Eat Drink Sing #3: Ten Mercer/Attila

Seattle Opera offered a challenge to five top chefs at local restaurants: create an appetizer and cocktail inspired by one of this season’s operas. We’ll be posting recipes for the creative, mouthwatering pairings they invented all week long. So blast your favorite opera recording on your sound system and get cooking!

Attila Recipes created by Ten Mercer
Chef Doug Wilson
10 Mercer Street
206.691.3723

Ten Mercer opened in December of 2000 in the historic MarQueen garage at Number 10 Mercer Street and is proud to support Seattle Opera and the Greater Seattle arts community. Ten Mercer offers a full bar, dynamic wine list, and Chef Doug Wilson’s flavorful and carefully presented cuisine before and after performances.

Full menu 4:30 pm to midnight, 7 nights a week; cocktails until 2:00 am. Happy Hours Sunday through Thursday 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm and 10:00 pm to midnight in the bar.

Doug Wilson

Appetizer: Pancetta Wrapped Pork Tenderloin Skewers with Frisée Salad
Serves 1

3 oz pork tenderloin
4 dried apricots
2 slices pancetta
Frisée salad greens
1 tbs sour cream
½ tsp Hungarian paprika
½ tsp chopped parsley
½ tsp ground caraway seed
Pinch salt

Slice pork tenderloin into 2 pieces. Cut apricots in half and place on either side of pork tenderloin. Wrap the pancetta around the pork, sealing the apricots inside. Skewer the pancetta in place. Fry the skewers in oil until done (about 3 minutes). Mix the sour cream, paprika, parsley, caraway, and salt. Toss with frisée salad greens. Place greens on plate and top with skewers.

John Relyea will star as Attila in Seattle Opera's 2012 production

Cocktail: The Avenger
Ten Mercer created this cocktail to invoke the spirit of Verdi’s Attila, mixing the heady Hungarian spirit Zwack with the complex and romantic Chinato from Italy’s Piedmont, and tied together by the intense botanicals of Tanqueray Ten gin.

1 oz Zwack Hungarian herbal liqueur
1 oz Cocchi Barolo Chinato
½ oz Tanqueray Ten Gin
Pour into mixing glass full of ice and stir until well mixed. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with an orange twist.  

Photo by Achilles Marcus Gonzalez

Seattle Opera's EAT-DRINK-SING Recipes are also featured in the company's 2011/12 Souvenir Book, a glorious treasure-trove of information about the company, the operas we'll be presenting this season, and the art form of opera. Subscribers receive their complimentary copy of the Souvenir Book beginning in July 2011; CLICK HERE for subscription information.