Maureen B. Fant

Yes, I only just noticed her geographical attribution. However, she must be referring to Montecorvino Rovella, in the province of Salerno. There are several comuni named Campagna in Italy (in addition to plenty of campagna, small c), and one is indeed in the province of Salerno.

Thank you so much for the recipe! Did it have a name? My grandmother's town was in Salerno so Campangna makes sense. Did it say what type of chocolate to use (Dark or Milk?) Also, is the dough the same as strofulli? Also, any measurements on chestnuts, chocolate, etc. I will definitely make for the holidays. Thanks again. ← A message from the spelling nazi: Campania Strufoli Correct spelling is, of course, its own reward, but it also makes Googling much more effective.

so what's it called?

Without knowing even vaguely where your grandmother came from, it's a needle in a haystack, since all those ingredients are widely used in Italy, especially at Christmas. I've never come across the term bastadella, though bastardella is a kind of bowl. I tried searching strufoli, cioccolata, pinoli, cedro, and castagne all together but didn’t get anywhere. Still, they could be a kind of strufoli. Panzerotti?

Thank you. This is another winner. I may do this for TG, since it can be done ahead, and save April's for afterwards and use all the garlic. Besides deciding, my one remaining squash-related problem is getting it cut up.

Interesting but specific ingredients and the way cardune are prepared is missing in your recommendation. Besides it would be hard to find the same cardune (I call thenm cardos) here and there isn't the world even when my neigbours would collect some wild in the paddocks competing with other nationalities. Wow! they were prickly. Sage is kind of weed otherwise known as Salvia I personally like the young shoots for my sauces excellent. Finally. what do you do to the artichokes shoots do you fry them when they are parboiled? ← Italians parboil the cardoon stalks ( artichoke shoots are done the same) no leaves! then floured and fried. SAge is also salvia here not a weed, but an herb. we have very large leaved sage which is also fabulous battered and fried and served with prosecco. ← This is interesting terminology. Carciofi and cardi, i.e., artichokes and cardoons, are related somehow, and here their names seem to be fusing. Also their recipes. I'm not even sure I know what you mean by artichoke shoots. You mean the stuff that grows laterally off the stem that we usually throw away? As for salvia, yes, of course, it is sage, the domestic herb, but I recently heard of something known in English as salvia, but can't remember what. And back to my squash (sorry): if I can get it peeled and cut up (or vice versa) tomorrow, can I keep it in a plastic bag till Thursday? or what should I do? Looking at it again, I am afraid it's too small for all the guests. I love April's recipe, so maybe I should slice some potatoes to put underneath the squash. Or just dole out a spoonful to everybody and not pass the dish...

That sounds like a winner, but I would incline toward eliminating all the garlic. This is for Thanksgiving and a Provençal flavor is not the thing (when I do these things in Italy I get very traditional). Now, do we think I could do any part of this ahead, such as dicing the squash? If it actually needs a wood saw, I'd just as soon Franco did it today or tomorrow

At the moment, I am only in love with the incredibly flavorful squashes of Emilia-Romagna. The zucche we get here in Rome are usually rather watery and need to be put under salt like an eggplant. We went to this fabulous restaurant outside Ferrara and tasted this particular squash, which we asked about and then bought one nearby. I don't want to do anything to disguise the flavor. I wouldn’t add anything but butter and parmigiano. I bought it to serve at Thanksgiving dinner in lieu of sweet potatoes. If anything, my zucca is small for the purpose even though it is definitely larger than anything else in my kitchen at the moment (the turkey will be larger, however). I am imagining pieces of squash in a baking dish, possibly with some bread crumbs or parmigiano on top, but don't know where to start. Most local recipes are for purè or risotto or sweets. I picked up this booklet from Ostellato (where we bought the zucca) published for the zucca festival, and it contains a pasticcio di zucca e patate, which is on the right track, but contains emmenthal and sesame seeds in addition to ricotta, panna, and eggs, so it doesn’t have much credibility. Also, it starts with polpa di zucca, not a hard-as-granite whole squash. No gnocchi for Thanksgiving! I have a good soup recipe in my book, from Agata Parisella, but I really want to serve this squash as a veg next to my grandmother's creamed spinach. A friend is bringing the potatoes.

Stuffed with what? And how? It's a single big squash, not individuals, like acorn. I wouldn't even know how to cut it in half. And yes, if I dragged a squash on the train from Ferrara to Rome because of its superior flavor, I would not like to add anything that would compete. One option is purè but I think we're also having mashed potatoes, and that is too much mush. Something sort of scalloped and baked would be nice.

We had lunch a couple of weeks ago at the Locanda della Tamerice near Ferrara -- fabulous, but that is another story -- and tasted a squash that was so wonderful that we asked what it was and after lunch went straight to the nearby farm stand that it had come from and bought one to take home to Rome for our Thanksgiving dinner, in lieu of sweet potatoes (anybody want to address the topic of patate dolci too?). Now, if I make a mess of it, I can't run out and buy another, so any suggestions from you northerners? It is not that large, as these things go, about the size of a very small baby, and, of course, hard as a rock. I cannot find how to post a picture (imagegullet won't load), but it's sort of hourglass-shaped (violin, appunto) and has bumps all over. Many thanks for any tips.

I'd better not comment any further on that one, but bringing it back to pizza, how do people in Italy feel about people who eat all the toppings off the pizza, then eat the crust (or don't eat the crust at all, or eat the crust but not the toppings)? I see people do that in Canada/the US more often than I'd care to, and I always thought it was kind of weird (the perfect proportion of crust, cheese, sauce, and other toppings in one bite is what pizza is all about, imo), but is it bad manners? ← Sorry I haven't figured out the multiple quoting. I have seen folded napoletana pizza only in Naples on the street, but my experience is limited. The pizza I've had in sit-down pizzerias in Naples wasn't really foldable. What would people think of cutting up your spaghetti? I swear I overheard the following conversation sometime within the last year: Italian friend no. 1: You can't imagine what I saw in a trattoria last night. Some German tourists cut up their spaghetti into little pieces. Italian friend no. 2: Really? But how did they manage to eat it? In general, cutting spaghetti with a knife is viewed in a very bad light. It is considered morally right and good manners to learn how Italians eat this most Italian of foods. You have to have a very hard head to want to cling to your wicked ways in the face of a judgment of moral turpitude plus rudeness. This topic actually came up yesterday. I jumped all over the (otherwise perfectly nice and, as it turned out, a good sport) husband of one of my cooking clients (or victims) when he attempted to (unsuspectingly) cut his spaghetti with the side of his fork. When I related the anecdote later to a friend who is Italian but grew up in NY, she said of course people should learn how to eat spaghetti and found people's reluctance rather sad. She attempted some analogies for when Italians visit the US and the tables were turned, but none were convincing. And what would Italians think of picking off the topping and other eccentric behavior? Probably that the eater is (a) a spoiled brat, (b) a benighted North American, © a barbarian who, by definition, cannot appreciate the perfect harmony of a good pizza, (d) a true eccentric to be more pitied than reviled, (e) a wasteful American who is single-handedly responsible for consuming 75 percent of the earth's energy (this last is the one I get a lot at home whenever I leave a single hair of artichoke choke on my plate, much less leave an unnecessary lightbulb on ).

By pizza of course you mean round pizza served at a table set with cutlery (as opposed to pizza al taglio and other obvious finger foods). The rule is definitely knife and fork, but it is not a rule like "don't cut your spaghetti," which is inviolable. It's more like make a show of knowing the correct thing, then do what you like. The pizzeria is not the place where people are checking your manners. The drier, crisper crusts are slow going with a knife and fork, and you needn't think twice about picking up a neat wedge and eating it directly.

albiston--I think you nailed it right there. But even if the academia has a cream-based recipe, I'm still a purist. I have a question for some of the people on this thread (and it may be the start of another thread): What is your opinion of Grana Padano vs. Parmigiano-Reggiano? And I mean good, properly aged (18 to 24 months) Grana Padano. Not this 12-month stuff they try to pawn off as "Poor Man's Parmigiano-Reggiano." David ← You mean in carbonara or in general? If in carbonara, nothing called "padano" anything could even be in the running. The real debate, if you can call it that, is between parmigiano and pecorino romano. Pecorino is certainly the more "philological," i.e., respectful of the original dish, which comes from the hinterland of Lazio/Abruzzo, but most cooks today use a combination of parmigiano and pecorino, the deliciousness of parmigiano being difficult to deny.

Definitely dried peppers not vinegar. Peperoncino-flavored sweets have been quite fashionable in one form or another since the movie Chocolat. It's definitely not a Gilli monopoly. The town of Modica, in eastern Sicily, is famous for chocolate flavored with peperoncino. In fact, the Modica chocolate might be the best starting point rather than the peppers themselves.

I have never seen an American cookbook translated into Italian. In general Italians not only don't "get" American food, they are unwilling to believe there is anything worth eating on the entire North American continent, including Maine lobster. But I wouldn’t let language stop me. Most young people study English, and if they don't, they should. I'd suggest finding a cookbook that emphasizes native ingredients and that, excuse me, doesn't start its recipes with cans of condensed soup, and give it in English, perhaps with a box of wild rice or a small can of maple syrup, which is utterly divine on good Roman ricotta.

What I buy as merluzzo is Mediterranean. I don't think I've seen anything as large as a cod. Still, I would be glad to be enlightened about how you tell the difference. What is the NZ red bream sold as? Dentice? How can you tell the difference? How big is it?

I would very much like to get these all straightened out for once. I'm afraid I've been getting it wrong all these years. I just read in Davidson's Mediterranean Seafood that there is no cod in the Mediterranean, meaning that what I thought was cod is actually hake. I had always translated merluzzo as cod and nasello as hake, but Davidson applies both Italian names to the same fish, which he calls hake in English. I forget why, but I had always been under the impression that Spanish merluza was not synonymous with Italian merluzzo, the former being hake and the latter cod, but if they're both hake, well, never mind. My unscientific observation suggests that merluza (based on what I ate in restaurants on a trip to Bilbao) and merluzzo (which I buy frequently in Rome and have also had fresh-caught from Calabria) are similar but not the same fish, though I suppose they could be the same fish in different sizes (the Spanish being a lot bigger). Since the merluzzo I buy is definitely Mediterranean and the Spanish could be (is probably) Atlantic, they could, I suppose, be both different kinds of hake. Clearly I do not have a grip on the difference, other than taxonomic (they are members of different families in the same order), between cod and hake. What I recently ate in New England as cod (where they should know what a cod is) was closer to the Spanish than to the Italian. My esteemed colleague Howard Isaacs came up with the following for "Dictionary of Italian Cuisine": merluzzo usually used to mean (fresh) cod. Merluzzo bianco refers to Atlantic and Pacific cod—Gadus morrhua or G. macrocephalus—usually preserved (as BACCALÀ or STOCCAFISSO); the name is also used to indicate a fresh fish from Italian waters, either NASELLO or the merluzzo argentato (Merluccius merluccius). and nasello the name refers most properly to the Atlantic Gadidae family, but also to several members of the Mediterranean Merlucciidae family, notably Merluccius merluccius. As Gadus morrhua, et al., it is sold fresh or else preserved as STOCCAFISSO and BACCALÀ; the Merlucciidae are generally translated as hake, sometimes as whiting or sea pike (see LUCCIO MARINO) Finally, come to think of it, I don't recall ever seeing the label "nasello" outside the frozen-fish section of the supermarket. So, getting to the point, it seems true you haven't seen fresh cod in Italy and that it's all hake, and that merluzzo is used for both non-Med cod and Mediterranean hake and probably every other fresh fish of what Davidson calls the order of cod-like fish. Nasello would appear to be synonymous with merluzzo to indicate the Med fish. Now, does Spanish merluza correspond more or less exactly to merluzzo?

It's called Tuna and is only a few months old and exactly as you describe. A friend and I went for lunch earlier this summer to check it out and thought it was great, not that expensive given menu and location. Chi-chi décor but classic, unfussy cooking with a southern accent. It's open Sundays, evenings too.

I have heard rumors of a change of mgt at Sanpietrino and must check it out. Offal, as with all this research you should have figured out, is not a major item on Roman menus. Some traditional places serve tripe, oxtail, and rigatoni alla paiata. More than that is hard to find and even that much is not ubiquitous. If fear of offal is why Checchino isn't on your list, think again. You’re A-list is fine. There are only so many meals you can eat and obsessing will not make them more enjoyable. Of your B-list I like Ceppo, Baby, Giuda, Palatium, and Piperno. haven't been to Est in years so don't know. I had really awful food at Fiaschetteria Beltramme last time, a few years ago, and am equally unimpressed by Sora Margherita. They are the sort of places tourists think are cute and typical and regulars eat well at. That is the nature of the Roman trattoria. Regulars eat better than other people. Osteria dell'Angelo is OK but not worth the schlepp. Il Fico is mid-level casual, mainly seafood, and both good and friendly and also open on Sunday evening and deserves a medal. It is not, however, gastronomic A-list material, but really is pretty good.

First some vocabulary: coperto is cover charge, coperta is a blanket; mancia is a tip; servizio is the percentage service charge added to the bill or sometimes invisibly included in the prices. The basic principle is that waiters are salaried employees supposedly earning a living wage without counting tips, and in many places the tip never reaches the waiter anyway. If you are paying cash in a modest place, you can just round up. If you use plastic, it may be impossible to add a tip to the charge slip, and in any case it is considered a kindness to leave the tip in cash, which may be the only chance a waiter has to put it in his pocket. You would almost never calculate a percentage of your bill as in the US. Places that pointedly point out that service is not included are probably aiming at Americans who feel guilty if they don't tip at least 15 percent. The usual practice is to round up your bill and, depending on the elegance of the place and/or how long you stayed, or how much attention you required, you tip cash ranging from a couple of euro to 20. Five or ten covers most situations generously. When restaurants do not provide a ricevuta fiscale, a proper numbered receipt with the name and date, I figure they have already taken their tip in the form of the taxes they are not paying on my meal, so I tip nothing. Occasionally they will give you an informal bill and ask if they should divide the total among more than one ricevuta fiscale. That is actually a nice gesture, and rare.

That is really a toughie. When we take road trips (i.e., when I can bring a "library" bag), I pack Michelin, Gambero Rosso, latest edition, and Osterie d'Italia, latest edition. I have quibbles with all three, but have yet to find anything better I haven't written myself (and everything I've written is out of date). Otherwise, in English I find the Time Out guides the most credible where they apply. Everything else I schlepp, including the Touring Club, which I love for cultural stuff, disappoints, though I would have to award Touring runner up. I haven't bought the Espresso guide in a while, but it has never been entirely reliable. As for whether Gambero is intelligible to an English speaker, it's not even intelligible to an Italian speaker, so just read the final scores and addresses. The graphics give me a headache in any language, and the organization changes frequently (though the city guides are organized worse than the national). There are several indexes, inevitably not including the kind you want. The SlowFood guide, Osterie d'Italia, is hefty but its descriptions are more to the point and the hardcore local foods are in bold. So it's easier than Gambero. There is some duplication between the two guides, but GR is really about restaurants and creative chefs, and penalizes places that haven't changed their menus in 150 years, while that is just the sort of place SlowFood likes, though they have an unfortunate affection also for the "hey-kids-let's-open-a-restaurant" genre as long as it has a good wine list. For situations when we are driving and getting hungry and want to know the nearest place to find something decent to eat, Michelin and Touring Club are best. Of course, their orientation is motoring, while the others regard motoring as what you do between meals.

I've never seen it breaded, maybe floured but usually not. The classic way is to fry the slices in olive oil, but many people nowadays are trying to avoid all that frying, since the slices seem to absorb about a quart of oil each, and prefer grilling or baking the slices.

What red stem? I've never seen chard with a red stem in Italy. Savoy cabbage is unmistakeable. The leaves are light green and very crinkly even when cooked.

You got the mostarda. The other doesn’t ring any bells, but I doubt it was wrapped in a vine leaf. Was it a cabbage leaf? Savoy cabbage? chard? The generic term for things that are rolled up and wrapped is involtino, and involtini di verza (stuffed cabbage) is a definite maybe for you.

I think you are right about this - I'll bet Grandma Cataldo kept making it, and possibly adapting it to what she had available, as a way of keeping her connection to home alive. ← ’”Ammogghiu” is alive and well on Pantelleria as a condiment of raw tomatoes, oil, garlic, basil, and peperoncino. It is used on pasta and with grilled fish. I believe it's also used around Trapani. I don't know the history of the famous pesto trapanese, but I wonder if this could be a precursor. The word also occurs as mmogghiu and nvogghiu and somehow comes from the Italian invoglio or involto, meaning a bunch of wrapped up things. This etymology business comes from it.wiktionary.org. The description coincidentally corresponds exactly to what I put on bruschetta here in Rome.