briciole

green cabbage with honeynut squash and chestnuts / cavolo cappuccio con zucca e castagne

jump to Recipe fall flavors combine to make a delicious side dish (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Our current Cook the Books Club selection is Crying in H Mart a memoir by Michelle Zauner. In August 2018, the author had an essay published in The New Yorker magazine1 with the same title. It starts like this: Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart. For those of you who don’t know, H Mart is a supermarket chain that specializes in Asian food. The "H" stands for han ah reum, a Korean phrase that roughly translates to "one arm... Read more →

bean, tomato, sweet pepper and corn salad / insalata di fagioli, pomodori, peperoni dolci e mais

jump to Recipe bright colors and flavors on the plate (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Our current Cook the Books Club selection is The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd1. The novel is set in South Carolina in 1964. Young Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped by her mother's death and a violent father, and stand-in mother Rosaleen run away from their home and hometown and find refuge in the house of the three Boatwright sisters in Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that is somehow connected to Lily's mother's past. Lily learns about bees, beekeeping, making honey (miele)... Read more →

mixed vegetables with thyme / verdure miste al timo

jump to Recipe mixed vegetable with thyme (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Our current Cook the Books Club selection is Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge1. In post-war Paris, a woman is found murdered in the basement of the building where Paul and Julia Child live, and the murder weapon is a knife from Julia's kitchen. If this brief introduction sounds intriguing, you'll probably enjoy the book. I'm afraid I didn't find the novel believable.2 The narrator, a young woman named Tabitha, lives with her grandfather not far from the Childs and befriends Julia. He grows a... Read more →

winter squash and beans / zucca e fagioli

jump to Recipe [versione in italiano] a simple pairing with a lot of flavor (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) This is my interpretation of a traditional dish from Italy. The first recipe I read uses black-eyed peas (fagioli dall'occhio) so that's what I used in my first version, together with some Musquée de Provence squash I found at the farmers' market. I then read other recipes which referenced "white beans" (fagioli bianchi). I had some Zolfino bean1 (fagiolo zolfino), an Italian heirloom variety, so I used that. For my final try, I used locally grown organic Yellow Eye beans, which... Read more →

white tepary beans / fagioli tepary bianchi

jump to Recipe [versione in italiano] tepary beans and winter vegetables (red dish & vase by @fem_pottery, placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) I grew up in a region of Italy, Umbria, famous for legumes (fagiolina del Trasimeno, lenticchia di Castelluccio and roveja, to name just a few) and I like all legumes, so it is not surprising that during a visit to Tucson, AZ, I purchased some locally grown white tepary beans. Here are some notes on this special bean (Phaseolus acutifolius): The tepary bean has been handed down for countless generations amongst my Akimel O’Odham (River People, Pima) and... Read more →

Turkish-style celeriac (celery root) / sedano rapa stile turco

jump to Recipe [versione in italiano] a comforting dish with winter vegetables (dish by @fem_pottery, placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Cold weather makes me crave comforting dishes, with a solid flavor. This is my rendition of the Turkish dish Zeytinyağlı Kereviz, where kereviz means celeriac (also called celery root) and zeytinyağlı describes the cooking method, in olive oil. Celeriac is a beautiful root vegetable with a mild celery flavor and a sweet note when cooked. It is hard to miss when displayed at the farmers' market. (The photo above is from a few years ago.) As I was experimenting with... Read more →

red chimichurri / chimichurri rosso

jump to Recipe [versione in italiano] red chimichurri (chopped ingredients) (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Our current Cook the Books Club selection is Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love by Kim Fay1. The novel, set on the West Coast in the early 1960's, tells the story of the friendship between two women that develops through the exchange of letters started by Joan, who writes a fan letter to Imogen and encloses a packet of saffron (zafferano) and a recipe. From there, we follow the development of their friendship with the sharing of personal life details and... Read more →

onion and fava bean soup / zuppa di cipolle e fave

jump to Recipe [versione in italiano] simplicity at its best Our current Cook the Books Club selection is the novel Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus1 which tells the story of Elizabeth Zott, a research chemist in California in the early 1960's, who becomes the host of a cooking show. Rowing plays a role in the book, referred to mostly as a a source of physical discomfort, if not downright suffering. I thought I would balance out that perspective with a photo I took recently while rowing on Richardson Bay (an arm of San Francisco Bay). I captioned it: for this... Read more →

garlic chive pancakes / frittelle di erba cipollina cinese

jump to Recipe [versione in italiano] crisp, tender, savory: so good! (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) While looking up traditional recipes that use chives (Allium schoenoprasum) of which I get a nice supply from my garden, I discovered Korean pancakes (frittelle coreane) called Buchujeon1 made with garlic chives (Allium tuberosum, a.k.a., Chinese leeks, chinese chives), which also grows in my garden. While chives' leaves are tubular, those of garlic chives are flat. young garlic chives in my garden... Most of the recipes I read is vegan, made without eggs, and I adopted this format. I reduced the quantities to make... Read more →

tomato and date chutney / chutney di pomodori e datteri

jump to Recipe [versione in italiano] Earthy and sweet condiment for many uses (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Making a chutney had been on my wish list for a while and the chance materialized recently when, wanting to prepare a savory dish using dates, I came across recipes for Bengali tomato and date chutney (Tomato Khejur Chutney), each one a bit different.1 Below I give you my version, adapted to my taste and influenced by my Italian roots. For my first try, I had tomatoes from the farmers' market. We spent a few days in Central California and visited the... Read more →