briciole

una serata alla Scala e mascarpone / an evening at La Scala and mascarpone

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

Welcome to the Teatro alla Scala, the crown jewel of Italian opera theaters.

the view from our box

Three years ago, we spent a memorable evening in this dazzling place.

my seat

The small screen displays the subtitles. My husband was able to select the English version of the subtitles.

bravi!

We watched Gaetano Donizetti's Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali: it is an opera about staging an opera and is quite amusing.

the front of the building

Looking at il tempio della lirica (the temple of lyrical opera) always makes me think of Giuseppe Verdi.

In this excerpt from the 1982 TV movie on Verdi's life, we see the young composer in the upper gallery of La Scala listening to Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love). And in this one, we see him having his first major success with the opera Nabucco. The soprano in the opera was Giuseppina Strepponi, who would become Verdi's partner and later his (second) wife.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele

Walking from La Scala to Piazza Duomo through the Galleria is nice any time of the day, particularly so at night.

at the intersection

This is one of the most elegant places in Italy and one I love dearly, as I dearly love Milano, the city where I lived for 10 years before moving to California.

In our tour of the Italian regions with the Abbecedario culinario d'Italia (Italian Culinary ABC), we have reach Lombardia (Lombardy), of which Milan is the capital. There are many beautiful places to visit in Lombardia besides Milan: Pavia, Mantova, Lake Como, Bergamo (home town of Donizetti), Cremona, Valtellina and many, many more.

My first contribution to the Abbecedario for this instalment was a recipe from my archive: polenta taragna, typical of Valtellina. My second contribution is the presentation of a variation on the recipe to make mascarpone, a cheese typical of the region, in particular the area around the city of Lodi. (Coincidentally, Strepponi was born in that city.)

I have already published a recipe for mascarpone. Last week, I decided to try to make cultured mascarpone, following the recipe by Jim Wallace, roughly halving the quantities. The result was very nice.

In this version, the cream and milk blend needs to be warmed up only to 86 F. Then, the culture takes it from there. The blend I used was made up of

• 1 1/2 cup (355 ml) heavy whipping cream 40% butterfat: this is a higher butterfat content than what I usually use (35%)
• 1 cup (235 ml) non-fat milk: this is more than I usually use, and I did it to balance out the higher butterfat content of the cream; the blend's overall butterfat content was 24%
  

I didn't have the direct-set crème fraîche culture, but I did have half a package of the direct-set fromagina culture, which includes the same lactic bacteria. Based on the description ("a cross between Fromage Blanc and Mascarpone"), I thought it would be fine to use it. Next time, I will try using crème fraîche culture to taste the difference. Both direct-set cultures contain a small amount of rennet to help form the curd.

I started the process in the evening, after sanitizing the pan and all the tools needed. I warmed up to 86 F the cream and milk blend to which I had added 5 drops of calcium chloride diluted in 2 tablespoons of cool water. At temperature, I added the culture as described in Jim's recipe. I left the covered pan undisturbed overnight, wrapped in a towel. The morning after, I found that the blend had set nicely into a very soft curd and was ready for the draining step.

I initially drained the mascarpone using a sterilized cotton napkin, as I usually do, but for some reason the draining was not proceeding well, so I moved the mascarpone onto a double layer of cheese mesh (also sterilized) and that worked well. I stopped the draining when the mascarpone had the desired consistency (see photo above). I collected the whey and froze it for later use to make bread.

The day the mascarpone was ready to be consumed, we had freshly picked peaches (pesche) from Neukom Family Farm and it seemed obvious to put the two together in a bowl. Nothing else is required: this is a rich and satisfying dessert that you eat slowly and cherish spoon after spoon. 

As this page on Lodi states:

The pride of local produce include cheeses, the most famous being Mascarpone, but also Pennerone, Lodi Granone, cheeses with flavours that these days are becoming hard to find. And the Raspadura, a grana-like fresh cheese traditionally served in thin slices cut with a special knife which makes the cheese curl in on itself.

the cheese and the special blade to make curls

 It is really fun to watch Raspadura being cut.

the blade at work

It is difficult to stop eating the sweet smelling curls of cheese once you open the container in which they are packaged for you. The writing on the apron says "tipico lodigiano" (typical from Lodi).

This is my submission for the 13th installment of the Abbecedario culinario d'Italia (Italian Culinary ABC), an event organized by Trattoria MuVarA that will bring us to visit all the 20 regions of Italy using the alphabet as guide. P come Pavia is hosted by Paola of Voglia di cucina...Voglia di sognare.... This page contains the list of dishes submitted to the event and a slide show.

And I suspect the cheese lovers participating in the year long Cheesepalooza project, organized by Valerie of A Canadian Foodie will enjoy watching some of the photos in this post. Mascarpone is one of the optional cheeses that the group will make this month, so I am contributing my mascarpone adventures to the effort.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

serata alla Scala e mascarpone

or launch the una serata alla Scala e mascarpone audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

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mascarpone, peach

Per i lettori italiani

Benevenuti al Teatro alla Scala.

veduta dal nostro palco

Tre anni fa passammo una serata memorabile in questo luogo davvero speciale.

la mia sedia

Un piccolo monitor personale mostra i sottotitoli. Mio marito ha potuto selezionare i sottotitoli in inglese.

bravi!

Abbiamo visto Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali di Gaetano Donizetti, un'opera che ha come tema la messa in scena di un'opera: davvero divertente.

la facciata

Il Teatro alla Scala mi fa sempre pensare a Giuseppe Verdi e allo sceneggiato che la RAI trasmise nel 1982. Di Verdi, proprio la scorsa stagione la San Francisco Opera ha messo in scena Attila, una co-produzione della Scala, regia di Gabriele Lavia, scene di Alessandro Camera e costumi di Andrea Viotti. Tra l'altro il direttore musicale dell'Opera è un italiano: Nicola Luisotti. Il quartetto italiano di cui sopra aveva già un'opera nel programma 2011-12, il Don Giovanni di Mozart. Entrambi gli spettacoli sono stati molto belli.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele

Camminare dalla Scala a Piazza Duomo attraverso la Galleria è un piacere ad ogni ora del giono, ma in particolare di sera quando è tutta illuminata.

sotto la cupola centrale

Questo è uno dei luoghi più eleganti d'Italia e uno che amo in modo particolare, come amo Milano, dove ho vissuto quasi 10 anni, prima di trasferirmi in California.

Nel nostro tour dell'Italia insieme alla carovana dell'Abbecedario culinario d'Italia siamo arrivati in Lombardia, dove ci sono molti posti bellissimi da visitare, a parte Milano: Pavia, Mantova, il Lago di Como, Bergamo, Cremona, la Valtellina e tanti altri.

Il mio primo contributo all'Abbecedario per questa tappa è stato una ricetta dal mio archivio: la polenta taragna, tipica della Valtellina. Il mio secondo contributo è la presentazione di una variazione della ricetta per fare il mascarpone, formaggio tipico lombardo, in particolare del lodigiano.

Una curiosità: in California c'è una città che si chiama Lodi (debitamente gemellata con la Lodi originale) e ci passiamo ogni volta che andiamo sulla Sierra Nevada. La Lodi californiana si trova nella San Joaquin Valley. Ma pare che Lodi sia un nome popolare nel Nuovo Mondo: guardate qui quante Lodi ci sono.

Ho già pubblicato una ricetta per fare il mascarpone in casa (post bilingue). Mi rendo conto che in Italia è molto più semplice comprarlo, ma vi assicuro che fare il mascarpone oltre ad essere relativamente semplice, dà molta soddisfazione. La ricetta di cui sopra fa uso di acido tartarico oppure di succo di limone. La scorsa settimana ho provato a fare il mascarpone con la coltura di batteri, seguendo la ricetta di Jim Wallace, e dimezzando (all'incirca) le quantità. Il risultato è molto buono. In questa versione è la miscela di panna e latte deve essere scaldata solo fino a 30 C, poi la coltura batterica si prende cura del resto, a temperatura ambiente.

La miscela di panna e latte che ho usato contiene

• 355 ml di panna da montare al 40% di grasso: questo contenuto di grasso è più elevato di quello che uso di solito (35%)
• 235 ml di latte scremato pastorizzato: questa quantità è maggiore di quella che uso di solito ma ho voluto bilanciare il più elevato contenuto di grasso della panna; ll contenuto totale di grasso della miscela è 24% (entro i valori ideali per fare il mascarpone)
  

Non avevo la coltura pronta per fare la crème fraîche, ma avevo mezzo pacchetto di coltura pronta per fromagina, che comprende gli stessi batteri lattici. In base alla descrizione ("un incrocio tra Fromage Blanc e Mascarpone"), ho pensato che sarebbe andata bene. La prossima volta proverò ad utilizzare la coltura per fare la crème fraîche per assaggiare la differenza. Entrambe le colture pronte contengono una piccola quantità di caglio.

La sera dopo cena, dopo aver sterilizzato una pentola e tutti gli strumenti che vengono a contatto con panna e latte, ho aggiunto 5 gocce di cloruro di calcio diluite in 30 ml di acqua fredda alla miscela, ho mescolato bene e poi l'ho scaldata fino a 30 C. Una volta raggiunta la temperatura, ho sparso la coltura sulla superficie, l'ho lasciata rinvenire per alcuni minuti e ho mescolato bene. Ho coperto la pentola e l'ho lasciata a temperatura ambiente, avvolta in un asciugamano per rallentare la perdita di calore. La mattina dopo ho trovato una cagliata soffice, pronta per essere drenata.

All'inizio ho usato, come al solito, un tovagliolo di cotone sterilizzato, ma per qualche motivo il drenaggio non procedeva bene e allora ho versato il mascarpone su un doppio strato di retina fitta per formaggio, anch'esso sterilizzato (il mio post precedente sul mascarpone fatto in casa comprende una foto e ulteriori dettagli sulla fase di drenaggio). Ho interrotto il drenaggio quando il mascarpone ha raggiunto la consistenza desiderata (vedi foto sopra). Il siero che ho raccolto l'ho congelato per uso futuro nel fare il pane.

Il giorno che il mascarpone era pronto per essere gustato ho ricevuto delle belle pesche appena colte dalla Neukom Family Farm e mi è sembrato ovvio mettere insieme i due. Non c'è bisogno di aggiungere altro: questo è un dessert ricco e soddisfacente da gustare lentamente, un cucchiaino dopo l'altro.

Come dice questa pagina dedicata ai cibi tipici del lodigiano:

Le glorie locali sono soprattutto i formaggi, il più famoso dei quali è il mascarpone, ma anche il pannerone, il granone Lodigiano, formaggio dal sapore oggi sempre più raro da trovare e la raspadura, un formaggio grana fresco che la tradizione vuole sia servito in sottili lamine che si arricciano su se stesse e raschiate sulla superficie della forma da un particolare coltello.

il formaggio e la lama speciale

Guardare mentre tagliano la raspadura è divertente.

la lama al lavoro

Poi è difficile smettere di mangiare le lamine di formaggio profumate.

Questo è un altro contributo all'Abbecedario culinario d'Italia, un evento organizzato dalla Trattoria MuVarA che ci porterà a visitare tutte le regioni italiane utilizzando come guida l'alfabeto. P come Pavia è ospitata da Paola di Voglia di cucina...Voglia di sognare...

Questa pagina contiene la lista dei piatti contribuiti all'evento e uno slide show.

un weekend di formaggio

a weekend of cheese

cheese tasting tray

A year ago, I attended my first cheese making 201 workshop with Jim Wallace and told the story in this post. It was a great experience, so last month, I traveled again to attend my second workshop with him: it was an excellent choice. During the two-day workshop, we made three Italian cheeses: caciocavallo, Taleggio and Bel Paese. We also tasted cheeses made by Jim (photo above) and by other students. From the top left corner and going around clockwise: robiola, toscano pepato, Bel Paese, caciocavallo, tomme au marc, cabra al vino, Taleggio. My favorite is the tomme au marc, a tomme aged buried in the grape skins and seeds left over from making wine. The cheese acquires subtle wine notes that are surprising and delightful.

caciocavallo curds draining before being molded

Caciocavallo is a pasta filata cheese from Southern Italy: I tasted and fell in love with it the first time when I visited Calabria as a teenager. If you don't know what pasta filata means, the photos will clarify the concept.

setting the stage for the next phase

When the drained curd mass reached the desired pH, Jim cut it in half and then cut each piece into strips and placed them in a bowl. The photo above shows the first half prepared for the next phase.

testing the stretch

Jim then added hot water in stages to the bowl to warm up the strips. Above, he tests a strip by stretching it.

making caciocavallo: stretching the curd

When the desired stretch is reached, the strips are worked together into a mass, then stretched, folded, and shaped. Finally, the cheese is immersed into cold water to firm up.

caciocavallo hanging to age

The first caciocavallo on the left is missing its bottom part: we ate it during the cheese tasting. The one next to it was made the day before the workshop. When I took the photo, the two caciocavallo we made in class were resting in the brine.

taleggio in the mold: early phase of draining

Then we made Taleggio, a washed-rind cheese I first tasted when I moved to Milan. At the point shown in the photo above, the curd mass was still draining, and during that time, it was flipped into the mold. After the first turn, the surface showed the pretty mold pattern.

pressing curds on one side of the pot

The second day, we made Bel Paese (about which I wrote some notes it in this post).

In the photo above, Jim is adjusting the cloth to smooth it out.

elegance of the folds

This beautiful cheese cloth is made of linen: it falls down into elegant folds. All the cheeses we made during class require aging, so we did not taste them. However, at the time of writing, I have a report saying that they are all doing well.

Besides talking about and making cheese with Jim and the other students, I did a few other things during the weekend, starting with meeting Jeri, who writes the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company blog. We corresponded a bit during the last year, so meeting her in person was very nice. We spent a late afternoon chatting, and together we visited a dream place for a home cheese-maker: a farm that sells certified raw milk (where I am, the sale of raw milk is illegal).

During the weekend, my husband and I wandered a bit around Shelburne Falls. First of all, we visited the store of the cutlery manufacturer Lamson & Goodnow. Last year, I took a lot of photos of the building, but did not go inside.

My husband got me a gift at the store: a knife to cut hard cheese.

Shelburne Falls is famous for its Bridge of Flowers (ponte dei fiori). The post from last year's visit has some photos of it. Here are two images that are a bit different. As I was walking on the bridge, I noticed the reflection of the building above on the Deerfield River.

Bridge of Flowers

And this is an image of the Bridge of Flowers taken from the parallel bridge, called the Iron Bridge, which is used by cars and has also a pedestrian lane.

A view of the Iron Bridge from the Riverwalk (on the Buckland side). In the foreground, you can see some of the damage caused last year by Hurricane Irene. A year later, I still like the red paint on the building in the middle a lot.

Update (August 15, 2012): my report on the weekend workshop is featured in today's post on the on the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company blog. Thanks!

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

un weekend di formaggio

or launch the un weekend di formaggio audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

Shelburne Falls, travel, cheese

visita a Yosemite

visit to Yosemite

Half Dome and a portion of Yosemite Valley

Every day is Earth Day (la Giornata della Terra). Yet, spending the day in Yosemite National Park made for a special celebration this year. Yosemite is one of the most famous parks in the US and rightly so.

California's oldest saloon (says the sign)

We spent the night before and the night after our visit to Yosemite at the Hotel Charlotte in Groveland, across the street from the saloon above.

Groveland was originally a gold rush town and then became a sleepy farming community until the San Francisco Hetch Hetchy water project made it their headquarters and built a railroad yard and hospital for the work crews (both now gone). From 1915 till 1935 Groveland was a boom town supporting seven hotels, 10,000 residents and much activity. [source]

Reading a few signs in Groveland made me realized that a number of Italian immigrants settled there: Laveroni, Cassaretto, DeFerrari.

The week prior to our visit, it had snowed, but we had perfect weather, a bit too warm, if anything. There were a lot of people in the Valley, especially around the Visitor Center, but it was not difficult to escape the crowd, since the vast majority of people don't hike on the trails. 

Lower Yosemite Fall

Yosemite in the spring means its waterfalls (cascate) are full and offer an amazing show (spettacolo). The three sections of Yosemite Falls — upper, middle and lower — combine to form the tallest waterfall in North America at 2,425 feet. A one-mile loop trail (sentiero) leads to the base of Lower Yosemite Fall (photo above).

Upper Yosemite Fall

You can hike all the way to the top of the Falls (it's an all-day hike). We started on that trail and turned around after reaching the view point where I took the photo above. Seeing Yosemite Falls in its powerful spring beauty, it is difficult to imagine that it goes dry in the summer. (The video on this page shows also what happens to the fall during the winter.)

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

visita a Yosemite

or launch the visita a Yosemite audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

Yosemite, travel

abiu, annona atemoya, carambola e rambutan

abiu, atemoya, starfruit and rambutan: four types of fruit (frutta) I have recently had the pleasure of eating while vacationing on the Big Island of Hawai'i

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

I fell in love with abiu two years ago, when we visited the Big Island for the first time. I talked about my first encounter with the fruit in this post, but I did not have a photo of it when ready to be eaten. Before taking the photo above, I partially scooped out a bit of the pulp (polpa) to offer a closer look.

[The fruit has] a pale, translucent pulp of a custard consistency that is easily scooped out with a spoon... The seeds are easily removed and are covered with a thin layer of adherent pulp. The fruit has a sweet, mild taste which may have a hint of pineapple but is best described as reminiscent of caramel flan. It is often used in ice cream or eaten out of hand. [source]

The largest abiu we ate was a gift from Claudia of Honey from Rock, whom my husband (marito) and I had the great pleasure of meeting, and whose garden I knew from her blog to be a place full of wonderful fruits. [This post on Claudia's blog has a photo of us in her kitchen. I will talk more about this visit in a future post.]

This is the original version of the sepia photo that I submitted to last week's edition of Black and White Wednesday. I purchased the fruit at the Kalapana Farmers' Market, which is held every Saturday at the SPACE. It was a small market, so I felt very conspicuous with my camera, and the few shots I took were not good. I decided to forget about the camera and focus on doing some shopping.

The great thing about shopping at the farmers' market is that you can ask questions from the person who grew the item you are interested in. The atemoya caught my attention and I asked about it: "It tastes like custard" is basically what I was told. The woman next to me picked up one of the two atemoyas available, looked at me and said "Get the other one," which I immediately did.

The atemoya was ripe, so as soon as we got back home, I tasted some: it was indeed like eating a custard flavored and sweetened to perfection. Atemoya is a hybrid of sugar apple and cherimoya (a fruit I am now eager to try).

The flesh is not segmented like that of the Cherimoya. It is very juicy and smooth, tasting slightly sweet and a little tart, reminiscent of a piña colada. The taste also resembles vanilla from its sugar apple parent. There are many inedible, toxic black seeds throughout the flesh of the atemoya. When ripe, the fruit can be scooped out of the shell and eaten chilled. [source]

From the same vendor, together with atemoya, I bought a vanilla pod (baccello di vaniglia) and some rambutan (below the atemoya in photo above), because their color and punkish look are adorable (the spines are actually pliable).

On Sunday, the big market on the road between Pahoa and Kea'au was canceled, since it was New Year's Day. It was a big disappointment for me, because when we visited it two years ago, we had a great time. However, there were a few vendors at the farmers' market in the village of Pahoa and there I shot a couple of photos...

and bought more rambutan. I particularly liked the way they were sold, still attached to the branch.

The fruit flesh is translucent, whitish or very pale pink, with a sweet, mildly acidic flavor... The best quality rambutan is generally that which is harvested still attached to the branch. [source]

Cutting the skin and making the fruit pop out of it is part of the pleasure of eating rambutan. In terms of flavor and texture, rambutan is similar to lychee (or litchi), with which I was already familiar.

There was a starfruit tree outside the Avocado Tree House where we stayed. But the best photo I took is of a case of starfruit at the market in Pahoa.

Claudia kindly gave us one from her garden, and I used it in the salad we ate the evening before we left.

I don't have a photo of the salad (insalata) I made that night. We actually had salad every day for dinner: with such a profusion of locally grown ingredients, it was an easy choice. Here are the ingredients I used for our dinner salads, the last three making up the dressing:

• mixed salad greens
• avocado, diced
• starfruit¹, sliced (this brief slide show explains how to prepare the starfruit)
• small tomatoes (pomodori), cut into quarters or eights
• sea salt, to taste
• homemade goat yogurt, a couple of tablespoons, to taste
• balsamic vinegar, to taste

You can use olive oil, if you want, but in my opinion, it was not necessary.

I believe that part of the intensity of flavor of the fruit we enjoyed on the Big Island was due to the fact that it had all ripened on the tree.

Now the question is: how can we go back to eating continental fruit after a few days of feasting on the amazing varieties I have just described? We hope to visit the Big Island again in the future to taste the fruit offered at its farmes' markets.

¹ As mentioned by Alicia in her comment below, people with kidney failure should avoid starfruit. More details can be read in the medical literature, for example here and here.

This is my contribution to edition #316 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and hosted this week by Simona of Simona's Kitchen.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

abiu, annona atemoya, carambola e rambutan

or launch the abiu, annona atemoya, carambola e rambutan audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.

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abiu, atemoya, rambutan, starfruit

Per i lettori italiani

abiu, annona atemoya, carambola and rambutan: quattro tipi di frutta che ho mangiato durante la recente vacanzina sull'isola di Hawaii. (Nota: l'isola di Hawaii è la più grande e la più orientale isola dell'arcipelago delle Hawaii; negli USA di solito ci si riferisce ad essa come "the Big Island" per evitare confusione tra isola e arcipelago.)

Mi sono innamorata dell'abiu due anni fa quando siamo stati ad Hawaii per la prima volta e ne ho parlato in questo post, ma non avevo una foto del frutto tagliato e pronto per essere mangiato. Prima di scattare la foto qui sopra ho affondato il cucchiaino nella polpa per far vedere meglio la sua consistenza.

La polpa è translucida e di colore pallido, ha consistenza cremosa e si può scavare facilmente con un cucchiaino... I semi, coperti da un sottile strato di polpa, si possono rimuovere facilmente. Il frutto ha un sapore dolce e delicato che può avere un accenno di ananas, ma è piu precisamente descritto come crème caramel. Viene usato spesso come ingrediente per preparare gelato o mangiato al naturale. [fonte; mia traduzione]

L'abiu più grosso che abbiamo mangiato ce lo ha regalato Claudia di Honey from Rock, che mio marito ed io abbiamo avuto il piacere di incontrare e il cui giardino sapevo fosse pieno di frutti meravigliosi. [Questo post sul blog di Claudia ha una foto di noi due nella sua cucina. Parlerò ancora di questa visita in un futuro post.]

Questa è la versione originale della foto con la quale ho contribuito la settimana scorsa all'evento Black and White Wednesday. La frutta ritratta l'ho comprata al farmers' market di Kalapana, che si tiene ogni sabato presso lo SPACE. Era un mercato piccolo e mi sono sentita un po' a disagio con la mia macchina fotografica e così le poche foto che ho fatto sono venute male. Ad un certo punto ho messo da parte la mio Nikon e mi sono concentrata sugli acquisti.

Il bello di fare la spesa al farmers' market è che si possono fare domande direttamente al produttore. L'annona atemoya ha colto la mia attenzione e alla mia domanda su che sapore avesse la venditrice mi ha praticamente detto che fosse come mangiare la crema. La signora vicino a me ha preso uno dei due frutti che c'erano nel cesto, mi ha guardata e mi ha detto: "Prendi l'altro," invito che ho immediatamente accettato.

L'annona atemoya era matura e quando siamo tornati a casa l'ho assaggiata subito: veramente è come mangiare della crema soda, dal sapore delicata e dolce quanto basta. L'Annona atemoya è un incrocio tra Annona squamosa e Annona cherimola. Quest'ultima viene coltivata anche in alcune zone della Calabria e della Sicilia orientale

La polpa non è segmentata come quella della cherimoya [Annona cherimola]. È molto succosa e liscia, dolce e sa di piña colada e vaniglia. Ci sono molti semi tossici sparsi nella polpa. Quando è matura, la polpa dell'atemoya si può scavare con un cucchiaino e separare dalla buccia. [fonte; libera traduzione mia]

Dalla stessa venditrice, oltre all'atemoya, ho comprato un baccello di vaniglia e dei rambutan (nella foto in altro sono sotto l'atemoya), ispirata dal loro colore e dal look un po' punk (le "spine" di fatto sono morbide).

La domenica, il grande mercato che si tiene in uno spazio lungo la strada tra Pahoa e Kea'au è stato cancellato perché era Capodanno. Mi è dispiaciuto molto, poiché quando siamo stati ad Hawaii due anni fa lo avevamo visitato e c'eravamo divertiti molto. Ma c'erano alcuni venditori al mercato nel paese di Pahoa e ho fatto un paio di foto...

e ho comprato più rambutan. Mi è piaciuto in modo particolare il modo in cui i frutti vengono venduti, ancora attaccati al rametto dell'albero.

La polpa è translucente, biancastra o rosa molto pallido, dal sapore dolce e leggermente acidulo... I rambutan di qualità migliore in genere sono quelli raccolti ancora attaccati all'albero. [fonte, traduzione mia]

Tagliare la buccia e far saltar fuori il frutto è parte del piacere del magiare i rambutan. Per quanto riguarda sapore e consistenza, i rambutan assomigliano ai litchi, che già conoscevo.

Vicino al nostro alloggio c'era un albero di carambola, ma la foto migliore dei frutti che ho scattato è questa, ancora al mercato di Pahoa.

Claudia ci ha gentilmente regalato una carambola dal suo giardino e l'ho usata come ingrediente dell'insalata che ho preparato per cena la sera prima di partire.

Non ho una foto di quella insalata. Di fatto, abbiamo mangiato insalata ogni sera: con una tale profusione di ingredienti di produzione locale, la scelta era ovvia. Questi sono gli ingredienti che ho usato per le insalate (gli ultimi tre sono il condimento):

• insalata mista
• avocado tagliato a dadini
• carambola¹ affettata (queste foto spiegano come si prepara la carambola)
• pomodorini, tagliati in 4 o 8
• sale fino, q.b.
• un paio di cucchiai di yogurt di capra fatto in casa
• aceto balsamico, q.b.

Potete usare olio d'oliva, se volete, ma a mio parere non è necessario.

Credo che parte dell'intensità del sapore della frutta che abbiamo mangiato durante la nostra vacanza è dovuta al fatto che era maturata sull'albero.

La mia domanda è: come si puo tornare a mangiare la frutta del continente dopo aver assaporato le delizie che ho descritto? Speriamo di visitare di nuovo l'isola di Hawaii per mangiare le delizie che sono disponibili nei suoi farmers' market.

¹ Come nota Alicia nel suo commento, persone affette da insufficienza renale devono evitare la carambola. Maggiori dettagli nella letterature medica, per esempio qui e qui.

Questo post è il mio contributo all'edizione numero 316 di Weekend Herb Blogging, un evento creato da Kalyn di Kalyn's Kitchen, organizzato ora da Haalo di Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once, la cui versione italiana è organizzata da Brii di briggishome, e ospitata questa settimana da Simona di Simona's Kitchen.

Questo post contiene la raccolt dell'evento.

fagioli monete del papa

Christmas Lima beans

For the current edition of Cook the Books, we are reading Harlot's Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss, and Greece by Patricia Volonakis Davis. The author falls in love with Greece — or, to be more precise, with her idea of it — then with a man of Greek origin, Gregori. Their marriage ends in divorce, but in the process, Volonakis Davis experiences life in her beloved Greece and gets to know herself and her capabilities. Throughout the book, the tone is delightfully self-deprecating, which makes the reading eminently enjoyable, even — maybe especially — when we recognize ourselves in the protagonist.

The book talked to me, so to say, on an additional level: In describing what it meant to grow up in an Italian-American family, Volonakis Davis shows that certain cultural values survived intact the Atlantic crossing. She does a great job explaining the concept of figura. I have an emotional — rather than intellectual — sense of what it means. It's a fundamental tenet of education in an Italian family: you are supposed to always fare una bella figura (literally, to cut a fine figure, in the sense of making a good impression), which then reflects well upon your family. The worst thing that can happen is fare una butta figura (literally, to cut a poor figure, in the sense of making a bad impression), which of course embarrasses the whole family. [Volonakis Davis also talks about malocchio (evil eye) and there, though I understand her, I have no direct experience: I don't remember anybody in my family ever mentioning it.]

Let me now move on to more lighthearted notes. At one point, Volonakis Davis talks about the beloved puppet mouse Topo Gigio and about calcio (soccer). One day, Topo Gigio was a guest at the Ed Sullivan Show. I honestly don't like that video for various reasons, so if you don't know who Topo Gigio is, I suggest you watch him sing Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" in this video. You can watch Topo Gigio on YouTube: I particularly like the videos where he is next to singer and dancer Raffaella Carrà. In talking about the soccer team (squadra di calcio) Cosmos, Volonakis Davis mentions the player Giorgio Chinaglia. I hadn't thought about Chinaglia in many years, but since my mother was a fan of Lazio, the team with which he played, I remember the brouhaha surrounding his move to the US (in 1976).

Back to the book, I read it with pleasure. I got very engrossed in the story, especially the part where Volonakis Davis builds a business while living in Greece. Food certainly plays a role: it could not be otherwise with an Italian family and a Greek one as protagonists. One of my favorite episodes of the book occurs in Crete, on the name day (in Italian, onomastico) of Gregori's uncle, who is a priest. Volonakis Davis describes the procedure followed to manage the visitors who come to the priest's house to offer well wishes: how visitors rotate in sitting with Papa Elias, what is served to whom, etc.

As the tension within the marriage grows, Patricia and Gregori express their unhappiness in various ways. For example, Gregori, called upon to prepare dinner, always makes beans, because his wife hates them (there is a bit more to the bean story, and you'll find out if you read the book). That reminded me of gigantes, the beautiful Greek giant beans (or elephant beans) I have admired in recipes by Ivy of Kopiaste and Peter of Kalofagas. I had never seen those beans, but I thought I would look for them, but then something happened that changed my plans.

In mid-October, I visited my hometown of Perugia and, as always when there, I went to Drogheria Bavicchi to get some legumes (see this post for more information). I was hoping to find more of the lenticchie nere ennesi that I described in this guest post, bu alas! no such luck. However, one cannot leave that store empty-handed: they have such a selection of legumes that I always find something new to me. This time was no exception. The first type of bean I got is quite large and really pretty, burgundy mottled. It is a type of lima bean that actually exists in this country too: it is called Christmas Lima or Chestnut Lima bean. I had in fact seen it in a store in the Bay Area and liked the way it looked.

The beans I purchased are called monete del Papa (literally, Pope's coins) and are not grown in Umbria, but they come from Piemonte, in the Italian Northwest. I was recommended to soak them for 24 hours. In terms of preparation, I decided to give the whole stage to the beans and their bold flavor reminiscent of boiled chestnuts (castagne, hence their name), with some onion (cipolla) as supporting cast. I prepared them the first time for my father and he liked them a lot. I bought more and prepared them for my husband in the same way.

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for fagioli monete del papa

Ingredients:

• 125 g / 4 oz. Christmas (or Chestnut) Lima beans (about 1 cup)
• 8 oz. cipollini onion (or other sweet onion), sliced into 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick half-moons
• olive oil
• several sprigs of fresh thyme
• sea salt and freshly milled black pepper, to taste

The way I cook beans for further use comes from "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison (Beans with Aromatics). Rinse beans well, then soak in 4 cups of water for 24 hours. Drain, place in a saucepan and add enought water to cover them by about one inch. Add a quarter of a large onion, halved, a bay leaf, a clove of garlic, quartered, and 3-4 sprigs of fresh parsley. Bring the water to a lively boil quickly, and keep it there for five minutes, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are ready. Note that these beans take quite a bit longer than smaller beans to cook. Taste them to assess when it is time to remove them from the heat. Let them cool in their broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them.

Oil a skillet and add onion and thyme leaves, and cook gently until onion is nice and soft. Add some broth, as needed, to keep the onion moist. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Drain beans and place in a bowl, add cooked onion, season appropriately, stir well and serve warm or at room temperature, with olive oil (olio d'oliva) drizzled on top.

As mentioned in a previous post, I get the "cipollini" onions in the photo from my mostly-fruit CSA, Neukom Family Farm. These onions are excellent in flavor and keep very well, so I am partial to them.

Going back to the passage that inspired me, I was particularly struck by the fact that in the relationship between Patricia and Gregori, food became a way of expressing growing unhappiness. We usually use food in the opposite way. Now, of course, I wonder if Volonakis Davis still hates beans. Update (December 14): in this post, you can read the answer to my question. Thanks, Patricia!

This is my contribution to the current edition of Cook the Books, hosted by Johanna of Food Junkie not Junk Food. You can find the guidelines for participating in the event here, and here is the announcement.

This post contains the roundup of the event. Update (December 14): the recipes contributed by Cook the Book Club's members are now featured on a page of the author's website.

The bold colored and flavored chestnut beans make this post suitable for My Legume Love Affair 41, the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, and hosted this month by Simona of briciole (that is, me).

This post contains the first part of the roundup and a link to the second part.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

fagioli monete del papa

or launch the fagioli monete del papa audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

bean, onion

cucinare in trasferta: fagioli pinto freschi al pomodoro

cooking while away from my kitchen: fresh pinto beans in tomato sauce

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

In my previous post, I talked about our trip to Milwaukee and visit to the Milwaukee Art Museum and Fondy Farmer's Market.

At the market, among other items, we bought fresh shelled pinto beans. As you can see from the photo, they were sold next to borlotti (cranberry beans), and in both podded and shelled version (pinto in the pink buckets, borlotti in the purple ones).

The plan was to prepare the beans with a tomato sauce and I could have bought some tomatoes at the market for that, but they were sold is largecontainers  and I was also not sure I would find a grater in the apartment where we were staying to make crushed tomatoes, so I relied on a can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes¹ to help me prepare the dish. What I made is losely related to fagioli all'uccelletto.

I like the depth of flavor of the fire-roasted tomatoes, which I think goes very well with beans. The bowl in the background contains a mix of polenta and corn meal (farina di mais) that I brought from home to prepare polenta. It was one of the food items I packed. Others were two containers of homemade cookies (more on those in an upcoming post), my homemade caciotta cheese (already mentioned in this post) and a supply of chocolate.

Printer-friendly version of briciole's recipe for fagioli pinto freschi al pomodoro

Ingredients :

• a cup of shelled fresh pinto beans
• a bit of olive oil
• a large shallot (scalogno), finely chopped
  
• a 14.5 oz. can of organic diced fire-roasted tomatoes
• sea salt, to taste
• basil (basilico) chiffonade, 5-6 leaves
  

Put the beans in a small saucepan and cover them with water (I used two cups). Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and cook the beans gently until just tender.

Warm up a bit of olive oil in a saucepan. Add the shallot, stir well to coat, then cook for a few minutes. Cover and continue cooking until the shallot is soft and translucent. Add the tomatoes, stir, bring to a gentle bubble, cover and cook for 10-12 minutes. If you want, mash some of the tomatoes with a potato masher or spoon.

Drain the beans and add to the tomato sauce. Again, bring back to a gentle bubble and cook for 15 minutes, or until the beans are cooked to your liking. Take the pan off the heat. Adjust the salt, if needed (the canned tomatoes contain salt), then add basil, and stir well to distribute.

Serving option #1: place a portion of beans in a bowl and distribute on the surface thin slices of caciotta or similar cheese. Cover the bowl and let stand for a few minutes, so the heat from the beans softens the cheese. Serve accompanied with toasted slices of country-style bread (pane casereccio).

Serving option #2: serve beans with a side of soft polenta. I will write more about my polenta soon. Suffice here to say that I added to it some of my caciotta cheese at the end of the cooking time. Again here you can experiment with other cheeses.

This is my submission for My Legume Love Affair 39, the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, and hosted this month by Cathy of What Would Cathy Eat?

This post contains the roundup of the event.

I am also sending this post to Tin Can Recipes, a monthly event that will run until the end of this year. The organizers are Ale, Fra, Sere and Paola of Il Giardino degli Aromi and Brii of briggishome. The rules for participating are detailed on this page.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

fagioli pinto freschi al pomodoro

or launch the fagioli pinto freschi al pomodoro audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

¹ The can of tomatoes in the photo is for information only: it is not an advertisement. I do not have a business relationship with the product's company.

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bean, corn, tomato

Per i lettori italiani

Nel post precedente ho parlato del nostro viaggio a Milwaukee e della visita al Milwaukee Art Museum e al Fondy Farmer's Market.

Al mercato abbiamo comprato, tra gli altri prodotti, un secchiello di fagioli pinto freschi sgranati. Come potete vedere nella foto, i fagioli pinto erano in vendita vicino ai borlotti, sia nel baccello che sgranati (i pinto nei secchielli rosa, i borlotti in quelli viola).

L'idea era quella di preparare i fagioli coi pomodori e per attuarla avrei potuto comprare dei pomodori al mercato, ma erano in vendita in cestelli piuttosto grossi e non ero sicura che nell'appartamento dove abbiamo alloggiato avrei trovato gli attrezzi per preparare la salsa, quindi ho deciso di comprare una scatola di pomodori arrostiti sulla fiamma a pezzi¹. Il piatto che ho preparato si ispira ai fagioli all'uccelletto.

La ciotola in secondo piano contiene farina di mais per fare la polenta che mi ero portata da casa (di fatto è un misto di quello che qui chiamano polenta, a grana piuttosto grossa, e cornmeal macinato a pietra, a grana più fine). Altri generi alimentari che avevo messo in valigia sono: due contenitori di biscotti fatti in casa (prossimamente su questo blog), la mia caciotta fatta in casa (già menzionata in questo post) e una scorta di cioccolato (mai viaggiare senza!).

Ingredienti per i fagioli al pomodoro:

• una tazza (240 ml) di fagioli pinto freschi sgranati (vedi Nota in basso)
  
• un po' di olio d'oliva
• uno scalogno piuttosto grosso, tagliato fine
• una scatola da 410 g di pomodori arrostiti sulla fiamma a pezzi
• sale, q.b.
• 5-6 foglie di basilico tagliate a chiffonade

Nota: non ho pesato i fagioli per mancanza di una bilancia, quindi ho solo il volume.

Mettere i fagioli in una piccola pentola e coprirli con acqua (io ho usato 2 tazze, 480 ml). Portare a ebollizione, abbassare la fiamma e cuocere a fuoco dolce fino a quando i fagioli sono appena teneri.

Scaldare un po' d'olio in una pentola, aggiungere lo scalogno, mescolare e lasciar cuocere per qualche minuto. Coprire e continuare a cuocere fino a quanto lo scalogno è tenero. Aggiungere i pomodori e mescolare. Portare a lieve bollore e far cuocere per 10-12 minuti. Se volete, potete schiacciare parte di pomodori con un cucchiaio.

Scolare i fagioli e aggiungerli ai pomodori. Portare a lieve bollore e far cuocere per 15 minuti o fino a quando i fagioli non siano cotti secondo il vostro gusto. Togliere la pentola dal fuoco, correggere il sale, se necessario (i pomodori in scatola contengono sale), aggiungere il basilico e mescolare bene.

Ho servito i fagioli in due modi:

1. Mettere una porzione di fagioli in una scodella e distribuire sulla superficioe delle fettine fine di caciotta o formaggio simile. Coprire la scodella e lasciar riposare per qualche minuto, in modo che il calore dei fagioli ammorbidisca il formaggio. Servire con fette di pane casereccio tostate.

2. Servire i fagioli con della polenta morbida condita con caciotta. Anche in questo caso potete usare altro formaggio di vostro gradimento.

Con questo post contribuisco all'evento Tin Can Recipes dedicato alla celebrazione dei 200 anni del cibo in scatola. L'organizzazione dell'evento è di Ale, Fra, Sere e Paola del blog Il Giardino degli Aromi e di Brii che scrive briggishome. Le regole per partecipare le trovate su questa pagina.

Questo post contiene la raccolta dell'evento.

Contribuisco anche all'evento My Legume Love Affair 39, edizione corrente del popolare evento sulle leguminose creato da Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, e ospitato questo mese da Cathy di What Would Cathy Eat?

Questo post contiene il riepilogo dell'evento.

¹ La scatola di pomodori nella foto è solo a titolo informativo: non è una pubblicità. Non ho alcun rapporto commerciale con l'azienda produttrice.

una visita a Milwaukee: il museo d'arte e il mercato

a visit to Milwaukee: museum and farmers' market

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

We recently went to Milwaukee and visited the famous Quadracci Pavilion of the Milwaukee Art Museum. The Pavilion, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary, was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. The gateway to the Museum is called Windhover Hall. Above it rises the spectacular Burke Brise Soleil,

a moveable, wing-like sunscreen that rests on top of the Museum’s vaulted, glass-enclosed Windhover Hall. The “wings” open Monday–Sunday at 10 a.m. with the Museum, close/reopen at noon, and close again with the Museum at 5 p.m.; except on Thursdays when the Museum closes at 8 p.m.

The day we visited the Museum, however, the wings were down due to some maintenance work, but at 5 p.m. we saw them open and then close again. I decided to position myself on the Reiman Bridge, the pedestrian suspension bridge (ponte) that connects the Museum to the city, so I admired the "flight" from the back.

The wings are slowly opening

And here they are almost back to their closed position: this side of Windhover Hall faces Lake Michigan

One of the Museum galleries, currently exhibiting drawings and models of the Pavilion

As usual with us, we rented a small apartment and I set things up so I could cook.

The first step was to find a farmers' market open on Sunday. If at all possible, I like to visit farmers' markets in the places where I find myself. In this case, we visited Fondy Farmers' Market, which occurs four days a week. The Sunday market was relatively small, but the visit was very interesting.

Beautiful vegetables and fruit are offered in plastic baskets and buckets, already weighed and prices, so as a visitor, you choose the basket of the vegetable or fruit you want and then empty it into your bag. While this system is regularly used for berries, cherry tomatoes, figs and some other items, I had never seen it employed for all products as here.

We bought apples, pears, a basket of yellow cherry tomatoes (which I oven-roasted to make this recipe), two ears of corn (pannocchie di granturco) and a bucket of fresh pinto beans. As you can see from the photo, they were sold next to borlotti (cranberry beans), and in both podded and shelled version (pinto in the pink buckets, borlotti in the purple ones). I will talk more about those beans in an upcoming post.

I was also intrigued by the origin of the majority of farmers at the market. Here and elsewhere, I read that there is a significant number of Hmong farmers in the Milwaukee area:

The Fondy market has deep roots, reaching back to the 1930s. From those origins through the 1980s, most farmers were European American. But the “face of the Wisconsin farmer” is changing, Kim explains, and today is comprised of both Hmong families, who farmed in Southeast Asia before emigrating to the U.S. as refugees, and post-college graduates, who grew up in cities or suburbs but are keen to make farming their livelihood.

Everybody we interacted with was very nice and we had a pleasant experience.

Parting shot: the Burke Brise Soleil seen from the Reiman Bridge after sunset

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

una visita a Milwaukee

or launch the una visita a Milwaukee audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

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market

Per i lettori italiani

Di recente siamo stati a Milwaukee e abbiamo visitato il famoso Quadracci Pavilion del Milwaukee Art Museum. Il Pavilion, che quest'anno celebra il decimo anniversario dall'inaugurazione, è stato progettato dell'architetto spagnolo Santiago Calatrava. La sala all'entrata del museo si chiama Windhover Hall. Al di sopra di essa si eleva lo spettacolare Burke Brise Soleil, una struttura mobile a forma di ali. Le "ali" si aprono alle 10 insieme al Museo, si chiudono e poi si riaprono a mezzogiorno, e poi si chiudono di nuovo col Museo, alle 17 (eccetto il giovedì quando il museo chiude alle 20).

Il giorno che abbiamo visitato il museo, le ali erano abbassate per lavori, ma alle 17 le abbiamo viste aprirsi e poi chiudersi. Ho deciso di ammirare il "volo" dal Reiman Bridge, il ponte pedonale che unisce il museo alla città.

Le ali si aprono

E in questa immagine sono di nuovo quasi chiuse. Questa facciata di Windhover Hall fronteggia il Lake Michigan

Una delle gallerie del museo, che in questo momento ospita una mostra di disegni e modelli del Pavilion

Come al solito, abbiamo affittato un piccolo appartamento e mi sono organizzata per cucinare.

Per prima cosa abbiamo cercato un farmers' market aperto di domenica. Se possibile, mi piace visitare mercati nei luoghi dove mi trovo. In questo caso, abbiamo visitato il Fondy Farmers' Market, che si tiene quattro giorni alla settimana. L'edizione domenicale era relativamente piccola, ma l'esperienza è stata molto interessante.

Verdura e frutta sono offerte in cestini e secchielli di plastica, già pesate e prezzate. Il visitatore sceglie il contenitore che vuole e lo vuota nella sua borsa. Questo sistema di vendita è regolarmente utilizzato per fragole, mirtilli, pomodori ciliegia, ecc., ma non lo avevo mai visto attuato per tutta la merce in vendita come qui.

Abbiamo acquistato mele, pere, un contenitore di pomodorini gialli (che ho cotto al forno per fare questa ricetta), due pannocchie di granturco e un secchiello di fagioli pinto freschi. Come potete vedere nella foto, i fagioli pinto erano in vendita vicino ai borlotti, sia nel baccello che sgranati (i pinto nei secchielli rosa, i borlotti in quelli viola). Tornerò a parlare dei fagioli in un prossimo post.

Mi ha incuriosito l'etnia della maggior parte dei venditori al mercato. Su questa pagina e altrove ho letto che nell'area di Milwaukee ci sono un numero significativo di agricoltori di etnia Hmong:

Il mercato ha radici profonde che risalgono agli anni trenta. Da tali origini fino agli anni ottanta, la maggior parte degli agricoltori era di origine americana-europea. Ma "la faccia dell'agricoltore del Wisconsin” sta cambiando, spiega Kim, e oggi comprende sia famiglie Hmong, che coltivavano la terra nell'Asia del sud-est prima di emigrare negli USA, e laureati che sono cresciuti in città o sobborghi e sono intenti a guadagnarsi la vita come coltivatori.

Tutte le persone con le quali abbiamo interagito erano gentilissime e la visita è stata molto piacevole.

Immagine finale: il Burke Brise Soleil visto dal Reiman Bridge subito dopo il tramonto

un weekend a Shelburne Falls

a weekend in Shelburne Falls (MA)

As I mentioned in a recent post, we recently spent a weekend in Shelburne Falls, MA. Before I tell you a bit more about our visit, let me clarify a language detail: The Italian word for weekend is fine settimana. (settimana means week; fine in this context means end). However, the English word weekend has become part of the spoken language, so I have ben using it in the title of posts where I talk about weekend trips (for example, here and here).

We went to Shelburne Falls, so I could attend a cheesemaking 201 workshop (more on this below) and my husband could visit a family member, who lives in the area. In terms of lodging options, we found a really nice apartment, which made our stay quite comfortable. As mentioned in this post, a well-furnished kitchen allowed me to cook while there, something that contributed to make our stay even more pleasant.

The two-day workshop kept me busy till fairly late in the afternoon (pomeriggio), so our exploration did not go further than the village itself on both sides of the Bridge of Flowers (ponte dei fiori), which spans the Deerfield River (The vehicle bridge parallel to it is called Truss Bridge).

As you can expect, there are falls (cascate) in Shelburne Falls, and here they are:

In the foreground of the photo, you can see another local attraction: the glacial potholes.

The Native Americans called this area Salmon Falls, and the fishing here was so fine that warring tribes made an agreement that they wouldn’t fight each other within one day’s walk of the falls... Ever since the end of the last Ice Age, stones trapped swirling in the riverbed have been grinding into the rock bed below, creating more than 50 near-perfect circles. (source: Lonely Planet)

Past the falls, there are two other points of interest, the Trolley Museum (which we did not get to visit, because it closed too early for my schedule) and the Lamson & Goodnow factory of cutlery. The latter's building (from 1850) totally fascinated me and I went back to it every day, to see it in the evening light. The covered passage, in particular, intrigued me:

I loved the bright red paint on the building below, which was visible from above the falls and I have decided I will have our house painted that color, when we decide it is time to redo the outside. Don't you think it's fabulous?

The two-day cheese-making workshop was simply great. Jim Wallace, well known to anybody who has browsed the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company website and/or receives their monthly newsletter, generously shared his knowledge about not only the three cheeses that were part of the program (Reblochon, Brie and Tomme de Savoie), but also about a wide range of topics related to making cheese at home.

On both days, we had a cheese-tasting session that included some cheeses made by Jim and some made by workshop's participants. During the first session, I fell in love with a cheese called Tomme au Marc, which I hope to be able to make in the fall, the limiting factor being the availability of crushed grapes in which to age the cheese. Jim's recipes for various cheeses, including the ones mentioned above, are available on this page. 

The seven participants, myself included, had a lot of questions for Jim and he addressed all of them, while we followed his recipes for making the three cheeses on the agenda. One interesting thing that happened when we made both Reblochon and Brie is that, due to the richness of the cow milk (latte di mucca) used, we ended up with more curds than would fit in the prepared molds. In both cases Jim made extra cheese using non-standard molds, as you can see in the photo below, where one of the Reblochon cheeses is taller and narrower than the others.

The four photos on the slideshow below all pertain to the making of Reblochon. The last one shows the cheeses the day after they were made. (Click on a thumbnail to see a larger version of the photo)

• 
• 
• 
• 

We were free to take photos during the workshop, but I was usually too busy listening and taking notes, so I have only a small number of images. Here is a parting shot: I like this photo, because it shows a table with various things we used and the beautiful brie in its second mold (again this is how the cheese looked like the day after it was made), plus the two small ones Jim made with the extra curds.

 

Besides the newsletter, the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company has a blog containing a wealth of information on making cheese at home. For example, a recent post contains a list of cheese-making classes and also advice on how to choose a class that fits your needs. The third photo from the top shows Jim with a group of students: I was one of them not too long ago. My experience making English-style Coulommiers is featured in a recently published post: what an honor!

Being in Shelburne Falls reminded me of how pretty New England is. We visited the area some years ago in the fall, during foliage season, and I have fond memories of that trip. This time of the year, everything is green and blooming, from the Bridge of Flowers to the gardens in front of houses.

Exciting update (September 4, 2011): my report on the weekend in Shelburne Falls is featured in today's post on the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company blog. Thanks!

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

un weekend a Shelburne Falls

or launch the un weekend a Shelburne Falls audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

il parco nazionale di Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park

A little while ago, I wrote a post on Grand Teton National Park. During the same trip, we also visited Yellowstone National Park.

Established in 1872, Yellowstone National Park is America's first national park.

Yellostone was not the main destination of our trip and therefore I consider our visit only an appetizer (antipasto). I would like to go back and explore the park further. Grand Teton was absolutely beautiful. Yellowstone, however, was almost unbearably magnificent.

Yellowstone Caldera is one of the largest and most active calderas in the world. The spectacular geysers, boiling hot springs, and mud pots that have made Yellowstone famous -- and even the strikingly beautiful Grand Canyon of Yellowstone through which the Yellowstone River plunges -- owe their existence to the tremendous volcanic forces that have affected the region during the past 2 million years. Cataclysmic eruptions 2.0, 1.3, and 0.6 million years ago ejected huge volumes of rhyolite magma; each eruption formed a caldera and extensive layers of thick pyroclastic-flow deposits. The youngest caldera is an elliptical depression, nearly 80 kilometers long and 50 kilometers wide, that occupies much of Yellowstone National Park.

My first taste of the volcanic phenomena that occur in Yellowstone was during an afternoon drive from Grand Teton to Old Faithful. (Grand Teton is south of Yellowstone: here is a map.)

Old Faithful at the end of one of its eruptions

"despite the myth, this geyser has never erupted at exact hourly intervals, nor is it the largest or most regular geyser in Yellowstone. However, it does erupt more frequently than any other of the large geysers."

Castle Geyser

Untitled Punch Bowl Spring [I believe]

The beautiful Yellowstone River.

Bison grazing along the Yellowstone River

Seeing bison was one of the highlights of the trip.We actually saw many up close and personal, as they share the road with cars. As far as I could tell, they know about driving walking on the right. However, they are not ready to change their speed to accommodate cars, so you must be ready to slow down to their pace.

I get very emotional when I approach animals, so my close-up photos are not very good. The most thrilling encounter was with a wolf (lupo) that crossed the road and ran alongside our car for a brief moment. I was driving and could not take a photo. We also saw a couple of grizzly bears having fun in the woods, lots of deer, a beautiful male elk proud of his antler and pretty pronghorn (no moose, which was a disappointment and another reason I want to go back).

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was another highlight of the visit.

The Lower Falls (cascate) viewed from Uncle Tom's Trail
"The trail drops 500 feet (150 m) in a series of more than 300 stairs and paved inclines."

Clepsydra Geyser (Fountain Paint Pot)

Throughtout the park there is signage explaining what causes the different phenomena visitors can observe, from geysers to mudpots, to hot springs.

Celestine Pool (Fountain Paint Pot)
"As in many of the pools around Yellowstone, the water in this pretty pool is usually within a few degrees of boiling."

Grand Prismatic Spring (Midway Geyser Basin)
Microorganisms called thermophiles cause this incredible display of colors.

Excelsior Geyser Crater (Midway Geyser Basin)

"Yellowstone contains approximately one-half of the world’s hydrothermal features. There are over 10,000 hydrothermal features, including over 300 geysers, in the park."

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

il parco nazionale di Yellowstone

or launch the il parco nazionale di Yellowstone audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

il parco nazionale del Grand Teton

Grand Teton National Park

My adoptive country has many stunningly beautiful parks. Here, I will share some photos I took in September (right after Labor Day) during a short vacation (vacanza) in Grand Teton National Park. (There will be no food in this post.)

Per i lettori italiani: potete leggere informazioni sul parco su questa pagina.

The first day of our stay, the weather was perfect and we spent several hours kayaking on String Lake and Leigh Lake. The following day, however, a front (perturbazione) arrived.

The front signaled the change of the season. It brought snow (neve) on the mountains (montagne). This forced us to change our original plans. For the backpacking portion of our trip, my husband had chosen Paintbrush Canyon. First, we had to cancel our first day of backpacking, due to bad weather.

Then, the following day, when we tried to reach our campsite, we had to turn around and camp at a lower altitude, because of the snow. The tiny dot of red in the photo above is an Indian paintbrush, the state flower of Wyoming, where the park is located.

The mountain in the photo was just above our campsite: its profile reminded me of the Sydney Opera House.

The view from the campsite, towards the end of the day. It was about to get really cold really fast.

The morning after: our tent sat in a magical landscape. We were the only humans around.

After breakfast, we hiked up into the canyon again, and were able to reach the site where we had planned to camp: Holly Lake. Then we turned around, as we were not equipped for walking on fresh snow.

Parting shot: A classic image of Jackson Lake mirroring the Teaton Range. Not a perfect mirror (specchio), but considering the weather that we had just had, not a bad souvenir. At this point, we were on our way to the other destination of our trip: Yellowstone National Park.

If the images above have made you hungry for more, the Grand Teton National Park web site has a section with a photo gallery and multimedia presentations.

Per i lettori italiani: se volete vedere altre immagini, il sito web del parco ha una sezione con fotografie e presentazioni multimediali.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

il parco nazionale del Grand Teton

or launch the il parco nazionale del Grand Teton audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]