Aroma Cucina

Food Speak: NYC Style

Do you think we could view the world of food as a many faceted, sparkling crystal? Shiny in spots and grubby in others?  Do you think New Yorkers are a tribe unto their own? How does everyone afford to go out night after night? Why didn’t I didn’t know I could go to a different food event every day and night? 

I’ve been a part of some amazing and unique conversations while I’ve been in The City the past few weeks. As is par for the course with me, one question leads to another.

There is no question that food is HOT. The media, the buzz, the attitudes, the events remind me of the crazy days in the fashion world when money flowed and the world revolved around Kate Moss.  Linda Evangelista infamously declared she didn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000.  Now, I believe it s Giada De Laurentiis who is the reigning diva of the moment.

Celebrity chefs have usurped the Super Models. My, how the world has changed.  Or, my, how it really hasn’t changed at all; it is still just as silly as it ever was.
But, there is something else going on; there is an air of urgency, an awareness that we need to know more about what we are eating.


Our complacency with the way we eat is slowly being shrugged off, like a sleeping giant shaking its head and trying to make sense of what happened while he was napping.  Shake, shake: junk food isn’t really cheap if you factor in the cost of making people sick. Shake, shake: food tastes better when you eat it in season. Shake, shake: people forgot how to cook, but they’re waking up to it’s pleasures once again. Shake, shake: we’ve got a lot of people to feed on this planet, how we gonna do it?

On Tueday night, I listened to Kat Flinn, Pam Anderson and Lauren Shockey talk about their new books and their personal journeys that led them back to the home kitchen. The crowd roared when someone said, “Bring back Home-Ec classes!”


As part of the Culinary HIstorians series,I listened to one of our national treasures, Paula Wolfert, talk about the joys of Moroccan cooking, and how happy she is to bring Berber cooking the attention it deserves.  It was a sold out event and the audience was rapt, respectful and informed.

By Friday, I needed to round up food people for our #IACPNYC photo shoot.  The word went out and within 24 hours I had a skate boarding butcher, mustached mixologist, gorgeous coffee roaster, courageous author, vegan activist, home charcuterie maker, two adorable boys who wanted to play air guitar with a bunch of celery, and an urban farmer all lined up to have their photo taken for the cause. My sincere thanks to Holley Atkinson of  Slow Food NYC and Karin Endy of The Culinary Trust for helping me to gather the clan.


There was a kind of magic in the room as everyone shared their stories with us. These passionate people are doing amazing things and changing the way we think about food and drink.  I have the utmost respect and admiration for our photographer, Jason Blake, who conceived of this project and who let his curiosity and enthusiasm bring out the best in everyone.

One last shout out of the week to Jane Lerner of Smorgasburg/The Brooklyn Flea frame. What a great time and great food to be had in Brooklyn!  Thanks for getting me over there and opening my eyes and tastebuds.

There’s a phrase that keeps simmering in my brain as I work on the IACP conference and meet all these committed people: “May you live in interesting times.”  Well, I do believe I’ve hit the jackpot.

Making Food Videos: All Bright Lights & Glamour

Feeling restless at 4:00 am, I get out of bed and step on... a huge pile of grit. What on earth...it’s everywhere! It feels like kitty litter embedded on the soles of my feet...only...wait a minute! It’s cous cous! The floor is literally covered in cous cous. What??

Then I see our dear kitty, Raffaello dello Spillo, and he’s batting around an empty bag of fine grain cous cous. Could someone please explain to me why the cat felt the need to jump up on the counter, grab a bag of cous cous, bring it over to my side of the bedroom and empty it?

As I’m sweeping up the mess, I realize he also brought over the bag of medium sized Israeli toasted cous cous,  but didn’t have time to completely shred and scatter his booty.

So, we’re down two food props and we haven’t even begun to shoot.

Saturday was a glorious day in NYC to get on our bikes and procure the food we’ll need. Armed with neatly detailed shopping lists, our first stop was on Lexington Ave at Kalustyan’s for spices, cous cous, nuts and bitters. Instant gratification was ours as we loaded the fragrant bag onto Jeff’s bike. Then over to Chelsea Market on 9th Ave., where we loaded up on fresh produce and some odds and ends from the Italian Market. 

Despite the overwhelming humidity, we had a great time riding around and taking in the city.  There’s a good feeling to having things organized and ready. Little did we realize we were about to be victims of kitten sabotage. 

I suppose the moral of the story is to put all groceries safely out of the way of inquiring kitties and to have a sense of humor, because something is always bound to go wrong.  We certainly learned that in Italy as lights blew, stick blenders wouldn’t blend, and the heat was melting.

Tonight we’ll set up for a tech check, and we’ll have everything in place for the first video tomorrow morning.  I’m eager to get started but a little nervous about what other surprises are in store. 
Stay tuned for the Aroma Cucina Adventures as tomorrow we bake brownies and roast a few birds. I mean really, what could go wrong? 

I'll show you what's in our market if you show me what's in yours!

 

Wednesday is market day.
We live in rural Umbria, so if you want fresh fish or flowers, you better get down to Umbertide early...or no fish for you! 

We’ve had a bit of rain and all the produce just looked stunning today:

*Kumquat sized purple artichokes, and I can’t decide if I want to fry or braise them.

*Fresh peas that are candy sweet and make me think of lazy summer days at the lake when I would bring bags of fresh peas for the kids to snack on.

*Tomatoes still on the vine. Not summer tomatoes, but passable in a sauce.

*Tarocco blood oranges, some still sporting their “La Miss Bonita” wrappers.

We love flowers and right now our house is filled with roses, big white lilies, orange tiger lilies, little dark purple lilies and some tulips from the orto.

Tonight we’ll dine on fresh sole with parsley from the garden, some of those artichokes, and new potatoes. If you’re coming to dinner, it’s good to come on a Wednesday night!

Send me photos via Facebook or Twitter, and I'll set up a market gallery. Show me what's growing in your neck of the woods.

Embracing Bittersweet Fall

Hard to believe but our time in Italy is growing short and little by little we are closing down and ticking things off the list. Jeff has winterized the orto and that feels so final. Sure we have a few leeks and bitter greens left, and the parsley is still happy and vibrant, but for the most part it’s rest time for our vegetable garden.  Even our roof top and balcony gardens have gotten their winter trim.

We picked olives this week, which is another sure sign that it’s time to get ready to head back to New York.  Olive picking is a marvelous excuse to be outside on a gorgeous fall day, to climb a tree, to spend time with friends.  Now if we could solve our olive pressing problems, life would be perfect.  Finding a mill that will press only 100 kilos of olives is turning into a challenge.

Last night we headed to Citta di Castello for their Tartufo Bianco festival which is always a treat.  Huge tents filled with truffle vendors, cheese, porcini, salumis...the smells are intoxicating.  We got side tracked at the immensely crowded Syrah wine bar, then a fabulous dinner at Le Logge, so looks like we need to go back to the festival today if we are going to buy any truffles. Oh, the things we must do.

And speaking of smells, Montone has taken on that smoky, wood fire smell that I love. It  makes me crave roasting meats, chestnuts and big red wines. The past few mornings we’ve seen the heavy morning fog that is typical of this time of year making for spectacular scenery.
Bittersweet signs of fall, no doubt about it.

Springtime is Fava Bean Time

It's fava time in Italy, and pretty much everywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere. Italians are passionate about fave because it means spring has officially arrived when those giant pods show up in the market.

Fave beans. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee raw.
I love thee in salads.
I love thee paired with soft white cheeses.
I love thee as 'maro'.

And just to clear up any fava - fave confusion: fava is one fava bean, fave (fav-ay) is more than one fava bean. Italian is pluralized with an "i" or "e", depending on whether the noun is feminine or masculine. And there is your Italian lesson for today.

 

I love thee raw.
As I've learned, eating a pile of raw fava beans is an Italian spring tradition. Peel and eat, with a small pile of salt for dipping.

I love thee in salads.
If serving your guests a pile of raw beans pods doesn't make your heart go pitter-pat, try tossing them into a garden salad. 

 

I love thee paired with soft fresh cheeses.
A small pile of warm, peeled fava beans with some melted soft, fresh young cheese is a little pile of spring indulgence.

I love thee as maro`, a type of fava and mint pesto.

Maro, Fava Pesto
1 pound or 1/2 kilo fresh fave beans
1 chunk of pecorino cheese, fairly fresh, not overly aged
4 cloves of garlic
8 mint leaves
Olive oil, salt


Shell the fave beans. This is somewhat labor intensive and has the potential of burning your fingers, but its still worth the trouble.
Bring a medium size pot of water to boil. The pot should be big enough to fit a colander  because you are going to steam the fave in their pods. This makes them easier to shell. Working in small batches, squish the  fave out of its thick pod, then remove the tough outer shell of the fave, leaving only the bright green inner kernel.
If the pods are too long to fit in the colander, snap them in half. 

While you are shelling the fave, place the unpeeled cloves of garlic in a small roasting dish and roast at 325F/165C for about 20 minutes. Which is about how long it takes to shell a pound of fave.

Take your raw fave beans and place them in an overproof dish and toss with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, let them roast for about 10 minutes.

At this point, you can set the table, slice some prosciutto, take a sip of wine, but don't check your email, because it totally ruins the vibe.

Once the fave have roasted a bit, add them to the blender, with the now peeled roasted garlic cloves, the mint leaves, the pecorino and another glug of olive oil. Puree until smooth. If you are totally feeling the ancient roots vibe of this recipe you could pound the ingredients smooth with a stone mortar and pestle, but I'll let you make the call on that one.


Use a soft egg noodle pasta like fettucine, not a regular spaghetti pasta.. Its a very delicate sauce and it needs the gentler egg pasta and a wider noodle.

Cook your pasta and toss with a few tablespoons of the maro` sauce. Serve with lots of fresh cracked pepper.

A note on the cheese: it's really hard to find fresh, Italian style pecorino in the States.  But an Italian chef friend of ours says that manchego makes a good substitute and its easy to find in the US. The cheese in the photo is an unusual blend of cow, sheep and goat milk and didn't have a name...it was just called 'formaggio per le fave", or cheese for fava beans. Go figure!

In case you have some leftover maro`, you could spread it on a cracker and be very happy munching away on this springy treat.
Or you could try pairing it with baccala, which is what we did the other night. We sauteed a few pieces of baccala, laid it on top of room temperature maro` and finished it with a few fave beans and some lemon zest.  I'm sure this would work well with any other dense meat white fish like fresh cod or halibut.

This is the moment for fresh fave, so what are you waiting for? Add them to your market list and have some fun.

Market Mojo

I may have arrived back in Italy on Monday, but I had to wait until Wednesday's Market before it felt like I was truly back.

I was looking forward to all things spring at the Umbertide market:  fresh fave beans, artichokes, good oranges, getting a big hunk of parmigiano, abundant flowers, radishes, peas, asparagus....and I was not disappointed. 
I was, however, disappointed in my marketing skills. It's an acquired skill to muscle your way up to a crowded vegetable  stand, choose your produce and then get to pay for it. The old ladies will either stab you with an elbow, or simply lob their bag over your bag and you go to the back of the crowd, in disgrace. It is also a critical part of the payment exchange that there be some additional discussion. This could be about demanding some free carrots, checking if that lemon is appropriate for a recipe, discussing the merits of all possible available lemons or, of course, discussing the freshness of a ______fill in the blank.
 "Is it fresh?"  "Of course! My pears are the freshest and sweetest!"  Every time they ask is it fresh, and every time the vendor assures her its always the freshest. This is some sort of vital rite of passage prior to concluding any payment transaction.
Here is a classic exchange at Claudio, the cheese guy:
Old Lady: "What kind of ricotta is this?"
Claudio, with a big smile: "Its a mix of sheep and cow milk."
Old Lady, snorts and tosses her head: "Give me a taste...this I have to see.", muttered with obvious skepticism at the heresy of mixing sheep and cow milk but clearly ready to get a good taste of the cheese.
These ladies  ask for anything; what would be incredibly rude in NY is considered Marketing 101 here. Demand an extra orange, a few more mushrooms, bigger parsley leaves, there should always be some little freebie, even if its a 5 cent 'sconti' or discount.
 So there you stand,  with your arm outstretched, vainly trying to make eye contact with the guy at the cash register, who prefers to talk to his friend and is ignoring everyone, when finally he takes the oldest lady and she now painstakingly starts to count out her change.  In the rare event that the cash register person feels like speeding things up, they take the hand of the lady with her pile of change and they just pick out what they need. With any luck, you then get to muscle your way in and pay.
Then there is the receipt drama. It is Italian law that every transaction requires a receipt. That is why if you go to the coffee bar and you neglect to take a receipt, waving your hand and indicating it isn't necessary, you get the receipt shoved back at you. Just take the it, there is usually a waste can right next to the cash register so you can instantly throw out the receipt.
The same law applies at the market, except the fruttovendolos try to get away with not giving receipts so they can just deposit the cash into their pockets.  Be forewarned: ask for that receipt.  Take it from our friend Pamella who didn't get a receipt and had a large cop stop her and the vendor with ensuing chaos and shouting.  Not Pamella, the cop and the vendor were doing the shouting, Pamella was just trying to vanish.

I'm hoping I'll have my mojo back and my rusty technique all cleaned up for next week's market. I figure it's like riding a bike,so next week I'll be jabbing a pointy elbow along with the best of them. In the meantime, its lovely to be back in Montone even if it has been raining every, single day!

The $4.00 Radish

I bought a radish that costs $4.00, which just seems absurd.
OK, it was at the farmer’s market, and it was a ‘watermelon’ radish, and the color seduced me; but since I’ve been back in NY, I feel like a kid in a huge candy store. The variety of things you can buy is overwhelming. I’m not up to the point of being numb or able to target my attention, I just keep wandering down aisles where there are things that I have no intention of buying, but I’m fascinated that they exist.

Back to the radish, it was delicious. Cool, crisp, sweet, almost no heat, served with a creamy soy dressing that would accent the sweetness of the radish.

Yesterday I went to Kalustyan’s, the spice emporium on Lexington Ave, and it was like allowing yourself the indulgence to have a good scratch at a long denied itch. I came home with a small bag of goodies, including ghost chilies, for my cousin, that are supposed to be the hottest pepper known to man, some roasted fennel seed because I’m in love with fennel, and that trendiest of ingredients: bee pollen.  Now l have to figure out what to do with my haul.
Happy weekend to everyone!

Market Wednesday

We have two Dutch friends staying with us this week, and Klary, who has a beautiful blog of her own (in Dutch) made this observation this morning: “Markets in Holland are about getting what you need and moving on; this market is a social event.”   I know it is, but it made me think about the NYC Greenmarket, that’s also a get what you need and go market. So why is the Umbertide market such a social event? Maybe it’s because we are a small, agricultural area, and this is the only consistent chance for people to meet and chat. I know Lino, my 85 year old gardener friend that I have a crush on, he goes just to chat. He was looking pretty cute this morning on his motorino, wearing a bright orange helmut!
So, enjoy some photos from the Umbertide market this morning. I did get to buy some goodies, the clementines are just starting to come in from Sicily; along with chatting with some friends.

Festa in Umbertide

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Umbertide had their festival on Saturday, and we had a glorious afternoon break so we took advantage of it! Put the roof of the car down and enjoyed all of that last summer sunshine. I don’t know why, but I love this festa, or fierie. It’s really just a big open-air market, with local suppliers like our cheese making friends and the regular guys who do the market circuit. I have a particular fondness for the man who sells those silicon-baking molds; I don’t know why but I feel the compulsion to collect every shape and size of those molds. They’re really fun to work with and you never know when you might want to make a fluted pyramid custard.
At one point, we parked ourselves on the corner, with a glass of wine, and watched the world of Umbertide walk by. And what a world! Don’t you think that red dress is just looking for a place to go? It looked so forlorn, so much like it missed its old owner and just wanted to go dancing again.

Market Day

Today's market was very social. We usually head right to Bar Mary for coffee and a cornetto, and this morning was no different.  It's a small town, so as you sit, people you know stop by and have a coffee along with you.  It's a great way to start the day.   
Peaches are coming in from the south of Italy. I bought some today, but haven't tasted them yet.  I know I should hold out for the orchard down below us, but I couldn't wait! Frigerelle peppers were looking really good...those are on of my favorites. Just fry them, add a little salt and they so tasty.
I bought one of the ugliest fish today, a scorfono, and it will be the last time. We ate it for lunch, but only because we were hungry. It's a stinky fish!
But, I have lots of good things to choose from for dinner tonight, so no harm done in trying something new.