Pontormo

That looks like a particularly HUGE King Oyster mushroom. You ought to go back to the merchant with visual evidence and get real porcini or your money back. I've had fantastic smaller King Oysters, given to me by a vender at the farmers market in appreciation for volunteer work and they were amazing!!!!! I found out later that they are called the "Poor Man's Porcini" by some. In that case there was a profound odor when I cooked and the stems were delectable with just butter, salt and a little fresh lemon juice. Excited the see them at the supermarket (Whole Foods) for an affordable price, I bought them for a special meal I cooked for a friend visiting from California. Blah!! Virtually tasteless like yours. In all other respects, your meal looks wonderful. The sausages seem especially seasonal. It's great to have you back here.

Samuelsson's personal background is rather unusual and it was, after all, his success in presenting Scandinavian food so elegantly in an upscale restaurant that led to his ability to publish a cookbook on neglected African cuisine. Here in D.C., we've got Warren Brown of Cake Love who has jumped rather quickly from Law to culinary entrepreneurship to a role on the Food Network. I should add that despite his decision to make pastry, he's developed a strong professional relationship with one of this area's major farmers markets and therefore all its affiliated local chefs plus Washington-type supporters. Relevant to the discussion are matters of class, social status and the culinary hierarchies reflected in the recent list of Gourmet's Top 50 restaurant. 1) Samuelsson's European background & Brown's law degree give both men a kind of cache' (awkwardly put, I know). 2) While "foodies" (ick, but...) revere celebrity chefs, there are a lot of people who do not know who Thomas Keller is and do not respect cooking all that much. Deciding to attend the CIA does not mean what going to Harvard or Howard does and for many middle- or upper-class African-Americans it might seem to be a step down. 3) Cf. Number 1. Edna Lewis gained her stature in New York City. It seems that this was necessary before we decided to respect her grits, greens and pound cake. Why is every good restaurant on G's list an expensive, upscale establishment? What about the terrific Ethiopian or pilgrimage-worthy modest places in the South?

The topic has been discussed in this forum on a number of occasions since the general rule is by no means an absolute one. Kevin72 mentioned the issue on his year-long cooking blog, probably around December when he was preparing a mult-course seafood feast for Christmas Eve. Here's a short thread: the biggest lie. This is a report on a trip that inspires a discussion, so search earlier and later entries, but I am linking you to a key exception that relates to your own experience: Two Weeks.... There is a discussion in one of this year's series devoted to regional dishes: "Cooking & Cuisine of...", but it evades me. One observation is that pasta tends to be served without cheese when it is sauced with seafood. However, there are a few main courses that combine cheese with seafood.

1) Nigella Lawson boils first, then roasts in one recipe in Feast. She also rolls her triangular (hmmm...) bits in semolina before coating them with fat. 2) Regarding the current focus, cf. this thread and its experiments: click.

That makes a lot of sense, Adam. Thanks. Reminds me of first grade when my teacher protested that she read the list of ingredients on the graham crackers and it said "flour" not "wheat," so she was sure it was okay for me to eat them despite my (then) allergy. I tried plugging in the words "piccolo" through "grande" in a google search and found that the Italian entry in Wikipedia is all about spelt. I also found a tour through Tuscany for culinary tourists that is called a Spelt tour; cf. this side by side translation of "farro" as "spelt." This site explains that spelt is more common in Northern Europe and that "farro medio" or emmer wheat is more prevalent in Italy. It was also, apparently, something shared by bride and groom in Ancient Roman weddings...the origin of frosted cakes? Click on "English" and a little cartoon character will teach you about Emmer wheat. However, in the Italian text I've linked, if you "clicca qui per la tabella...." (text in brown), you'll see list of names in English, Latin, etc. This company also has an English text. And someone who shows up to complain here on eGullet from time to time also writes about the confusion on his blog in an entry on bread/wheat. Illuminating.

1) Replicating the foam in an iced mug of beer might be fun. 2) After seeing the link to your exquisite chocolates, Mette, I'd encourage you to go with your strengths. Just because a pairing of chocolate and beer seems obvious (grrr arrrg ) does not mean that something original, creative and self-expressive can't be done with that combination, let alone a deconstructed-beer dessert.

Gorgeous meal, Judith! After your blog week, I keep thinking you have to be there to do this region justice. I look forward to more cardoon experiments. I'd bet they'd be good breaded and fried or in braises. I have a bit of a thing for farro since it's important in a lot of Tuscan dishes, too and it sounds as if we both like it in salads a lot. Someone in Florence explained the confusion, but I also found sites that should help clarify. I agree sources are inconsistent, but that is the nature of the internet. Italians who have the same problems with translation we do, like us end up relying on the inaccuracies they assume are authoritative. I've already brought farro back to States (felt as if I were sneaking it past customs) and compared it to the wheat berries that my neighborhood natural foods store no longer carries. I have purchased the Italian product here at several specialty stores, including Dean & Deluca. It is different, though your entry is right to point out cooking time is determined by whether or not the grain is hulled (perlato) and not by type of wheat. Those of us in the US old enough to have cooked our way through Silver Palate may recall a minestrone soup in which wheat berries were an ingredient; it wasn't until much later that I learned what they replaced. Wikipedia is NOT always reliable, of course, but I am including its entries due to photos. Even though the processed grains look very similar raw and cooked in soups, the plants look quite different. One , two (entry provides link to spelt and its picture, three and finally, where you'll notice some pasta contains both farro/emmer and spelt. In her blog this week, Eden is talking about obsessing over arcane matters and a fellow-researcher running from the room in the middle of a collaboration. This is not unrelated, so I'll stop here and let you click on links if you'd like. * * * BTW: Nigella Lawson includes an Umbrian-inspired meal in Feast and Nick Malgieri includes an Umbrian apple tart in his book on Italian desserts.

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.

Brava! Thank you, Judith for the articulate overview and beautiful, beautiful pictures. My Garzanti translates "gobbi" same as your dictionary does, however, online Italian sources suggest that "cardi gobbi" are simply cardoons. Are there different types? What I often do is attempt a google image search just on Italian sites when up against an unfamiliar culinary noun. That led me back to the Umbria in Bocca site where the recipe for Cardi Gobbi is translated as "Cardoons" in its English translations of recipes. I didn't realize "vin cotto" is the same as "sapa." I know I have access to the former. However, for just a drop or two, I hope my substitutions do not seem out of place. I have seen the squash you mention. I know zucca is used a lot for soup and simply roasted with olive oil or made into gnocchi with butter and sage, etc. Just wasn't sure how much it is part of local diets. It complements both lamb and pork, so...

Judith: 1) What did you do with your cardoons? 2) Are the lentils different--other than remaining more intact? 3) Is winter squash a local staple at this time of year? I found one recipe for the latter in which the squash is cubed and sauteed with pieces of chicken, then flavored with sapa and sage. Sapa is apparently made by cooking the must of red grapes with white grapes until a concentrated syrup is formed. Since I already have homemade molasses made from pomegranates and another from sour cherries, this might be interesting to do with pork. * * * Kevin: As for the addition of tomatoes to the chickpea and farro soup, think of it as a precursor to the use of catsup in the U.S. Superior, really. Would you mind divulging how much you had to spend on farro in your hometown? How widely available is it? I've had no success trying to convince Whole Foods to carry it. It's so much better than the unhulled wheat berries and emmer wheat is grown here in the midwest, I believe.

No clout, just better luck. Beatrice was not the name of the person who replied and as I said, she was extremely gracious as is evident in her reply. Report back should you be really pleased with results.

A patriotic Umbrian dish called La Bandiera consists of sweet local green bell peppers, finely chopped onion and tomato, seasoned simply with salt, pepper and olive oil. It seems fitting on a holiday added to the calendar in the United States to give Italian-Americans a sense of pride. Anna del Conte published a variation on the regional tradition in her book on Northern Italian cooking, listing a number of red, white and green vegetables to be roasted together in layers. In light of Judith's recommendations, I kept it simple and longing for the roasted potatoes that appeared in her blog last week, I chose to accompany them with red bell peppers and zucchini and left out the tomato passata. They were plated to resemble the flag, yet spaced so the different vegetables touched only the browned bits of their own kind. I served the contorno with an equally simple pork chop, marinated and later cooked with garlic, ground fennel seed and sage, to hell with Mario. Pan juices mingling with olive oil were finished off with a little more of the white wine I added after searing the meat. A little lemon. Salad was yet another form of La Bandiera, with tender, tiny rucola leaves, deep reddish purple beets and shards of shaved Pecorino in honor of the nourishment sought by the newly born lambs wobbling in the dewy grass.

Steve, I know you were looking for wit and fun, but many people really do connect their eating habits to a desire to lead a more virtuous life. For example, take my current signature line. It's inspired by the author's notion of Temperance in a not completely secularized response to traditional Christian Virtues. Note the primacy of the reference to food and drink. Just as feasting is a way to celebrate and indulge, fasting or abstinence is central to attonement in just about every religious tradition familiar to me. Ascetic spirituality takes that kind of behavior to an extreme, thus the accounts of saints who live on nothing but air or the meager diets of monks, nuns, penitents, pilgrims, etc. Less committed folk can appropriate such extraordinary behavior during holidays in communal practices that mark their identities, uniting them to a group and distinguishing them from others with whom they share their lives. Some Christians accept the Eucharistic host and drink consecrated wine in an act that fuses individual devotion and collective identity. Since so-called sinners are denied the right to take Communion, this ritual form of consumption is tied to notions of guilt and absolution even if it may be viewed as the culimination of a series of steps taken to attain attonement rather than an act of absolution. (Or so I believe. My perceptions as an outsider may be inaccurate.) Are all forms of this kind of behavior secularized? As children, we believed that we might be redeemed in our parents's eyes if we eat all the peas on our plate or that we can somehow undo a terrible thing we did that day if we drink all of our milk in one gulp. It's not only bullies that make you eat worms. A child may think he will redeem himself if he eats something disgusting. Such notions of magic make us believe that if we do without carbs and refined sugar, eat brown vs. white food, forgo meat, etc., we shall be purer...and might be able to undo all the sins of our past transgressions. Diets are a form of absolution, if not as dramatic as forms of purging we view as a symptom of an illness. Carrot sticks instead of cigarettes are another. If we shop, cook and eat local, we can undo some of the harm caused by shipping and processing in the food industry over the past few decades. Oprah Winfrey believes that you shouldn't eat after 7 P.M. This form of self-control is a corrective measure, and therefore an act of absolution.

Sometimes you just have to ask! Here's a reply from a very gracious representative of gustiamo.com:

Looks beautiful, sounds delicious! Wow! I am humbled not only by the creativity but the fact that you came up with something this good in a week you hosted a large party and sculpted a portrait bust--or cheese head. I admit that I was a bit skeptical when Ling first posted her challenge. It did sound as if it would be difficult to pull off something this appealing and original. One of the lessons here, I guess, is to keep the requirements simple and give the challenged pastry chef room to interpret them as s/he sees fit. Hat off to Lorna, too, for her choices, and... Kudos to Kerry Beal for launching this new series!

"With Little or Nothing"--now that's my kind of title for a cookbook! Elie: Beautiful meal, as always, especially the potatoes* and the perfect loaf. This weekend I just couldn't bring myself to take any tomatoes home from the market, so your simple condimento is something I can't quite replicate. There's only a handful of last week's plum tomatoes that are not quite ripe. Kevin: perfect grill marks on your bread! I overlooked the pasta recipe in Boni and picked up mine on the internet. There are so many of us who own Ada Boni's book now, I am determined to use it for more than research this month. One thing I noticed is a lack of contorni. She sticks to primi, meats and desserts for Umbria & Le Marche. Klary: Welcome back! Now, where are you? Were you able to purchase porcini at the market? Judith's wonderful blog from Montone** inspired me to make a pot of lentil soup which I've been enjoying in the evening, adding slivers of beet greens when heating it up to avoid making a salad. Dash of red wine vinegar, ground pepper and finally, a dusting of cheese. Judith: Speaking of your lentil soup, what distinguishes the prized lentils of Castelluccio from others? One thing I noticed from your blog is that the Green Heart's pulse (her pun, folks) stayed intact, like Le Puys. As for the vegetable I mistook for parsley: HEADS UP: OCTOBER 15 is the day that the annual Sagra del Sedano begins in Trevi. * * * Finally, if anyone knows anything particularly interesting or simply nourishing from Umbria to prepare with any of the following ingredients, I am all ears: pork chops (Kevin, I did note your entry in last year's blog which sounds good) potatoes (from farmer's market, meaty, phenomenal) fagiolini (farmer calls them French Fillets. Beautiful, thin, perfect) colored bell peppers (lots) apples (ditto) *Buttercup squash* (really would be interested) No cream or green olives left in the house. Fresh herbs: sage & parsley and some sad, blackening basil leaves. FOOTNOTES *An Australian documenting his journey through Umbria on SlowTravel notes that it is best not to order potatoes in Italy as his friend cautioned him. Italians don't know how to cook them, he reports. He also notes that he and his wife had gotten into the habit of ordering separate side dishes since the main course they selected never seemed to arrive with vegetables of any kind. **Braccio di Montone is the name of a Renaissance mercinary soldier who briefly took one of the cities Judith visited last week. Assume the source of the town's name as well?

Aha! Eden, since your audience includes a number of seriously interested readers (there's a Bartolomeo Scappi freak reading as I type), it would be great were you to tell us what sources you are using once you begin to introduce your menu and dishes. Explaining how you went about orchestrating the courses and updating recipes would be interesting, too...as much as it is reasonable to ask you to provide, that is. I understand this is a very busy week.

I couldn't find the post in a quick search, but either karljung (? something like that) or Swiss Chef documented a pasta-making venture that included quite a few egg yolks and produced a golden dough. I thought it was in the Cooking & Cuisine of Piemonte thread from January 2006. However you might need to PM either/each if no one else pipes up with a more specific reference.

Last night I got back from errands around the same time that "Weekend Edition" was drawing to a close and the music being promoted was that of the Sicilian artist, Carmen Consoli. At one point, I jumped. "Bramo," she sang. "Bramo" is my favorite word in Italian. It means "I yearn," and is customarily uttered by late medieval saints in early printed books. Judith, bramo!

First (cropped) image is the final of four spalliere panels that recount the story of Nastagio degli Onesti from The Decameron. The moralizing tale advises women to give in to the desires of suitors lest they spend all of eternity chased naked by hounds until, exhausted, their hearts are torn out of their bodies, alive. Botticelli's workshop produced the cycle for a wedding that tied the Pucci & Bini families in the late 15th century, most likely arranged by Lorenzo de Medici. Connection? I give up unless it's Ore who also trained in Jesu. This part had to be edited because I intially guessed that the blogger was someone Italian getting married or someone in Italy responsible for preparing a wedding banquet. (Terre Madre's later in the month.) HOWEVER, look at the electrical outlet. The blog recording some form of communal cooking at a large event will be set in North America, right? In Italy, at least, you'd need round holes that accept two prongs. Also note the white gloves on the guy (?) to the right and the long, full skirt in foreground, left, of the third image. There are Renaissance Fairs going on still at this time of year...

thanks for reply, Judith. I know those bells--they're out in the countryside surrounding Florence too, where there are little wars between the foreigner (Swiss) and the locals as to whose methods of raising the bell-wearers is superior Well, have a splendid time with Arlo. I still think it's funny he rides a motorcickle. Or I should say a motorcy- ETA: cle.

: "We like sheep!" I was hoping you'd photograph flocks. 1) Every introduction to Umbria calls the region "the Green Heart" of Italy, not only because of its land-locked status, but because of its fields. Are there any other cheesemakers around with goats or cows? Special crops or orchards? 2) Re regional cuisine: When is it time for local lentils or soup with farro? Do people still grill a lot outdoors? As for the soprano (very funny account): cf. the first image on this page; click to enlarge. Painted by a Florentine and close follower of Giotto for an ecclesiastical patron buried in the Lower Church at Assisi, this donor portrait shows the deceased clinging to the hand of Mary Magdalene. The Franciscans are devoted to MM since she embodies their penitential nature and she is often depicted in a red garment, i.e. wearing the color that distinguished prostitutes from other women of the late Middle Ages. Coincidence, I'm sure.

I made an excessive amount of bechamel last night for something different. Wish I had remembered the croquettes and reserved it. * * * Just wanted to say Mark (see, your name is first) and Rochelle were right: the sofrito goes well with the TORTILLA DE PATATAS. Now, I need to figure out what else to do with the sauce with ingredients I have at home. I also liked this recipe, but admit I had the same problem I experience from time to time with recipes that call for smoking hot pans. Whenever I read Bill Buford talk about how hot the stoves are in restaurant kitchens or I see the high flames on macho cooking shows, I keep wondering what it is that makes their food brown slightly, caramelize or sear instead of burn. Is it the copper bottom on my pan that gives me different results? I waited until the olive oil smoked to plop in my potato, onion and egg mixture, adding a fourth egg to half the recipe just because I went a little too happy on the onion. The edges immediately became scalloped (you know, like a girly collar or old-fashioned ornate candy dish at Aunt Bertha's house) and seized up before I started to shake the mixture into place in the pan. I ended up flipping it over a little prematurely for fear of burning the tortilla. End result was fine, but browner than I would have liked. The first time I heard about Spanish tortillas was when I was making my way through a now classic vegetarian cookbook by Anna Thomas. Over the years I somehow developed the notion that they were basically the same as frittatas. However, Jose Andres, at least, employs a much different method. Once I find my way past the Fearing of Burning, I certainly would be able to appreciate the quicker cooking time. FYI: A Tuscan contorno went beautifully with the tortilla since I ate the latter as a main course. A farmer from West Virginia has been bringing these exquisite little French string beans to the market. After blanching my lot, I sauteed them slowly in olive oil with slivers of garlic and lots of salt, adding a little more water now and again, until they turned an unappetizing Army green and some of them pulled apart. Trust me.

Bump up. Recently there was an article in the NYTs about nice things you can find in supermarkets. One item was B & M Boston Baked Beans which the author admired for the traditional method in which they were cooked and called them "not too sweet," or something to that effect. I disagree, having been brought up on the stuff which I always doctored until I finally decided they were no longer any good. Much too sweet. High fructose corn syrup? The ingredients did not seem all that traditional. SOOooo, anyway, I had to buy a chunk of Niman's Ranch salt pork for a different recipe and have lots left over, so I figure why not make a pot of baked beans? If anyone has further musings, including suggestions for using salt pork as opposed to bacon, please illuminate me. Also might do the brown bread thing if I can find something other than an empty coffee can to use. Any steamed brown bread makers here? (I will conduct searches here and elsewhere, of course.) I own the first edition of Bittman's *How To Cook Everything* which contains a number of errors and omissions. It promises instructions for steaming the bread, but does not deliver.

Sigh. I don't know which I find more beautiful: the close-ups of porcini, black truffles mixed in strands of pasta or the distant views of the town and Roman making his way out of the woods in geeky rubber boots. Thanks for the pictures of the market, too. You said there are around 800 people in your town, right? Just how many bars can a town of that size support? Are you and your husband the only adopted foreigners? Finally, if others in your community are not shy, now that we've seen the piazza in the morning, might we have a picture of the evening passegiata?