divina

They are a style of olive.. from Gaeta, a town between NAples and Rome. I love them.. but have not liked the ones I had in the states. I wonder if people are making FAKE Gaeta olives! or selling old ones?

I have met the family at sole di Ranco and have sent my mom and manyof my clients there and everyone has loved the meals..and the rooms.

Personally I use them with a light cream sauce, infused with herbs, that I learned in Modena.. they are short.. and delicate.

prato is perfect then... Mattei as Adam said is right downtown, I like the Bar next door, Alla Mattonella.. hip and fun.. near the Duomo is fabulous. Try Mattei's new biscotti line DESCO, Biscotti with pistacchio and a chocolate one, and then a line of butter cookies, Rose, and a chili and nuts one too. Mannori is just outside the walls of the city,, ( heading towards the hospital West?) again Prato is small so an easy walk. I am not sure if the car rental places will stay open, although the airport is closed.. makes sense for them to stay open as it was the only place to get a car on sunday! training to Bologna is a good lunch spot.. any day.. and Sunday lunch is usually a great day to meet for lunch ( reservations a must) Being that Monday is May 1st.. it is a long weekend for them... so driving isn't really a good idea.. I am sure Adam will have more practical info from Prato.

checking in from Florence... why staying in Prato? I think Adam has family there.. but not on my top 10 lists of places to stay. It is a nice tiny downtown. have you been to Florence before? also why flying into Forli? I think you can get cheap flights from stanstead to Bologna.. I just did BMI london Venice which was nice... then stayed in Venice for a couple of days and trained down to Florence. when I am flying to the states in March.. I am going up a day early to eat in Bologna.. and then it is easy to get to the airport by bus. I have been living in Florence for 22 years.. so let me know if I can help..

Ciao. not being modest. thought it wasn't accpetable to promote one's self! I created my program for real food lover's the market touring being my favorite part! If you would like more info. email me.

I am speaking on panel with Fergus at IACP in March.. so am going to meet him and have lunch in Feb... right now I am just cooking my way through Nose to Tail.. and doing my Whole Hog Homework!

I am also a raw sausage girl!!! Here in FLorence we serve it blended with stracchino cheese, and spreak on bread!! I had some at the CAsa Del Vino today in Florence!!!

The sformato looks like less bechamel sauce than Italians use... but looks great. It also looks crustier... nice contrast. I like sformati.. but they usually are so WHITE.yesterday I had a caulifower sformato at Cibreo's Teatro di Sale.. soft white cauliflower in smaller pieces.. creamy, baked in a rectangular pan with a nice melted parmesan cheese gratin on top. I think one of the things is that Italians tend to over cook the vegetables, so when they are stirred into the sauce.. they fall apart, hence the smaller pieces.

Ciao Marlene.. see you in london in Feb if our paths cross! have you guys tried the new Truffle salt??? lovely food toy! IACP perhaps culinary police!!! cheap thrills.. love it on boiled potatoes

on my whole hog blog, I have started documenting pork recipes, working my way from Nose to Tail! I have slow dialup internet so it is hard for me to post foto's here.but will try to give you some Market envy soon! Did someone say Cardoons! My favorite!

I am very lucky to be a friend of Ricardo Munoz Zurita, and when I was last in Mexico city stopped by the cafe.. hard to find.. but totally worth it! We had a whole meal there, and Ricardo served me both the water based chocolate and milk based. Both remained boiling hot for hte whole meal. Besides having his own blend for chocolate, he also goes to a special village to have teh cups made! he complained he had come to Italy and gone ti Illy cafe to see their cups and was so disappointed that they made the coffee cold! Different Cultures.. Italians drink their coffee quickly and do not like niether too hot nor too cold in any of their beverages. But what really knocked my socks off was his chocolate Tamale! AHHH to have one right now.. run.. do not walk the next time you are in Mexico City!

When I am back at the market next week, I will fotograph and cook, some salami, I can get it here in Florence. Much like Cotecchino, they are boiled before serving. I will do chocolate and Hazelnuts... of course Giandiua, the mask of Torino, and also the chocolate praline mix. I conducted a chocolate tour this year for professionals and we got a lesson in making giandiaua from Paul deBondt in Pisa.

ciao from Firenze! I have been out of town ( palermo) and haven't had time to catch up on egullet! I will look forward to participating this year... Right now I am preparing for my panel with... drumroll... Fergus Henderson at IACP in Seattle in March! so am also blogging on pork.... as well as my other blog. From Torino.. I am a ex pastry chef.. so am a nut for Chocolate... baci da Cherasco... Grom Ice Cream.... Bicherin... Bunet... When is this over.. I will try to make a bunet and post it!

Just to be different.. I have been living in Italy for 21 years... I went to a rice producer, and he said.... DON'T STIR MY RICE... I think most Americans use too low of a heat, stir too much and risotto turns into a hard to digest mush. ( egulleters excluded) Since I tasted Gabrielle Ferron's risotto I am a convert! he makes it like a pilaf, sauteeing his aromatic's veggies etc, Toasts the rice, adds double the liquid (hot) , salt.. cover and cook for 14 minutes. NOW uncover and start to stir, add extra liquid if needed. when the rice is done ( more al dente than you think). Off the heat stir in hte butter and cheese... ONe of the lightest risotto's. The families company is Pila Vecia in Isola della Scala outside of Verona,

I live in Italy, where thick hot chocolate is sacred! The trend for quite awhile here has been to add chili pepper to chocolate , solid and to drink. ( Modica , in Sicily,of course still uses the cinnamon in their bars as did the Spanish) There is a fabulous bar brand Lindt that is doing some fabulous flavors, I had a lovely lemon rosemary.

Nowadays, Senape is mustard as most of us know it. Kids are having mustard and mayo on sandwiches and it is common now to find in grocery stores... Thanks to McDonalds? Yes I also use Senape for Essence too... Depends where I shop!

Just to be confusing.. I can buy a Cotognata Senepata.. which is a quince paste.... with mostarda! There are no rules in Italy!

It's not illegal to bring it back with you from Italy. In Verona I bought it at a pharmacy! here in Florence at Bizzari, one of my favorite shops, and very Bizarre! I think the Mustard Essence gives more of a wasabi burn, not mustard. My friend Andrea Perini in the Central MArket is ow making Chestnuts, and mixed berries with a heavy simple syrup mostardo! WILD

yes.. grom has opened franchising! love it!

I am soup! When winter sets in in Florence, it sets in your bones. Think stone walls and terrazzo marble floors are hard to heat. Yes, there is a law on how much heat you can use in Italy, and most apartment buildings are controlled.a few hours in the am.. and then again in the evening, never long enough to heat the stone! On my site I have the Zuppa di Verdure from Trattoria Mario's and the Yellow Bell Pepper soupfrom Cibreo . As in ragu, there is no ONE recipe for minestrone. Mine is my mother-in-law's who was born in Figline Val D'Arno, but lived in Florence. Ribollita always begins with Minestrone, and then Re-boiled, with stale tuscan bread. But Minestrone DOESN'T always have beans in it. As you can see with the difference in Trattoria Mario's Vegetable soups which is mostly Beans carrots and cabbage ( really poor version) and my mother in law's which is really rich in variety of vegetables, but no beans. Yesterday I just whipped up a Kale and Sausage sauce,, which I ate half of stirred into a risotto,the rest will be stretched into a soup! On the village where I live, Certaldo, near San Gimignano, they make an onion soup.. using the ribollita technique, instead of the French way of floating a toasted peice of bread.

As an American living in Italy... I do not really have any American books on Italian cuisine, pre 1984 when I loved here. So all my books, and there are many , would be in Italian. Whenever I travel to a new region I pick up a book there. I cannot say they are bibles or expert sources ( for the academics) But simply more information. My New Year's resolution was to put together a Bibliography.. so would love some guidelines to what is the correct way to do this.

sorry I missed this. Yes the tripes stand at the Market serves the lampredotto sandwiches. They use thelampredotto for the sandwiches and the other tripes in sauces for main cources to be eaten with a fork usually as they are a little harder to eat as a sandwich, although the stand at the Porta Romana has quite a selection of both. It is cooked with carrot , onion, celery, basil , sea salt and tomato paste till tender. The sauce is salsa verde, flat leaved parsley, capers, anchovies, pine nuts and vinegar with oil. they also make a chili sauce..pureed chili with oil and salt. Inside the market at Nerbone's the salsa verde also has a mirepoix, finely minced added to it. I like mine with the top half of the bread dipped in the broth.. salt pepper and both sauces!

Not stepping into the acacdemics... but in Florence often we call ragu... SUGO, for basic meat sauce, of beef and perhaps a tiny bit of pork. If serving a meat sauce of say wild boar or duck.. often they will simply say.. Pappardelle "su cinghiale"... ON BOAR.. not that the pasta is on the sauce...but rather on the subject of.. as in a thesis. Letting you know how seruiuslly they take their cooking!

kevin.. you are the best! for your mostarda, make a paste with cold water, then add to the hot fruit. I add a little wasabi too for a kick that the Essenza di Mostarda gives you.