Celebrating Your Inner Italian
The wise Michael Pollan has done it again.
He’s preaching the Italian gospel of eating (although he doesn’t state it that way) — trying to save us from the foolish excess of ingesting manufactured stuff disguised as edibles.
For quick reference, he has distilled his mantra of “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” into a pocket book called Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.
Read about it at the New York Time’s Well blog.
Putting off little pleasures can lead to big regrets.
My wish to all in 2010, let’s take time to savor the joys that each day brings us, Italian-style.
Read John Tierney’s inspirational article in the New York Times
Inspired by Sicilian cucidati, fig cookies, this lemon-glazed tart is a holiday work of art.
Call me lazy — but not so lazy that I’d pass up the ideal holiday pastry.
I was crazy about cucidati, Sicilian tender-butter-crust filled fig and nut cookies, that are sweet, spicy and tart all at once. I’d gotten the recipe from Lee Davis and her son Tom Giliberto for a story I wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times. This was back when I had two young children and a full-time job so I didn’t have much spare time to roll and shape dozens of little stuffed pastry gems.
My AHA moment occurred when I realized I could adapt the recipe to make one BIG cookie (a tart baked in a removable bottom tart pan) that I could slice into wedges. For the winter holidays, I prepare this dessert up to a week before serving covered with foil and stored in a cool place. The honey, brandy, orange zest and spices actually mellow with time and enhance the flavor.
Italian-American master baker Nick Malgieri writes, “No one seems to agree about exactly what — besides figs — goes into the filling for these classic Sicilian cookies.” His version in Cookies Unlimited calls for almonds which are more typically Sicilian than walnuts. I, however, prefer walnuts but feel free to choose your own nut. Another area of confusion is the name. I have read many variations, including cuccidati, buccellati, and cuddureddi. Undoubtedly, they are all irresistible.
Have you eaten or baked Sicilian fig cookies? What are the ingredients that make yours special? What do you call them?
Melissa Muldoon is a freelance graphic designer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through her firm, Melissa Design, she creates graphics for Web and print. Raised in the Midwest, she studied studio art and history at Knox College. At the University of Illinois at Champaign, she worked as a teaching assistant and earned a Masters degree in Art History. Deciding she’d rather be “doing” art rather than “talking” about art, she pursued a career as a graphic designer. She is married to Patrick Muldoon and has three boys and a beagle. Her passion for art opened the door to Italy for her. During college she participated in a study abroad program in Florence and discovered a country full of history, culture and tradition, yet overflowing with contemporary style and quirky idiosyncrasies. Her love for art brought her “home” to Italy for the first time.
Q: Living “Italian”. . . Is it a great way to live or the greatest way to live?
A: Ma dai! Non c’e’ un modo migliore! Come on! There is no better way to live!
Q: Why?
A: Let me just start off by saying I am a classic type A personality. I am impatient, competitive and a list maker. I don’t know what I like better, adding things to my “to do” list or checking them off. I’m usually up late finishing a project or starting the next. I zoom from one appointment to the next and despise sitting in traffic or wasting time at stoplights. Now, while a type A lifestyle is great for getting things accomplished and moving ahead in life, it may not be the sanest way to live.
Fortunately for me, I found Italy and discovered how to “live Italian.” Italy is my alter ego. It balances out my yin and yang. When I am in Italy, time slows down and I relax. I let go and go with the flow. My senses are reawakened and my creative side is nurtured and flourishes. I savor meals and notice things like the multi-colored marzipan pastries elegantly displayed in the panetterie and bars, or the wheels of cheese stacked up like oversized building blocks in the corner markets. I feel the cobblestones, worn and rounded by time, under my feet. I hear the clang of the church bells and the ronzare of the Vespa bikes. I meet the most interesting people, Italian locals and fellow travelers, and develop long lasting friendships.
Settimo Dalla Ricca escorts us through the Grana Padana cheese factory in Mantova.
Subscribers to Kathy McCabe’s award-winning Italy travel newsletter Dream of Italy will see Sharon’s work in the November 2009 issue. She penned a profile of “Stile Mediterraneo Cooking and Wine School” owners Cinzia and Marika Rascazzo and also a feature “Sisters Share Their Private Puglia” with the siblings’ travel recommendations for their region on the heel of Italy.
If you don’t subscribe to Dream of Italy, there’s no better holiday gift for your Inner Italian. Check it out here.
The Florentine, a bi-weekly English newspaper published in Firenze, reports that “Netizens can now Tweet from the steps of Santa Croce or upload photos to Facebook in Piazza Signoria just minutes after taking them. The Firenze Wi-Fi initiative, which began on November 11, provides free, one-hour Internet access in 12 city squares and parks.”
To read the entire story, click here.