Easter Dinner: A Mediterranean Feast!

Darlings! Did you have a lovely holiday? Whatever holiday you celebrate, even if it's just the coming of Spring, many people had family dinners last week and celebrated with food. La Diva was no exception and made a scrumptious spring dinner for her fave fan, DJ Nevah L8 (for dinnah!)

As you know, La Diva loves her lamb so this holiday dinner was going to focus on Mediterranean flavors as well as utilizing what was in my farm share. If you didn't like garlic, darlings, this was NOT the place for you! Last week's farm share included some lovely white beets, which I thought would fit in nicely with the theme of the meal.

Now, let's get something straight here and now: LA DIVA LOATHES BEETS! I find them to be very earthy, almost muddy in flavor as well as messy. They've never been a favorite of mine and I begrudgingly thought I might use them JUST THIS TIME instead of giving them away. However, seeing as the carrots from my share were so sweet, I figured that farm fresh beets might be too. Perhaps if I roasted them to draw out their natural sugar, I'd manage to like them a bit more? I was willing to give the ol' beets another chance.

Well, darlings, I'm SO GLAD I DID! First course for dinner was a ROASTED WHITE BEET SALAD with Greek feta, toasted pine nuts, baby arugula, balsamic and a quality green fruity olive oil dressing. The beets were super tasty and sweetened even more when they caramelized from the roasting, just as I had imagined. The creamy, pungent cheese and the crunch of the nuts combined with the peppery arugula to create a very MORE-ISH salad and an excellent starter!

Click on the photo, darlings, you'll wish you could eat it!

But now what to do with the beet greens? Funny enough, I had just watched an episode of Gourmet magazine's "Diary of a Foodie" with the topic being "Farm to Fork." What a coincidence that they actually featured a main dish with beet greens! I gave it a shot and it turned out delicious! I loved the combo of the briny olives, the sweetness of the raisins, crunch of the pine nuts and the beet greens were flavorful without any bitterness! You can get the recipe here: Pasta with Beet Greens. The result was divine, so much flavor in the dish and what a great way to use part of a vegetable that many people would throw away!

Click and you can almost taste the lamb!

I served the beet green pasta with grilled double lamb chops that I had marinated with preserved lemon and garlic. On top is a lovely pistachio mint pesto (click here for recipe, just substitute mint for the cilantro!) and a side of braised green beans with tomatoes and garlic! What a DIVALICIOUS holiday dinner! Rich and full of gusto, this meal's flavors are typically Mediterranean and takes one's tastebuds to the Greek Isles! OPA!cooking class, cocktails, parties, cocktail party, Miami, coral gables, events, bartending class, cocktail class, Laura Lafata, Miami Beach, miami cooking classes, bachelorette parties, bachelorette party