unpeeled tomatoes
this is how things go left
Yesterday was hell. I attempted to make Giadzy’s “Roman-Style Chicken.” That alone should settle the score. But then, I’m officially in the grandmother phase of my life arc, along with my husband, who’s two years older, both of us in our 60s when we start talking about our ailments, the weather, and stupid, inconsequential shit that drives the 30-and-under set out of the room for some Chipotle.
Stupid shit could start major arguments at our age.
Ed started in with me, in that polite Libra manner, earlier in the week about whether he should order peeled or unpeeled Datterini tomatoes from Giada de Laurentiis’s Giadzy online shop.
I didn’t think it mattered. Hence, the “started in with me” part of our initially innocent conversation. But then Ed kept asking which was better for the recipe, which told me it mattered a great deal to him. At some point, he let slip that he preferred in general peeled and that Giadzy offered both, to further confuse us (I have a Libra in my Venus).
Now he tells me?!
After going back and forth, and me trying not to lose my cool and obsess for days about it, we decided to order peeled, since it was offered.
The day of the recipe arrives (yesterday) and the topic comes up again, because I asked him to order the peeled Datterini tomatoes on Sunday, he ordered it on Monday, and it’s too late, since shipments take a week.
I’d originally planned to make this dish a few months ago, had all the major components, including Datterini tomatoes (can’t remember if they were peeled or unpeeled) and polenta imported from Italy, with just a few more to purchase, when Ed’s stomach started acting up whenever he ate spicy or tomato-y.
I made the executive decision to scrap the recipe until he found out what was bugging him and he felt better, which leads us to yesterday.
The problem is, I didn’t have any Datterini tomatoes left, peeled or unpeeled. I’d ordered two on Amazon, but one of them came dented and Giadzy on Amazon doesn’t accept returns. I used the other can for focaccia pizza, and that was that, until after the fact yesterday when I realized:
I’d ordered the Datterini tomatoes too late, and
the Pomodorini tomatoes I did have from Giadzy were unpeeled.
Here we go again…
After a blessedly short rigamarole about the benefits of peeled and unpeeled (“But you were okay with the spaghetti sauce we made the other week with the unpeeled Pomodorini tomatoes, right?”), and Ed saying it would probably be okay, I went ahead with making the “Roman-Style Chicken” dish, with some slight changes.
I never knew my husband had issues with the hard (to him) skin in spaghetti sauce all this time or why anyone would. But then he prefers to eat very very unripe bananas, not a spot on them.
The Roman-Style Chicken turned out great, especially with the creamy polenta I had my husband help me with.
Speaking of skin…
Initially, I second-guessed whether I should keep the skins on the chicken for flavor and for easy browning. Second-guessing turned into worry when the skinless (except for one thigh) *chicken took forever to brown before setting them aside.
Then, the final dish looked like cadaver floating in dishwater, nothing like the luscious picture over at Giadzy. Maybe the chicken took long. Maybe I shouldn’t have crowded the Dutch Oven (oops, not skillet) with all six pieces…
But the flavor was there and the chicken was still tender.
Next time, I’m keeping the chicken with the skin on — and using peeled Datterini tomatoes.
*I took off most of the skin and fried them to render chicken fat for use later.
