto misto, not realizing it was going to be such an enormous portion. There were three fat shrimp, a pile of calamari, and several dozen tiny baby anchovies, all delicately coated and lightly fried. The only accompaniment was lemon, so the flavor of the fish was allowed to speak for itself.

I had the saffron fettuccine with shrimp and zucchini in a tomato vodka sauce. The pasta was quite rustic, about twice as thick as any fettuccine I've had before, and cooked until fairly soft. There were three of those big fat shrimp again, but also a plethora of tiny shrimp, some as big as my thumbnail, but others as small as my pinky nail (they must have been fun to shell). The zucchini was very thinly sliced and added a pretty hint of green to the dish. The flavors were very nice, lightly tomato-y, a touch of saffron, but I wish there had been a bit more texture.

Mr Minx's scialatielli al fruitti di mare was also on the soft side, the thick pasta ribbons flavored with Pecorino and parsley. There was a plethora of seafood in the dish, including clams, enormous mussels, and more of those teensy shrimp. The dish had a stronger flavor than mine, both of tomatoes and of seafood, again very pleasing. Just a bit soft.

We couldn't finish our entrees (that fritto misto did us in) but we had to try dessert. We had eaten Daniela's fabulous tiramisu before, the cappuccino flavor, so this time we had the strawberry version. The enormous portion was definitely big enough for two, but was light and fluffy and somehow not at all heavy. While I enjoyed everything we had, dessert was my favorite.

It's nice that Daniela has moved to a larger space, so more people can enjoy her Sardinian cuisine. The food was tasty, but service was a bit...casual. We stood around at the door for a long minute before anyone noticed we were there, and while dishes came out of the kitchen at a nice pace, none of the servers seemed in any hurry to refill our water or offer us a more wine (or remove our empty glasses). Portions are large and nicely priced, and our leftover pasta made a nice dinner when reheated on a busy evening a few days later.

Daniela Pasta & Pastries
824 W. 36th Street
Baltimore, MD 21211
443-759-9320
http://www.danielaristorante.com/



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Caesar Salad

When I got home from work one day, I found a small box from an unknown sender waiting for me. Inside was a can of Wild Planet White Anchovies. And then I remembered a Facebook message from a representative of Wild Planet, urging me to enter my tuna casserole recipe in their tuna casserole contest. She then offered to send me some free samples of their brand. I was expecting tuna, maybe a couple cans. But I got one can of anchovies. And they don't even have the anchovies on their Web site, so do they even sell them anymore?  ::::shrugs:::

What does one do with one can of anchovies? Make Caesar salad!

I have never been a fan of anchovies, although I appreciate the wonderful Asian condiment made from the tiny fish. Fish Sauce adds just the right amount of funky umami to foods, including Caesar salad. But this time, I used actual, whole, anchovies.

I admit I was a little afraid to open the can. Would it be full of unpleasantly hairy stink-beasts that aren't worth picking off an old-school pizza? Or would they be more like the boquerones we had on our salad at the Arthouse? Thankfully, they were the latter. The can was full of small whole fish, minus head and tail, packed like, er, sardines. They were in there so tightly, it was difficult to pull out a whole fish without mangling it somewhat. That of course did not affect the flavor at all. They were pleasantly mild, just fishy enough to make the salad taste like a proper Caesar.

We did not use all of the anchovies for our salad--there were far too many in the can. But, mashed with a fork and added to puttanesca sauce later in the week, they were amazing.

Caesar Salad (adapted from The Reluctant Gourmet)

1 large egg
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 medium garlic clove, crushed
1 pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/3 cup virgin olive oil
2 medium heads of romaine lettuce -- outer leaves removed
Parmesan cheese
Croutons
White anchovies

Bring a small pot of water to boil, add the egg and cook for 60 seconds. Remove the egg from the water and run under cold water until cool enough to handle.

In a bowl or a food processor, combine the Worcestershire, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper, and mustard. Gently crack open the egg and add to the rest of the ingredients. Whisk or pulse until smooth.

Slowly dribble the oil in a thin stream while whisking the dressing, or pour through the feed tube of the food processor while processing. The dressing should be emulsified.

Tear the romaine into bite-sized pieces and place in a large bowl. Add half of the dressing and toss well. The leaves should be coated but the salad shouldn't be drenched or soggy. If it needs more dressing, add it, otherwise refrigerate leftover dressing and use within 2 days.

Toss in the croutons and top with Parmesan cheese shavings and anchovies.

Serves 4.



Posted on Minxeats.com.