briciole

strawberry, fava bean, fennel and radish salad / insalata di fragole, fave, finocchio e ravanello

jump to Recipe Farm-fresh iceberg lettuce inspired this serving option (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Our current Cook the Books Club selection is the memoir Taste by actor Stanley Tucci1. The book included a couple of interesting sections, one pertaining the history of the highly enjoyable movie Big Night (1996),2 in which Tucci played the younger brother, Secondo. I didn't know that he had written the screenplay. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. The other section I enjoyed was where Felicity (now Tucci's wife) prepared roasted potatoes in a way that first surprised then alarmed the author, but... Read more →

red Napa cabbage and winter squash with applesauce / cavolo napa rosso e zucca con salsa di mele

jump to Recipe a personal take on the cabbage and apple pairing The current Cook the Books Club selection is Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown: The year is 1819, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by the ruthless pirate Mad Hannah Mabbot. He will be spared, she tells him, as long as he puts exquisite food in front of her every Sunday without fail.1 There's the pirate ship's colorful cast of characters — Mr. Apples, the knitting thug; mysterious twins Feng and Bai; and Joshua, who can neither hear nor speak and becomes a sort of adopted... Read more →

pear tart / crostata di pere

jump to Recipe the simple elegance of a crostata always wins at the table (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) The current Cook the Books Club selection is Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber.1 On her website, the author explains: The inspiration for this novel came years ago in a song. After hearing the Beatles' "Blackbird" for the first time, it haunted me... I was captivated with the concept of broken wings and how emotional wounds can keep many from being able to metaphorically fly... Blackbird research led me quickly to the Song of Sixpence with its “four and... Read more →

kohlrabi slaw with fresh fruit / insalata di cavolo rapa, carota e frutta fresca

jump to Recipe [versione in italiano] fresh fruit turns kohlrabi slaw sweet Pale green or purple, kohlrabi is a stunning vegetable, with its bulbous enlarged stem and its crown of leaves. The name kohlrabi comes, via German, from the Italian cavolo rapa and literally means 'turnip cabbage'. However, kohlrabi is not a turnip, but a cultivar of Brassica oleracea, a species that includes broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale. Kohlrabi is a versatile vegetable: you can eat it raw, add it to soups and stews, shred it to make fritters or slice and grill it, or cube and roast it. Regardless of the... Read more →

fruit salad with fresh dates / macedonia di frutta con datteri freschi

fruit fresh from the farmers market makes a great post-run salad (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) The story told by Daniel Stone in his book The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats1 is fascinating, at times riveting, and I found myself staying up late some evenings to read what would happen next. Before reading the book, I didn't know who David Fairchild was. Also, I didn't know who Frank Meyer was, though I am a great fan of the Meyer lemon, named after him; had never read the full story behind the... Read more →

pan-fried banana with macadamia nuts / banana in padella e noci di macadamia

crunchy, soft and sweet I read the novel Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers1 by Sara Ackerman, the current selection of the Cook the Books club, in just a few days: the story is interesting, at the level both of the individual characters and of the historical background. To the tragedies of World War II and of the internment of Japanese-Americans, the novel, set on the Big Island of Hawaii, adds the personal tragedies of Violet, whose husband disappeared a year before the story starts, and of their daughter, Ella, whose distress hints at a devastating secret she cannot share. The... 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 →

apple tart / crostata di mele

a personal take on an Italian classic Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy, the current selection of our Cook the Books Club, is a well-known children's book in the US. It was an interesting read, giving me a glimpse into some of the literature people my age were exposed to during their childhood and a view into rural life and related activities in an age and place quite removed from mine. For Almanzo and his family the year was marked by the seasonal work they did, and that work is described in detail by Ingalls Wilder. There is also moral content, mostly... 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 →

blueberry varenyky / varenyky con ripieno di mirtilli

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] making blueberry varenyky In our World Culinary ABC1 we have arrived in Ukraine (Ucraina), represented by the port city of Odessa. By a series of coincidences, my husband and I recently hiked to, and spent a night at, Odessa Lake2 in Rocky Mountain National Park3. So, while I have no personal images of Odessa to share, I can show you how beautiful Odessa Lake is. arriving at Odessa Lake Odessa Lake and Notchtop Mountain in the evening To celebrate our virtual visit to Ukraine, I chose to make my version of blueberry... Read more →