briciole

crostata con crema all'aceto / vinegar tart

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] Italianized vinegar pie on Italian linen (from La FABBRICA del LINO) Bob Dollar, the protagonist of That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx, which is the current selection of our Cook the Books Club, is a shy man confused about his place in the world, who finds himself transplanted in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, a place full of interesting characters and rich in local customs and stories, a sliver of America in space and time. The states of Texas and Oklahoma stacked like dirty pots in the sink, their... Read more →

pane di Pasqua lituano / Lithuanian Easter bread

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] the final rendition Easter breads across Europe feature eggs (uova), probably the food most revered this time of the year. When I was a little girl, my aunt Lucia explained to me that hens laying eggs again after the sluggish winter months was cause for celebration. I agreed. Yesterday, I saw several farmers selling eggs at the market, each having a nice pile of cartons on their table, a sign that the winter dearth of eggs is over. As an avid egg consumer, I find myself with a lot of egg shells.... Read more →

casseruola di uova e formaggio con verdure / egg and cheese casserole with vegetables

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] detail of: The garden of earthly delights When I was in Madrid for a conference a good number of years ago, I spent an afternoon at the Museo Nacional del Prado. It was an amazing feast for the eyes: more sumptuous than expected and completely satisfying. One of the most interesting works I admired that day was Hieronymous Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. I lost track of time as my eyes lost themselves in the intricate details of Bosch's vision. I still have a few postcards from that visit and I... Read more →

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 →

frittata di germogli di cavolo riccio / kale blossom frittata

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] Simona's kitchen wisdom: When in doubt, make a frittata. I am officially in love with kale blossoms. They are pretty, fun to pick and a pleasure to have in the kitchen. ready to be picked You have already seen this photo of a Red Russian kale blossom in my recent post on barley and borlotti soup. Here's an image of a younger blossom early in the morning. Kale is good, healthy and photogenic. Here are a some herbs and edible flowers from my little garden (from top left, going counterclockwise): mint (menta),... Read more →

frità an bagna / frittata strips with parsley sauce

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] my "frità an bagna" Continuing our tour of the 20 regions of Italy organized by Trattoria MuVarA, we arrive in Piemonte (Piedmont), whose capital, Torino (Turin) was also the first capital of the newly united Italian state. It is difficult to do full justice to the many contributions Piemonte has made to Italian gastronomy. A random sample would include gianduia (hazelnut chocolate), Alba truffles (tartufi), several varieties of rice, bagna caoda, cheeses (for example, toma piemontese and bra), grissini (breadsticks) to name just a few highlights. And of course, we cannot forget... Read more →

frittata di pasta / pasta frittata

with pink tagliatelle My first vacation away from my parents, at age 16, was quite adventurous, food-wise. I spent 10 days or so in the Calabrian city of Rossano, and during that time, I tasted for the first time a whole array of foods that I liked a lot, like caciocavallo silano and swordfish. One day, my host prepared a frittata with leftover spaghetti. It sounds pretty basic, but I had never had anything like that before. My mother always weighed pasta before cooking it, so we never had leftover spaghetti or rigatoni. If we had leftover tagliatelle al ragù, she... Read more →

fare colazione / to have breakfast

Breakfasts of the World Challenge on Very Good Recipes This month, I have the honor, together with nine other bloggers, of being a judge in a challenge that has a theme suited to the time of the year: If we think about January as the morning of the year, then breakfast is a perfect topic to consider during this month. All the details of the challenge are explained on this page, so I won't repeat them here. You have until Monday, January 30th to submit your entry according to the specifications laid out on the page referenced above. We are looking... 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 →

frittata con pesche arrosto e caciotta fatta in casa / frittata with roasted peaches and homemade caciotta

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] After the success of my gelato with roasted peaches, it was natural to try to use the same fruitful concept in a frittata, like I had done with strawberries (fragole). The result was just as excellent. The first couple of times I made it, I used the same cheese as before, my homemade French Neufchâtel cheese, a bloomy-rind cheese (formaggio a crosta fiorita). But then I tasted my homemade caciotta and I thought it would work great in the frittata: I was right. I am planning to write more about caciotta: for... Read more →