parmesan Archives - Queen of the Food Age

Wild Olive

April 5, 2013

So, I’ve mentioned before that Wild Olive is my mom’s favorite restaurant in Charleston (and possibly all of South Carolina), but I’ve never actually taken the time to write it up before. Since I had the pleasure of dining there a couple weeks back, I made sure to take lots of photos to put on this blog. Looking back at the photos, the’yre pretty terrible (low light + cell phone camera = crappy pictures), so I’ll just have to woo you over with my words (and pictures I find on Google). Here’s an interior shot I took before the sun set.

And this is one of the better ones.

I’ve been with my mom a couple of times. She absolutely loves the “marinated warm olives,” so we always end up ordering those.

This picture comes from the Wild Olive website and makes me really wish I liked olives.

I love the “house cured salumi with mozzarella, caponata, chicken liver rustica crostini” appetizer because it is delicious. I know a lot of people see “chicken liver” and get grossed out, but trust me. It is so freaking good. I also love the fresh mozzarella, but let’s face it, I am a sucker for fresh mozzarella. Plus, salami/salumi is delicious, and they give you a bunch of different kinds of salami on a platter, so how can you go wrong with that?

As you can see, I took this from the Wild Olive website. I wish my pictures looked this fly.

I also really love the arancini balls there, or as they’re listed on the menu, “suppli al telefono risotto fritters stuffed with sausage, spinach, parmesan, mozzarella.” So delicious. They’re not big like the ones they make in Boston, but they’re still really yummy. When you bite/cut into them they’re hot, cheesy, and really delicious.

Also, I am always a huge fan of anything deep fried and stuffed with cheese.

The most recent time I went with my new friend Regina, we started with the beef carpaccio (beef carpaccio with parmesan, horseradish aioli, melba toast, arugula, Sicilian sea salt). It’s basically like a beef salami and I really loved it. I think the sea salt and horseradish aioli added a nice element to the dish as a whole. The consistency kind of threw me off a little bit, because it’s very soft. I’m glad they gave me the crostini to balance it out.

As you can see, I took a piece from the middle of the plate before I remembered to take the picture.

We also got the bruschetta which is different than normal bruschetta as it came topped with rapini, purple cape beans, chile flake, garlic, and pecorino sardo. I think they change it out seasonally, because I’ve seen different pictures online. It was kind of weird eating bread with beans on it, but I think I really liked it. They did a really good job of balancing the flavors of each ingredient.

I’ll have an entire salad on my bread, please. Thanks!

I usually try to be adventurous, so I was intrigued by the “squid ink linguine with local shrimp, tomato, garlic, fresh spicy red chile, basil.” However, I’m not crazy about shrimp pasta, but I really wanted to be able to say that I’ve had squid ink pasta before. I asked the waiter how it was and he said “It’s good, but it basically tastes like seafood pasta. If you don’t like fishy tasting food, don’t get it.” So. Instead I was lame and basic and opted for the chicken parmesan. I know, I know. But it’s SO GOOD. It comes with “potato alfredo, marinara, mozzarella, arugula,” and it is SO good.

This picture I grabbed from Charleston Crafted

Last time we went, my mom got the “Grilled Stevenson Place Farms grass-fed steak with smashed fried and truffled Yukon gold potatoes,” but she doesn’t love truffle oil, so instead she replaced the potatoes with an order of potato gnocchi in marinara sauce. As I recall, she loved it.

Even though that steak is the size of her whole head.

Regina and I also got dessert, because apparently she considers herself something of a tiramisu connoisseur. Luckily for me, she was nice enough to share it with me, and let me say. Wow. That tiramisu is damn good.

This picture I grabbed from Urbanspoon.

I’ve always had a really positive experience every time I’ve gone to Wild Olive. From the food, to the ambience, to the service, to the wine, it’s always a good time. It’s definitely worth driving out to John’s Island!

Ok. Time for my lunch break.

Wild Olive
2867 Maybank Highway
John’s Island S.C. 29455
(843) 737-4177

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Recipes

Italian Macaroni and Cheese

February 21, 2012

So, if you read my blog or know anything about me, you know that I have a weakness for macaroni and cheese. Macaroni and Cheese is my kryptonite… no matter how well I’m doing on a diet, I can’t ever seem to resist some cheesy mac. I guess if I’m being honest, I love anything with copious amounts of melted cheese on it–grilled cheese, fettucini alfredo, lasagna, queso dip, etc. I read somewhere once in a marketing textbook (or maybe I dreamed it…it’s really hard to say), that people are 70% more likely to buy something if it’s illustrated with a picture of melted cheese (I know I’m guilty of this, so we’ll call it science).

Recently my mom posted a video on my wall of some italian guy named Fabio making italian macaroni and cheese, and even though I’d decided that morning I was going to start dieting, I knew that if I didn’t make that recipe soon, I’d be dreaming about Mac n Cheese for the next few weeks. So, of course, I went out that afternoon and bought all of the ingredients I needed for my cheese extravaganza.

I edited the recipe a bit from Fabio’s recommendations, partly because I couldn’t find fontina cheese, and partly because it is impossible for me to exactly follow directions of any kind. So below is my edited recipe from Fabio’s Italian Macaroni and Cheese.

Ingredients:

1 lb. dry elbow macaroni
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
8 ounces shredded smoked gouda cheese ( just got a round from Bi-Lo and shredded the entire thing)
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese (or gorgonzola)
1.5 cups heavy cream
12 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 cups panko breadcrumbs
1 bunch fresh parsley
1 lemon, zested
Salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Instructions:

Put the heavy cream and all the cheeses into a metal mixing bowl.
Add cracked pepper and pinch of salt to cream and cheese.
Put the bowl on top of a pot of boiling water on medium high and stir until the cheese is melted, set it aside.
Cook pasta in the pot of boiling water until al dente.
Drain the pasta and set aside.
Saute the minced garlic in olive oil over medium heat until soft.
Remove garlic and mix with pasta.
Mix in the cheese sauce, and put in the pot and heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. At this point, if you didn’t want to bake the macaroni, you could eat it right now. It tasted great and would’ve made a great creamy macaroni and cheese. I kind of wish I’d set some aside to compare the difference in taste.
While the sauce is heating, put the breadcrumbs, parsley and lemon zest in a food processor and pulse until well combined.
Place Mac and cheese in an oven safe container and top with bread crumb mixture and bake at 400F for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. I made the mistake of leaving the macaroni in too long. The original recipe said 15-20 minutes, and I left it in for 17, and my finished result was not as creamy as I’d wanted it to be. I think it would have been much better had I not left it in as long.
Also, I topped it with some more cheese, which I would advise against doing, since the cheese will burn before everything else is finished cooking. If you do want to top it with some cheese, do it like 2 minutes before you plan to take it out, that will it will be melty and delicious, and not burnt.

: aaaand there goes my diet again.

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