Chapter 1: Breaking the rules!
This story begins after an incredibly fun and equally tiring trip to Lake Garda. I arrived back in Siena at around 6:30 on a Sunday after 6 hours of trains with countless transfers. I was so tired on the train rides home that by the end of it I was practically hallucinating; dreaming in broad daylight with my eyes open. Needless to say, I needed something to eat, and I craved comfort food in particular at that moment. So, after I hopped off the train I stopped at the grocery store at the small shopping center on my way back into the city.
I don't often have a plan of what to cook on the way into the grocery store. I usually have a general idea of what I'd like to cook, in this case comfort food, and then I see what ingredients look the best and most fitting for achieving my vague gastronomical goal. When I walked into the door I saw some beautiful oyster mushrooms, on sale! I didn't think twice and they went right into my hands. I was so tired, I forgot to grab a basket at the entrance. Next, I saw guanciale, the delicious bacon-like meet that comes from the pork jowl. This is the main starting ingredient of a good carbonara, and at that moment I decided, with mushrooms already in my hand, that I was going to make a very untraditional carbonara. I had linguine at home, so I grabbed a piece of pecorino romano, a beautiful sheep's milk cheese, and headed towards the eggs. Well, I didn't actually know where the eggs were, so in my terribly butchered Italian, I asked the nearest grocery store employee, "Scusa, signore. Uovos?" That translates directly to, "Excuse me sir, eggs?"
He pointed me towards the egg aisle, which was not refrigerated, because for some reason Italian grocers don't refrigerate eggs or milk. That is where I saw the tiny, speckled eggs labeled "Uovo di Quaglia." I had never heard the Italian term for Quail before, but it seemed close enough, so I knew what I was dealing with. Again, without thinking twice, because I like to take chances with my cooking, I grabbed the quail eggs instead of the chicken eggs, which are the eggs used in a traditional carbonara recipe. Most Italians would have me sent to France and guillotined for this, in fact I heard a good amount of stick from my Italian friends when I showed them what I had done. But for me, it was all worth it.
I made the dish just like a classic carbonara but with a few tricks and spins. Starting by rendering some fat out of the guanciale in a pan, throwing in the mushrooms, next tossing in salt, pepper, and rosemary and letting it cook down. I made an egg custard with three quail eggs, and pecorino romano, and boiled my pasta. When the pasta reached al dente, I tossed it in the pan, and next the quail egg custard. The combination of all these ingredients was everything I could have dreamed of and more. It was carbonara with an added earthy, almost gamey flavor to it. My untraditional, carbonara-like dream came true, and I pronounce this dish "Carbonara alla Quaglia di Reece." Maybe CQR, for short.
Chapter 2: A second encounter
The next Sunday, I was home alone again. I didn't make it out of the apartment until 12:15, because I was sleeping in. When I checked my fridge, I noticed my stocks were low, so I hustled to the grocery store to get there before 1:00, when it closes until the evening. I figured that it was a good day to eat chicken, because I had eaten so much pork during the week. I planned on making stewed chicken with leeks and mushrooms, until I saw my new friend, the quail. Four whole quails at the grocery store were going for under six euros. No brainer, I thought. I won't be stewing half of a chicken tonight, I will gladly replace that with four whole quails. This creation was quite a success, so I'm going to share what I did step by step.
