eG Foodblog: hathor - Carpe Diem

[Pontormo]

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: "We like sheep!" I was hoping you'd photograph flocks.

1) Every introduction to Umbria calls the region "the Green Heart" of Italy, not only because of its land-locked status, but because of its fields. Are there any other cheesemakers around with goats or cows? Special crops or orchards?

2) Re regional cuisine: When is it time for local lentils or soup with farro? Do people still grill a lot outdoors?

As for the soprano (very funny account): cf. the first image on this page; click to enlarge. Painted by a Florentine and close follower of Giotto for an ecclesiastical patron buried in the Lower Church at Assisi, this donor portrait shows the deceased clinging to the hand of Mary Magdalene. The Franciscans are devoted to MM since she embodies their penitential nature and she is often depicted in a red garment, i.e. wearing the color that distinguished prostitutes from other women of the late Middle Ages. Coincidence, I'm sure.

Edited October 6, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Swisskaese]

I_call_the_duck: I'm sorry, I missed your question. Simple chicken brodo for the tortellini, nothing the least bit aggressive.

I think we all need a moment to aknowledge the accomplishment of our friend, Michelle Swisskaese..!!    She has us pepita crack-and-droppers beat by a mile!

edit for a p.s.  Let's meet in the piazza later for an aperitivio, ok?

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I coming right over!

This Sephardic dish you made for Jeff looks like Shakshuka. Come over and I will take you to Dr. Shakshukas in Jaffo. He makes really good ones.

[divina]

My husband also makes those eggs and he is florentine!

[KatieLoeb]

We had a nice ciabatta bread to soak up the juice, and along with lunch, we sipped a Sicilian rose, Corvo, that I especially like. Rose wines have been maligned and I'm on a small personal crusade to give them the credit that is due. Are you with me on this, Katie Loeb?

I saw the picture and smiled to myself before I even saw the shout out to me. You are a woman after my own heart. I'm absolutely with you! The Corvo looks delicious and was probably perfect with your lunch. I often think of rose as "brunch wine" because many examples are so good with egg dishes.

THINK PINK!! DRINK PINK!!!

[hathor]

Pontormo: that 'green heart of Italy' bit apparently comes from a poem written about Umbria. I just found that out a few minutes while researching the intro for the Umbria thread. Umbria is indeed landlocked, and is a major agriculutural producer.

Lentils are a mystery, I don't know what the season is. I do know that its faro soup season right now! Someone mentioned it on the Umbria thread, and it sounded like an excellent idea to me. Actually, maybe I'll do a little research and we can talk about the 'pulses' tomorrow.

This is pretty much sheep territory. There is one flock of Chiania (sp?), I mean herd (!!) of Chiania cattle near the tower. They graze on a nearby field, I can, I'll get a picture. They are huge, and I do mean huge, white cows, that taste incredible. Their meat is considered to be one of the best, and you pay the price for it.

Uh, there is also a horse farm where the horses are bred for slaughter Yes, 'cavallo' is eaten in Italy, there is even a horse section at the COOP. I've eaten it, doesn't taste good enough to be killing horses

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Back to the sheep, I would have given anything to be able to figure out how you could 'hear' the sheep. They wear these little bells, and they all tinkle like the sweetest wind chime that you have ever heard. Its one of my favorite sounds.

There is a fruit orchard at the bottom of our hill, right now, he has apples. The orchard is run by this very old gentleman, with a very old dog, and you drive up and buy whatever...peaches (fantastic peaches Pontormo!), these little pears, what ever it is that he has in season. The fruit is fully ripe when you buy it, so it tastes like fruit, and its 1 euro a kilo. Now, if 10 cars go by in a day, that's a lot. Is this just a hobby for him? I can't figure it out.... Another one of those mysteries in life.

ciao...gotta run. I've got a date in the piazza...with Arlo Guthrie!!!

[Pontormo]

thanks for reply, Judith.

I know those bells--they're out in the countryside surrounding Florence too, where there are little wars between the foreigner (Swiss) and the locals as to whose methods of raising the bell-wearers is superior

Well, have a splendid time with Arlo. I still think it's funny he rides a motorcickle. Or I

should say a motorcy-

ETA: cle.

Edited October 6, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[ludja]

Thank you for a wonderful blog, hathor! I loved the photo you showed us of the ancient city walls during the winter and of your porcini hunting expedition. Picking porcini (Steinpilz, in German) with my relatives in southeastern Austria is one of my favorite memories and your photos were so evocative of that experience.

You mentioned a dish of taglietelle with porcini. Do you know what some of the other local dishes are that use porcini?

Also, do you have any photos of your local churches to share? I wonder how they look compared to those in other parts of Italy I've visited.

Edited October 6, 2006 by ludja (log)

[Pan]

[...]As a bonus, as we were leaving the restaurant, the church across the way was celebrating the Feast of St. Francis, and inaugurating their new organ.  We went across to listen to a soprano singing her heart out, wearing a slithery, sexy, red, one shoulder gown, while standing in front of the altar.  You don't see that in Kansas.

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No pictures! No fair!

Yeah, Italy is interesting. They've respected nude portraits for centuries and are pretty relaxed about eroticism, and at the same time, there are churches all over the place. I love Italy!

[Pan]

Judith.. just caught up with your blog.. me next!!![...]

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Ah, the next blogger has outed herself! I'll look forward to your blog!

Meanwhile, Judith, you're doing a wonderful job! Carry on!

[hathor]

Buongiorno tutti!

Swisskaese: Israel is on our to-go list as well, and anything called "shakshuka' has to be good. That is a great name.

Ludja: Porcini recipes? Well...the Umbrians tend to keep thing simple, so you might see raw sliced porcini salad, or grilled or sauteed porcini. When they are fresh, you want to keep the other flavors in the background as much as possible.

That's a good question about the churches. We just came back from Puglia, and this was the first time we had gone this far south. Their churches are so elaborately decorated compared to our austere Umbrian ones. I'll try and post some photos a bit later.

[hathor]

We did make it to the piazza for apperitivo last night, only we had Prosecco instead of negronis. Sometimes negronis can be just a little too 'forte'!

Prosecco is a dry, sparkling wine that comes from the north of Italy, in the Trentino-Alto Adige region. This is a photo from the Bisol vineyard, that I took last spring. If you look closely, you can see that the vines are pruned in a heart shaped formation. When you look at the vineyards, there are all these hearts staring back at you, its pretty cool. Prosecco is delicious and is my sparkling wine of choice. Not that I'll turn down a nice champagne!

Back to dinner. We ate dinner at Erbe Luna, the bar is downstairs and the restaurant is upstairs. It's a lovely dining room, and its a pity you can see the view. It looks like a painting of a fantasy Umbrian landscape...only its real.

Now, I'm jealous!!! The crew went out porcini hunting and found lots of porcini and 'boleto'. I'm not sure I'm spelling this correctly, but even Celina found mushrooms. Celina is the happy girl with a porchetta sandwich.

I don't think I fully explained 'porcini fever'. It has to be like 'gold fever'...everyone has it. Mushroom hunting is not confined to the nonnas and old people. EVERYONE goes out looking for porcini. Young ragazzo (teen age boys) are whizzing around on their Vespas, with wicker baskets stuck between the handlebars, when you show up in the piazza with a basket in hand, everyone needs to see what you found.

This is some of what they found yesterday.

That thing that looks like a boiled egg, I think its called something like 'uova'...which means egg. But, its said in the local dialect and I'm not really clear on the name. Judy Divina, I'm sure you know the proper name for them. Regardless, they are divine!

This is how they came to our table.

Thinly sliced, layer of rucola, drizzle of oil, tiniest drop of lemon juice. The texture of the funghi is very soft, sensous, almost pudding like. As Jeff and I were devouring this plate, we suddenly realized that everyone was looking at us. We were making really loud, "MMMMMM" noises. Oopps!

Then we shared an antipasto plate of salumi and cheeses. Now, I'm biased, I admit it, but Umbrian salumi is delicious. There are a million varieties, everyone makes a slightly different variation, but Claudio and Martina are really good about scouting out unusual and delicious cheeses and salmais. Upper right hand corner, about, at about 3:00, that's smoked duck prosciutto. Its fantastic, smoky, salty, melty on your tongue goodness.

Then we both had the 'filetto al grand marnier' for dinner. Claudio gets his meat in Perugia, and this filetto is always meltingly soft, with a crackling salt crust.

That's a roast potato and a bit of grilled eggplant on the plate. This is one of the few restaurants that serves some vegetable with the main course. Note, large white plate, nothing touches!

Uhmmm...we did eat desert, but I forgot to take a picture. Blame it on the wine, a rich Umbrian merlot. Desert was a ruby red poached pear, sitting in a small pool of vanilla cream.

We sat around after dinner with Claudio and Martina, having a cognac and some laughs. Then it was time to go home, at least for us. Here is a gang of 'townies' playing cards at the bar. Its perfectly normal to sit at the bar and not have anything to eat or drink. They will have had a drink earlier, but now they are just playing cards.

[hathor]

Blame it on Pontormo! She had to bring up faro. I woke up this morning craving some faro soup. Faro is a very ancient grain, sort of barley like, its called 'spelt' in English. Anyway, I headed down to the kitchen, only to find out I was out of faro. Bummer. We've been eating faro salads all summer and I must have used up the last of my stash. So, I made some lentil soup while I had breakfast.

That fruit is a 'cachi', or 'kaki', or persimmon, depending on where you are from. I adore them. Its like having ready made marmelade. I mix it with some yogurt and I'm good to go.

Here's the mise for the lentil soup.

All chopped up, ready and waiting for some lentils. I've added some beef stock, red wine and juniper berries because I want a hearty, fall tasting soup.

Ok, soups in the oven (I can get a slower, more even heat in the oven) and I need to do a COOP run. I'm out of shampoo, toothpaste ....and faro!

ciao!

[Hiroyuki]

That fruit is a 'cachi', or 'kaki', or persimmon, depending on where you are from. I adore them. Its like having ready made marmelade. I mix it with some yogurt and I'm good to go.

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I call it a kaki . I'm curious, is it supposed to be eaten when it has become that soft in your area/country? I like hard ones like these. My wife likes soft ones like yours.

[mrbigjas]

On the way home, Jeff asked me to make him "domat con quesu" for lunch. That is a rough, phonetic spelling of a Sephardic dish that was commonly eaten in his family. It is a humble origin, peasant dish of stewed tomatoes, onions, a poached egg and some cheese, in this case: frue.

like shakshuka?

We had a nice ciabatta bread to soak up the juice, and along with lunch, we sipped a Sicilian rose, Corvo, that I especially like. Rose wines have been maligned and I'm on a small personal crusade to give them the credit that is due. Are you with me on this, Katie Loeb? 

i'm certainly with ya on this one.

[Nina C.]

Judith - I am loving your blog. These are my favorite kinds of blogs, the ones where you suddenly find yourself checking ticket prices and wondering if the blogger is an undercover agent for the tourist bureau. What a charmed life you are living!

Incidentally, I believe we met at a food writing class taught by Andrew Smith? If it wasn't you, then someone else out there named Judith is living the same charmed life.

Off to the farmer's market, where I surely won't find anything as nice as those porcini. But perhaps there will still be some late tomatoes.

[Dan Ryan]

Enjoying the blog so far.

The mushroom carpaccio you had was Caesar's mushroom (uovolo in Italian). Quite the delicacy, lucky you.

And persimmons are great, aren't they. When utterly soft. There is the harder variety (also know as sharon fruit), but they tend to be a little tannic, I find. Do you have any trees there in Umbria? They are amazing with the leaves down but the fruit still up.

I can't believe you haven't got the taste for horse meat yet. Get yourselves to Verona and practise a bit.

[hathor]

Ciao!

Hiroyuki: yes, the chaki are meant to be eaten while soft. Interesting that Japanese has a similar sounding word for the fruit. In a few weeks, there will be trees, without leaves, but with chaki hanging there and maturing. The chaki I bought must have come from Puglia or somewhere in the south.

Nina, that would have been me in Andrew's class! Ciao!

Dan, thanks for the mushroom info. Yes, I was a lucky girl as these mushrooms are pretty rare.

[racheld]

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I like hard ones like these.

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Edited October 7, 2006 by racheld (log)

[Abra]

That's a gorgeous dinner, and I love the card players. It seems like something you'd never see here, since they'd be wanting to turn the table.

I'm with you on the rose and the Prosecco, and I'd like to be with you on the faro. In fact, I bought some recently and haven't figured out what to do with it yet, so will you please cook some and I'll cook along? Is your recipe at all like this one?

Edited October 7, 2006 by Abra (log)

[hathor]

That's a gorgeous dinner, and I love the card players.  It seems like something you'd never see here, since they'd be wanting to turn the table. 

I'm with you on the rose and the Prosecco, and I'd like to be with you on the faro.  In fact, I bought some recently and haven't figured out what to do with it yet, so will you please cook some and I'll cook along?  Is your recipe at all like this one?

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Ciao Abra! Farro is a versatile grain, and easy to prepare. Treat it as you would a lentil or small bean. It is supposed to be very healthy for you, I'm not really sure, I just like the way it tastes.

Farro Salad

1 cup farro

3 cups boiling salted water

Boil the farro until tender, about 20 minutes. Rinse in cold water. Add chopped fresh vegetables such as carrots, celery, tomatoes. Dress with olive oil and vinegar.

Farro Soup

1 cup faro

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

1 small white or yellow onion

Pancetta pieces, cut into chunks, optional

Chicken stock

Finely chop the vegetables to roughly the size of the farro and sweat in some olive oil over low heat. Add the farro and about 1 liter of chicken stock or water. Salt to taste.

Much fewer ingredients than the Batali recipe, but anything along those lines is good. As with a lentil soup, the addition of some sausage couldn't hurt!

You could probably simmer it in chicken stock, plain and serve it as a side dish, it has enough of its own flavor to stand on its own.

Have fun with it!

edited because I cannot spell farro.

farro. farro. farro. farro. farro. farro. Maybe now I'll remember!

Edited October 7, 2006 by hathor (log)

[judiu]

Here's the mise for the lentil soup.

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My first thought on seeing this picture was "What beautiful carrots!" They just simply glow!

[Dominic]

Ciao hathor!

A friend just sent me the link to your blog. I have to find some time to read the entire blog, what I have read is very interesting. I will be attending Terra Madre 2006 and then driving to Norcia, land of the pig butchers! My grandmother is from Norcia and I am going back to pick up as much as I can on the foods from her home town. How far are you from Norcia? Any helpful hints on getting there from Turin would greatly appreciated. I am not very good with directions and could very well end up in Berlin.

Looking forward to reading the whole blog.

Thanks!

Dominic

[hathor]

Before going grocery shopping, we had to drop off the garbage.

So, you're thinking, "Great, those are really nice garbage cans."

This is the view when you take out the garbage.

I like the meat at this Macelleria in Umbertide. Note the correct spelling of "chianina', those big, tasty cows.

Here's the beef and pork section

And the 'barnyard section: pigeon, duck, guniea hen and rabbits.

You can see that the animals still have their heads on, they also have their feet and most of their innards. Everyone here knows a least basic butchering, when they hand you your bird, you get the whole bird. I'm fine with butchering, except for the rabbits; their anatomy is just a little too close to the cat's, if you know what I mean.

On to the COOP. See, its really just a regular supermarket, that happens to sell whole prosciutto.

[hathor]

Here's the mise for the lentil soup.

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My first thought on seeing this picture was "What beautiful carrots!" They just simply glow!

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I forgot to mention something. That's how you can tell they are local carrots, when they bend around. The dirt/earth here is so hard that none of the carrots grow straight. And that leafy stuff is a type of celery that is common here. Its very hard and tough, but full of flavor; its excellent is sauces, soups and braises. But, don't try to eat it with peanut butter!

[hathor]

Ciao hathor!

A friend just sent me the link to your blog. I have to find some time to read the entire blog, what I have read is very interesting. I will be attending Terra Madre 2006 and then driving to Norcia, land of the pig butchers! My grandmother is from Norcia and I am going back to pick up as much as I can on the foods from her home town. How far are you from Norcia? Any helpful hints on getting there from Turin would greatly appreciated. I am not very good with directions and could very well end up in Berlin.

Looking forward to reading the whole blog.

Thanks!

Dominic

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Ciao Dominic! Norcia is beautiful, have you been there before? Its the land of cinghiale and truffles and sausages. There are stuffed cinghiale all over the streets, its a hoot. And when you look down the block...the mountains are right there, its wonderful. You will have a great time.

Are you driving? Try the Via Michelin guide for driving directions. We are right off the E45, north of the Gubbio exit. Let me know if you want to stop in for lunch!