{"id":7072,"date":"2019-08-12T09:47:07","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T15:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?p=7072"},"modified":"2019-08-16T03:23:01","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T09:23:01","slug":"cooking-in-tuscany-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/12\/cooking-in-tuscany-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking in Tuscany #4: Zucchino, Zucchini, Zucchina, Zucchine"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 12, 2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Italian is a difficult language.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t help that the endings of some words multiply like, well\u2026 zucchini blossoms.<\/p>\n

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Beautiful squash blossoms just begging to be stuffed.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Take the humble zucchina, er, zucchino.\u00a0 You know, that pile of zucchine\u2026zucchini!!!\u00a0 There are both masculine (zucchino [singular] and zucchini [plural]) and feminine (zucchina [singular] and zucchine [plural]) words for what the British call courgettes and we, in the States, call zucchini.\u00a0 The different usages are both regional (masculine preferred in Tuscany and Southern Italy) and temporal (the feminine form first being documented a few years after the masculine).<\/p>\n

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Laundry day at the apartment.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The investigation of this whole situation started after Zia Ida and Zia Fidalma corrected my original writing of Sformato di Zucchine for the first blog of this \u201cCooking in Tuscany\u201d<\/a> series.\u00a0 Both said it was Sformato di Zucchini.\u00a0 Nancy Burkey, a friend and follower of the blog who is studying Italian, asked why I used Zucchini instead of Zucchine.\u00a0 This question escalated and got Nancy\u2019s Italian coach involved.<\/p>\n

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Zia Fidalma stuffing squash blossoms.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although I had never heard the word zucchino until a few days ago, I\u2019ll be sticking with the zucchino\/zucchini form going forward if for no other reason than that\u2019s what the seed packet says!<\/p>\n

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A seed packet at a shop in Fornoli.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The night of August 7th was blissfully quiet at the apartment.\u00a0 Upon awakening on the 8th, I packed an overnight bag as the plan was for me to spend the night at Zia Fidalma\u2019s in Benabbio but more on that in a minute.<\/p>\n

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A serious moment in the kitchen.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I arrived at Zia Fidalma\u2019s to find her mixing a meat filling for squash blossoms that had been promised by a friend the previous evening.\u00a0 Just when we thought the blossoms weren\u2019t going to appear, they arrived.\u00a0 Zia Ida removed the stamens while Zia Fidalma stuffed them.\u00a0 There were about 18.<\/p>\n

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Stuffed squash blossoms ready to be doused with oil and baked.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Into a baking dish they went with a healthy dose of oil and they headed for the oven.<\/p>\n

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Broth with pasta for lunch.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The remainder of the meat filling was going to be turned into a polpettone (a giant meatball) to be put in the broth and poached.\u00a0 As we were cleaning up the kitchen, the next batch of squash blossoms arrived which resulted in a groan from both Zie (Aunts).\u00a0 The flowers were so beautiful, however, that they had to be processed.<\/p>\n

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Me standing on the Chain Bridge between Chifenti and Fornoli. The house behind me is the one in which Zia Ida and my father-in-law grew up.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The production line was reconstituted.\u00a0 Several dozen blossoms were stuffed and stood up like little soldiers.\u00a0 They were put in the fridge for another day.<\/p>\n

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Stuffed squash blossoms standing soldier-like.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For lunch I saut\u00e9ed a few Friggitelli (those Shishito-like peppers) that served as an antipasto as we assembled a simple but delicious lunch of Focaccette con Pancetta Rotolata e Strachino (Savory Flour and Cornmeal \u201cPancakes\u201d with Pancetta [in the middle, encased by the batter] accompanied by Strachino cheese).\u00a0 This is a dish that I had when I visited Benabbio in March.\u00a0 I\u2019ve ordered a set of the irons used to make focaccette which I will pick up during the week.<\/p>\n

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Friggitelli quickly cooked in a bit of oil.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Around 2:30 we headed to Ponte a Serraglio to deposit Zia Fidalma at the beauty shop.\u00a0 Zia Ida and I walked around Fornoli, the next town.\u00a0 Fornoli is where Zia Ida and my father-in-law grew up.\u00a0 The house they lived in still sits by the river and the pedestrian chain bridge that crosses the Lima River to the town of Chifenti.<\/p>\n

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A simple lunch of warm Corona bean salad, fried stuffed squash blossoms, and caprese salad.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We also visited a long-abandoned building that contained five houses, where Zia Ida\u2019s grandparents and aunts and uncles had lived.\u00a0 One of the five units has been rehabbed, but the two units on either side of it are full of rubble and have no windows.\u00a0 We met the present occupant of the rehabbed unit, the one that Zia Ida\u2019s grandparents lived in.\u00a0 We chatted for a while and then he started his afternoon walk by walking with us to our car.<\/p>\n