briciole

orecchiette e luna piena / orecchiette and full moon

orecchiette on my kneading board... I am working on a new version of orecchiette and also on a new pasta shape. Above is a monochromatic preview of the former. and an "orecchietta" in the sky This is my original post on orecchiette, so you can start practising with your hands. The upcoming post will have some more details based on my experience teaching pasta-making workshops. Update: this post describes in detail how I made the orecchiette in the top photo, using toasted chickpea flour together with semolina flour. This is my contribution to edition #121 of Black and White Wednesday -... Read more →

spaetzle al burro e parmigiano / spaetzle with butter and parmigiano

my take on a Mitteleuropean classic A family emergency — now under control — wrenched me from my kitchen 12 days ago. I am back at home now, slowly picking up the various threads I had to drop suddenly. The first one was a project that had been on my to-do list for a while: Spätzle. Although I have prepared it to celebrate the Austrian chapter of our virtual European tour, this dish belongs to the culinary tradition of several European countries, including parts of Italy. There are therefore many variations on the basic theme. In an article in which he... Read more →

gnocchetti alla farina di ceci con barbabietole rosse / chickpea flour gnocchetti with red beets

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] half semolina and half chickpea flour You have seen my latest gnocchetti in black and white and you'll learn the details. Traditional gnocchetti sardi (Sardinian gnocchi) are made with semolina flour. After making them, I came up with a version using half all-purpose and half chestnut flour. Here, I am sharing a version that uses half semolina and half chickpea flour (a.k.a., garbanzo bean flour, besan). Chickpea flour is rich in proteins and naturally gluten-free. regular (with saffron) Chickpea flour has a distinct flavor, which gets toned down in the marriage with... Read more →

žlinkrofi: ravioli di frutta secca sloveni / Slovenian dried fruit dumplings

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] greetings from Slovenia: Žlinkrofi I recently taught a pasta making class and a couple of participants mentioned their interest in learning to make ravioli. The class was about eggless pasta, i.e., pasta made with a semolina and water dough, so ravioli-making was not on the menu for the evening, but I went home thinking that I had not made stuffed pasta (pasta ripiena) in a while. While exploring a Slovenian cuisine website, I was struck by a type of stuffed pasta called Idrija žlikrofi. I made them and they turned out well,... Read more →

sagne incannulate di grano arso / burnt wheat sagne incannulate

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] it was a dark and long pasta It is not only the painter that plays with the colors on his or her palette. The cook does the same with the color of the foods s/he is preparing. Sometimes, the temptation to combine certain colors, and the associated flavors and textures, comes suddenly and does not leave me until I have yielded to it. Other times, the choice owes more to serendipity than to planning. This short story starts with a beautiful pasta shape: sagne incannulate (also called lasagne arrotolate and lagane incannulate).... Read more →

sagne incannulate con petali di calendula / with calendula petals

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] petals in pasta dough You've seen a preview in this monochromatic photo post and now you get the full story. On the one hand, I had a beautiful pasta shape: sagne incannulate (also called lasagne arrotolate and lagane incannulate). freshly harvested from my garden On the other hand, I had a supply of calendula flowers, whose petals I had already successfully added to cookies, cheese, challah, and scrambled eggs. It should come as no surprise that I tried adding them to pasta (in a way different from that shown in my version... Read more →

cucinare coi fiori / cooking with flowers

calendulas from the farmers' market and freshly picked from my garden Ever since I started reading Cooking With Flowers, Sweet and Savory Recipes with Rose Petals, Lilacs, Lavender, and Other Edible Flowers by Miche Bacher I look at flowers with different eyes. I knew that a number of flowers were edible (commestibili), from zucchini blossoms (fiori di zucca) to herb flowers (which I have used, for example, in rye bread) to roses (which I have used to flavor ice cream). But I did not know that orchids are edible and so are daylilies and lilacs, to name just a few. FTC... Read more →

serpente di pasta / snake of pasta dough

rolling dough into a long snake A new week, a new pasta shape. To make this one, whose name shall remain secret for now, dough is first rolled into a long, thin snake. The casual arrangement of the folds and the contrast with the texture of the wooden kneading board made for an interesting image. This is my contribution to edition #87 of Black and White Wednesday - A Culinary Photography Event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar, and hosted this week by Jasmina of Jazzy Kitchen. The photo was shot in color and... Read more →

maltagliati con petali di fiori / "stained glass" maltagliati

delicate petals within pasta On May 8, 1999, at the San Francisco Center for the Book, I had my first experience with letterpress printing. I learned about the California job case, how to set type and prepare the press, and together with the other class participants, printed a chapbook under the imprint of the "created for the day" Tiramisu Press. In the years that followed, I took a few other printing classes in the same location, and every time I was reminded how much I like the blend of boundless creativity and tight concentration that goes into printing. Mary Dern's short... Read more →

Pasta Please: il riepilogo / the roundup

It's time to showcase the pasta dishes that I have received as contributions to the May edition of Pasta Please, a pasta-centric event created by Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes. The theme I chose was homemade pasta. Readers of this blog know that for the past year I have been on a mission to explore handmade pasta shapes from the Italian tradition. My wish in choosing the theme was to invite food bloggers to experiment with pasta dough at home. I was delighted to see that a number of them accepted the invitation. For each contribution, I will give you the official... Read more →