briciole

Havarti con aneto / dill Havarti

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

just sliced

Traveling with the Abbecedario culinario della Comunità Europea (European Community Culinary ABC), we've arrived in Denmark (Danimarca). Finally, we are in a country I have visited, albeit briefly.

It was in Denmark that I first experienced the long days characteristic of summer in northern Europe. One August, years ago, three friends of mine and I drove from Italy to Norway and back, a wonderful trip that brought us to seven countries: Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. 

On our way up, we visited Copenhagen, where I enjoyed our walk inside the Kastellet, "one of the best preserved star fortresses in Northern Europe." We paid a visit to the Little Mermaid (Sirenetta), but didn't see it well, because shortly before we arrived close enough to get a good look at the famous little statue, a busload of tourists descended upon the poor girl, all but blocking her from sight.

We spent the night in Roskilde, famous for its music festival. The window in our room did not have a serranda, the tight-closing shutter common in Italian homes, but not, as I already knew, elsewhere. Looking at the window from my bed I noticed that, even when my watch indicated a late hour, the sky was not completely dark.

In Helsingor, "known internationally for its castle Kronborg, where William Shakespeare's play Hamlet is set," we took the ferry to Helsingborg, in Sweden. I have some photos from that trip but due to some moving of stuff that happened in our house recently, they are in an unidentified box, so I cannot share them here.

a view of the curds

To celebrate our stop, I decided to make a Danish cheese (formaggio danese) that has been on my to-do list for a while: Havarti. Sometimes a cheese with bold flavor is desired, but other times, a mild flavor is called for and then Havarti is a nice option.

I have several recipes for Havarti in my various cheese-making books. I chose to make the version in Mary Karlin's book, "Artisan Cheese Making at Home," because it has an option to eat the cheese fresh (i.e., not aged), which allowed me to make the cheese, taste it, and write about it within the limit of our sojourn in Denmark.

I followed the recipe almost as given in the book. The home cheese makers among my readers may be interest in knowing that for this cheese, I tried something I had read in "The Joy of Cheesemaking" by Jody Farnham and Marc Druart, namely, I used a blend of pasteurized non-fat milk and pasteurized heavy whipping cream (as an approximation of milk that has not been homogenized).

I don't yet have dill from my little herb garden, but got some as part of my spring CSA share. Since the recipe calls for dried dill and I had fresh dill, I dried a few sprigs in the microwave (my first time doing this) following these instructions. Dill being a delicate herb (erba aromatica), you want to be particularly careful in monitoring the process to avoid burning it. 

the moment of truth

It is always with a bit of trepidation that I plunge the knife into one of my cheeses. In this case, the result matched expectations: my dill Havarti has a mild, fresh flavor of milk with just a light note of dill. It is a nice cheese to put into a sandwich, or to eat plain with my panini quadrifoglio, or with this flatbread. I also used it successfully in my famous roasted strawberry frittata (instead of French Neufchâtel).

I will make this cheese again and this time I will age it a bit. I don't expect most of you to follow me in the making of this cheese, but if you see in in the case of your cheesemonger, why not give Havarti a try?

---

My dill Havarti participates to the sixth installment of the Abbecedario culinario della Comunità Europea (European Community Culinary ABC), an event organized by Trattoria MuVarA that will bring us to visit 26 countries of the EU (all except Italy) using the alphabet as guide. F like Frikadeller (Denmark) is hosted by Leonilde of Le affinità elettive.

This page contains Frikadeller's recipe and the list of recipe contributed to the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

Havarti con aneto 

or launch the Havarti con aneto audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

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Havarti, cheese, dill

Havarti con aneto

la prima fetta

L'Abbecedario culinario della Comunità Europea ci porta in Danimarca. Finalmente siamo in un paese che ho visitato, sebbene molto brevemente.

In Danimarca ho fatto la prima esperienza delle giornate lunghe caratteristiche dell'estate nel Nordeuropa. Un Agosto di un po' di anni fa, io e tre amici abbiamo fatto un bel giro in auto dall'Italia alla Norvegia e ritorno, toccando Svizzera, Austria, Liechtenstein, Germania, Danimarca e Svezia. 

Nel viaggio di andata abbiamo visitato Copenaghen dove ho gradito una lunga passeggiata all'interno del Kastellet, antica fortificazione militare a forma di stella che oggi è un parco aperto al pubblico. Siamo andati dove si trova la statua della Sirenetta, ma non siamo riusciti a vederla bene a causa dell'arrivo poco prima di noi di un autobus pieno di turisti che hanno invaso lo spazio aereo intorno alla povera ragazza bloccandone la vista.

Abbiamo pernottato a Roskilde, famosa per il suo importante festival della musica. La finestra della stanza dove ho dormito non aveva serranda, solo una tenda di stoffa. Dal letto ho notato che nonostante l'ora tarda segnata dal mio orologio, il cielo non era buio.

Ad Helsingor (Elsinore), che è sede del castello di Kronborg, dove William Shakespeare ha ambientato Amleto, abbiamo preso il traghetto per Helsingborg, in Svezia. Ho delle foto del viaggio ma a causa di un recente trasloco interno sono in una scatola priva di identificazione e quindi non sono in grado di condividerle in questo post.

controllo della cagliata

Per celebrare la nostra visita ho deciso di fare dell'Havarti, un formaggio danese che era sulla mia lista da tempo. Talvolta vogliamo un formaggio dal sapore forte e deciso, ma altre volte preferiamo un sapore delicato e in questi casi Havarti è un'ottima opzione.

Ho diverse ricette per fare l'Havarti nei miei libri di arte casearia. Ho scelto di fare la versione nel libro di Mary Karlin "Artisan Cheese Making at Home" (in inglese), perché offre l'opzione di consumare il formaggio fresco, cioè non stagionato, il che mi ha consentito di fare il formaggio, assaggiarlo e parlarne in un post nei limiti di tempo del nostro soggiorno in Danimarca.

Non avrei problemi a tradurre la ricetta in italiano se fossi sicura che potete trovare gli ingredienti per farla, ma mentre so che è possibile acquistare il caglio in farmacia, a quanto ne so in Italia non si trovano i fermenti per inoculare il latte. Se qualcuno scopre che non è così, vi prego di farmelo sapere. [Alcune ricette per fare il formaggio in casa usano lo yogurt per inoculare il latte, ma per fare l'Havarti ci vogliono batteri diversi da quelli che si trovano nello yogurt (ammesso che lo yogurt che usate abbia fermenti lattici vivi).]

Non ho ancora piantine di aneto nel mio orticello e quindi ho usato un po' di quello che ho trovato nella mia cassettina. Dal momento che la ricetta richiede aneto secco e il mio era fresco, ne ho seccati alcuni rametti nel forno a microonde sequendo queste istruzioni. Dato che l'aneto è un'erba aromatica delicata vi consiglio di monitorare con attenzione il processo di essiccamento per evitare di bruciarla. 

il momento della verità

È sempre con un po' di trepidazione che affondo la lama in una delle mie forme di formaggio per tagliare la prima fettina. In questo caso il risultato ha soddisfatto le aspettative: il mio Havarti ha un sapore delicato di latte con giusto una nota di aneto. È un formaggio adatto per fare un panino o da mangiare al naturale, magari con uno dei miei panini quadrifoglio, o con questa schiacciata. L'ho anche usato con successo nella mia famosa frittata con fragole arrosto (invece del French Neufchâtel).

Farò questo formaggio di nuovo e stavolta lo farò stagionare un po'. Spero che il mio post vi faccia venire la curiosità di assaggiare l'Havarti, magari, se lo trovate, quello con l'aneto.

---

Con il mio Havarti con aneto partecipo alla sesta tappa dell'Abbecedario culinario della Comunità Europea, un evento organizzato dalla Trattoria MuVarA che ci porterà a visitare i 26 paesi della Comunità Europea (eccetto l'Italia) usando le lettere dell'alfabeto come guida. F come Frikadeller (Danimarca) è ospitata da Leonilde de Le affinità elettive. 

Questa pagina contiene la ricetta per Frikadeller e la lista delle ricette contribuite all'evento.

Se siete interessati a partecipare, questo post contiene la lista completa di paesi, blog ospitanti e scadenze.

del formaggio, per favore / some cheese, please

homemade cheese and bread

A slice of Leerdammer, one of Manchego plus some rye bread (pane di segale): that's what's in the spread above. Trust me, it's lovely. (In fact, it was eaten as soon as I finished taking photos.)

I like sweet, nutty Leerdammer a lot, and I am very pleased with the nice holes it has. I wrote about my first attempt in this post and by comparing the results, you can see that my formaggio coi buchi looks much nicer now, thanks to a bit of practice during the past three years. The recipe I follow comes from the book 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes by Debra Amrein-Boyes (I halve it, using two gallons of milk.)

Manchego with saffron threads

I have made Manchego-style cheese many times using different recipes, as described, for example, this post. (I am calling the cheese Manchego-style because true Manchego is made with ewe's milk, while my cheese was made with cow's milk.) The version above was made following the recipe in Mary Karlin's book Artisan Cheese Making at Home and it includes some saffron (zafferano). The photo shows the cheese ready for aging.

What I like about this cheese is that it can be eaten young or aged longer. This time, I cut it after 10 days of aging.

Manchego curds with saffron threads

Above is an image from the process of making the Manchego, where you can see a couple of saffron threads among the white curds. The image was taken shortly before putting the curds in the mold.

The cheese has a lightly elastic texture, a pleasant smell of young cheese and a delicate flavor that makes it perfect for a snack. 

The top photo is my contribution to edition #73 of Black and White Wednesday - A Culinary Photography Event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar, and hosted this week by Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte aka kochtopf.

The photo was shot in color and then converted to black and white (Lightroom preset Split Tone 1).

This post contains the gallery of images submitted to the event.

And I suspect the cheese lovers participating in the year long Cheesepalooza project, organized by Valerie of A Canadian Foodie will enjoy watching the photos in this post. Manchego is one of the cheeses chosen for the March edition and while Leerdammer is not Jarlsberg, the process for making the two cheeses has similarities and they both have holes. I have also made Jarlsberg, more than once, and this is a post about it.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

del formaggio, per favore

or launch the del formaggio, per favore audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

cheese, Leerdammer, Manchego

Crescenza fatta in casa / homemade Crescenza

savoring the fruit of my labor

Crescenza is a soft, rindless cheese from Lombardia that is great to eat on its own, to savor its fresh, milky flavor, or to use in cooking. A few weeks ago, I read this post, in which Ian, one of the participants in the Cheesepalooza event, described his experience making Crescenza according to Mary Karlin's recipe. I immediately decided to try making it. I found Ms. Karlin's recipe on this page, whereas Ian got it from her book Artisan Cheese Making at Home.

Here are some images from the process (as you know, I ♥ making cheese):

early draining phase

I don't have square bottomless molds, so I used two cylindrical bottomless molds.

Advice #1 When a cylindrical bottomless mold has just been filled with curds, it is quite unstable. A minor jiggle may cause it to lift up, in which case the curds will rush out from the bottom: not what you want (trust me). To help prevent the mold from moving, I suggest to put a sterilized piece of cloth under the mold (as shown in this post). You won't see such a cloth in the photo, because this time I forgot to use it.

late draining phase

It does not take a long time for the mass of curds to lose whey (siero di latte) and become more compact. Once draining is done, the cheese is moved into a brine bath (salamoia).

in the brine

Advice #2. When moving cheese, for example from the draining box into the brine and then from the brine back into the draining box, never pick it up by pressing your fingers on the side, but always raise it by placing your hands underneath it.

While the cheese was brining, I made ricotta with the leftover whey.

just out of the brine

In case you are wondering, the texture on the surface is a combination of the imprints of two different draining mats.

After brining, the cheese is air-dried, covered, for an hour before being refrigerated.

veiled beauties

Overall, the recipe is pretty straightforward and since this is a fresh cheese, you don't have to wait long to taste the fruit of your labor. How long? On this important point, the recipe is not specific. These are the last two sentences:

Wrap thoroughly in plastic wrap or vacuum-seal, and refrigerate until ready to use. Best if used within one week. Bring to room temperature before serving

I wrapped the two cheeses in plastic wrap and refrigerated them, then took one out before dinner and tasted it: the texture was nice, but the flavor bland. I wrapped it again and put it back in the refrigerator. Two days later, I emptied the whey that had collected at the bottom of the container where the cheeses were and prepared it for a second taste: much better. I could start to taste the distinctive delicate tang of Crescenza. The flavor continued to improve in the following 3-4 days, then plateaued. My observation is actually consistent with what I read in a couple of pages (like this one and this one, both in Italian), where the ripening time of crescenza is indicated to be 5-7 days. Hence, the second time I made crescenza, I let it ripen 5 days before tasting it.

In the introdutory note, Ms. Karlin says: "A small amount of rennet is also stirred in, resulting in a slightly firmer cheese than classic Crescenza." This is fine by me. I definitely agree with the last instruction: bring cheese to room temperature before serving it.

My Crescenza was such a success that both times I have made it, it has disappeared quickly (within a few days of first tasting). Crescenza is great on a piece of bread (the one in the top photo is pumpkin bread) and in cooked dishes (for example, instead of robiola in my curried sweet chilli peppers and also in my version of a traditional Italian cheese dish that will be the subject of a post in the near future).

Valerie of A Canadian Foodie has launched a year long event called Cheesepalooza, which encourages people to take up home cheese making via monthly challenges of increasing complexity. Crescenza is one of the optional cheeses chosen for the second month, when the main challenge was making basic chèvre. This post contains the roundup of optional cheeses for month #2.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post: 

Crescenza fatta in casa

or launch the Crescenza fatta in casa audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

crescenza, cheese

Halloumi fatto in casa / homemade Halloumi

Halloumi and Anari from its leftover whey

Halloumi is from the island of Cyprus and is characterized as a semi-hard, unripened, and brined cheese made traditionally from mostly sheep's milk with the addition of a smaller amount of goat's milk. Modern Halloumi is made from a mix of goat's and sheep's milk, and sometimes cow's milk is added.

Thus Jim Wallace introduces this wonderful cheese on the page dedicated to his recipe for making Halloumi at home. Every month, Jim contributes a cheese recipe to the Moosletter, the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company newsletter and I look forward to receiving it to see what Jim has been experimenting with in his cheese lab, which I know well, having attended two workshops there.

The recipe for Halloumi comes with all the details you need to replicate it and plenty of photographs to illustrate the various steps. I won't repeat anything here, but rather share notes about my experience and a few images from my kitchen.

Two bloggers I have been following for years, Ivy of Kopiaste and Peter of Kalofagas, first introduced me to Halloumi. Ivy has also written a post describing the making of it. I actually had made Halloumi once, a couple of years ago, using the recipe from one of my books, but I was not particularly excited about the result, though the cheese was quickly consumed. The part that was hardest to handle was having to keep the cheese in the brine, because the jar with it occupied a lot of space in the fridge. So, I was happy to see that Jim's recipe offers a way of making the cheese without the brine bath.

The first time I made Halloumi using Jim's recipe, I used all cow's milk, while for all the subsequent renditions (and there have been several so far), I used half fresh goat's milk (latte di capra) and half cow's milk (latte di mucca). Of course, I wish I could use sheep's milk (latte di pecora), but that is unavailable where I live. In California, Bellwether Farms make cheese, ricotta and yogurt with sheep milk from their own flock and Barinaga Ranch make cheese from theirs. I am not yet ready to get my own ewes in order to have their milk, so I make the best of what I have.

halloumi curds in the mold

I am not very good at taking photos while I am focusing on cutting and stirring the curds, so the first image is of the curds already nicely settled into the mold.

after the first flip

I use my ricotta basket as mold.

a creative weighing apparatus

Only a light weight is needed and for a short time. The mold sits on a raised grate inside a draining container. I always collect the whey (siero di latte) when I make cheese, but in this case it is even more important to do so, as the cheese must be scalded in the whey. First, however, Anari is made.

The whey used for scalding must first be heated to about 195°F (91°C) to bring out the whey proteins from the liquid. This whey curd is then skimmed off and drained in baskets. If you were in Cyprus, you could call this whey cheese “Anari” and it looks just like Ricotta.

I make ricotta a bit differently from the way Jim describes in his recipe. I don't add milk and I use a small quantity of kefir whey (leftover from making kefir cheese) to acidify the whey when it reaches the high temperature.

The Halloumi is then boiled in this clarified hot whey until it floats.

reaching the surface during scalding

When you first put the cheese into the hot whey, it sinks, but as the scalding proceeds, the cheese makes its way to the surface. I leave the cheese in the mold so it does not touch to bottom of the pot when I first immerse it.

ready to be folded

When you take Halloumi out of the pot, it is malleable, so you can use your hand to flatten it a bit. Then comes the salting and the flavoring:

Halloumi is often garnished with mint to add to the taste. Traditionally, the mint leaves were used as a preservative. This practice came about when it was considered that Halloumi kept better and was fresher and more flavorful when wrapped with mint leaves.

I have plenty of fresh mint (menta) in my garden, so I used some of it for this step. The folded cheese is then ready for some rest in the fridge (four days), after which you're in for a treat.

ready to be sliced

What's so special about this cheese? "Halloumi is also unique in having a high melting point and so can easily be fried or grilled." That's right: you can pan-fry or grill slices of Halloumi and they will crisp on the surface and soften inside, but won't melt.

served on a bed of roasted cherry tomatoes

Although the cheese keeps its shape, its outward appearance turns into a crispy, golden-brown color when fried or browned and with grill marks when grilled, it softens significantly but it does not melt.

The photo above is dated July 23, four days after I made my first Halloumi. Up until then, I had served roasted cherry tomatoes with ciliegine, according to my recipe, but from that day on, it's always been Halloumi, pan-fried in a cast-iron skillet previously sprayed with olive oil.

Besides sharing my enthusiasm for homemade Halloumi, with this post, I am celebrating the fourth anniversary of my adventures in cheese making. It's been an incredible journey so far, and one that I have no intention to interrupt. In January 2011, I started a spreadsheet with the dates and summary details of the cheeses I make. (That was an improvement over my previous record-keeping method.) The other day, I looked at how many cheese entries there were for the past 20 months: 66! This number includes only the first record of making kefir, kefir cheese and yogurt. I make these three dairy products regularly (kefir almost every day) and I no longer record them. 

In these four years, I have seen interest in making cheese at home steadily increase, as testified by the publication of several books on the subject. Most recently, Valerie of A Canadian Foodie has launched a year long event called Cheesepalooza, which encourages people to take up home cheese making via monthly challenges of increasing complexity. Starting something new together with other people is a nice way to overcome the shyness and trepidation that can prevent us from making the first step. The cheese chosen for the second month is basic chèvre and there are also several optional cheeses (like cream cheese and fromage blanc, which I have already discussed here, and crescenza, which I made last week and will make again to get some photos to share).

Update. The cheese for the third month is Halloumi or Feta, so it turns out I was a bit prescient with my post.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

Halloumi fatto in casa

or launch the halloumi fatto in casa audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

halloumi, cheese

una serata alla Scala e mascarpone / an evening at La Scala and mascarpone

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

Welcome to the Teatro alla Scala, the crown jewel of Italian opera theaters.

the view from our box

Three years ago, we spent a memorable evening in this dazzling place.

my seat

The small screen displays the subtitles. My husband was able to select the English version of the subtitles.

bravi!

We watched Gaetano Donizetti's Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali: it is an opera about staging an opera and is quite amusing.

the front of the building

Looking at il tempio della lirica (the temple of lyrical opera) always makes me think of Giuseppe Verdi.

In this excerpt from the 1982 TV movie on Verdi's life, we see the young composer in the upper gallery of La Scala listening to Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love). And in this one, we see him having his first major success with the opera Nabucco. The soprano in the opera was Giuseppina Strepponi, who would become Verdi's partner and later his (second) wife.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele

Walking from La Scala to Piazza Duomo through the Galleria is nice any time of the day, particularly so at night.

at the intersection

This is one of the most elegant places in Italy and one I love dearly, as I dearly love Milano, the city where I lived for 10 years before moving to California.

In our tour of the Italian regions with the Abbecedario culinario d'Italia (Italian Culinary ABC), we have reach Lombardia (Lombardy), of which Milan is the capital. There are many beautiful places to visit in Lombardia besides Milan: Pavia, Mantova, Lake Como, Bergamo (home town of Donizetti), Cremona, Valtellina and many, many more.

My first contribution to the Abbecedario for this instalment was a recipe from my archive: polenta taragna, typical of Valtellina. My second contribution is the presentation of a variation on the recipe to make mascarpone, a cheese typical of the region, in particular the area around the city of Lodi. (Coincidentally, Strepponi was born in that city.)

I have already published a recipe for mascarpone. Last week, I decided to try to make cultured mascarpone, following the recipe by Jim Wallace, roughly halving the quantities. The result was very nice.

In this version, the cream and milk blend needs to be warmed up only to 86 F. Then, the culture takes it from there. The blend I used was made up of

• 1 1/2 cup (355 ml) heavy whipping cream 40% butterfat: this is a higher butterfat content than what I usually use (35%)
• 1 cup (235 ml) non-fat milk: this is more than I usually use, and I did it to balance out the higher butterfat content of the cream; the blend's overall butterfat content was 24%
  

I didn't have the direct-set crème fraîche culture, but I did have half a package of the direct-set fromagina culture, which includes the same lactic bacteria. Based on the description ("a cross between Fromage Blanc and Mascarpone"), I thought it would be fine to use it. Next time, I will try using crème fraîche culture to taste the difference. Both direct-set cultures contain a small amount of rennet to help form the curd.

I started the process in the evening, after sanitizing the pan and all the tools needed. I warmed up to 86 F the cream and milk blend to which I had added 5 drops of calcium chloride diluted in 2 tablespoons of cool water. At temperature, I added the culture as described in Jim's recipe. I left the covered pan undisturbed overnight, wrapped in a towel. The morning after, I found that the blend had set nicely into a very soft curd and was ready for the draining step.

I initially drained the mascarpone using a sterilized cotton napkin, as I usually do, but for some reason the draining was not proceeding well, so I moved the mascarpone onto a double layer of cheese mesh (also sterilized) and that worked well. I stopped the draining when the mascarpone had the desired consistency (see photo above). I collected the whey and froze it for later use to make bread.

The day the mascarpone was ready to be consumed, we had freshly picked peaches (pesche) from Neukom Family Farm and it seemed obvious to put the two together in a bowl. Nothing else is required: this is a rich and satisfying dessert that you eat slowly and cherish spoon after spoon. 

As this page on Lodi states:

The pride of local produce include cheeses, the most famous being Mascarpone, but also Pennerone, Lodi Granone, cheeses with flavours that these days are becoming hard to find. And the Raspadura, a grana-like fresh cheese traditionally served in thin slices cut with a special knife which makes the cheese curl in on itself.

the cheese and the special blade to make curls

 It is really fun to watch Raspadura being cut.

the blade at work

It is difficult to stop eating the sweet smelling curls of cheese once you open the container in which they are packaged for you. The writing on the apron says "tipico lodigiano" (typical from Lodi).

This is my submission for the 13th installment of the Abbecedario culinario d'Italia (Italian Culinary ABC), an event organized by Trattoria MuVarA that will bring us to visit all the 20 regions of Italy using the alphabet as guide. P come Pavia is hosted by Paola of Voglia di cucina...Voglia di sognare.... This page contains the list of dishes submitted to the event and a slide show.

And I suspect the cheese lovers participating in the year long Cheesepalooza project, organized by Valerie of A Canadian Foodie will enjoy watching some of the photos in this post. Mascarpone is one of the optional cheeses that the group will make this month, so I am contributing my mascarpone adventures to the effort.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

serata alla Scala e mascarpone

or launch the una serata alla Scala e mascarpone audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

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mascarpone, peach

una serata alla Scala e mascarpone

Benevenuti al Teatro alla Scala.

veduta dal nostro palco

Tre anni fa passammo una serata memorabile in questo luogo davvero speciale.

la mia sedia

Un piccolo monitor personale mostra i sottotitoli. Mio marito ha potuto selezionare i sottotitoli in inglese.

bravi!

Abbiamo visto Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali di Gaetano Donizetti, un'opera che ha come tema la messa in scena di un'opera: davvero divertente.

la facciata

Il Teatro alla Scala mi fa sempre pensare a Giuseppe Verdi e allo sceneggiato che la RAI trasmise nel 1982. Di Verdi, proprio la scorsa stagione la San Francisco Opera ha messo in scena Attila, una co-produzione della Scala, regia di Gabriele Lavia, scene di Alessandro Camera e costumi di Andrea Viotti. Tra l'altro il direttore musicale dell'Opera è un italiano: Nicola Luisotti. Il quartetto italiano di cui sopra aveva già un'opera nel programma 2011-12, il Don Giovanni di Mozart. Entrambi gli spettacoli sono stati molto belli.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele

Camminare dalla Scala a Piazza Duomo attraverso la Galleria è un piacere ad ogni ora del giono, ma in particolare di sera quando è tutta illuminata.

sotto la cupola centrale

Questo è uno dei luoghi più eleganti d'Italia e uno che amo in modo particolare, come amo Milano, dove ho vissuto quasi 10 anni, prima di trasferirmi in California.

Nel nostro tour dell'Italia insieme alla carovana dell'Abbecedario culinario d'Italia siamo arrivati in Lombardia, dove ci sono molti posti bellissimi da visitare, a parte Milano: Pavia, Mantova, il Lago di Como, Bergamo, Cremona, la Valtellina e tanti altri.

Il mio primo contributo all'Abbecedario per questa tappa è stato una ricetta dal mio archivio: la polenta taragna, tipica della Valtellina. Il mio secondo contributo è la presentazione di una variazione della ricetta per fare il mascarpone, formaggio tipico lombardo, in particolare del lodigiano.

Una curiosità: in California c'è una città che si chiama Lodi (debitamente gemellata con la Lodi originale) e ci passiamo ogni volta che andiamo sulla Sierra Nevada. La Lodi californiana si trova nella San Joaquin Valley. Ma pare che Lodi sia un nome popolare nel Nuovo Mondo: guardate qui quante Lodi ci sono.

Ho già pubblicato una ricetta per fare il mascarpone in casa (post bilingue). Mi rendo conto che in Italia è molto più semplice comprarlo, ma vi assicuro che fare il mascarpone oltre ad essere relativamente semplice, dà molta soddisfazione. La ricetta di cui sopra fa uso di acido tartarico oppure di succo di limone. La scorsa settimana ho provato a fare il mascarpone con la coltura di batteri, seguendo la ricetta di Jim Wallace, e dimezzando (all'incirca) le quantità. Il risultato è molto buono. In questa versione è la miscela di panna e latte deve essere scaldata solo fino a 30 C, poi la coltura batterica si prende cura del resto, a temperatura ambiente.

La miscela di panna e latte che ho usato contiene

• 355 ml di panna da montare al 40% di grasso: questo contenuto di grasso è più elevato di quello che uso di solito (35%)
• 235 ml di latte scremato pastorizzato: questa quantità è maggiore di quella che uso di solito ma ho voluto bilanciare il più elevato contenuto di grasso della panna; ll contenuto totale di grasso della miscela è 24% (entro i valori ideali per fare il mascarpone)
  

Non avevo la coltura pronta per fare la crème fraîche, ma avevo mezzo pacchetto di coltura pronta per fromagina, che comprende gli stessi batteri lattici. In base alla descrizione ("un incrocio tra Fromage Blanc e Mascarpone"), ho pensato che sarebbe andata bene. La prossima volta proverò ad utilizzare la coltura per fare la crème fraîche per assaggiare la differenza. Entrambe le colture pronte contengono una piccola quantità di caglio.

La sera dopo cena, dopo aver sterilizzato una pentola e tutti gli strumenti che vengono a contatto con panna e latte, ho aggiunto 5 gocce di cloruro di calcio diluite in 30 ml di acqua fredda alla miscela, ho mescolato bene e poi l'ho scaldata fino a 30 C. Una volta raggiunta la temperatura, ho sparso la coltura sulla superficie, l'ho lasciata rinvenire per alcuni minuti e ho mescolato bene. Ho coperto la pentola e l'ho lasciata a temperatura ambiente, avvolta in un asciugamano per rallentare la perdita di calore. La mattina dopo ho trovato una cagliata soffice, pronta per essere drenata.

All'inizio ho usato, come al solito, un tovagliolo di cotone sterilizzato, ma per qualche motivo il drenaggio non procedeva bene e allora ho versato il mascarpone su un doppio strato di retina fitta per formaggio, anch'esso sterilizzato (il mio post precedente sul mascarpone fatto in casa comprende una foto e ulteriori dettagli sulla fase di drenaggio). Ho interrotto il drenaggio quando il mascarpone ha raggiunto la consistenza desiderata (vedi foto sopra). Il siero che ho raccolto l'ho congelato per uso futuro nel fare il pane.

Il giorno che il mascarpone era pronto per essere gustato ho ricevuto delle belle pesche appena colte dalla Neukom Family Farm e mi è sembrato ovvio mettere insieme i due. Non c'è bisogno di aggiungere altro: questo è un dessert ricco e soddisfacente da gustare lentamente, un cucchiaino dopo l'altro.

Come dice questa pagina dedicata ai cibi tipici del lodigiano:

Le glorie locali sono soprattutto i formaggi, il più famoso dei quali è il mascarpone, ma anche il pannerone, il granone Lodigiano, formaggio dal sapore oggi sempre più raro da trovare e la raspadura, un formaggio grana fresco che la tradizione vuole sia servito in sottili lamine che si arricciano su se stesse e raschiate sulla superficie della forma da un particolare coltello.

il formaggio e la lama speciale

Guardare mentre tagliano la raspadura è divertente.

la lama al lavoro

Poi è difficile smettere di mangiare le lamine di formaggio profumate.

Questo è un altro contributo all'Abbecedario culinario d'Italia, un evento organizzato dalla Trattoria MuVarA che ci porterà a visitare tutte le regioni italiane utilizzando come guida l'alfabeto. P come Pavia è ospitata da Paola di Voglia di cucina...Voglia di sognare...

Questa pagina contiene la lista dei piatti contribuiti all'evento e uno slide show.

un weekend di formaggio

a weekend of cheese

cheese tasting tray

A year ago, I attended my first cheese making 201 workshop with Jim Wallace and told the story in this post. It was a great experience, so last month, I traveled again to attend my second workshop with him: it was an excellent choice. During the two-day workshop, we made three Italian cheeses: caciocavallo, Taleggio and Bel Paese. We also tasted cheeses made by Jim (photo above) and by other students. From the top left corner and going around clockwise: robiola, toscano pepato, Bel Paese, caciocavallo, tomme au marc, cabra al vino, Taleggio. My favorite is the tomme au marc, a tomme aged buried in the grape skins and seeds left over from making wine. The cheese acquires subtle wine notes that are surprising and delightful.

caciocavallo curds draining before being molded

Caciocavallo is a pasta filata cheese from Southern Italy: I tasted and fell in love with it the first time when I visited Calabria as a teenager. If you don't know what pasta filata means, the photos will clarify the concept.

setting the stage for the next phase

When the drained curd mass reached the desired pH, Jim cut it in half and then cut each piece into strips and placed them in a bowl. The photo above shows the first half prepared for the next phase.

testing the stretch

Jim then added hot water in stages to the bowl to warm up the strips. Above, he tests a strip by stretching it.

making caciocavallo: stretching the curd

When the desired stretch is reached, the strips are worked together into a mass, then stretched, folded, and shaped. Finally, the cheese is immersed into cold water to firm up.

caciocavallo hanging to age

The first caciocavallo on the left is missing its bottom part: we ate it during the cheese tasting. The one next to it was made the day before the workshop. When I took the photo, the two caciocavallo we made in class were resting in the brine.

taleggio in the mold: early phase of draining

Then we made Taleggio, a washed-rind cheese I first tasted when I moved to Milan. At the point shown in the photo above, the curd mass was still draining, and during that time, it was flipped into the mold. After the first turn, the surface showed the pretty mold pattern.

pressing curds on one side of the pot

The second day, we made Bel Paese (about which I wrote some notes it in this post).

In the photo above, Jim is adjusting the cloth to smooth it out.

elegance of the folds

This beautiful cheese cloth is made of linen: it falls down into elegant folds. All the cheeses we made during class require aging, so we did not taste them. However, at the time of writing, I have a report saying that they are all doing well.

Besides talking about and making cheese with Jim and the other students, I did a few other things during the weekend, starting with meeting Jeri, who writes the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company blog. We corresponded a bit during the last year, so meeting her in person was very nice. We spent a late afternoon chatting, and together we visited a dream place for a home cheese-maker: a farm that sells certified raw milk (where I am, the sale of raw milk is illegal).

During the weekend, my husband and I wandered a bit around Shelburne Falls. First of all, we visited the store of the cutlery manufacturer Lamson & Goodnow. Last year, I took a lot of photos of the building, but did not go inside.

My husband got me a gift at the store: a knife to cut hard cheese.

Shelburne Falls is famous for its Bridge of Flowers (ponte dei fiori). The post from last year's visit has some photos of it. Here are two images that are a bit different. As I was walking on the bridge, I noticed the reflection of the building above on the Deerfield River.

Bridge of Flowers

And this is an image of the Bridge of Flowers taken from the parallel bridge, called the Iron Bridge, which is used by cars and has also a pedestrian lane.

A view of the Iron Bridge from the Riverwalk (on the Buckland side). In the foreground, you can see some of the damage caused last year by Hurricane Irene. A year later, I still like the red paint on the building in the middle a lot.

Update (August 15, 2012): my report on the weekend workshop is featured in today's post on the on the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company blog. Thanks!

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

un weekend di formaggio

or launch the un weekend di formaggio audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

Shelburne Falls, travel, cheese

formaggio fresco di kefir fatto in casa

homemade fresh kefir cheese

kefir cheese with dukkah and cacao nibs

As I mentioned in the post on homemade kefir, for my first attempt I used kefir culture. The flavor of the kefir was a bit too acidic for our taste, and at that point, I had not yet learned all the ways in which to use kefir that I know now. I decided to see how the kefir would taste once the whey was removed, so I poured the kefir into a cloth-lined colander, then made a bundle and hung it up to drain for 24 hours (at room temperature).

I then chopped up finely a sample of herbs from my little garden: dill (aneto), mint (menta), chives (erba cipollina), parsley (prezzemolo), added a bit of salt and freshly milled pepper and mixed into the drained kefir, then molded it using my favorite heart-shaped mold.

The mold rests on a small grid for draining

I let the kefir cheese drain in the fridge for 3-4 days, then unmolded and tasted it.

kefir cheese with fresh herbs

The flavor was pleasantly tangy and the herbs gave it a nice nuance. It was particularly nice spread over a slightly sweet bread like my homemade challah.

After this success, I obtained kefir grains (grani di kefir), as recounted in the previous post. I made kefir using them and then made kefir cheese again, but this time instead of herbs, I added dukkah and cacao nibs (granella di fave di cacao). If you don't know what dukkah is, read on.

A few years ago, I attended an evening class on sourdough bread. It was not only the beginning of my sourdough baking adventure, but also of an acquaintance that turned into a friendship with Rhonda, who taught the class. For the bread tasting, Rhonda made some dukkah, something I had never seen before.

my rendition of dukkah

Dukkah (also spelled duqqa or dukka) comes to us from Egypt: it is a mix of toasted and ground spices and nuts.

The word is derived from the Arabic for "to pound" since the mixture of spices and nuts are pounded together after being dry roasted to a texture that is neither powdered nor paste-like. The actual composition of the spice mix can vary from family to family, vendor to vendor though there are common ingredients, such as sesame, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper. [source]

The recipe I use comes from 101 Cookbooks. I halve the quantities, because the full recipe makes quite a bit. And I like it coarsely ground (I use the food processor to do the grinding).

fresh kefir cheese (drained kefir)

Back to the kefir, this time I drained it using a double layer of cheese netting instead of cloth. As I was about to gather some herbs to repeat the process followed before, my eyes encountered the jar where my freshly made dukkah was stored and I interpreted that as a sign. Next to it, there was the container where I keep cacao nibs (which I get from Dick Taylor Chocolate). Having successfully used cacao nibs with hard cheese, it was not difficult to decide to add those as well (after all, they are also toasted and ground, like the spices and nuts in dukkah).

I added a teaspoon each of dukkah and cacao nibs, relying on my sense of balance to make an educated guess. I wanted the flavor to be detectable, but not overpowering, a balance I had previously achieved with the herb mix. I also added a bit more of salt, mixed lightly and then filled the heart-shaped mold. Once again, I let the cheese sit in the fridge and drain further for 3-4 days and then tasted it: I was very happy with the result.

For my second batch of kefir cheese, I increased the amount of both dukkah and cacao nibs to 1 and 1/2 teaspoon each and let the cheese rest in the fridge 5 days. If you try, I recommend you start with the lower quantity and see how you like it. (I suspect that the combination would also work with labneh, but have not tried it.)

Ingredients:

• 10 oz drained kefir (see Note below)
  
• a generous pinch of sea salt
• 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon dukkah (see text above)
• 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon cacao nibs (see text above)

Note: How much kefir? I use kefir made with non-fat milk and drain about 7 cups (1.65 l). I don't make that much kefir all at the same time. I usually make a pint (2 cups, 475 ml) or a quart (4 cups, 950 ml), depending on what my plans for using it are. (According to this site, it is actually better to let kefir ripen for a day or two before using it.) Pour kefir into a cloth-lined colander (I use a cotton napkin with a tight weave or a double layer of cheese netting). Gather the corners and make a bundle. Hang it over a bowl and let drain for 24 hours. (I don't have a photo of my set up, but this is quite similar: note the colander placed over the pot: if for whatever reason the bundle falls, it doesn't splash into the whey.) Reserve the whey and use it.

Sanitize a 4 1/4-inch heart-shaped mold (or other mold of choice) in boiling water. Sprinkle salt, dukkah and cacao nibs on the drained kefir and mix in. Place into mold and pack lightly.

Place a small grid at the bottom of a container and put the mold on it. Cover the container and refrigerate. Every day, discard the whey that collects at the bottom of the container.

After 3-5 days, unmold the cheese ahead of time and serve at room temperature. If the cheese is still very wet, put the leftover back into the mold and the draining container. If the cheese is not too wet, store it in cheese paper. Either way, put the cheese in the fridge. Ideally, you should bring to room temperature only the amount of cheese you will consume, so the rest can remain at constant temperature.

curry pumpkin and ginger scones

My favorite combination is kefir cheese spread over curry and pumpkin scones made with kefir instead of buttermilk and brown butter (details in an upcoming post).

Exciting update (May 26, 2012): my kefir cheese story is featured in today's post on the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company blog.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

formaggio fresco di kefir fatto in casa

or launch the formaggio fesco di kefir fatto in casa audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

kefir, cheese, dukkah, cacao nibs

kefir fatto in casa

homemade kefir

mango lassi made with kefir

A couple of months ago, I made kefir using this culture. The process was straightforward and in about 24 hours, we could taste it. I ended up making fresh cheese with it: I will described that in an upcoming this post.

While my first adventure with kefir was unfolding, Jeri, who writes the blog of the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company, published a three-part summary of information received by readers of their newsletter: 1. ordering kefir grains; 2. growing kefir grains; 3. using kefir grains.

In the first post, I learned more about kefir grains (grani di kefir) and the difference between them and the culture I had used. The cultures have probiotics in them, but "nowhere near as many as in the living grains." Probiotics are defined as living organisms, which upon ingestion in certain numbers, exert health benefits beyond inherent basic nutrition.

Kefir is a unique cultured dairy product due to combined lactic acid and alcoholic fermentation of lactose in milk. Kefir is produced by microbial activity of “kefir grains” which have a relatively stable and specific balance of lactic acid bacteria and yeast. [source]

I decided I needed to get some first-hand experience of the interesting-looking kefir grains. At the same time (and I guess this was all part of a grand scheme), Claudia of Honey from Rock wrote about her adventures with kefir. Shortly afterwards, I spent a few days on the Big Island and visited Claudia

Among the many goodies that Claudia gave us (I already mentioned one in this post), there was a small bag with some kefir grains in a milk bath. They did fine on the trip back and as soon as I got back home, I started my first batch of kefir.

Basically, it does not get easier than this. You still need to be careful about sanitizing the tools you are using, but really, making kefir at home is a breeze: you only need a glass jar, a strainer and a spoon or something similar to move the kefir grains. I sterilize the glass jar in the oven and the lid with boiling water. When the jar has cooled, I strain the kefir grains (from the previous batch of kefir or from the milk in which they were resting in the fridge).

The photo above is from a while ago. Most recently, instead of straining the kefir grains, I spoon them out, taking advantage of the fact that they tend to be at the surface of the jar of ready kefir. I then strain the content of the jar to separate small grains left behind. I have not read this anywhere: I feel like this way I stress the grains less. In any case, when straining kefir grains, be gentle.

Add milk of choice to the jar (I use pasteurized organic milk straight from the bottle) and then the strained kefir grains, cover the jar (leaving the lid just a bit loose to allow the CO₂ produced to escape), then set it aside in a warm, dark place (or wrap it in a kitchen towel). The kefir grains will take it from there and deliver kefir within a certain number of hours. It takes me 24 hours to get kefir, sometimes a bit longer, depending on the temperature. Once strained, I store kefir in the fridge and let it ripen for a day or two before using it.

Rather than go into the details of the set up, which is described in details in a number of places on the web — like this page and also this page, the one most people reference — I have summarized in a diagram the ways in which I have used kefir in its natural or drained state (arrows pointing down from "kefir"). The arrow pointing up from kefir grains means that I reculture milk with the grains strained out of the previous barch. I don't make kefir continuously. When I don't need more kefir than I have, I place the grains in a jar, cover them with milk and put them in the fridge for a few days. Since the grains grow while also making kefir, you may want to find a friend who wants to try and give her/him the extra grains that you get.

I have already shown one of the ways in which I use kefir in this post, where it substitutes sour cream topping for soup. The mango lassi in the top photo was made with

• chopped ripe mango
  
• kefir
  
• a bit of agave nectar as sweetener (the quantity depending on the sweetness of the mango and your personal preference).
  

And the beautiful scones below were made using kefir instead of buttermilk (latticello).

curry pumpkin and ginger scones

If you go to Honey from Rock and enter "kefir" in the Search field, you get the list of posts where Claudia talks about her adventures. The idea is that once you have kefir, you come up with various ways to use it. That is, at least, what happened to me.

Due to the claimed health benefits of kefir which include reduction of lactose intolerance symptoms, stimulation of the immune system, lowering cholesterol, and antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic properties, kefir has become an important functional dairy food and consequently, research on kefir has increased in the past decade. [source]

There are indeed a number of scientific papers describing research that looked more closely at the composition of kefir grains and at various effects of kefir administration to mice and rats. There are studies on specific health effects of kefir consumption in humans. For example, in this one on people with lactose maldigestion, kefir improved lactose digestion and tolerance. In other areas, results have been mixed (as this article summarizes): I hope larger studies will be conducted. In the meantime, I will continue enjoying making and using kefir at home.

Exciting update (May 26, 2012): my kefir story is featured in today's post on the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company blog.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

kefir fatto in casa

or launch the kefir fatto in casa audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

kefir

un anno di formaggio fatto in casa

a year of homemade cheese

A summary of the year that just ended through the lens of some of my cheese adventures.

(French) Neufchâtel for Novel Food #12

"If you can see the magic in cheese, you can see the magic in everything."

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homemade English-style Coulommiers (a.k.a. English farmhouse cheese)

"It is very versatile: try a slice with a muffin for breakfast, or drizzle with olive oil
and sprinkle with herbs and a few capers for an easy gourmet appetizer."

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robiola

A nice cheese that can be eaten fresh or aged a few weeks (I used some of it in this dish)

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Bel Paese with cacao nibs

Adding a personal touch to an Italian classic cheese

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I have featured images of my cheese in several editions of the popular event Black and White Wednesday - A Culinary Photography Event, created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook

making cheese (black and white)

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homemade French Neufchâtel

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fresh homemade ricotta

with which I often make gnocchi di ricotta

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I ♥ making cheese

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making cheese requires patience

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In May, I attended a weekend workshop with Jim Wallace on making three French cheeses

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Wishing all of you the very best for the New Year

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Exciting update (January 22, 2012): my year of homemade cheese is featured in today's post on the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company blog. Thank you! And Jim Wallace has just announced two workshops he will teach this spring.

granella di fave di cacao

cacao nibs

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

In the beginning there is the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, “a spindly understory tree” which, with very few exceptions, “refuses to bear fruit outside a band of 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the Equator.” (Sophie and Michael Coe, The True History of Chocolate)

The fruit of the cacao tree is called a cacao pod (cabosse): It contains almond-shaped seeds, called beans (fave di cacao), surrounded by a juicy pulp. The Coes explain that once the pods are opened, and the beans and their surrounding pulp extracted, there are four principal steps which must be taken to produce the cacao “nibs” (kernels) that are to be ground into chocolate: (1) fermentation, (2) drying, (3) roasting (or toasting) and (4) winnowing. No matter what the level of technology, this sequence has been in force for at least three millennia and still is followed in the modern world.

Soon after the cacao pods are harvested, seeds and pulp are extracted and piled up. Fermentation ensues and lasts several days. “Cacao fermentation is a fermentation of the pulp, not the beans, but it transforms the beans as well… Right out of the pod, the bean is astringent, bitter, and essentially aroma-less… Properly conducted fermentation converts the astringent but bland beans into vessels laden with desirable flavors and flavor precursors.” (Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking).

Once the fermentation is complete, the seeds are dried in the sun, cleaned, bagged, then transported to locations where they will be processed. There, they start their journey to become chocolate by being roasted (to develop their flavor and aroma). Temperature and duration of roasting are the first of the chocolate maker’s secrets and vary based on the bean variety and provenance. The roasted cacao beans are cracked into pieces and then winnowed. The result of the winnowing process is a separation of the cacao nibs from the chaff. The cacao bean husks can be composted, while the nibs proceed to the next step.

The preceding paragraphs are excepted from an article I wrote earlier this year, which goes on to talk about the processing of cacao nibs into chocolate (on this page, you can see a photo I took of "the next step"). In this post, I'll stop here because the protagonists are the cacao nibs themselves.

I remember well the first time I saw a package of cacao nibs by Scharffen Berger on the shelf of a store in Berkeley, some years ago. I wondered what they tasted like and how to use them. Our local grocery store carried cacao nibs in the bulk section, a sign that they have become an item consumed by enough people. I made my most recent purchase of cacao nibs during a visit to the chocolate makers mentioned in the article: Dick Taylor Chocolate.

I no longer wonder how to use them, but maybe you do, so here are some ideas.

Cacao Nibs... are the essence of chocolate (cioccolato). Nibs add crunchiness and subtle chocolate flavor to baked goods and savory dishes. They make a great substitute for roasted nuts or chocolate chips, without added sweetness. [source]

I have added my cacao nibs from my most recent purchase to my homemade yogurt (more on this in a future post) and also to my pasta frolla to make special frollini (cookies). Add some cacao nibs to the dough after the egg and the vanilla extract by distributing them on the surface of the dough-in-progress. You may start by adding 2 tablespoons; then, if you enjoy the result, try increasing to 3 (which is the amount I use).

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for frollini (with and without cacao nibs)

My next suggestion is homemade Bel Paese cheese with cacao nibs. Bel Paese (literally, beautiful country) cheese was created in 1906 by Egidio Galbani and is produced by Galbani, the company he founded. The name came from the title of the 1876 book by Antonio Stoppani dedicated to the geophysical beauties of Italy. Dante and Petrarch had used the expression to refer to Italy. Bel Paese is a semi-soft cow cheese with a mild, sweet, milky flavor. [As an aside, the modern label on the cheese is different from the one it had when I was a child, shown on the right.]

When I made the cheese, following the recipe in Debra Amrein-Boyes' 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes¹, I hit a bump on the road: kind of a long story, which in the end did not impact the ripening of the cheese in the way I feared. The big unknown was how would the cacao nibs interact with the ripening cheese. After six weeks of aging, I cut it and we tasted it: I am pleased by the result. The cacao nibs softened and donated some of their nuttiness to the cheese, while still creating a contrast in texture and flavor.

The big question is: will I be able to reproduce it? Ask me again in a few months. For now, I am enjoying my creation, shown in this photo in the company of a couple of Lavash crackers (a favorite baked good with my husband). I had some for dinner with slices of my pane alla zucca (pumpkin bread).

This is my contribution to edition #314 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and hosted this week (the last one of the year) by Haalo herself.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

¹ I refer you to the book for the recipe details (some apply to cheese making in general, some to the specific cheese).

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

granella di fave di cacao

or launch the granella di fave di cacao audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

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cacao, cookies, cheese

granella di fave di cacao

Il frutto dell'albero del cacao si chiama cabosse e contiene semi a forma di mandorla, chiamati fave di cacao, circondati da una succosa polpa biancastra. Sophie and Michael Coe nel loro The True History of Chocolate, spiegano che una volta che le cabosse sono aperte e fave e polpa estratti, la produzione di granella di fave di cacao (che viene poi macinata per fare il cioccolato) avviene attraverso quattro passaggi: (1) fermentazione, (2) essiccatura, (3) torrefazione e (4) vagliatura. Questo processo viene seguito da almeno tremila anni (certo, con mezzi che sono cambiati nel tempo!).

Dopo il raccolto delle cabosse, polpa e fave vengono estratti e ammucchiati. La fermentatione che segue dura diversi giorni. A fermentare è la polpa, non le fave, ma il processo influenza anche i semi. Appena uscite dalla cabosse, le fave hanno un sapore amaro, astringente e praticamente nessun aroma. La fermentazione converte le fave in contenitori di sapori e precursori di sostanze aromatiche (libera traduzione da Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking).

Al termine della fermentazione, le fave vengono essiccate al sole, pulite, messe in sacchi e trasportate nei luoghi di utilizzo, dove cominciano il viaggio per diventare cioccolato con la tostatura, processo che sviluppa sapore e aroma. Temperatura e durata della tostatura sono il primo dei segreti del cioccolatiere e variano in base alla varietà di cacao e alla sua origine. Dopo la tostatura, le fave vengono frantumate e vagliate per rimuovere il tegumento che le riveste.

I paragrafi prcedenti sono tratti da un articolo che ho scritto qualche mese fa, nel quale poi parlo del processo che trasforma la granella di fave di cacao tostate in cioccolato (su questa pagina, potete vedere una foto dell'inizio di tale processo). In questo post, mi fermo qui, dal momento che la protagonista è la granella.

Mi ricordo bene la prima volta che vidi, alcuni anni fa, una confezione di granella di fave di cacao (prodotta da Scharffen Berger) in un negozio di Berkeley. Mi domandai che sapore avesse e come usarla. Nel negozio dove faccio la spesa più spesso, la granella si trova sfusa, da acquistare a peso, segno che è richiesta da abbastanza persone. Il mio acquisto più recente di granella l'ho fatto presso la fabbrica artigianale di cioccolato descritta nell'articolo di cui sopra: Dick Taylor Chocolate.

A questo punto so come utilizzare la granella di fave di cacao, ma se voi non siete sicuri, eccovi alcune idee.

La granella di fave di cacao... è l'essenza del cioccolato. La granella contribuisce un elemento croccante e dà un sottile sapore di cioccolato a prodotti da forno e piatti salati. È un ottimo sostituto di frutta secca tostata e gocce di cioccolato e non contribuisce zucchero. [origine della citazione]

Ho aggiunto granella di fave di cacao al mio yogurt fatto in casa (maggiori dettagli in proposito in un post futuro) e anche alla mia pasta frolla che uso per fare i frollini. Qui di seguito riporto la ricetta della pasta frolla con l'aggiunta della variante con granella di fave di cacao.

Preparare la pasta frolla con i seguenti ingredienti:

• 85 g burro freddo tagliato a pezzetti
  
• 65-70 g zucchero
  
• 65 g farina integrale per torte
• 70 g farina bianca
• 30 g farina d'orzo integrale (o la stessa quantità di farina di frumento)
• 25 g farina di mandorle
  
• un uovo
• 1/4 cucchiaino di estratto di vaniglia
• 2 o 3 cucchiai (30-45 ml) di granella di fave di cacao

Distribuire la granella sulla superficie della pasta frolla "in progress" dopo aver incorporato l'uovo e l'estratto di vaniglia, prima dell'azione di impasto finale. La quantità dipende dal vostro gusto. La prima volta consiglio di aggiungere due cucchiai, poi magari aumentare a tre (che è la quantita che uso io).

Far riposare la pasta frolla in frigorifero per almeno due ore (io di solito la preparo di sera e poi cuocio i biscotti la mattina dopo. Stendere la pasta frolla fino ad uno spessore di 4-5 mm e ricavare i biscotti. Disporli su una lastra da forno foderata con tappetino di silicone o carta da forno in modo che ci siano diversi centimetri di spazio tra un frollino e l'altro. Mettere in frigorifero mentre si scalda il forno a 175-180 C. Cuocere in forno controllando di frequente che i frollini non diventino scuri. Io metto il timer a 15 minuti e poi seguo da vicino il resto della cottura. Togliere dal forno, trasferire i frollini su una griglia e farli riposare prima di assaggiarli. La ricetta produce abbastanza frollini da fare due infornate.

Il mio secondo suggerimento è formaggio Bel Paese fatto in casa con granella di fave di cacao. Il Bel Paese fu creato nel 1906 da Egidio Galbani fondatore dell'azienda omonima. Il nome deriva dal titolo di un libro del 1876 dedicato alle bellezze geofisiche dell'Italia scritto dall'abate Antonio Stoppani. (Dante e Petrarca avevano usato l'espressione in riferimento al paese.) Presumo che tutti abbiate assaggiato il Bel Paese. Però forse non tutti sapete che l'effigie sull'etichetta di una volta è quella di Antonio Stoppani. (Confesso che nemmeno io lo sapevo prima di averlo letto sul sito della Galbani.)

Quando ho fatto il formaggio, seguendo la ricetta nel libro di Debra Amrein-Boyes 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes, ho avuto un problema tecnico: storia lunga da spiegare ma che alla fine non ha avuto un impatto negativo nel processo di maturazione del formaggio. avrebbero interagito la granella di fave di cacao e il formaggio. Dopo sei settimane di maturazione, ho tagliato la forma e l'abbiamo assaggiato: sono soddisfatta del risultato. La granella si è ammorbidita e ha trasferito parte del suo sapore "noccioloso" al formaggio, nello stesso tempo creando un contrasto di consistenza e sapore.

Sarò in grado di riprodurre quello che ho fatto? Potrò rispondere tra qualche mese. Per ora, mi gusto la mia creazione, che nella foto posa con dei cracker Lavash (che piacciono molto a mio marito). Io ho mangiato la mia porzione con un paio di fettine del mio pane alla zucca.

Questo post è il mio contributo all'edizione numero 314 di Weekend Herb Blogging, un evento creato da Kalyn di Kalyn's Kitchen, organizzato ora da Haalo di Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once, la cui versione italiana è organizzata da Brii di briggishome, e ospitata questa settimana da Brii stessa.

Questo post contiene il raccolto dell'evento.