We started with Nancy’s Chopped Salad made by Brian. Salami, cheese, and chickpeas in a salad make it hearty enough that you could eat it as a meal all by itself. The oregano vinaigrette was wonderful, though Brian pointed out that the vinaigrette recipe makes 3x the amount that the chopped salad calls for, so he ended up with a lot of leftover dressing.

For our second course, we had the Bavette Cacio e Pepe which I made. It wasn’t hot anymore by the time I transported it to John’s and we got around to the second course. Some people chose to eat it room temp, others gave it a quick 30 second nuke in the microwave. I tried it both ways and preferred it warm, which brought out the peppery-ness. But whichever way people ate it, everyone said they enjoyed it.

Next we moved on to the Pan-Roasted Pork Chops with Olives and Sambuca-Braised Fennel that Jeff made. This was absolutely fantastic and my favorite dish of the night. I don’t tend to be a huge fan of licorice flavor, but this was sweet and fragrant and meaty deliciousness. Jeff did warn that the fennel takes hours to braise, which made him super late to the party, but we were all so glad he made it!

Our fourth course was Ricotta Gnudi with Chanterelles which Jennifer cooked at the party and served to us hot off the stove! I watched her put a whole stick of butter into the sauce and expected it to be very rich, but the mushrooms and spinach absorbed it pretty well. The gnudi were very light and fluffy, and the dish was delicious with a touch of finishing salt and pepper.

We finished the meal with John’s beef stew. It wasn’t from the cookbook because the post office lost the copy he had ordered, but it was a yummy stew. With potatoes, onions, carrots, and peas, it was a hearty and warming dish for the start of the winter months.

John also made dinner rolls, which were a wonderful soft texture with a touch of sweetness. They were great for sopping up the buttery goodness of the gnudi and the meaty sauce of the stew.

Of course no sit-down dinner is complete without dessert, and never ones to skimp, we had a 3-course dessert. Even though he didn’t have the cookbook John made his tiramisu to align with the Italian theme. It was great, and there was a lot, so I got to take some home. It was even better the next day when all of the flavors had really melded.

Brad made two of the cookies from Mozza’s assorted cookie plate – the first was the Orange Marmalade and Almond Crostate. The crostate were nice and chewy, with great almond flavor and just a little sweetness from the marmalade. Brad said in future he would make them as bars, as doing the layering for each individual cookie was a lot of work.

The other cookie Brad made was the Chocolate and Hazelnut Maltagliati. The maltagliati were crunchy cookies, which aren’t usually my favorite, but I really liked how chocolate-y they were and the whole hazelnuts were great.

Anthony had just come back from San Diego and didn’t have time to make anything from the cookbook, but he had made chocolate cake and white chocolate ice cream, so we let him crash the party. The cake was nice and moist, though not as good as the chocolate cakes he made from Alice’s Tea Cup and Around the Fire. His ice cream, as always, was incredibly creamy, just the way I like it!