divina

ciao from Tuscany! keep it simple- I also bake or roast the squash, parmesan and crushed amaretto cookies- with or without nutmeg. sauce- butter and sage and parmesan

Cingiale.. wanna talk? I make bread all the time! fresh yeast is near the cheese in the fridge! lievito fresco... ask! I usually keep the dry yeast in the house. again you can ask your baker to buy yeast and often even dough! I have skype..if you want to talk!

cinghiale you were looking at the new flour "mixes" instead of just flour! it is confusing. I often go to the bakers and buy my flour from him!

EAch region has dishes that make me go crazy! For my Florentine hubbie I just made a Tuscan lasagna, which is one of the dishes I love to make when I go to the states for people. will blog on it later today! Made with Bechamel instead of ricotta or mozzarella. Light and silky.

Pasticelle I am going down to Naples next week doing some research for an article and will ask around too! Names change often! but the recipe sounds right

Ciao from Tuscany- I found your recipe. it is from Campagna- a sweet chestnut ravioli with chocolate etc friend and drizzled in honey Can you read Italian? if not I can translate it for you. Basically you boil chestnuts and then melt chocolate in expresso add to pureed chestnuts and add raisins, pinenuts, orange zest etc. Make a dough with flour, lard, sugar, eggs . form ravioli, fry and drizzle with honey. Note says made for xmas

BRavo! FAssone is a type of beef!!! we often also just do a carpaccio, paperthin slices of raw beef. But I adore tartar with just olive oil and sea salt as you did!

Interesting but specific ingredients and the way cardune are prepared is missing in your recommendation. Besides it would be hard to find the same cardune (I call thenm cardos) here and there isn't the world even when my neigbours would collect some wild in the paddocks competing with other nationalities. Wow! they were prickly. Sage is kind of weed otherwise known as Salvia I personally like the young shoots for my sauces excellent. Finally. what do you do to the artichokes shoots do you fry them when they are parboiled? ← Italians parboil the cardoon stalks ( artichoke shoots are done the same) no leaves! then floured and fried. SAge is also salvia here not a weed, but an herb. we have very large leaved sage which is also fabulous battered and fried and served with prosecco.

my vegetble lady just told me to layer squash with sage and fried carducci. the shoots from artichokes... prepared like cardoons... and then baked.

I am in love with all squash and pumpkin at the moment and on my blog have gnocchi, soup and grilled marinated slices ( sicilian style) with garlic, EVO and mint!

As for Pizza , there is an art of folding and eating pizza slices I learned in Naples. But more of a street food sort of way of eating. Both Rome and Florence have the pizza al taglio, sold in slices, that tends to be more of a bready base and eaten without solverware.

I was once reprimanded at the home of a wealthy lady where I was invited to a lunch, for her "worker's"- my husband was her cab driver, her pastry chef was also there. nothing too formal. I was not a big eater, and instead of eating all the pasta, dared to scoop some of the fabulous wild boar ragu onto a piece of bread. she told my husband later to inform me that it was not "correct" When eating at home or with friends, it is called the scarpetta, little shoe. Quess I wasn't family!

Ciao from tuscany- candied lemon is fine for citron itself, but the real trick is the candied melon! what recipe are you using?

Maureen- When is it correct to do the Napolitano folding to eat???

with wine plan on about 500 Euro per person. not a misprint. one of the worlds best wine cellars. food is 210 I think for the tasting menu plus wine. if you do the pairings, that adds up. I hear it makes a grown man weep... for the choices of wines. Not much you can give a grown man to please him that much... A bottle of great wine can be 250.. I have been once, and was taken there. may go back.. when I win the lotto!

sorry I really don't bother with the fight anymore! let him eat cake!!! ha ha there are so many fabulous places, but if he has a butter ,cream and fois gras palate, nothing will make him happy. Most parisans I know adore it here! starting with the coffee! sounds like a party-pooper! I can always find something I like anywhere I go. I am part french. and was trained as a french pastry chef, studied with Verge, and really TRIED to live in France, Italy wins for me hands down on so many sides of life. Good luck.

most local hardware stores have clay, alluminum and triple bottom stainless pans.. as well as kitchen stores. yes there is a whole area of town, where the metal stuff is. not in ballaro. how professional do you need to be??? I have clay pots, alluminium, cast iron, triple bottom stainless steel... depending on what I am cooking, but not full sets of any of them!

My Florence market butcher Massimo Manetti just opened a place in Florence, Cipolla Rossa,( wrote about it on my blog) near Medici chapel..closed tuesday We had a 2 1/2 kilo Fiorentina for 10 people! PERFETTO

have you gone to GROM for gelato? although it is rather chilly now, maybe hot chocolate shots at VESTRI or rivoire. I have a list of winebars on my site in the newsletter part which are my places to stop for light lunches or meals.. Da Camillo is probably one of the REAL Florentine places left in town. Sorry I didn't see your note before, I have been in Sicily for three weeks. PS I go to Carabe for the granita more than the gelato. sorry to hear the production has fallen away! I usually go to Vestri or Grom for the best now.

Sorry I missed you was just there for three weeks. There are tons of pans here that are non stick! mostly alluminium!!! Great high heat! Contact Vincenzo at the restaurant CinCin in palermo.. he speaks english( lived in Baton Rouge)

Ciao from Tuscany- A little marcella secret for you, years ago when I was working at the Stanford Court hotel, Marcella and Victor where there to teach a class at Fornou's Ovens. Marcella had Teresa ( I believe her name was or Maria) who was her right hand woman, shall we say. Marcella has one crippled hand! so I am sure your efforts to cook one-handed are totally understood! I hear the other hand usually had a cigarette in it while she was teaching! Ha ha Buona fortuna!

Brava, I now Live in Italy and Marcella's books were my first real Italian books. living here now ( 25 years). the secret to Italian cooking is simplicity and quality of ingredients. freshness. Sounds like a perfect match for Japan!

I was given a tip that the first white truffles will be for sale in Florence tomorrow! the hunt is on! Tuscany has white truffles ( and festivals ) from San Miniato ( inland from Pisa) to San Giovanni d'Asso ( south of Siena)

The Modica chocolate is very Mexican style and heavy with ground sugar crystals which i find distracting. I have had many versions of the chili chocolates here, and they are all ganache based. I will have some tomorrow for you if gilli is open on Monday! I make chocolate chili truffles all the time! we use powdered chili

I had a chef friend also get a scholarship there and he loved it... but that was AGES ago..the price was right and he learned a lot.