briciole

artichoke spread / paté di carciofi

creamy distillation of artichokes A recent visit to the local bookstore resulted in the purchase of the novel The Goldfinch by the American author Donna Tartt.1 Published in 2013, The Goldfinch won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, among other honors. Distinctly Dickensian in breadth, The Goldfinch grabbed my attention from the mysterious opening pages, and soon I found myself deeply interested in the adventures of the protagonist, Theo Decker, who reminded me a lot of Pip, the protagonist of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. The first person point of view works well in the story. The title refers to a... Read more →

pecan parcels (apricots stuffed with pecans and pancetta) / albicocche ripiene con noci pecan e pancetta

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] sweet, salty, soft, crunchy: the best of all worlds It is stone fruit season! There are plums (prugne) and apricots (albicocche) and then plumcots, pluots and apriums. More than a century ago, horticulturalist Luther Burbank bred the plumcot with a 50-50 plum and apricot split. However, it was Floyd Zaiger who revolutionized the fruit and made it widely available. Zaiger bred the plumcot with a plum to create the pluot — three-fifths plum and two-fifths apricot — and coined the trademarked moniker. While the plumcot is a simple plum and apricot cross,... Read more →

mushroom and egg salad / insalata di funghi e uova

a pretty bowl of mushroom and egg salad I simply loved Anya von Bremzen's Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food & Longing1, the current selection of our Cook the Books Club. The story is interesting: von Bremzen describes her and her family's life in the context of the political changes in Russia, the Soviet Union, then Russia again. Her style of writing is engaging — with the right balance of humor and seriousness. The food she describes is intriguing: even when we don't feel like we want to taste it, the emotional context comes alive in her... Read more →

slow-roasted heirloom tomato gazpacho / gazpacho di pomodori semisecchi al forno

bright colors and flavors (napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO) A soup lover like me1 was excited to get a copy of Soup Swap: Comforting Recipes to Make and Share2 the new cookbook by Kathy Gunst3, Resident Chef for NPR's "Here and Now." If the idea of hosting or attending a Soup Swap Party sounds appealing is because it is: the book provides suggestions and tips for a successful event. Rest assured, though: you don't need to be planning a party to enjoy the book. Its recipes are dedicated to soup lovers of all sizes and flavors: they include vegetarian, vegan,... Read more →

onion and ricotta tart / torta salata con cipolle e ricotta

onion and ricotta tart in good company (tablecloth by La FABBRICA del LINO) In her memoir Unearthed: Love, Acceptance, and Other Lessons from an Abandoned Garden1 author Alexandra Risen2 tells two stories of discovery: one pertains the garden around the house into which she moves with her husband and young son and the other pertains her Ukrainian-born parents, who were displaced by WWII and finally migrated to Edmonton, Canada, in 1953. The book is a pleasure to read. Each chapter moves forward both the story of the garden's restoration / development and Risen's personal journey through her earlier life and her... Read more →

gluten-free seed crackers / cracker di semi (senza glutine)

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] cheese, seed crackers and red walnuts1 (table runner by La FABBRICA del LINO) Please, have your cake or pie and eat my portion too. I am happy with the small plate in the photo. The cheeses are (from the left): Garroxta (goat milk, Catalonia), my homemade Gouda with pecans, Blu di Caravaggio (buffalo milk, Italy; my favorite blue cheese). And the crackers are a perfect accompaniment for all of them. sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, chia and hemp seeds (semi di sesamo, di zucca, di girasole, di chia e di canapa) The current selection... Read more →

eggplant caviar (ikra) / caviale di melanzane

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] help yourself: it won't last long (tablecloth by La FABBRICA del LINO) The 22nd country of our World Culinary ABC1 is Russia (Russia). In researching dishes from that country I happened upon an interesting cookbook Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook by Anya Von Bremzen, John Welchman2 where I read about Vegetable Caviars: "The Russians adore caviar and they love vegetables. So, voilà! the perfect culinary hybrid. These vegetable caviars have a terrific reputation." I was intrigued by that with eggplant (ikra), of which, I soon discovered, there are countless versions.... Read more →

mote pillo: ecuadorian hominy egg scramble / uova strapazzate con mais gigante

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] mote pillo, version with golden corn (Italian linen from La FABBRICA del LINO) The seventeenth country of our World Culinary ABC1 is Ecuador. To celebrate this stop, I chose to make my version of mote pillo (or motepillo), an egg scramble with cooked corn.2 As explained in this excerpt of the chapter on Ecuador in the book Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia, This is not the sweet corn with which North Americans are familiar but instead choclo, a huge-grained, chewy, and very flavorsome variety that is used extensively in soups and... Read more →

kokoda: marinated raw fish salad / kokoda: insalata di pesce crudo marinato

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] making kokoda fish The sixteenth country of our World Culinary ABC1 is Papua New Guinea (Papua Nuova Guinea). To celebrate this stop, I chose to make my version of kokoda, a marinated raw fish salad—the Pacific Islands' version of ceviche.2 Apart for lemon, lime and coconut milk, the ingredients I chose are local. This was the first I worked on a recipe using raw fish. The idea to look for a fish recipe came from the current selection of our Cook the Books Club, Yes, Chef, the autobiography of Chef Marcus Samuelsson.... Read more →

panzanella (bread and tomato)

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] a bright plate Panzanella is a way of dressing up bread that is no longer fresh (pane raffermo). There are many variations of this traditional dish, which you can find (and eat) throughout central Italy, but I like my father's recipe the best. During my childhood, every August my family would spend three weeks in Poggio Catino, my father's native village, located in the historic region of Sabina, north of Rome1. In the morning, my father and I would often go for a walk in the woods of the Monti Sabini above... Read more →