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Vadar's Darkside Towers with Boccalone's Sanguinaccio

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After our field trip to the Ferry Building, in San Francisco, and my shopping spree at Boccalone, I tried to figure out what to do with my sanguinaccio, blood sausage. I have no idea what possessed me to pick up a package; I had Andrew Zimmern's voice in my head, urging me to be a little bit adventurous, I guess. So, I did some reading and loved the suggestion of pairing the blood sausage with something oceany and salty. Boccalone has a recipe for sanguinaccio + oysters on their website. But since oysters are hit and miss for me - sometimes I have an allergic reaction and sometimes I don't - I usually avoid them. I took their lead, however, and went with sanguinaccio + scallops.

My Vadar's Darkside Towers were one of the things I brought to a post-holiday Star Wars brunch.

To start, I poached the sausages for 20 minutes. Then I browned them on the stove until they were crisped on the sides. Then I let them cool slightly and sliced them into thick coins.


To finish off the towers I used a slice of heirloom tomato, a seared scallop, and a fresh sage leaf.


To serve, I seasoned with freshly ground sea salt and freshly ground pepper and sprinkled it with a splash of freshly squeezed calamansi juice. Yum. The earthy blood plus the salty scallop and zingy citrus was perfect.

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