Ore

Ciao, Week 7 started with a cheese and wine class on Monday. On Tuesday we started the region of PIEMONTE. The chef, Giuseppe Barbero, is from Bra, as is his restaurant, Osteria dell Boccondivino. Piemonte’s geography, like other regions is why this land is so gastronomically rich. Rice: Was brought into Italy by the Arabs who first went to France. The major varieties used are Vialone Nano, Carnaroli and Arborio. Piemontese use rice as fillings for poultry and meats and in the fall and winter it is served with fresh vegetables, cheeses and meats. It is not traditional to eat fritters or balls (arancini) in Piemonte, as it is not common to find risotto with Saffron, like in Lombardia! Wheat & Corn: The wheat is tender wheat, not durum wheat like central and southern Italy. The altitude and cold winters are too much for the durum, so the more sturdy plant, the tender wheat, is grown instead. For fresh pasta, the eggs give the flour the structure, if no eggs, the pasta would fall apart, unlike the pasta from the south which can be made with flour and water! Beef: Montese breed (all white) a.k.a. Vitello di Fassone. In general, I have a huge problem with Italian beef. It is nothing like the beef in the US. The quality is very poor and the cuts available at the markets are all very different than what I am used to. I don’t think they follow a primal, sub-primal, cutting method. They just cut! Very hard to find rib eyes, strip loins, flanks, tenderloins, etc. Very easy to find top round, bottom round, eye round…hmmm…seems like they only use the legs of these beef – where does all the good meat go??? If you have an answer…please respond! Bue or Manzo is beef older than 2 years. Vitello is younger than 2 years. Isn’t veal in the US younger than six months (or four)?? In Bra there is a specialty sausage called Cherasco – in the end of the 1800’s the common people had to ask permission from the king to make a salumi from beef. Back then it was only pork. It is great, very strong nutmeg scent. Bagno Caoda is a Piemontese specialty of olive oil, lots of garlic and anchovy. It is a hot dip for fresh vegetables and is delicious! Tartufa di Alba – Bianca (white) – eaten only raw!! (best)…cooking them hides or erases their aroma. Gianduiotto – the first pralines made in Turin. Home of Nutella (I think)! On with the pictures! I am going to start with the famous Bagna Caoda. Bagna Caoda (pronounced cow-da) literally means “hot sauce”. For the Piemontese people it is the dish of friendship and joviality; watch how they behave at the table during the bagna caoda ritual. The dip is made from garlic, salted anchovies and extra virgin olive oil. A large terracotta container (the dianèt) is placed in the center of the table over a burner and then each guest dips his vegetables into the sauce and then savors it. This dish is practically a meal in itself as one eats the dipped vegetables until sated and this is followed by a bowl of piping hot meat broth. The oil must be Ligurian because it is gentler, less aromatic and intense than other Italian olive oils. The anchovies will be either Sicilian or Spanish as Piemonte is part of a wider geographic area known as Occitania, stretching from Italy to Spain and passing through France. In the past, it was much easier to obtain anchovies by land route from Spain rather than by sea route from Sicily. A variety of vegetables may be used for dipping, most of them eaten raw: the primary ingredient is the cardoon from the Monferrato area - as a matter of fact, the dish is often called “cardoon sauce”, followed by the sweet pepper from Carmagnola and Cuneo, Savoy cabbage, Jerusalem artichoke, leeks from Cervere and so on… The origins of this simple anchovy-based sauce are ancient and humble, although it became popular in the mid-1700’s at the royal court of Turin – certain tastes appeal to people from all walks of life. As you can see…I liked this very much…here is a recipe! 2 heads of garlic…peeled, with the sprout removed (if present) and thinly sliced into rounds. 12 large salted anchovies. Carefully split open the anchovies and remove the bone. 3 dl. EVOO Heat the oil and add the garlic. Cook on a very low flame for 15 minutes – should not get dark – if burnt, you MUST start over – very low flame. Should be golden. Add the anchovies and cook long enough for the anchovies to start falling apart. When ready, serve with raw vegetables as stated above – can be anything raw you fancy! Caution, the oil will still be hot! Next photo is of Peperoni Ripieni di Pate’ di Tonno and that is followed by Capunet (stuffed cabbage leaves). On the two sides of the bell peppers rolled with a tuna pate there are zucchini halves that have been hollowed out and stuffed with sausage, the same stuffing that went in between the cabbage rolls. The sausage is the same as mentioned above, the beef sausage called Cherasco. In addition to the sausage though, the sausage mix was also made with egg, parmigiano, parsley, and old bread soaked in milk. In Piemonte the pasta has an abundance of egg in it. The basic ratio is 100 grams of flour to one whole egg. This can vary often. This next photo is a method the chef taught us to make tiny agnalotti in a quick way. These were filled with a rice mixture that was cooked down. It also had beef, spinach and parmigiano in it. In this method, you roll out long sheets of pasta. You pipe a small amount of filling in a consecutive row, near the bottom. You brush a bit of egg near the filling and you fold the pasta over. You then continue to cut the individual pieces with a pasta cutter! Tajarin, something that doesn’t sound too Italian to me is a very classic dish. Tajarin is the Piemontese version of tagliatelle. It is always made and cut by hand because it is very very thin. This pasta is ONLY flour and egg yolks. About 1 kilo of flour to 40 egg yolks. This pasta is traditionally served with the Cherasco as a sauce. Ok… This next photo is a bit involved. In the bottom left you can see two platters of meat. In Piemonte, it is very common to be served raw meat. The platter towards the back is Vitello for Vitello Tonnato. In the upper part of the photo there is a slightly tan/grey sauce. That is the tonnato sauce. The raw meat you see is usually eaten alone, or with a sauce of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. That sauce looks like a bowl of oil and is closest to the meat. The green sauce consists of parsley, garlic, hard boiled egg yolk, tuna, capers, anchovy and stale bread soaked in vinegar. It is served with a very famous dish called Gran Bollito Misto which I will go into in the next photo. The green sauce is simply called Salsa Verde. The yellow sauce in the gravy boat was a simple Aioli made with potato, hand made mayo and garlic. The Tomato sauce is just that, a tomato sauce, served at room temperature and with a bit more acidity than a normal tomato sauce. The last sauce was a honey mustard sauce called Salsa D’Avje. It consisted of a fine mustard powder, clover honey and some vinegar. We made a variation with chestnut honey as well. The GRAN BOLLITO MISTO… Mixed boiled meats Piemontese style is the best and most traditional method of enjoying Piemontese breed beef, otherwise known as “fassone”. In the town of Carrù, in the province of Cuneo, every year, in mid-December, they celebrate the Feast of the Fat Ox. In the morning the activity centers around the market place and the procession of all the steers, then from midday onwards the people eat the boiled beef and other meats either in local restaurants or in the special tent set up for the occasion, serving literally tons of meat from huge cooking pots. Along with the boiled beef there are other less prized cuts but nevertheless essential for the gourmet and connoisseur: the snout or head and the tail. Also included are hen and pork cotechino. The accompanying sauces, as mentioned above, are a must. These are for dipping the meat into, especially the green sauce and the red. There will also be other condiments such as the “cognà” which is a grape chutney, the horseradish sauce and the “salsa d’avje” made with honey and mustard. Unfortunately the way we cooked the beef, there was no great photo. So here is this one. Try to make out what it is before reading the description below! You guessed it right, that is half of a cows face! Basically, the Gran Bollito Misto is just that, a huge feast of mixed boiled meats. We boiled or simmered things like Flank, eye round, face or head, tail, tongue, hen, etc. You can only imagine huh!?! The face was my favorite as it includes my ALL TIME FAVORITE PIECE OF MEAT…THE CHEEKS! They were perfect! So, when all the meat was ready, we plated it up and it was served with all the sauces from above. The meat was great on its own but with each sauce a different characteristic was brought out. Sorry if this meat thing is an overload! Time for dessert… We spent four days with Piemonte so the last day was solely to be used for sweets. That, it was! From all the varying things we made, the most memorable was the Panna Cotta, the Chocolate Mousse and the Stuffed Peaches (nectarines) with Chocolate. The picture below is of the chef putting down a layer of freshly roasted hazelnuts for the base of the mousse. You can see that we made a mold for it as well. The mold was made of cardboard and foil! The Panna Cotta was excellent. Basically, I interpret a panna cotta as an egg-less custard. For this recipe we used ½ Liter cream, 100 g. sugar, 2 sheets gelatin and 1 tbsp. rum. Put the cream on the fire with the sugar and rum, when it comes to a boil pull off and add the bloomed gelatin. Put in molds. This next photo is of the Chocolate Stuffed Peaches. What Italians (for the most part) consider a peach I consider a nectarine. To me peaches must have fur on them; those are available here but are not referred to as pesche. The nectarines were hollowed on filled with a mixture of Amaretti crumbs, cocoa powder, sugar, egg yolks and butter. They were then baked for 20 minutes at 170° C and served warm. Okay, that was Piemonte…Here is the famous group photo. Most of the students know it is going on the web so they started goofin’ off! Enjoy! Ciao, Ore

Ciao All... I just wanted to let you all know that I (and the rest of the class) graduated tonight from the Slow Food Program. They gave us really cool diplomas, a book of 1200 Marche recipes, a gold Snail pin and a one-year membership to Slow Food! I will keep posting until I catch up...three or four weeks left! Plus I will try to post as often as possible while on my stage...I leave for Nusco on Tuesday! Ciao and thanks for your support! Ore

Hangar One for me!!! Ore

Ciao, I've never heard of it or the DECO you mention. Please explain more about the DECO. Is this simply a marketing ploy, like almost all other three letters posted on products or does it carry its weight in the market?? The few I am aware of are DOP, DOC and DOCG, IGT - please elaborate! Thanks, Ore

Ciao, Tuesday (week 6) we started the region of EMILIA ROMAGNA. Some info about the region: Geographically, ER is protected from the West by mountains. To the east is the Adriatic Sea, with the Po River as the main mitigating influence in the area. Livestock: Mostly pork, as the main animal raised. Breeds include Duroc, Large White, Nero Burghigiano, Mora Romagnola. Via Emilia – the ancient road that united the Lombards and the Byzantines. The Lombards brought meats, beef and pork. The primarily nomadic Byzantine tribes were skilled farmers and brought with them sheep, goats and wheat. Via Emilia starts in Piacenza and ends in Rimini. Processes in short… Prosciutto: The ham is massaged to remove excess blood. It is then hung at 2-4° C for four weeks. Then, it is put in salt for at least one month, then cleaned, the exposed part of meat, where the ham was removed from the body, is covered with a mixture of pork fat, suet and seasonings. Then hung for approx. four months. Then moved to a cellar to age. Parma minimum is 14 months. Culatello: The piece from the ham is drained for 24 hours. It then goes under course salt for one week. It is then washed, put into a casing, usually a bladder. It is then aged 2 to 3 months then taken to a cellar near or on the Po River where it is aged another 12 months. Prior to cutting the culatello, the entire piece is placed in a warm water bath to let the bladder swell – so it is easier to peel. At this point, if chosen to, the culatello can be placed in to a white wine bath for no more than two hours. This step varies by producer. The CHEF, Alberto Rossetti is a Michelin star chef from the restaurant Altramezzo in Parma. He was great and taught us many great things. His plates also are very nice! Here we go!! This picture is of the chef explaining some of the regional differences between all the different provinces of ER. I will go more into Parm Cheese and Balsamic Vin. In a different post! We came into the kitchen with fresh, live anguila (eel) shaking around in a box. The Chef placed them into a large sink with some fresh water. After they calmed down, he doused them in white vinegar, I guess this way is preferred to just chopping their heads off! The smell was putrid and they started turning blue. 15 minutes of agony – but great tasting! (sorry for the graphic nature but this is how it really is!) ER is rich in pasta dishes. In these three days we made more pasta than in the whole course combined. Two types that are very prevalent are the Cannelloni and the Tortelli. Here, the size of Tortelli differs. For reference, a 2 Euro coin is next to the pasta. Here is the Cannelloni being made. The pasta sheet is rolled out quite thin, then the stuffing is piped in, and the pasta cut and rolled. Very easy! The fillings used in the pastas of ER vary from region to region. Here are the four that we used. Unfortunately I can not tell from this photo which are which, the main ingredients for the Modenese (Modena) are mortadella, Prosciutto, salsiccia, parmigiano, and nutmeg. The cannelloni were stuffed with boletus mushrooms, ricotta, fresh nettle leaves, parmigiano. The tortelli were stuffed with ricotta, swiss chard, parmigiano. From the Reggio-Emilia we have the filling with veal, pork breast, sausage, mortadella, Prosciutto, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and parmigiano. Along with these ingredients were others – but these were the characteristic ingredients. This next dish was one of many of chefs’ special items. These were off of the schools schedule but we managed to prepare quite a few of these dishes! Below is a tortino of ricotta and parmigiano with swiss chard and a pork shoulder cream sauce. It is garnished with a huge Parmigiano tuile, which we learned how to make in three different ways since being at the school! Here is the class getting ready to watch the Chef finish his killer gnocchi! And here are the gnocchi…One was finished with a tomato sauce, and the other with a creamy radicchio sauce. The radicchio sauce was much better in my opinion! This next dish was also a direct dish of the chef. It was pork tenderloin (trim) that was quickly seared, in oil with a garlic clove (skin on) and some rosemary. In the middle of cooking, the herbs were removed and the pork was deglazed with balsamic vinegar – not tradizionale! The plate was composed of a puff pastry cup, the pork pieces and a creamy, béchamel based sauce! It was very tasty! We ended the three days with a dessert, a very classic one from Italy anyways…Tiramisu. This was by far the best I have ever tasted. It was perfect in every way. It was light, fluffy, great tasting – simply delicious! It was made like this… Beat the egg yolks with half of the sugar; add the mascarpone and the gelatin; blend carefully. Make a meringue with the egg whites and the remaining sugar; fold into the first mixture and blast chill at 5-6° C. Dip the cookies in the coffee and make a layer in the dish. Cover with the cream mixture – repeat 2 or 3 times. SORRY…no quantities!! To close, here is the infamous group picture! Ciao, Ore

Ciao, I am going into INTERNET DEAD ZONE in one week so I have to get all my postings done by then…Wish me luck and get ready for lots of info! Week six started out with a Monday trip to AVIGNONESI. The Vino Nobile is quite popular in the states and is regarded as a decent wine here in Italy. We arrived in time for a great tour by Ellena (spelling) the daughter of the founder, Ettore Falvo. The grounds are beautiful. We started out in the back ‘yard’ playing with the dogs…that are just like family at the Avignonesi house! Here is a picture of the grounds – when we walk in through the gate! Avignonesi started implementing a traditional way of growing vines, done thousands of years ago. A few years back they decided to go ahead with the project, which I found very interesting. I can’t recall the methods name but the vines are free standing, with a metal post for central support. There is no “trellis” system. The ground around the vines is worked in three directions. At any point in the vineyard the vines make a perfect triangle. I think the spacing was 1.27 meters in each direction from vine to vine – thus creating the triangle effect. This method eliminates the shading that normal trellis systems create. I wish I could learn more about this method – if anyone has any info on it, please PM me! The vines are worked by a tractor that trims the vines at the top and sides as to not overgrow and shade the other vines. The bunches of grapes grow pretty low to the ground, closer to the roots and also are exposed to sun light all around the vine. Avignonesi makes a delicious white IGT that I thought was awesome “Bianco Avignonesi.” We started lunch at Avignonesi with antipasti and the white wine. We then moved indoors to have lunch with the DOCG Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. We ate pici con sugo di carne (meat sauce). The next course was the main, spit roasted duck! It was served with Avignonesi Desiderio Cortona, a DOC Merlot which is awesome – truly amazing…I bought a bottle to take with me! Unfortunately, we didn’t end with Vin Santo, way too expensive, but rather with coffee and grappa by Avignonesi. All were great. More on the spit roasted duck though!! Here are some photos of this spit – by far one of the coolest I have seen. It is powered by a weight tied to pulleys which slowly spin cranks that in turn move the spit. Very cool!! The Weights… The Gears… The Duck… This final photo is of the barrel room where they age the classic Vin Santo. Prior to arriving in Italy I knew little about Vin Santo. Now, whenever I am at a wine store I look to see if they carry any. The real stuff is amazing but very expensive. The fake stuff is made by adding liquor and says so on the bottle – vino liquoroso or something like that. Avignonesi makes two Vin Santos, both are IGT. One is aged for ten years in barrel, and one for eight. Also be aware of wines stating they are Vino Santo – nothing like the real stuff! Cheers, Ore

Hi Doc, About the burnt flour...I surely do not prefer it to normal flour but it has a charred characteristic to it. It is something you must try. With spicier preperations, more piccante, I think it will work better. When we used it, we cut it with about 50% regular flour - so 50/50 because it is very strong! Pasta Filata is the method that Mozzarella (and all other 'pulled' cheeses) is made by. It requires stirring and pulling to create bands in the cheese - most common would be something like "string cheese" Ciao, Ore

Ciao, I ended last with Calabria. Wednesday we took a class trip to Saccaria in the AM and a local pizzeria in the afternoon. Thursday and Friday we studied about PUGLIA with Chef Peppe Zullo. This post will end the 5th week of the program. Saccaria is a local coffee producer based out of the town of Senigallia, near Ancona on the Adriatic Coast. Saccaria started business a long time ago and first started trading spices before they got into the coffee business. The coffee plant was fairly modern and was in full operation when we visited. IMHO they make a decent cup (shot) of coffee. The blend we use at school is their premium stuff which is a mix of 80% Arabica and 20% Robusta. I know Robusta is known as an inferior product but they insist on using it because of its addition of caffeine to the coffee. The Arabica adds the flavor and the Robusta the caffeine – or so they tried to explain! Here is a photo of fresh beans being air cooled after getting roasted. The smell was sooo intoxicating, sooo refreshing! We left the coffee plant after tasting the difference between properly made espresso and crap! We also played with the machine and its pressure, as well as the fineness of the ground coffee. If the coffee is ground too fine, it is going to have a burnt smell because it will take the hot water too long to pass through the coffee, thereby burning it. If the coffee is ground too rough, you won’t have enough extraction and your coffee will be watery. The easiest way to tell is to become familiar with your machine. A perfect pull should start dripping and first and then form a steady stream then end by dripping. They said the pull should last about 20 seconds but that may change in peoples individual opinions! All in all, a good coffee place, not at all in the grand scale of things. No where near Illy or other huge coffee producing companies. Saccaria doesn’t even export to the US! But, almost all the coffee shops here in the Ancona area solely use this brand! After leaving Saccaria we returned to the school in Jesi for lunch. We were going to visit the pizzeria in Senigallia called Commodore but the restaurants plans had to change. In the last minute we were scheduled to visit a pizzeria in the nearby mountain town of Stefano. This pizzeria at first look was really beautiful. The restaurant seemed out of place in this tiny town setting. There was art from a local artist on the walls that were of grand status and the place was just really nice! Luigi, the chef of this restaurant, was great and very hospitable. He and his father opened the place up for us eager students so we can enjoy some really good pizza. Luigi worked in Naples at one of the best pizza restaurants their – can’t recall the name but I remember him saying there were eight wood burning ovens in this place! He worked there in Napoli and then brought everything he learned back with him to the Marche. Here is a photo of Tall Man Dan and I trying to make pizza the way the chef did. I have to say I came pretty close the first time but his method of stretching the dough out was really tough – or just not what I was used to! We tasted the simple pizza of just sauce and mozzarella di bufala which was great. Afterwards we had a few of the restaurants dessert pizzas which included nutella, powder sugar and honey. Yummy! Here is another photo of the chef preparing the dough. He used no scale at all, extra yeast because we didn’t have much time to wait, and used the remaining dough from the day before kind of like a mother. I never saw that done before. Very interesting! Finally, I will end this day with a photo of his wood oven. This oven was different than others I have seen or worked with. This one was a lot shorter in height than others. The fire was set in the left side and the center and right side were used for cooking. Ideal temp is around 400 Celsius for an optimal pizza. On to the PUGLIA part of the post: Puglia, like I mentioned earlier, was studied on Thursday and Friday. The chef was a really great guy and I think the whole class got along with him very well. He mentioned that he worked in Boston in the late 1970’s and early 80’s so his English was rough, but a nice change! Background info on Puglia: Puglia is a huge stretch of land that starts to the north bordering Molise and continues all the way down the heel of Italy. It has a huge Adriatic coastline as well as a bay on the Southwestern side. The red wines from Puglia are really starting to take on a positive effect. I hear the whites are not even worth buying though! The reds are very good (this is the region with the Primitivo (zinfandel) grape) and affordable, making them a prime target for restaurateurs. The north of the region is a national park and a lot of the food is protected either by local authorities or as Slow Food Presidium items. The north is referred to at times as Il Gorgone and the south, Il Salento. Main crops in Puglia are: Grape Vines, Olives and Wheat There is a type of flour used in Puglia called GRANO ARSO. This flour is made from burnt wheat. Back in the days, after the wheat harvest, they would set their fields ablaze (till this day I am not 100% sure why). In doing so, the remaining grains of wheat on the floor would burn, but were never thrown out. The poorest farmers would pick these grains and use them as food. They were processed like normal wheat but the color is much darker and there is a huge taste difference. Definitely something worth tasting but I am not sure if this product is available in the US. Today the wheat is burnt in ovens but still resembles the product of the past. The CHEESE of Puglia was amazing. It was by far the coolest cheese tasting we had at the school. Here are a few descriptions of some of the things we tasted. Manteca: A tear drop shaped cheese probably weighing about 500 grams with butter in the center of the cheese. The cheese is a pasta filata. In the past, the butter was preserved in this method – as butter may go bad quickly. A great, fatty cheese. La Burrata: By far the grandest of all pasta filata cheeses IMHO. This is a round cheese with a knot at the top used to tie the cheese to a post to hang. It is soft and white on the outside, like the burrata or mozzarella di bufala but on the inside is a stuffing composed of Stracciatella of fior di latte, mozzarella di bufala and panna (cream). This cheese was amazing BUT has an extremely short life of maximum three days after being made or it will spoil and sour. Contrary to the name, there is not butter in this cheese! Treccia: This was a common cheese found around Italy. It is the famous braided Mozzarella di bufala. Please NOTE that when I say Mozzarella it is always from Buffalo milk and not cow’s milk. Cow’s milk is Fior di Latte and will always be for me! There were many more cheeses that day but these few listed made my MUST HAVE list! Puglia also is known for its great herbs, both farmed and wild. Like Calabria, Puglia has great wild oregano and many other wild types of vegetables. Some not looking too edible – but all delicious! Okay…picture time! Starting with Saccaria, the coffee factory, here are the fresh roasted beans being air cooled. The next few shots are of ‘Il Ritrovo del Balestruccio,’ the pizzeria in Stafalo. The wood oven Luigi making some pizza dough Finally, Dan and I trying to make pizza like Luigi. Not as easy as it seems! Below is a picture of those herbs and greens I just mentioned. The picture below is of the cheese Manteca described above. If you look closely you can see the butter in the center of the pasta filata cheese. Puglia is definitely the home of Orecchiette, the ear lobe shaped pasta. Although not the easiest of pastas to make by hand, it was fun! Here I am making some Orecchiette with the ‘burnt grain’ flour I mentioned above. Note the color of the pasta! The Chef, Peppe, worked in Boston for a while and loved speaking English with the few of us that did. He kept teasing about Spaghetti and meat balls and finally broke down and showed us what he says is the origin of the meatball. Traditionally the meat ball was not made with meat, but with bread (cost). Here is a photo after the bread balls were deep fried. These are made just like meat balls – just sub bread for meat. It is day old bread softened with either water or milk – squeezed to drain then combined in a bowl with eggs, parmesan cheese, parsley, and seasoning, formed and deep fried. After the balls were fried, they were added to a rich tomato sauce and cooked slowly for about 45 minutes. Then that sauce was used to coat some pasta and we ate lunch. These Polpette di Pane are great as a sub for meat or also smaller as a starter! This next dish was a spin on the classic Pasta e Fagioli. It was a two finger cavatelli that was mixed with beans cooked in a tomato based sauce. To close, here is the group picture with Peppe Zullo as well as Massimo, the chef of Marche Seafood. That Friday night we cooked for a local Ministry of Trade in Ancona and Massimo was there with us. The menu was mussels from Portonovo, a seafood layered pasta with béchamel and a lemon sorbetto for dessert with prosecco. These two pictures ore from my weekend – I went down to the Adriatic coast just south of Ancona. Enjoy!

With summer time travelling in Italia gets a bit tough! It sounds like you made the best of it though so Cheers!! How fast did that Alfa go!?! Ciao, Ore

Ciao, I recently had a bottle from Cantine Due Palme. I would recomend visiting this winery. I hear great things about it (an AIS) says it is great! Ph.# = 39 0831 617 909 Have a great time! Ore

Welcome Simon, Great to see you are on the move, Maybe in the future we will be direct competitors - or better yet, partners! I am also from the So Cal area. I start my stage at 'La Locanda di Bu' near Avellino (Campania) next week! Sorry I can't help too much with restaurants in that area - I hear great things about Don Alfonso though. Try checking out a Gambero Rosso guide for Italian Restaurants. Look up the area you want to go to and then find one with a score or description that matches what you are looking for. Have Fun! Ciao, Ore spelling!

wooooooow, Don't forget about the egg test! The egg test: Clean an egg well in water. Dry it and place it into your sorbet mixture - the egg should float and the tip should stick out about the size of a dime. If it is more than a dime - there is too much sugar. If the egg doesn't break the surface - there isn't enough sugar! This always works - good luck and also get that cool freezer moxer thing! Ciao, Ore ( I hope the Egg test works for you!) Oh ya - if there is too much sugar, your mox wont freeze. If it doesnt have enough sugar, you wont achieve the proper consistency!

Ciao, Where are you located - If in the LA area - I would check out For The Table On robertson and olympic - really cool things there! Ciao, Ore

Very cool topic! Here in Italy, and I am sure in many other countries other than the US, the chickens everywhere are dead - but whole. From toe nails and a few unplucked feathers to guts and all - dont forget the eye balls still attached to the head, still attached to the body! This makes for an extremely fresh pollo as all these parts spoil very fast - two or three days max! (so...sign of freshness as well) And wow do chicken look strange when they come like this! But very tasty! Ciao, Ore

Wish I could attend - I want one of those t-shrits though - who is in charge of that dept.?!?!?!?! Best of luck, Ore

Ciao, I do recall some mentions of legal terms and the word vanilla extract vs. vanilla flavor, etc. For it to be called extract it has to have a certain %age of real vanilla bean? any clarification on this? Thanks Ore

Ciao, I think, as long as it is presentable to that certain location, and management is cool with it being there - it's cool with me. The way the FOH acts really sets the mood for the restaurant. You can tell when they are in the weeds and service will be crap, you can tell when they are goofing off and you are just another diner, and you can tell when they are serious about the food and making you enjoy your stay where ever you may be. I remember watching a tv show about Japanese people who have full body tatoos. One person interviewed was a school principal who wears make up on his face and covers all his body with clothing (like all other people do) when he is at work - when he is home though - he looks like one very serious piece of art - just wanted to throw that in - kinda weird why it can't be accepted. Anyway - if you don't like it - don't go back! I think it's cool and can't wait to get written on! Ciao, Ore

Ciao, I have one of those stories too! Coffee after dessert - Dessert wine as dessert or with dessert - grappa in a few instances towards the end of the dessert or before the coffee. In the nicer places the coffee is usually served with a few sweets though - to kinda wash that coffee taste away when it is late at night - Uliassia and Madonina are two great examples! Ciao, Ore

Ciao, The first person that comes to mind is the food lover Jeffrey Steingarten. Why? From reading two of his books, I have come to notice that we like most of the same things, and I think (I KNOW (cocky!)) I can cook some of those things damn well! Plus, just a few coincidences...My mother is Tunisian, and I am studying the cuisine of Italy, two fairly hot topics in his books. Plus, this might one day become a reality! So, first thought goes to Steingarten...if you're out there...PM me! Ciao, Ore

Ciao, Ok…These last few days for me have been quite packed with information. Over the weekend we went on a class trip to the Veneto (I will write more about this when I am up to date!). Last Thursday night I ate at the famous La Madonina del Pescatore (which was awesome – will write more about that later too!). So, I am still playing catch up with the school program. This next region was covered on a Monday and Tuesday. The region was CALABRIA and the chef, Antonio Romeo. When introduced to this region, I really felt the presence of the SOUTHERN Italy come out here. The chef lectured about the history of the region and the nations that influenced its food history. There was a prominent effect by the Albanians especially in Lungro where the specialty was a pasta made solely with flour and HOT water to form shapes like cavatelli. Even larger than the Albanian effect was the Arabic and North African effect. Many foods still today have bridged over the Med. Sea. One of the first lines the chef gave us was this: “a GOOD wife knows how to make at least fifteen different types of pasta to be considered a GOOD wife!” Some of the most common ingredients in Calabria are Oregano, the wild mountain variety that is absolutely amazing, the use of Orange Leaves in cooking and sweets, and a signature sweet consisting of stuffed dried figs under honey, dipped in chocolate. Going into a more regional facet… Cirella – makes wine “the way the greeks used to” – also grow lots of citron that they use in a special dish that is used in combination with a type of blue fish. Mare Ionio – the Ionian Sea – Ciro – famous for its wine that is named after ancient people Crotone – the presence of a hot, spicy fish sauce called Sardella which is a derivation from the fermented fish sauce of Rome, Garum Botricello – known for its sweets and breads, the sweets taking on a more preserved appearance – usually under syrup or jams like. Catanzaro, the regions capital, has a famous dish called il Morsello. This dish, a lot like the Marche Brodetto, has many variations from house to house or from bar to bar. This dish is usually cooked in the entrance of a restaurant or bar to lure the guests in by its amazing aroma. The dish consists of very carefully cleaned and trimmed offal meats from veal. These meats are slowly cooked together in a rich tomato and red pepper based brodo. This is traditionally eaten with pitta bread and should be on the more fun/messy sides of eating! The famous Tartufo is from Calabria. This truffle takes its shape as the dessert kind where you may find gelato in the flavor of tartufo, chocolate truffle, or the special Tartufo as a round ball of gelato dipped in chocolate. The area called Vibo is known well for its pesce spada or sword fish. On with the pictures! This first picture is a shot of the chef making Tortino di Carciofi – an artichoke tart – cooked in a terra cotta pot. This second photo is of an oil that the chef made, which he used on almost every single dish we prepared that day. He just poured it on everything! Ingredients included EVOO, hot chili peppers, wild oregano, basil, and garlic. Let the oil sit covered for a few hours before using. This red sauce was very very odd. This is Sardella and is a derivative of the fermented fish sauce from Rome, Garum. It is made with anchovies and chili peppers, among other ingredients and really smells like funky feet. The taste is ok; we used it moderately and made a type of savory pastry with it. We rolled out a sheet of dough and spread the Sardella all over it, kind of like making pizza, with the sardella as our tomato sauce. We then rolled the dough up to form something like a jelly roll. Baked and sliced thin, quite tasty if you like fish sauce! The Calabrese love to roast things either in wood ovens or directly on or under hot embers or ash. Unfortunately at the school we don’t have a wood oven so we did the next best thing. The chef emptied four boxes of course salt between two hotel pans and put the raw vegetables on the salt. The vegetables were roasted in the oven at 170 degrees Celsius and then set aside to cool. We made a very refreshing antipasto or contorni with the peeled vegetables and the chef then continued to drown the whole lot with the seasoned olive oil he made earlier. Still great tasting, very easy and very fresh! This plate of mixed fried foods was delicious – it is very hard to destroy the flavor of anything deep fried! Here we had a fried zucchini flower, an anchovy fritter, sautéed sardines, and more varied seafood fritters. All very tasty. The Japanese students in the class helped the chef improve his tempura batter! Scilatelle or Filatelle is one of those 15 types of pastas a “good” housewife needs to know how to prepare! This one was not very simple either. A fairly stiff pasta dough was made using flour, water and eggs. Then we rolled by hand the dough to form a thin long string. Using a piece of straw, we made a type of shape similar to Buccatinni. The pasta was rolled along with the piece of straw which created the whole in the center. The straw was pulled out quickly leaving a ready, labor intensive, piece of pasta! As you can see, this pasta was served with a rich tomato ragu. Ragu alla Calabrese has beef, pancetta and goat meats in it, as well as sweet peppers and tomato. It is cooked for two hours before being ready. Finally, we ended Calabria with two semi-simple desserts. One was made very simply by taking tiny pieces of pasta and deep frying them. The pasta was then drained of the oil and mixed with honey and nuts. Baked for a tiny bit in the oven to set in a mold and then coated with powdered sugar. Yummy and simple! The second was a bit more complicated and included an apple and raisin filling with pine nuts and cinnamon. Each pastry was tied and baked to hold the shape. Tasty but not my favorite! During the two days of Calabria, the group of students as a whole took a strange dive. Some of the students were a bit upset about the quality of foods we were using in the class. To make some of these regional specialties the school had to purchase some frozen vegetables or vegetables that weren’t really IN SEASON anymore. That, and the language barrier between Italian and the students’ native tongue made for an interesting day of arguments! Today everything is fine but it was just a strange two days. Also, during the first few hours of day one with Calabria, the chef cut himself really bad and had to go to the hospital. He was OK but that also helped freak everyone out. Do look forward to Puglia, the second part of this week. I should be posting it shortly! Thanks for reading! Ciao, Ore

DELETED - DOUBLE POST

DELETED - DOUBLE POST

Ciao, I did the drive from NY to CA twice, back and forth. From NY to L.A. I drove mostly on the I-80 and it was an ok drive. Cut down through Colorado and downt to the 15 which goes right into Vegas. The way I liked more, and I thought was faster (less cops) was the way back. I drove from LA to Veags, then Vegas through the road that goes through the hoover dam. I remember something along the I-40 but cant be 100% sure. I remember going through the top of texas and OK and then cutting up to St. Louis. From there we somehow found the way back to NY through Hershey and its free tour! It was fun and fast, did it in four days with nice breaks in between. Good luck, Ore PS - the Taco Bells on the road are always quite good...how I miss taco bell!

Hmm... I like my pork MR. I lik it even more if it is cured, brined or smoked! I served a pork dish at a restaurant for about two months and it sold great. It was a pork tenderloin wrapped in Prosciutto and roasted in a wood oven. Sliced and set ontop of well cooked cannellini beans. Then an herb salsa and aged balsamic vinegar drizzled over the top. About 3 plates a week (5 days a week) would come back from about 40 sold so people do like their pork on the medium rare - medium side. I did not grow up eating pork at all, it was forbidden at home so I only started eating it about five years ago. Those three ways of preparing it above all make it taste so much better than just plain pork! Also, why do most Americans see pork as being something sooooooo different from other meats. Given that its rep is somewhat crushed from 20 or 30 years back - that worm is pretty much gone, especially if you get quality products. Ciao, Ore

Ciao, very very nice post. I wish you would have called me...I would have made the trip down to have dinner in Firenze with you, even though you are a total stranger and I don't have a coat! I actually first heard about this restaurant last night (saturday) when I was dining at Gigetto in Veneto. One of the Italian Master Sommeliers I was with mentioned that it has a nicer cellar than Gigetto (which I though was truly amazing). So...next time call! Thanks for the post! Ciao, Ore