briciole

fagiolina del Lago Trasimeno

cowpea of Lake Trasimeno

It is a bit strange to visit the city where one grew up and find some food never tasted before, but this is exactly what happened to me during my recent visit to Perugia. I entered a store to buy some lenticchie di Castelluccio (lentils of Castelluccio) and came out with some fagiolina del Trasimeno, a legume until then unknown to me. Both Lago Trasimeno and Castelluccio are located in my home region, Umbria.

According to this page, fagiolina has been grown around Lake Trasimeno since ancient times. However, starting in the 1960's, cultivation started to decline until, in the 90's, it almost stopped. Recently, thanks to the commitment of some farmers, the University of Perugia School of Agriculture and the regional government, cultivation of fagiolina is again on the rise and people like me are getting to know and appreciate this lovely legume. 

Fagiolina is the feminine version of the diminutive of fagiolo (bean). [Note that fagiolino, the diminutive of fagiolo, means snap bean.] The name fagiolina is endearing and so is the flavor of the cooked cowpea. The photo shows some fagiolina and some calypso beans and should give you a sense of the relative dimensions.

Fagiolina can be of different colors, the most common one being creamy white. The texture is soft and the flavor is delicate. The recipes are simple. I was given one at the store where I bought the fagiolina, but followed only the very last step, where it suggests to season the cooked fagiolina with salt, pepper and extra-virgin olive oil. 

Before getting to that last step, I cooked half a cup of fagiolina in 1.5 cups of water in a small saucepan. There is no soaking step. Following a recipe for beans in Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone", I added to the water half of a small onion, halved, a bay leaf, a clove of garlic, sliced, and a couple of sprigs of fresh parsley. I brought the water to a lively boil quickly and maintained it for five minutes, then covered the saucepan and lowered the heat to keep the water at a simmer. This is the way I cook beans. The recipe I was given at the store says to boil for 40 minutes, but my fagiolina was ready after 20 minutes of simmering. I let the fagiolina cool in its broth, removed the aromatics, drained and seasoned as above. This simple dish was a big hit at dinner.

This is my submission for My Legume Love Affair - Fifth Helping, the popular, legume-centered event that is the brainchild of Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook and that I have the honor of hosting this month.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Hear me pronounce the words on the fagiolina del Lago Trasimeno audio file [mp3] or go to the fagiolina del Lago Trasimeno audio page for more listening options.

Edizione speciale: Novel Food #6

Special Edition: Announcing Novel Food #6

The approaching change of the season (and pretty soon, of the year) is marked not only by the solstice, but also by the announcement of a new edition of Novel Food, the culinary/literary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I co-launched a few seasons ago. As in the previous editions, we are looking at published literary works to find culinary inspiration. 

If you are new to the event, and you are wondering what it is about, here are links to my portion of the roundup of all the previous editions. In each post you will find a link to Lisa's portion of the roundup. As you can see, we are slowly building an impressive collection of literary/culinary references: Autumn 2007, Winter 2007, Spring 2008, Summer 2008, Autumn 2008.

If we managed to wet your appetite, here are the simple rules for participating in Novel Food:

1. Prepare a dish of your choosing that has a connection to a published literary work (novel, novella, short story, memoir, bio).
2. Publish a post about it on your blog by Saturday December 20, 2008, 9 am (Pacific Time), referencing the Novel Food event. Include a link to this or Lisa's announcement. If you wish, you can use the Novel Food logo.
3. Send an e-mail to Lisa (webrina AT gmail DOT com) or to me (simosite AT mac DOT com) and include your name, blog name and blog address, and a permanent link to your post. Please, include the words "Novel Food" in the email subject, so we can more easily retrieve the message in our inbox.

Non-English submissions are fine. If possible, include an introduction in English.

Note: If you don't receive an answer to your email or a comment on your post within two days of sending me or Lisa the email, please contact us again: sometimes email messages get lost in cyberspace.

Lisa and I will do a roundup soon afterward the deadline: it will be our special Holiday culinary/literary present and you may find it useful in selecting a gift and/or compiling your wish list.

formaggio fatto in casa

homemade cheese

In a recent post, I described how I got interested in making cheese at home. Here, I will show a few photos of my most recent effort. But first an Italian word: caseificio (dairy). Remember that the Latin word for cheese was caseus: caseificio indicates where cheese is made. At regular intervals now, my kitchen becomes a miniature caseificio.

After we finished eating the cheese shown in the photo above, I made another one, using again the instructions for Farmhouse Cheddar from "Home Cheese Making" by Ricki Carroll. Again I halved the quantities and used a quart of fresh goat milk (latte di capra) and 3 quarts of non-fat cow milk (latte di mucca scremato), instead of whole milk. This time, however, I used some direct-set mesophilic starter and, when the cheese was dry, I coated it with red wax. Since I made the cheese on November 3, I decided to call it the "Election" cheese and I labeled it to that effect.

I then decided that it was time to graduate to a 2-gallon milk batch and also to try another hard cheese recipe from the same book: Stirred-curd Cheddar. Like the previous recipe, this one does not require the process of cheddaring: I'll try doing that when I become more experienced. This time, I took some photos to share. Because I am a total newbie, I need to pay close attention to every step and every detail, and cannot concentrate so much on photographing. As a result, the photos are not as inspiring as I would have liked them to be.

First I warmed up the milk (a mixture of fresh goat milk and cow milk, some non-fat and some reduced-fat, to continue my experiments in lower-fat cheese production), then added the starter and let it rest. I then added the rennet (caglio). The first important thing happens: the milk sets. I cut the white mass into cubes, called curds. The second important thing occurs as the temperature is slowly increased: the curds become smaller and denser. It's fascinating to watch this happen. The photo on the left shows the curds at the beginning of the heating process.

I drained the curds (cagliata), setting aside the whey (siero di latte) to make ricotta later. I added some salt, then let the curds rest. Then, it was time to take out the cheese press. Here's the cylinder with the fresh curds, before the first period of pressing. The pressing occurs in stages, each one longer than the one before and at increased pressure. At the end of each stage, I took the curds out and turned them over.

About 26 hours after I first drained the curds, the cheese came out of the press in its full (still a bit moist) glory, wrapped in a piece of cloth. Once unclothed, I left it to dry for three days and turned it over at regular intervals to allow for even drying. During the drying period, I kept the cheese on a wooden cutting board placed over the fridge. Finally, I waxed the cheese and, to honor the national event that had just taken place, I called it the "Presidential" cheese. 

Now Election Farmhouse Cheddar and Presidential Stirred-curd Cheddar keep each other company in the cool environment of our garage, where they will age (invecchiare) for some time. The former will be ready for tasting in early December, while the latter will have to wait until the new year before shedding its red coat. Making hard cheese is an exercise in patience. Before trying it, I gained some experience by making soft cheese, like Neufchâtel (this version of the recipe I used has helpful photos).

I find that making cheese is an intense activity, probably because I am still so inexperienced and therefore anxious about every step, and partly because after putting the curds in the press, I make ricotta, which takes another good hour. However, fare il formaggio (making cheese) is very satisfying, even at the basic level at which I am operating.

I am submitting this post to the year long Cheesepalooza project, organized by Valerie of A Canadian Foodie . Caerphilly is one of the cheeses that the group has made in December 2012, so I am contributing my adventures to the effort. This post contains the roundup of the event.

Hear me pronounce the words on the formaggio fatto in casa audio file [mp3] or go to the formaggio fatto in casa audio page for more listening options.

rocciata

A thin layer of dough envelopes pieces of apple (mela), nuts and raisins. It looks like a strudel, but it isn't: It's my rendition of rocciata, a dessert that I used to eat at the house of family friends in Foligno (Umbria).

To create my own version of rocciata, I started with the recipe on the Accademia Italiana della Cucina site, then did some experiments, based on my personal taste. I had my mother confirm with our friend that she uses an egg in the dough. She also adds to it some mistrà, an anise-flavored liqueur. I sprinkle semi di anice (anise seeds) on the apples instead. There are many variations on the basic theme of this traditional dish. Some of them include a rich filling: I prefer a simpler ensemble that lets each ingredient shine.

The dough for rocciata needs to be rolled really thin. I am sure that if I saw an expert making it, I would then make a better rocciata, but I am happy with the way it is — even though it is not as faithful to the tradition as it could be — because it allows me to bring to life a delicious memory.

Ingredients for the dough:

• 1 and 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
• 1/3 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
• 1 extra-large egg
• a pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (or more, to taste)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water

Ingredients for the filling:

• 1 lb and 3-4 oz peeled apples, cut into eights and then into 1/8-1/4"-thick slices
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (cannella)
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon anise seeds (a small quantity goes a long way in providing flavor)
• 3/4 cup raisins (uvetta)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts* (noci)
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts (pinoli)

* To prepare the walnuts, I bring a pan of water to the boil, add the walnuts and let them stand for one minute, then drain them and absorb the excess moisture with a towel. I spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and place them in the oven at 300 F until they have dried out, 15 minutes or so (instructions from "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison). I use a knife to chop them.

On a kneading board, combine flours and make a well in the center. Push aside a tablespoon of flour for later. Break the egg in the well and, with a fork, mix it with the surrounding flour. Add salt and sugar, then 4 tablespoons of the water and the olive oil. Mix with the flour to form a dough. Add more water (1-2 tablespoons) as you knead to make a soft dough. Use the flour set aside at the beginning to keep the surface non-stick. Shape the dough into a ball, cover it with a cloth and let it rest in a cool, dry place for 1/2 hour.

To prepare the filling, cover the raisins with lukewarm water. Put the apple slices in a mixing bowl and sprinkle them with cinnamon and lemon zest, then stir. Mix pine nuts and walnuts in a small bowl. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Drain the raisins. Roll the dough into a rectangle (or an approximation of it). I do this on a well-floured, creaseless patterned piece of cloth. If you skip the well-floured step, you'll regret it. Being able to see the pattern on the cloth gives me a measure of the thinness of the dough. Distribute the apple slices evenly over the dough, making a single layer and leaving a bit of space between each piece and its neighbors. Leave a 3/4" clear border around the perimeter. Sprinkle the anise seeds over the apple pieces, then scatter the nuts evenly, and finally the raisins.

Roll up the dough, starting from one of the long sides, tightly but without tearing it. Press the flap gently and roll the two ends to seal. The cloth may be helpful for the transfer on the baking sheet. I shape my rocciata, which my husband calls "the sea cucumber" (cetriolo di mare), into a sort of horseshoe. It may be bent further, very gently, into a spiral. Bake for 40 or so minutes until golden. Let cool, slice and enjoy the way the concentric layers of ingredients play in your mouth.

This is my contribution to Think Spice… , a monthly event founded by Sunita of Sunita’s World. The November edition is titled ...Think Anise and is hosted by historical recipe discoverer extraordinaire Manuela of Baking History.

This page contains the roundup of the event.

Hear me pronounce the words on the rocciata audio file [mp3] or go to the rocciata audio page for more listening options.

Cucina in California

In my first guest column for Francesca’s blog, I talked about farmers’ markets. My third contribution describes three other ways of buying or procuring food with which I have become acquainted in California: Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), community gardens and bulk products.

(The English version of the post follows the Italian version on the same page.)

legumi che passione!

My Legume Love Affair - Fifth Helping

As anticipated in a recent post and as announced by Sra of When My Soup Came Alive in her roundup of the event's fourth edition, I have the honor of being the host for the fifth edition of MLLA, the popular, legume-centered event that is the brainchild of Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook.

Participation in the event revolves around a recipe (savory or sweet) that involves one or more legumes. It can be a new post or a newly-posted one from your archive. The post must include a link to this announcement and also to Susan's post. Use of the beautiful logo, designed by Susan, is optional (as a side note, those are dried cannellini beans). If you have a recipe to share, but not a blog where to post it, send the recipe and other applicable pieces of information to me and I will add it to the roundup. 

Send an email to simosite[AT]mac[DOT]com with MLLA entry in the subject and containing the following information:

• Your Name
• Title and URL of Your Recipe Post
• Your Location: Optional
• Photo: Optional (but helpful)

The deadline is Sunday, November 30 at noon PST.

Note: If you don't receive an answer to your email or a comment on your post within two days of sending me the email, please contact me again: sometimes email messages get lost in cyberspace.

A cookbook winner will be drawn among the participants, compliments of Susan. This month's choice is Frozen Desserts by Caroline Liddell and Robin Weir. (Neither Susan nor I have any connection with the author or publisher of the book. I do, however, I own a copy of it.)

Let the legume celebration begin!

risotto integrale al pomodoro e salvia

whole-grain risotto with tomato and sage

Among the things (not all of them edible) that I brought back from Italy, there is a package of riso Carnaroli integrale (whole-grain Carnaroli rice) purchased at the farmers' market in Milan. The rice is grown in a farm (azienda agricola) not far from the city. The label describes the product as non trattato, which I interpret as meaning that no chemicals were used in growing it. The farm can be visited, and this is something I would like to do the next time I am in the area.

In the meantime, I used the riso integrale to make risotto. My plan was to use some pomodorini ciliegia (cherry tomatoes) and some of the salvia (sage) from my herb garden to season the risotto. I grow several kinds of sage and the one I used this time is the pineapple one, whose smell I love. When I got back home, some of the branches displayed pretty red flowers, which make hummingbirds very happy.

For this risotto, I used one cup of riso integrale. The package label suggests to soak the rice for 5-6 hours, which I did. Bring 2.5 cups of vegetable broth to a simmer in a small saucepan. In a bigger saucepan, warm up 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, then add to it 1/4 cup of onion, minced, plus several sage leaves, slivered, to taste. The quantity of sage depends not only on your taste, but also on the intensity of flavor of the kind you use and on the size of its leaves. As you can see from the photo, the leaves of my pineapple sage are fairly large. Cook for 5 minutes, then add 4 oz. of cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered (depending on their size). After 3-4 minutes, add the rice, drained, and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add a generous splash of white wine (not cold) and stir. A minute later, start adding the simmering broth, one ladleful at a time, letting the rice absorb it. Keep the risotto at a nice simmer and stir it at regular intervals. Make sure it never gets dry.

When you pour the last ladleful of broth, bring to simmer 1/2 cup of water and add it as needed until the rice is cooked (35 minutes in my case, consistent with the information on the label, which says 30-35 minutes). The texture will be different from risotto made with regular Arborio or Carnaroli, a bit chewy, instead of creamy: take that into account when tasting it.

As cheese accompaniment I chose 1/4 cup of myzithra, grated, whose flavor, I thought, would go well with those in the risotto. Ricotta salata would have been an alternative. Remove the pan from the heat, add the cheese of choice, adjust the salt, stir, then let the risotto rest, covered, for a few minutes while you gather the guests around the table.   

This is my submission for the (drumroll, please) third anniversary of Weekend Herb Blogging. My heartfelt congratulations to the creator of this popular blogging event, Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen. And many thanks as well, for being such an exceptional organizer. Here is the roundup of WHB #156.

After three years at the helm, Kalyn is passing the baton to Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once. Here is the introductory post from Haalo, where she explains what happens next.

Hear me pronounce the words on the risotto integrale al pomodoro e salvia audio file [mp3] or go to the risotto integrale al pomodoro e salvia audio page for more listening options.