Slow Food Diary -Study in Italy

[hathor]

Auguri!!!!

Go out and celebrate...you earned it!! And yes, please, please keep the blog going, we want to know the next chapter in your food adventures!

[tanabutler]

Congratulations, Ore! Yes, please keep posting to the blog. I figure if you can do three recipes a day from that cookbook, that's over a year of entertainment for those of here at eGullet. I'll send you an invoice for the paper towels I'm using, wiping all this drool from my desk and keyboard.

Ciao!

[Achai]

Hi, Ore,

Thank you so much for your wonderful blog.

This fall we (I & husband) will set our first baby steps in Italy with almost zero knowledge about Italian food & wine. But I did learn (& enjoy)a lot from this section and your blog.

Congratulations!

Achai

[rbellah]

Hi Ore!

Thanks for the Blog! I am finishing up my culinary school experience and have been thinking about "expanding" my education to include a tour of Europe. This sounds like a great experience and hopefully I can have an opportunity to go.

Thanks for all that you continue to do!

[Ore]

Ciao,

Week 7 started with a cheese and wine class on Monday. On Tuesday we started the region of PIEMONTE. The chef, Giuseppe Barbero, is from Bra, as is his restaurant, Osteria dell Boccondivino.

Piemonte’s geography, like other regions is why this land is so gastronomically rich.

Rice: Was brought into Italy by the Arabs who first went to France. The major varieties used are Vialone Nano, Carnaroli and Arborio. Piemontese use rice as fillings for poultry and meats and in the fall and winter it is served with fresh vegetables, cheeses and meats. It is not traditional to eat fritters or balls (arancini) in Piemonte, as it is not common to find risotto with Saffron, like in Lombardia!

Wheat & Corn: The wheat is tender wheat, not durum wheat like central and southern Italy. The altitude and cold winters are too much for the durum, so the more sturdy plant, the tender wheat, is grown instead. For fresh pasta, the eggs give the flour the structure, if no eggs, the pasta would fall apart, unlike the pasta from the south which can be made with flour and water!

Beef: Montese breed (all white) a.k.a. Vitello di Fassone. In general, I have a huge problem with Italian beef. It is nothing like the beef in the US. The quality is very poor and the cuts available at the markets are all very different than what I am used to. I don’t think they follow a primal, sub-primal, cutting method. They just cut! Very hard to find rib eyes, strip loins, flanks, tenderloins, etc. Very easy to find top round, bottom round, eye round…hmmm…seems like they only use the legs of these beef – where does all the good meat go??? If you have an answer…please respond! Bue or Manzo is beef older than 2 years. Vitello is younger than 2 years. Isn’t veal in the US younger than six months (or four)??

In Bra there is a specialty sausage called Cherasco – in the end of the 1800’s the common people had to ask permission from the king to make a salumi from beef. Back then it was only pork. It is great, very strong nutmeg scent.

Bagno Caoda is a Piemontese specialty of olive oil, lots of garlic and anchovy. It is a hot dip for fresh vegetables and is delicious!

Tartufa di Alba – Bianca (white) – eaten only raw!! (best)…cooking them hides or erases their aroma.

Gianduiotto – the first pralines made in Turin. Home of Nutella (I think)!

On with the pictures!

I am going to start with the famous Bagna Caoda. Bagna Caoda (pronounced cow-da) literally means “hot sauce”. For the Piemontese people it is the dish of friendship and joviality; watch how they behave at the table during the bagna caoda ritual. The dip is made from garlic, salted anchovies and extra virgin olive oil. A large terracotta container (the dianèt) is placed in the center of the table over a burner and then each guest dips his vegetables into the sauce and then savors it. This dish is practically a meal in itself as one eats the dipped vegetables until sated and this is followed by a bowl of piping hot meat broth.

The oil must be Ligurian because it is gentler, less aromatic and intense than other Italian olive oils. The anchovies will be either Sicilian or Spanish as Piemonte is part of a wider geographic area known as Occitania, stretching from Italy to Spain and passing through France. In the past, it was much easier to obtain anchovies by land route from Spain rather than by sea route from Sicily.

A variety of vegetables may be used for dipping, most of them eaten raw: the primary ingredient is the cardoon from the Monferrato area - as a matter of fact, the dish is often called “cardoon sauce”, followed by the sweet pepper from Carmagnola and Cuneo, Savoy cabbage, Jerusalem artichoke, leeks from Cervere and so on…

The origins of this simple anchovy-based sauce are ancient and humble, although it became popular in the mid-1700’s at the royal court of Turin – certain tastes appeal to people from all walks of life.

As you can see…I liked this very much…here is a recipe!

2 heads of garlic…peeled, with the sprout removed (if present) and thinly sliced into rounds.

12 large salted anchovies. Carefully split open the anchovies and remove the bone.

3 dl. EVOO

Heat the oil and add the garlic. Cook on a very low flame for 15 minutes – should not get dark – if burnt, you MUST start over – very low flame. Should be golden.

Add the anchovies and cook long enough for the anchovies to start falling apart.

When ready, serve with raw vegetables as stated above – can be anything raw you fancy! Caution, the oil will still be hot!

Next photo is of Peperoni Ripieni di Pate’ di Tonno and that is followed by Capunet (stuffed cabbage leaves).

On the two sides of the bell peppers rolled with a tuna pate there are zucchini halves that have been hollowed out and stuffed with sausage, the same stuffing that went in between the cabbage rolls.

The sausage is the same as mentioned above, the beef sausage called Cherasco.

In addition to the sausage though, the sausage mix was also made with egg, parmigiano, parsley, and old bread soaked in milk.

In Piemonte the pasta has an abundance of egg in it. The basic ratio is 100 grams of flour to one whole egg. This can vary often.

This next photo is a method the chef taught us to make tiny agnalotti in a quick way. These were filled with a rice mixture that was cooked down. It also had beef, spinach and parmigiano in it. In this method, you roll out long sheets of pasta. You pipe a small amount of filling in a consecutive row, near the bottom. You brush a bit of egg near the filling and you fold the pasta over. You then continue to cut the individual pieces with a pasta cutter!

Tajarin, something that doesn’t sound too Italian to me is a very classic dish. Tajarin is the Piemontese version of tagliatelle. It is always made and cut by hand because it is very very thin. This pasta is ONLY flour and egg yolks. About 1 kilo of flour to 40 egg yolks. This pasta is traditionally served with the Cherasco as a sauce.

Ok… This next photo is a bit involved. In the bottom left you can see two platters of meat. In Piemonte, it is very common to be served raw meat. The platter towards the back is Vitello for Vitello Tonnato. In the upper part of the photo there is a slightly tan/grey sauce. That is the tonnato sauce.

The raw meat you see is usually eaten alone, or with a sauce of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. That sauce looks like a bowl of oil and is closest to the meat.

The green sauce consists of parsley, garlic, hard boiled egg yolk, tuna, capers, anchovy and stale bread soaked in vinegar. It is served with a very famous dish called Gran Bollito Misto which I will go into in the next photo. The green sauce is simply called Salsa Verde.

The yellow sauce in the gravy boat was a simple Aioli made with potato, hand made mayo and garlic.

The Tomato sauce is just that, a tomato sauce, served at room temperature and with a bit more acidity than a normal tomato sauce.

The last sauce was a honey mustard sauce called Salsa D’Avje. It consisted of a fine mustard powder, clover honey and some vinegar. We made a variation with chestnut honey as well.

The GRAN BOLLITO MISTO…

Mixed boiled meats Piemontese style is the best and most traditional method of enjoying Piemontese breed beef, otherwise known as “fassone”. In the town of Carrù, in the province of Cuneo, every year, in mid-December, they celebrate the Feast of the Fat Ox.

In the morning the activity centers around the market place and the procession of all the steers, then from midday onwards the people eat the boiled beef and other meats either in local restaurants or in the special tent set up for the occasion, serving literally tons of meat from huge cooking pots.

Along with the boiled beef there are other less prized cuts but nevertheless essential for the gourmet and connoisseur: the snout or head and the tail. Also included are hen and pork cotechino.

The accompanying sauces, as mentioned above, are a must. These are for dipping the meat into, especially the green sauce and the red. There will also be other condiments such as the “cognà” which is a grape chutney, the horseradish sauce and the “salsa d’avje” made with honey and mustard.

Unfortunately the way we cooked the beef, there was no great photo. So here is this one. Try to make out what it is before reading the description below!

You guessed it right, that is half of a cows face! Basically, the Gran Bollito Misto is just that, a huge feast of mixed boiled meats. We boiled or simmered things like Flank, eye round, face or head, tail, tongue, hen, etc. You can only imagine huh!?! The face was my favorite as it includes my ALL TIME FAVORITE PIECE OF MEAT…THE CHEEKS!

They were perfect! So, when all the meat was ready, we plated it up and it was served with all the sauces from above. The meat was great on its own but with each sauce a different characteristic was brought out. Sorry if this meat thing is an overload!

Time for dessert…

We spent four days with Piemonte so the last day was solely to be used for sweets. That, it was! From all the varying things we made, the most memorable was the Panna Cotta, the Chocolate Mousse and the Stuffed Peaches (nectarines) with Chocolate.

The picture below is of the chef putting down a layer of freshly roasted hazelnuts for the base of the mousse. You can see that we made a mold for it as well. The mold was made of cardboard and foil!

The Panna Cotta was excellent. Basically, I interpret a panna cotta as an egg-less custard. For this recipe we used ½ Liter cream, 100 g. sugar, 2 sheets gelatin and 1 tbsp. rum.

Put the cream on the fire with the sugar and rum, when it comes to a boil pull off and add the bloomed gelatin. Put in molds.

This next photo is of the Chocolate Stuffed Peaches. What Italians (for the most part) consider a peach I consider a nectarine. To me peaches must have fur on them; those are available here but are not referred to as pesche. The nectarines were hollowed on filled with a mixture of Amaretti crumbs, cocoa powder, sugar, egg yolks and butter. They were then baked for 20 minutes at 170° C and served warm.

Okay, that was Piemonte…Here is the famous group photo. Most of the students know it is going on the web so they started goofin’ off! Enjoy!

Ciao,

Ore

[Ore]

Thanks for all the great comments!

Keep reading and tell your friends... Oh, if you know how I can get a 'grant' out here, please let me know as cash is getting kinda tight!!!

Ciao,

Ore

Edited August 13, 2004 by Ore (log)

[tanabutler]

Hey, Ore, can you enlist some of your goofy classmates to eGullet? Tag-team culinary experience!

(Is everyone separating, going the direction of the four winds?)

What an enjoyable blog.

[docsconz]

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.

[albiston]

Beef: Montese breed (all white) a.k.a. Vitello di Fassone. In general, I have a huge problem with Italian beef. It is nothing like the beef in the US. The quality is very poor and the cuts available at the markets are all very different than what I am used to. I don’t think they follow a primal, sub-primal, cutting method. They just cut! Very hard to find rib eyes, strip loins, flanks, tenderloins, etc. Very easy to find top round, bottom round, eye round…hmmm…seems like they only use the legs of these beef – where does all the good meat go??? If you have an answer…please respond!

As an average customer of Italian butchers I always thought the restaurants got all the good stuff, but reding your comment I see that's not the case. Maybe Italian butchers are just bad ... or, getting a bit more serious, one should consider that beef is not the meat of preference of many local Italian cuisines. There are some exceptions, like Piemonte and Toscana. Pork is probably the most used meat throughout Italy, so maybe there's not much tradition for beef both in recipes and from the butchers' point of view. Only my 2 cent guess.

Gianduiotto – the first pralines made in Turin.  Home of Nutella (I think)!

You're right, Ferreo started in Torino and their main Nutella production plant is in Piemonte too, in Alba.

[dorpsch]

Ore,

Nice blog man, I stumbled across this when searching for info. about the Slow Food Institute. I'm enrolled for January '05. Reading this has made me that much more excited about going, but I'm almost afraid to read on because I don't want to know too much before my own experience begins. Too late I suppose, I've read every post. Good luck on the stage; I probably won't be able to resist coming back to hear about your stage, if you ever get a chance to post another email where you are.

[docsconz]

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

[divina]

Pesche noce are peaches..and peaches are Pesche

There are the fabulous white peaches, and traditional yellow ones too!

[albiston]

Pesche noce are peaches..and peaches are Pesche

I always thought that pesche noce were nectarines, at least that's what an American school friend told me after correcting my "peach-nuts" translation . Always something new to learn!

[Ore]

Ciao,

Week 8 Week 8 Week 8 Week 8 Week 8 Week 8 Week 8 Week 8

This past weekend we went on a class trip up to the Veneto. Saturday we visited the winery Bisol, had lunch at Bisols new Agriturismo which was great, had dinner at some place I can’t remember right now – when I do, I will post it. It had an amazing wine cellar – pictures will follow. We spent all of Sunday in Venezia (blah!).

Some photos of the weekend:

Until arriving to the school in Jesi, I wan unfamiliar with Bisol and their wines. This photo shows some of their achievements. Theses bottles were all specially made for some occasions – not the Ferrari bottle in the front – this was the bottle they drank – not the Mumm they spray all over the place!!!

Bisol is in the heart of the Prosecco region. Its wines were all great in my opinion and I really liked the still prosecco they offered. They make a dessert wine which is fantastic and is done using the Solera System. Here are some more pics of the winery and its area.

This is a shot of the Agriturismo – where we stayed.

A beautiful shot of the rolling hills covered with vines. The weather was perfect that day. It was cool and just after a light shower so everything was extremely bright green!

Here is another shot of the landscape. Doesn’t this make you want to go there!?!

We had a great lunch at the Agriturismo. We started with some bruschettas. I remember one being of Ricotta cheese with treviso – yummy! Also, we had Porcini sott’ olio and radicchio sott’ aceto. Both were perfect and great with the sparkling wines.

Here is a shot of the lunch table from my bedroom!

Saturday night we had dinner at an amazing restaurant. The wine cellar was amazing. Here is a picture of George from India leading the gang out of the cellar. The rest of the pictures are inside the cellar. By far the largest cellar I have been in. There were cases of almost every spirit I knew of (minus some great tequilas!).

There was one wall dedicated to grappas and eau de vies!

One wall dedicated to the wide array of Bisol Prosecco bottles!

One wall dedicated solely to olive oils…

And then wine…lots and lots and lots of wine…

And then the good stuff – the really good stuff that is…Behind a locked vault!!

To top that all off, they even head some Salumi hanging near the kitchen. These pictures were actually of my house…in my dreams maybe!

The restaurant was called Gigetto. We had a set menu and all the dishes were great but lunch was only five hours before dinner and I honestly barely touched most of the plate – a shock for the people who know me!!!

Sunday, as I mentioned earlier, was spent in Venice. By far the worst city in my opinion. It was a either Spaghetti made for tourists – with a huge scoop of sauce atop white noodles, a seat in the piazza where a snack for two is at least 40 Euros, or Burger King – the whopper won!!! (Slow Food people don’t read this!!!) It was the first fast food in over three months! So – I had to get a Bellini at Harry’s Bar. It was OK – way overpriced at 13 (I think) Euros each – but ok – nothing special. It was too early to get food though – too bad. I wanted to try the carpaccio!

SO………………………….That ended the weekend. Monday and Tuesday were spent learning about ABRUZZO and its cuisine. Wednesday was a cheese and Salumi tasting and Thursday and Friday were wasted trying to learn about Lombardia and Risotto from a very ignorant chef (in my opinion of course!).

Abruzzo:

The chef was Severino Forcone who was one of the greatest chefs we had. He was truly a comedian before a chef – he was soo funny. Hopefully you can see it in some of the pictures!

Abruzzo is made up of four types of cuisine. Like the rest of Italy, its geography plays the major role. The cuisine types are of the Mountains, the Hills, the Plain Lands, and the Sea.

The city of Panarda was one of the grandest cities for cuisine back in the days. It was know for its grand scale of banquets which would range from 36 to 40 courses. The worst part was that it was DISRESPECTFUL to leave the table at anytime and in drawings, there are always armed guards present – maybe to keep them safe, maybe to fatten them!

The meal of Virtues – on May 1st, the meal of Virtues is prepared. This consists of the key number 7 being repeated by all the different types of foods available. You would cook 7 different vegetables, 7 different meats, 7 different grains, herbs, etc. all for seven hours!

For seafood, like in neighboring Marche, the Brodetto is a major player. Also, there is a dish called Scapece which is fish that is fried and preserved under vinegar and onion – very similar to the north’s style of in Saor.

Abruzzo is home to the first school for training chefs. I think the date was around the 1500’s. It is said that the best chefs were Abruzzese and the noble court of Naples had a desire for royal foods – prepared by Abruzzo trained chefs.

We truly made some great food in these tow days. Here are the pictures!

This first picture is something I am sure you are familiar with, although it may not be what you think.

This photo yes, is of a truffle, but this is a summer truffle – no where near the potency or grandness of the truffles available in the fall/winter. These are very mild and are best for infusing in oils.

We made a simple pasta chittara – a regional specialty – with a truffle sauce – just minced truffles in olive oil with salt, pepper and parmigiano to finish. Here is the pasta being made. The chittara must be tuned just like a guitar (where it gets its name from) by plucking at the strings. The tone should be nice and high!

And then the finished product!

Here is a photo of Baccala, salt cod, very simply prepared. The cod was soaked for two days and then grilled, skin on for about 15 minutes or so – the skin was taken off, the meat flaked and seasoned and tossed with roasted peppers. That’s it! It is best served the next day, when all the aromas have been absorbed – the peppers give a strong flavor to the fish.

The photo below is of a diamond cut of pasta called sagnette. The sauce is an Aquilana style and was made with duck meat that was braised in a rich broth and then pureed with a blender.

As simple as this may be, it was my favorite dish from Abruzzo.

I know, all it is is grilled bread – but it was perfect. It was grilled slowly on both sides, then, rubbed with garlic. Afterwards, it was seasoned with salt and olive oil – lots of great olive oil!

Like Campania – one of the first posts of this blog – Abruzzo also has a version of lamb with an egg yolk sauce. I prefer this one 10 times to the one from Campania. It was a bit piccante but delicious. It was rich and creamy too! In Abruzzo, the dish is called Agnello Cac’e Ove. The cheese and egg sauce used Pecorino or sheep’s milk cheese.

Ciabotto, very similar in sound to the bread, is very farm from. It is much closer to a ratatouille actually! This dish was a type of mixed vegetable stew with the major herbs in play being basil, garlic and hot red pepper.

Actually, most of the Abruzzese food we made had a bit of hot red pepper in it. Not a shocker at all.

This following pasta was a quick chef invention. He used some regional ingredients to make this beautiful, tasty plate.

There was eggplant as well as a regional cured meat that was very rich in both sweet and hot red pepper – more sweet. The chef mentioned that the peppers helped the salumi age and protect against rancidity.

Dessert in Abruzzo is great. The region is plentiful in almonds and uses it a lot ground in sweet breads and cakes. We made Pizzel (spelling and two other words for the same cookie). This was basically a waffle cone batter put into a press and squeezed. The outcome was a crisp cookie. Our pasta had fennel seed in it. Here is a photo of the chef analyzing the cookie with the class. Enjoy!

So – the famous group picture…here it is!

On to LOMBARDIA. I mentioned earlier that I didn’t like these two days very much. That is because the chef was teaching us as if we were seven years old. She was wayyyy tooooo slowwww and it really aggravated me. Really! But, on to the facts…

Lombardia is home to Milano, Italy’s most populated city, where you can almost find anything. Kind of like NYC! (in terms of food products, etc. This is where the Japanese go to find their special ingredients. Sake is very hard to find in Italy!)

When we started the day, we had an actual risotto lesson first. We learned all about the grain and used a special sheet of paper to actually see the individual grain. This paper was half white and half black. Very cool to see what your rice really looks like!

Rice has its origin in the Oryza Sativa strain. From that strain we get today’s Indica and Japonica (no, these are not Marijuana strains!).

The Himalayas naturally created a division between where these two grains grow best. Indica south of the mountains, Japonica north.

West Africa has its own strain of rice, Oryza Glaberrima

Zizania Acquatica is what we know as wild rice and is not a rice but a grain.

Between the 1700’s and 1800’s is when industrial rice growing began.

If you are familiar with the rice grain, there is always an indentation in the grain. This is due to the embryo of the rice which is separated from what we eat. All rice will have this indentation.

Indica varietals are the form like Jasmine, Basmati - they have a characteristic aroma.

Japonica is the rice used for risotto or sticky rice. This grain absorbs the aromas of what it is cooked in/with.

One thing that throws many rice consumers familiar with Italian short grain rice is their classification. Superfino, fino, semi-fino, tondo and commune ARE NOT quality standards. THEY ARE AN INDICATION OF THE GRAINS ACTUAL SIZE. Superfino being the largest grain, commune the smallest.

Carnaroli is a Superfino grain. Vialone Nano is a Semi-fino grain. The best rice for risotto has the highest percentage of Amylase in it. The Vialone Nano is the winner with 21%. Any more and the grain would not cook.

Vialone Nano is the best rice to use for risotto. I have never used it in the US. Carnaroli come in 2nd with Arborio and Baldo coming in third and fourth.

For desserts, you want to use the rice with the lowest amount of amylase in it.

Amylase helps keep the rice intact during the cooking process.

Amylopectin represents the grains capacity to retain liquids.

There are many defects that your rice can contain. That is what the black paper is used for – to see these defects. A higher quality rice will have less defects. One of the most common are broken grains of rice. This is very bad because of the different cooking times the rice will have. Another is all white grains of rice – they may appear to be chalky. This is called Gessato and will also prevent the rice from cooking evenly.

Always keep your rice in a cool, dark place.

A cool fact: Italian rice must remain in the hull for at least three months before it can be hulled. The great producers wait two years before they hull their rice. The best machine for hulling the rice is called Elica and gives the rice a polished, golden hue.

On to the food!

There are five photos for Lombardia – thank god!

The first is a typical filled pasta. The filling is sweet/savory and includes steamed acorn squash, amaretti crumbs, nutmeg, butter, and mostarda di mele. The sauce was a simple butter sauce with sage – lots of sage. He Tortelli di Zucca were great!

The next shot is of a famous pasta dish called Pizzoccheri della Valtellina. This pasta is made with buckwheat flour and I personally don’t care too much for it! The ratio is 180 g. buckwheat flour, 80 g. white flour, 1 egg, and salt!

The pasta is layered between cooked potatoes and cabbage that have been seasoned with butter, salt, lots of sage and grana padano cheese.

The famous Risotto Nero con le Seppie is well known. It gets its black color from the ink sack of the cuttlefish and has a very distinct flavor and aroma – one I do not care for at all! This preparation called for half of the cuttlefish meat to be cooked in with the rice and half cooked in a sauté pan with butter!

La Panissa di Vercelli is a risotto dish that is cooked with legumes to make a complete winter meal. Every family has its own “real” recipe. Basically, this is a risotto dish with beans and vegetable stock. It is very hearty. The leftovers are usually sliced and browned in a hot pan for a crispy snack!

Ending this post id the group pic with the chef, Marcella Cicognetti. Thanks for reading.

Thanks for reading. I leave for my stage in about five hours so the next time I get to the internet I will post again – I don’t know how long that will be. Wish me luck!!

Ciao and thank you!

Ore

[tanabutler]

This is my favorite thread in all of eGullet. Thanks, Ore.

[docsconz]

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?

[albiston]

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?

I've tried a few different rice sorts for arancine and I agree that the stickiness is a factor. I even found a recipe that used originario rice, the one you'd use for rice pudding, but the results were disappointing. Way too sticky.

I normally use either arborio or vialone nano with success for arancine, so I'm not sure the amylase is the only factor. There's quite a few other steps in the recipe which might play a role. I'm quite tempted to go on talking about this, but maybe it would be better to start a new thread if we want to go on discussing arancine recipes

[docsconz]

I'm quite tempted to go on talking about this, but maybe it would be better to start a new thread if we want to go on discussing arancine recipes

Done!

[Ore]

Ciao,

Its been a while since I have last posted. This is my first day off since I got to my stage...2 weeks...lots of work but lots of fun as well! Also, internet isn't very easy to come by! The food at La Locanda di Bu, where I am staging, is great and the chef is great too.

The other day he came in with two dvd's he has never watched before, but he knew what was on them. I brought my laptop down and we played the film. It was episodes of Rocco's TV Show. I thought that was very strange but kept watching. Then came a part when Rocco and his girlfriend went to the airport one night...to pick up none other but the chef I am working with now!! I thought it was very strange at first but my chef didn't think anything of it! "Hey...Tony" (Antonio)

My chef arrived in NYC for the first time because he cooked for Rocco at the winery Mastroberardino, nearby. It was Rocco's B-day, so the TV show hooked my chef up with two tickets and a hotel room! He was also in NYC to cook for Roccos birthday. It was very funny and I had to share that!

Also, he went to NYC with a young chef named Christophe, who was then another stagier. Chris now has a restaurant in San Francisco called A-16 (a major highway in Campania). Anyone been there??

So...on another note, I found a way to kinda help pay for my travels, and lack of compensation from the restaurant. I've been picking fresh FENNEL POLLEN from the local wild fennel and now have about three ounces. If you, or anyone you know are interested in some pollen, PM me PLEASE!!! It is really robust, intense stuff - I can't offer it as cheap as the other websites can BUT I make the stuff, so it is GOOD!! NO JOKE

So, till the next time...hopefuly I will be able to post some pictures soon - the connection is soooo slow here!!!

Ciao,

Ore

...and I am really serious about the fennel pollen...tell your friends!

[docsconz]

How would you use the fennel pollen?

[albiston]

How would you use the fennel pollen?

There has been a thread on fennel pollen before, with some tips on possible uses.

While the discussion on uses of fennel pollen is very appreciated, I would like to invite anyone wishing to contact Ore regarding his offer to do this, as Ore himself properly suggested, strictly by PM. Any forum posts regarding this particular point will be removed.

[divina]

been offline for awhile.. blew up my computer screen in a storm! OOPS

and try getting things fixed in Italy in August!!!

would like to correct myself.. yes pesche noce are nectarines...

ORE...Congrats on getting fennel pollen harvested.. but you may want to save it for yourself!!!

I have had the BISOL prosecco it is lovely and inexpensive!!!

had it at the Wine Academy in Rome, right at the Spanish stairs..a fun place!

[divina]

ORE.. are your classes in Italian?

are you coming to Florence before you leave.. I adopt young students!

[Ore]

Ciao,

I just found a great way to go on-line so hopefuly I will be regularly posting again...with great pictures of the area and the food we cook at the restaurant.

Good idea Divina, I might as well do that...I wonder how long it lasts...but thats another subject!

Florence...I am sure I will stop by before I leave Italy. We can meet up and have a glass of prosecco!

I've been feeling kind of homesick lately...maybe it is because all I do now is work and sleep! Hopefuly I will find my rythm here soon.

Ciao for now.....

WAIT...here are some pics...

Here is my chef, Antonio Pisaniello, in the kitchen. As you can see, it is a fairly small kitchen!

This dish is tuna tartare. As you can see...the plates are well decorated...or...LOUD!

Here is a spin on the tartare. It is a tuna ravioli...I made stock with the tuna scraps and gelatinized it...chef digged it and we had lots of fun playing with the tuna gel!

Cavatelli...one of the pastas I can now make blind folded, with my hands tied behind my back, while asleep, is really well made here. The sauce is made with lardo, onion and pomodorini! Yummy!

This is spaghettoni with a peperoni sauce.

The other side of the kitchen. You see, it really isn't that big...or small!

These two are pics of the area I am in now. They were taken last week in the afternoon. Today it is raining .

This bell tower broke some years ago and is off by fifteen minutes (I think)...or the bells here are insignificant in terms of time!.

The mountains!!! So peaceful!

Well...thats it...

Ciao,

Ore

[tanabutler]

Also, he went to NYC with a young chef named Christophe, who was then another stagier.  Chris now has a restaurant in San Francisco called A-16 (a major highway in Campania).  Anyone been there??

...and I am really serious about the fennel pollen...tell your friends!

Funny you should mention it. Someone yesterday sent me a link to A16 and another restaurant with a number in San Francisco (I live 75 miles away), and I had heard of neither. But I found their web site and it looks great. I'll ask my foodie friend who lives in the Marina.

Edited September 2, 2004 by tanabutler (log)