We’re all about rhubarb this season: from Pressed Juicery’s brightly-hued seasonal juice to Curtis Stone’s insanely simple tart, to these rhubarb-spiked cocktails by Art In the Age, we take our rhubarb in all forms! Lucky for us, one of our favorite San Francisco restos 1760 has just the concoction to satisfy our both our sweet tooth and our tart-loving tastebuds…
While we love 1760’s warm and welcoming urban atmosphere, we’re most impressed with the pride this team takes in putting ingredients front and center, using only the finest and freshest available to create their inventive cuisine. This rhubarb recipe from 1760 Pastry Chef Riccardo Menicucci – an intermezzo with yogurt and vanilla ice cream, rhubarb compote and strawberry granita – will give you a feel for this ingredient-driven hotspot at home. Try for yourself or cheat a little and make a reservation…
INTERMEZZO – yogurt ice cream, rhubarb compote + strawberry granita
from Pastry Chef Riccardo Menicucci
Ingredients
For rhubarb compote:
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 ea zested lemons
1 1/4 ruby port
15 ea rhubarb cut 2 inch
1 Tbsp salt
For strawberry granita:
2 ea lemon peel
3/4 cup sugar
2 lbs strawberries
2/3 tsp citric acid or lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
For yogurt & vanilla gelato:
4 cups regular milk
2 cups Greek yogurt
7 ea vanilla beans
2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp ice cream stabilizer
For garnish:
basil leaves
Directions
For rhubarb compote:
In a saucepan combine the water, sugar and lemon zest and bring to boil. Add rhubarb and cook for 5 minutes. Add port and simmer for 20 minutes. Finish with a tablespoon of salt and let it cool down.
For strawberry granita:
In a hotel pan take strawberries and sprinkle sugar and lemon peel on top. Cover with foil and roast in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes.
Take off the lemon peel and load into a Vitamix and blend everything until smooth. Add citric acid and salt.
Freeze and scrape with a fork when it is frozen.
*If you have a sugar/brix refractometer you can check the percentage of the sugar, for an amazing and fluffy granita you need 16 brix.
For yogurt & vanilla gelato:
In a saucepan combine milk and vanilla beans opened, bring to a simmer and turn off the burner.
In a bowl, mix the sugar and ice cream stabilizer well, help yourself by using a whisk. Add the milk and while you are whisking, bring the liquid to 179.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cool down in an ice bath or in the fridge, and when the liquid is around 77-80 degrees Fahrenheit add the yogurt and mix really well with a whisk.
Spin with ice-cream machine.
To plate:
In a pasta bowl, add 2 or 3 spoons of rhubarb compoté – help yourself with a pasta cutter, and make a nice disk 3 inches wide and 1/2 inch tall.
Add four spoons of your fluffy granita, just enough to completely cover the rhubarb disk. Top off your “little granita hill” with your yogurt gelato (use a wet spoon for best results).
Finish your dish with 3 or 4 basil leaves (I personally prefer Thai basil for this dish).
Important trick: Put your pasta bowl in the freezer 15 minutes before you plate it! With a frozen bowl it is going to be easier plate your intermezzo, and your granita is not going to melt as soon as you put it on the bowl.
