I will forever remember Ferragosto as the day the music died.
Ferragosto is celebrated on the fifteenth of August throughout Italy. Originating during the Roman Empire, apparently in 18 BCE by Emperor Augustus, Ferragosto was originally held on August 1st. Ultimately, the Catholic Church moved the date to August 15th to coincide with the Assumption, a “holy day of obligation,” thus imposing a secular holiday on a religious holy day.
Ferragosto is a day to feast. It is also the day that the late-night revelry in the piazza of Bagni di Lucca comes to an end.
Join our mailing list and you’ll never miss a recipe again!
Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know that I spent the month of August 2019 in Tuscany cooking with Great Aunt Fidalma.
Cutting zucchini with Great Aunt Fidalma in her kitchen in Benabbio.
I rented a charming little apartment overlooking the piazza in Bagni di Lucca, a town near the village of Benabbio where Aunt Fidalma lives.
The piazza becomes the locus of loud music (70’s disco, karaoke, Italian pop) late into the night (or early into the morning depending on your perspective) on the weekends in August as well as during several August festival days.
A view from my terrace of the late-night revelry in the piazza of Bagni di Lucca.
The music precludes sleep. Even if one could find ear plugs sufficient to drown out the sound, the building, and thus the bed, vibrate to the bass.
Ferragosto, August 15th, is the end of the late-night music.
Follow us on your social media platform of choice
Today, January 15th, marks five months since Ferragosto. Pollo alla Romana (also known as pollo con i peperoni [chicken with sweet peppers]) is traditionally served on Ferragosto. Given the five-month anniversary, today seems like an appropriate day to post the recipe.
As you might guess from the name, Pollo alla Romana is from the area around Rome. It is a simple dish made with chicken, sweet peppers (traditionally red and yellow ones) and tomatoes. It can be cooked in the morning and served at room temperature later in the day making it a perfect summer dish.
It has become one of my go-to dishes for entertaining when I don’t want a lot of last-minute fuss to distract from enjoying cocktails with my guests. Made earlier in the day, the dish reheats beautifully in the time it takes to drink a bourbon.
Print Recipe
Pollo alla Romana (Chicken with Sweet Peppers)
Traditionally this dish would be made with a cut-up chicken. I prefer to use just thighs as I think they take well to braising, which breasts don’t. You can use cut-up chicken parts if you prefer. When a dish says something should be fall-apart tender, I take that literally. It’s the way I grew up eating chicken cooked by my Italian-American mother. That means, for me, the chicken should braise in the liquid for at least 90 minutes if you’re close to sea level and longer if you're at a higher elevation. You can short-circuit that if you want but I think the texture of the dish will suffer.
Pass the can of tomatoes through a food mill to remove seeds and hard bits of tomato. Reserve the tomato puree.
Slice the peppers into triangular pieces or thick strips.
Using a large heavy-bottomed sauté pan, sauté the garlic in the olive oil over medium heat until medium brown. Discard the garlic.
Sauté the chicken in the garlic-flavored oil over high heat, starting skin side down to render additional fat from the skin, flipping twice, until well browned. Remove and reserve chicken.
Add the peppers to the oil and sauté briefly over high heat to put a light char on some of them. Remove and reserve peppers.
Add the wine to the sauté pan, bring to a boil, and scrape up all the brown bits.
After the wine evaporates, add the broth, tomato puree and oregano. Mix well.
Add the chicken, skin side down, along with any accumulated juices. Season with salt and pepper.
Simmer, partially covered, approximately 30 minutes (or, if you live at high altitude as I do, 60 minutes). Turn the chicken over. Remove and discard the skin (the skin adds lots of flavor as well as collagen to the sauce for a great mouth-feel so please use bone-in and skin-on thighs).
Add the peppers and continue to braise, partially covered, for approximately another hour until the chicken is literally fall-apart tender. During cooking, taste and adjust salt, pepper, and oregano.
Transfer the chicken and peppers to an oven-proof casserole.
If the sauce is not thick, boil quickly to reduce it. Pour the sauce over the chicken.
Sprinkle the top with Pecorino Romano cheese.
Bake at 350°F to brown the top, approximately 15-20 minutes.
Growing up I didn’t like eggplant. I didn’t much care for zucchini, either. Or kale.
Things are a whole lot different now.
As an adult, I basically haven’t met a vegetable I don’t like, though, naturally, I like some more than others.
As with zucchini, eggplants seem to defy the season. They’re available year-round and the quality is consistent. Just look for firm, shiny ones with no soft spots or wrinkled skin and you’re basically guaranteed of getting a good eggplant.
Eggplant is a versatile vegetable. It can be braised, baked, sautéed, fried and steamed … and probably cooked by any other method you can think of.
Join our mailing list and you’ll never miss a recipe again!
Eggplant will sop up any flavor that you pair with it. It will also sop up large amounts of oil so one needs to be cautious about frying large pieces of eggplant in abundant oil. Thin slices of eggplant can be floured and fried to great advantage, however.
Years ago, eggplant could be bitter but that trait has basically been bred out of the modern varieties one commonly encounters. The bitterness led cooks to salt and drain the eggplant to remove bitter juices. While this is no longer strictly necessary for control of bitterness it is still a great technique to reduce moisture content which is useful for some preparations.
Eggplants at the market in Italy.
America’s Test Kitchen (the organization behind Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country) has developed a method for removing water from eggplant using the microwave. I have lots of cooking equipment and have no qualms about using newer technology in place of older technology to simplify food prep. However, I want the newer technology be a natural evolution from the older technology as a way to preserve (but improve) traditional food preparation. For example, before food processors, one would “mush up” food as much as possible then put it through a sieve. Food processors do a much better (and faster) job of “mushing,” sometimes to the point that the sieving step isn’t necessary.
Follow us on your social media platform of choice
To me, that’s evolutionary. It’s a more efficient way of getting to the same outcome but staying true to the traditional method. Blasting eggplant in the microwave in place of salting it is not.
Beautiful eggplants ready to be made into something yummy.
While I have great respect for the rigor of America’s Test Kitchen, some of their hacks and shortcuts really trouble me from the standpoint of maintaining and transmitting traditional foodways. Using V-8 juice in minestrone in place of tomato is an example.
With salting, rather than microwaving, we’ll proceed to today’s recipe, It’s a very straightforward baked eggplant with Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Somehow it manages to be WAY more than the sum of its parts. I urge you to try it, even if you think you don’t like eggplant.
Print Recipe
Melanzane al Forno (Eggplant Baked with Parmesan Cheese)
Eggplant can absorb huge quantities of oil. This method of cooking limits the amount of oil the eggplant absorbs, making it lighter. The eggplant finishes its cooking in the oven, which eliminates last minute frying just before serving dinner. Individual portions can be made by cutting the eggplant into rounds that fit inside of small ramekins.
3tablespoonsunsalted buttermelted, plus more for buttering the pan
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Peel the eggplant and cut crosswise into rounds ½ inch thick.
Liberally salt the eggplant slices on both slides and put them in a colander.
Set a weight on top of the egglant (such as a plate with a heavy can on top) and allow to drain for one hour.
Meanwhile, gently sauté the garlic in the olive oil on low heat until the garlic is golden brown.
Remove the oil from the heat. Discard the garlic and reserve the oil.
Rinse the eggplant. Blot dry.
Butter an ovenproof serving dish (or individual ramekins if making individual portions).
Coat the bottom of a large sauté pan with 1-2 tablespoons of the garlic-flavored oil. A non-stick pan works best but a well-seasoned ordinary sauté pan will work fine. When the oil is very hot add one layer of eggplant slices. Cook until nicely browned being careful not to burn the eggplant which will make it bitter.
When browned on one side turn the eggplant slices over. You may need to drizzle a little oil into the pan to keep the eggplant from sticking. The eggplant should still be firm in the center. It will complete its cooking in the oven.
When the second side is brown put the eggplant in a buttered ovenproof serving dish, preferably one with a cover.
Lightly salt the eggplant. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper to taste and some of the grated Parmigiano. Repeat layering eggplant, pepper and cheese until all the eggplant is used up.
Finish with grated Parmigiano. Drizzle with the melted butter.
Cover and bake at 350°F for approximately 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for 10-15 minutes to brown the top.
That means no stone fruit or corn on the cob in the winter. For the most part that means no tomatoes either, though I do make an exception for cherry and grape tomatoes which seem to taste about the same year-round and provide a burst of color and sweetness—if not a robust tomato taste—in the dead of winter.
Certain things defy the season. Take zucchini. Yes, they’re the quintessential summer crop (sometimes growing to the size of baseball bats in the hands of inattentive growers) but they show up all year-round, much like bananas do.
Zucchini in Umido bubbling away on Zia Fidalma’s stove in Tuscany.
I know that means they get shipped from “somewhere else” when they’re not in season locally but, for the most part, they taste good all year (unlike, say, peaches which don’t usually taste good if not grown locally and in season).
There’s also a limit to the number of cold-season vegetables that one can eat through the winter.
Join our mailing list and you’ll never miss a recipe again!
Part of the problem is solved by canning, preserving, and freezing and, if not your own or a friend’s, commercially available canned, preserved, and frozen produce. Let’s face it, eating seasonally traditionally included consuming all those products that were “put up” when they were at the height of season.
Maria making a large batch of tomato puree (passata) at her home in Calabria.
Though some of us conserve produce, few of us do enough to meet our needs throughout the lean winter months. I have no objection to using good quality commercially “conserved” foods. What I don’t use are convenience or premade foods.
Though I enjoy and prefer to make my own tomato puree (passata), we don’t produce enough of our own tomatoes to make a year’s supply (and I haven’t been overly impressed with what’s available in the market in sufficient and affordable quantity to make up the difference).
I do what I can, however, for example making passata when our tomatoes are at their best; candying citrus peels from the trees in our neighborhood in Palm Springs in the winter; making cherry leaf aperitif in the fall; and, in those rare years when Santa Fe has an abundance of peaches and apricots, making jam.
The early stages of making cherry leaf aperitif.
I “conserve” other produce as well like making hot chile oil (“olio santo”) when we have enough peperoncini, making limoncello and arancello from oranges and lemons in Palm Springs, and putting fresh (like cherries) and dried (like prunes) fruits in various types of spirits.
Follow us on your social media platform of choice
My prohibition on using “prepared foods,” though is pretty definite. I’ll use good quality canned, peeled tomatoes from Italy but (unless my back is up against the wall as sometimes happens when I have limited shopping venues like when we’re on Fire Island) I don’t use canned commercial diced or crushed tomatoes or tomato puree. My view, and, granted, it might be wrong, is that the best quality tomatoes go into the cans of “whole, peeled” tomatoes, not into the ones that are ground, diced, or pureed.
Making limoncello.
In a matter of minutes, a can of whole peeled tomatoes can be turned into any of the other products. It also means that, other than tomato paste, I only need to stock up on one tomato product. OK, OK, so I have two types of peeled, whole tomatoes. Both are from Italy but one is San Marzano and the other is a plum tomato that’s not San Marzano. I use the less expensive non-San-Marzano-but-still-Italian tomatoes when the dish I am making would be indistinguishable with either type.
In December, zucchini are a welcome addition to mealtime, a situation that is difficult to imagine during the fall harvest season when zucchini seem to be coming from all directions.
Print Recipe
Zucchini in Umido
Pommarola, a simple tomato sauce made with tomatoes, basil and garlic is ideal in this dish. See the notes section for a link to my Basic Tomato Sauce. If pommarola, or a similar simple tomato sauce is not available, substitute good-quality tomato puree. If using puree, I suggest adding a few basil leaves, finely chopped. Niepita is difficult to obtain outside of Italy but if you want to try to find seeds, look for it using the southern Italian name of "Mentuccia Romana" rather than the Tuscan name of niepita. Though the flavor is different, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano is a good alternative.
Partially peel the zucchini, leaving alternating stripes of peel and no peel.
Cut the zucchini into largish pieces. You can do this by quartering them lengthwise and then cutting crosswise or by doing a rotating angular cut. You should have approximately 2 pounds of cut-up zucchini.
Sauté the garlic in olive oil until it begins to color.
Add zucchini. Season with salt, and pepper. Increase the heat to high and sauté until the garlic golden brown and the zucchini has turned from white to creamy in color, approximately 5 minutes.
Add the tomato sauce, water, niepita, and salt and pepper to taste.
Cook at a moderate boil, uncovered, until the sauce is thick and the zucchini is tender but not mushy. Adjust salt and pepper while cooking.
Back at home, after spending five months in Italy this year expanding my culinary skills and repertoire, we settled on a technique to keep the process going.
Each month we randomly select a region of Italy by pulling a slip of paper out of a jar. For a month, unless there is an overriding reason, I cook all our dinners using traditional recipes of that region.
Small, dried spicy red peppers (peperoncini) from our garden add zip to many dishes.
The first region we selected was Piemonte (Piedmont).
Piemonte is in far northwestern Italy. It borders France and the cuisine shows a definite French influence.
Join our mailing list and you’ll never miss a recipe again!
Piemonte is one of the coldest regions of Italy. Since the climate is not conducive to growing olives, animal fats, such as butter and lard are commonly used. There are some dishes, however, that use olive oil based on historic trade between Piemonte and neighboring Liguria.
Piemontese foods tend to be hearty and rich, appropriate to the colder climate, especially in the mountainous areas.
Two of the Piemontese cookbooks that I relied on for the month of cooking Piemontese food.
Our month of eating the foods of Piemonte included:
Bagna Cauda (anchovy, butter and olive oil dip for vegetables)
Brasato di Manzo in Barolo (beef braised in barolo wine)
Cipolline d’Ivrea (braised pearl onions with white wine and butter)
La Panissa (risotto made with borlotti beans and some sort of cured meat)
Patate ai Capperi (potatoes and capers)
Peperoni e Pomodori alla Bagna Cauda (sweet peppers and tomatoes with anchovies)
Polenta e Fontina in Torta (layers of sliced polenta and fontina cheese baked together)
Pollo con Acciughe e Peperoni Arostiti (chicken with anchovies and roasted peppers)
Pollo in Fricassea Bianca (chicken braised in milk)
Risotto al Gorgonzola (risotto with gorgonzola cheese)
Sancarlin (a cheese dip and/or sauce)
Spinaci alla Piemontese (spinach with anchovies and garlic)
Tajarin con Gorgonzola e Ricotta (long pasta with a sauce of ricotta and gorgonzola)
Tajarin e Zucchine (long pasta with zucchini, garlic, and Grana Padano cheese)
As you’ll note, these are almost all substantial dishes. And it’s not as if I purposely chose dishes that were hearty. Almost all of the cuisine of Piemonte shares this characteristic.
Piemonte is famous for truffles. I avoided dishes with truffles as they were out of season the month I cooked Piemontese food. Good ones are also very expensive. Plus, I ate mountains of them while at the Italian Culinary Institute this year.
Two excellent regional Italian cookbooks. It’s amazing how different the array of recipes is for the same region.
Piemonte is also known for hazelnuts and for the combination of hazelnuts and chocolate, the most famous brand of which is Nutella. Note that the one Piemontese dessert that I made during the month (only one because I’m still working off the weight I gained over five months in Italy earlier this year!) is a combination of chocolate and hazelnuts which is generally known as gianduja or gianduia.
Follow us on your social media platform of choice
Piemonte is one of the great wine-producing regions of Italy. It is known for Barolo, Barbaresco, and Asti, among others.
Sancarlin (Piemontese dialect for San Carlo) is a spread or dip made from cheese. It’s great as part of an antipasto with grissini (breadsticks), another Piemontese food.
If you cannot find artisanal ricotta (check a cheese shop), Polly-O is among the best of the supermarket brands that I have tasted.
Sancarlin is also excellent tossed with diced boiled potatoes and served as a contorno (side dish). How many times can I say “hearty” in the same blog post?
If any of the Piemontese dishes that I mentioned above interests you, and you’d like me to post a recipe, just leave a note in the comment section below and I’ll schedule it.
Though not traditional, goat cheese adds complexity to the Sancarlin that would otherwise be provided by the traditionally used sheep’s milk ricotta.
Print Recipe
Sancarlin: A Cheese Spread from Piemonte
Sancarlin is traditionally made with ricotta di pecora, sheep’s milk ricotta. It is nearly impossible to find sheep’s milk ricotta in the United States. You will get good results with a high-quality cow’s milk ricotta. Though not traditional, you can add an ounce or two of soft goat cheese to the recipe to increase the complexity of the dish. If you have access to sheep’s milk (which I don’t in northern New Mexico), and you feel ambitious, you can make your own ricotta! A link to my recipe is in the Notes section below. Adjust the amount of garlic and red pepper to taste. Serve with grissini, crostini, focaccia or tossed with boiled potatoes
Spiedini means skewers. By extension it also refers to food cooked on skewers.
Zia Fidalma’s spiedini ready to be served. The extra cut-up vegetables were roasted along with the spiedini.
There is evidence that humans cooked food on skewers as far back as 300,000 years ago in an area that is encompassed by present-day Germany.
It’s an ancient cooking method. So, it’s not surprising that food cooked on skewers is found almost everywhere.
Zia Fidalma cutting sausage for spiedini at her home in Benabbio.
During my month of cooking in Tuscany with Zia Fidalma this past August, spiedini were on the lesson plan.
But first, there was the shopping. Onions and peppers came from the weekly market in Bagni di Lucca. Pork and sausage came from her favorite local butcher. Pancetta tesa came from yet another vendor. The pantry staples, including olive oil from her own olive grove, were on the ready at home.
Join our mailing list and you’ll never miss a recipe again!
The sausage that Zia Fidalma used is Salsiccia Toscana, Tuscan Sausage. It does NOT have fennel seed. What it DOES have appeared to be a mystery, at least temporarily.
Pancetta Tesa produced in the Garfagnana area of Tuscany.
Butchers in Italy who make it say they don’t know because they buy the spice mix from a company. Whether or not this is completely true is also unknown, to me at least. Requests from friends and family in Tuscany also came up empty-handed.
A Google search, in Italian, turned up more useful information. As expected, there is a range of ingredients. Every recipe has salt and pepper. Most have garlic (minced, chopped, or in one recipe, rubbed on one’s hands before one mixes the sausage!). Many have a bit of wine, both white and red are called for. I found one recipe that indicated that finely minced sage could be added if desired but NOT fennel!
Ingredients ready to be skewered in Zia Fidalma’s kitchen.
So, basically, Tuscan sausage is very sparingly flavored with salt, pepper, garlic and maybe a bit of wine.
For a traditional Tuscan taste for these spiedini, purchase (or make) an “Italian” sausage without fennel and without red pepper or paprika. (Note, there is no such thing as “Italian” sausage in Italy. Like most foods in Italy, sausage is hyper-local and varies from region to region, province to province, and often town to town.)
Zia Fidalma’s spiedini ready to be cooked.
Nobody is going to complain, however, if you use sausage with fennel seed as I had to do when I was unable to find sausage without fennel after trying four markets in Santa Fe.
Follow us on your social media platform of choice
Pancetta tesa (sometimes called pancetta stesa) may be more difficult to find than the correct sausage, however. Pancetta tesa is flat, not rolled. It is better to use for spiedini because it is easier to cut into shapes that facilitate skewering.
On the same day that I made spiedini with Zia Fidalma, we looked at a house for sale in her village. I’m still smitten by the house and the views and the idea of spending summers there!
While you might spend 30 to 45 minutes cutting up the meat and vegetables and threading them on a skewer, the cooking process is easy. Feel free to experiment with the herbs, but I’ve called for the herbs that are most commonly used in Tuscan cooking.
Print Recipe
Spiedini (Italian Skewered Meat and Vegetables)
If you want a more elegant look, take the time to cut the ingredients to the same size, approximately 1-inch squares. For a more homestyle appearance, as shown in the pictures, some variability is fine as long as none of the pieces is extremely large or small. The exact sequence of how to skewer ingredients is up to you but I have provided a suggestion that worked well with the quantity of ingredients I had.
Separate the onion into layers and cut 36 pieces of onion about the same size as the pepper pieces
Thread the meat and vegetables onto 12 skewers in the following order: Pepper, Pancetta, Onion, Pork, Pepper, Pancetta, Onion, Sausage, Pepper, Pancetta, Onion, Pork.
On the bottom of a shallow roasting pan large enough to hold the skewers in a single layer, put the rosemary, sage, bay leaves, oregano, juniper berries and garlic.
Put the skewers on top. Season generously with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil.
Roast at 400°F until the meat is cooked, approximately 20 to 30 minutes, basting occasionally with the oil from the pan.
Arrange the skewers on a serving platter. Pour the oil over top being sure to add the cooked herbs and garlic. Serve immediately.
If it were up to me, I’d probably never make turkey, except for the fact that turkey is a GREAT excuse to make killer stuffing and gravy.
OK, OK, those of you who know me know that I’m enough of a traditionalist that I’d probably still make turkey on Thanksgiving, with or without stuffing and gravy, because it’s, well, traditional.
Turkey aside, though, I absolutely LOVE stuffing and I LOVE gravy.
After Thanksgiving, I carefully hide the leftover stuffing in the fridge and keep it all for myself. There usually isn’t much leftover so I get maybe two days of snacking on cold stuffing. And it has to be cold, not warm, with a bit of added salt because the taste of salt is dulled by the coldness of the stuffing.
Click HERE to join our mailing list and you’ll never miss a recipe again!
As for the gravy, when I was a kid, I liked gravy so much that I would stir enough into my mashed potatoes that they became runny and spread out over my plate! I don’t do that anymore but I still love gravy.
I love gravy so much that I roast poultry specifically to make gravy then discard the poultry because I’ve browned it to a fare-thee-well to get a really flavorful gravy. But I only do that once a year—on Thanksgiving—hence the name Thanksgiving gravy.
When I was growing up, my parents hosted Thanksgiving dinner. My Aunt Margie and Uncle Joe hosted Christmas Eve dinner.
On Thanksgiving, while my mother and Aunt Margie were getting everything ready to bring to the table (everything included a full Italian meal with sausage, meatballs, lasagna, etcetera alongside a full traditional American Thanksgiving meal!) my Aunt Mamie would make gravy from the pan drippings.
Follow us on your social media platform of choice
From my current vantage point, however, there is a very limited amount of gravy that can be made that way, otherwise it doesn’t have enough meaty goodness. Though I have to say that Aunt Mamie did a great job of making gravy. Hers was the one that I most often stirred into my mashed potatoes.
The search for lots of meaty-tasting gravy is what got me started on the path of roasting poultry a few days in advance simply to make a brown stock to use as the base for my gravy.
I guess, in reality, my gravy is more of a variation on French brown sauce (Sauce Espagnole) with added pan drippings than traditional American-style gravy but it packs the flavor that I expect from good gravy.
If there’s any leftover gravy, I warm it with some cream and sautéed mushrooms and then gently reheat leftover turkey in the sauce.
Print Recipe
Thanksgiving Gravy
Roasting poultry to make a flavorful stock creates a gravy with an extra punch of flavor. Turkey wings and necks are ideal but chicken and Cornish hen work very well, too. Whatever poultry you use, cut it into lots of pieces to create more surface area for browning. I use a lot of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and I put all the rinds in a container in the freezer. I use one whenever I make stock or broth, as I do for the stock for this gravy. It is not necessary to peel the onions and garlic.
Cut the turkey or other poultry into chunks. Put the cut-up turkey into a heavy roasting pan. Mix with ¼ cup of extra-virgin olive oil. Season generously with garlic powder and salt.
Roast the turkey at 425°F until dark brown, turning often, 1½ to 2 hours.
Meanwhile, in a heavy-bottomed stock pot, large enough to hold all the ingredients, sauté the carrots and celery in ¼ cup of extra-virgin olive oil over high heat.
As the carrots and celery begin to brown, add the onions and garlic.
Continue cooking, adjusting heat to medium if necessary, to create nicely browned vegetables and fond without burning.
When the vegetables are brown, add 1/2 cup of red wine and 1 cup of water to stop the cooking and set the pot aside until the turkey is ready.
When the turkey is brown, add it and any pan drippings to the stockpot with the vegetables.
Using some of the water, deglaze roasting pan and add the liquid to the stockpot. All these brown bits are important for flavor.
Add the bay leaf, rosemary, sage, parsley, whole cloves, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese rind, if using, black pepper, and enough water to cover generously. Bring to a simmer and simmer, partially covered for six hours, stirring occasionally.
Strain and refrigerate the stock. The stock may be made up to three days in advance.
Gravy
Skim the fat from the top of the stock. Heat the fat to cook off any water. Measure ¾ cup of melted fat and reserve. Add butter, if necessary, to make ¾ cup.
Gently boil the skimmed stock to reduce it to about six cups, if necessary.
Meanwhile, in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, gently brown the flour in the fat from the stock.
Add the six cups of hot stock, approximately ¾ cup at a time, stirring well after each addition, to avoid lumps.
After all the stock has been added, bring to a simmer. Add the wine. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. (The drippings from the turkey can be fairly salty so the gravy should be under-salted until the final adjustment of seasoning.)
Simmer gently till thick, approximately 2 hours, stirring frequently. Set aside, covered, until the turkey is ready.
After removing the turkey from the oven, deglaze the roasting pan with water. Skim the fat from the deglazing liquid. Pour the defatted drippings into gravy and simmer briefly to achieve the desired consistency. Adjust seasoning.
It’s been way over a month since I last wrote. After leaving Tuscany for Calabria on August 31st, my plan was to continue to post about my new adventures at the Italian Culinary Institute. As it turned out, I kept myself pretty busy and couldn’t quite find the time to post. Knowing that my time was limited, I chose to spend as much of it as possible in the kitchen, which usually meant 12-plus hours per day, six or seven days per week.
There were some exceptions, like the Saturday I went to Maria’s house to make passata with her.
Maria and her son, Nicola, prep tomatoes for passata.
Maria works at the Institute, ostensibly as a dishwasher. In reality she does much more. Her wisdom and advice are frequently sought out by Institute staff on matters related to local food. Maria assists in the kitchen during the meat-curing (salumi) courses.
Although I make passata at home, I’m self-taught. It was exciting for me to see (and assist with) it being done in a traditional manner.
But first I had to find Maria’s house.
Stirring a cauldron of tomatoes.
Join our mailing list and you’ll never miss a recipe again!
Maria only speaks Italian. My Italian is not good enough for anything resembling a real conversation though I can certainly manage restaurants, supermarkets, and food vendors well enough to get by.
Mariana, Chef Juan’s wife, chatted with Maria and told me that I should meet Maria at the Padre Pio mural. Maria lives in the town of Stalettì, which is up the mountain from the Institute. The directions were easy enough: Go up. When you get to Padre Pio, stop and wait for Maria. If you get to the center of town, you’ve gone too far.
Maria and Nicola putting the cooked tomatoes through an electric food mill.
Up I went. It was obvious I had gone too far when I hit a spot vaguely resembling a piazza onto which streets converged from many sides. There was a fussball table sitting in the roadway and a group of older guys congregated in front of the local bar. (Remember that a “bar” in Italy is traditionally a Coffee Bar.)
I mustered enough Italian to ask them where Padre Pio was. They told me to go back in the direction from which I came and that I couldn’t miss it.
Nicola and I spattered with tomato puree.
Luckily Maria was in her car on the roadside waiting for me across the street from the GIANT Padre Pio STATUE. I saw the statue on the way up but completely ignored it as I was looking for a mural. Something got lost in translation.
Maria made a U-turn and I followed her down a side lane that opened led to a small farm with wonderful views of the mountains beyond.
Follow us on your social media platform of choice
Maria’s son, Nicola, was standing outside cutting tomatoes. Maria introduced us then immediately began to cut tomatoes, too. I opened my knife roll, got out my paring knife and began to cut tomatoes. After all, there were six cases to cut and process.
A hand-crank food mill is a good option for making small quantities of passata.
We cut them in half, removed the core and dropped the halves into a bucket. The cores were saved for the pig which will become Sopressata ‘round about January.
The tomato halves went into a big cauldron set over a wood fire. Maria simmered them, with salt and some basil, until they were soft enough to go through an electric food mill. The resulting liquid was put back into the cauldron and cooked until it was the right consistency.
Passata freezes well.
I’ve seen many videos and recipes for making passata that remove the seeds and jelly. This definitely makes the process faster because extra liquid is removed at the beginning. However, the jelly has a high concentration of naturally occurring glutamates that really enhance the flavor of the passata. Like Maria, I always include the seeds and jelly.
Maria put the passata into jars, sealed them and put them under a blanket to cool slightly. This is where a bit of controversy exists. The USDA says it is never safe to can tomatoes or tomato puree at home without adding an acid, such as citric acid, because many tomatoes are not acidic enough to be canned safely relying on their own acidity. The Italian Ministry of Health disagrees and provides directions for canning tomatoes in a boiling water bath without the addition of acid.
In practice, many Italians simply put the passata into jars, seal, and cover the jars with a blanket to allow them to cool slowly. No boiling water bath is used at all. While I’ve eaten many jars of passata that were canned this way, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Maria made about 100 jars the day I was there. It wouldn’t be unusual for a family in Southern Italy to put up 300 jars of passata, essentially one per day for a year. If you’re making less, as is almost certainly the case, freezing the passata works well.
If you find yourself with some vine-ripe tomatoes, especially plum tomatoes or a meaty heirloom variety, give this recipe a try.
Print Recipe
Sunlight in a Bottle: Passata (Tomato Puree)
Maria puts some fresh basil in with the tomatoes as do many Italian cooks. After going through the food mill, there are no flecks of basil to be found. Adding basil, however, is completely optional. Maria makes large quantities of passata and uses and electric food mill. For smaller quantities, up to several gallons, a hand-crank food mill works well. The passata will keep in the refrigerator for three days. It freezes well. If you choose to can it, you can find a link to recommended directions for canning in the Recipe Notes section, below.
Cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise. Remove the core and any hard, white pith. If you are using heirloom tomatoes rather than plum tomatoes, you may need to quarter them depending on size.
Put the tomatoes in a heavy-bottomed pot.
Heat gently until tomatoes release some liquid.
After there is liquid in the bottom of the pot, increase the heat to bring the tomatoes to a boil.
Add one basil leaf for each pound of tomatoes, if desired.
Continue to boil, uncovered, until the pulp is soft enough to go through a food mill, approximately 1 hour.
Put the tomatoes through a food mill, discarding seeds and skin.
Add ½ teaspoon of salt per quart of pureed tomatoes.
Return the tomato puree to the pot and continue to boil until thick and saucy.
Recipe Notes
You can find recommended directions for canning tomato puree here.
More than a week has passed since I drove from Tuscany to Calabria. It was an uneventful drive. I only missed one turn, very early on. Google Maps was indicating an upcoming right turn on the outskirts of Lucca. I began to slow down as the GPS system indicated I was nearing the turn but it seemed to me that the positioning was not quite right on the GPS system (as happens sometimes) and I didn’t slow down enough. Just when the map indicated I should turn right, there appeared a narrow two-lane road cut through a field that was not visible until I was on top of it. It was too late to turn.
Looking down from Zia Fidalma’s terrace on part of the village of Benabbio below.
The disembodied and calming voice of my Google Assistant said I should make the next right turn (which was visible from a distance). Less than a minute later, I was back where I needed to be.
The only Medieval arch in Benabbio is now the entrance to a cantina in the building that contains Zia Fidalma’s house and that of her niece Emiliana.
Nine hundred sixty-nine kilometers. That’s how far Google said the drive was. It took 9 hours 45 minutes, including a few quick stops. There was no traffic as I drove from north to south. The bumper-to-bumper traffic was from south to north as many Italians end their summer holidays at the beaches of southern Italy on August 31st, the day I was traveling south to Calabria.
A parting view of Bagni di Lucca from the Piazza.
I never did manage to get lunch that day. I stopped at an AutoGrill, just over 50% of which is owned by the Benetton family. I looked over the offerings in the display case, some of which were labeled but many of which were not. There was a flock of Italians all talking to the staff behind the counter to determine what was on offer among all the unlabeled items. (Everything in Italy involves interaction and negotiation, including driving, where drivers subtly…or not so subtly…negotiate with you how you and they will occupy the road. Lane markers are viewed as decoration or, at best (from an American standpoint), as are mere suggestions of where cars should be.)
This wheelbarrow appeared inside the front door of my building one day with a sign reading “For Sale or Take Away €200.” One wonders if it should read “For Sale andTake Away €200.”
But back to the AutoGrill. I decided that I would order a panino, many of which were labeled, as opposed to the calzone and other dough-encased items, none of which was labeled. The next step is to go to the cashier to pay, after which one returns to the display case to turn in the receipt and get one’s food.
Zia Fidalma making Pappa al Pomodoro.
There are several issues with this system. For non-Italian speakers, it means negotiating with the cashier what one wants to purchase. There is no list at the cashier so it requires remembering the item from perusing the display case and being able to describe it sufficiently that the cashier will understand and ring up the correct item.
Sedanini with Eggplant and Tomato at Zia Fidalma’s.
After negotiating the second flock of Italians circling the cashier, I realized I couldn’t remember any of the specific panini on offer so I couldn’t actually pay for anything as I couldn’t tell him what I wanted. Had my grasp of Italian been better, I could have engaged in a lengthy (always lengthy!) conversation with him about what panini were available that day before making a purchase.
Sauerkraut and Wurst at Zia Fidalma’s.
Rather than fighting my way through the now growing crowd at the display case to actually commit the contents of a panino to memory before returning to the cashier, I left without eating.
Polenta made from blue corn from New Mexico.
Another issue with this system, however, is that one might pay for an item that is no longer on offer when one gets back to the display case to turn in one’s receipt. On an average day, this might not be a big risk but on one of the busiest travel days of the year it seemed otherwise, as many panini were represented by only one specimen which could easily have been scooped up by a previous customer.
Making spezzatini at Zia Fidalma’s.
I have no idea how to negotiate a situation where one has paid for an item that is no longer available. My general experience tells me it wouldn’t be easy, especially for someone with limited Italian proficiency. Luckily, I had been eating so well at Zia Fidalma’s that I wasn’t really hungry…that, and the bagful of taralli that I brought with me!
A view from the Piazza of Bagni di Lucca to the park.
As the biggest drama of my drive to Calabria, this wasn’t bad at all!
A passageway in the town of Barga.
I arrived at the Italian Culinary Institute at 4:45 to find Chef Juan and Mariana in the kitchen. I was about to start the second month of my cooking adventure in Italy but first, let me recap what happened during my last few days in Tuscany or, more accurately, what I ate during my last few days in Tuscany.
The amuse bouche of mozzarella, truffle and extra-virgin olive oil at Ristorante Piazzangelio in Barga.
Monday, August 26th had been my first day alone with Zia Fidalma without the intercession of a translator. As noted previously, it went pretty well.
Sedanini con Salsa di Funghi at Ristorante Piazzangelio in Barga.
On Tuesday, I got to Zia Fidalma’s shortly before lunch. For lunch we made crunchy crostini slathered in olive oil that sat on top of a bowl of her Minestra di Fagioli. I made a salad of radicchio, tomato and onion. We finished the meal with Formaggio Fresco and Mortadella.
Zia Fidalma’s Pappa al Pomodoro.
The previous week, friends brought goodies from Germany, where Zia Fidalma lived for many years. Dinner started with pasta, sedanini specifically, with a sauce of eggplant and tomatoes. The second course was sauerkraut cooked with apples and spices, served with German wurst and mustard.
Spezzatino is traditionally served with polenta.
Zia was really looking like she needed a rest so I decided to come to the house late on Wednesday so she could have most of the day to herself. I had my default lunch at the apartment then got to Zia’s about 3:00 to assist with (well, really to watch) dinner preparation.
Rosticciana e Patate Arrostite at Ristorante Piazzangelio in Barga.
Our first course was Pappa al Pomodoro. Pappa al Pomodoro starts with Pomarola, a classic sauce of fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil that Zia made frequently during the month. When the sauce is cooked, large chunks of day-old bread (whole-grain at Zia’s house) and a good dose of olive oil are added. The whole thing is cooked until it resembles a thick porridge. Given the humble ingredients it has a truly amazing flavor. Because Massimo, Zia’s son, and I both like spicy food, she added peperoncino to her Pappa al Pomodoro and left out the basil. This was followed with Spezzatini di Maiale and Polenta. Spezzatini are small cubes of meat, pork in this instance, browned in olive oil then braised. The polenta was made from blue corn that I had brought from New Mexico.
Il Bonet Cioccolato e Rum, a traditional dessert from Piemonte, as prepared by Ristorante Piazzangelio in Barga.
Thursday I had lunch at the apartment, deviating from my default lunch for the first time. I had a panino of sfogliata (admittedly a flat bread a lot like piadina) with speck, scamorza, and the ever-present peperoncini sott’olio. For dinner we went to Ristorante Piazzangelio in the town of Barga. We each made different choices but the meal was truly wonderful. The restaurant is on the Piazza (hence the name) and quite serene.
Farfalline con Pomarola at Zia Fidalma’s were part of my “Last Supper.”
We were served an amuse bouche of mozzarella with a thin slice of truffle. Following this I had Sedanini con Ragu di Funghi. Sedanini (literally, little celery) are like Penne but slightly longer and without diagonally cut ends. The next course was Rosticciana e Patate Arrostite, another version of what Zia Fidalma had made a few weeks earlier. Dessert was a wonderful traditional Piemontese dessert, Il Bonet Cioccolato e Rum, which tasted like a cross between chocolate flan, chocolate pudding, and molten chocolate cake (with a hit of rum).
Tomato and Onion Salad prepared by Zia Fidalma.
After dinner we stopped in Fornoli so that Massimo and I could get our hair cut. We had appointments at 10:30 PM! One night per week, the shop stays open until midnight. Probably predictably, all the customers that night were men who might otherwise find it difficult to get to the shop during the workday. I was very pleased with my haircut and surprised that the wash, cut, re-wash, and blow-dry cost only €18!
Phase one of getting my hair cut in Fornoli.
Friday, August 30th was packing day. I repeated my lunch from Thursday then went to Zia Fidalma’s for my “Last Supper.”
Pancetta appears frequently in dishes cooked by Zia Fidalma, as does Mortadella.
Massimo picked me up in Bagni di Lucca so that I could eat and drink without concern and so that I wouldn’t have a self-imposed curfew based on darkness. Zia was at a funeral mass when we got to the house around 5:30 PM but she had left us an antipasto of Grissini wrapped in Bresaola. Massimo and I polished off the last of the bourbon before sitting down to a dinner of Farfalline con Pomarola (little butterfly pasta in tomato sauce) followed by Pollo e Piselli (chicken breasts cooked with abundant peas and herbs), whole-grain bread, a tomato and onion salad, and Pecorino. Massimo and I finished off the last of a bottle of Passito that I had bought early in the trip.
A selfie after my haircut, sometime around 11 PM. The photo does not do the haircut justice!
After we finished dinner, cousin Francesca came to wish me good-bye. She offered to drive me home since she had to drive by the front door of my apartment on her way home. With packing done, I made it an early night. The next morning, I got up at 6 AM and was on the road by 7 AM: destination Calabria and the Istituto Culinario Italiano.
Farewell to Tuscany: Bourbon on Zia Fidalma’s terrace.
Zia Ida departed for the States on Thursday August 21st. I thought Zia Fidalma needed a day off. After all, she had been “going” seven days a week since August 1st.
Morning mist on the hills surrounding Bagni di Lucca.
I suggested that I not come to Benabbio at all on the 22nd but I got invited to come for dinner. That seemed like a good compromise to me and I planned to arrive around 5 PM.
An edible garden of bay leaves carves a space out of the main street in Bagni di Lucca to serve as the outdoor seating area for a bar.
When I got there, Zia Fidalma recounted her “day off” to me. She got up early, weeded the garden, harvested vegetables, trimmed the plants on the terrace, swept the terrace, scrubbed the terrace, cooked at least three different dishes for the freezer, and did laundry. Some day off!!!
Plum jam bubbling away on Zia Fidalma’s stove. There’s amost always a pot of something bubbling away!
For lunch on the 22nd I had what has become my default meal at the apartment (a Panino of: Piadina, Schiachatta, Caciotta, and Peperoncini sott’Olio) before heading to Beabbio.
Leberkäse (brought back by friends from Germany) is lightly browned before serving.
For dinner, we had a cultural mash-up starting with Zuppa di Verdure con Pasta (vegetable soup with pasta). The second course was Leberkäse (brought back by friends from Germany) lightly browned in a pan and served with Bratkartoffeln (aka German Fries, American Fries, or Home Fries). We ended with the final bit of that fabulous Ricotta that Zia bought in Corsagna topped with Maple Syrup from Vermont!
Bratkartoffeln, variously called German Fries, American Fries, or Home Fries.
Massimo worked from home on Friday August 23rd so I had another reprieve from “Italian immersion.” It actually turned out to be a pretty mellow day from a cooking perspective. Who am I kidding, it was a pretty mellow day from all perspectives!
Vegetable soup with pasta.
Zia whipped up Pomarola from garden tomatoes, something I think I can now do in my sleep, and we started lunch with Spaghetti con Pomarola. Our second course was Sformato di Zucchini e Fagiolini (string beans) that Zia had made on her “day off,” Formaggio Fresco (young cheese), and Pane Integrale (whole wheat bread). Zia offered us Cialde for dessert (those things that Italian-Americans call Pizzelle) but Massimo and I both declined. Zia nibbled on hers, with a look of glee on her face.
Zia Fidalma blending Pomarola with her new immersion blender.
Massimo and I made dinner. It was definitely suited for carbohydrate lovers. We started with simple bruschette with garlic and oil. With Massimo’s instruction, I made Pici al Pane. Pici are long pasta (more than twice the length of “regulation” spaghetti which is about 25 centimeters or 10 inches) and very thick; probably about 1/8 inch thick.
Weighing out Pici for a dinner of Pici al Pane.
The sauce consisted of a hearty dose of olive oil infused with garlic and peperoncino. The pasta was tossed in the oil with some pasta-cooking water. To that was added a substantial quantity of large breadcrumbs (about ¼ inch) that had been browned in oil flavored with rosemary. A few good handfuls of Pecorino and the pasta was ready. A salad of tomato and basil rounded out the meal.
A bowl of Pici al Pane.
Saturday was market day but I wasn’t planning on meeting Zia Fidalma as she was going to the hairdresser in anticipation of a fiftieth anniversary party for her niece Emiliana and Emiliana’s husband Giulio the next day. Nonetheless, I ran into Zia Fidalma and Emiliana shortly after the market opened. Emiliana scored a braid of garlic but otherwise I think they left the market empty-handed.
Bruschetta with garlic and extra virgin olive oil. What’s not to like?
Saturday was also Fiera di San Bartolomeo, a modest street fair that spilled out onto the main street in Bagni di Lucca, Viale Umberto I. There were a few more vendors of clothing, housewares, and food but really not too much else. A big attraction seemed to be the vendor selling Porchetta.
A vendor selling Porchetta at Fiera di San Bartolomeo in Bagni di Lucca.
Massimo came to town about 10:30 and we did a bit of a walking tour of Bagni di Lucca before meeting Zia Fidalma for lunch at Circolo dei Forestieri where I had eaten several weeks before with Zia Ida and Zia Fidalma. From the menu I ordered Linguine con Tonno e Olive (linguine with tuna and olives) as my first course followed by Petto di Pollo Impanato (breaded and fried thinly pounded chicken breast) and Peperonata. The wine with lunch was counteracted by the coffee afterwards so I was able to remain awake for the afternoon.
A view of Bagni di Lucca from one of the streets high above the center.
That is a good thing as we drove to Castelnuovo di Garfagnana so that I could buy a present for Emiliana and Giulio as I had also been invited to their fiftieth anniversary celebration the next day. After returning from Castelnuovo, I spent the rest of the day in Bagni di Lucca. I made my default meal (see above) for dinner. But first I had a wee bit of bourbon.
A rare view of Ristorante Circolo dei Forestieri without cars as the streets were closed off for the Fiera.
Massimo picked me up at noon the next day to go to the party. He had Zia Fidalma as well as Emiliana and Giulio in the car. We arrived at the restaurant about 12:35 with a planned start time of 1:00. There were almost 40 of us in attendance. We spend 3 ½ hours eating and drinking and talking.
Giulio and Emiliana at their fiftieth wedding anniversary.
The meal was over the top in in both variety and deliciousness. With the exception of the Antipasto, which arrived on an array of platters at the same time, the rest of the meal was served dish by dish. This was not a buffet. It was designed for serious eating. The order of service was:
On the table
Bread (Focaccia and Pane Toscano)
White wine
Sparkling white wine
Red wine
Acqua frizzante
Acqua naturale
Antipasto
Crostini con Due Salse
Capocollo
Salame Toscano
Prosciutto
Insalata di Farro con Salsicce
Bruschetta con Pomodori
Panzanella
Polenta Fritta con Ragù
Insalata di Mare
Pennette con Scampi, Pomodoro, e Panna
Tortelli al Ragù
Tagliata (Bistecca Grigliata) con Rucola
Patate Arrostite
Insalata
Fritto Misto di Mare e di Verdure
Millefoglie
Spumante
Caffè
I didn’t even bother to make my default meal at the apartment that evening. I had a handful of grapes and a few Taralli for dinner.
Golden sat across from me at Emiliana and Giulio’s anniversary party. He had good table manners but wasn’t much of a conversationalist.
I arrived at Zia Fidalma’s at 10 AM on Monday, ready for my first day of Italian immersion. Zia started by proposing lunch. Food is always a good way to start. After that was settled, we “discussed” dinner. Well, mostly, I agreed with her suggestions.
Zia Fidalma and me at Emiliana and Giulio’s anniversary party.
For lunch we made Uova con Pomodoro which is similar to Shakshuka but the sauce is just tomatoes and onion (and possibly garlic). Shakshuka, in my experience, usually has sweet peppers and possibly other vegetables as well. Pane Integrale and Formaggio Fresco made their appearance (along with my jar of Peperoncino sott’Olio).
Zia Fidalma making Uova e Pomodori.
Dinner started with Zia’s “famous” Minestra di Fagioli con Pasta. I’ve seen her make this several times and I’ve gotten more of an appreciation for the dish and the quantities of ingredients. Before pureeing the soup, Zia removed a pile of cooked beans which were finished “in Umido” with sausage and a little tomato paste. This was our second course.
Millefoglie at Emiliana and Giulio’s anniversary celebration, both crunchy and creamy!
In headed down the mountain to Bagni di Lucca pleased at having negotiated (however poorly) my first day with no translator.
Tomato salad with basil and extra virgin olive oil. Everything but the salt is from Zia Fidalma’s garden and olive grove.
She did, however, have her “Last Supper” (of this trip to Italy) on Wednesday August 21, 2019. And a fine supper it was; a fitting end to a day with personal satisfaction sixty years in the making. But more on that in a moment.
The kitchen of the house for sale in Benabbio next door to Zia Fidalma.
Monday is laundry day at Zia Fidalma’s (though she often does loads of laundry as the week progresses, too!). I made a point of getting to Benabbio a little later than usual to give Zia some time to start laundry.
A view of the town of Casoli where we had an al fresco dinner.
For lunch we had pasta (Mezze Maniche: “half sleeves” or “short sleeves” which are pretty much the same as Mezzi Rigatoni) with a sauce of Onion, Eggplant, Bell Pepper, Capers, Olives, and Anchovies that Zia Fidalma had whipped up a few days earlier, along with a salad and Pecorino Cheese from Garfagnana. There’s almost always some sort of sauce to use with pasta, if not more than one, in Zia’s refrigerator at any given time.
Pasta Fritta (fried dough) at Bar Marina in Casoli.
The ingredients of the sauce are so characteristic of Southern Italy that I started calling it La Salsa del Sud. It’s a winner! Though not Tuscan, it represents the reality of Zia Fidalma’s cooking today which, while focused on the traditional foods of Tuscany, contains ingredients and recipes from all of Italy and beyond.
We decimated the salumi platter at Bar Marina in Casoli.
Interesting (for me, at least) is that this recipe is from a beloved and dog-eared copy of a cooking magazine from 2001 that is devoted to pasta. Zia Fidalma keeps it on the shelf with her modest collection of cookbooks and refers to it often. After looking through the magazine I decided that so many of the recipes were worth trying that I scanned the entire periodical to cook from when I get back to the States.
It may not look like much but Zia Fidalma has been hanging onto this periodical for more than 18 years for a reason.
On the subject of cookbooks, though, Zia Fidalma has a favorite, one that she pulls out multiple times per week and not just for historical value. She still cooks from it! It’s a 1960 reprint of Pellegrino Artusi’s La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene (“Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well”) originally published in 1891.
Tortelli al Ragu and Farfalle con Speck at Bar Marina in Casoli.
Mid-afternoon we had a showing of the house that sits next to Zia Fidalma’s. It’s been for sale for seven years and, although the price has dropped, it hasn’t dropped enough (in my estimation) to generate a sale any time soon.
Pizza with Capers and Anchovies, one of two we had at Bar Marina in Casoli after we were done eating…just in case!
In the late afternoon, Zia Ida and I drove down to my apartment in Bagni di Lucca. Relatives were picking us up to take us to dinner, an al fresco affair at Bar Marina in the charming town of Casoli. Casoli is up in the mountains, on a road not unlike that to Benabbio, and the temperature was quite cool! There were nine of us and someone took responsibility for ordering family style which was a good idea.
A guy selling cheese from his van in the piazza of Corsagna.
We started with three Antipasti: a large platter of Salumi, an array of Bruschette, and a big platter of Pasta Fritta (fried dough). The consensus was that we would double down on Primi Piatti (First Courses), getting LARGE BOWLS, and not order Secondi. We had Tortelli (like small ravioli) al Ragu (classically Tuscan), Farfalle with Speck, and Risotto with Mushrooms. After we finished the Primi Piatti, someone decided that we needed food to fill the interstices in our stomachs so pizza came to the table: one Margarita and one with Anchovies and Capers. For dessert most of us selected a slice of one of the restaurant’s Torte. Several of us had Caffè Corretto, corrected coffee, meaning that some sort of alcoholic beverage was added, in this case rum. Departing in separate cars, I was deposited in Bagni di Lucca by one set of relatives and Zia Ida was deposited in Benabbio by another.
Eggplant dusted with flour and ready to be fried for lunch.
On Tuesday, after she did a bit of prep work, Zia Fidalma turned the preparation of lunch over tom me. It was really quite simple, Spaghetti con Pomarola, a simple sauce of tomatoes [from the garden] cooked with garlic and basil and pureed, and Melanzane Fritte (sliced eggplant dusted with flour and fried). Zia Ida also had some of Gemma’s braised rabbit from Sunday.
Spaghetti with Pomarola, served for lunch with fried eggplant.
After lunch I made pasta for the next day’s “Last Supper” using one of Zia Fidalma’s recipes. It’s a pretty traditional Southern Italian pasta dough, which often mixes regular flour and semolina and adds oil and water to the eggs, EXCEPT that the water was replaced by beer. I don’t know the provenance of the recipe but it was contained in an email from a friend in Germany.
Making pasta with beer using a recipe from Zia Fidalma.
That evening the four of us (Zia Fidalma, Zia Ida, Massimo and myself) were meeting another set of relatives (Paola and Abramo and their daughter and son-in-law) for dinner. We were bringing Pizze so everyone could focus on having a fun time. The pizzeria, from which we planned to get pizza (Es Vedra in Fornoli) was closed for a one-week break. We drove to La Lanterina, also in Fornoli that, despite the “Siamo Aperti” sign was most definitely not “Aperto.” That brought us to the new, and untested, Da Lino in Piandigioviano (or Piano di Gioviano, depending on whether one believes the road sign or the map).
Sitting at the table at Paola and Abramo’s home.
Corsagna is another charming Tuscan hill town (aren’t they all?) but the road to Corsagna makes the roads to Benabbio and Casoli seem like child’s play. Upon arrival in the piazza, there was a van from which someone was selling cheese. After a quick taste, Zia Fidalma bought a big hunk of Formaggio Fresco and a basket of Ricotta. Both were excellent.
Cialde were served for dessert. In the States we would call these Pizzelle but not in Tuscany.
Abramo is a sculptor, though now retired. His and Paola’s home is adorned with numerous built ins that he has sculpted. It is a cozy and utterly personal home.
Fried eggplant.
In addition to the pizza, we had Funghi sott’Olio (mushrooms in oil) that Paola put-up (does anyone even use that term anymore?) using mushrooms that she foraged and cured olives from their own trees. Dessert was Cialde rolled into cones filled with Gelato. Cialde, rolled or not, are what Americans would recognize as Pizzelle. Paola flavors hers with ground anise seeds and Sambucca.
Tagliatelle made with beer from one of Zia Fidalma’s recipes.
She offered the recipe but we forgot to ask for it before leaving. Massimo will follow-up! Paola cooked the Cialde a little more than usual before rolling them into cones so that they were nice and crispy and would stand up to Gelato.
From left to right, Zia Ida, Paola, and Paola’s daughter Valentina.
Massimo dropped me off at the apartment before heading home to Benabbio with Zia Fidalma and Zia Ida.
Abramo and his son-in-law, Nicola.
On Wednesday August 21st we went to the market in Bagni di Lucca, then to the butcher at Simply, then to Conad (but not the big Conad in Gallicano). We also made a stop at the pharmacy…the one that uses beautiful paper to wrap medicines. This time, however, I got my meds in a bag…disappointment!
A view of the River Lima and the pedestrian-only Chain Bridge from the terrace of “Casa Pieri.”
We headed to Fornoli and got Cappuccini and Cornetti at a bar, ran a few errands, then went to view the house in which my father-in-law and Zia Ida grew up. It’s up for sale. Zia Ida hasn’t been inside for about 60 years, since leaving Italy as a young teen. Zia Fidalma and Massimo have dubbed the house “Casa Pieri.”
A view of the front gate from the front garden of “Casa Pieri.”
It has two bedrooms, one bath, an eat-in kitchen and a living room as well as a terrace overlooking the river and a small front porch. It’s along the banks of the River Lima next to the chain bridge, a foot bridge that connects Fornoli to Chifenti. It’s surrounded by a park so it’s quiet as there are no roads close by.
Looking out from the Salotto (Living Room) of “Casa Pieri.”
It needs some updating and a few additions (like heating) and the landscaping needs to be vastly improved but it’s a sweet property. Unfortunately, it’s way overpriced. One would need to get it for something far, far less than the current asking price to make it a worthwhile investment. I doubt that’s likely to happen though I think the property would get a lot of use from friends and family visiting Italy.
A portion of the kitchen at “Casa Pieri.”
We got home at 1 PM and quickly made lunch which consisted of Panini of Piadina, Prosciutto, Formaggio Fresco (from the piazza in Corsagna) and an array of condiments including Peperoncini sott’Olio, Peperoni sott’Olio, and Cetrioli (which means both gerkins and fresh cucumbers… gerkins in this case). There was some of that luscious Ricotta on the side. In common Italian usage, peperoncini are hot and peperoni are sweet.
The master bedroom at “Casa Pieri.” Zia Ida says the floor tiles are original.
«L’Ultima Cena» di Zia Ida started about 7 PM. It consisted of Tagliatelle al Ragu (using the beer-based pasta made the previous day) after that there was a Filet Mignon, Purè di Patate (mashed potatoes but with the addition of nutmeg) and Fagiolini con Aglio e Olio (green beans with garlic and oil).
Pan-roasted filet served at Zia Ida’s “Last Supper.”
The night was not a late one as Zia Ida and Massimo planned to leave the house at 4:00 AM so she could make her 6:30 flight to Rome.
Zia Ida at the airport early Thursday morning. I’m not sure what to make of the fact that she seems happy to be leaving us.
