On a recent trip to Yuma, Arizona, I met a wonderful woman named Caroline. She has a date farm and strong ties to the University where I work. While at dinner, I told her that I stopped en route at the world famous Dateland while driving to Yuma from Tucson. "You like dates?" she asked. "I love dates!" I effused! "Well, I am going to send you some..." I told her she was a saint and canonized her on the spot! She asked what I would do with them and I told her the usual: date bars, fruitcakes, sticky toffee pudding and so on. It wasn't until I mentioned pasta with bacon and dates that she raised an eyebrow... She then shared her nephew's recipe for peppers stuffed with dates an chorizo sausage. She is always looking for unique preparations that include dates.
Dateland: just what is it? Dateland is a piece of history - a rest stop between Tucson and Yuma, but seen mostly by folks heading to San Diego. It has a gas station, a little gift shop, some military history and, now, an elementary school. The article I read online (linked above) neglects to mention one reason it is well known: the restaurant/rest stop serves date shakes. Talk about a milkshake that has great fiber! So, on this most recent trip I stopped in for my first date shake. I am not sure what I expected, buy 'cloying' was one assumption. Oddly, it was neither cloying nor too sweet, and it had an almost vegetable overtone as I sucked it down. So I, too, have become one of the converted masses; I love date shakes!
A little more than a week after my visit with her, one of the front desk staff at
The Honors College came to my office with large package weighing in at about 5.5 pounds. A box of jumbo medjool dates from Caroline!
I opened them immediately and tasted one - sublime! I don't think I have ever had such a fresh date in my entire life! The sweetness almost tickled the inside of my mouth, its taste earthy and dense, and it had a texture like caramel. When growing up in the 1960s, a date tasted nothing like this. Dates came in boxes, pre-diced, dried and condensed into a brick. Our job was to break the sticky mass apart to use them in Mom's oatmeal cookies (so much better than raisins...).
Once out on my own, I found an open bin of dates in the Wegman's supermarket in Rochester, New York. They were significantly dried out from too much fresh air, but I bought them anyway and they were 100% better than the boxed variety. I started stuffing them with cheeses (blue cheeses, goat cheese and Parmigiano-Reggiano) to serve as easy appetizers (just like every normal college kid, right?). My college friends and I discovered how well these stuffed wonders went with a tawny port after concerts in my room. (Again, that normal college life...)
And that was pretty much my concept of dates in my life until Serena at the UA Foundation office made some date nut bars that were so good that I requested the recipe. She told me that her secret was some really fresh dates that she had picked up in Dateland.
These are the best dates I have ever had. Ever. I fear they will be gone soon and I will never taste another this fresh. But, happily, the box has all the information I need to reorder.
The Bard Date Company can be reached by e-mail, phone and online - and of course via the U.S. Postal Service! Life will not end as I finish this box.
So - the "double date." Today, I have made both the date nut bars and the pasta with bacon and dates. I will be enjoying them both tonight while Mark is back East visiting his mother. So strange to have a Date Night without him here!
- David
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped dates*
2 cups chopped pecans
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
confectioners' sugar
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dates and pecans and then, using your fingers, break up the clusters of dates and coat with the flour/sugar/nut mixture to separate the pieces. Add the eggs, butter and vanilla; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will be very stiff).
Press into a greased 10-inch by 15-inch sheet pan. Bake at 350ºF for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool bars on a wire rack. Dust with confectioners' sugar and cut onto 1-inch by 2-inch pieces. Makes about 5 dozen (very rich) bars.
* When chopping the dates, it helps to oil the knife
to keep them from sticking
Bacon, Date and Fennel Pasta
This pasta dish is what my friend Bunny would call "
Inspiration du Jour," which basically means a reconnaissance mission into the fridge to see what is there. I had bacon. leftover fennel, these lovely dates and...
voilà! A new dish is born. The dates almost break down and combine with the liquids to make a sweet and smoky cream sauce.
8 ounces short pasta, such as gemelli
4 slices applewood smoked bacon
1 large onion, slices in slivers
1 large fennel bulb, sliced in slivers
3-4 large dates, pitted and diced
½ cup white wine
½ cup cream
pasta water
Manchego cheese, for serving
parsley, for serving
In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until it starts to brown and has rendered some fat. Add sliced onions and fennel and sauté over medium heat until onions begin to brown - about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in salted water, cook pasta until al dente.
Add the dates to the bacon/onion/fennel mixture along with the white wine. Separate the diced dates using the liquid form the wine to keep them apart. If necessary, add some pasta water if wine evaporates too quickly. Add cream and simmer until sauce is thick. Drain pasta and add to the skillet with more pasta water as needed to get the sauce to your preferred consistency.
Serve hot with thin slivers of Manchego cheese and parsley.
Labels: bacon, bars, dates, medjool dates, pasta, pecans
