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In the Mood for Molise, Italy

Posted September 19, 2019 by Sharon 1 Comment

The village of San Giuliano del Sannio in Molise.

My love affair with Italy started in Tuscany a long time ago but has expanded to other regions since then. The more I traveled and reported throughout the peninsula, the more I discovered new ingredients and cooking styles, dialects that didn’t sound like Dante’s Tuscan Italian, myriad cultural heritages, new-to-me wines, and more Saints Feast Days than I can recount. Maybe, I thought, there’s no such thing as “Italian culture” but rather “Italian cultures.”

The boulevards in Turin, Piedmont, looked more to me like Paris than Rome.

The white city of Ostuni, Puglia, resembled a sun-bleached Greek island instead of a hilltown floating in a silver-green sea of olive trees.

Ponte de Legno in Alpine Lombardy seemed Swiss while the architecture of Modica in southern Sicily appeared Spanish. Yet, all these places and more are the vibrant threads in the glorious tapestry of Italy.

Intrigued by all of these Italys, I’ve promised myself to spend quality time in each of the nation’s 20 regions, roughly the equivalent of a US state.

These are the regions I’ve explored:
Toscana
Umbria
Lazio
Emilia-Romagna
Veneto
Piemonte
Lombardia
Abruzzo
Puglia
Basilicata
Le Marche
Campania

On a trip from March-June this year, Walter and I checked out Liguria, Sardinia, Sicilia, and Molise.

Molise has been on my radar screen for the last year or so. Travel media have begun promoting it as “undiscovered,” “unspoiled,” and “not touristy.” Can calling it “the next Tuscany” be far off?

What You Won’t Find in Molise: Tourists

Hilltowns dot the countryside of Molise.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Abruzzo, Culture, Miscellany, Molise Tagged With: bucket list, Campobasso, Italian regions, Italian tourism, italian travel, Italy off the beaten path, Molise, Southern Italy, the next Tuscany

Italy’s Embarrassment of Riches

Posted March 26, 2014 by Sharon 1 Comment

Martina Franca

Piazza Plebiscito in the Baroque centro storico of Martina Franca. The town hosts a summer opera Festival della Valle d’Itria.

A lifetime isn’t enough time to really know Italy. I feel I know a bit about Italy but in reality, I have so much more to know.

I’m fortunate to have traveled through 15 of the country’s 20 regions. The five I have yet to visit are: Aosta, Trentino Alto-Adige, Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Sardinia, and Calabria.

When I’m not in Italy, I’m thinking about Italy, a constant student learning about the magnificent cities, towns, history, art, cuisine, wine, and culture. I dream and scheme about places to experience and things to do the “next time.”

So how can it be that of the “10 Places to Downshift to Italy” post on Swide, I have only been to one?

That one selection—Martina Franca, Puglia—resonates enough to make me trust Elisa della Barba’s other nine choices. When Walter and I visited Martina Franca one breezy March evening a few years ago, we felt at home. “I could live here,” we exclaimed in unison.

So peruse these 10 enticing places—from a fishing town on an island in a lake in Lombardia to a hillside of dazzling whitewashed houses in Basilicata. Someday you may know them and make them your own.

Filed Under: Abruzzo, Basilicata, Culture, Le Marche, Lifestyle, Puglia, Sicily, Travel Tagged With: beautiful Italian towns, expatriate guide to Italy, live in Italy, places to live in Italy

Abruzzo Green Tomato Pasta

Posted October 24, 2013 by Sharon 6 Comments

Chopped green tomatoes are seasoned with parsley, hot pepper flakes, garlic, celery, and olive oil in this unusual pasta sauce.

Chopped green tomatoes are seasoned with parsley, hot pepper flakes, garlic, celery, and olive oil in this unusual pasta sauce.

Since I wrote about Miriam Rubin’s delightful cookbook Tomatoes back in May, I’ve been intending to try her recipe for Green Tomato Pasta Sauce from the region of Abruzzo. I was intrigued because I’d never eaten anything like it or even seen a recipe for an unripe tomato sauce.

I panicked recently when the weather forecast predicted an overnight frost. I hadn’t tried the green tomato dish and time was running out. Unlike Rubin, who is a dedicated home vegetable grower and pens the “Miriam’s Garden” column for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, I do not have a patch from which to pluck tomatoes. A generous gardening friend donated some green fruit to enable the test.

onthevineThe sauce is easy to prepare. It’s a lively blending of tart fruit, hot pepper, rich olive oil, and plenty of garlic. I believe it would be a good recipe to use in the winter months with pale, firm supermarket tomatoes. I’m going to give that a try, too.

I’m curious if any SimpleItaly readers have relatives or friends who live in, or are from, Abruzzo who prepare a similar sauce. Please share a Comment if you do.

 

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Abruzzo, Books, Food, Gardening, Markets, Mediterranean diet, Recipes Tagged With: Abruzzese cooking, Italian cooking, Italian green tomato pasta sauce, recipes from Abruzzo, unusual pasta sauces

Growing Garlic

Posted November 15, 2012 by Sharon 4 Comments

Garlic bulbs imported by Seeds from Italy.

Back in September, I opened the Seeds from Italy promotional email in my Inbox. The company is the exclusive U.S. distributor for Franchi Seeds.

“Four garlic varieties have just arrived from Italy. Ready to plant now,” the copy proclaimed.

Since I had been savoring fresh garlic from the Farmers’ Market for weeks, I was intrigued with the concept that I could grow my own. Like daffodil bulbs tucked below ground in autumn to bloom seemingly like magic in spring, I could sow garlic cloves in September for a (practically) effortless flavor bonanza next spring and summer. My kind of gardening.

I knew right away that I wanted the Rossa di Sulmona with its plump bulbs wrapped in mauve tinged skin. I guessed that maybe this variety had been cultivated in Sulmona, a charming town in Abruzzo, which rendered it even more appealing. I made a mental note to order some.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Abruzzo, Food, Gardening, Markets, Mediterranean diet Tagged With: garlic, growing garlic, Italian garlic, Italian seeds, rossa di sulmona

The Inner Italian Q & A: Linda Dini Jenkins

Posted March 14, 2012 by Sharon 7 Comments

One in an occasional series of conversations with those who try to “live Italian” wherever they are.

"La Principessa" in Perugia

Linda Dini Jenkins is a freelance travel writer and photographer and the author of Up at the Villa: Travels with my Husband (more later on how to win a free copy!). She also blogs regularly about travel and travel writing at Travel the Write Way and teaches creative writing and journaling. She enjoys taking small groups of friends, to explore what Italy has to offer beyond the Florence-Venice-Rome triumvirate, and she can pack her suitcase in 15 minutes.

◊ ◊ ◊

Q: Living “Italian”. . . Is it a great way to live or the greatest way to live?
A: Well, I think it’s the greatest way to live. When you take into account the slower pace of life (outside the big cities!), the immersion in history and art, the fantastic cuisine, the love of design and music, the respect for taking time out to enjoy the simple things . . . whether it’s Italian or Mediterranean or European, it’s how I want to live.

Q: Why?
A: Are you kidding? Start with the food, the design sensibilities, the language, the arts, the vino, the pausa, the passeggiata . . . need I go on?

Q: When did you discover your Inner Italian? What is your Inner Italian named?
A: I always knew about my Inner Italian but, like other children of first-generation Italian-Americans who desperately wanted to assimilate, “being Italian” was something that just happened and was never really encouraged. In fact, I’d heard stories growing up of how hard it was for my father to be Italian in a New York suburb in the 1930s and ‘40s; even being Italian in my first job in New York in the 1970s was something of a liability. And I was always a little ashamed after that of being part Italian (my mother’s side of the family was English/Irish/German) until I met my husband and he took me to Italy in 2000. Since then, I have been a proud and vocal Italian-American. If my Inner Italian has a name and it needs to be something other than Linda, I suppose it’s Principessa . . .

Q: What does “living Italian” mean to you?
A: My grandparents came over from Italy in the late 1890s and they were anything but rich. So for me, living Italian has to do with cooking and eating together, always having crusty bread and wrinkled olives and green olive oil on the flowered oilcloth-covered table. It means not being afraid to be emotional—even if that involves fists and things flying when you’re angry. It means loving music and feeling the arts very deeply. It means trying to have a sense of style—of la bella figura—even if the clothes or table settings come from Target. And it means being a storyteller and a traveler and something of an adventurer.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Abruzzo, Amalfi, Architecture, Art, Bologna, Campania, Culture, Film, Florence, Food, Inner Italian Q & A, Language, Lifestyle, Miscellany, Rome, Travel, Tuscany, Venice, Wine Tagged With: Inner Italian Q & A, italian lifestyle, living like an Italian, wannabe Italians

Spaghetti Al Farouk

Posted June 20, 2011 by Sharon 4 Comments

 

 

As I meandered through the recipes of The Glorious Pasta of Italy by Domenica Marchetti, with France Ruffenach’s sensual photographs, my appetite revved from 0 to 60 in no time.

What to savor first?

Mafalde with Roasted Tomatoes, Robiola, and Crushed Fennel Seeds?

Maccheroni alla Chitarra with Ragù all’Abruzzese and Palottine?

The Candy-Wrapped Tortelli with Rainbow Chard and Ricotta (whimsically named because the pasta is twisted to resemble hard candy wrappers)?

Bigoli with Spicy Sardine Sauce?

Or… BLT Bucatini?

Turns out—none of the above.

The answer presented itself definitively on page 127: Spaghetti al Farouk. It wasn’t only the spaghetti, cream, seafood, and saffron that got to me. It was the charming anecdote that seasoned the dish. The story behind the pasta reminded me of the scene in Fellini’s Amacord where the Middle Eastern potentate arrives at the Grand Hotel with his harem.

Domenica describes is like this. . .

“This is a unique dish, and one that is near and dear to my heart. When I was a girl, my family owned a beach house on Abruzzo’s Adriatic coast. I have many wonderful memories of whiling away summer days on the beach with friends and enjoying late-night marathon meals that featured freshly caught local seafood. One of our favorite restaurants was right on the beach. My memory says it was on the outskirts of the port city of Pescara, but my mother swears it was in nearby Francavilla. Since she is originally from the region, I will defer to her on that detail. Neither of us remembers the name of the restaurant, but we do remember that it was a casual place with a reputation for impeccable fish and seafood. One of its signature dishes was Spaghetti al Farouk, a fanciful curried pasta dish that brimmed with fresh mussels, shrimp/prawns, and pannocchie (something like crayfish or tiny lobsters.) The dish was named for the deposed Egyptian king who fled to Italy in 1952, and the sauce was spicy, silky, and a deep gold. My mother re-created the recipe in her own kitchen in the 1970s, and I still have a typed copy that she gave me. I’ve tinkered with the sauce over the years, lightening it a bit and trying different quantities of the various spices. In all honesty, I can’t tell you whether it is anything like the original—it’s been some thirty years—but I can tell you that it is a sauce like no other.

Spaghetti al Farouk

Makes 4 to 6 servings

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 large yellow onion, chopped

Large pinch of saffron threads, pounded to a powder (see cook’s note)

1 tablespoon curry powder (preferably spicy)

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon minced fresh thyme

1 fresh bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Juice of 1/2 lemon

3/4 cup/180 ml dry white wine

1 cup/240 ml heavy/double cream

1 pound/455 g dried spaghetti

12 mussels, well scrubbed and debearded if necessary (see cook’s note)

16 large shrimp/prawns, peeled and deveined

6 ounces/170 g frozen shelled cooked langoustine tails (see cook’s note)

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and salt generously.

In a frying pan large enough to hold all of the seafood, warm the olive oil and butter over medium heat. When the butter is melted and begins to sizzle, add the onion and stir to coat with the oil and butter. Sauté, stirring frequently, for about 7 minutes, or until the onion is softened but not browned. Stir in the saffron, curry powder, ginger, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and a generous grind of pepper, taking care to incorporate all of the herbs and spices. Stir in the lemon juice, raise the heat to medium-high, and pour in the wine. Let the sauce simmer briskly for about 3 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the cream. Bring the sauce back to a very gentle simmer. If the pasta water is not yet boiling, reduce the heat under the sauce to low and wait until the pasta water boils.

Add the pasta to the boiling water, stir to separate the noodles, and cook according to the manufacturer’s instructions until al dente. Once the pasta is in the water, proceed with finishing the sauce.

Add the mussels, shrimp/prawns, and langoustine tails to the simmering sauce, cover, and cook for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the mussels open, the shrimp/prawns are just cooked through, and the langoustine tails are heated through. Discard any mussels that failed to open.

Drain the pasta into a colander set in the sink, reserving about 1 cup/240ml of the cooking water. If the frying pan is large enough to contain both the pasta and the sauce, add the pasta to the frying pan and gently toss the pasta and sauce to combine thoroughly, adding a splash or two of the cooking water if necessary to loosen the sauce. If the frying pan is not large enough, return the pasta to the pot, add about two-thirds of the sauce, toss to combine thoroughly, and then top with the remaining sauce when serving. Transfer the dressed pasta to a warmed serving bowl or shallow individual bowls. If you are preparing individual servings, be sure to divide the seafood evenly among them. Serve immediately.

Cook’s note: Saffron

Beautiful red-gold saffron threads (zafferano) are the dried stigmas of the purple-striped flowers of the Crocus sativus plant. Saffron from Abruzzo’s Navelli plain is among the best in the world. The spice is sold in two forms, powder and threads. The powder dissolves more easily, but it is also more easily tampered with. To be sure you are getting pure saffron, buy the threads and gently pound them to a powder before using. I use a mortar and pestle for pounding, but you can also press down on the threads with a heavy object, such as the flat side of a meat pounder or mallet.

Cook’s note: Shellfish

Much of the shellfish available these days is farm raised and therefore contains less dirt and grit than shellfish harvested from the wild. To clean mussels, scrub their shells with a stiff brush under cold running water. Discard any that do not close tightly when handled. If the mussels have beards, the fibrous tufts they use to hold on to pilings and rocks, you need to remove them. Using a towel or just bare fingers, grasp the beard gently but firmly and yank it toward the shell’s hinge. This will remove the fibers without tearing the mussel meat.

Frozen langoustine tails lack the flavor of fresh ones, but they are much more readily available and they have a nice, meaty texture that captures the sauce and absorbs its flavor.

Text copyright ©2011 by Domenica Marchetti

Photographs copyright ©2011 by France Ruffenach

Filed Under: Abruzzo, Culture, Food, Italian seafood, Miscellany, Recipes Tagged With: Domenica Marchetti, Italian seafood pasta, The Glorious Pasta of Italy

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