Where home cooking is always in season! Kitchens are the heart of the house. Please join me as I do some cooking and chat about life in general, usually with an Italian accent!
It is the fresh season, isn’t it? Herbs bursting into flower, tomatoes ripening, more zucchini, more cucumbers. It’s a challenge to use everything in different ways, at least for me. I love tomato salads, but everything in moderation, ok? Veal Milanese is a flattened and breaded fillet, usually served on a bed of greens with chopped tomatoes. But, with all these herbs crying to be used, why not incorporate herbal flavors into the bread crumbs? I know I’m not inventing the wheel. Seasoned breadcrumbs have been around forever, but do you honestly think there isn’t any difference between fresh herbs picked moments before they go into the blender with the bread crumbs and a can of who knows what? See, I knew you’d get my drift. Easy to make, tastes like summer, what’s not to like?
Herbed Veal Milanese Veal Fillet, 1 per person (would work just as well with a chicken or pork fillet) Fresh Herbs Egg, Milk Bread Crumbs about 1/2 cup Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper
Select compatible herbs, meaning their flavors work well together and with the veal. I used a bit of sage, lots of parsley and a few snips of thyme. A small clove of garlic rounded out the flavor profile. These fresh herbed breadcrumbs won’t keep, so just make as much as you are going to use. Dip the pounded fillets into an egg and milk mixture, then into the bread crumbs.
Wash and prepare your salad. We have a ton of rucola (arugula), and it’s mostly gone to seed, but we still like it because the flavor is so intense and we only use the top part of the leaf. The chopped tomato was seasoned with salt and olive oil.
Saute the breaded fillet, lay it on top of the salad, arrange the tomatoes and serve with balsamic vinegar and olive oil on the side. Simple and summery. Perfect combination. Buon’appetito.
This post is for everyone who follows Montone news. It’s been a helluva festa week in Montone! It’s our annual Donazione della Santa Spina or the Celebration of the Gift of the Holy Thorn.
It’s a full week of archery, drums, fire eaters, medieval costumes, the smell of grilled meat, the sound of very drunken ragazzi singing their way down the street at 3:00 am which all culminates in the awarding of the Palio. In Montone, the Palio is a commemorative banner that is awarded to the Rione (or section of town) that racks up the most points. We have three riones: Del Verziere, Del Monte and Borgo Vecchio and each rione has their own colors and flags. Once the flags start flying, our neighbors across the street in Del Monte territory are no longer our neighbors...they are the enemy and they are to be beaten! Even if Margie is flying her flag in the Berkshires to show solidarity with Del Monte, that does not mean they will win! Points are awarded for Overall Archery Team, Best Individual Archer, Best Bando and Best Spettacolo. The Bando is a presentation of a short skit from each Rione, and they are usually bawdy farces making fun of the other riones. A classic theme is unlocking a chastity belt and this year’s eager to be unlocked woman was a spectacularly ugly cross-dresser.
The Spettacolo is a half hour long dramatic play put on by each Rione and it must be a depiction of an historical event from Montone’s medieval past. Points are awarded for historical accuracy and taken away for mistakes like wearing contemporary jewelry or shoes from the wrong era. It’s a very serious business. Last night was our Spettacolo and it was a realistic and horrific depiction of the black death, contagion, flagellation, disease, hunger and the ministrations of Padre Stefano. The finale was an eerie dance piece fought between the forces of life and death.
Tonight the winner of the Palio is announced in the Piazza. The only thing I know for sure is that Del Verziere came in second in archery...not good. And, I don’t know who did win. It will all be posted on the Commune door tomorrow, so I’ll fill everyone in, even if we don’t win.
What I speculate is that our Del Verziere Spettacolo was really good! And Del Monte’s Bando was outstanding. So who knows...it could go any which way tonight.
Once again, Cocktail Guru Mitch comes through! When I shared my recent goods news with him...I FOUND LIMES! He immediately suggested we give the Brandy Shake a try. For anyone not familiar with my lime angst, I'll keep it simple: There are no limes in Umbria. It puts a serious crimp in cocktail making, I'll tell you that. I don't even think there are native Italian limes, when they show up here they are from Mexico.
I know my friends in the big cities of Rome and Florence can get limes. Mitch even showed up in Umbria with limes he carried over from Bologna, but here in the Alta Tiberina valley, there ain't no limes. So imagine my surprise when I walk into the EuroSpin and they are 2,99 a kilo! That's a lot of limes.
So, MixMaster Jeff mixed up a Brandy Shake and we both thought it needed a little flavor bump, so here you have it:
The Bitter Brandy Shake
2oz cognac,
1oz freshly squeezed lime juice (doesn't that sound lovely, fresh lime juice?)
1 oz simple syrup
3 drops Peychaud's bitters.
I confess, we've been sloughing off in the Cocktail Department. While Lauren was here she went on a cocktail experiment binge that was just amazing. Maybe we can get Lauren to guest blog a few cocktails....pretty please!
Like proscuitto and melon, the marriage of a ripe tomato, bufala mozzarella and fresh basil, the insalata caprese, is a match made in heaven. And right now, today, in Umbria, with tomatoes and basil from our orto, it is the time and the place to be eating a caprese salad. This salad is a fundamental example of why you eat something in season and no other time.
This famous salad allegedly came from the island of Capri, which I think might be a little sketchy because water buffalos and rocky islands usually don’t coexist. However, some of the world’s best bufala mozzarella is made in the Campania region of Italy, around Naples, so there is probably a bit of truth to this legend.
The purist version of the salad is tomato, mozarella, basil, olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. If your tomatoes are good enough, that is all you need. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a little variation: a drizzle of balsamic vinegar is tasty, playing up the sweetness of the tomato, or a sprinkle of fragrant oregano is nothing short of....addictive. Where I have a little problem is the classic presentation: slabs of tomato and slabs of mozzarella. I get it, you cut it all up, but then you have to coordinate the amount of available basil with making sure that you get just the right amount of cheese to tomato ratio. So stressful. Therefore, I hereby propose that we unite and change the presentation of Insalata Caprese to now be little chunks of mozarella, with the same size chunks of tomato, and lots of shredded basil. This way every bite gets a balanced mix of flavor and texture and no one has to worry about running out of a key ingredient. I have similar stress eating a cheeseburger. You know when you have too much bun and you are eating nothing but grease flavored bread? So unfulfilling.
Our garden is producing like crazy, so it’s tomatoes at every meal!
Next Sunday, August 22, is the first annual celebration of World Kitchen Garden Day, where we gather in our gardens and celebrate the miracle of all things that grow. Created in response to “National Snack Food” month we get to pat ourselves on our righteous organic backs and give thanks to Mother Nature. Yes, you read that right. National Snack Food Month happens in February which has been deemed the month with the lowest snack food sales. I snuck over to the Snack Food Association website, and here’s what they have to say, “SFA serves as an industry voice for snack foods both by promoting snacking as a fun and wholesome activity....” That is so cool. Eating potato chips is fun and wholesome! I scrolled down to see if Homer Simpson was the director, but couldn’t find his name anywhere, I’m shocked.
Then I started to google around for “Smokers Day” where smoking tobacco is an activity that you can share with everyone around you. Or “Don’t Pick Up Dog Poop Day” which promotes increased eye-foot coordination.
But I digress from the serious business of gardening. Or did I mean the serious obsession that is gardening. I woke up this morning dreaming about putting in raised beds, in our living room. OK, now that’s crazy. Why put them in the living room? There is better light at the back of the house.
If you don’t have a garden of your own, there are options. You could start one on your windowsill, grow a bit of basil, tender lettuce greens or some weed...weeds...I meant to say weeds. You could find someone else’s garden, wait to see them hard at work and walk by with a cooler of cold beer. That’s gotta get you an invite into the inner sanctum of growing things. Find an empty lot and start a squatters garden, just don’t get too attached. Walk around with dirty fingernails and look like you have a garden.
Now that everyone is included, what should you do to celebrate World KItchen Garden Day? Sign up here. Host a party in your garden. Visit us in our garden. Eat a tomato. We’ll show those snack food people they don’t know who they are up against as we rise up, spade in hand and declare, “I am a Gardener!”
The orto, our garden, is producing and life is good. Our store-bought produce has dwindled to lemons and oranges. If we could figure out a way to bring lemon or better yet, lime trees, inside for the winter, then life would be just about perfect. Most people around here have lemon trees in large pots that they bring inside for the winter, but with our nomadic lifestyle, that won’t work.
I like to play with fire, so after harvesting some ripe tomatoes and a fistful of basil, I decided to experiment with adding just a kiss of heat to two different dishes. Just a bacio of heat to soften up the tomato sauce, and another kiss to add a warm parmigiana crust to a fresh tomato salad, why didn’t I try this sooner?
Spaghetti d’Estate Summer Spaghetti
5 plum tomatoes, chopped 1 large handful of fresh basil leaves 1 small red onion, or sweet white onion, thinly sliced 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced 1 handful of small olives Cheese for grating Olive oil 500g pasta/serves 2
Put your pasta water on to boil. Choose a fine spaghetti like angel hair, spaghettini, or vermicelli. Finely chop the basil and place in a bowl large enough to hold the cooked pasta. Chop the tomatoes and set aside in small bowl. While the pasta water is coming to a boil, gently heat the sliced onion and garlic in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Turn the pan off if you hear the faintest sound of a sizzle, you want to wilt the garlic and onions, make them loose their crunchy rawness, but that’s all.
When the pasta is done, before you drain it, take about 1/2 cup of the pasta water and add it to the basil/oil mixture. Now drain the pasta and toss with the basil oil. Plate the pasta in a big bowl. Turn the heat back on and warm up the onion/garlic mixture, add the tomatoes and olives and toss until the tomatoes are just warm...about 30 seconds. If you are using an electric stove, preheat the coil so when the pan is put on there is quick heat. Add the warmed tomato sauce to the basil pasta and serve with a soft, quick melting cheese. In Umbria, I use ‘caciotta’ which is a fresh cheese made from sheep and cow milk. Try to find a soft, fresh cheese, not too aggressively flavored, or else use just a fine mist of freshly grated parmigiana.
Jeff wanted to know why the pasta felt so ‘velvety’ in his mouth. The secret is that bit of pasta water added to the basil oil and left to sit for a few moments while you heat kiss the tomatoes and olives. Don’t skip this step, ok?
Turn on your broiler to its highest setting, and move the oven rack up as close as you can.
Now, slice and arrange that gorgeous tomato in a heat proof dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano. Add a little drizzle of olive oil. Generously grate the parmigiana over the tomatoes, making sure to cover all of the exposed tomatoes.
Place in the broiler and remove as SOON as it melts! In my oven, it took under 30 seconds. The bottom of the dish wasn’t even warm, and it was out of the heat, making a crispy cheesy veil over the barely warmed tomatoes. It was almost as if the tomatoes were only sun warmed from the garden.
Add another tiny drizzle of olive oil and enjoy! A crust of bread to sop up the tomato juices would be a fine thing.
All work and no play is just not a good thing. So in the interest of good mental health, part of our work schedule included some well needed beach time in the Gargano area of Puglia. Not knowing anything about the area, other than it was on the Adriatic side, we rented a little apartment and hoped there would be a decent nearby beach and some good sea food. The Gargano is at the northern end of the region of Puglia; it’s that little spur on the back of the boot, and that's all we knew.
After a 5+ hour drive we officially entered the Gargano region, with its pine covered mountains laced with narrow roads and hairpin turns that reveal gorgeous cliffs and the sea. We finally wound our way up to the small city of Vico del Gargano, and armed only with a ‘man made map’ from the owner of the apartment, we drove in endless loops and twists and turns until we finally found our new abode. The apartment was supposed to be on the second floor. Now, I don’t know how they count in the Gargano, but it was a full five flights up a narrow, teetering outdoor staircase to reach the doorway of the apartment that was yet another flight up. And let’s just say.....the apartment put the funk in funky and leave it at that. You know that dis-orientating feeling when you don’t know where you are and it’s nothing like you imagined it to be?
We also discovered we were a good 15 or 20 minutes away from the ocean. We could see it, we could smell it, but there was a winding, twisting, lurching switchback filled road between us and being able to dive in and cool off. Did I mention it was HOT?
Desire overcame fatigue and we braved the switchbacks and finally jumped into the sea while our fearless friends Bruce & Giovanni headed out in search of a suitable restaurant for dinner. By the time we got back, and showered (who rents out a place without any sort of shower curtain and a shower head that sprays straight out at 90 degrees??) we’re all feeling a little...oppressed. Then we hit the street and it’s festa time in Vico! There are armies of folks out strolling and the people watching is spectacular. We finally sit down at the dinner table around 10:00pm and the waiter baffles us with his bizarre local dialect...we pick out the words water and antipasto and agree to both. No sooner had the words passed our lips when the Shock and Awe antipasto begins....gorgeous grilled prawns are set down in front of us. As we all start to politely pass the plate around, the stuffed mussels arrive, then the octopus salad, the seppia salad, the raw gamberoni, the incredible stuffed mussels, the mussels in red sauce....and now the waiter is encouraging us to eat faster so he can bring out more plates. We literally had the entire Adriatic in front of us. And it was all fantastic...fresh, clean, amazing, flavorful. By this time, we’re all giddy with abundance when the waitress comes over and asks if we’d like maybe a little pasta to fill out the meal. I confess, I caved and said, NO MORE...but I was outvoted and a double portion of the most fragrant and delicious pasta made with sea urchin sauce comes out. We finished it. Then a dessert arrives made with a local berry called the amarena. It’s sort of like a mulberry crossed with a blackberry and very tasty, now that I know the name, I'm seeing it everywhere.
And guess what? We were starting to like this crazy town of Vico with its impossibly twisting streets and friendly wandering dogs. The Shock & Awe Restaurant, which is not it’s real name; it’s either called Peppino’s or Miki’s, there is some genuine confusion among the staff about what the place is officially named, is a sea food lovers fantasy restaurant. At the end of the meal, the chef/owner, probably named Miki or Peppino, gave me a present of a kilo of DeCecco No. 12 pasta because I had quizzed him on the lovely pasta they used in the sea urchin sauce. I only mention this because if I didn’t tell you, someone else would. I discovered that dancing in the street while twirling a kilo of pasta over your head is just a fine, fine way to start a vacation. There, now you all know.... I like to dance with pasta.
As anyone who has spent time in Italy will tell you, finding the right coffee bar is key to having a good time. Well, Vico has the ultimate bar: Bar Pizzicato. Huge, long pastry cases, divinely creamy cappucino, fresh made almond milk, and as a bonus, the pastries are all made with natural yeast. The place is crazy good. It even has ‘free’ wi-fi internet, which is free right after you buy the 5 euro access card.
Bit by bit the Gargano started to reveal itself to us. One route down to the coffee bar went by the Pasta Fresca lady and she became our new best friend with her huge hunks of soft, fresh, fragrant Pugliese style bread and delicate home made pastas. By Thursday, she was reserving some special ricotta and spinach raviolis just for us because she knew we would enjoy them.
There’s a thriving ‘back of the truck’ trade that goes on in Vico. Vegetable trucks, tucked away in random places, would be piled with the treasured local lemons and oranges, various kinds of tomatoes, and tons of herbs tied in bunches.The freshly dried oregano blew me away. We bought a small sack and the scent literally filled the apartment. I thought I knew about oregano, but not until I had this oregano did I understand just how good it could be. We were loyal to the 2-Euro-Man. No matter what we bought, it was 2 euros. And no matter where you went, if you were the least bit hesitant about buying something, a taste was immediately offered. Every bit of produce or herbs came with a story about the health benefits that would come from eating it. The wild fennel was sure to reduce stress, cure depression and any sleep disorders. The olives were a natural way to get all your vitamins, because you shouldn’t eat meat at night. Unless you went to the butcher, where his locally raised meat would be the most tasty fresh and healthy thing you could put in your mouth. It was a little like being in the Garden of Eden, the abundance of gorgeous meat, produce and fish was staggering.
Wine was another story. When we went to the Salento area of Puglia a few years ago, there were shops selling some good, strong Pugliese wines like Primitivo or Salice Salento. In the Gargano, it was more of a home brew situation. The ‘enoteca’ or wine shop only carried wine that the guy made himself and it came in plastic jugs. The price was right, and although wine in plastic jugs is a little sketchy, we were a lot of people and it was dinner time, so the menfolk did the right thing and carried the wine up our teetering, tottering staircase. I was a snob and it wasn’t until the 3rd night that I finally broke down and tried the local “Nero di Troia” and guess what....it was a respectable red table wine! In a nice carafe, you could fool anybody with this medium bodied, very balanced wine.
Cheese was mostly ‘cacciocavallo’ and that seemed to only describe the characteristic shape of a small globe on top of a big globe, because some of it was cow’s milk, some was sheep and some was even goat. It came fresh, medium and aged, and it was all excellent paired with some local tomatoes, a sprinkle of oregano and a glass of Nero di Troia.
If it sounds like we were being seduced, you are right, we were falling for the charms of the Gargano. If I’ve painted a picture of a generous people who are proud to share their bounty, then I’ve done an accurate job. If you are going to visit, bring cash. Credit card machines don’t work anywhere, although the Bancomat will dispense cash when you need it. It’s not a slick and polished area, it’s a little gritty around the edges, but if you don’t mind running into the sheep and goat herds on your way home from the beach, well, you just might enjoy a trip to the Gargano.
Back in the blog world! It was a wild and crazy time filming all those food videos! I’m told that if the crew immediately falls on the dish and eats it, then it must have looked pretty good. I’ll take that as an indication that things went pretty well. Thanks to everyone who wrote with good wishes for us, it was greatly appreciated. A very special shout out, and thanks on bended knee to S&S for the use of their marvelous kitchen! It had extra special good karma (and a swimming pool right outside which was most welcome when the weather hovered in the high unbearable 90’s.) And for everyone who pitched in and tried to find us light bulbs...I’ll love you to the day I die! The mysteries of Italian electricity are far beyond my comprehension...why does a bulb work day after day and then suddenly blow up?? It wasn’t all work, we did spend a few days in Puglia which was a splendid eye opener to the wonders of Gargano region, but more about that another day. This post is just to say thanks for all the support that came our way and I can’t wait to share some of our finer moments with you. (Like when I cracked the egg and dumped it directly onto the table, completely missing the bowl and then the wind picked up and flour blew into the egg and the whole mess started to attract bees.....oh yeah, it was some laughs.) It’s nice to be back.
