briciole

sourdough whole-wheat cheese crackers / cracker integrali al formaggio

one by one, they will soon be all gone (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) The August-September selection of the Cook the Books club is the novel Sourdough by Robin Sloan1. Intriguing title, I thought immediately, but did not know what to expect: I rarely read reviews before I read a book (sometimes do so after turning over the last page2). Being familiar with the San Francisco Bay Area contributed to the story's appeal, but even if you don't know the island of Alameda or the San Francisco Ferry Building, you will enjoy the twists and turns of Lois Clary's adventures... Read more →

chocolate and walnut whole-wheat dinner rolls / panini integrali al cioccolato e noci

everything is better with chocolate, including bread (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) On a recent visit to a local bookstore, I purchased Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout1. A friend had told me the movie was really good, but I rarely watch TV, so the recommendation made me buy the book. I loved every page of it. The writing is superb and the characters of the stories are drawn with delicacy, precision and empathy. I also like the author's choice in writing a collection of short stories, rather than a novel. In some of them Olive is the protagonist, in others... Read more →

seeded whole-wheat dinner rolls / panini integrali ai semi

what happens when you drop a poppy seedpod (on La FABBRICA del LINO placemat) In the many years I have been hosting Novel Food I have contributed and received contributions inspired by a wide range of literature, from thick novels to flash nonfiction, from intense memoir to moving poems. One category of books notably absent from the Novel Food library is so-called self-improvement books, which examine a life's problem and offer advice on a way forward (I prefer to avoid the word "solution" which is better applied to math problems). The Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove at Home and... Read more →

pear sourdough bread / pane al lievito naturale con le pere

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] homemade bread and cheese: a favorite couple (Italian linen from La FABBRICA del LINO) Point Reyes Sheriff's Calls by Susanna Solomon1 is a collection of short stories set in West Marin, one of the most beautiful areas of California. The title of the book comes from the Sheriff's Calls section of the local newspaper, the Point Reyes Light2. Each story starts with an entry from that section. For example, the story that inspired me, "Dressed Only in Jeans," starts with this: From the Sheriff's Calls Section in The Point Reyes Light, November... Read more →

carrot sourdough bread / pane al lievito naturale con le carote

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] homemade bread with homemade cheese: a winning combination Eilish Eam, an Irish child alone in the world, survives in London by playing a glass harmonica1 on the street. Erin Rushton, an American young woman plays the same instrument in concert halls. They are the protagonists of the novel The Glass Harmonica by Louise Marley.2 In 1761, the path of Eilish's life changes dramatically following her meeting with Benjamin Franklin, who lived in London for 16 years between 1757 and 1775. Erin's story is set in 2018. Eilish is deeply attached to a... Read more →

cuchaule: Swiss saffron bread / pane svizzero allo zafferano

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] golden bread in the golden hour The twelfth stop of our World Culinary ABC1 is Switzerland (Svizzera), a country I have visited a number of times. An area we particularly like is Engadin (Engadina). The photo below shows an example of the traditional decorations that grace the façades of buildings in the valley, called sgraffiti, from the Italian graffiare (to scratch)2. traditional decoration called sgraffiti To celebrate this stop, I made my version of cuchaule, a traditional bread from Canton Fribourg that includes saffron among the ingredients. As usual, I took the... Read more →

skorpor: crostini svedesi / Swedish rusks

crisp skorpor up for grabs on Double Creek Pottery plate on La FABBRICA del LINO placemat In the kitchen of the house in upstate New York where I spent a few days at a retreat last September, there was a bookshelf of cookbooks. My right hand pulled out Favorite Swedish Recipes by Emmie Berg and while I paged through it, the recipe for Round Rusks (Brutna skorpor) locked my attention. Skorpor are popular Swedish rusks and a rusk is a light, dry biscuit or a piece of twice-baked bread. There is a version of rusk in many other traditions: for example,... Read more →

damper: pane australiano / damper: Australian bread

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] a taste of Australia on Italian linen (from la FABBRICA del LINO) The third stop of our World Culinary ABC is Australia, a country I visited a number of years ago. Highlights of that trip were: the visit to Sydney and its iconic Opera House, snorkeling around Lizard Island, on the Great Barrier Reef (Grande Barriera Corallina) a week touring Tasmania, where I found myself in a rainforest (foresta pluviale) for the first time in my life (and the seaplane flight into it was also memorable), close encounters with adorable animals like... Read more →

pane al lievito naturale con chicchi di mais arrosto / roasted corn sourdough bread

simple, flavorful fare If you drive by a farm stand called The Corn Crib, you must stop and buy four ears of freshly harvested corn, right? And if a couple of hours later you open your CSA box and find another four ears of freshly harvested corn nestled between heirloom tomatoes and peaches, you grin at the unexpected surprise, right? What would you do with the bounty that magically materialized in your hands? I cannot answer for you, but as soon as I got home, I turned on the oven and roasted the corn in two batches. I made Corn salad... Read more →

pane al lievito naturale con uvetta e noci / walnut raisin sourdough bread

a feast for the senses The seeds sprouting tomorrow are sown today. This is true for the bread baker as well, when the bread planned includes a preferment, like sourdough starter (lievito naturale or pasta madre), for which a bit of advanced planning is needed. I enjoy baking a variety of breads, yet if I were to choose one bread to carry with me on a deserted island, this walnut raisin sourdough boule would be the one: it has a crisp crust and soft crumb (crosta croccante e mollica soffice), a nuanced sour note, a sweet note thanks to raisins and... Read more →