briciole

fagiolina del Lago Trasimeno / cowpea of Lake Trasimeno

It is a bit strange to visit the city where one grew up and find some food never tasted before, but this is exactly what happened to me during my recent visit to Perugia. I entered a store to buy some lenticchie di Castelluccio (lentils of Castelluccio) and came out with some fagiolina del Trasimeno, a legume until then unknown to me. Both Lago Trasimeno and Castelluccio are located in my home region, Umbria. According to this page, fagiolina has been grown around Lake Trasimeno since ancient times. However, starting in the 1960's, cultivation started to decline until, in the 90's,... Read more →

Edizione speciale: Novel Food #6 / Announcing Novel Food #6

The approaching change of the season (and pretty soon, of the year) is marked not only by the solstice, but also by the announcement of a new edition of Novel Food, the culinary/literary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I co-launched a few seasons ago. As in the previous editions, we are looking at published literary works to find culinary inspiration. If you are new to the event, and you are wondering what it is about, here are links to my portion of the roundup of all the previous editions. In each post you will find a link to Lisa's... Read more →

formaggio fatto in casa / homemade cheese

In a recent post, I described how I got interested in making cheese at home. Here, I will show a few photos of my most recent effort. But first an Italian word: caseificio (dairy). Remember that the Latin word for cheese was caseus: caseificio indicates where cheese is made. At regular intervals now, my kitchen becomes a miniature caseificio. After we finished eating the cheese shown in the photo above, I made another one, using again the instructions for Farmhouse Cheddar from "Home Cheese Making" by Ricki Carroll. Again I halved the quantities and used a quart of fresh goat milk... Read more →

rocciata

A thin layer of dough envelopes pieces of apple (mela), nuts and raisins. It looks like a strudel, but it isn't: It's my rendition of rocciata, a dessert that I used to eat at the house of family friends in Foligno (Umbria). To create my own version of rocciata, I started with the recipe on the Accademia Italiana della Cucina site, then did some experiments, based on my personal taste. I had my mother confirm with our friend that she uses an egg in the dough. She also adds to it some mistrà, an anise-flavored liqueur. I sprinkle semi di anice... Read more →

Cucina in California

In my first guest column for Francesca’s blog, I talked about farmers’ markets. My third contribution describes three other ways of buying or procuring food with which I have become acquainted in California: Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), community gardens and bulk products. (The English version of the post follows the Italian version on the same page.) Read more →

legumi che passione! / My Legume Love Affair - Fifth Helping

As anticipated in a recent post and as announced by Sra of When My Soup Came Alive in her roundup of the event's fourth edition, I have the honor of being the host for the fifth edition of MLLA, the popular, legume-centered event that is the brainchild of Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook. Participation in the event revolves around a recipe (savory or sweet) that involves one or more legumes. It can be a new post or a newly-posted one from your archive. The post must include a link to this announcement and also to Susan's post. Use of the beautiful logo,... Read more →

risotto integrale al pomodoro e salvia / whole-grain risotto with tomato and sage

whole-grain Carnaroli rice Among the things (not all of them edible) that I brought back from Italy, there is a package of riso Carnaroli integrale (whole-grain Carnaroli rice) purchased at the farmers' market in Milan. The rice is grown in a farm (azienda agricola) not far from the city. The label describes the product as non trattato, which I interpret as meaning that no chemicals were used in growing it. The farm can be visited, and this is something I would like to do the next time I am in the area. pineapple sage In the meantime, I used the riso... Read more →