Scarpetta

I don't know about the dessert, but the fish that you had is called gavros, which is fresh anchovies.

Since you like anchovies and olives, how about a puttanesca sauce? You simmer a little olive oil with a minced garlic clove and a couple of anchovy fillets over low heat. As soon as they melt add some chili flakes, tomato sauce (yes, it's a good idea to have a batch of it ready) then a small handful of capers and pitted black olives. Simmer the sauce for a couple of minutes then add the cooked pasta (whatever kind you prefer) give it a good stir and serve sprinkling some chopped parsley and a whoosh of good olive oil on top of it. No cheese, but if you must then use pecorino romano.

Nickrey, here in Italy Arborio and Carnaroli are generally used when preparing meat risottos or plain milanese and piedmontese white risotto with truffles. Vialone Nano is preferred for vegetable and seafood risottos. It does absorb more liquid and has a slightly different bite. In my opinion it's also a little tastier than the other two. Of course, all three can be used for any risotto with good results.

Sorry, Tim, but no Italian will countenance the idea of leftover pasta. It goes to the dog, period.

As for spelling, the singular for gnocchi is gnocco. And it's rotolo, not rottolo (which in italian would hint at something broken up) but rather at something that has been rotolato, i.e. rolled.

If I may contribute my two cents, then I'd like to point out that - whichever is your favorite salsa - try to make it as simple as possible, if you want to have a real italian taste to it. Make an effort to use excellent ingredients: not just the tomatoes, but also the olive oil, the garlic or onion that you use, the salt. BTW, in Italy garlic and onion are very SELDOM used together. Either use the one or the other. Also, basil and oregano are NOT a winning combination.

Farmers from Nizza invented the tecnique of tieing and bending over the cardoon stalks, covering them with earth so that they become white, crunchy and... yes, bent, else "gobbi". BTW, a good site for Umbria recipe is http://www.webumbria.it/Ricette&Cucina/default.htm, though it's only in Italian.

Because that's supposed to keep the cardoons a nice white color, instead of turning yellow/gray.

Today I'm having the traditional soup that is eaten in Piedmont on November 2 - the day of the Dead. People go to the cemetery to clean up the graves and adorn them with flowers, then go back home to a hearty soup of chickpeas, cannellini beans and pork ribs. Like many other soups, it's better to cook it the day before, then let it "rest" and rewarm it just before serving it. You must boil the chickpeas with a couple of garlic cloves and a small bunch of sage in slightly salted water until they're nice and tender. You do the same with the cannellini beans, but perfume them with a bay leaf. Separately you will boil the pork ribs in water with carrot, celery, a clove-studded onion, bay leaf and a few crushed peppercorns, until the meat practically falls off the bones. Finally you gather everything into a large pot, add a whole clove-studded onion and simmer for one additional hour. You let the soup become lukewarm and serve it with toasted peasant bread, excellent olive oil and lots of black pepper. Why am I having this soup on Nov. 1? Because I want to avoid the crush at the cemetery tomorrow morning, and I have enough for two (or three) days.

Great thread. Of course, we could talk about ragù indefinitely. Marco Guarnaschelli Gotti in his excellent Grande Enciclopedia Illustrata della Gastronomia lists seven different ones: abbruzzese, barese, bolognese, napoletano, potentino, romagnolo and sardo. It seems to me a little inane to quibble over the primogeniture of a term derived from the French... To get back to the hard facts, as Adam so aptly did with his well illustrated post, I believe that a great ragù alla bolognese (wasn't this the original topic?) ought to be made with a rather fatty cut of beef and pork (something like coppa). Then, both the vegetables and later the meat should be let caramelize (without burning it!) My grandma used to say that to have good ragù the meat had "to suffer", in other words to cook and cook, sticking a little on the bottom, being rescued patiently with careful additions of stock or water. Finally, there should be a law prohibiting the use of the term ragù for any meat sauce that has been cooked for less than 4 hours. While of course everybody's free to eat whatever hits his fancy, ragù alla bolognese must die over tagliatelle.

Great post, Kevin! I believe you meant Montepulciano d'Abruzzo?

I would certainly recommend La Crota d' Caloss in Calosso d'Asti: a winery in a beautiful setting with warm, easygoing service, good, carefully prepared Piedmontese specialties and a great list of wines. Quite cheap, BTW. Another place of the same type is La Vineria della Signora in Rosso (a lengthy name, I know) in Nizza Monferrato, set in the basement of old Palazzo Crova. Tullio, a retired bank clerk oversees this little jewel bestowing his few but excellent preparations. Third and last I wouldn't miss the Ristorante Moderno at Carrù, where you will be served the best bollito misto in all of Piedmont. Everything else is also very, very good. Enjoy!

Fantastic thread, Kevin, thanks for your efforts and please keep up with your reports on Italian regional cuisine. BTW, "al cruschello" means "with bran". The orecchiette you bought were whole wheat, right? Though the traditional way is with plain semolina flour from the ample durum wheat crop in Puglia. One small word of advice, if I may -- when cooking something Italian most Americans can't resist complicating the original recipe at least a bit. Well... don't, if you really want to cook in the spirit of Italian cookery. Rather, you might try to subtract some not-so-indispensable ingredient. That's what makes for true Italian recipes. I often read the expression "layers of taste" and "complexity" applied to food and it usually is linked with the use of more and more herbs and spices. I believe that an excellent olive oil (or any really good ingredient) has by itself all the complexity it needs and it's better to restrain oneself from muddying up and confusing its pristine quality and purity. Of course, this works when you can get hold of excellent ingredients. Ciao.

In Italy, where I live, there's a chickpea soup which is traditional at this time of the year: minestra di ceci e costine. You boil the chickpeas with a couple of garlic cloves and a few sage leaves until they're tender. Separately - because cooking times are quite different - about half the chikpeas amount of cannellini beans. In a third pot you boil some pork ribs with onion, carrots, celery, bay leaf, a couple sprigs of parsley and a few black peppercorns in lightly salted water. Finally all of these things come together, you add a roux and pass one third of the legumes through a food mill. It's quite tasty, and warms up very well.