Simple Italy

Celebrating Your Inner Italian

Porcini Mushroom Antipasto

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Dried porcini funghi add true Tuscan savor to this fresh mushroom antipasto.

Dried porcini funghi add true Tuscan savor to this fresh mushroom antipasto.

Too often, outside of Italy, antipasto can be a tired tray of assorted salumi. Or, “lunchmeat,” as a server an “Italian” restaurant in Chicago, once hilariously answered, in response to our query about what came on the antipasto platter.

Throughout the regions of Italy, antipasto (before the meal), are varied, seasonal, and local. Seafood, robust cheeses, grilled vegetables, crostini with myriad spreads, cured olives, frittate, and more.

Porcini-Stuffed Baby Bello Mushrooms are an antipasto that’s right for any season. By supplementing fresh baby bello mushrooms with reconstituted dried porcini, you create a win-win. The intense porcini flavor (at a fraction of the cost of fresh funghi porcini–if you could find them) with the toothsome texture of fresh mushrooms and assorted seasonings. [Read more…]

Francis and Francis

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The former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is reported to live a life of humility and caring for the poor.

The former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is reported to live a life of humility and caring for the poor.

After much pomp and circumstance, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is elected Pope Francis.

It’s been widely reported that Bergoglio chose the name Francis to honor St. Francis of Assisi. This puzzles me. First, he’s not a Franciscan; he’s a Jesuit. And second, I’ve always thought of the Jesuits as intellectual and elitist.

Like Francis of Assisi, Bergoglio is reported to embrace the poor, the homeless, the diseased, the disenfranchised. But unlike Francis of Assisi, who never became comfortable with the power and politics of the Roman Catholic Church, Bergoglio is now the capo di capi of this wealthy and (despite its many current challenges) influential institution.

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A Tavola

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Yesterday I listened to an NPR report about the state of the family meal in America.

This was the scene of one family that was interviewed. At 6:02 p.m., three children sat down to supper. The mother and father did not eat with the children (they planned to eat later). The father wasn’t at the table. He was checking his phone. Grandpa was nearby looking at his iPad. The TV was blaring in the background. The meal lasted for eight minutes.

Cena_2

In Florence, as everywhere in Italy, dining is a celebration of life.

A few years ago on a research trip to Rome, I connected with Giuliana, the former neighbor of an American friend who had lived in Rome for a while. We agreed to meet one spring evening at the Spanish Steps.

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The Most Beautiful Italian Love Song?

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watercolor by Walter Sanders

Watercolor by Walter Sanders

I search google.it for la canzone d’amore più bella (the most beautiful love song) and get 741,000 entries.

The first is a YouTube post of “Adagio,” sung by Lara Fabian. With more than 3 million viewings, it merited a listen from me. I found the song a tad overwrought—more longing than loving–but seems as if I may be in the minority.

The second link is a blog called clo&demk that couldn’t limit itself to just one melody. Its Le 200 Canzoni D’Amore Più Belle di Tutti i Tempo (The 200 Most Beautiful Love Songs of All Time) leads with “I Say a Little Prayer” by Aretha Franklin. Sorry, it’s a sweet song but not Italian.

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Joyce Heitler’s Inner Italian

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By Joyce Heitler, guest writer

Joyce Heitler in the southern hill town of Piciotta.

Joyce Heitler in the southern hill town of Pisciotta.

Retired from teaching kindergarten in Chicago after 45 years, I, too, have an Inner Italian.

My husband Frank and I went to Italy about 11 years ago with my son- in-law Renato, who was born in Italy, to see his sick uncle in Tuscany. The uncle lived in a beautiful four-story castle with antique furniture.

We decided to learn Italian so Frank looked up schools on the Internet and found a small language school in Pisciotta, about one hour south of Salerno. The photos looked fabulous and we signed up for a three-week total immersion class. After one week, I fell in love with Pisciotta and the people. Being the impulsive person that I am, I decided to buy an apartment there.

Not many apartments were available for sale so when I went to church I prayed that I would find a place. When I left church, a man, who had heard us speaking English, approached us. His name was Agnello, named after the patron saint of Pisciotta. He had worked in New York for 12 years and then moved back to Pisciotta. I asked him if he knew of anyone who had a house for sale and he said, “Yes, me.”

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Italian Savoy Cabbage and Rice Soup

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Crinkly leafed Savoy cabbage is milder and more tender than regular white cabbage.

Crinkly leafed Savoy cabbage is milder and more tender than regular white cabbage.

My Inner Italian cook is liberated from geography. When it’s sweltering at my home in eastern Pennsylvania, I can toss pasta with juicy plum tomatoes, olive oil, and basil and call it supper. Just as they do in the sunny south.

When overnight temps dip into the teens, however, I can head north to the Alpine region of Trentino Alto-Adige for mealtime inspiration. The northernmost part of this semi-autonomous region is culturally more German than Italian, with ingredients such as sauerkraut and poppy seeds showing up in local dishes. It’s the South Tyrol, a triangular point of land jutting north from Milan and Venice. Bolzano, the capital of Alto-Adige is 400 miles from Rome but a mere 170 miles from Munich, Germany.

Italian Savoy Cabbage and Rice Soup
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Recipe type: Soup
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 8
Cooks in the Trentino Alto-Adige intuitively know how to do is keep body and soul sustained with hearty soups like this Savoy Cabbage and Rice Soup enriched with pancetta.
Ingredients
  • 4 ounces cubed pancetta or slab bacon
  • Olive oil
  • 2 leeks, white and green part, sliced
2 carrots, thinly sliced
  • ½ cup fruity white wine
  • 1 head (1¼ pounds) Savoy cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
  • 3 quarts (12 cups) chicken or vegetable broth
  • 1 cup medium or long-grain white or brown rice
  • 2 teaspoons thyme
  • 2 dried bay leaves
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ cup minced flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 eggs
  • Grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
  1. Scatter the pancetta bacon or in a large pot set over medium heat. Glaze with olive oil. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes or until golden. Reduce the heat if the pancetta or bacon browns too fast.
  2. Add the leeks and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, or until golden.
  3. Add the wine. Increase the heat to high. Boil, scraping up any browned bits, for about 5 minutes, or until reduced by half. Add the cabbage, broth, rice, thyme, bay leaves, and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low.
  4. Cover partially and cook for 25 to 35 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Add the parsley and pepper. Remove and discard the bay leaves.
  5. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl. Gradually add 2 cups of broth skimmed from the soup. Add the egg mixture to the pot. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes, or until the soup thickens slightly.
  6. Garnish with Parmesan to taste.

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