Here’s our basic plan step by step
Step 1. Find a place to stay. San Francisco has thousands of hotels. Everything from luxury rooms in touristy areas to motor inns in neighborhoods. What they don’t have is much in the way of parking. When you go online and get a killer deal you will most likely arrive to find that you’ll be charged $40 a night to park your car. On a recent trip we opted to stay at the Pacific Heights Inn which offered free parking, a reliable recommendation and a fairly decent rate by San Francisco standards. PHI is located in the Marina/Cow Hollow district of the city which has a nice selection of restaurants, bars and shops. It is a neighborhood full of young hip families. A nice respite from the tourist/homeless crowds found in Union Square. What PHI doesn’t offer is a swanky room that makes you want to hang out instead of hitting the streets to either shop, eat or drink.
Step 2.Make dinner reservations. San Francisco has dozens of great restaurants. If you want to dine at a restaurant of note be sure to make reservations well in advance. We read restaurant reviews and scan online menus for days trying to decide where to eat.
Step 3.Ditch work early enough on Friday to get to the city in time to check-in to a hotel (or in our case a motel), grab a cocktail and make a 7:30 dinner reservation. At night we leave the car and take taxis to and from our chosen restaurant. This eliminates the need to fight traffic, find parking and designate a driver. You can get almost anywhere in the city for less than $20 each way.
Step 4. Go to Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building on Saturday morning…and go hungry! On a recent trip we headed to the market at a bit after 8, spent a few minutes shopping before we came upon the Roli Roti rotisserie truck.
One whiff of their porchetta sizzling on the rotisserie and we were hooked. Porchetta is rolled pork loin filled with a rosemary/lemon herb mix. Grilled on the rotisserie for 4 hours until crispy brown on the outside then sliced and placed on a fresh baked Acme Bread Company deli roll with a smear of onion marmalade and whatever greens are available (curly grass, baby arugula, baby Italian parsley) DELICIOUS!!! The other amazing thing they do is roast potatoes in the bottom of the rotisserie in all of the drippings from the racks of chickens they have roasting. So we split a sandwich and a side order of roasted potatoes and thought we’d died and gone to heaven. Of course it didn’t hurt that we had the good fortune of being in the city on a clear February morning where the temperature reach an amazing 75 degrees that day.
Next stop, Boccalone. We’ve written about their Tasty Salted Pig Parts in the past. Well somehow in the past we missed Nduja, a spicy spreadable salami. Wow! That right there is reason enough for us to get in the car and head north. It can be spread on a cracker, used to enhance sauces and surely other yet to be discovered uses.
I could go on about the joys of Farmer’s Market but those are the standouts from this particular trip. If you enjoy food, this market is a must do if you find yourself in San Francisco on a Saturday morning. And don’t forget your ice chest!
Step 5. Plan a trip to the Mission district if you are into Latin foods. I go for the empanada skins at Casa Lucas on 24th street. There’s a self-serve Mexican bakery just across the street which netted Juan a big bag of fresh baked cookies.
Between the amazing restaurants, Farmer’s Market and the Mission district you can’t help but return home with a new outlook on working in your kitchen (once you recover from the full feeling you’re bound to leave the city with).
I was recently given a set of pasta attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer. Devon and I put it to work and paired it with our new buddy Nduja. This one’s a keeper!
Pasta with Nduja and Roasted Tomato Sauce
Adapted from The Zuni Café Cookbook
1 pound pasta (we used fresh fettuccine)
2 cans whole tomatoes, drained, juice reserved
½ cup olive oil
1 yellow onion sliced
6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 bay leaf
Salt
Sugar (if needed)
½ Nduja salami
½ cup grated pecorino romano cheese
Cut tomatoes in half and place cut side down into a shallow roasting pan in one crowded layer. Add enough of the reserved tomato juice to come to a depth of ¼ inch. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and broil until tops are charred.
Sautee onions in 3 tablespoons olive oil until they begin to color then stir in the garlic, pepper, and bay leaf. Add warm tomatoes and a few more tablespoons of olive oil. Add the salami and simmer long enough to combine the elements. Season with salt and sugar if necessary.
Drain cooked pasta and fold into the tomato sauce. Serve sprinkled with grated pecorino romano to taste.
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