Blog from Italy: Life in the living museum.

Started in 2005 as a way of coming to terms, or not, with life here in Italy, Blog from Italy is now part blog, part magazine.

Blog from Italy’s founder and writer Alex Roe has quite an extensive range of interests, meaning that posts here cover an eclectic range of subjects.

Sample post: Burgers in Tuscany.

Italophile Blog

Created by Melanie Mize Renzulli, the Italofile blog

..was born to bring guidebook readers and other Italy travel enthusiasts more information on one of the world’s favorite travel destinations.

image credit Melanie Renzulli

Sample post: Scenic Drive on the Amalfi Coast.

Wandering Italy

I’m James Martin, and I write, photograph–and wander–for a living.

…Right now I spend half a year on the west coast of California, and half a year at my house in northern Tuscany.

image credit James Martin

Sample post: Lucca and Fall Colors.

Italy is a country in which chocolate is considered good for your health.

In un mondo sempre più attento alla qualità e a una corretta alimentazione, è giusto che si sappia di più su un alimento come il cioccolato, per tanto tempo considerato solo come consumo frivolo, o addirittura di scarso valore nutrizionale.

Al contrario, il cioccolato ci sorprende per le sue infinite proprietà e per i positivi effetti sull’organismo. Andiamo alla scoperta di tutti i benefici del cibo degli dei.

———–

In a world increasingly attentive to quality and good nutrition, it makes sense to know more about a food like chocolate, which has been for ages considered only a frivolous treat, or even with no nutritional value.

By contrast, chocolate surprises us with its infinitely good and positive effects on the human body.  Let’s discover all of the benefits of the food of the gods.

That’s from Perugina’s Italian website.  Chocolate is good for you!  Admittedly, this message comes to us from a company selling you chocolate.  And we’ve all heard about the positive effects of a few squares of dark chocolate a day, along with one ounce of red wine, etc.  But I think this message is less “consume your antioxidants” and more about this simple, accepted fact of Italian life:

Pleasure is good for you.

Food is sexy.  Check out this quick ad for yogurt.  Do you consider yogurt a sexy food?

Text at the end of the clip: Fate l’amore con il sapore. Make love with the taste.

Cappuccino in Perugia

One of my favorite things about living in Italy was the sense of fantasy that pervaded daily life.  Every day felt like a scene out of a gorgeous movie shot on location.  As my friend Keith, who is living in Florence right now, recently reminded me, “The quality of light is different here.”

It’s true: everything looks better.

Everything tastes better.  The respect and love that Italians show toward food came through in each dish that I ate, whether it was prepared at home or in a restaurant.

My host dad would say that each part of the world flavors their unique cuisine with their water.  The quality of the water varies by region, which affects all of the produce grown there and the meat and the wine produced there.  Italy, home to the Terra Madre conference organized by the Slow Food movement, was slow before anyone knew there was such a thing as fast.

The pace of life in Italy is like something from leisurely, slow-moving dream.

Maybe for that reason, my capacity for wonder increased tremendously during my stay there.

When I heard about the Eurochocolate festival run each October in the town of Perugia (in Umbria) by the Perugina chocolate company, I imagined the best.  Perugina is responsible for Baci chocolates (if you haven’t had one, try one today), as well as a host of other chocolate products not commonly available in the U.S.

Luckily for New Yorkers, they will have a booth at the upcoming Holiday Shops at Bryant Park.

My host dad told me there were sculptures of chocolate and swimming pools where you bathed gloriously in chocolate. My lifelong dream!  Of course it would be realized in Italy.  I blissfully believed him.

When I went to the festival, I didn’t see the chocolate baths (they must have been around that far corner, and I didn’t have time to get to them, I thought), but there were wonders aplenty.

Entrance to the Festival

Notice the cutesy play on words above: “ingresso libero” means free entrance, while “ingrasso libero” means free weight gain.  The entrance to the festival was underground, in the massive caves underneath the historic center of the city of Perugia.

One of the countless vendors hawking chocolate-inspired products

Every chocolate maker I had ever heard of (all of the big names–Hershey’s, Nestle, Ferrero Rocher, Cadbury…), plus hundreds of unknown, artigianal, organic, and all-natural brands had stations selling every bar, truffle, molded beauty possible.  The artigianal makers offered delightful combinations like:

• Lavender, rosemary, and sage-infused chocolate bars
• The richest cup of hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted
• Every dried fruit and nut dipped in chocolate (think dried strawberries, dried raspberries, chunks of coconut)
• Chocolate-flavored pasta (including a recipe for a cream-based almond sauce)
• Chocolate liqueurs sipped from chocolate shot glasses

There were even a few booths offering free samples (more if you were a pretty American girl):

Chocolate-frenzied Italians rush toward free samples

I have never experienced anything before nor after similar to the hangover I felt the day after the festival.  I think I was sweating chocolate after that day of indulgence and heady pleasure.

San Gimignano, the city of many towers

As you can tell if you’ve been reading this blog faithfully for the past ten days, I dream of Italy.  Every day and every night.  And I have been for the past two years–since I spent my life-changing semester abroad in Florence.  After I graduated from Middlebury with my trusty Italian & English joint degree, I started searching for the best way to get myself back there.

I looked into a variety of different jobs and internships and I eventually settled on the au pair option.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the au pair is a young woman who lives with a family and cares for their children in exchange for food, lodging, and pocket money.  In my case, the family in question is located in Parma, a city that many call food capital of Italy.  I will be caring for their two children and teaching them English after they get home from school, and I will live in a guest house on the family’s property.  In my free time, I’ll be traveling, eating, writing entries for this blog, and smiling every day.  I can’t wait.  My plane departs on Jan 3, 2011.

Giardino Ducale, Parma (photo credit Renata F. Oliveira, Flickr)

I really wanted to live with an Italian family because I had such a positive experience living with my host family in a small town outside of Florence in 2008.  The concept of “family” is completely different between Italians and Americans (Italian-Americans come pretty close.)  Family is one of the core values driving Italian culture (some of the others being food, talking, la bella figura, church [although this is decreasing in importance in the present generation], relaxation, couples [connected to family but including dating couples], and the woman-dominated home.)

Italian children typically live with their parents throughout college and university (anywhere from 3 to 6+ years), often until they marry.  Italians seek to remain in the same city or town, and at minimum the same region, in which they grew up, and in which their entire extended family resides.    This creates an immediate social network and a sense of belonging that simply doesn’t exist in American culture.  If you ask an American “Who are you?” he or she will probably respond with some combination of career, hobbies, and an idea of who they want to become.  If you ask an Italian, I believe the response will focus on family and geography rather than career.  Most Italians already know who they are, and aren’t trying to be anyone else.  They don’t rush through college (they can retake failed exams with no penalty), and they certainly don’t rush through a meal–ever.

A Sunday walk through the countryside

“Ma non ti fa fatica?” An old man asks me as I jog up a narrow Tuscan road.  Aren’t you getting tired?

Another day, another man: “Ma questa corre anche nella pioggia!” This girl even runs in the rain. (It was drizzling.  Barely.)

I just got back from a jog around my neighborhood.  For the first time since last winter, I experienced the peculiar frustration of my earbuds falling out of my ear because the wire had frozen.  After daylight savings time, it really feels like winter, and I really don’t want it to be winter.

The whole experience took me back in time to my semester in Italy.  Dallas and I discovered that despite the joy we found in running along the narrow and winding roads, past vineyards and seemingly endless olive trees, throughout our hilly Tuscan town, no Italians actually did that.  Especially not girls.  Anyone we passed (usually a sweet old man with a cane and hat, out for a walk) glanced at us with the specific combination of interest, disbelief, and bemusement that looked out at us from every Italian face when we did horribly American things like order an iced coffee or eat a salad as a meal.

Jogging means being seen in public in an embarrassing condition.  It means exposing yourself to the elements without the proper attire.

What do Italians do?  They walk.  Many a Sunday afternoon did I see entire Italian families of three generations partaking in una camminata, a stroll through the town center or countryside, at a pace leisurely enough to permit the wearing of one’s best clothes and nicest shoes.

What did I do?  I brought my camera on my jog.

Today is the first part of an ongoing series in which I share my favorite cookbooks with my readers.  Today’s selection qualifies because of its high-quality recipes, gorgeous layout and photos, and charming captions.  It is Birthday Cakes: Recipes and Memories from Celebrated Bakers, written by Kathryn Kleinman and Carolyn Miller, and available to you today at Amazon.com, or, if you’re like me, at your local library.

This is a really special book.  Each recipe features a full-color, full-page photo, a short introduction from the authors, and a blurb from the famous food personality who offers the recipe.  Most of these recipes are taken from cherished childhood memories–of people like Alice Waters, James Beard, Julia Child, Maida Heatter, and Tasha Tudor.

The blurbs from these bakers, chefs, and food celebrities reveal the extent to which our “food consciousness” is created in the first ten years of our lives.  Often, we remember what we eat in our childhood for the rest of our lives, and if we are lucky, we carry those recipes with us for decades forward, recreating a childhood moment with a bit of butter and sugar.

The recipes range from the simple (“Fastest Fudge Cake,” from Alice Medrich, Berkeley chocolatier and author; “Frying Pan Chocolate Cake,” from Georgeanne Brennan, author, teacher and “gastronomy journalist”) to the dauntingly complex (the traditional Swedish recipe for “Princess Cake” from Gayle Ortiz, author of The Village Baker’s Wife.)

I first discovered this book at my library about three years ago.  I made two of the cake recipes for my family and each became an instant classic, in the effortless way that timeless recipes will.  I made them each again the following year.

Today I want to share with you the recipe for Old-Fashioned Banana Spice Cake (pg 74), contributed to the book by professional chef and restaurateur Bradley Ogden.  I made this several times for my mom’s birthday in July, because she loves bananas.

Here’s the cookbook’s introduction to this fabulous cake:

This luxurious cake, made with mashed ripe bananas and filled with creamy custard and sliced bananas, is from celebrated California chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author Bradley Ogden.  This was one of his favorite birthday cakes while he was growing up in a family of seven children.  Bradley’s father always helped bake the family birthday cakes, and it was he who first gave Bradley the idea of becoming a chef.

Old-Fashioned Banana Spice Cake

(makes one 8-inch 4-layer cake; serves 10 to 12)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 to 3 bananas)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground allspice

Pinch of ground mace

1/2 cup buttermilk at room temperature

FILLING:

3/4  cup milk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large egg yolks

3 tbsp flour

Pinch of salt

1 tbsp unsalted butter

3/4 tsp heavy cream (optional)

2 bananas, peeled and sliced

TOPPING:

1 cup heavy cream

3 tbsp confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter and lightly flour the sides and bottoms of two 8-inch round cake pans; knock out the excess flour.

Using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl for at least 10 minutes, or until very light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, mashed banana, and vanilla.  SIft the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices together onto a piece of waxed paper.  Stir into the banana mixture alternately with the buttermilk.

Spoon into the prepared pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Transfer the pans to wire racks and let cool for 10 minutes.  Unmold onto the racks and let cool completely.

While the cake bakes, make the filling: In a small, heavy saucepan, heat the milk until small bubbles form around the edges of the pan.  Meanwhile, bea thte sugar and egg yolks together in a small bowl.  Beat in the flour and salt.  Gradually beat in teh hot milk.

Return to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture beins to thicken and comes to a simmer. Lower the heat to low and continue stirring for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.  Pour into a bowl, cover with a piece of plastic wrap pressed onto the surface of the custard, let cool slightly, and refrigerate.

To assemble the cake: Split each cake layer in half.  If the custard is too thick to spread, thin it with a little cream.  Spread one-third of the filling and arrange one-third of the banana slices evenly on 3 of the layers.  Stack the layers and top with the fourth layer.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

just before serving, make the topping: In a deep bowl, whip the cream until very soft peaks form.  Beat in the sugar and vanilla.  Spread the whipped cream frosting over the top of the cake, allowing some to drip down the sides.

My obsession with biscotti began one year ago.  I was home from college over Christmas break.  I was bored.  I went to the library and took out a book: Maida Heatter’s New Book of Great Cookies.

I mean, just look at all the cookies on the cover.  (Side note: How freaking AWESOME are the homemade fortune cookies and sweet pretzels?  See them in the bottom half of the cover photo?  I made both of those recipes a few weeks ago.  The coolest part of the fortune cookies is that you can put your own fortunes in them.)

Last year, the biscotti really grabbed me.  I made one batch.  Then another.  I tried her recipes, I experimented, changed them, made replacements.  They got better and better, and I got better at making them.  (There’s definitely a learning curve.)  Maida Heatter’s biscotti are not the biscotti that you are probably familiar with.  They are long and thin, crispy, and not very sweet.  They are very spicy.  In other words, they taste like Christmas should taste.

I made most of these biscotti between the hours of midnight and 2am.  It was like an incubus that would come upon me.  I’d be lying in bed, with the lights out, staring at the ceiling for fifteen minutes.  Suddenly the thought of crunchy, warm, delicious biscotti roused me from bed and brought me to the kitchen.

The best biscotti I’ve ever made (I didn’t make them to sell because the recipe was too complicated and expensive) were Maida Heatter’s Seed and Nut Biscotti, with the recipe tweaked to include pistachios and craisins.

I gave all of those biscotti away for Christmas last year, but my dad still has some in his freezer.  Maybe I can dig up a photo or two.

Recipe: Maida Heatter’s Nut & Seed Biscotti alla Beth with Cranberries and Pistachios

(my additions are in bold.)

The texture of these is fantastic–both light and substantial.

(from page 28 of the cookbook)

1 cup sifted unbleached flour

1 1/4 cups sifted whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon finely ground white or black pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

Note: I like mine spicy, so I added 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, plus 1/2 tsp each of nutmeg and cloves

1/3 cup flax meal

1/4 c wheat germ

1/4 c cornmeal

1/3 c untoasted, unsalted sunflower seeds

1/4 c flax seeds

1/3 c untoasted, unsalted pumpkin seeds

1 cup pistachios

1 cup craisins

3 eggs

1/2 cup honey

1/2 packed light brown sugar

Sift dry ingredients together and add in the nuts seeds, and craisins.  In a small bowl beat the eggs, honey, and brown sugar until mix.  Add to the dry ingredients.

Maida has a unique method of preparing biscotti.  I’ve never seen it in another biscotti recipe.  She basically has you form smooth logs, wrap them in plastic wrap, and freeze them for a few hours or longer; then you bake them, slice and rebake.  So here she says to spoon the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, smoothing it out with the back of a wet spoon until it forms a log approximately 15 ” x 3 ” x .75 ”.  You will have enough dough to make 2 logs of this shape.

When they come out of the freezer, you unwrap them, each one onto a separate cookie sheet lined with parchment, and bake for 50 minutes at 300 degrees.  When they come out of the oven, you reduce the heat to 275 and start slicing them on the bias as thin as you can (use a clean washcloth to protect your hand from the hot bread.)  In my experience, it’s a lot easier to let the loaf cool off a bit, but Maida doesn’t recommend this for some reason.  You put all of the slices on an unlined cookie sheet and bake them for 30 more minutes.

Biscotti and Cookie gift basket

One time I was baking before midnight.

Another gift box including chocolate-dipped Christmas shape pretzels

Thanks for reading!

I have to share this recipe for whole grain pancakes that I made this morning.  The recipe is originally from 101 Cookbooks, but I actually used the version shared by picky cook.

Heidi Swanson's Whole Grain Pancakes (from 101cookbooks), photo credit Heidi Swanson

whole grain pancakes with blueberry maple syrup

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup sugar (I used turbinado sugar)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I used 2)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups buttermilk (I used Kefir)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten (I used egg whites)
2 tablespoons butter, melted

butter, to serve (and for pan)

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter. Stir all the ingredients until they are just combined. Don’t worry if the batter is a bit lumpy, you don’t want to over mix.

Heat your skillet, pan, or griddle to medium-high and brush it with a bit of butter. Test for the right temperature. If a drop of water dropped onto the pan starts to dance, you are in the ballpark. Pour about 1/3 of a cup of batter into the skillet. Wait until the pancake bottom is deep golden in color, then flip with a spatula and cook the other side until golden and cooked through. Repeat with the remaining batter.

(taken from pickycook.com.)

I added sliced bananas and crumbled pecans and these were absolutely terrific, soft and sweet and homey-tasting, according to my friend Aneliya.  She told me I should run a bed and breakfast hosting all my friends who live in the city after I gave her a cappuccino.  What a thought.

Yes, I have my own logo (Thank you Betsy, my favorite blogger!  Visit her blog to see her fabulous scrapbooking and paper art creations.)

For the past two months, I have been brainstorming recipes, buying ingredients, and slicing thin and crunchy biscotti, then packaging them and storing them in the freezer.  This weekend, my biscotti are actually ON SALE at a craft fair here in Stamford called Holiday Happenings.  It’s at 68 Winding Brook Lane 10am-4pm from now until Sunday the 7th.  I’ve spent a lot of time there in the past few days, and they have a fabulous selection of arts and crafts, including jewelry, desserts, quilts, handbags, everything made by local artspeople and crafters.  I’ve actually been going to this fair since I was a kid (it’s been going on for the past 30 years.)  I’m really grateful to hear that I’ve sold quite a few bags since the fair started.

At the fair

I made six varieties:

1. Pumpkin Walnut Butterscotch Chip (recipe I developed myself)
2. “Palm Beach” Pecan Shortbread
3. Gingerful Spice
4. Cranberry Pistachio Orange (recipe from Fine Cooking Holiday Baking issue 2010)
5. Cranberry Hazelnut Spice
6. Chocolate Almond (made with both milk and dark chocolate chips)

Gingerful Spice

Cranberry Pistachio Orange