Proscuitto San Daniele with Black Pepper Fett'unta and Winesap Apple Marmellata

The Super Bowl is finally over and done with. It was a busy one at the restaurant. Like 1200 pounds of wings busy! And I didn't even count the number of pizzas that we sold. Factor in that there are lots of restaurants in the town, and lots of towns per state and we Americans must have easily took out 3/4 of the entire chicken population all in one night. 

A food holiday like that basically involves a week's worth of prep for four insanely busy hours of work. I've often wondered if people realize just what goes into making their meals come together at their favorite restaurant. Babbo, although they aren't of the chicken wing caliber, must still have their struggles in feeding the huge NYC populace and keeping up with their changing food demands. 

Some of the dishes that Babbo puts out are truly unique works of food art, while others are timeless classics with a twist, kind of like the recipe that is the focus of this post. Mario is in the position to constantly be creative and new to keep relevant while staying true to his style which is rooted in rustic, no frills food. Rustic and no frills couldn't better describe this next recipe. 

The shopping for this post was as easy as was the assembly so I'm going to get right into it. Not much really needs to be cooked for this dish. In a heavy sauce pan I add sugar and water and bring it to a boil. Once boiling I add apples that have been cut into quarter inch half moon slices. Mario recommends using Winesap apples which go perfect for this type of dish, however I had to choose a very close alternative as they were not available yet at my Whole Foods store. 

The apples get cooked for about 10 minutes until slightly tender. While that is cooking I put dry mustard into a small bowl and add just enough water to form a thin paste. I then add mustard oil, black mustard seeds, and salt-and-pepper. 

I add this to the apple mixture and continue cooking it for about another 20 minutes. Then it gets removed from the heat it is allowed to cool. 

Spinach then gets placed in a large salad bowl it is tossed with some fresh lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil and salt and pepper to make a very simple dressed salad. 

Then in a separate bowl I add more extra-virgin olive oil and some freshly cracked black prepper and make my own black pepper oil. 

At this point everything on the dish is completed and it's ready to plate. The prosciutto, which is a variety called San Danielle, gets plated with a mound of the spinach salad, a generous portion of the Apple marmalade, some grilled crusty bread, and a drizzle of the pepper oil. 

This is probably one of the simplest antipasto's that you will find in the cookbook. It would even count as a great alternative upscale finger food snack for your Super Bowl party. Again, quality of ingredients is key but everything in this dish works so well together. I loved it, my wife loved it. She thought that perhaps some sliced Parmesan cheese would be perfect to add to this as well and I agree. But overall you can't go wrong here. 

Valentine's Day is coming up at the end of the week. I have to work at the restaurant so my wife and I are celebrating it on the Monday after. I'm going to try and get another post in but I can't make any promises as I will be doing a good amount of cooking for her, my valentine. Until next time...