Aroma Cucina

A strega without her broom.

A strega is a witch and I’m feeling like a strega without a broom.  No, I'm not talking about cleaning; I’m talking about not having my familiars about, my spices, herbs, oils, vinegars, my tools of the kitchen trade.

Coming back to NYC, to an empty kitchen is one thing. But as I go around the kitchen seeing what I need to start cooking again, I’m realizing what a disconnect the average US person has from their food supply. I’ve gotten used to getting my eggs from Bruce’s obliging chickens, I reach for chili peppers that I grew and dried, I have jars of summer produce and I know I shared the same hot summer sun as that basil, buying cheese isn’t a plastic shrink wrapped affair, it’s a trip to the cheese maker, which involves have a long chat about life and only then do I get the carefully wrapped piece of cheese.  It sounds so romantic and nostalgic, but that’s because how many of us feed and clean out a chicken house, or get up pre-dawn to milk sheep? Romance is more fun that reality which is why we make love in the dark. The older you get, the darker the room…but I digress.

 

Romanticism aside, I was physically connected to my food and now I’m in the city buying food that I don’t know anything about it. According to the last US Census in 2000, 80% of us live in urban areas. Since you are reading this, it’s safe to assume you care about food and know what time of year tomatoes are at their peak. It’s also a reasonable bet that you are in the minority. After a screening of the film, Food Inc., at the New School, there was an excellent discussion panel led by Jill Richardson, and she told of talking to people who literally thought that spaghetti was a plant, or that pumpkins grew on trees. Sounds ridiculous, but what if you never had any opportunity or reason to know better? It’s like having street smarts: I don’t walk around with my handbag open or put it on the back of my restaurant chair, but that nice lady from a small town in Iowa who is an instant target for an urban pickpocket, how should she know better?  Tomatoes are always in the supermarket, apples are always in the supermarket, and cherries appear at Christmas time, how would someone know the season for these fruits?

 

Food Inc. is a cornerstone film in the way that Inconvenient Truth was. It’s a wake up call to everyone that we need to look at what’s going on with our food sources and the culture of eating. The film attempts to highlight many of the key areas of concern: industrialized meat operations, consolidation of crops, exploitation of workers, obesity, fuel and water consumption, cheap junk food versus expensive healthy food, the implications of patenting seeds, etc. etc. etc. etc. But, the part that struck home for me was the family that ate dinner together….in their car, after getting a drive through hamburger meal.  The mother’s reason was long working hours so cooking was impossible and it was cheaper.  She also had been under the impression that a drive-thru burger meal was healthy.  The camera then follows them into a supermarket where we see that chips and soda are much cheaper than some broccoli.

 

My heart broke.  I think the family may have been Mexican-American, so somewhere in that mother’s history is a long and beautiful culinary tradition. Where did it go? How did it get lost? What happened that we are so disconnected from our food? What legacy will she give to her daughters?

 

After the film and the panel discussion with Peter Pringle, Bryan Walsh and Marion Nestle,  there was Q&A time and one audience member made a staggering point: food memories are a very strong touchstone. If the times you remember eating as a family are shared at a McDonalds, then the smell of McDonalds will always be warm and fuzzy and comforting.

 

There is no magic bullet cure, we are talking about a systemic multi-generational disconnect from our food, loss of cooking skills and the benefits of dining together.

The film cobbled together some band-aid slogans as a tagline to make us all feel better: Eat organic. Plant a garden. Etc.

These are noble sentiments, not a guide to a return to respecting our food.

 

The last audience member asked a simple question of the panel, “What can I do?”  And a very wise Marion Nestle replied, “Pick one cause.” She’s right; no one person can provide us with solutions. Stonyfield's Organic Yogurt is now available at Wal-Mart; that was Gary Hirschberg’s small step towards bringing a good product to many.

My battle? Bringing people back together to the dining room table and letting people know that cooking isn’t so hard.

 

See the film. Make some choices of your own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

City Life

I've traded in my garden clippers and my canning pot for some heels and a cocktail! Although a Manhattan may have been more appropriate, we decided to celebrate our re-entry into city life with a Champs Elysee.

1.5 oz Cognac

.5 oz green Chartreuse

.25 oz lemon juice

1/8 oz simple syrup & 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake Stir Shoes Optional

Goodbye Country Life!

The orto is ready for its long winter nap, we're taking in the flowers, closing the shutters and getting 
ready to see friends and family in the States.

I've bottled the last of the green tomatoes, eaten the last of the goose eggs, and actually...there is no food left in the house, so it must be time to go. We're always sad as we leave, I hate the good-bye season, but I'm very much looking forward to the hello season!

Ciao and see you Stateside!

Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Truffles

While summer vegetables get all the gushing praise and glossy photos, what of the lowly winter vegetables? To me, they are every bit as wonderful: all the root vegetables, leeks, cardoons, artichokes, bitter greens, they all lend themselves to hearty preparations.

And now is the season of the cauliflower in all its glory. We love it roasted, sauteed, braised, creamy and in a soup.  Here's a simple cauliflower soup that gets a boost of elegance from truffles.

1 medium head of cauliflower

3-4 cups of good chicken stock

1/2 medium sliced onion

3-4 T heavy cream

Combine the roughly chopped cauliflower with the stock and onion and boil until tender. Season to taste with salt, puree until smooth, adding just enough cream to bring everything together, finish with a swirl of truffle oil. See, told you it was easy.

Le Logge Ristorante, Citta di Castello

La Logge is tucked away in the atrium building off the main piazza in Citta di Castello, and they have quietly been developing a fine restaurant. We’ve gone a number of times now and have impressed with their creative menu, execution, presentation and obvious love of what they do. 

The three young proprietors have created a chic, modern and inviting space housed inside a gracious vaulted ceiling dining room. Now that the cold weather is upon us, a very warm crackling fire welcomes the hungry diner.   The wine list is a careful selection of Umrian wines and a few choice regional Italian wines. And by choice, I don’t just mean expensive, I mean they are good choices.

Recently the fall menu included a number of white tartufo selections, and even though this is not a good truffle year in Umbria, their truffles were pungent and delicious. Memories of their steak covered in white truffles will sustain me through a long truffle-less winter in New York. And just for the record, a salad with truffles isn't bad either!

Last Saturday night was the one year anniversary party for Le Logge and we were happy to be there as the good food, good wine and good cheer flowed. Photos of everyone gnawing away at  fabulous bistecca will be kept private!

So, to Arlind, Natascia and Michele: Auguri!! Complimenti! E ci vediamo nella primavera!

Le Logge Ristorante

Piazza Matteotti (Logge Bufalini)

Citta di Castello, PG

Tel: 075-864-2304

info@ristorantelelogge.com

Sautéed Cavatelli with Radicchio

 

Our friend Toni recently gifted me with 4 goose eggs which she assured me were great for making fresh pasta. Is it just my imagination or do people just get a kick of giving me large quantities of challenging ingredients? I’m not complaining I’m just wondering out loud.

 

Goose eggs are HUGE. It has the most gratifying heft in your hand, thick sandstone colored shell; gigantic bright orange yolk and water clear white. An average chicken egg’s contents weighs about 45-50 grams, a goose egg weighs in at around 125 grams.  Doing a rough comparison, goose eggs are higher in calories, protein and cholesterol. It is the protein part that intrigues me because the pasta dough had a much drier and slicker hand feel than chicken egg pasta. I opted to make cavatelli, which in retrospect was a good choice, because I think goose egg pasta lends itself to a chunkier, heavier style pasta.   I used a traditional 2:1 ratio of flour to egg, and actually had to cut back a bit on the flour because the dough was becoming too stiff and dry.

 

The fun part was the ‘sauce’, not really a sauce but more of a condiment.

 Radicchio Guanciale Gorgonzola Sauce

1 radicchio head, thinly sliced

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

¼ cup guanciale, pancetta or bacon

1//4 cup fresh walnuts, roughly chopped

3 T Gorgonzola dolce, the soft kind

Balsamic Vinegar

Salt, Pepper

 

 

 
About 4 minutes before your pasta is done, start the sauce.

Sauté the pancetta, then add the onion and finally the radicchio. Use a sauté pan big enough to hold the drained, cooked pasta.  Sauté the vegetables until everything is tender and wilted.

When the pasta is done, drain and add to the sauté pan and cook until slightly browned. Toss in the walnuts. Adjust for salt and pepper. 

Plate the pasta and add a nugget of Gorgonzola in the center, sprinkle on a bit of good balsamic vinegar. Eat.

 

 

A note about walnuts: Discovery! Fresh walnuts make a huge difference. I’ve always used the grocery store walnuts in a bag, and you know, uh, they have a mild walnut taste.  We were given a huge bag of very fresh walnuts (see what I mean… people give me great stuff!) and Jeff was my hero and shelled the whole lot of them. They are so flavorful and oily…grocery store walnuts just won’t cut it anymore. I’m such a snob.

Maple Syrup & Bourbon Glazed Quail, Whey Not?

 

Pizza Guru took a trip back home to Vermont and came back bearing a gift of maple syrup. It’s such an American ingredient and as I looked around my kitchen filled with very Italian ingredients I thought, “What am I going to do with this? Maple syrup pasta??!”

 

Fortunately, a quick conversation on Serious Eats, and I had more than enough inspiration, but funnily enough I paired it with another American ingredient: bourbon.  Was I embracing terroire, or just not thinking out of the box? Regardless, it turns out maple syrup and bourbon love each other!

 

Maple Syrup & Bourbon Glaze

¼ cup maple syrup

¼ cup bourbon

1 dried chili pepper, crumbled

¼ t Viet Namese cinnamon (very pungent)

Fresh nutmeg

¼ t grains of paradise

2-3 juniper berries

 

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and gently reduce just a little, stop when the glaze starts to thicken.

 

 

I like to brine my quail, but instead of using a regular salt brine, I used the whey left over from mozzarella (the whey is that liquid that comes with mozzarella).  The intrepid experimenters at Ideas in Food and Studio Kitchen had been fooling around with whey marinades and it is an intriguing way to tenderize meat. The lactose in the whey acts as the tenderizer, and commercial meat processors will actually use lactose crystals to tenderize meat. I’ve also experimented with yogurt as a tenderizer, and it works, but then you encounter the snot factor. I don’t know the science here, but a few times I wound up with a seriously mucilaginous sauce. This describes the snot factor, which is defined as when you bring the fork up to your mouth a long string of sauce snot clings to your plate. It’s sort of charming with melted cheese; it’s just revolting with a brown sauce. I’m happy to report that whey tenderized the meat, left no discernible flavor and there was zero snot factor.

 

Science lesson is over and now the rest is easy. Brush the quail with the glaze. You really do need a brush, if you pour, you’ll waste too much. As for trussing the bird, that is up to you. I don't truss because I think it causes problems with over roasting the non trussed areas.  As long as you are not bothered by the wild abandon of the legs, and I'm a great fan of wild abandon, I do not recommend trussing. If you are a bit shy, you may want to truss.

Roast the quail at 375F for about 35 minutes, basting the quail every 8-10 minutes.  About 10 minutes before the quail is done, drain off the pan juices and added them to the glaze, reduce the sauce again and continued painting the birds with the pan juice glaze. The overall result was fantastic; the glaze was crackling hard, very flavorful and just the right amount of finger licking sticky.

 

The other night, as you can imagine with all of this hot oven work, it required a cold cocktail as everyone waited for their birdie. Since we were already in an experimental mode, we opted for a modified Sazerac, subbing the maple syrup for simple syrup and bourbon for rye (there is no rye to be had in Umbria, which is reason enough to head back to the States).  The maple-bourbon Sazerac was marvelous, an elegant variation with an elusive complexity from the maple syrup. This cocktail deserves a better name.

 

One last note about maple syrup, as Pizza Guru gave me the full rundown. He is a versatile fellow, isn’t he? This was ungraded syrup that he got at a Vermont coop and it was a revelation. Not super sweet, not particularly viscous, it was so delicately flavored you could sip it from a cordial glass and be quite happy. I’m now spoiled and will be on the hunt for some of this nectar when we get back to NY.

 

P.S. I also tried the glaze on some chicken legs….and it is a fine, fine thing this maple syrup bourbon glaze!

 

Tartufo Bianco and Polenta

It's a classic fall weekend here in the Upper Tiber Valley. The rain is falling, the fog is gathering, there is snow on the distant peaks.

And a white truffle festival in Citta di Castello. We went early on Saturday to beat the crowds and taste the new olive oil that's just been pressed. And of course, we wandered around sampling sausages.

Chatting with the pretty onion ladies.

Admiring  a very interesting dog.

 

Today is a chilly Sunday, and we were treated to a delicious polenta lunch.

And after polenta, we went for stroll around the Maridiana Alpaca farm.

and Pizza Guru just called wanting to meet for pizza... so off we go. Never a dull moment.

 

I’m dreaming of a white…..lasagne…..

 

‘Tis the season for funghi and salsiccia (mushrooms and sausage), they just taste right this time of year as the fog sticks around longer, the night comes quicker, the smell of wood smoke fills the air, and I wonder where on earth did I put my gloves. We’ve already been wearing thick neck scarves for over a month because the threat of cold air is particularly deadly in Italy, ask any Italian and they will issue dire warnings about having cool air on your neck.

 

It’s also a good time of year for al forno pasta, or pasta baked in the oven, because not only does the house smell good, but it warms up my chilly kitchen.

You’ll need:

½ kilo of mixed mushrooms: fresh, dried, frozen

8 sausage links, good, rustic pork sausage, not that effete chicken & apple sausage, ok?

1-liter porcini béchamel sauce (don’t worry, see below, its not hard)

750 g ricotta di pecora (huh? See below)

1 medium onion, finely chopped

250g grated parmigiana, the real thing, not out of a green can

1/2 kilo of lasagne pasta

2 cups milk

8T butter

6 T flour

Olive oil, salt, pepper

I used euro weights just to get you in an Italian state of mind. You need about a pound of mushrooms and sausage, a quart of béchamel, 26 oz of ricotta, but if it comes in a 32 oz container, use the 32 ounces.  Ricotta di pecora is sheep’s milk ricotta and if you can find it, use it, if not…demand it! And just in case you don’t have a field of sheep ready to produce, use regular cow’s milk ricotta. 250g grated parmigiana is about two good handfuls. You need about a pound of pasta.

 

The trick to lasagne is to prep all the ingredients before you move on to assembly. Everything should be right in front of you, neatly arranged in bowls, you need to “mise your place” or things get very messy.

 

1)   Slit open the sausages, turn the meat out into a bowl and break it up with a fork. Then gently sauté the meat until done, all the way mashing it with the fork to break it up into crumbles.

2)   Mushrooms: I like to use a mix of dried porcini, frozen mixed mushrooms, and fresh ‘champignon’ or white button mushrooms. Dried porcini add depth to the overall mushroom flavor, and fresh porcini cost a bundle, so if you get fresh, then eat them raw in a salad and don’t waste them on a lasagne!  Put a good handful of dried porcini into a quart glass jar and fill with 2 cups of lukewarm water, letting the dried ‘shrooms steep. You’re going to be using that porcini water for the béchamel, so don’t throw it out!

Thaw out your frozen mushrooms in a bowl of warm water. Thinly slice the fresh mushrooms. Gently sauté all of the mushrooms, along with the finely chopped onion. (Gently means use medium heat. I’m not suggesting you use a soft spatula and massage the little funghi, you can be as rough as you like it with the mushrooms, just keep the heat low enough that you don’t scorch anything). Drain the dried porcini and add them last, reserving the porcini water

3)   Put on a big pot of water to par boil your lasagne

4)   Porcini béchamel: 2 cups of milk, 2 cups of the dried porcini water, 8 T of butter and 6T of flour.  Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan (heavy bottom distributes the heat better so you don’t get super hot spots), and then add all of the flour and start stirring with a whisk. You want the flour to get a light caramel color, and you do not want the flour/butter mixture to splash onto your hand because it will burn like napalm. When the flour smells appealing, slowly add the porcini water, still mixing constantly, then add the milk and cook until it thickens into a sauce, about 5 minutes of stirring time.  Don't get all righteous, 5 minutes of bechamel stirring doesn't mean you don't have to go to the gym that day.

5)   Nearly there. It’s assembly time. Working in small batches, par boil your lasagne pasta until its’ pliable. Here you have options: fresh pasta requires just a dunk in the salted water, there’s some pre-boiled lasagne pasta available, follow the directions on the package, dried lasagne noodles should boil for about 2-3 minutes, you want them pliable, not falling apart.

6)   Assembly time: With a ladle, pour a small amount of the béchamel into the pan and spread it around. Now a layer of noodles, bit of béchamel, then all of the sausage, noodles…you get the idea. I like a 3 layer lasagne with all of each ingredient used per layer, so one full layer of ricotta, one of mushrooms, one of sausage and each layer gets a dose of béchamel.  Add the last of the béchamel on top and then add the parmigiana.

 

7)   Bake at 350F/150C for about 45 minutes or until everything is bubbly and brown on top. You can make this in individual pans and freeze it because if you are going to go to this much trouble, it’s nice to have it stashed for a quick meal later in the week. 

      8)    Variations: Our friends recently served an outstanding variation: asparagus, mushrooms & sausages, or you could go with mushrooms and sautéed pancetta or prosciutto. Fool around, have some fun with different combinations. Tell me your favorites.

 

Great with a full bodied white wine or a light red. And remember to wear a scarf when you go outside.

 

 

 

Festa del Bosco in Montone

It may only be a weekend long Festa, but it starts on Monday when workmen come around and run electric lines from our house out onto the street. It’s part and parcel of the festa, as we live on one of the main streets, we are therefore expected to donate our electricity to the cause.   By Wednesday evening, pick up trucks are roaring around town with flanks of men standing up in the backs of the trucks as if some strange coup had erupted. I kept checking to make sure no one was waving an AK47, and that the men were holding pieces of gazebos that would house cheese and salami stands. (Not that I might not be in favor of a coup, but that is something we should discuss in the back room of the Aries bar.)  Thursday was the day of the Concerto of the Dropping Pipes. Apparently, while assembling the vendor stalls it is required to drop the support pipes regularly and rhythmically or the Festa Gods will be angry.  By Friday night, all the pipes were standing, the stalls had been built, decorated and stocked and it was the opening night of Festa del Bosco 2009.

 

This is where I start to lose track of the days, and of the nights. People started showing up in our kitchen bearing gifts of art (It was actually quite amazing: young Daisy’s watercolors, Joseph’s unexpected and very beautiful gift, and the irrepressible Franco showing up with his Burning Bridges and Woman Reading to the Sea…. Don’t you love the idea of a young woman entertaining Neptune?), people were telling stories, saying good-byes, saying hellos, opening Prosecco, opening more Prosecco, handing me goose eggs, and just when I wished out loud for some roasted chestnuts, Oswaldo walked in the door with a huge bag of warm chestnuts and cool and fresh Cannaiolo wine.  Oswaldo and Giusy set up their chestnut stand in front of our house and they always make sure that we have more chestnuts than we could possibly desire; but how he knew to walk in the door, right on cue, is a mystery to me.

 

Saturday I entered the world of Taverna Indentured Slavery and began cooking pasta for all of Umbria and beyond. Kilo after kilo of pasta, mountains of miaile, entire forests of olives, and leg after leg of prosciutto walked out of our kitchen.

 

Saturday night we had planned on a quiet dinner for two, but then the door opened and there was Jonathan with more cheese and wine and salami, along with some crazy good cured cinghiale.  And before you know it there was roasted quail in a maple syrup and bourbon glaze, followed by a spectacular, intimate jazz concert in the teatro San Fedele.

 

Sunday is usually the busiest day, and this year was no exception.  The Taverna del Verziere was packed to the gills and once again we cranked out the food, only this time there was the added excitement of serving Emanuele Umberto Reza Ciro René Maria Filiberto di Savoia, Prinicipe di Venezia and Piemonte.  I’d had my head in a polenta pot for too many hours, when Luca starts bouncing around the kitchen babbling something about the Principe di Savoia and pointing in the general direction of the dessert station, which is also near the front door. I look over at the desserts expecting to see a Principe di Savoia…I thought it was some sort of whipped cream dessert confection, hey, if strangoprezzi, or ‘strangle the priest’ can be a pasta dish, why can't Principe di Savoia be a pastry? Finally Luca explains that we actually have royalty in our midst and he literally drags me outside to take a group shot with the very gracious Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia and his two adorable daughters.

This happy episode is immediately forgotten as a large man rushes into the kitchen, shouting at full volume, complaining that he has been waiting too long for his polenta. Which has the result of everyone dropping what they were doing, including making his polenta, so that we can all discuss his rudeness, thereby further delaying delivery of said polenta.  Dinner service was fairly dull by comparison, as everyone alternated between falling over with exhaustion and giddy exuberance that festa was nearly over. At one point in the night, there were literally more people crammed into the kitchen, all babbling and grabbing bits of food, then there were diners out at the tables. Anyone who is part of the Del Verziere family is eternally permitted to come into the taverna and scrounge for handouts.

 

   I staggered over to Jane & Eddy’s for a very welcome cup of tea, and finding it hard to put a whole sentence together in any language, Jeff took pity and guided me home.  Arriving at our door, we stepped over and around mounds of chestnut shells, cheese, corn, fruit, leaves, empty wine bottles, cartons, crates, found our traumatized street cat Niccolino at our feet begging to come in,  and with that, we went inside and closed the door on Festa 2009. Or at least I did, Jeff wound up helping Oswaldo and Giusy break down their stalls, whereupon we were gifted with more chestnuts, a sack of walnuts and more wine.   This morning, the Concerto of the Dropping Pipes resumed to give thanks for a successful Festa del Bosco, and right on cue the rains have begun as Montone shrugs off the effects of the Festa like waking from a fevered dream and we inhabitants resume our usual rhythm.

For a full set of photos: clicca qui