briciole

roveja

(Pisum arvense) — About a year and a half ago, I received an email from a reader asking me about roveglia. It's a bit embarrassing when I have to admit that I don't know an Italian food that is mentioned to me. It is even more embarrassing when, as in this case, a brief research online uncovers the fact that the product in question is typical of an area of my home region, Umbria, and of bordering Marche. My excuse is that my parents come from a different area (northern Lazio), that I never cooked when I was growing up, etc.... Read more →

Stollen di Natale (dolce tedesco) / Christmas Stollen

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book... and Martha Stewart’s demonstration. The recipe Penny provided for the challenge can be found on this page. The second week of December, we visited my father-in-law and his wife in Atlanta. My father-in-law loves challah, so I made a five-braid one the day before we left and brought it with us (the recipe I use is in Peter Reinhart's Artisan... Read more →

il parco nazionale del Grand Teton / Grand Teton National Park

My adoptive country has many stunningly beautiful parks. Here, I will share some photos I took in September (right after Labor Day) during a short vacation (vacanza) in Grand Teton National Park. (There will be no food in this post.) Per i lettori italiani: potete leggere informazioni sul parco su questa pagina. The first day of our stay, the weather was perfect and we spent several hours kayaking on String Lake and Leigh Lake. The following day, however, a front (perturbazione) arrived. The front signaled the change of the season. It brought snow (neve) on the mountains (montagne). This forced us... Read more →

un weekend di pane / a weekend of bread

A few months ago, I wrote a post about arte bianca, i.e., the art of making bread (literally, white art). I am passionate about making bread (fare il pane), just as I am passionate about making cheese (fare il formaggio). This past weekend, I attended a workshop at the San Francisco Baking Institute, a wonderland (paese delle meraviglie) for bread and pastry makers. It was a birthday gift that I gave to myself. The Institute holds professional courses in bread and pastry making. This year, they have offered weekend-long classes that are perfect for baking enthusiasts for whom a week-long commitment... Read more →

gnocchi di patate viola / purple potato gnocchi

For the current edition of Cook the Books, we are reading Heat by Bill Buford. The book's subtitle, An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, aptly describes what the book is about. Before reading Heat, I knew Bill Buford as the editor of Granta (which he relaunched in 1979), a position he held until 1995, and as fiction editor of The New Yorker. I knew that I liked Buford's writing style. My favorite parts of the book are those where he describes himself dealing with the tasks he is given, like... Read more →

un libro di ricette per lui (e un premio) / a cookbook for him (and a giveaway)

As a long time reader of Food Blogga, I am familiar with Susan's style: her posts include always interesting recipes, they are infused with her sense of humor, and are peppered with bits of family life. The sense of humor that I relish on her blog, infuses also the book Recipes Every Man Should Know, which Susan co-authored with Brett Cohen, and which was recently published by Quirk Books (on the web at Irreference.com). The title of the book clearly defines its intended audience. From the Introduction: So, why should men cook? [...] 2. It involves fire, sharp instruments, and meat.... Read more →