hathor

Ciao! Very glad to hear that you had a good time!

It still around in Umbria. Our local COOP had it last summer, I haven't looked for it this summer, but I'll check around. Andrew, you say bubble gum like it was a bad thing.....

Rules are made to be broken. Follow your tongue.

Ever the contrarian: I have an overwhelming craving for toasted rye bread.

Burger Who????? Surely you jest! The poor boy didn't know we could make hamburgers on our grill (he thought it was just for fish and quail), we kept him in the dark about a lot of things, like getting sports on our TV.....told him he had to go the neighbors for sports. No, he is well on his way to serious foodie land...... The potatoes/tomatoes alla Franci were excellent last night, but after looking at all those mussel shots, I wanted the flavor of mussels mixed in with the potatoes. The pureed fava beans were outstanding, I finished them with a drizzle of parsley/garlic/oil. Once again, I'm in love with fava beans. And the primitivo was.....r a w ..... Maybe I should spend more than 3.50 a bottle? Anybody come across a great sounding recipe for octopus? I've got one in the freezer that needs to be eaten. It's a big sucker. edit: Leek leaves!! Of course! Where is the little icon for smacking yourself in the forehead?? p.s. edit: I love a baby with attitude!! He's very cute! Auguri!!!

Ciao tutti....I'm finally resurfacing after being completely submerged in our town's Festa. Wow!!! 2 babies!! Tanti, tanti, tanti auguri!!! Come on' where are the pictures?? They were born in Puglia month, so it's not off topic to show off the wee ones!! I got so excited reading thru the thread that I immediately ran downstairs to the kitchen and opened a bottle of Primitivo and made Franci's potatoes and tomatoes dish. Then I came upstairs and continued reading....saw the posts about the new babies....and thought, "I am so not running back downstairs to have a baby!!" I haven't been around much this month, so as punishment, we are going to Puglia at the end of September (via Naples!). I can't wait! I really want some of those stuffed mussels, and I'll also take a side of Judy's mussels. Just gorgeous. Those stuffed breads are looking damn good as well. Here's a picture of my 'baby'. He was visiting last week, and got just a wee bit carried away with his buratta salad presentation. He was quite proud of the basil tree growing out of the buratta. My local cheese guy carries this buratta that comes wrapped in some sort of green, reedy leaf. Its quite delicious. p.s. I also have some pureed fava beans ready for dinner. I'm trying to make up for lost time! p.p.s there is definetely something going on Italy with the internet....everything is taking forever to load!!!

Isn't amaranth a grain? sort of like little-bitty couscous?

Vadouvan, I was thinking of you today...oxtail tortellini for lunch. I served them in a tomato-ginger soup with a scoop of fresh pepperoncino ricotta. Very rustico style....but, then again, I'm living in the birthplace of rustico. Hope you are enjoying your holiday!

Franci, grazie mille for all the great Puglia info and pictures. You've been most generous! Things around here are getting a little crazy, so I don't have much computer or kitchen time...wah! But its August, the whole town is gearing up for our big festa, and I really cannot complain. I'll just drink some Primitivo and be content to look at these fabulous foccacia...and the torta with the potatoes? YUM!! That looks fantastic. Franic, I was doing a bit of research on Puglia, and came across a long article, written in Italian, so I may not have translated it accurately. Can you tell us anything about 'public ovens"? Seems they came about because of fire hazards. thanks!

Thanks Paula. I'll give the milk cure a try. I didn't think that rubbing oil on a glaze would do a whole heck of a lot. Now it looks like I have to go make my own merguez! Messing around with casings first thing in the morning is always a little....disturbing... Earthenware is pretty much my first choice to cook in, so I'm really looking forward to playing around with my tagine. It's even cool enough to light a fire and cook it in the fireplace. Who doesn't like a new toy??

Abra, your tagine family looks just beautiful! Must be something the air, I bought a tagine on Friday, from a Halel butcher. Then I came home and read thru this thread to get advice on seasoning. Now, I'm worried...my tagine is glazed on the inside. Does that automatically mean lead? Let's say it's not lead, do you still rub olive oil onto a glazed surface? This seemed like a 'practical' sort of shop, not a 'for show shop'. But between my bad Italian and the shopkeeper's bad Italian, who knows what got lost in the translation! Anyone have any insight onto the glazing? It's a fairly heavy tagine, if that means anything. Grazie mille. (next up: where on earth will I find merguez?, or more acurately, "where in Umbria will I find merguez?)

1. proscuitto panini / Shotglass of melon soup. 2. Fine dice of melon in the middle of bowl topped with a very thin proscuitto chip (dehydrated), soup around.... ← Or you could let a chunk of the prosciutto dry out a bit and then shave some ham "dust" over the top of the soup with a microplane... ← Interesting ideas. I'm not sure about prousciutto dehydrated. I think you would wind up with jerkey, no matter how thin it was, and a concurrent loss of flavor. Maybe dust would work. Maybe it just needs to be in a shot glass and the prosciutto served as is. The melon puree is in the freezer right now, I'll report back in a day or so. Somehow I think the incredible sheep ricotta that I have access to might make a good bridge between the flavors. Something to ponder in the early morning before I get out of bed.... that's what we all do, ponder flavor combinations in our spare moments, right??

I'd never heard that about beets before; interesting. No, I didn't cook them. My idea was that the freezer would do the work of "cooking" the beets by breaking them down. It seemed to work all right, and it let me avoid using hot things in the kitchen. I did make the sorbet: in fact, the inspiration came from your description of fennel granita in the Sicily thread. It sounds like we followed similar routes: I cooked the fennel in sugar syrup, then pureed and strained it a little and added it to the orange juice along with some fennel seed. ← Interesting. You are probably right about the freezing part. McGee didn't make it over here when I was packing up, now I'm sorry. Please, try the fennel-rum. I want to know if: a) it's a fluke b) I've lost my marbles c)I've invented a combination as good as chocolate milk.

My favorite brand of Italian toilet paper is called "Sandy". Hee! ← Andrew...that is so...morbido! I go back and forth between Italy and NY (and Philadelphia). What frustrates me, is the astronomical cost of fresh produce at the NYC Greenmarket. I'm all about supporting the local farmers, buy why is it so expensive?? I'm about to go off topic... When I'm in NY, I miss: parmigiana (I carry some back with me, and it just doesn't taste the same, I'm convinced the airplane air does something to it), affordable olive oil, the variety of fish and shell fish, flavorful lettuces, ricotta that actually has flavor, the different types of flour that you find in any grocery store, salumi, salumi, salumi. If it makes anyone, anywhere, feel any better....I would like to taste a lime right now.

Shalmanese, that was one of the best critiques of a food shot that I've ever read. Bravo. I've literally taken thousands of shots this summer, thanks for the food for thought. Now, back to the soup. Andrew: did you cook the beets? I thought there was something with beets and raw cellulose that if you didn't cook them, your body couldn't access the vitamins/nutrition. Like with a raw potato. It looks gorgeous. How did you make the fennel-orange sorbet? (uhhmmm...you did make it, right? ). I wound up making a fennel syrup that pretty much did the trick of keeping the fennel flavor 'intact'...not manipulated. Vadouvan: check out Camden Grey. I get all my essential oils from them. Fair prices and a good product. What more can you ask for? Personally, I want my own still...but, I'm the one who blew up her high school chemistry class room.... Current kitchen experiments: I went on a puree/freezer spree yesterday after reading this thread. First up: picante cherry peppers. I had too many of them, so I seeded them and pureed them. They are currently melting in the kitchen. Here's the question: is it possible to make pure capsium??? The melted liquid is "WWWWWOOOOOOHHHHHH" hot! I neglected to tell my poor husband what was going on, he was attracted to the pretty red color and gave it a taste. ...oops. Next time I mess with the peppers, I think I'll roast them first, to mellow the flavor. I also have a batch of pureed, very sweet, peaches, melting in the kitchen. My initial thought was to use the peach as some sort of base, then accent it with the fire of the cherry peppers. Currently, the peaches are just sitting in the same lump, not melting. Maybe you need a higher water content to make this technique work. Also, there is a very interesting difference in how quickly different substances melt. Peaches are much slower than cherry peppers. Melon question: In Italy, melon and prosciutto is a classic pairing. The melons here are excellent and the prosciutto is...well, it tastes like it was meant to taste. If you were to make melon soup, using the freezer technique, how would you bring in the prosuciutto element? I've gotten as far as thinking of making tiny little prosciutto/bread croutons. Anyone else inspired?

Wonderful thread. Thanks for making the effort. Question: tell me more about the orange oil upthead. Its too far upthread to find it now, but you mentioned that you distilled one drop of oil. I follow the Ideas in Food blog as well, and was also intrigured by the PhatDuck freezing post. I like what you did with the melon and cucumber, I might give that a try tommorow as the melons in the market have been excellent lately. But, the cucumbers are like rubber bats, the weather is too hot and dry, I think. Have to see what else looks good at the market tommorow. Ciao! p.s. You really can't get good wasabi in Philadelphia?

Great intro Kevin! I bought some Primitivo wine at the market today, so I'm ready! I'm ploughing thru my books to see if I can add any insight. Ci vediamo!

Sounds to me like you are coping just fine! Want some zuchhini??? If one more person offers me a zucchini...

What fun! 4 months to plan a meal, you'll probably drive yourself crazy! I mean that in a good way.... Here's a slightly different version of marinated anchovies: take a kilo of cleaned anchoves (as Franci described above) Combine: 1 liter of fresh orange juice 300 g lemon juice 1-2 cloves of garlic, cracked a pinch each of thyme, marjoram, wild fennel and parsley pinch of salt, some whole peppercorns. Marinate for 12-24 hours. To serve, drain and drizzle with olive oil. For me, there is something about using orange juice that enhances the flavor of the fish. But, the real question is:"You have an apartment that can hold 40 people???" That's impressive!

Ciao Mark! I took the 10 week course at Ital.cook, and it was fantastic. Great learning experience. Here is my thread from Jesi. You can also look at Ore's thread. We both took the 10 week course. They did not have these shorter courses when I went there, so I cannot vouch for them. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to PM me. Regards, Judith

I'm on day 2 of my sourdough starter. It's been too hot here, the poor starter would have cooked, along with me.... wish me luck!

There is a large trattoria right near the Douomo, I believe its called Il Bagutto. Ask at your hotel. It's sort of touristy, but really fun, and the food is basic and good. Check around though as a lot of restaurants are closing for ferie.

It's hard to say 'arrvederci' to Sicily, isn't it? But, as Kevin said, we can visit whenever the mood strikes us. Beautiful meals everyone! Those cozze look particularly delicious. It's stll hot here, so I'm going Trapanese as much as possible, meaning, lots of raw sauces. The cats are upset, they want to know, "Where's the meat???". The left over oxtail ragu went into some tortellini, and then into the freezer, which is where I would like to be.... See 'ya in Puglia! (bring some mosquito repellent, our Italian teacher just came back and she said the mosquitos were fierce, kamikazee was the word she used! )

Aunt Stella sounds like someone I should be afraid of.... Especially with you tempestous Italian chicks...... While we were chit chatting, I made a dish to go with your spicy orange dust..... Chilled Tomato Soup Butter Poached Lobster Planeta Olive Oil Orange Dust How's that for quick thinking and plating..... ← I say, 'BRAVO'. That works perfectly!

Yesterday we went to the sheep farm for some more ricotta. This time, I went along with Jeff, just in case he needed a 'designated driver'! We got the ricotta, still steaming hot, and then after some chit chat, the cheese maker's wife asked us if we had ever tasted 'frue'. It was a small, dry cake of a cheese. No we hadn't, so we had to have some. After being given instructions to cook it in a minestra, without salt, but with potatoes, we headed home. I looked up 'frue' in my Slow Food "Formaggi d'Italia" book, but the closest I came to something similar was "Casu axedu". My first inclination was to make a potato dish, but my imagination was making something very complex with an unknown ingredient. So, I backed off, and made a very simple minestra of summer vegetables and potatoes, and grated the cheese on top of the soup. It reminded me of an unusually salty ricotta salata, but drier, and with a much lower melting temperature. It melted into the soup very, very quickly. It must be some sort of variation on ricotta salata. But, I have to say, for a simple, rustico dish, it was very satisfying on a warm summer night.