In Mississippi, Southern Italian Food Takes on a Whole New Meaning
Though I've had more than my fair share of oysters Mosca and chicken grande at Mosca's, the justifiably famous Creole Italian restaurant just outside New Orleans, I'd never really thought of the American South as having much in the way of an Italian restaurant tradition. But in the last two days I've eaten two terrific and totally different Italian meals in Mississippi that were each in their own way absolutely true to themselves and the towns they are situated in.
L&M's Kitchen and Salumeria is the brainchild of Dan Latham, a native Mississippian and Ole Miss and French Culinary Institute grad who cooked and made salumi at Otto, Babbo, and Pó, Mario Batali's restaurants in New York City's Greenwich Village.
Latham opened L&M in a simple, pretty space on Oxford's historic town square in 2004. The namesake salumi are extraordinary, every bit as good if not better than the fine salumi still being made at Otto or Salumi, Armandino Batali's postage stamp-sized sandwich shop in Seattle. The hot and sweet salamis and the guanciale, cured pork jowl, were all perfectly seasoned, marvelously porky, and had a lovely meat-to-fat ratio. They're all made from local Tamworth pigs raised by a farmer named Stan. The grilled flank steak with charred local chilies and chile oil was very tasty but could have used a better sear and crust. Lafayette County tomatoes served with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and basil pesto were sweet and juicy. For dessert, we ordered the herbed homemade ricotta cheese brushed with local honey spread on toasted bread, an appropriate and truly southern Italian end to a fine meal in the South.
