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.

Yes, divina, changes are going on in Italy... not only at the dinner table. As for the percentages of people having pasta with their meals, it varies a lot according to the season and whether we're talking lunch or dinner. Salads have gained a solid position at lunch time (something almost unheard of until 6-7 years ago) during the summer. Cold minestrone and light soups like gazpacho or vychissoise are also popular, while polenta, pasta e fagioli, hearty soups and risotti with meat are coming into their own at this time of year, until next spring. I would guess that on the average about one third of meal orders comprise pasta.

I'm puzzled by vesnuccia and divina's assertions that MOST Italians have pasta twice a day. Most should mean over 50%, shouldn't it? In that case I' pretty sure it isn't so. I'm Italian - I live in Alessandria, Piedmont - and I'm a professional cook. Apart from the fact that in my family we have pasta about 2-3 times a WEEK (and I love pasta!) I simply don't see around me people indulging in spaghetti or penne all that much. Not even in the south, were pasta is a religion. BTW, my favored pasta is Martelli, which curiously nobody mentioned.

Hi, Craig - I've just got back from Greece and read your excellent piece on risotto. Following your instructions, anybody will obtain impeccable results. As for the difference between a stock and a broth, the fundamental one is that to make stock you start by browning bones and vegetables in the oven, THEN you proceed to boil them. So the taste of stock (AND its color) is somehow darker, different from that of a broth. May I suggest that the rice - when first added to the soffritto - ought to be well toasted for a few minutes. As you whisk it in the pan with a wooden spoon, you should hear it ring out as it hits the walls of the pan. This "tostatura" seems to seal a bit each rice kernel and is an important stage in risotto-making. Also, after the "mantecatura" is completed risotto should be covered and allowed 2-3 minutes' rest to blend the aromas. Of course one must allow for this longer time in order to have the rice well al dente. Ciao.

Bill, I live in Alessandria. Yes, of course panna cotta must use as little gelatin as possible to be really good, though you've simply got to use some... To make excellent panna cotta it's necessary to get hold of "panna di affioramento" i.e. the cream that freely floats on top of fresh milk (most of the cream sold in cartons is centrifugated). This cream is often over 40% in fat content -- and that's what makes it so good! And, yes, you must barely let it reach a simmer to keep the flavor intact.

Bill, I'm a professional cook from Piedmont and I must contradict your statement about gelatin being banned in authentic Piedmontese cooking. Actually, I've never even heard of panna cotta being prepared without any gelatin -- it just wouldn't hold together unless you put it in the freezer!

How about "layers upon layers of taste" -- NOT applied to lasagna.

Glad everything turned out well, Adam. And, yes, a domesticated boar becomes less rustic and "wild" - even in taste - than the original animal. This is well known. Also, farm raised boars are usually rather fatter than the free range ones. In fact, I believe they are excellent, combining some of the best qualities of both types. BTW, why do you hate Jeffrey Steingarten? I find him incredibly funny.

Hey, I've been using S. Giuliano for a long time (among others, actually). Here in Italy one liter costs about Ŭ. How much do you pay for it?

Adam, when the meat will be cooked you should eliminate most of the fat from the pan, deglaze it with a little wine and reduce the obtained drippings by half. In a small saucepan cook over medium heat 4 tbs sugar, one crushed garlic clove, a bay leaf and a couple spoonfuls water. Stirring constantly bring the melted sugar to a blond color, then add 2 ounces of dark, grated bitter chocolate. Let it melt then add a scant half a cup of good wine vinegar and the reduced boar drippings. Cook the sauce for a few minutes -- you might want to thicken it with a little fecola di patate (potato flour). Discard the garlic and bay leaf, add about 2 ounces of raisins plumped in white wine, one ounce of pine nuts (maybe briefly roasted in a skillet), 12 plumped pitted prunes (nice allitteration!) and some candied orange and citrus peel. This recipe is from Umbria, it's called "dolceforte" but there are several similar concoctions which date a long way back - probably back to the Middle Ages (minus chocolate, of course). Well... buon appetito!

Better get the skin off, Adam. And don't be tempted to use the wine of the marinade in cooking -- it smells too heavily of wild pig! If you're interested, there's an interesting sauce (with bitter chocolate, raisins and prunes) that goes quite well with boar.