briciole

strascinati rigati (pasta fatta a mano) / ridged strascinati (handmade pasta)

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] variation on a theme of ridges I am not yet done playing with my bamboo sushi rolling mat and pasta dough. Here's my latest creation: a traditional shape (strascinati, which I have already presented in personal variations made with toasted semolina flour or chestnut flour) executed on the sushi rolling mat (stuoino di bambù per sushi), so that it acquires ridges across its surface. In this short video, you can see my hands at work: Note on the tool: There are various types of bamboo sushi rolling mats and not all of... Read more →

fare la spesa a Venezia / grocery shopping in Venice

La Barca Three years after my first visit, I went back to La Barca. This time I bought some fruit. The boat is moored next to the Ponte dei pugni (Dorsoduro) The photo is my contribution to edition #148 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 Cinzia herself. The photo was shot in color with my iPhone and then converted to black and white (Lightroom preset B&W Look 1). The gallery of images contributed to the event. Read more →

scone pera e cocco / pear and coconut scones

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] freshly baked and ready to be eaten The World Culinary ABC has started with a lovely sojourn in Samoa (South Pacific). In researching the culinary traditions of the country, one thing became immediately clear: they use a lot of coconut (noce di cocco). I had unsweetened shredded coconut in my pantry and a jar of organic coconut oil (olio di cocco) still sealed — ready for a chance to prove itself in a baking good. I found references to skogi, Samoan scones, but could not find a recipe. As I was already... Read more →

Novel Food #22: the finale

Welcome to the roundup of the 22nd edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I created in 2007 and that I continue to host with great pleasure, as it brings together two of my passions: literature and food. Novel Food is about literary works (prose or poetry) that inspire the preparation of dishes. Like all its predecessors, the current edition includes a lovely set of posts, each describing a literary work that the blogger read and the dish that the reading inspired. Please, follow me on a short literary/culinary tour. For each contribution, I will... Read more →

zucchetta al pomodoro / tromboncino squash with tomatoes

Nature's simple beauty Tromboncino squash cannot be missed when displayed on a table at the farmers' market. When I spotted it, I squealed with joy, because it is a rather rare find. I must thank The Corn Crib for growing this beauty. Besides being eye-catching with its long, curvy shape, it has a dense flesh and a delicate, pleasant flavor. Although it is harvested early and consumed as a summer squash, it does not belong to the Cucurbita pepo species like zucchini and other summer squashes, but rather to Cucurbita moschata, like butternut squash. Like its more famous relative, zucchetta has... Read more →

diamo il via all'Abbecedario culinario mondiale / the World Culinary ABC is on the way

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] "Viral" is a fashionable word these days. Something goes "viral" because everybody knows it, talks about it, wants it. Well, the European Community ABC didn't go viral, but in reading again its announcement post from December 2012, I see that it talked about 16 blogs that were announcing together a virtual culinary tour of the European Community countries. This year, however, we are ready to go: the calendar has been finalized and 29 bloggers (some of them ambassadors for a country, others travelers) plus the one and only Aiuolik make up a... Read more →