Category Archives: Mangiamo!

Sapori d’Autunno

22 Tuesday Oct 2019

Posted by in Italia, Italian language, Mangiamo!

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

La Cupa, Orsara di Puglia, cachi, noceDalla terra alla tavola, farm to table cooking has always been a thing in Italia.  Food is prepared using local, seasonal ingredients which are at their optimum flavor.  Each season features its own specialties.  I sapori d’autunno, the flavours of autumn, feature the fruits of the harvest. Visiting Italia in the autumn will not leave you hungry or thirsty!  This is also a time to seek out sagre-wonderful food festivals dedicated to local specialties. There are regional differences, and specialties are prepared according to local tradition, but I will provide a general review of what you might find on your piatto. I am also including links to related previous posts and recipes.roasted chestnuts, castagne in campagna

Castagne (cas·TAH·nyeh). Chestnut trees have been growing in Italia since at least 2000 BC, the oldest ones being in Calabria.  Pushcarts selling castagne calde in paper cones will be found all over the country.  Everyone I know has an old pan at home with holes punched out the bottom to use for roasting castagne.  Don’t you have one?  Castagne can also be boiled with bay leaves or made into soup or chestnut honey, miele di castagne.  Chestnut flour is used to make pasta which is eaten with pesto in Liguria, and Castagnaccio, a chestnut flour cake with olive oil, raisins, pine nuts, rosemary and orange rind.  This cake is originally Tuscan, but can be found in other areas too.  I tasted some in Roma, but it did not last long enough for a photo. Below is a poster for a Sagra della Castagna this weekend in Potenza, Basilicata.Basilicata Sagra della Castagna poster Zucca (ZOO·kah)  Zucca and zucca gialla are pumpkin and squash.  I adore zucca!Zucca Orsara di PugliaIt is used to make delicacies such as risotto di zucca, gnocchi di zucca and tortellini, ravioli or agnelotti stuffed with zucca, cheese, nutmeg and amaretti.  Mmmm.  No food goes to waste, so any leftover zucca goes to feed the pigs! gnocchi di zuccaSpeaking of decreasing waste, I like to recycle my Hallowe’en pumpkin into gnocchi.  Here you will find my recipe for gnocchi di zucca.Albero di cachi orsara di Puglia, Persimmon treeCachi (KAH•kee) are called persimmons in English.  There are 2 kinds, hard and soft and both delicious.  They are mostly eaten raw on their own or in salads.  Cachi La Cupa Orsara di PugliaI picked these ones from the tree in the upper photo.  It is in the olive grove that belonged to my Nonno.  Papà has 2 trees full of cachi in Vancouver.  We will pick them all in about a week and let them ripen in the garage.The incredibly gorgeous colour of cachi make them equally desirable as a painting subject.Cachi persimmon painting Casa Berti Lucca

Funghi (FOON·gee) e tartufi (tar·TOO·fee). Funghi porcini are available dried all year, but only in autunno can you find the fresh meaty fungus. I also love funghi cardoncelli and any other kind of funghi on pasta or in risotto.funghi porcini RomaTartufi are truffles- but not the chocolate covered kind!  Autunno is truffle foraging season. They are like underground funghi and are an expensive seasonal delicacy shaved onto pasta, eggs and risotto. I find too much tartufo gives food a moldy taste, so luckily you need a delicate hand and do not need to use much.  They are only fresh from October to December, otherwise they are frozen or preserved in oil.Cestino di fichi

Fichi (FEE·kee).  The second harvest of figs is ready in September/October, depending on the weather. Other fruits of the autumn harvest include bitter, spicy radicchio, mostly used in salads, but also cooked alla griglia and added to risotto and rapini which is used to make the Pugliese favourite orechiette con cime di rapa.  Trees are full of noce – walnuts and nocciole-hazelnuts.  Stay tuned for Corzetti with walnut and mushroom sauce recipe in an upcoming post about my new Corzetti stamp from Vernazza.  Insalata Purtuall, Orange and fennel saladMy favourite winter salad is Insalata Purtuall’ made with finocchio-fennel, oranges and black olives with a drizzle of olive oil and salt.  Read about my interesting history with this salad in the link.  Melograna-pomegranate adds extra flavour and colour.Grapes in the wine press Vino nel torchioUva (OO·vah).  La vendemmia, the grape harvest, usually happens in September and then it is vino making time! A glossary of viniculture terms in Italiano can be found in this post on vino. Each region has their own traditional dishes made during this time, including schiacciata con l’uva, a focaccia made with grapes.Schiacciata con l'uvaI made this schiacciata from a recipe on Luca’s blog. It was delicious, but I would recommend using a smaller, seedless grape! Vino cotto, which is technically actually mosto cotto is grape must boiled down to a sweet molasses type syrup.  Vino cotto, mosto cottoVino cotto is used for Christmas dolci, sweetening snow cones, and poured on cooked wheat berries with walnuts and pomegranate to make muscitaglia for All Saints’ Day November 1st.muscitagliaOlive (o•LEE•veh).  Late October and November is la raccolta delle olive-the olive harvest. This is an incredible experience, if you ever have a chance to participate. Everyone who lives in a rural area participates and it usually involves a picnic with many of the ingredients I have mentioned.  I wrote a post describing the entire olive harvesting/oil extraction process-La Raccolta delle Olive.Nothing compares to the flavour and aroma of olio novello, fresh pressed olive oil.  It is ‘liquid gold’.  Even if you do not have access to freshly pressed oil, you can make the Olive oil limoncello cake that I made at Casa Berti in Lucca after harvesting olives.Olive oil limoncello cakeNovember is also hunting season, which means pappardelle al cinghiale and pappardelle al lepere, pasta with a wild boar sauce and pasta with wild rabbit sauce. As the temperature drops, warm comfort foods increase.  Polenta is found mostly in Northern Italia, but in the cold months, it is made in homes all over the country.  Polenta, Casa Berti, LuccaOther autumn comfort foods include pancotto e patate, pasta e fagioli and risotto made with almost any of the ingredients mentioned in this post-even radicchio. Drool over my November street food-fire baked caciocavallo in its own little terracotta dish.  Mmmm!baked caciocavallo

‘Italy in the Autumn’ is the topic for the final Dolce Vita Bloggers linkup.  Since I already published a post about travelling to Italia in the autumn called Autunno in Italia, I wrote about the wonderful food available in autumn instead!Cachi Casa Berti Lucca

Grazie mille to Kelly, Jasmine and Kristy for hosting the Dolcevitabloggers linkup for the past 2 years.  It has been fun participating!  Check out the rest of the posts here.

Hopefully I made you hungry!  Buon appetite e buon viaggio, Cristina

In my Kitchen in Puglia, 2019

07 Saturday Sep 2019

Posted by in Italian life, Mangiamo!, Orsara di Puglia, Puglia

≈ 34 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

August is always a busy month.  I am usually in Orsara di Puglia for at least half of it, and there is a lot of activity in my kitchen.  Here are just a few of the things my family and I were up to in our tiny but functional summer kitchen in Puglia.

Starting with the space itself, the whole casa is 40m² (about 450 square feet) including a bedroom and bathroom.  The room with the cucina is also the living room, guest room (aka my room) and art studio. The highlight of the room is the barrel vaulted stone ceiling. It is hard to get a photo of the whole thing, but this one gives you an idea what it looks like. Amazing, isn’t it?

August 5th is a feast day in Orsara.  It is la festa della Madonna della Neve which you can read about here.  My parents and I invited 7 family members over for pranzo, the 1pm meal.  Luckily we have a total of 10 chairs!

I had recently bought a spianatoia, although I only knew what is was called in dialetto.  It is a pasta rolling board with a lip on one end so it stays put on the table.  This one also has a handy carrying handle.  Cavatelli www.unpodipepe.caMamma and I decided to make orecchiette and cavatelli, even though both of us were out of practice. These are the most typical pasta shapes found in Puglia.Orecchiette www.unpodipepe.ca  Sugo con braciole They was served with sugo made with braciole which are thin cuts of meat rolled with prosciutto, parmigiano, parsley and garlic. Orecchiette con sugo

There are no fancy appliances in this kitchen.  I was given a bouquet of basilico and garlic from a friend’s garden and we made pesto ‘old school’ with her ancient and very heavy stone mortaio-mortar.Pesto made with old stone mortar/mortaio

Vino is plentiful in Puglia.  Nero di Troia is a nice, full-bodied local wine.  Read more about it in Vini di Puglia, the first of a 3 part blog series.  It is available at the grocery store in a 3L plastic container for less than €6!  It is very good!  We bring it home and Papà transfers it to 4 750ml glass bottles.  Sure, you can spend more money, but even the inexpensive vino is good.  I love to drink pesche in vino -peaches in wine with pranzo.  Yum! In summer red wine is often served chilled.

The cheese products in Puglia and Campania are drool-worthy!  Orsara has its own DOP cheese called cacioricotta, a goat cheese, but it never stays around long enough to be photographed!  Here is a lovely white on white trio of burrata, ricotta and mozzarella di bufala.Burrata, ricotta e mozzarella di bufala

Fiori di zucca are one of my favourite summer foods.  Luckily they are readily available here.  These ones were grown by a friend.  They are stuffed with caciocavallo and basilico, ready to be baked or grilled.  More recipe and harvesting tips can be found in the post Fiori di zucca.  I grow them in my garden in Vancouver as well, but they are not that plentiful. Fiori di zucca

Cucina povera, literally ‘food of the poor’, is what you will find in Puglia.  Simple foods made with fresh local ingredients.  My favourite comfort food, very typical of Orsara di Puglia is pancotto e patate.  It is made with stale bread, boiled potatoes, oil and garlic.  Beans and rucola or other greens can also be added.  I will have to write a post on how to make it!Pancotto, patate e rucolaI took the train down to Lecce and Nardò for a few days and found this cute ceramic gratta aglio, a garlic grater.  Of course the peperoncini attracted me! Gratta aglioI hope this post has made you either hungry and drooling or wishing you could visit Puglia yourself.  Maybe it has done both? Buon appetito e buon viaggio, CristinaThanks Sherry from Australia for hosting the monthly food blogging event, In My Kitchen (IMK). Read about other world kitchens by clicking the link to Sherry’s Pickings . Buon appetito, Cristina

In My Kitchen, April 2019

08 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by in Art projects, Mangiamo!

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

The last few weeks, my kitchen table has been a multipurpose space, doubling as a greenhouse and an art studio.  For the 4th year in a row, I am participating in the ‘Leftovers’ printmaking exchange.  The idea is to use leftover paper and other materials to make an edition of small prints.  I need to send 15 hand pulled prints via Wingtip Press to the Idaho Hunger Relief Task Force in Boise.  1 print will be reserved for silent auction to support hunger relief and 2 will be part of travelling exhibitions. Last year, my print went on a Grand Tour to China, Wales, Whangarei New Zealand, Reno Nevada and Boise!  The remaining 12 prints are exchanged with other participating printmakers. In a few months, I will receive my ‘leftovers’ package in the mail with 12 prints  from around the world!

I have a beautiful old aluminum scolapasta (colander) in my kitchen that just oozes character.  I worked on my sketches and carved the linoleum here, but will do the printmaking in my little studio space.  I have to post the prints by April 10th! Papà has pomodoro seedlings growing on my back porch.  They are covered in plastic as it has been sunny, but cold.  I was given more seeds by a friend, so 2 weeks ago, right after la luna piena –the full moon, I started growing them at the end of the kitchen table by the big window.  Piselli and pepperoncini are growing nicely too!I made ravioli with funghi-mushroom filling but I could not seem to decide what size or shape to make my ravioli/agnolotti/mezzalune!  Despite the lack of symmetry, they tasted good, although I prefer my usual ricotta filling.

Some time this month, I plan to invite my coworkers over for pizza, but 2 of them have Celiac, so I need to make gluten free dough.  Mannaggia!  My experience with gluten free dough is that it tastes like crap, with the consistency of styrofoam.  Potato, rice and corn flour all result in a dense blob of yuck, yuck and yuck!  Bleh!  My local family run generi alimentari Renzullo’s finally started selling Caputo Fioreglut.  This is a gluten free flour from Italia that I read about on both Paola‘s and Silvia‘s blogs.  They are both in Australia and raved about it, but it was not available here.

I bought a bag for $12.00 (!) and decided to try focaccia first.  That way, if it came out as a sticky, unpalatable blob of yuck at least I did not waste ingredients on it.  Fioreglut has some rice and corn flour, but the main ingredient is farina di grano saraceno-buckwheat flour!  I followed the recipe on the bag, since it was almost the same as my usual recipe.  Making gluten free dough is the opposite of making regular bread dough.  Usually you want to knead the dough as much as you can to make it light and airy.  Gluten free dough must be handled as little as possible to keep it together.  My white blob of dough looked questionable, but it did rise.  I dimpled it with my fingers and added rosemary, salt and parmigiano, made the sign of the cross and put it in the oven. I could not believe the results-it was actually delicious!  Just look at the photo!  Before inviting my friends over, I will try focaccia Pugliese, then pizza.

This ‘In my kitchen’ post is linked to the worldwide monthly get together of food bloggers hosted by Sherry of Sherry’s Pickings.  Click to read the other participating posts.  Buon appetito, Cristina

Zeppole di San Giuseppe

19 Tuesday Mar 2019

Posted by in Feste, Mangiamo!, Recipes

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Zeppole di San Giuseppe are a traditional pastry served in southern and central Italy on March 19th for la festa di San Giuseppe.  In Italia, March 19th is also La Festa del Papà -Father’s Day.  In North America, Father’s Day is the 3rd Sunday in June, but in Italia it is always on March 19th because San Giuseppe (St Joseph) was, of course, the papà of Jesus! He is also the patron saint of carpenters, the family, orphans and the homeless. March 19th is also a few days away from spring and the start of the agricultural year, in the fields and vineyards.

Zeppole di San Giuseppe are made with the same choux pastry as bignè di San Giuseppe, but the dough is piped out into ‘nests’ rather than spooned onto the baking sheet.  They can be baked or fried.  The hole in the center of the zeppola is filled with crema pasticcera, a creamy custard.  Finally, the signature detail of zeppole di San Giuseppe….they are topped with un amarena in sciroppo.  Amarene are dark, wild sour cherries and they are preserved in syrup.  Amarene in sciroppo are likely available at your local Italian market.  Note-the word zeppole, singular zeppola, is used in some regions, including Calabria, for a type of doughnut or fried dough.

Zeppole di San Giuseppe are not the easiest thing to make, especially if you are not a baker or used to a piping bag.  My first ones did not look beautiful, but they still tasted great. If you need a visual tutorial, there are quite a few good videos online, especially from Benedetta, and Zia Franca.

Zeppole di San Giuseppe

  • 150g (175ml, ¾ cup) water
  • 125g (½ cup) butter
  • pinch of salt
  • 150g (285 ml, 1 cup + 2 tablespoons) 00 flour
  • 4 medium eggs

Heat the water on low heat and add butter and sugar.  Stir until melted and bring to a boil.  Add the flour ALL AT ONCE and stir quickly until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball.  Remove from heat and let cool slightly, then add the eggs, 1 at a time.  A mixer at low speed can be used for this part, but I just used my wooden spoon-less stuff to wash!Zeppole di San Giuseppe

Put the dough in a pastry bag with a very large stella, star tip.  The tip needs to be at least 1 cm, preferably larger, or the zeppole will come out too small.  I was not able to find a bigger tip, so mine were actually zeppoline!  Pipe out circular nests with 2 rows of pastry onto carta forno –parchment paper.  Bake at 200ºC (400ºF) for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 180ºC (350ºF) for 10 minutes.  Turn off oven and leave the door partially open to let them cool.

Baked zeppole have a delicate taste.  Frying gives them a more robust taste.  To fry them, cut the parchement paper into squares.  Drop the whole square upside down into hot oil.  Remove the paper and turn them.  Enrica from Chiarapassion says her Mamma’s secret is to  bake them, then fries them so they do not absorb as much oil!  Sounds like twice as much work to me though.Zeppole di San Giuseppe fritte

Dust with icing sugar, top with crema pasticcera and amarena with syrup.  I served mine with my homemade liquore di foglie di amarena.

Crema Pasticcera

  • 2 whole eggs + 2 yolks
  • 80g (6 tbsp, 1/3 cup +1 tbsp) sugar
  • 70g (165 ml, ½ cup) flour
  • ½ L (500 ml, 2 cups) whole milk
  • lemon peel
  • vanilla bean(optional)

Heat the milk in a pot with the lemon peel.  I use the entire peel.  Start at the top and cut it like a corkscrew so you end up with one long peel.  In a bowl, beat eggs and yolks, add sugar and whisk. When milk is hot, remove lemon peel and add vanilla bean, if desired. Add other ingredients, whisk and heat until thick.  When cool, refrigerate with plastic wrap touching the crema.  When ready to use, fill a pasty bag and pipe onto zeppole with a large star tip.

Auguri a tutti i Papà del mondo e Buon Onomastico a tutti i Giuseppe, Giuseppina, Giuseppa, Peppe, Joe, Pina, Josie e Giusy!  Ciao, Cristina

PS In my post La Festa del Papà, you can see my absolutely favourite photo of me and papà.  Have a look.  Cute-issimo, no?

Your Favourite Recipe

09 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by in Mangiamo!, Recipes

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

For the second time in 3 months, I wrote about the wrong topic for the monthly #dolcevitabloggers linkup!  I was frantically trying to finish a detailed review of my favourite book, only to find that other posts were on the topic of ‘favourite Italian recipe’. Mannaggia!  I had taken a screenshot of the list of topics, but a few of them were switched.

So…. my favourite recipe?  Hmmm.  That is almost like asking a mamma which one is her favourite child!  I love food and have too many faves to pick just one.  I think it is better if I write about your favourite recipe!  I had a look through the recipe category of my blog.  There are 14 recipe posts-half are desserts.  My favourite ingredients seem to be ricotta, limoncello, orange and olive oil! The most popular recipe post, by a massively huge margin, is Torta Caprese all’Arancia. I posted this recipe in honour of my 2015 Cannolo Award. 

Caprese (cah•PREH•seh) means ‘from Capri’ (CAP•ree) the beautiful island off the coast of Napoli.  I suppose caprese could also mean ‘goatlike’ since capra is goat?  We’ll stick with ‘from Capri’.

There are a few different stories about how Torta Caprese came to be.  The most likely is that it was invented by mistake in the 1920’s by a kitchen worker at an Austrian owned pensione on Capri.  He added mandorle tritate –ground almonds, instead of flour while trying to make something similar to an Austrian Sachertorte.  It was a big hit, and went on to be served at all of the hotels and tea rooms on Capri.

The basic recipe involves mixing melted butter and chocolate in a ‘bagno-maria’ with sugar and egg yolks, then adding whipped egg whites and ground almonds.  Liqueur, usually Strega, is added.  The cake has a hard thin shell and moist interior and the center tends to sink in a bit from the sides.

I recently tasted a yummy orange Torta Caprese, so I decided to try my own version.  After a bit of experimentation, and substituting Gran Marnier for Strega, I ended up with a very nice Torta Caprese all’ Arancia.  It is a 3 bowl recipe, so be prepared to wash them!

Read the rest of the original post Torta Caprese all’ Arancia to find the step-by-step recipe and find out what the Cannolo Award is all about.

This post is written as part of the monthly #dolcevitabloggers linkup, hosted by Jasmine of Questa Dolce Vita, Kelly of Italian at Heart and Kristie of Mamma Prada, the 7th -14th of every month. Hopefully next time I will prepare the correct topic!  You will have to wait until November to read about my favourite Italian book!

Here is me posing on my first visit to Capri when I was 16. Unfortunately I didn’t know about Torta Caprese at the time.

Ciao, Cristina

In My Kitchen, September 2018

04 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by in Mangiamo!

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Late August/early September is a busy time in my kitchen, and even busier in my parents’ garage.  The garage has a sink and propane burner, so it counts as a kitchen too!  Mid August, I am usually just getting home from 3-4 weeks in Italia and am right back to work the next day for a jet-lag infused reality check.

My garden is thirsty for water and full of erbacce-weeds that need to be pulled.  The fruits of the garden are ripe for picking. This was a good year for pomodori-4 different varieties.  My favourite are the ciliegine or cherry tomatoes.  I eat them like candy, and freeze some for making brodo-broth for the winter. My parents get back from Italia at the end of August, then we make passata di pomodoro to can for the year. We use whatever is ripe enough from our gardens, and purchase a lot more.  This is a major production involving the whole family, but is totally worth the effort.  I like to call it ‘Salsapalooza’.  Read more about our passata di pomodoro making in this post.

The origano-oregano was picked about a month ago and hung to dry in bundles.  It is ready to be crumbled and stored in jars.

My Mamma brings home pomodori secchi, sun-dried tomatoes from the mercato in Orsara di Puglia.  We put them in jars under oil with garlic, parsley and capers.  Yum!

In May, I planted basilico seeds in every available pot I could find and the crop was a good one, so I am making a lot of pesto this year.  I bought a stash of pine nuts while I was in Italia. My recipe for Pesto Genovese can be found here.

I am sad to pick the last of my fiori di zucca.  They are too delicate to keep or freeze.  I make them battered and fried, stuffed, battered and fried, or stuffed and baked.  Sometimes I use the broken bits to make frittelle or a frittata.  I am always shocked that so many people do not know these delicate morsels are edible!  To learn how to pick them and what to do with them, check out my post Fiori di zucca.

Some of my zucchine grew too big while I was away, so I have put those aside to make chocolate zucchini cake.  You would never know there is a lot of vegetable in it!  Sorry, it did not last long enough for a photo!

My raspberry bushes were producing a bowlful a day in June and July.  Now there are just 5-10 berries per day.  I have been hoarding them until I had just enough for one last batch of jam!

Rucola gets put in and on everything!  In my salad, on my pizza, on my thin cut sautéed beef. Some even goes into the freezer for making pasta patate e rucola, on of my favourite comfort foods in the winter.

That is about all from my kitchen (and my parents’ garage) this month.  What is happening in your cucina?  This post is part of the monthly ‘In my Kitchen’ linkup hosted by Sherry.  To read the other posts click this link to her blog Sherry’s Pickings

Ciao, Cristina

Limoncello Ricotta Cookies

19 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by in Mangiamo!, Recipes

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Last week I had a bancarella at the Italian summer outdoor market. I like to bring dolci for friends who come to visit, or anyone who stops by to chat. Buy a card… get a cookie. It was an unusually hot day, and my espresso cookies would melt and make a mess all over the place, so I made refreshing, sweet and tangy limoncello ricotta cookies.  Limoncello and ricotta are 2 of my favourite ingredients.

When I was growing up, our Abruzzesi neighbours often made these soft cakey cookies-minus the limoncello. They used Anice (ah·Nee·cheh), a liqueur similar to Sambuca, and topped them with multi-coloured sprinkles.  The ricotta makes them soft, moist and chewy. If fresh is not available***, make your own ricotta!

Limoncello Ricotta Cookies:

350g flour (2½ cups)

5 g salt (1 tsp)

8g Pane degli Angeli (½ bustina/envelope, 2 teaspoons) *

100 g olive oil (½ cup) **

400 g sugar (2 cups)

2 eggs

450 g fresh ricotta (1 lb)

30g limoncello (30 ml, 2 tablespoons)

15 g freshly squeezed lemon juice (15 ml, 1 tablespoon)

Grated peel of 1 lemon

Glaze: same as for Casa Berti Olive Oil Limoncello Cake

200 g (1½ cups) powdered sugar/icing sugar

30g limoncello (30ml, 2 tablespoons)

15g freshly squeezed lemon juice (15 ml, 1 tablespoon)

Grated peel of 1 organic lemon

Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F)

Mix the 3 dry ingredients together. In another bowl, mix sugar and grated lemon peel together with the back of a spoon until the sugar becomes fragrant.  Add eggs, 1 at a time.  Add oil, then ricotta and limoncello. Stir in dry ingredients.

The dough is quite sticky. Use 2 tablespoons or a small cookie scoop to measure the dough onto a cookie sheet.  The dough may be easier to work with if it is left in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.  Bake for 15 minutes, being careful not to burn the edges.  Let cool.

To make glaze, mix the all ingredients except lemon peel in a small bowl until smooth.  If it is too thick and sticky, add more limoncello or lemon juice.  Add lemon peel last.  Use a teaspoon to spread glaze onto each cookie.  Leave glaze to harden and set for 1-2 hours.

Makes 40-60 cookies, depending on the size.  Store in a covered container.

* If Pane degli Angeli is not available, substitute 2 tsp baking powder and a tiny splash of vanilla extract

**if you prefer to use 125g unsalted butter (½ cup), mix the sugar and butter together first with a mixer, then add eggs one at a time, followed by the other ingredients

  ***Cottage cheese is NOT an appropriate substitute for ricotta!

Friends and customers often tell me I should be selling the cookies. I am not sure how to take that.  Are they trying to tell me my baking is more appealing than my artwork?  Hmmmm, I had better not overthink this one!

If you love limoncello and ricotta as much as I do, check out some of my other posts: Limoncello Cheesecake, Casa Berti Olive Oil Limoncello Cake, Ricotta fatta in casa, Tortelloni di Ricotta.

Read more about the mercato here.

Buon appetito, Cristina

Insalata Purtuall’

18 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in Italian language, Mangiamo!, Recipes

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Insalata di arancia e finocchio-orange and fennel salad always brings back memories of my grade 1 lunchroom. My delicious lunches included home made crusty bread stuffed with melanzane and roasted peppers, prosciutto, capicollo or cotoletto di vitello, frittata, pizza or ‘chocolate sandwiches’ made with Nutella. Papà would often make me Insalata Purtuall’, with oranges cut crosswise in rounds, fennel and black olives, drizzled with olive oil and a bit of salt.  A true flavour explosion for 6 year old me.  I did not know why everyone at school thought my lunches were so weird.  The ‘Anglo’ kids made fun of them, and even the teachers eyed my food suspiciously.  Today all of these foods are available and trendy, so who is laughing now?  Ha! I do not remember being too bothered by the teasing.  I actually felt sorry for my classmates.  Their lunches were gross, usually consisting of ‘plastic’ cheese on bright white squishy bread that was sliced like cake! Poveretti. I will have to write more about my early gastronomic experiences in another post….

A while back, Frank from Memorie di Angelina wrote about orange and fennel salad, and I commented that we called it ‘Portugal’ salad, but did not know why. I asked Papà why we called it ‘Insalata Purtuall’. Purtuall’ is dialetto for Portogallo which is Portugal in italiano. His answer surprised me. He said it was not a Portuguese salad, but purtuall’ is what the orange were called. Hmmm.  Soon after this, I was at a writers’ conference and one of the presenters displayed a map showing the word for orange across Europe in various languages. Aha! I saw that the Greek word for orange is ‘portokali’. This was getting interesting!

Arancia amara, bitter orange, was known to the Romans. Sweet oranges were only introduced to Europe and the Mediterranean in the 14th century. Portuguese ships were the first to circumnavigate Africa and brought sweet oranges back from the Far East. In many countries, oranges were named after Portugal-the country that they seemed to be coming from! In Greek oranges are portokali, in North Africa and most Middle East countries burtuqall, in Iran purtuqol, in Turkey portakal and in Hungary and Romania portokal. In most of Western Europe, the Mediterranean and Britain, the word for orange comes from ‘narangas’, Sanskrit for orange tree. For example, in italiano arancia, in spanish naranja, portuguese laranja, and of course english orange. There are a few places in Italia where the dialetto still uses the ‘portuguese’ term. In Campania, Puglia, Basilicata and Abruzzo, purtuallo or portajalli, in Sicilian partualli (or aranciù), and in Piemonte portugaj. In modern Greek, bitter oranges are called ‘nerantzi’ while sweet oranges are called ‘portokali’. Who knew that the yummy salad I used to bring for lunch in elementary school reflects thousands of years of history, trade voyages and etymology between East and West!

A ‘recipe’ is not really needed for Insalata Purtuall’. Just peel a few oranges and remove as much of the pith as possible, then slice them crosswise and lay them on a plate. Cut half a fennel bulb and slice in either small or larger pieces. Add ‘un filo d’olio’, a drizzle of olive oil and salt, then a few black olives and garnish with fennel fronds. I sometimes like to throw in some pomegranate seeds or rucola. It is hard to mess up this healthy, refreshing winter insalata! I recently found out that Insalata Purtuall’ was served at my parents’ wedding in Orsara di Puglia in the 1960’s, so now it tastes even better!

Buon appetito, Cristina

Tortelloni di Ricotta in a Snowstorm

18 Sunday Feb 2018

Posted by in Mangiamo!

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

It snowed again last night.  Shoveling snow and picking ice cubes off of my poor olive tree is not my idea of a relaxing Sunday morning.  Yesterday, facebook sent me one of those ‘your memories from one year ago’ messages with this black and white photo.  It snowed a LOT last year, and this particular Saturday night, I was bloccato dalla neve -snowed in.  I decided this was a good time to do my recipe testing for Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s cookbook Ostro.  Ostro is also the name of Julia’s website.  The recipe was for Ricotta tortelloni with butter, sage and hazelnuts.  Tortelloni are super-size tortellini and I had not made them before.  Filling and shaping them was fun and easier than I thought.

I had to use a beer glass to cut the circles, so they came out quite big.  Once I was done making the tortelloni, I made the butter sage and hazelnut sauce-except I had to improvise.   It was dark outside and still snowing heavily.  The sage was growing in the backyard.  I had to dress like an Eskimo and go out with my flashlight to forage for sage under a foot of snow!  Brrrr.  I did not have any hazelnuts, and had even run out of butter making cookies.  Grocery shopping was not an option at this point, so I ended up making an olive oil, sage and toasted almond sauce instead. It was so delicious I did not even have a chance to take a decent photo of the finished dish!

I have made these ricotta tortelloni a few more times, even with ricotta fatta in casa.  Ostro is now out in print and is Gourmet Traveller Australia’s 2017 book of the year.  Auguri Julia!   I believe Ostro is available only in Australia for now.  In Canada, it is only available on kindle so far, so I have not seen it yet.  You can find the recipe here.More about my adventures in (and complaining about) the snow along with snowy photos can be found in Bloccato dalla neve.

Another recipe from Julia and a review of Ostro can be found on Emiko Davies’ blog here.

Ciao e buon appetito, Cristina

Olive Oil Limoncello Cake

25 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by in Mangiamo!, Recipes

≈ 28 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

In November I attended an art retreat, surrounded by 900 olive trees!  It was at Casa Berti near Gugliano, about 40 minutes outside of Lucca. There were also lemon trees in giant terra cotta pots on the terrace, not yet ready to be moved into the limonaia for the winter. Many of the lemons become limoncello.  I was so inspired and distracted by the olive trees that I took several breaks from art making to pick olives.  I could not help it-they were calling to me!  Every day or two, when there were enough picked, they would be taken to the frantoio or olive press and then return to Casa Berti as lush, fragrant oil.  Green gold as a friend calls it. The Casa Berti cucina had a stainless steel bidone full of new oil with a little spout for pouring.

Being surrounded by olives, freshly pressed oil, fresh lemons and limoncello, I had the urge to make an olive oil limoncello cake.  I have been making this cake for years, but I did not have the recipe with me.  I also left my art making to bake just when Ben, the owner of Casa Berti, had gone on another run to the frantoio with olives. I searched the kitchen but could not find any measuring utensils or a scale, so the measurements were all a big guess. ??? Luckily I knew where the limoncello was!

The cake came out better than usual, probably due to the quality and freshness of the ingredients.  I usually just dust it simply with zucchero in polvere-icing sugar.  For a fancier look, make a limoncello glaze with icing sugar and limoncello.  The cake is also nice with fresh fruit, especially raspberries or blueberries.  It goes equally well with a cup of espresso or a glass of limoncello and is also very easy to make-you don’t even need a mixer-just a wooden spoon and a whisk.  I adjusted some of the amounts to the recipe based on the Casa Berti cake, but if your measurements are not exact, non ti preoccupare, it will probably still taste good!

Casa Berti

Casa Berti Olive Oil Limoncello Cake

400g (~3 cups) flour

200g (almost 1 cup) sugar

4 medium sized eggs or 3 large eggs

160ml (~ ¾ cup) extra virgin olive oil

130 ml (~½ cup) milk

60 ml (¼ cup, 4 tablespoons) limoncello

Grated zest/peel of 2 organic lemons

16g packet Pane degli Angeli (or 15 ml/1 tablespoon baking powder)

  1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F)
  2. Butter and flour a 23 cm (9 inch) pan
  3. In a small bowl, add the lemon peel to the sugar and mix with fingers or the back of a spoon until they are well mixed and the sugar looks damp
  4. Whisk the eggs and add the sugar/peel mixture
  5. Add the olive oil, milk and limoncello
  6. Add flour a bit at a time and stir with a wooden spoon just until the flour is mixed in.  Do not over mix
  7. Add Pane degli Angeli
  8. Spoon into the pan and bake for 40-45 minutes.  Be careful not to overbake or it may come out dry
  9. Cool and dust with icing sugar
  10. For a fancier topping, make a limoncello glaze with 1 cup icing sugar and 30 ml (2 tablespoons) limoncello.  If it is too dry, add another 15 ml (1 tablespoon) limoncello or milk.  Mix together and drizzle onto cake.

Buon appetito, Cristina