briciole

mild chili oil / olio al pepe di Sichuan

pretty in red (napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO) While I was reading the current selection of the Cook the Books club, Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop1 we spent a couple of days in Ashland, OR, to watch three plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. One of my stops during our visit was The Spice and Tea Exchange2, a favorite store, where I like to explore shelves of spices (spezie), custom blends, and teas. In the pepper section, a glass jar labeled Szechuan Pepper Berry introduced me to the spice of... Read more →

mushroom and egg salad / insalata di funghi e uova

a pretty bowl of mushroom and egg salad I simply loved Anya von Bremzen's Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food & Longing1, the current selection of our Cook the Books Club. The story is interesting: von Bremzen describes her and her family's life in the context of the political changes in Russia, the Soviet Union, then Russia again. Her style of writing is engaging — with the right balance of humor and seriousness. The food she describes is intriguing: even when we don't feel like we want to taste it, the emotional context comes alive in her... Read more →

roasted chicken, asparagus and avocado salad / insalata di pollo e asparagi arrosto con avocado

an ode to leftovers (avanzi) The current selection of our Cook the Books Club, the autobiography Life from Scratch by Sasha Martin1, got me thinking about writing about tragedy in one's life, about people that hurt you and about cliché. Sometimes I am told that a certain image or expression is cliché and I realize that my lack of awareness is due to the fact that I did not grow up in the US. On the other hand, I may consider a certain image or expression cliché because I read more than the average person, especially more about food. Beyond my... Read more →

cabbage, roasted salmon and persimmon salad / insalata di cavolo cappuccio, salmone arrosto e cachi mela

the salad looks nice in a Limoges tureen (zuppiera)1 (tablecloth by La FABBRICA del LINO) During winter months, usually soup is on the table more often than salad. This year, however, I am having an intense relationship with raw cabbage. It's not that I discovered it, but I've been reminded how much I like a salad of finely shredded cabbage, and how much I enjoy playing with it, adding various ingredients and tasting the results. One such ingredient recently has been pan-roasted salmon, prepared according to the recipe2 in Jessica Fechtor's memoir Stir3, the current selection of our Cook the Books... Read more →

broccoli al vapore con salsina al miso e noci / steamed broccoli with walnut miso dressing

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] fresh from the farmers' market When vegetables are this fresh and pretty, it is almost a pity to cut them up and cook them, so I try to treat them gently. In this recipe, I steam them until tender to my liking and accompany them with a nut-based dressing. just steamed I save the water at the bottom of the pot where I steam the broccoli and use it to blend miso and lightly toasted walnuts. red miso, walnuts and the dressing Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for steamed broccoli with walnut... Read more →

arcobaleno e insalata di patate con avocado / rainbow and potato avocado salad

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] Christmas rainbow On Christmas Day, the rainbow that appeared in front of our eyes as we crossed the Kilauea Iki Crater floor in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park was all contained within the crater and within our field of view: it felt reachable, touchable. Seeing a sliver of a rainbow brings joy: seeing the entire arc was exhilarating. I thought I could walk up to the rainbow, go through it like through a gentle waterfall and come out all colored. I walked from one end to the other and I was under it,... Read more →

insalata di lattuga cappuccina con cachi, avocado e mandorle / butter lettuce salad with persimmon, avocado and almonds

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] love the marbled leaves I can certainly call my childhood "my salad days" — literally. A salad of Romaine lettuce was on our family's dinner menu six out of seven evenings on any given week. The Romaine lettuce (lattuga romana) was usually served by itself, dressed with fine sea salt, olive oil and vinegar, the way it is traditionally done in Italy. I neither did nor ever will object to the dressing, because it is perfect for a green salad: the problem was the dressed. The presence, in the summer, of a... Read more →

insalata turca di carote con yogurt / Turkish carrot salad with yogurt

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] look to the rainbow Brilliant blueberry or reddish purple, bright orange, pale yellow or an ivory that, the first time I saw it, made me wonder whether I was looking at a parsnip that had smuggled itself into carrot-land: When I am in the mood for technicolor carrots, I know to which stall to direct my steps at the farmers' market. One recent Saturday, in the early morning sunlight cooled by wisps of coastal California fog, I picked up by the stems a bunch of carrots with their tops still intact. I... Read more →

insalata di fagiolini "Rattlesnake" / Rattlesnake bean salad

marbled beauties Anything purple (viola) catches my attention at the farmers' market. And it does not need to be solid purple: a light brushstroke or a hint of that deep color is enough to make me head straight for the basket or box containing the irresistible produce. Each pod (baccello) of Rattlesnake bean is marbled purple in a unique way, like a sheet of marbled paper. The farmer celebrates singularity in each bean, just as the marbler does in each sheet of paper that he or she peels off from the water, rinses and then dries to reveal the pattern created.... Read more →

insalata di fagioli e tonno / bean and albacore tuna salad

the right company for kale pesto The first scene brings us to a large rapeseed field. Our eyes luxuriate in the saturated colors of tall yellow flowers under a blindingly blue sky. As our mind wonders where such a beautiful place is, a painful sense of foreboding starts to distort the idyllic image. The young woman in the middle of the yellow ocean is panicking and the middle-aged men trying to reach her is anxious. The tension builds up as the camera switches vintage point until the scene goes up in flames — literally. Sidetracked, the first episode of the BBC... Read more →