S I G N A T U R E D I S H E S
Photos by C. Whitney-Ward
Brian Rood, Executive Chef at Tomme, a wonderful downtown bistro, invited me into his kitchen to see how he made - MORCILLA or Blood Sausage - a signature dish on the Tomme menu that his grandmother taught him to make. According to Brian, there are lots of variations and recipes for this ancient dish - which dates from the first century A.D.. - but he likes to keep it simple - pork shoulder, Spanish sweet paprika, bay leaf, salt and pepper, and a bit of ground oats for a binder.
The seasoned meat is freshly ground in a commercial Cuisinart and then mixed with pork blood - hence the name.
Brian has to special order the casings - not something readily available in Santa Fe - and when the pork mixture is ready, he feeds it through the Cuisinart and the casings balloon and are twisted and looped into links. Looks easy, but I think it takes a bit of practice and a master hand to pull it off.
The sausages are then poached and chilled. When an order comes up, they are quickly seared with rosemary...
A wedge of bread is cooked in garlic and thyme...
an egg cooked sunny-side up...
Plated with some cannelloni bean puree and a bit of greens, the finished dish is worthy of the ancient Greek poet Homer, who penned a few passages in the Odyssey about roasting blood sausage over a roaring fire.
Thanks Brian and kitchen mates - Lisa Graff and Gabe Archuletta. I'm amazed that something as simple as sausage and eggs can take hours to make from scratch and 3 skillets to pull it off!
T O M M E
(pronounced TUM)
229 Galisteo St. - Santa Fe, NM
(505) 825-2253
