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Which book? If anyone is inclined to by the book you could earn money for eGullet by setting up a link to the book via amazon.com. Here are the directions for how to do this.

On page 135 of Ana Tasca Lanza's book The Heart of Sicily: Recipes and Reminiscences of Regaleali she writes On the other hand, Clifford Wright, in his book Cucina Paradiso: The Heavenly Food of Sicily appears to agree with you. On pg. 54 of this book he states: He then goes on after forming the balls to roll them in flour, dip in egg whites and then roll in bread crumbs before refrigerating them for 30 minutes before frying. Guiliano Bugialli, in his book Foods of Sicily & Sardinia and the Smaller Islands has a somewhat different approach and technique. He makes his rice not in "the classic constant stirring risotto style", but "the drop the rice in boiling broth and let it sit style". He then shapes the rice into a large ball with three almost heaping tablespoons of rice before making a well into the ball for the filling and then adding a fourth tablespoon of rice to close it off. He also flours the rice ball, dips it into egg white and then rolls it in bread crumbs before frying. Of course, Tasca Lanza is the only native Sicilian of the group.

Of course throughout Italy and the mediterranean there are a number of ubiquitous species, such as calamari, octopus, branzino, etc to delight the palate. Howeverr, various areas have their own unique or uniquely special seafood products, whether they be a particular species, extra special quality or method of production/preparation that set them apart. A few that come to mind are moleche (tiny soft shell crabs) from the Venetian lagoon and a tiny, fantastically delicious shrimp, the name of which I have no idea, from the Straits of Messina. There are certainly places taht are particularly known for their products, whether they be anchovies, bottarga or clams. Wherre are they and what are your favorites?

As far as leftover vs. fresh, Tasca Lanza recommends shaping the balls while the risotto is still arm. when we made it in Sicily it was fresh. I did let them sit for a few hours after they were formed until I fried them, I figured that would help. They didn't fall completely apart, but they still had to be handled with care. It seems to me that perhaps I should have used more egg to bind them than I did. The arancine were not overstuffed. Maybe I didn't compress them enough.

Done!

I first learned to make aranicine with Ana Tasca Lanza at Regaleali in Sicily. She made it look so easy and it was. Using her technique (or what I remember from it) as a base along with her cookbook and a few othes I made a variation with the arancine stuffed with a pork ragu, peas and bits of mozzarella di bufala. The rice I used was carnaroli, that seeme to be of a good quality. While the arancine tasted delicious, they had too much of a tendenccy to break up. They were fragile. I'll describe my proces a little more than see if anyone can point out ways I might have improved their reslience. i made my ragu with chopped pork, onion, tomatoes, carrots and thyme and added peas. It was nice and thick and quite tasty if I say so myself. The risotto was made with carnaroli rice, Star "Classico" broth (as recommended by Ana Tasca Lanza at Regaleali), plenty of butter, Locatelli Pecorino Romano Cheese and a decent amount of saffron. This too was quite tasty and a bit al dente. It would have made a fine meal on its own then and there. To this I added a beaten egg. I would take a spoonfull of the risotto in my cupped hand, indent it, then add a small piece of mozzarella and some ragu, mold it and cover it with additional risotto to make a small ball. I then carefully dredged the ball in homemade breadcrumbs. They were already fragile by this point, when I fried them in 400 degree canola oil. They came out tasting fine and were light and fluffy, but one had to be too careful with them. Other arancine I've had were not nearly so fragile. Now, I am not looking to use them as baseballs. I just want to not have to be so skittish with them. Any thoughts on my technique? What do you do and what variations do you use?

Have you tried uploading the photos to imageGullet? The photos need to be scaled to a certain size (I believe 640x480) at which point it is easy. I would love to see them.

Pamela, Welcome to eGullet! I'm looking forward to more posts from you. Pamela doesn't just write cookbooks. She writes beautiful, well-researched, well-written, clear cookbooks on special aspects of Italian cuisine, including Balsamico, Pizze, Artisanal Food Products and Pasta amongst others. She is also finishing a book on Salumi. I suggest checking out her webpage for more information. Montepulciano is a beautiful town and one I hope to get back to before too long. I will second the recommendation of La Grotta. We had lunch there then visited San Biaggio. Both were magnificent.

Last year I bought a case of Frog Hollow peaches and had them shipped to me. They were good, but not worth the price. This year I decided I would give them another shot and went whole hog with farmer Al's picks. I've been getting a case of fruit every week this summer. It has been outstanding with a different variety each week. Perhaps the difference is they give their more select fruit to their more regular customers. All I know is I am in northeastern NY, where we are having our wettest and least summery summer in a long time. The Frog Hollow Fruit has gone a long way to convincing me that it really is summer afterall. For that alone, it has been worth the price.

Coupes make great ice cream, mousse or fruit salad dishes. For sparkling wines, however, I prefer the flute.

SKS, Welcome to eGullet! Tell us more about Sunami. What made it so innovative? What blew you away?

I think it is somewhat intentional for those hallways to be quiet or else it would be too difficult to maintain the aura of luxury in the restaurants.

The Biso agriturismo looks absolutely fantastic. The wine cellars are phenomenal, especially given that it is an agriturismo. Very special. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy Venice more, although that was my least favorite area in Italy food-wise as well. Even so, I was still able to get very good food without having to resort to BK. Given the nature of the ingredients available there I would expect the food to have been better than it is. Nevertheless, I thought the city absolutely beautiful and charming. Your discourse on rice is fascinating. I used Carnaroli rice instead of arborio for my risotto when I made arrancine the other night. The amylase factor might explain why my rice balls had more of a tendency to break up than others I've made. It would seem that vialone nano and carnaroli are better for risotto as such while arborio might be better for situations like arrancine, in which "stickiness" helps. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Saturday morning we had Apple-smoked bacon from Oscar's Smoke House in Warrensburg, NY and herbed slow-scrambled eggs using Liddell farm eggs and herbs from my own garden. We used tarragon, chives and thyme. I also went out and got sticky buns and bread from Rock Hill bakery in Glens Falls. We also had fresh farmer's market cantaloupe. Our Saturday lunch picnic consisted of some amazing area cheeses along with some super bread we purchased at Sheldon farmstand. The bread was local and outstanding. Unfortunately, I don't remember the baker's name . Cheeses included the soft goat camembert like Kunik from Nettle Meadow, a five year old cheddar from Grafton Cheese Co. of Vermont, cultured unsalteed Vermont Bread and Cheese Co. butter and another young goat cheese whose name I can't remember. all were outstanding. I wish Sheldon Farmstand was a little closer to me. It is about an hour away. We had these delightful morsels with a 1997 Petite Syrah from lava cap that I scarfed from my brother who lives nearby. In fact we picniced on his property. Sunday's breakfast consisted of Flying Pigs farm bacon, lamb sausages from 3 Corner Field farm and baked poulet eggs from 3 Corner Field farm. These eggs looked more European with their bright orange yolks.

I should probably give some more detail about the picnic itself, although I'll spare the sourcing We had a lamb salad with sheeps-milk feta, tomatoes and mint; pork with peaches,corn, onion and lime; roast chicken, Caprese salad; brie with bread; and Phaelon's Thai duck salad. Drinks consisted of Prosecco, peppermint iced tea and water. Desserts included brownies and blondies as well as some more peach ice cream. We ate well, but the best part was the company.

You have to get out of bed first JosephB and Family and Steven and Ellen came up on Friday night. Saturday we visited the Glens Falls Farmers Market, 3-Corner Field Farm, Flying Pigs Farm and Sheldon Farmstand in Shushan. We collected a wide range of local ingredients to go along with some I already had, came back to my house and created a great dinner, mostly prepared by JosephB. Some of the things we made werre tempura fried Kilpatrick family Farm squash blossoms, heirloom tomatoes and Starhill dairy mozzarella di buffala insalata Caprese, potato (made with Sheldon Farms potatoes) gnocchi with Vermont Butter and Cheese Co. butter and Sconzo Farm sage sauce, roast 3Corner Field Farm Leg of Lamb (from Julia Child's recipe in How to Cook), Roast Flying Pigs Farm Pork Loin Roast and Flying Pigs Farm Free-range Chicken, sauteed Van Eyk Farm chinese broccoli and Sheldon Farms Corn on the Cob. Non-local ingredients were used for fois gras froid, lime-infused flan and home-made peach ice-cream. The wines were decidedly non-local and came from Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Australia. The kitchen was actually a model of efficiency and teamwork both in preparation and clean-up. Leftovers were used to prepare for out picnic the next day, another reason we were late.

Very interesting article. The whole project was a big gamble. It is off to a slow start, but I think once the other restaurants come up to speed, they will do fine if they live up to their potential. They have to earn their stars and stripes. If not, too bad. It is still an interesting idea. I didn't know that Trotter had backed out and then came back in.

The Races were decidedly an afterthought yesterday. We got to the track later than anticipated (because we ate too well the night before), so when we did get there it was quite crowded - in fact too crowded to be comfortable. We hooked up with Phaelon56 and his lovely guest. After getting our umbrellas (it was umbrella day at the track) and checking out a few races, we all went back to my place where we had our picnic in relative ease. A few thoughts, if we are to do this again. It is difficult to find a weekend in which the racetrack will not be very crowded. It does not make sense to me to try to "wing it" getting a spot to picnic. It might have beeen reasonable with reserved tables. These cost money, which is not a big deal, but it is hard to anticipate numbers far enough in advance to be able to book them accurately and sufficiently. The tables were sold out months ago, apparently. My feeling at this point is that it is too difficult a venue for a large group to get together for a pot-luck picnic that is not corporate sponsored. As such, I think this may not be the greatest venue for an eGullet get-together in the future. We had fun and a lot of it, but it was mostly despite the track. A show at SPAC may be a better venue for a Saratoga area eGullet potluck. I will keep an eye out for an appropriate show next summer.

Dorpsch, Welcome to eGullet! We would love to hear about your experiences at the Slow Food Institute as well when the time comes.

I have discussed guinea fowl with a number of area poultry raisers. While many of them raise some guinea fowl for specific barnyard reasons, none have appeared enthusiastic about raising them commercially. Some reasons are that they appear to be particularly annoying birds to raise and they grow too slowly to be profitable. Raising a "meat" chicken such as Cornish Cross is much easier and cheaper even in a true free-range situation. This is too bad since guinea fowl is in my opinion one of the very best eating birds around. I enjoyed some wonderful "faraona" in Italy and some particularly fine guinea fowl at Blue Hill in NYC. Then again, this weekend I had some roasted fresh free-range chicken from Flying Pigs Farm that was also spectacular. Bison is being raised very successfully at Sunrise Mountain in Cambridge, N.Y. I'm surprised that goat meat isn't easier to find.

As far as I know the staff will remain the same for the time being, including the chef, however, the chef at FLI was never a constant other than than they all have been more than competent. The driving force and unifying factor in that kitchen has always been Greg Taylor. He has always put his vision and stamp on the cuisine. The fine details as to execution , however, came from the chefs, which did provide for variation over the years. As a result I expect the cuisine to evolve stylistically a little more in the future than it has previously. I'm hoping that the quality will remain up to previous standards.

They still have a fantastic winelist, the number of bottles of each selection has been halved. I'm not sure yet if the Taylors will be selling off the remainder of the winea and if they are how. When I find out more, I will post it here.

God is my Broker is a fun read. I also loaned it out and never had it returned. As far as cement tanks, I believe one of the world's most interesting wines is vinified in cement tanks - Chateau Musar from Lebanon.

I thought most Italian peaches were white fleshed? do you know where your peaches/nectarines werre from? This has been the best summer for peaches here that I can remember.

With the possible exception of Thomas Jefferson, has anyone ever been so influential to American cooking and eating over so long a period of time and to so many people? A legend is gone. May she rest in peace.