hathor

Wow, Nathan, I've never encountered that problem. I was going to say it is a great way to meet people. I travelled for years by myself without a problem..... Trying to do Florence and Bologna in the same day is going to be rough; those cities are very different from each other and deserve at least a day each. In my very humble opinion. Also, you can eat very, very well in both cities. Just different.

great looking soup weinoo!! Wish I had some right now, its cold and rainy. Pontormo, that's a huge difference in cooking times for the cardoons. Maybe they are a totally different variety. Love the anchovy idea....could be a real flavor symbiosis.

Porchetta came from the market. The roast the whole pig, you get a little lean meat, a little fat meat and some crust. I could never fit a pig into my oven...or my fireplace! Funny comment about the lighting....the lighting in the kitchen is ...well, almost nonexistent. It drives me insane!! It just doesn't pay to try and make porchetta at home, this is one thing I'll leave to the professionals. My sister got really, really sick from eating 'raw' beans from a can. I can't remember if it was cannelloni or red kidney beans. I just cook my beans, raw beans don't hold much attraction for me. But...raw potatoes...well, that's another, crunchy story! Fooled around with the cardoons last night. Boiled the pieces in salted, acidulated water for about 25 minutes, then put them in an earthenware dish, added grated parm, a little oil, and a small knob of butter and put them in the oven for 15 minutes. They came out of the oven still crunchy, completely edible/chewable but with a discernible, pleasant crunch. Very flavorful, with a strong nutmeg note. Jeff was just using the rest of the fresh cardoons in a mock swordfight...pre-tenderizing? Sort of like beating an octopus on a rock before you cook it?? Boh!

← In the words of Fegus Henderson, 'if you find a good butcher, give him a big hug." Butchers are a vanishing breed, show him the love!!

Pontormo, I was thinking of you at the market this morning. They had borlotti beans, and I remembered you had asked about eating them fresh. I usually take them home, shell them and dry them. I like what you are saying about the fresh ones being creamier. I bought a big bunch of cardoons-cardi-gobbi. Let's see how creative I get... Lunch was a quicky porchetta sandwich. Someone, maybe Ellie?, asked about the traditional bread for porchetta sandwiches. Here you go!

Ciao Fortedei. What's your take on why the restaurant/hotel business is so off? Just curious what you think, I don't think its just economic reasons.

Those bitter greens are showing up everywhere. When we were in Morra, there were large ortos (vegetable gardens) filled with the most amazing variety of weird greens, some of them look postively alien. I've been throwing little bits of them in lots of things. Kevin, yes, that's a "piadini", a flat bread cooked on a hot stone. They sell them in packages, like tortillas, and then you brown them in a hot pan before using them. By the way, those game hens look gorgeous! I made Ellie's roast potatoes and fennel the other night...highly recommend the combination! Here is last night's dinner: Pietralunga Potato Soup with Leeks and Walnut garnish (yes, the walnuts that bounced off of my head) Roast quail stuffed with sausage and chestnuts, served on a bed of truffled "Fagioli Zolfini del Paratomagno" Poached spiced pears with creamy yoghurt. Generic dessert dish...does not qualify as Umbrian except the pears were local. Falls into that 'irksome' category of recipes that was discussed upthread. But they are pretty and they make the whole house smell good. It's the beans and truffles that are the amazing combination. Fagioli Zolfini del Paratomagno are these little, pale colored beans that come from around the Arezzo areao, which is in Tuscany...but we're really close to Arezzo, so I still think of them as local beans. Anyway, they are the most flavorful bean I've ever come across. Normally the best way to eat them is just with some olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. The back of the bag talks about the ease of digestibility and also says that it will not provoke "fenomeni di meteorismo".....do they mean gas??? But I just bought this little truffle guide/recipe book and they had a recipe for quail stuffed with sausage and chestnuts with a white truffle sauce. I didn't have any white truffles on hand, but I had white truffle paste, and that paired with the Zolfini beans seemed like the perfect, luxurious, sensous, decadent, hedonistic counterpoint to the luscious quail. The combination just hits some tastes buds that are located right in the solar plexis. Can you tell it worked for me???

Ciao-ciao!! Sorry I haven't had any computer time the past few days! Klary, here is a porcini photo for you. Like you haven 't seen enough of them! There have been autumn festas around and about, and the festa in Citerna had an excellent funghi exhibition. They show the good, the bad and the truly toxic. I HATE those maggots...they truly gross me out. But...all the local woods porcinis I've eaten don't have any worms in them. I've been told they come up thru the stem, and if you cut off the stem above the infestation, you're safe. Blech. I spent Friday afternoon at a friends trying to rescue and harvest walnuts. It's been too wet so we wanted to get them in and dry them for a few days. What this really means is Jeff climbed the walnut tree with a stick, and wacked walnuts down onto our heads. Then we collected "radicchio inverno"...sort of semi-wild bitter field greens. This wound up in a 'sandwich' of sauteed greens, spicy chinghiale sausage and some sort of soft white cheese, stazzichetti (sp??) or something like that. Very tasty. I had a lot more greens, so they got frozen and I've been using them in different dishes. Today they were incorporated into an orchiette pasta that we had for lunch. Swisskaese, if you are around, we went to the Morra chestnut festival yesterday. What a lovely festa. These guys were out in a field with these huge chestnut roasters, hand cranking them. It looked sort of....pagan....if you ask me. When the chestnuts were done, they were sorted, put into little white bags and run up the hill to waiting hoardes. The elementary school house was open, and on the wall was a long class report all about the different types of chestnuts, health benefits, how to cook them, etc. etc. It was really cute! They also had this fried bread thingy...the women were rolling them out as fast as they could and everyone was just lining up for their 'cicciana", you could have them with salt sprinkle or sugar. We went the salty route. Elie, that cake you made looks wonderful!! Authentic...right down to the sprinkes!! Kevin, that photo of your umbricilli is a little....scary! The photos were loading, and I glanced over and WOAH! What was that!! I'm sure they were delcious! They do look very similiar to the sagne that I had over on the Puglia thread. I thought picci and umbricelli were the same thing....basically a very thick spaghetti strand, without the twist. I'll dig around and see what I can find. I love the sauce....sounds like a perfect fall flavor combination. Pontormo, I've decided two things: 1) I really like cardoons 2) I'm not afraid of them anymore. We were served them for dinner at a friends house on Friday night, and they really are delicious. I want to work on a sformato with cardoons. Have to wait until Wes. market... Cookbooks! I was given the nicest present the other day: "Gli Eredi Di Apicio" or "The Heirs of Apicio" Apicio being a name for people who live in the area between Montone and Pietralunga. It includes a recipe for that classic dish : "Padelata". Padelata is a breakfast treat made from freshly slaughtered pigs blood...you can make a sweet or savory version. But...you have to get up very early to be making this dish. Its one of those locally published pamphlets and its full of good stuff. Potatoes in ash: take potatoes and cook under the ash of a hot fire. Cialdoni: seems to be a basic sort of pastry recipe, flour, lard, sugar, cold water, anise seeds. Then it just says: mix the ingredients and place between the appropriate baking untenisl, or two hot plates. That's it. Leaves a bit to the imagination..... OH! Somewhere this weekend, I made a pot of Triticum Dicoccum (farro!) soup. For anyone who doesn't know what farro looks like, here you go. Looks just like barley, doesn't it??? Kevin, did you braise those grapes? They look gorgeous!! What a nice look dish. Nobody has made passatelli yet!! I broke my passatelli press, but that's one of my favorite comfort foods. Time to get a new one...

When we were recently in Puglia, we ate in this humble trattoria in Castro, in the Salento area of Puglia. I had a pasta called 'sagne' with a simple tomato and sheep ricotta sauce. It was one of those embarassing moments where not only did I lick the plate clean but I had to fight to keep others out of my dish. I brought some dried sagne home and today we had it for lunch with a decent approximation of the sauce. The dried sagne was too thick, I think I need to make some of my own to get it the way I remember it.

Why on earth would a cardoon be referred to as a hunchback?? Its a rhetorical question....

Adam, that does make sense. I went to my Garzanti (seems Pontormo and I have the same dictionary!) and they list farro as (triticum spelta), spelt:piccolo (Triticum monococcum) einkorn So, that should completely confuse the issue, don't you think?? Specialita d'Italia, part of the Culinaria series, talks about farro falling out of favor with the arrival of wheat. Wonder what kind of wheat they meant. Grano tenero? The picture of a field of farro looks like a fat, green wheat stalks. Just as a by the way, the lady in the market who had cardoons last week, her sign read "cardi". This week, the same cardoon lady, had a sign that said 'gobi'. One 'b'.

gfron1, that was exactly the kind of response I was looking for. The dish that you created was far from random, and I was curious to hear your take on the flavor trail or journey. Thank you for taking the time to detail it. Kudos!

Wolf and dinosaur themed meal. Now that's a challenge! I went to Umbria in Bocca as well, seems gobbi are cardi are cardoons. I made the cardi alla parmigana. First you boil them, then you fry them, then you cover them in bechamel and cheese and roast them. My left foot would be tender and tasty if I did all that to it! They were actually really good, but a little 'over processed'. I might try them simply fried next time. Served along with some roasted bunny with green olives, one of my favorite combinations.

I believe that natural or health food stores sell spelt as wheat berries; spelt can be traced back to prehistoric times in Europe. Farro, on the other hand, is emmer wheat and can be traced back to the Ancient Near East. The two are commonly confused and since spelt is more commonly available in the U.S., it's usually substituted. In Italy, the organic farro I find in the supermarket cooks up in less than half an hour. Wheat berries in the U.S. take longer to cook, less time if pre-soaked. ← You know, I've read stuff that went both ways in regard to is farro, spelt. I'll buy a bag of farro, bring it back to the US and buy spelt and see what we've got. When I was reading about farro, more than one of the sources said it came from Asia AND from the Mediterranean. The same grain developed in 2 places at once?

I'm intrigued by the peaches as well. Are you able to get fresh peaches at this time of year? Or are starting from an already preserved peach? Tell us more about the costumes! This summer, our son helped out at our medieval themed festa and he walked around in a 'dress' the night we worked in the cantina.

From what I"ve been told, its only a partial translation..only selected recipes. why?? If you are geek enough to want the book, you want the whole book! How/where did you find all of these books? What fun! I've been collecting odd, old Italian cookbooks and they are really addictive. A fully open window into understanding another time and culture.

Here is my late 'intro' to Umbria. My apologies for being so late!! We have Giosue` Carducci, the Tuscan poet and winner of Italy’s first Nobel Prize in Literature, to thank for the marketing slogan “The green heart of Italy.” The description is apt; Umbria is in the heart of Italy and the fields can be green for most of the year. It is in the center of the Italian peninsula; a land locked region that has no coastline and no foreign borders. Of all the regions in Italy, it may be the easiest place to image yourself going back in time. Medieval hilltop villages dot the countryside, looking exactly as they did in medieval times, touching the stone walls transports you back in time. Those picturesque villages are also evidence of a violent past. The top of a hill is a good place to spot the enemy coming and it’s easier to protect yourself. Most of the stone walls that protect the cities have little niches built into them so the pigeons can roost there. “How charming.” you say. In times of siege or famine, these pigeons were a prized food source. As romantic as Umbria is, the people here have led hard lives, living off the land has taught them to respect nature. Umbrians are very tied to the land and its traditions. There is an old proverb, roughly translated as, “We have always made it this way, and we are happy.” There are traces of civilization dating back to Palaeolithic and Neolitic periods. The region takes its name from the “Umbri’ tribe that settled here around 1000 BC. The Umbri’s were eventually conquered by the Etruscans, who were in turn conquered by the Roman empire. The Cartagines, headed by Hannibal, who may or may not have had his elephants in tow, massacred 15,000 Roman soldiers in 217 BC. With the fall of the Roman empire, the Barbarians and a host of other invaders subjected Umbria to devastation and famine. Eventually Christianity brings a sort of order to the region, and by the 4th century, there were 21 recognized dioceses. There are continuous battles over the centuries to gain control of the area, with the Church gaining and losing power regularly, and internal warring over the territories is common. In 1860, Umbria, probably with a sigh of relief, joins the Italian federation. During World War II, Umbria has a strong partisan resistance, and is heavily bombed by the German forces. These days, Umbria is a peaceful place known for excellent quality olive oil, good wines, and simple, but delicious food. Eating local. Eating in season. This has become a fashionable trend in the world in general, Slow Food was born in Italy. But in Umbria, this has always been the way you eat. Food is celebrated and eaten when it is at its freshest and in its prime. Although Perugia is an ancient city, it never attracted the nobility like Florence or Venice; the complicated spices and dishes that the nobility like to eat are not present in most Umbrian meals. For the most part, this is food of the contadini, or farmers. That’s not to say that all Umbrian food is rustic, as the region certainly participated in the Renaissance, and they are influenced by the neighboring regions of Tuscany, Lazio, the Marche and Emilia-Romagna. Let’s look at some of the food products that Umbria is famous for. Norcia, in the southwest corner of Umbria, tucked away in the mountains, is famous for its pork products, cinghiale and black truffles. The city is so famous for its sausages, that the word Norcineria has become snyonomous with pork or cinghiale butcher. Norcia is also famous for its black truffles; however, many other towns in Umbria claim to have truffles, both black and white, that are also superb. Lenticchie di Castelluccio, or Lentils of Castelluccio are famous throughout Italy. They are tiny, green lentils, very tender, and high in protein and mineral salts. This precious lentil is cultivated in the high plain area (1400m/ 4600 ft. approx) area around Castelluccio where the cool, dry air is critical. These lentils do not require soaking and will be cooked in 20-30 minutes. Farro or spelt is an ancient grain, cultivated near Monteleone and Spoleto. It has been eaten since ancient roman times, but lost popularity when wheat began to be cultivated. Farro must be milled with a stone and water in order to separate the grain from the plant and it was more difficult than wheat. Farro has recently regained its popularity due to is flavor and health benefits. Farro with its hull should be soaked for 12 to 48 hours, and then cooked for about one hour. Hulled faro can be cooked within 20 to 30 minutes. The black celery or sedano nero of Trevi has local fame. Trevi began cultivating this species of celery in the 18th century and it was sufficiently popular that it was commonly found in all local markets until the end of the second World War. The sedano nero has a strong fragrance with soft fibers and is remarkably flavorful. And it must be in season now as the Sagra is this coming weekend. Foligno has cultivated a particular two species of long beans that are renowned for being soft with a very delicate flavor. The ‘fruetteto’ can be found in both green and yellow varieties. There is an onion that comes from Cannara, and it is so fabulous, that it is even reputed to be tolerated by people allergic to onions. Everything I’m reading is attesting to the incredible health benefits of these various vegetables. The superlatives are incredible, to the point where you go, “Huh???” But, who am I to scoff, there is an article in today’s paper about some 109 year old woman and her 100 year old friend. Umbria has a number of lakes and streams that provide fresh water fish. Lago Trasimeno is famous for its eels, carp and perch. There is a red fresh water fish, called ‘barbo’ whose flesh is poisonous if eaten raw. Good to know…don’t eat any red, raw, fresh water fish. If you really want to read superlatives….Perugia is mad about chocolate. There is a hotel dedicated to chocolate: all”Etruscan Choco Hotel di Perugia. There is a massive chocolate extravaganza called “Eurocioccolata” that brings in people from all over the world. Why Perugia and chocolate? I can’t find anything that explains the historic link between the two. “Il cioccolato e` madre, amante e padre all stesso tempo.” Chocolate is mother, lover and father all at the same time. Umbria is also renowned for its olive oil. There are olive groves everywhere you look, mixed in with the vineyards. Although our olive trees are puny and spindly compared to Puglia’s trees, they still manage to produce excellent quality oil. (Puglia’s trees are giants compared to Umbria’s!) Meat is the primary source of protein. The pig is revered for all the good things that pigs provide: pork meat, salumi, sausages, porchetta etc. etc. Traditionally a pig is slaughtered in the early winter, and its meat and meat products will feed the family until the following winter. Lamb is also very prevalent, popular and delicious. Scotto ditto is small, gnarly, gristly bits of grilled lamb that are divine. Scotto ditto means burnt fingers , and that’s what you get when you grab a hot piece of lamb and start gnawing away at it! All sorts of game are eaten: wild boar (cinghiale), lepre (wild jack rabbits that are alarmingly big…as in whoa! Did you just see that???), all sorts of game birds. There is even some sort of small, thrush like bird that is spit roasted and eaten. I’ve heard all different stories about the legality of eating these birds and I really don’t know the truth, other than I’ve had them, and they are really, really tasty. Bread is eaten at lunch and dinner. It’s always present on the table, its also saltless. It’s an acquired taste. ‘Nuff said. And yes, there is wine. The beautiful, lush, complex, spicy Sagrantino’s di Montefalco are a perfect compliment to the lamb and game dishes. Orvieto Classico is a pure, crisp white that is perfect for a summer meal. There are also plenty of small production local wines that never make it beyond Umbria’s borders. The most famous desert wine is ‘vin santo’. Around my area, the vin santo is stored in a fireplace chimney where it acquires a smoky flavor that is highly prized. I think it is just plain awful, but don’t listen to me. They make fun of the Toscanos who keep their vin santo stored in the bedroom, they think its silly. Deserts are usually tortas, or cakes with fruit toppings. Most desert cakes are sort of dry and stand up well to being dunked in vin santo. Food preparations are simple and rely on the quality of the ingredients. Even if you can’t get the elusive white potato from Pietralunga, buy what ever is local and in season, savor its particular flavor, and you will be cooking in the Umbrian style.

I'm going to tackle the cardoons tonight. I found a recipe in the "Con Poco" book that says you can soak them in salt water and then fry them. Hmm..... It also says you can do the same thing with 'gobbi", but I can't find a translation for gobbi, other than hunchback. Lentils....see below. I'm finally posting a late intro to Umbia! edit: p.s. I would definetely try the 'sapa' with pork. I've seen it called 'vino cotto', and I love it for both sweet and savory foods. I also like to put it on a spoon and eat it. Winter squash? I'm not sure what you mean. There is a large, pumpkin like squash called 'zucca' that is eaten at this time of year. Come to think of it, there are lots of wacky squashes that show up in the market at the this time of year. There is a long (as in 2 meter long), fat squash, yellow skin, orange interior that is just wonderfu. You buy it by the hunk...meaning they wack as much as you want off of the squash.

Just gorgeous! I have a question though, there are a lot of flavor elements going on in this desert. In your opinon how did the flavors flow or meld? Did one element work better with everything, and one stand on its own?

Ciao! Sagra del Sedano....where else would you find a celery festival?? The list of sagras every week just cracks me up, the minutest ingredient gets celebrated. Black celery does sound pretty cool, though. The chestnut festa in Morra is next weekend...apparently that's a big festa. Pontormo, I love your list of instock foods!! The porkchop sounds good! Butter and sage is the classic pairing...it would be good on just about anything. I had it for lunch on ravioli! Braccio Fortebraccio is our town's most famous citizen. He was actually awarded a thorn from the crown of Christ as a getsture of thanks. The thorn makes offiical appearances on Easter monday and at the conclusion of our big August festa. Ghostrider: Spoleto and Gubbio are both favorite cities of mine. You're right, they have very different characteristics. Austere and stern Gubbio hides a very soft heart, friendly people, good food and the world's largest Christmas tree. I'll let you google that up yourself....bizarro! La Bandiera! It's a fun dish to make and to serve. I can't tell you how many times this summer I wound up with chopped ingredients the color of the Italian flag. Given the national obssession with food..who knows, this could have been the inspiration. We had a pretty classic Umbrian dinner last night. Mixed grill of maiale. Basically thinly sliced pork chops and strips of raw pancetta (as opposed to the cured, bacon-y kind) that had been rubbed with rosemary, thyme and garlic. I didn't feel like building a fire to grill the meat, so I simply pan fried it in some EVOO and added a small shot of red vinegar right at the end. This makes a spectacular mess by the way. I really wanted to make Elie's potatoes with fennel, but my fennel was all yucky. So, we had puree of potato with truffles. mmmm..... We also had some stuffed tomatoes. Stuffed vegetables: peppers, zucchini, onions, tomatoes, are an art form here. Ours were stuffed with breadcrumbs, some pecorino staginato, and a little garlic. Forgot to take a picture...oops. Nice ribs Kevin!! I do love ribs!!

Nice meal, Elie! I never really thought about it, but raw garlic as a flavor shows up quite a bit, and porchetta can be very, very garlicky. The bread roll should be white flour, saltless, crunchy crust, soft inside. I have some Umbrian bread recipes, I'll dig around and see what I come up with. I have not been a fan of the salt-less bread, that's an understatement. I just hated it, but little by little, I'm going native and its starting to taste good to me. In the Marche, cooking "in porchetta" means to cook with fennel. I should ask around to see what it means to my neighbors. edit because I mixed up rosemary and fennel. The word for roasting meats with rosemary is "in potacchio" because that is the sound you make when you spit out the rosemary.

Nice looking pasta, Kevin! I've never served the pancetta on bread..but, that's a great idea. Umbrian cooking is nerve wracking...you keep cutting back, learning to trust the simple ingredients. I'm not kidding when I say its more difficult that making a great sauce. You can't cover up and mis-steps. Check out these two cook 'pamphlets' that I picked up in Pietralunga yesterday. Real straightforward recipes. Could use an index, or some explanation where the individual recipes came from. Lots of egg recipes.

carp stuffed with garlicky lard. fantastic. ← Do I sense sarcasm?? Don't mock the lard! Lard is good. Bacon tastes good....pork chops taste good.... (name that film) ← hells no! you should know me better than that by now... ← I humbly bow in apology! You're right...I should have known better!

Gorgeous Hiroyuki!! I love the rapt expressions on the little ones faces. Its good to teach them young.

The pale color doesn't affect the flavor. I've been told that those lovely bright orange yokes are due to the chickens being fed some sort of food dye. I doubt that is the case for all the chickens, but even so, I wouldn't get too hung up on the color.