briciole

žemlovka: budino di pane alle mele / žemlovka: apple bread pudding

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] would you like a slice? Ever since I could read, I have known about Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, because it is one of the twin cities of Perugia, my home town. But I have never been in that part of Europe, so Bratislava is still a name and a dot on the map. Recently, I heard on the radio a report on Košice, the capital of East Slovakia, which is the 2013 European Capital of Culture. Hopefully during the year that city and its cultural heritage will become better known to... Read more →

torta soffice con frutta mista / sponge cake with mixed fruit

raspberries, mango and cherries on a soft cake This delightful page comes from the novel A Mind to Murder by P.D. James (1963), the second of the Adam Dalgliesh novels. In my announcement for the current edition of Novel Food, I mentioned that I was reading it: I read the first one Cover Her Face and liked it a lot, so now I am on to the second one. "In 1962 P.D. James' first novel, Cover Her Face, was published. In that novel she introduced the sensitive, taciturn, and hardworking Inspector Adam Dalgliesh" (source). The murder to which the excerpt refers... Read more →

scone zucca e zenzero con curry / curried pumpkin and ginger scones

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] just baked Biting on one of these scones brings a pleasant surprise (sorpresa). The combination of curry, candied ginger (zenzero candito), browned butter (burro nocciola), and roasted pumpkin in the background, with just enough sweetness to round all the flavors tickles and satisfies. I have lost track of how many times I have baked these scones, but I know that the last time was yesterday morning. If you have the ingredients ready, you can mix them while the oven heats up and then you are only 15 minutes away from a satisfactory... Read more →

Novel Food #15: tortine al cocco e mango / coconut and mango friands

"Oh, mamma, that shows you never saw Mr. Thornton. He looks like a person who would enjoy battling with every adverse thing he could meet with — enemies, winds, or circumstances. The more it rains and blows, the more certain we are to have him. But I'll go and help Dixon. I'm getting to be a famous clear-starcher. And he won't want any amusement beyond talking to papa. [...] You know I never saw him but once, and then we were so puzzled to know what to say to each other that we did not get on particularly well." "I don't... Read more →

regalo di Natale e crostata delle Feste / Christmas gift and a Holiday tart

Che cosa ti ha portato Babbo Natale? (what did Santa bring you?) is the question often asked this time of the year. In the past, I had expressed the wish to have a magic wand. This year, Santa brought me one: Babbo Natale mi ha portato una bacchetta magica. Here it is, resting next to some of the cards (biglietti) I received as part of the North Redwoods Book Arts Guild Holiday card exchange (this photo album shows them all). They are all beautiful and they make up this year Holiday decor at our house. On Christmas Eve (vigilia di Natale)... Read more →

pistacchi ricoperti di cioccolato / chocolate-covered pistachios

I cannot honestly say that the package arrived unexpectedly, but its content was unknown until I opened the box and removed the packing material to reveal a beautiful long bar of chocolate 64% cacao content, made by SOMA using cacao beans from Peru (as an aside, the cacao nibs I featured in my most recent post were also from Peruvian beans). I don't know whether Jerry of Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants! read something on my blog that suggested the gift or simply divined it: I was certainly happy to get a food that is an integral part of my daily... Read more →

Novel Food #14: frittata con pere asiatiche arrosto & crostatine / roasted Asian pear frittata & tartlets

Recently, my husband and I watched on DVD the Maigret movies from the early '90s starring Michael Gambon and enjoyed them a lot. Chief Inspector Maigret is the protagonist of many novels and stories by Belgian-French writer Georges Simenon. When I was a kid, il commissario Maigret was popular in Italy thanks to the TV movies starring Gino Cervi. I had read only one of the Maigret novels, so during a recent visit to a bookstore, I decided to correct that, but got attracted by one of Simenon's novels without Maigret: La chambre bleue, from 1964 (in Italian La camera azzurra... Read more →

una fetta di panettone / a slice of panettone

It is rather early to talk about panettone, but I have had the opportunity to taste one now and so I'll write a short Holiday preview. I have always loved panettone: more than any other food, it means Christmas to me. As I wrote in an older post: Panettone and pandoro have attained national status as dolci delle feste. I spent my childhood and adolescence alternating between the two as my favorite. However, for several years now, I have been solidly in the panettone camp (though I understand people who think differently). The final choice may have something to do with... Read more →

gelato di pesche arrosto / roasted peach ice cream

After roasting strawberries (and using them to make gelato and frittata), I turned my attention to peaches, which is easy since I get them in my weekly CSA box. The peaches from Neukom Family Farm are justly famous. Having a steady supply of them throughout the season means that I can carry out experiments like the following one. I started with the idea that I would roast peaches and use them to make ice cream. The inspiration for the custard part came from the recipe for Peach or Nectarine Ice Cream in my beloved (and recommended) ice cream book: Frozen Dessert... Read more →

torta di segale e mela / rye apple cake

As member of a grain CSA, I receive a monthly share that includes various stone-ground, whole-grain flours, like wheat, barley and rye flour. Rye is a cereal grain that looks like wheat but is longer and more slender and varies in color from yellowish brown to grayish green. It is generally available in its whole or cracked grain form or as flour or flakes that look similar to old-fashioned oats. Because it is difficult to separate the germ and bran from the endosperm of rye, rye flour usually retains a large quantity of nutrients, in contrast to refined wheat flour. (source:... Read more →