Fluffbuff

What is Tanta robina?

Well, depending on which party of Italy you are in, it can mean "lots of stuff" or "good stuff", especially "yummy food".

Last time I was in Italy, I went to Maremma with Ben and a couple of friends and loved how the locals used the expression tanta robina to mean "yummy things". So, it seemed like the perfect name for my food blog as I plan to talk about lots of things and all related to food.

I hope some of you will keep me company in this food adventure. Tanta robina will document my year in culinary school and serve as a notebook for my thoughts on food and anything related to cooking and eating.

Please bear with me while I solve the initial glitches of using new blogging software and refining my initial layout.

And Happy St. Patrik's Day to you all! (Believe it or not, I am partially Irish)

Posted by Francesca at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

  This is the torta di riso inspired by my friend Giorgio's mom: signora Vittoria. Grazie, Vittoria! It's really mostly her recipe with just a couple of modifications.

Not the best picture, but the torta is yummy, that is if you like the Italian kind of homemade, rather rustic cakes. For my American friends, a word of advice. Italian desserts have a considerably lower amount of sugar than what you are used to, but please, don't give in to the temptation to up the dose. We eat most of our desserts outside of meals and in Romagna we often do so with a glass of wine. I know… you'll probably go for coffee or tea; I'm just giving you the background. But enough with the chit-chat.

What you'll need

Ingredients
— 300 gr Arborio rice
— 3/4 liter whole milk
— 3 eggs
— 250 gr sugar
— a few amaretti
— 2-3 tbs of Grand Marnier
— 1 lemon
— salt
— 2-3 tbs of ricotta fresca (optional)

For the pan
— butter
— flour or bread crumbs

Tools + Props
— rectangular "springform" pan (mine is 13.5" x 9.5")
— 2 wooden spoons (used only for desserts)
— mixing bowls
— whisk (to beat the egg whites)
— meat tenderizer (to crush the amaretti)
— zester (for the lemon)
— scale (to measure/convert weights)
— toothpicks (to test for doneness)
— timer

Substitutions
Baking pan: I encourage you to experiment with different pan shapes and sizes. I tried two circular forms, first, and liked the rectangular one best for this cake.

Rice: Vittoria's original recipe called for Roma rice, but I couldn't find it and Arborio has always worked well for me. It's the same kind used for risotto.

Sugar: I tried a few kinds and liked raw cane sugar best for texture and color. It makes mixing the eggs and sugar a little less smooth, but this is a rustic cake after all. Go wild!

Liquor: Pretty much anything goes, in fact I am going to try rhum next time.

Ricotta fresca means the soft, moist, expiring-soon kind of ricotta, not the brittle tasteless brick with a two-month expiration date you are likely to find at the supermarket. Sorry folks, can't help you with sourcing the real thing as I'm having trouble with that myself. To give you a hint, even if you find a ricotta packed in water, check the ingredients. If it contains vinegar, it's ain't real ricotta. And one last thing, the best ricotta is made with sheep milk. Just saying…

Directions

Turn on the oven at 350 F (about 180 C) and prepare your ingredients.

Boil the rice in salted water for about 3 minutes. In the meantime, zest the lemon and start measuring the ingredients.

Strain the rice and put it back in the pot with the lemon zest, half the sugar and enough milk to cover the rice. Set the timer for 15 minutes. Make sure the rice boils gently, mix it often and add milk gradually.

While the rice is cooking, butter up your pan and coat evenly with flour or bread crumbs. For this cake I use semolina flour, because it adds to the rustic feel.

When the rice is cooked, set it aside to cool down. If it seems too hard, add some milk and mix gently.

Separate the egg whites from the yolks and place in different bowls. (Vittoria's recipe didn't call for beating the whites, but I like the result better this way. You decide.) Crush the amaretti (Italian biscotti/cookies) with the meat tenderizer. I like to crush them well, but leaving enough variation in granularity to add textural diversity to the cake.

Mix the yolks with the second batch of sugar, add the crushed amaretti and a couple of tbs of liquor. I'm rather liberal with my alcohol and go for three tbs. :)

If you have some good ricotta lying around (see note about ricotta under "Substitutions"), add a couple of tbs for softness.

When the rice is lukewarm, add to the mixture. Now add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and beat some sense into them (good when you have anger issues or you've just come back from 2+ hours in crazy LA freeway traffic), then gently fold the whisked whites into the mixture.

Pour into the baking pan and put in the oven.

Cooking times will vary depending on your oven. I run my first toothpick test after 45 minutes and the cake is usually ready after 45-50 minutes.

Let it cool off for a couple of hours at least. Torta di riso is good for a few days. I wrap it in foil and keep in the fridge.

I hope you like it!

Posted by Francesca at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

  Thank you for all the good suggestions and resources, on- and off-line. There is no panna in my future (yet), but my ideas a little clearer. Here is what I found in my pursuit of panna cotta.

Ingredients: there are two kinds of panna: "panna fresca" and "panna da cucina". Panna da cucina is very dense, has a rather long expiration date, and is used in non-dessert dishes such as pasta. Panna fresca is less dense, although very high in fat content, can be whipped, and is exactly what's required to make panna cotta.
As for possible substitutes, I've been warned by those in the know against trying to use heavy cream (much lighter than panna, available in the US) or the British "double cream" (much denser and closer to cheese than panna) or even crème fraiche (more acidic).

Availability: Even with all the help I received from you, I cannot find panna fresca. So far, I have only been able to find panna da cucina. Note to self: remind Ben that we need to move to Italy… or close enough that foraging is less of a pain.

Recipes: the older recipes — predating my move to California, fifteen years ago — did not require the use of gelatin. All the recent recipes do, at least the ones I found in books, websites, blogs and talking to Italian friends, including one who is active in the Slow Food movement. Using gelatin does not appeal to me. It may be a combination of what those sheets of gelatin look like and what they used to be called in Italy: colla di pesce (fish glue). Whatever the reason, I find the idea slightly distasteful.

So, what next?

I think I'm ready to give up on the whole panna cotta thing. Sorry, folks. I know a couple of you were really eager to hear that I found the perfect panna and the perfect recipe and that I was going to share it all. Alas, not this time. However, I do want to make some kind of dessert for my little Christmas party and most likely it'll be something Italian so… stay tuned.

Posted by Francesca at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

    My friend Betta in Hamburg has put together a small English-Italian dictionary of knitting and crochet terms — Betta's Knitionary — that should prove very useful to Italian speaking knitters dealing with instructions written in English.

La mia amica Betta di Amburgo ha preparato un dizionario Inglese-Italiano di termini per lavoro a maglia e uncinetto — Betta's Knitionary — che sarà molto utile per persone di lingua italiana alle prese con istruzioni scritte in inglese.

Posted by Francesca at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

  See? It's not just me; I didn't make this up. Most of the time, Italian restaurants abroad are really awful.

If you don't believe me, trust the Accademia Italiana della Cucina. See the article on the BBC website.

Posted by Francesca at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

   My grandmother used to buy chocolate-dipped alkekengi at a pasticceria in Bologna, under the portico besides San Petronio. I think it was called Pasticceria Zamboni or another name starting with Z, but I am not sure. Maybe my friend Betta can correct me here. Alkekengi, or chichinger as they are sometimes called in Italian, were not a popular fruit and that pasticceria was the only place I had ever seen them. They were delicious and available only a couple of months out of the year — when the fruit was in season — and that made them even more special. Since we lived in Ravenna and my grandmother would go to Bologna only every few months to buy bookbinding supplies for my grandfather, we only ate those treats once a year. Dipped in dark chocolate, with the dried leaves sticking out to be used as stems, they made a lasting impression on me.

Over a year ago, I found them at Whole Foods without realizing what they were (here they go by the name "golden berries"). They just looked yummy and I can never resist golden yellow. After I brought them home and tasted them, I realized that they were alkekengi. I tried to get the people at Whole Foods to procure some with the leaves attached so I could dip them in chocolate, but they could only find them already plucked and packed. I did try the chocolate treatment, but it was a bit of a disaster.

A couple of days ago, I found them again. I was surprised because I remember distinctly that in 2005 they were in the store in October or November, so maybe these come from a different country or maybe they are in season twice a year. Anyway, I'm going to get me some chocolate and try again.

Chichinger al cioccolato! Yum.

Posted by Francesca at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

   Tonight marks fifteen years since I landed in LA. I never thought I'd still be here. I blame it on Ben. ;)
When we met, I was just about ready to move out and move on, then we started dating, I started grad school, we bought a house, started a business… Life happens.

My first two years here were very difficult. I had left all my family and friends behind, married a man who turned out to be a horrible choice, and found it hard to transition from a small town in Italy to the big metropolis. As a consequence, I went through culture shock, divorce and undergraduate school all at the same time.

Now, I have many good things going: a good relationship (I'm trying to convince Ben that that's portable), good friends (and yesterday I met an old friend from my Art Center days that I hadn't seen in over twelve years), two wonderful cats (they're portable, too), the business (hm, that's not as portable). So I have mixed feelings about being still here cuz I've been restless for a while, but the good stuff is good and I'm feeling more like celebrating than regretting or reminescing.

In true celebration mode, over the past week I have splurged on some aceto balsamico tradizionale…

…spicy hot chocolate, and hazelnut biscuits.

By biscuits I always mean what the British call biscuits, the Americans call cookies and the Italians biscotti. Of course, confusingly, the Americans use the term biscotti to mean something else, i.e. a specific kind of biscuit, er… cookie. I'm finally getting used to seeing Italian words used to mean something other than what they mean in Italian, though I really don't understand why someone would pick a foreign word to mean something different from what the word means in the original language. Take "latte" for instance. Latte is Italian for milk, but in the U.S. it's a coffee beverage that includes variable amounts of milk, coffee being still the primary ingredient. Why call it "latte" when they could call it "caffelatte" or "cappuccino" or make up a word in English?

I also got myself some flower tea…

and a tea posy…

I am going to spoil myself rotten this weekend. :)

Posted by Francesca at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

  From my food correspondent in Italy — well, my friend Giorgio — some pictures from the Sixth Salone del Gusto that took place in Torino, Italy, a couple of weeks ago.

Giorgio has been involved with the Slow Food movement — a sponsor of the event — for several years and is passionate about food, so he travelled from Faenza to Torino where he spent a few days enjoying good food and lectures about good food.

A bustier made entirely of pasta, I think.

Ah, to have been there and smelled the air… have you ever seen that many wheels of parmigiano in one place?

Ravioli. Yum.

Blue eggs from southern Chile.

The Mali food stall.

Formaggio nel sacco (cheese in the bag).

Spalla di cinta senese. I have no idea how to translate this.

I wish I could have been there and seen and smelled and tasted all the good stuff from many parts of the world. Maybe another year.

Posted by Francesca at 8:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

  I really don't care for Halloween. Maybe it's just that I didn't grow up with it, but I don't get it. I love Christmas, I get Thanksgiving, but Halloween just doesn't do it for me. The closest thing we have in Italy is carnevale, but apart from kids getting dressed up in costumes, it's an entirely different feeling. None of that scary, spooky, horror aspect, at least when I was a kid. Carnevale was just a day to pretend you were someone else, eat homemade castagnole and sfrappe (deep fried sweets), and have a little license from seriousness.

This is me on such a day in a ladybug outfit made by my grandmother. I so wish the photo was in color. I still remember this costume.

That was the ordinary carnevale. Then there's the special events as il carnevale di Venezia or di Viareggio where whole towns celebrate and have to be partially closed off to traffic for parades of big floats — à la Rose Parade.

Ah, memory lane… I must be getting old.

Posted by Francesca at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

  Some of you have noticed that I haven't made any food entries in a while. Between the heatwave, the bug infestation and consequent lack of sleep, and then starting to work out and watch what I eat, the past two months have seen little beyond survival cooking.

This whole getting in shape business can be pretty sad at times, especially for someone who grew up not just in Italy, but in Emilia-Romagna. But enough with the whining; I am talking food again.

As part of my new regime, I've given up my beloved baguettes in favor of whole grain bread (fortunately I've found a bread called seeduction at Whole Foods that I like a lot), eliminated butter and in general reduced quantities. The tricky part is making what I prepare as tasty as possible while keeping the amount of fats and salt down. Since I am using a lot less olive oil, I decided to splurge on some aceto balsamico tradizionale. Without getting into the intricacies of tutelage and nomenclature, aceto balsamico tradizionale has to age a minimum of twelve years under very specific conditions. The long production times and heavily regulated process make it an expensive product, not easy to find at most food stores. That's why I ended up ordering it online from Zingerman's, a deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hey, it's for a good cause.

This was my first time ordering from Zingerman's and thought I'd try more than just one thing so I added two items to my order: a box of Spanish saffron and a guide to good Parmigiano-Reggiano. Yes, I entrusted a Jewish American guy — Ari Weinzweig — to educate me about Parmigiano-Reggiano. And why not? Only Emilia-Romagna can make it, but I am open-minded about the rest.

My package arrived yesterday and I am almost done reading the booklet. It's a really good read: informative, straightforward and with some humor. By contrast, the booklet that came with the vinegar, written in Italy, had me yawn after the first few lines. I had forgotten how logorrhoeic Italians can be. But back to the cheese. The Parmesan cheese in the photo is not from Zingerman's, but after reading their little guide I really want to try their own. If only they weren't so expensive; shipping alone is a killer. Anyway, the balsamic vinegar is yummy (already tried it with salad and grilled salmon) and I'll let you know how the saffron fares next time I make risotto allo zafferano.

Five pounds down, twenty-five to go…

Posted by Francesca at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

  Moving from Italy to Los Angeles? (Pluto, this is for you). Here are a few notes that I hope will help you. Some of this may be useful even if you are moving from another country or another part of the US, but mine is an Italian perspective. When I moved to LA from a small town in Romagna, I had no idea what to expect and I certainly underestimated the culture shock factor. I've been away from Italy for so long, though, that I am a little out of touch with the way things are there now, so some things that struck me as odd fourteen years ago, may be familiar to you now.

TRANSPORTATION
• You can survive in LA without a car, but it'll crimp your style. You need a car, and you need a car with air conditioning.
• At a red light, you can (and should) turn right after checking for oncoming traffic. If you don't, people will honk. This is not true throughout the US, so if you are moving to a state other than California, check the local laws.
• Get an international driver license before you get here so you can start driving right away, but get a California driver's license as soon as you can. It does double duty as ID card and it'll be the document you use the most.
• Auto insurance is very expensive. Your premium will be a factor of your age, your driving record (you start handicapped since the record in your country of origin doesn't count), the kind and age of your vehicle, and the zip code you are living in. Different parts of LA have different premium rates depending on how dangerous they are and other factors I am not really sure about. The $ difference can be significant.
• If you park your car in a parking structure close to a restaurant or shop you are going to visit, ask them if they validate parking. It may save you a few bucks.
• Some abbreviations you should know about:
  FWY = freeway
  HWY = highway
  CYN = canyon
  ped = pedestrian
  xing = crossing
• And talking about pedestrian crossings (le zebre pedonali), in a few selected places — such as Old Town Pasadena — you'll encounter diagonal crossings. Most people still get those wrong, so proceed with caution, but this is how they are supposed to work. When the little man turns green, all pedestrians can cross in any direction, including in diagonal in the middle of the intersection. Then when the traffic light is green in one direction, the cars facing that direction cross. Then it'll be green light for the cars in the opposite direction. Then again all pedestrians. In theory it's a good idea; practice… well, that's another thing.

ACCOMODATIONS
• Houses are mostly made of wood. A friend of mine visiting from Italy kept tapping on houses and restaurants and couldn't get over the hollow sound. They didn't feel real to her and she called them "le case dei puffi" (Smurfs' houses). They go up in smoke at the slightest provocation, and rot because of water and insects. BUT, if you find yourself in an earthquake, you are not going to be crashed by tons of bricks. I lived in North Hollywood at the time of the Northridge earthquake and by the strength of the jolt I thought I was going to die. Then I remembered that I wasn't in Italy anymore.
• The vast majority of houses and apartments have wall-to-wall carpet (la moquette), a mystery to me to this day, given the climate. They also have uncomfortably low ceilings. On the bright side, they come with built-in closets and kitchens so you don't have to buy a wardrobe and most kitchen appliances every time you move. And chances are, you will move.

LANGUAGE
• Acronyms and abbreviations can be puzzling at first, but you'll pick up on them fast.
• You'll be asked "How are you?" several times a day. It doesn't mean "Come stai?"; it's just the local version of "Hi" or "Good morning". Trust me, no need to tell people about your high blood pressure or your student loans; they couldn't care less. Instead, say "Pretty good, thank you. How about yourself?". And if they ask "What's up?", answer "Nothing much" and that'll be the end of it.
• British vs. American English — There's probably a booklet you can pick up that points out the differences between the queen's English and American English. While you look for one, you could start reading this article on Wikipedia.

FOOD
• In General — Things are looking up compared to the early nineties, but you shouldn't expect to find all the things you have in Italy. For example, most "mozzarella" here wouldn't even be allowed to be called that way back home, as it's made using vinegar. You can find real mozzarella and even mozzarella di bufala in a few places. It's rather expensive and nothing compared to the real thing. Although Trader Joe's has a decent one at a reasonable price. Things like prosciutto and parmigiano are also easy to find these days, but lower quality. I can think of two reasons for this:

  a) Italians tend to keep the good stuff and export (slightly) inferior quality goods (we like to think that we are the only ones capable of appreciating the difference)

  b) shipment and storage conditions at destination often hurt perishable food. This is especially obvious with wine.

• Wine — You have access to wines from all over the world, but they all suffer from the same long shipments and often poor storage conditions at destination as the wines from Italy, unless you can afford the specialized stores. You should try the California wines. I don't like the ones you find at most stores because the are way too oaky, but I know that there are better ones; you just have to get to know them. I haven't tried very hard. What can I say… give me a glass of Sangiovese or Barbera any day.
• Food places — I am big fan of silverware and ceramic plates. Sadly, most coffee places will serve drinks in paper cups and offer you plastic utensils. Paper, I don't mind so much, as it doesn't alter the taste of food. Styrofoam, I loath.
• Portions — gigantic. Think the opposite of nouvelle cuisine.
• Coffee — When asking for coffee, keep in mind that it's not espresso, but rather a dark watery drink that comes in many sizes, all BIG. They used to have small, medium and big, but that was too easy. Now they have grande, tall, and venti. Don't ask; I have no idea. But trust me, they are all big. Oh, and by the way, latte does not mean milk here. It's a fancy name for a kind of coffee drink that has some milk in it.
• Espresso — It's hard to find really good espresso. In my area, the best espresso is at a Cuban bakery called Portos' that has locations in Glendale and Burbank.
• Pizza — When ordering pizza at a restaurant or delivery service, don't be surprised when it comes already cut in slices. It's just the way they do things here.
• Ice — If you ask for water, it will come with ice, unless you specifically ask for water without ice.
• Restaurants — One of the advantages of living in LA is that you have access to a lot of variety. Restaurants are no exception; you'll find Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Ethiopian, Korean, Cambodian, Italian, French, Mongolian, and so on. Try them all and find what you love.
• Doggy bags — Everybody does it. You'll get over it. It took me a while, but I have been assimilated. I now take home leftovers (well, it depends on the kind of leftovers).
• Before you get homesick and go looking for an Italian restaurant, you should know what to expect. Some tips in an older entry: Faux Italian.

MISCELLANEA

Grocery shopping
At supermarkets, someone standing next to the cashier will ask you "Paper or plastic?" and bag your groceries for you.

Movies
There is no intermission in movie theaters; pee before the show.

Taming the beast
I don't know how much of this is only LA and how much is widespread American, but there is a strange preoccupation with making everything look and behave "tame". Some examples:
— Compulsive shaving
— Declawing cats
— Removing thorns from roses
I should perhaps explain that declawing is not nail clipping. No, it's an amputation, where the poor cat loses body parts for the convenience of its owners. So inconvenient to have your furniture scratched… Have all those people vaporized, I say!

I pointed out a lot of things that may puzzle you at first, but there's a lot of good stuff, too. For instance, when you do your tax returns in April, you get your refunds (if you are entitled) in a matter of weeks. That's right, weeks! Weeks! No, really, weeks! Try to do that in Italy.

There's so many things that are different that I could go on for a week, but I just wanted to give you an idea. And now, Buon viaggio!

Posted by Francesca at 9:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

  The trip to Newport Beach was a nightmare: 1h40' in a car without air conditioning in the middle of the day under the LA sun. It was stop and go most of the way. We missed the first ten minutes or so of An Inconvenient Truth, but it was definitely worth seeing. We came out of the theater feeling all galvanized and ready to spring into action. What action, we still don't know, but I hope we do't lose the energy.

After that, we went to Caffè Il Farro where we had a very enjoyable dinner that included zuppa di farro invernale (perfect for July 12th, don't you think?) and a farrotto. Farrotto is like risotto in the way it's cooked, but made with farro insted of rice. Finally an Italian restaurants with Italian staff. Great service, great food and I did find farro perlato. That alone was worth the trip.

As I found out last year, the other kind of farro — farro decorticato — requires soaking overnight and at least 90' of cooking, and even then my zuppa di farro was way to chewy. According to the instructions on this package, farro perlato requires thorough rinsing in cold water and then only 20-25 minutes of cooking. I'll test for myself soon.

In case you wonder, farro is called spelt in English, at least in the US, but if you find farro at Whole Foods or other such places, it's more likely to be the kind you need to cook forever.
P.S.
Correction: farro is emmer!

Posted by Francesca at 7:23 AM | Permalink

  It's a week of birthdays. Today is Ben's birthday and we'll have a short working day. We'll finally go see An Inconvenient Truth and then we'll go to Newport Beach to an Italian restaurant called Il Farro. The name bodes well and I think that in addition to the restaurant they have a deli section where I am hoping to find farro perlato.

Since I won't be able to take a picture of the birthday boy, here's the last photo I took of him when we were in Italy last year. The place was Palazzuolo and we were outside a restaurant where we had an exceptionally good meal, including an assortment of breads made following medieval recipes. I am getting homesick just thinking about it.

And July 14th, Bastille day, is Kelvin's birthday. Our big boy turns four.

Posted by Francesca at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

  Italy won! Good thing I live in California or I wouldn't get any sleep tonight.

We had planned on going out to a tapas place tonight — La Luna Negra in Pasadena — but maybe we should reconsider and do Italian. Although, between the game and the music I've been playing all day, I've probably had enough Italian for one day, even for me. She says… as Paolo Conte sings "Via con me".

Posted by Francesca at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

  What's going on here? I am not a soccer fan — I don't even like soccer — but I've been glued to my computer "watching" the game as live text on the BBC website gobbling down some yogurt for lunch. That's not like me: I've been taken over by aliens.

This is the last minute of extra time and it looks like we are going into penalties. Sigh. But I am enjoying the BBC coverage; maybe it's the novelty. The language is as entertaining as the game (well, I am not really seeing the game, am I?):
"Florent Malouda nutmegs Fabio Cannavaro"
"Thierry Henry skins Gennaro Gattuso on the left"
"Zinedine Zidane… headbutted Marco Materazzi in the chest."

A quick search on Google found that "to nutmeg" means to "to push the ball through a defender's legs" (quoted from the USAToday World Cup glossary of terms). At least I am learning something.

Back to "watching".

Posted by Francesca at 1:27 PM | Permalink

  Ragù is one of the most popular pasta condiments throughout Italy. Recipes abound and you'd be surprised at the extent of variations. Even within a small area like Romagna — which is only a portion of the region Emilia-Romagna — the variations are significant. For instance, I use beef, but if I could find the right kind of pork sausage, I would use a mixture of 2/3 beef and 1/3 sausage. Sometimes I use 50/50 lean beef and lean pork. My grandmother used beef and chicken livers and others use a combinations of beef, veal and pork. Another item of contention is wine. I use red; some people use white and others use milk instead. How different can you get?

If you've never made ragù, this is a basic recipe that will get you started. Try it and then modify according to your taste.

About the big quantity… it's due to a convergence of laziness and ease to freeze. Ragù freezes well, so I make about two pounds in one go (about 1 kg) and then freeze what I don't use right away in small packages.

What you need
— two medium onions, chopped fine
— 3-4 ribs of celery, chopped fine
— 2-3 carrots, chopped fine
— two pounds of lean ground beef (or meat of your choice)
— a generous glass of dry red wine
— a large can of whole or crushed tomatoes (San Marzano)
— half a cup of tomato paste (optional)
— olive oil
— rock sea salt
Helpful:
— food processor to cut the onion, carrot and celery quickly
— kettle or pot to keep hot water handy
— timer to remind you to check the pot every 20' or so

Directions

1. Chop the onions, carrots and celery in big chunks, then pass through the food processor.





2. Put some olive oil in the pan and when it's hot, throw in the onion, carrot and celery and let cook for a few minutes until the mixture starts to become translucent.



To better cook the onion/carrot/celery mix, I divide it between the ragù pot and a pan. When the veggies are ready, I transfer those in the pan to the big pot.



3. Raise the flame and add the ground beef stirring often with a wooden spoon until all the redness has gone.



4. Add the red wine and mix until it has been absorbed.



5. Add the peeled tomatos and tomato paste, lower the flame and let cook slowly for 1.5 to 2 hours.
6. From time to time check to see if you need to add water. If so, add hot water (keep kettle handy). You can also add broth but be aware of the overall saltiness. I prefer to go easy on the salt and then adjust it towards the end.
7. When the ragù is done, let it cool off for a few hours, then prepare packages to freeze.


I make my packages very flat to maximize contact surface for faster defrosting.




Et voilà, a month of pasta.

Notes
Ragù is a "sugo di carne" (meat sauce) and it's all about the meat, not the tomatoes.

Beef: I use the leanest I can find. When I want a particularly strong flavor, I get New Zealand beef; it's slightly gamier than US beef.

Tomatoes: I buy San Marzano tomatoes. They are grown on the volcanic soil of the Vesuvio near Napoli (Naples) and tastier than other kinds. Unless you grow your own tomatoes, of course… I tried that and lost to the greenhorn worms.

For directions on how to cook pasta, see How to cook pasta the Italian way.

Posted by Francesca at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

  This is for my American friends who want to try real Italian cuisine without flying to Italy. There are plenty of so-called Italian restaurants in the U.S. Unfortunately, most of them are not what they claim to be. So, how do you find an authentic Italian restaurant?

First, a disclaimer. There really is no such thing as Italian cuisine. There is regional — and even more localized — cuisine: cucina romagnola, veneta, toscana, siciliana… you get the picture. Consequently, there is no such thing as an Italian restaurant. If you go to Italy, wherever you are, you eat regional dishes. In Toscana you'll eat zuppa di farro, in Romagna passatelli and in Veneto risi e bisi. You won't find dishes with couscous and sundried tomatoes in Val d'Aosta or a lot of lard and butter in Sicilia. An authentic restaurant outside Italy should give at least a rough indication of the provenance of their dishes; as a bare minimum a distinction between northern and southern dishes.

So, how can you have a true Italian experience here in the States? It's probably easier to explain how to recognize faux Italian.
Signs that you may not be sitting at an Italian restaurant:

• It's part of a large chain (i.e. The Olive Garden).
• All the dishes have pasta on the side. In Italy, pasta is considered a first course (primo) and served before the main course (secondo).
• All the dishes come as combos and you can't mix and match. In Italy, side dishes (contorni) are listed as separate menu items so you can have asparagus with your roast chicken or roast potatoes with you sole, if you so wish. Set menus do exist, but tend to be optional features in addition to the regular mix-and-match menu.
• Several things on the menu are mispelled (I'll have to make a separate entry for this)
• The kitchen staff is shouting in Spanish
• Your server says "broushedda" instead of bruschetta
• No Italian region is mentioned in the restaurant name or menu

Now that you have an idea of how to spot the fakes, how do you go about finding the real thing? Find some first generation Italians in your area, better if they haven't been here long and are still in culture shock; they'll know where the good restaurants are. If you live in a big city, there will be organizations for Italian expats and there's always the Web. Universities are also a good place to find people from other countries and they often have clubs. In Pasadena, for instance, there is a strong Italian group at Caltech. The Italian Club at Caltech is very active and friendly; they have weekly events such as movie night and lunch on campus. You don't need to be Italian or a PhD student to participate.

For a glimpse at what it means to be Italian when it comes to food, check out the movie Big Night. It's a great movie that revolves around the preparation of a big Italian dinner, but not just that. I wish they'd use real Italian actors to portray Italians in movies, but I like Tony Shalhoub anyway and they did cast Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini. Well, looks like I digressed a bit… Whatever. Rent the movie.

Posted by Francesca at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

One of the first things I struggled with when I moved to California was the local obsession with speed: fast food, fast lane, speed reading… what's wrong with these people? I thought. Fast food was definitely the most offensive of the various incarnations of speeding; who in their right mind would want to gobble down food in a hurry? Food is a pleasure to be savored slowly, as is reading. No matter the demands on my time, some things just ain't right when they are done wrong. I'd rather not have pasta, if it's not al dente, and I'll happily decline coffee, if it's a "brodino" (watery broth-like drink). In the end, it's not so much a matter of time as a matter of care. Taking the time to do things properly means caring about them. Maybe that's why I like knitting and spinning, two activities that require unhurried attention and reward you with slow progress.

A couple of weeks after landing in LA, I was taken to a fast food place (I refuse to call those things restaurants). Then I understood the necessity to consume food in a hurry, like a foul tasting medicine. Sure, go ahead, call me food snob. From an American point of view, I know I am. From an Italian perspective, though, fourteen years and many a shortcut later, I fear the wrath of the food gods for my adulterated ways.

Yes, we expatriates cling to traditions more than those in the mother land. It's an identity issue. And a comfort issue. Some of the staple food of Italian diet such as olive oil and coffee don't actually have to come from Italy to be good. I use Italian olive oil in part for sentimental reasons, and I like Italian labels in the kitchen. But if Italy declared war on the U.S. and grocery stores suddenly stopped carrying Italian products, I am sure I could substitute with olive oils from France, Spain or Greece.

For some Italian foods, though, there just aren't acceptable substitutes. These are the first that come to mind:
— Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano (Parmesan cheese)
— aceto balsamico tradizionale
— mozzarella di bufala
— prosciutto

I am sure Chinese or Moroccan expats feel the same kind of frustration, only for different ingredients.

At times I go to great lengths to get the right ingredient, because a certain dish will not be the same without it. Other times I am tempted to stuff the freezer with prepared food… yup, I have my weak moments. But I have one sacred rule: no phone calls while we are eating. If it's good news, it can wait. If it's bad news, it can wait, too. When we eat, we eat.

Posted by Francesca at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

: pasta all'italiana

What you need
— Good quality pasta
— Condiment of choice
— Rock marine salt
— Cold tap water
— Big pot with lid (e.g. a stock pot)
— Large pan
— Long-handle wooden spoon or fork (or other material that will not melt in boiling water)
— Timer

Directions

1. Have everything ready: your pasta measured, your sauce done or 95% done in the pan.
2. Fill the pot to about two thirds with water and cover with lid.
3. Bring to a rolling boil (big bubbles), then add the salt.
4. Wait for the water to start boiling again, throw in the pasta and stir with a wooden spoon.
5. As soon as the water starts boiling again, reduce the heat a little to keep the water boiling, but less vigorously and without lid. Now you can do things like set the table, grate the Parmesan cheese, open a bottle of wine, just don't go do your laundry and leave the pot unattended.
6. Every couple of minutes or so, stir the pasta with the wooden spoon.
7. A couple of minutes before cooking time is over (according to pasta packet instructions or your experience) start testing the pasta.
8. When the pasta is nearly done, drain it in a pasta drainer in the sink with cold water running on the side, NOT on the pasta. The cold water is meant to protect any plastic trimmings in your sink pipes. Keep a couple of ladles of the pasta water (to add to the sauce pan).
9. Add the drained pasta to the sauce pan, mix in well with the sauce and cook for another minute. Optional: add a little pasta water to the pan to help bond the pasta to the sauce (the starch in the pasta water will do that).
10. If your dish calls for it, bring freshly grated Parmesan cheese to the table.

Notes

Pasta
Quality: I recommend good "pasta di grano duro" (hard wheat semolina). Some good brands easily available in the U.S. are De Cecco and Rustichella d'Abruzzo. A good quality pasta will not break while cooking or overcook too easily.
Quantity: 80-100 gr for a first course, more if you are making it the main entrée.

Water
Quantity: Pasta needs a lot of space to move around freely (at least one liter per 100 gr of pasta) so it doesn't stick to itself. Be stingy on the water and your pasta will be a blob of glue. Yum!

Salt
Format: coarse rock salt is easier to dose than the powder form.
Kind: marine salt is the one traditionally used in Italy and since we are talking about cooking pasta the Italian way…
Timing: Right after the water reaches boiling point. If you add the salt before, it'll take longer to get to boiling point.
Quantity: A rule of thumb quoted in many recipe books is 10/100/1000 — 10 gr of salt, 100 gr of pasta, 1 liter of water.

Timing If you don't have Italian material in your DNA and you were not brought up in Italy, do not despair. You are starting a little handicapped, but you can do it. Start testing early. How do you know when it's done? Bite a piece and if you see a little white line inside the pasta, it's not entirely done. That might actually be a good time to get the pasta out, before it's done, drain it and add it to the pan with the sauce. Mix it it in and cook for another minute and serve immediately.

What Not to Do

• Do not use a small pot or small amount of water (you'll end up with an amorphous blob of stickiness)


• Do not add oil to the water (it's a waste of good oil and it makes the pasta surface slippery so the sauce does not stick to it)


• Do not add salt after cooking (the taste is in the sauce, Parmesan cheese, etc. and all that salt will end up in your system. Put the salt in the water instead.)


• Do not throw the pasta against the wall to check for doneness. I couldn't believe this when I first heard it, but I am told by reliable sources that this is so common in the U.S. that it has generated the saying "Let's throw it against the wall and see if it sticks" in the business world to mean "Let's see if it's a good idea". I can only say that it's absurd in relation to pasta.


• Do not rinse the pasta with cold water. Pasta is to be served hot. Instead of draining it at the last minute and shock it with cold water, get it out of the pot a little earlier.


• Do not overdress your pasta. There's a reason we call it condiment, instead of sauce. Pasta is not supposed to swim in a sea of sauce. It should be thoroughly coated, but not drenched, just like a good salad.


• Do not overcook. This is the absolute worst offense you can make in Italian cuisine. Period.

Related Tips

• If you are having Italian friends over for dinner and you don't cook pasta this way, spare your feelings and theirs by cooking something else. Really.


• If you are taking the pasta to the table in a big serving bowl (as opposed to serving individual plates right away), heat the bowl in your microwave oven ahead of time.

Posted by Francesca at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Mondays are usually very busy, but this morning is crazy. At 8am we were already juggling last minute changes and urgent requests on four active projects. And it's pouring down in buckets. Piper is sleeping in my office and Kelvin has finally settled down after roaming the house like a madcat on drugs. Rain does that to him.

I actually like the rain; it's a welcome change from the local boring weather. There, I said it: Southern California weather is boring. People here look I at me like I am crazy when I say that, but I grew up in northern Italy, with real seasons. When it rains, I am reminded of the things I miss.

Posted by Francesca at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today my grandfather turns 95. Happy birthday, grandpa!

This is grandpa with his friend Elsa about nine years ago.

Posted by Francesca at 8:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A friend of mine recently moved to New Zealand and a post on her blog reminded me of how hard it can be to adjust to a completely new environment when there are no familiar things in sight. She is still waiting for her belongings to arrive after three months.

I never really think about it, but my home is filled with both things new and old, from this life and the one before. And every time I return to Italy, I bring back something new that is actually meant to be old, to remind me of that other time and place. So, alongside the Japanese books and stickers, the spindles, and the web development equipment, I keep around an assortment of things that provide the comfort of what used to be familiar.

Reproduction of an old-style jug from Faenza in the living room.

Glass paperweight from a trip to Venezia.

Hanging on my office wall.

More old-style jugs from Faenza in the kitchen.

These are reproductions of tiles from the "pavimento Vaselli" in San Petronio in Bologna.

Posted by Francesca at 3:44 PM | Permalink

Just started sorting out the pictures we took last year in Italy. Whenever we go, it's to visit family and friends and we only do the tourist thing for a couple of days or so. Last time we went to Firenze (Florence), Ferrara, and a couple of small hillside villages in the Appennini mountains. Home is in Romagna, with family being in Ravenna and most of my friends in Faenza and we usually end up taking only day-trips from there.

In Firenze, we went to Giardino dei Boboli and then to an exhibit of Leonardo's machines. We both had looked forward to seeing life-size constructions of machines from Leonardo's drawings and I really enjoyed the show. Ben thought the craftsmanship was not quite up to par, but I couldn't tell.

Ornitottero (Ornithopter)
The ornithopter is a flying machine with wings like a bird's. Although it looks very much like a modern-day hang-glider, the ornithopter was meant to be operated by the pilot using pedals that would flap and twist the wings.

Ornitottero Verticale (Vertical Ornithopter)
In this model, the paddles were meant to move in the air as those of a boat in water.

Self-propelling car
This machine is thought to have been used for stage performances, and motion was provided by coiled springs placed under the wheels.

Bicycle

Posted by Francesca at 8:23 AM | Permalink