Judith Umbria

Poor you! Your mother is proof that people who don't care about food sometimes bear those who do care. My mother cared a lot, my kid cares a lot... so how lucky am I? I am cooking for just 6-8. We will start with various cheese mousses with homemade crackers. Then we are having asparagus risotto, followed by artichoke lasagne. I am cooking half a milk lamb, very tiny and pitiful. I have to cook his head for the cats and I don't want to, but no waste allowed. Shudder. With him will have cannelini heated in his pan juices and then green salad. Dessert is offered by a guerst and will be carrot cake, which I think is sort of a stretch. We believe in Easter bunnies after all? Another guest will bring some sort of bread. It's all Italian until dessert, all to be devoured like wolves to a lamb in sheep country Umbria.

It varies widely from region to region, but if you would like to read about its place in Calabria, Michelle of Bleeding Espresso blog published it. There's a link to her recipe. She blogs from Calabrian village world. http://bleedingespresso.com/2010/03/i-zippoli-di-san-giuseppe.html

"Red sauce Italian" doesn't sound authentic to me, but more "authentic Italian-American-with-roots-in-Campania."

I am on a low carb diet before the tourist and cooking season starts. I just published a dish using cabbage: http://www.judithgreenwood.com/thinkonit/a-nameless-low-carb-dish-that-resembles-lasagne/ and posted the article. No, it isn't lasagne, but it's really good. I won't call it lasagne and after several tries I find fewer thicker layers are better than a bunch of thin layers for this. After a couple of months of no pasta I have to say I loved this. It isn't really made like lasagne because it is mostly raw when assembled other than the quickie tomato sauce. I'll think about the cauliflower, but I eat it so much on this diet I am not sure I want it in this change of pace, too. Wow, this is a shaky photo. I must have been hungry.

I sometimes don't cook it if I've just made it, and certainly when I am trying to be fancy and entrap herb leaves between two thinnest sheets for the top layer it needs to be raw. I tend to like a simple light as air lasagne because it isn't usually "the" dinner but a first course. That said, I have enjoyed other people's kitchen sink lasagne, too. I'll be making an asparagus lasagne for Easter dinner and trapping nettle leaves in the pasta to make it pretty. It will be about 8-10 thinnest layers with besciamella of asparagus and asparagus tips. I just haven't decided which cheese will serve me best. Rich, yes! But the servings will be small.

I bought one of those squashes a couple of weeks ago. Since I didn't know it, I cleaned it and cut it into big chunks and then slow roasted it with only salt and oil until it was tender enough to taste. I tasted. Ginger and garlic came to mind, so I minced some up, put it on the cut sides and returned it to the oven for half hour or so. It was terrific. If I had put the minced garlic on at the beginning, I think it would have scorched.

Diva! One does find you in the most unusual places. Take us somewhere rare and insiderish for lunch.

I haven't and must. I am deeply lazy. I do NOT crave the lumache. They are ruinous to my garden and I hate hate hate them! BUT not enough to eat them for it. I was very careful when planning a party at a restaurant not to get rabbit on my menu, so instead they surprised us with lumache! Erg.

"Right across the border into Tuscany, near Sansepolcro is fantastic pizza at Il Paradiso (we all call it the Lesbian pizza place as its all run by women...who are totally gorgeous). Try the 'rustico salad" which is simple slices of orange, raw garlic and olive oil. Its an inspired combination." Oops! That is in San Giustino Umbria and is called "Il Pensiero Stupendo" after a Patty Pravo song from the 70s. I have no reservations about "il Postale" as I find that for the price it's a great meal. Michelin one star for 30-40 € plus wine? In C di C there is also "Buongustaio" to recommend any day but Tuesday -- on San Florido. Outside the centro on the road to San Giustino, take the first right after the Cross mall and continue to "Ristorante Pulcinella" for seafood in both Napolitano and Umbrian style. Very good vale. I reviewed it for Slow Travel website.

>>Your job, should you accept it, is to share with us your own staples shopping >>list and the cost of each item on it. My job, continually, is to find things that can substitute for a lot of those on your list. If you feel like being patient, I can approximate some of them. I think most US Americans are surprised at how much more things cost elsewhere, and once you know how little people are paid here in Italy, it become even more surprising.

Ciao, Giuditte! I don't know if those cookbooks even have names! Mine seem to feature the name of the region prominently and probably the word cucina. I just leaf through them to be sure they are not in incomprehsible dialect and if they do not lean heavily on octopus, squid or guts and buy them. Couple of euro up to maybe 5 euro. Once you get used to what they mean by a glass, qb and cucchiao, they are mostly simple recipes. I have yet to make a volcano of the flour, however. I make a lake in my Cuisinart.