A year of Italian cooking

[mrbigjas]

excellent, thanks! things are starting to cool down up here, and i'm looking forward to soup time...

[hathor]

Here is my 2 cents on truffles: don't spend your money on the fresh ones you can get in Dallas. The black truffles lose their flavor in a matter of 2 days, and that flavor is not very strong to begin with. The only time we have half decent black truffles is when someone gives us some on their way home from collecting them. They just aren't pungent enough.

White truffles are much stronger flavored and could stand up to be shipped. Maybe.

For a truffle fix, go with the tartufatti funghi mixes. Even if the truffle flavor is 'enhanced' you get more flavor for the buck.

They are strange, fragile things, those truffles!

p.s. the soup looked great!

[Kevin72]

excellent, thanks!  things are starting to cool down up here, and i'm looking forward to soup time...

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Only two more months for us down here!

Here is my 2 cents on truffles: don't spend your money on the fresh ones you can get in Dallas. The black truffles lose their flavor in a matter of 2 days, and that flavor is not very strong to begin with. The only time we have half decent black truffles is when someone gives us some on their way home from collecting them. They just aren't pungent enough. 

White truffles are much stronger flavored and could stand up to be shipped. Maybe.

For a truffle fix, go with the tartufatti funghi mixes. Even if the truffle flavor is 'enhanced' you get more flavor for the buck.

They are strange, fragile things, those truffles!

p.s. the soup looked great!

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I pretty much agree, though I did have relatively good luck with the fresh kind packaged with rice. Granted I've never had a this-was-just-in-the-ground-two-hours-ago truffle experience, but it did make much more of a pronounced flavor. What's the tartuffi funghi mix you're referring to and where can I get it? In a similar vein, that truffle "salsa" my parents brought back for me was much more flavorful than the canned kind.

[Kevin72]

The final meal for this month was a last-minute addition based on stuff we had on hand and a few intriguing descriptions in Waverly Root’s Foods of Italy chapter on Le Marche:

“Pasta Asciutta alla Marchigiana differs from ordinary pasta in that it is made from bread dough, which after it has been rolled into a flat sheet and cut into strips, like any ribbon pasta, is allowed to rise like bread before it has been cooked. It is then served with any of the sauces used on ordinary pasta.”

Is the asciutta part of the name right? Is it a dried pasta? I rolled it out and used it fresh. The condimento was a ragu of sausage, rosemary, and ginger. The ginger flavor really perfumed the dish well. The pasta puffed up beautifully the second it hit the water, but then collapsed upon further cooking. Not at all al dente either, but it gave up a lot of starch, which leant a creamy flavor and texture to the whole dish.

“Pesaro [in Le Marche] . . .  is Rossini’s birthplace.  Hence the local tornedo alla Rossini, a round cut of steak cooked in a casserole with ham, mushrooms, parsley, pepper, and lemon.  This is a far cry from the classical tournedos Rossini known all over the world, which is grilled and distinguished by a slice of foie gras balanced on top of the steak.”

Culinaria: Italy gives a completely different recipe than either of the two mentioned above involving bechamel, marsala, and shaved truffles.

So I pounded some beef flat and rolled it around a slice of ham, sautéed mushrooms, and spinach, then browned them off and braised them with white wine. The contorno was grilled zucchini.

That caps off Umbria and Le Marche. This month went very quickly and I feel like I didn’t quite get in one more Umbrian dish (probably all this porchetta talk). And as with Abruzzo, I didn’t give desserts from these regions their full due. Wish the weather had cooperated more.

[Kevin72]

By the way, the soup above was made with farro, not spelt. Get those two mixed up all the time.

[kellytree]

the soup looks great.

was it pearled farro??

[albiston]

“Pasta Asciutta alla Marchigiana differs from ordinary pasta in that it is made from bread dough,

.....

Is the asciutta part of the name right?  Is it a dried pasta? 

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"Pasta asciutta" is normally used to define pasta dishes dressed with sauce as opposed to dishes where pasta is used in a soup, so in this case "asciutta", dry, has only a relative value. As far as I can tell (based on my relatives ), the term is often used in Northern and Central Italy, where what we today define as "normally suced" pasta dishes are only one of the possibilities to use pasta offered by traditional cuisine, wheras in the South you'll very hardly ever hear anyone use it, except in restaurant menus, since the main use for pasta is in sauced "dry" pasta dishes and there is therefore no need to distinguish between those and soups.

[Kevin72]

the soup looks great.

was it pearled farro??

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Indeed it was. I'm guessing there's a difference between pearled and regular farro? This did taste alo like barley, no nutty flavor that farro is supposed to have.

I really missed the boat on regional ingredients this month, didn't I?

"Pasta asciutta" is normally used to define pasta dishes dressed with sauce as opposed to dishes where pasta is used in a soup, so in this case "asciutta", dry, has only a relative value. As far as I can tell (based on my relatives  ), the term is often used in Northern and Central Italy, where what we today define as "normally suced" pasta dishes are only one of the possibilities to use pasta offered by traditional cuisine, wheras in the South you'll very hardly ever hear anyone use it, except in restaurant menus, since the main use for pasta is in sauced "dry" pasta dishes and there is therefore no need to distinguish between those and soups.

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Ah. Did not know that; I always assumed that the asciutta was referring to the fact that it was sold dried, not fresh.

Finish your trip thread!

[Adam Balic]

By the way, the soup above was made with farro, not spelt.  Get those two mixed up all the time. 

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It's very complicated.

T. monococcum (=piccolo farro = "einkorn"), the most "primitive," is diploid.

T. dicoccum a.k.a. T. turgidum subsp. dicoccum (=farro medio = emmer) is tetraploid (i.e., the offspring of T. monococcum and a wild relative with a different genome).

T. spelta a.k.a. T. aestivum var. spelta (=gran farro = spelt) is hexaploid (i.e., emmer plus a third genome from a different wild grass).

You are unlikely to see piccolo farro, so you will have one of the other two or a mixture even. At the end of the day it most likley doesn't matter too much. But to in case you are ever in Montana "Emmers marketed and grown in Montana and North Dakota are often mistakenly referred to as spring spelt.". So in the USA real emmer non-spelt farro medio could infat be sold as "Spelt".

[Kevin72]

By the way, the soup above was made with farro, not spelt.  Get those two mixed up all the time. 

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It's very complicated.

T. monococcum (=piccolo farro = "einkorn"), the most "primitive," is diploid.

T. dicoccum a.k.a. T. turgidum subsp. dicoccum (=farro medio = emmer) is tetraploid (i.e., the offspring of T. monococcum and a wild relative with a different genome).

T. spelta a.k.a. T. aestivum var. spelta (=gran farro = spelt) is hexaploid (i.e., emmer plus a third genome from a different wild grass).

You are unlikely to see piccolo farro, so you will have one of the other two or a mixture even. At the end of the day it most likley doesn't matter too much. But to in case you are ever in Montana "Emmers marketed and grown in Montana and North Dakota are often mistakenly referred to as spring spelt.". So in the USA real emmer non-spelt farro medio could infat be sold as "Spelt".

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Well, that REALLY cleared things up.

[Adam Balic]

Is science wonderful.

Also, International Plant Genetic Resources Institute states that "the only registered varieties of farro belong to T. spelta or spelt."

They are based in Italy.

[mrbigjas]

By the way, the soup above was made with farro, not spelt.  Get those two mixed up all the time. 

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It's very complicated.

T. monococcum (=piccolo farro = "einkorn"), the most "primitive," is diploid.

T. dicoccum a.k.a. T. turgidum subsp. dicoccum (=farro medio = emmer) is tetraploid (i.e., the offspring of T. monococcum and a wild relative with a different genome).

T. spelta a.k.a. T. aestivum var. spelta (=gran farro = spelt) is hexaploid (i.e., emmer plus a third genome from a different wild grass).

You are unlikely to see piccolo farro, so you will have one of the other two or a mixture even. At the end of the day it most likley doesn't matter too much. But to in case you are ever in Montana "Emmers marketed and grown in Montana and North Dakota are often mistakenly referred to as spring spelt.". So in the USA real emmer non-spelt farro medio could infat be sold as "Spelt".

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Well, that REALLY cleared things up.

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ha! i had the same issue in this thread here...

if only they'd put the latin name on every bag, so we could know for sure what we were getting...

[FoodMan]

The final meal for this month was a last-minute addition based on stuff we had on hand and a few intriguing descriptions in Waverly Root’s Foods of Italy chapter on Le Marche:

“Pasta Asciutta alla Marchigiana differs from ordinary pasta in that it is made from bread dough, which after it has been rolled into a flat sheet and cut into strips, like any ribbon pasta, is allowed to rise like bread before it has been cooked. It is then served with any of the sauces used on ordinary pasta.”

Is the asciutta part of the name right? Is it a dried pasta? I rolled it out and used it fresh. The condimento was a ragu of sausage, rosemary, and ginger. The ginger flavor really perfumed the dish well. The pasta puffed up beautifully the second it hit the water, but then collapsed upon further cooking. Not at all al dente either, but it gave up a lot of starch, which leant a creamy flavor and texture to the whole dish.

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That is so cool and amazing. I want this book so bad in addition to a few other ones from Sicily! Kevin, do you have the paperback version of Root's book?

Publishers should start giving Kevin some kickback's because of all the books we are buying from this thread.

Elie

[Kevin72]

Yes, I have the paperback version. I think that's the only one available anymore . . . ?

Root's book is fast becoming my go-to recommendation for anyone looking to really get in-depth on Italian cuisine. My one caveat continues to be that it is somewhat dated and it is likely he either didn't entirely get ingredients in some dishes right or took a shortcut to explaining them to American audiences who would have been completely unfamiliar with the concepts at the time (1971).

[FoodMan]

I guess the Reissue edition (June 2, 1992), is not an "updated" edition then.

[Kevin72]

Same body of text, just a new intro by a different author.

[Behemoth]

Kevin, I realize I can probably comb through this thread again and do this for myself, but if you find you are bored one day towards the end of his fabulous year and want to give your readers a nice christmas present, maybe a bibliography?

[Kevin72]

Already been suggested by Divina, and will definitely be done. Course, I could just repost that pic of my cookbook library, hmm . . .

[Kevin72]

October is here, and with it arrive my favorite three months of the year. The days get shorter, the weather does finally cool off, and it’s time to break out full-bodied wines, roasts, braises, and other home-y food to fill the house with their welcoming aromas. To go with these three favorite months, I’m doing three of my favorite regions. This month kicks it off, then, with the rustic, hearty cuisine of Tuscany.

An intimidating region, to be sure. First off, there’s Adam Ballic’s excellent Tuscan Food Diary from last winter. Then, there’s the fact that a number of eG’ers live or have lived there, notably Divina, who also hosts a cooking school in Florence! Faith Willinger lurks here from time to time. I keep imagining the lot of them chartering a plane to fly out here and kick my ass at the slightest misstep or liberty taken with a traditional dish . . .

We actually have visited there, two years ago this month for our honeymoon, and I have to make my first controversial statement: it was a major misstep. We went to Florence on the weekend, and it was packed with tourists. We’d walk blocks and hear only English spoken, and in both of the restaurants we went to, the only Italians there were the staff. Ate at Osteria dai Benchi and Trattoria Cibreo. Dai Benchi was roundly disappointing, Cibreo a little less so but still not too much memorable: our secondi were both served cold, not something you necessarily crave on a blustery, rainy night in late October. I know, I know, should’ve done the ristorante instead, but just coming out of Venice, we were on a little bit of a budget shock.

San Gimagnano was much better, actually heaven on earth, to be more precise. But again, a regret: we ate at out hotel, Bel Sogiorno, and had a truly wonderful, ten-course meal. But it wasn’t Tuscan. It was Tuscan ingredients, sure, but it was elevated and laden with cream and butter and all sorts of “Continental” tricks. Again, a great meal in and of itself, but in the intervening years I keep thinking back on walking around town that night before dinner and looking at the menus of various trattorie and seeing these rustic, arch-Tuscan dishes: papardelle with hare, roasted boar, grilled venison with chocolate . . . and I didn’t get a real taste of that.

But it’s not like I hold this against Tuscany or am dismissive of it. I just made a lot of mistakes in my planning. In fact my current return-to-Italy trip plans (won’t be happening anytime soon, though) are to do a Tuscan/Umbrian extensive stay.

That said, though, I’m greatly enamored, as many seem to be, with the rustic, straightforward cooking style. It’s one of my “default” cuisines that whenever I’m just winging a dish, there’s definite Tuscan overtones. Grilling, roasting, (hopefully) some forays into game all lay ahead. Here’s where I probably will get into trouble: I am, or think I am, so familiar with Tuscan “style” cooking that a lot of the items I’ll be making this month aren’t necessarily from a specific recipe or part of the traditions, but I’ve somehow convinced myself that in their simplicity and straightforward style, they are Tuscan.

As Italy’s best-known region in the U.S., there are naturally a host of cookbooks on Tuscany. A few references I’ll be using this month:

A Tuscan In The Kitchen by Pino Luonogo. I had really forgotten what a great cookbook this is. I re-read it in researching this month and it knocks out all the standard classic recipes of the region, along with many personal tales of growing up poor in Tuscany. A favorite account: he was watching a farmer forage for fresh porcini mushrooms (they get a whole chapter!) one day when he was a child. One of the dangers of mushroom-hunting in Tuscany is that this is also a season when poisonous snakes burrow into the leaves, and one of these bit the farmer. Without hesitating, the farmer grabbed and axe and lopped off the fingers he had been bitten on to avoid quick death.

Furthermore, he approaches the recipes as a quintessential Italian: he lists only ingredients for the dish but not measurements: e.g., “garlic”, instead of “two cloves of garlic, thinly sliced”, or “a fistful of rice per person” when making risotto.

Williams-Sonoma’s Florence cookbook. Surprisingly good and in-depth exploration of traditional Florentine dishes, how they vary from the Tuscan countryside, and notable eateries around the city. Excellent introduction exploring Florence’s most beloved foods.

Italian Food Artisans by Pamela Sheldon Johns. Anyone who is a fan of the Slow Food Movement (and really, if you post on eGullet, aren’t you?) should pick this book up, profiling a number of artisans that craft their foodstuffs in the old fashioned, hands-on methods. She draws from all over Italy for products, but a few are based out of Tuscany, and when I read it last month, it was the perfect mood-setter for the coming months of cooking.

The Foods of Tuscany by Giuliano Bugiali. I know he’s quite a luminary in the cookbook field but this book, for some reason, leaves me cold. Just couldn’t get into it, and I can’t put my finger on it. He even explores the regions of Tuscany, special dishes, etc., things I’d normally dig. Sorry.

But that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s out there. Nancy Harmon Jenkins has a Tuscany cookbook similar to her book on Puglia that I’d like to get someday. Seems like every time I go to the bookstore there’s a new Tuscan cookbook to get.

[Kevin72]

Pane Toscano, aka Pane Sciocco, the saltless Tuscan bread, is much doted upon and fiercely defended by the locals, but obviously takes much getting used to if you’re an outsider. The common origin of this bread is that in times when salt was taxed, the frugal Tuscans (and Umbrians, who have a similar bread) stopped salting their bread. In the intervening years when salt could be put back in, they clung to it out of tradition. This in turn has lead to many more full-flavored salumi, cheeses, and robust soups to augment the bread’s lack of flavor.

While many cookbook authors argue that Tuscan bread is an acquired taste, they also urge you to try to make it at least once to get a better understanding of the cuisine. So off I went, using Carol Field’s book The Italian Baker as a guide. In her recipe, she does use just a trace amount of salt, only to activate the base flavors as part of the baking process.

This starts with making the biga, the sponge. While not traditionally part of the recipe, I have cultivated a “master sponge” of several old bread doughs going back a few years now that I use as a flavor base for my bigas (1/2 cup master sponge, 1 ½ cups regular flour, pinch of yeast, and water to get everything mixed).

The master sponge:

So you begin with the biga two days before you bake the bread. Mix it up, let it sit overnight, then “feed” it with more flour and let it sit that whole day. That night, you make up the bread dough itself, adding just a teaspoon more yeast, and let it sit overnight to rise fully.

I’m not sure if it was the presence of the older sponge in the biga, but this is the hungriest dough I’ve ever made. Meaning, it rose very quickly; it had doubled in volume after just forty minutes! I punched it down, but it came right back. Another punch down and this time I put it in the fridge to retard the growth. It still was out of control, so a third punch down and back in the fridge. This time it behaved itself and made it most of the night. I got up early Saturday, took it out, and shaped it into two loaves to sit while the oven preheated.

It positively exploded when it hit the heat of the oven. As you can see, they came out in almost perfectly circular shape.

Tasted some at dinner to mop up the ample sauces. It is, indeed, saltless. Fantastic texture, look at those pores! This is some of the best bread I’ve ever made. The saltless thing, though, is another matter . . .

[Kevin72]

La Fiorentina. The steak beyond steaks. This is a massive, center-cut T-bone (aka Porterhouse), the thicker and weightier the better. This isn’t that cellophane-wrapped T-Bone on a styrofoam tray that you can get at the local grocery store. You need an actual (gasp!) butcher that cuts their own meat for this meal. I use one in downtown Dallas, a special, once-a-year treat. Normally I do this for friends and get it cut into a 4 lb. piece, but with just my wife and I eating it, we backed it down to a mere 2 ½ lbs (about a kilo).

Here is a previous and excellent thread on eGullet about La Fiorentina, and as you can see, opinions greatly differ on how to prepare what would seem to be a very simple dish. This is no different in the cookbook world: I don’t think there is a single same recipe in all the books I have. Some authors say to just grill it as-is, then add seasoning and oil afterwards, some say season it first but no oil, some say oil first but no seasoning . . .

I do it still as I said on the linked thread: smear it with oil, season it liberally with salt, pepper, and rosemary, and let it sit for a few hours. A cut of meat that thick will not loose its juices with the salt on there (a myth anyways). I just can’t bring myself to try other methods, particularly when this one is so damned good. Then I toss it over a high heat on the grill to sear it, reduce the heat and let it cook through.

While it’s cooking, let’s enjoy my favorite cocktail, the Manhattan:

On the other thread, I mentioned that I also toss some rosemary on the fire to give it a good smoky flavor. It was pointed out that in Tuscany, they use only grape vine trimmings. When we moved in to this place, we were surprised to find a wild grape bush growing in our back yard. As we were trimming the dead parts away, I suddenly remembered this tradition and saved the dead vines for just such an occasion.

Once off the grill, you let it sit for as long as you can bear, then carve it in thick slices, drizzle top-quality olive oil over it, squeeze some lemon juice on it, and sprinkle coarse sea salt over the whole thing. I serve it with a mixture of mushrooms and spinach.

I actually had this in Florence at dai Benchi (not that they are famous for this item) and was thoroughly unimpressed. Tasted like all the other thousand bland backyard steaks you’ve had before. They gave me a funny look when I requested lemon with the meat, something I thought was de rigueur for the recipe.

So it’s finally starting to slightly cool off here. It was muggy all day but a nice breeze kicked up at night, so we were able to sit on the patio and have this meal, then (sort of) enjoy a splurged-for-but-not-worth-the-expense bottle of Montalcino. (Gah! It was Montalcino di’Abruzzo! Not Brunello!)

This is as good as life gets, isn't it?

[Chufi]

October is here, and with it arrive my favorite three months of the year.  The days get shorter, the weather does finally cool off, and it’s time to break out full-bodied wines, roasts, braises, and other home-y food to fill the house with their welcoming aromas. 

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Amen to that. Although I have to say december is definitely not my favorite month.. but October is. This season is just so inviting for cooks to go back into the kitchen.. have something simmer away on the stove...

This is as good as life gets, isn't it?

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Amen to that too. That bread looked great. I'm very much looking forward to your month in Tuscany!

[Scarpetta]

Great post, Kevin! I believe you meant Montepulciano d'Abruzzo?

[Adam Balic]

Pane Toscano, aka Pane Sciocco, the saltless Tuscan bread, is much doted upon and fiercely defended by the locals, but obviously takes much getting used to if you’re an outsider.  The common origin of this bread is that in times when salt was taxed, the frugal Tuscans (and Umbrians, who have a similar bread) stopped salting their bread.  In the intervening years when salt could be put back in, they clung to it out of tradition.  This in turn has lead to many more full-flavored salumi, cheeses, and robust soups to augment the bread’s lack of flavor.

While many cookbook authors argue that Tuscan bread is an acquired taste, they also urge you to try to make it at least once to get a better understanding of the cuisine.  So off I went, using Carol Field’s book The Italian Baker as a guide.  In her recipe, she does use just a trace amount of salt, only to activate the base flavors as part of the baking process. 

This starts with making the biga, the sponge.  While not traditionally part of the recipe, I have cultivated a “master sponge” of several old bread doughs going back a few years now that I use as a flavor base for my bigas (1/2 cup master sponge, 1 ½ cups regular flour, pinch of yeast, and water to get everything mixed). 

The master sponge:

So you begin with the biga two days before you bake the bread.  Mix it up, let it sit overnight, then “feed” it with more flour and let it sit that whole day. That night, you make up the bread dough itself, adding just a teaspoon more yeast, and let it sit overnight to rise fully. 

I’m not sure if it was the presence of the older sponge in the biga, but this is the hungriest dough I’ve ever made.  Meaning, it rose very quickly; it had doubled in volume after just forty minutes! I punched it down, but it came right back.  Another punch down and this time I put it in the fridge to retard the growth.  It still was out of control, so a third punch down and back in the fridge.  This time it behaved itself and made it most of the night.  I got up early Saturday, took it out, and shaped it into two loaves to sit while the oven preheated.

It positively exploded when it hit the heat of the oven.  As you can see, they came out in almost perfectly circular shape.

Tasted some at dinner to mop up the ample sauces.  It is, indeed, saltless.  Fantastic texture, look at those pores!  This is some of the best bread I’ve ever made.  The saltless thing, though, is another matter . . .

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Great looking bread Kevin. The saltless thing does take some getting use to and I tire of this bread after a week or so. But it is great with salty ingredients (it is excellent as a crostini base, the best really) and bread salads. One good simple thing to do is fetunta, this is simply the toasted bread drizzled with load of olive oil and some salt. I allows the olive oil to shine. This is mostly done when the "New Oil" has just been pressed, but try it with any excellent olive oil you have.

Regarding salt and tax, that is one story (there are a few variations on this theme), this bread also seems to be restricted to places where there were Etruscan populations, so if could predate the taxation thing. No that most modern Tuscans are Etruscan.

[Kevin72]

Big dinner party last night.

To start, bruschetta, aka fett'unta with your choice of topping: chopped tomatoes and basil, pan-seared portabello mushrooms with rosemary, or stewed cannellini beans.

The primo was cavatapi (sp?) with kale and sausage, from the older versions of Mario Batali's cooking shows.

The secondo was roast chicken with "tritto" and roasted potatoes with rosemary.

Of all the cookbooks I have, only one (Italian Trattoria Cooking by John Varnom) mentions or makes use of tritto, a mixture of aromatics used as a rub for roasted or grilled meats or a base for braises. Finely chop carrots, onions, celery, galic, rosemary, and sage together, preferably using a food processor. Transfer to a jar, top off with olive oil, bam, you're done. Let it set a couple of days in the fridge to develop flavors, then smear it on a chicken and toss it in the oven. One of the very best smells to fill the house with. Maybe no other cookbooks use it because it's a botulism time bomb? I've never had a problem, but I do wonder about the garlic and olive oil combo, a supposed no-no for preserving things. I should note that the garlic is my addition and not Varnom's.

The dessert was Torta Della Nonna, a tart filled with sweetened ricotta and egg yolks, then baked. Topped with honey and powdered sugar.