Slow Food Diary -Study in Italy

[divina]

Ore.. if you get a chance to go back to Senigallia.. you must go by ANIKO', it is a little bar at the beginning of town ( away from the beach side) that is by Moreno Cedroni, the head of the JR ( young chefs organization in Italy)

his restaurant is out of town... Madonnina del Pescatore ( michelin star) fabulous!and then he also has another place Clandestino below Ancona on the beach!!!

his specialties are fish SALAMI's.- smoking and aging fish.. also has some great preserves... oils etc!

how much longer are you there?

[Ore]

Ciao,

I will be in Jesi until the middle of August. I am actually renting a car and going to Nusco...vicino Avellino in Campania tomorrow...Saturday morning. I am going to check out the restaurant I will be staging at. Locanda di Bu. So, I will post again on Sunday night or Monday!

Ciao,

Ore

[docsconz]

Enjoy!

[Ore]

Ciao,

So, I am first going to write about the weekend that just past, then more about the course.

Friday evening (July 16) I rented a car for the weekend. It was not the easiest thing to do! I needed to learn how to drive ‘stick’ in one day! In the US, we aren’t really big on manual transmissions!

‘Giussy’, the kitchen manager at the school, was nice enough to take me out on the road both Thursday and Friday so I can get this new technique down. It wasn’t easy but I managed!

Come Friday night I was doing great. One incident involved a really steep hill but I am still here writing so that’s a good thing!

Friday night I ate at Uliassi in Senigallia (Marche). I am almost sure that Uliassi and La Madonina are the two ‘hottest’ restaurants in the area. This Thursday I will be eating at Madonina!!!

The meal was great; I dined with a fellow student of the Slow Food course who will be doing her stage at Uliassi when we are done here in Jesi. Keep in mind that I am not the greatest of writers and I am recalling all of the following menu items from memory! Here we go!

Uliassi, the name of the chef, is a nice restaurant situated on the beach front boardwalk at the north end of Senigallia. When we walked in, we were greeted quickly and met the chef’s sister who runs the FOH.

The restaurant was fairly busy, only a handful of tables free but they were sat later on in the night. Our reservation was for 9 PM which I think was a perfect time. The sun was setting but it was still bright enough to enjoy the sunset!

We started off quickly with an aperitivo. This was some sort of sparkling wine, I am almost sure it was prosecco and then the AMUSE came out. By far the largest amuse bouche I have ever eaten! It was a rectangular plate with five little bites to begin a great meal.

From left to right I started with a 2 cm long corn flour ‘cone’ that was filled with a delicious cheese filling. The next tease was a small square piece of mozzarella and anchovy, about the size of a chocolate truffle, breaded and deep fried – served on the tip of a long skewer. It was garnished with tiny brunoise of bell and picante peppers. Going along, the next few bites were of a round formed shrimp skewer. The shrimp (must have been a fairly large one) was pounded flat, but perfectly round, breaded and fried again on the tip of a long skewer. There was a ginger mustard(?) sauce on the shrimp. The next taste was of three parmesan crisps served in a shot glass. Finally, the last taste on the plate was a mint sorbetto served in-between thinly sliced mango to look like a tortellini. All were very tasty and went great with the sparkling wine.

We were presented with the menu and wine list. The wine list was well written and thorough. The menu was interesting. There was a tasting menu where the chef only used stockfish or baccala for all the items on the menu. Very interesting. We chose the ‘normal’ tasting menu and sat back waiting for the next dish to come out.

We were presented with a ‘raw’ calamari with seaweed sauce. Basically the dish consisted of eight or so little, quarter sized, squid bodies laid out on a thin, narrow plate. The salsa di algae (seaweed sauce) was pleasant and refreshing. There was also a hint of sesame oil on the plate.

Next we were given a square dish which held two cappuccino cups. They both started with the same ingredients. There was a round piece of raw fish (couldn’t make out the species in the waiter’s extremely fast Italian!) and a piece of poached shrimp in the bottom of both cups. Then one had a Tomato and Cucumber Gazpacho garnished with basil, the other, more interesting had a pickle (tasted like pickling liquid) sorbetto and a crunchy puffed tuille for texture. Both were great and my favorite dish for the night. The Pickle sorbetto was brilliant – sweet, salty, just like eating pickles, minus the pickles!!!

In an oversized bowl we were served another raw fish course. It was a carpaccio of some other fish species I again couldn’t make out. This time it was served with an amazingly well balanced Coconut sauce. The coconut flavor was exquisite and very well presented. In a separate little dish to the left of this dish was a small cup with a piece of raw fish under a small cube of Uni Sorbetto. You heard it right…Sea Urchin Sorbetto – and it was good too!!!

Next was a more familiar dish. It was a seared tuna with a Balsamic Soy reduction sauce. The sweet/sour was a great match with the fish. There were also small cubes of pineapple to add contrast and sweetness as well as a bed of roasted red peppers which the tuna sat on.

The next bowl was of Red Mullet, 2 filets, with a melon soup, cubes of avocado and foie gras. This dish was interesting but not one of my favorites. The melon soup wasn’t very flavorful although the foie gras cubes were right on point.

One of the ingredients I mentioned early on in this blog as me not liking were mantis shrimp. I am going to take that back, but they still aren’t my favorite! The square plate had two pieces of Mantis Shrimp on it, sitting above an ice cream scoop of tomato panzanella (bread salad). The panzanella was flavorful and moist – they way I like it. The mantis shrimp were already peeled and cooked well – to garnish the plate a poor stagier had to julienne celery – they were perfect juliennes too! To the side of this dish was two pieces of watermelon to cleanse our palates for the next course.

Following the Mantis shrimp was the Secondi for the night. In one corner of the square plate was a perfectly formed mound of tagliatelle with sea snails. The pasta was a bit undercooked for my likings but the snail pieces were perfect. There were two skewers stabbing a piece of quail breast in each. The quail was cooked perfectly and was the only meat we saw all night. The quail was roasted and then braised with the liquid used as a sauce. In the sauce there were also three little black olives that were cooked in the sauce and they were great!

To once again get our palates ready for dessert we enjoyed a Gorgonzola foam that rested above a celery sorbetto. The celery flavor was extremely strong and I am almost sure he used celery root to make it although the color was quite green. The foam was very well done and actually brought out the good parts of gorgonzola that I like (mostly the sweetness).

The dessert was in an oversized bowl which contained bananas (not from Dole – they actually tasted like banana!) and a curry gelato with a very thin piece of granita made from wild summer berries. Overall a nice dessert but could have been more complex.

To finish we enjoyed coffee which came out with three little sweet teases. A cube of tiramisu gelato, a coffee flavored mini crème brulee and a fried piece of dough filled with pastry cream!

All in all the experience was wonderful. The food here was great, the quality was even better and I would definitely recommend you try this place if you are ever in the Ancona area!!!

I will post more about the weekend shortly – sorry but I don’t have any pictures for this one.

[Ore]

Okay…So back to the course (after this post I will post about the rest of the weekend).

We ended last with MARCHE SEAFOOD – a great area to dine and explore. The next area in the course was FRIULI

The chef’s name was Germano Pontoni. He was a very gentle man, very knowledgeable man well educated in his field. His main focus is geese and he has even gone as far as writing books about them and the cuisine they created in northern Italy.

The week started off not in the kitchen but on the beach. Monday morning we went to nearby Portonovo for a lecture on Mussels and then a Mussel feast! In Portonovo the mussels or moscioli as opposed to cozze are protected by being a Slow Food Presidium product. These mussels grow wild and are hand harvested by divers. Some locals do hunt for themselves but there is a 5 kg. limit per person (Italians don’t usually follow this law ).

Portonovo is a secluded bay protected by high mountains and cliffs. It is not very easy to get to but all the locals know about this jewel. There is an exquisite hotel in Portonovo that was once a military fort – supposedly a very luxurious place too!

We were lucky enough to see a boat come in with the mornings catch. The scuba diver who picked these mussels was much older than I thought he would be but did a great job anyways. Along with the mussels the fisherman also picked up some sea snails as a personal snack for him later!

Here is a picture of the bay of Portonovo – as you can see – not a very large place.

This second picture is of the boat landing near the fish house (where all the fisherman and divers hang out). That morning I think they harvested roughly 300 kgs.

This last photo from Portonovo is after lunch! All we ate were mussels! No no, actually we had mussels and spaghetti! The mussels were de-bearded and placed in a large pot over a flame. In about 10 minutes the huge pot started to show some opening mussels. Half of the mussels were taken out of the shell for the pasta and half were served as a first course. No water, salt, nothing was added to their cooking – just extremely fresh mussels – and they were AMAZING!!!!!!! (I am on the far right with Bart in the center and Dan on the left)

Tuesday we started on Friuli. Mostly what I remember from the lecture that morning was that Geese in the North played a huge role in the Jewish areas of northern Italy. They made all of their salumis out of goose rather than pork and the goose was one of their main sources of protein and fat. I also remember the chef saying that during the Roman Empire, the Romans brought Egyptian slaves to force feed the geese and make the famous foie gras. They used to force feed the geese with sweet figs! Yummy – why don’t they do that anymore!?! One class day was solely for the use of geese and duck, the other solely for river trout. The trout was mostly reddish in color – due to the diet of the fish. There were normal sized trout, smoked trout, and even a large trout that I thought was salmon at first but the chef insisted it was a trout!

Here is a photo of a salad dish made with smoked trout – shaped in the form of a rose and served on top of mixed greens and radicchio.

This next picture is of a classic preparation using this large trout. An incision is made along one side of the trout and then the meat opened out like a book. The center bone is cut at the head and near the tail and gently pulled out – what you have left is a large cavity ready to be filled. This trout was stuffed and then roasted in the oven. It is ideal for a banquet or tableside service.

These small bites were made as an aperitivo prior to lunch (pranzo). All are on crostini and include a smoked trout with cherry tomato, a trout cheek, an acidified trout slice (gravlaxish) with parsley, and a trout roe with lemon segment.

Finally, here is a small sample of the different salumis geese and duck are used for today. There are many others that are all very tasty.

This next picture is of the chef slicing some mortadella of goose on a traditional slicer.

We only had two days for Friuli. Monday was spent in Portonovo, Thursday we were at two wineries, Caprai and Lungarotti. Friday was dedicated solely to baking.

Lungarotti was the first winery we visited. I have seen their wines in many places in the states. Their Vino Santo (not the classic Vin Santo) is sold way too often in the US as Vin Santo – shame. Here is a photo.

We ate lunch with the Lungarotti rep. and it was a great meal. Then we went to the Lungarotti olive oil museum and saw many ancient and new age artifacts pertaining to food and olive oil. Very interesting. Both the wineries and the museum are in UMBRIA.

We then were off to Caprai. Caprai made some very good red wines and I enjoyed them all. Parker somehow helped them out by scoring one of their wines really well – so they are quite busy now – we had a private tasting (photo) and a tour of the winery.

As I mentioned above, Friday was dedicated solely to baking. We baked with an Italian baker who is on the Olympic team for Italy.

The chef’s name was Giuliano Pediconi and he was a great teacher. He brought in his own flours, his biga and some special paprika his wife brought for him from Turkey. That day we baked a Pane con le olive nere e paprika, Pane al pomodoro e ricotta, Pane al mosto, Pan Carre, as well as focaccia and ciabatta. It was a great day.

One of my favorite breads baked that day was the Pan Carre. It was very similar to a brioche in taste and texture – here is a pic.

Also, the ciabatta that we made was very good too. The chef said it could have used a bit more proofing time but we all liked it!

Finally - I am going to close with another group picture. This one with the group and Giuliano, the baker. Thanks for reading!

Ciao,

Ore

[DaleJ]

ORE:

Thanks for the narrative and wonderful pics.

I've lunched several times at Portonovo. It is fabulous mayhem on summer Sundays when the parking lots are full and the beach is packed. Last September I had to wait for almost two hours for a table. Fortunately there was adequate wine.

Have also visited the Caprai winery in Umbria several times. Their Sagrantino is terrific. 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

[docsconz]

Fascinating as ever. I have been off-line for a bit, but am happy to have caught up to your blog. Keep it coming.

[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!

[tanabutler]

Madonna! How could I have missed this thread all these weeks?

What a glorious tribute to Italy you are creating, Ore. I am so happy to be reading your blog and droooooling over the photos.

Grazie for all the hard work, and congratulations on your achievements. I am pea-green with envy, but also very happy for the commitment you've made. What an awesome time you must be having.

All I can say is WOW, and THANK YOU to Craig Camp.

[docsconz]

I too think the only mozzarella is di bufala. The other stuff is fior di latte. last year I stayed at Agriturismo Seliano in Paestum. They have a bufala farm, that I toured. I also toured a mozzarella producer. There is nothing like fresh mozzarella di bufala made from fresh unpasteurized milk! Yum.

Your photos are intriguing as always. The burnt flour is fascinating, too. Was it good? Did you prefer it to regular flour? What exactly do you mean by "pasta filata"?

Thanks, again. Please keep it coming.

[Pan]

Ore, I just want to again compliment you on your splendid photographs. That food looks so delicious!

I'll look forward to looking at further installments.

[albiston]

I too think the only mozzarella is di bufala. The other stuff is fior di latte.

Thanks docsconz! As an adoptive Napoletano I can hardly tell you how happy it makes me to read such a comment.

And Ore, thanks for another fantastic post. The thing with the dough, keeping a piece as a "mother" for the next day, is very common: the method is used by most of the pizzerias I consider the best in Napoli. There's even a few die -hard pizzaioli who still use sourdough starters as leavening agent.

[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

[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

[boaziko]

Hi Ore,

Thanks for the photos and detailed descriptions, which allows me almost to smell your wonderful experience.

KEEP IT COMEING,

Boaziko

[hathor]

Grazie mille for taking the time and making the effort to blog your school experience!! This sounds like money well spent!

[docsconz]

I have been to Avignonesi. It is a beautiful place and they make wonderful wines. The vin santo (10 year old) is one of the finest wines I've ever had.

[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

[docsconz]

Fantastic, Ore. I spent a few days in Modena last fall, wherre I got the chance to visit a cooperative parmiggiano producer and several producers of balsamico tradizionale di Modena. By far the best experience was tasting the 100 year-old vinegar at Acetaia del Cristo. Unbelievable! ER is truly an area very rich with cuisine. Thanks again for wonderful descriptions, impressions and photographs.

[divina]

Vin Santo note:

As I understand it, the Vino Liquoroso, has extra sugar added, sometimes carmeliized, the recreate the higher alcohol content ( higher sugar) and the color from aging in small barrels.

Here, in Tuscany, usually vin Santo is made around Christmas time..and drunk 2 years later at Easter... minimum..

the white wine grapes are hung in the rafters of special rooms, and air-dried.

The raisin like grapes are they then crushed....

It is fabulous!

go for the real thing

Ore.. when are you coming to Florence?

[tanabutler]

I am just smitten with this thread, and with YOU, Ore.

Deleriously happy with your good work.

[chromedome]

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.

I can shed a little bit of light on this.

The earliest forms of wheat cultivated throughout the Middle East and Med were very difficult to thresh. In time it was discovered that roasting the grains not only made threshing easier, but made the grain edible without further processing. Various forms of toasted-grain gruels and porridges were common throughout the ancient world, but the resulting grain could be eaten "as-is" if necessary. In the Himalayas, to this day, there is a common meal of toasted millet ground to flour, and with hot tea stirred in to make a paste which is eaten with the fingers.

Green wheat (almost but not quite ripened) is still treated this way in various places around the region. Here, for example, is a page showing how they do it in Syria. In Iran, a pudding of green wheat called samanoo is one of the "seven S's" which are traditionally served while celebrating their New Year, Now Rooz (various spellings). Similar foods were common throughout western Europe during medieval times.

Loving your blog, btw. Desperately jealous.

[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

[docsconz]

That was quick! Congratulations and best wishes, but keep this blog going, please!!!!