Simple Italy

Celebrating Your Inner Italian

Landhaven Bed and Breakfast Cooking Class

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Explore Italian cooking beyond pasta and pizza. Polenta, beans, potatoes, and rice dishes are so satisfying--and gluten-free.

Calling all Inner Italians in southeastern PA and central NJ!

I’m looking forward to teaching a Saturday evening class (January 21, 2012) “Savoring Italian Tastes” at the charming Landhaven Bed and Breakfast owned by Donna and Ed Land. Located in the village of Huff’s Church (Barto, PA), it’s an easy destination for anyone from the Lehigh Valley, the Philadelphia area, or west central NJ.

My class is part of a Food Lovers’ Weekend showcasing gluten-free cooking. On Saturday evening, I’ll show how to prepare delectable Italian dishes that just happen to be gluten free: Risotto with Shrimp and Peas; Cheesey Polenta all’Arrabiata; Zucchini Crust Tomato Basil Tart; Chicken and Red Potatoes alla Pizzaiola. You can sign up for my class only or enjoy a weekend package with two nights lodging with Donna’s incredible breakfast, 3 cooking classes, tastings, and field trips.

Call or e-mail Donna to register:

610.845.3257

donna@landhavenbandb.com

Prosciutto di Parma

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The hams are cured in the small prosciuttifici that dot the countryside around Parma.

As the gossamer slice of prosciutto di Parma melted on my tongue, my senses of taste and smell transported me. I was no longer in a crush of gabbing food folks in the uber-hip Santos Party House in lower Manhattan. I was soaring above the fertile gentle landscape of the Italian province of Parma.

Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto—Tuscan-born chef Cesare Casella’s recreation of a genuine salumeria on the upper West Side of Manhattan—was offering the sampling of Parma ham and other cured meats. The occasion was last night’s kick-off for the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ upcoming annual conference scheduled for the end of March in the Big Apple.

Observing the chef carving the prosciutto was a joy. With practiced rhythm, he used the foot-long knife to slice the Parma ham in one fluid motion parallel with the bone. Rotating the knife so that the flat side of the blade turned up, he gently lifted the slice onto a plate letting it fall in folds like a ribbon. Between slices, he ran his free hand over the surface presumably to smooth out any unevenness.

Parma Products Among Italy’s Finest

My encounter between tongue and brain reminded me of the loving labor that goes into producing the magnificent prosciutto di Parma which carries the PDO certification (Protected Designation of Origin) of the European Community.

The production is monitored from inception to inspection. Italian pigs are bred specifically for Parma ham production and fed a special diet that includes the whey left over from making Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. After nine months, they are butchered, the hind quarters are trimmed, salted, cured, and then air-dried. No sugar, nitrites, smoke, water, spices or additives are allowed. The entire process can take as long as two-and-one-half years and the finished ham will have lost one-quarter of its weight.

To learn more about this unique food product visit the Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma web site.

Piadina

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A piadina filled with prosciutto, cooked greens, and fresh ricotta cheese.

As la pizza is to i napoletani, la piadina is to i romagnoli.

In Romagna, the part of the Emilia-Romagna region on the Adriatic coast east of Bologna, the flat bread piadina is ubiquitous. It’s ancient and like so many other good foods was born of cucina povera. It consists of flour, strutto (lard), and water (sometimes milk). Numerous dialect names attest to its favor: Piada, pie, pjida, pièda, pji, pida.

Genuine piadine are flavored with pure lard which is soft at room temperature. If you can find unhydrogenated lard (I bought some at an Amish butcher) use it. Otherwise, olive oil is a better choice.

Piadina is flat like pizza but with important differences.

Pizza dough is prepared with yeast. Piadina is not although bicarbonate of soda is sometimes added.

Pizza dough contains no fat. Piadina is tenderized with lard and increasingly these days with olive oil.

Pizza is baked in a very hot oven while piadine are grilled on an unglazed terra cotta stone known as una teglia or uno testo. More energy efficient! Once upon a time, the grilling took place over the ashes of wood fires. Now it’s completed on a stovetop. A cast iron pan or griddle works beautifully.

Piadine actually have more in common with Mexican flour tortillas than with pizza. Like other quick breads, they must be eaten warm when they’re most flavorful and pliable. Cut into wedges, they are a welcome addition to an antipasto platter.

A vintage ad for piadine on a wall in Dozza: The best snacks with genuine products.

Piadine also make delectable panini. Thinly sliced prosciutto or other salumi, sautéed lascinato kale or chard, any soft cheese, arugula, whatever you fancy—just lay the fillings on top of the bread and fold.

Piadine are fun for a casual do-it-yourself supper where guests grill and fill their own. The dough can be mixed several hours ahead of time and left to sit, covered in plastic, at room temperature or in the refrigerator (warm to room temp before grilling).

I tried several different recipes from good sources, including a fine one from Chef Paul Bartolotta in Food & Wine. His piadine are 10-inches wide, a bit too broad for my cast iron skillet, so I narrowed the width.

I experimented with cooling and freezing piadine. I found the reheated breads almost better than the freshly grilled ones. Even in such a thin bread, the layers of pastry were more defined. [Read more…]

C-Colzani

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Flexibility makes yoga poses so much easier. It also makes travel so much more fun.

If Lisa B. hadn’t bent the rules that day on our way to Malpensa Airport, I might never have experienced C-Colzani Caffè. And that, i mie amici, would have been a major loss to my aspiring Inner Italian lifestyle.

C-Colzani has been named Gambero Rosso’s Bar of the Year for two years running. It is artisanal, sleek, smart, and gustoso. It is the creation of the young, talented brothers Marco and Andrea Colzani.

But I’m jumping ahead in the story. Lisa hadn’t premeditated going rogue but her instincts are sharp. As the representative of the travel firm sponsoring the familiarization trip to the Lake Como area, she was charged with keeping us on schedule. One evening, we dined at  il Griso hotel near Lecco on the eastern branch of the lake. [Read more…]

Cucina Povera

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Pomodori, Fagioli, e Cipolline (Roasted Tomatoes, Beans, and Onions) Photograph by Andrea Wyner

As cultural tourists, who among us isn’t dazzled by the Tuscan sun? We see ourselves feasting beneath its rays: Platters laden with antipasti, pasta, bistecca all fiorentina, Sangiovese wine, and sweets . . . la dolce vita.

But Tuscans in their 70s, 80s, and 90s tell a story of a different table.

These old kitchen hands are the witnesses who inform Pamela Sheldon Johns’ latest cookbook Cucina Povera: Tuscan Peasant Cooking (Andrews McMeel). Johns, an American cookbook author who owns Poggio Etrusco, an organic agritourismo near Montepulciano, has written a cultural and culinary history of a by-gone world. [Read more…]

Risotto alla Monzese

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Delicately seasoned luganega sausage and robust red wine are the flavor keys to this rice dish.

Photos make fine souvenirs but you can’t have them for dinner.

From now on, when I want to recall my visit to Monza last June, I can  reminisce over a plate of steaming risotto alla monzese (Monza Style Risotto) like the one  I sampled there.

The recipe comes courtesy of Guidarte guide and architect Laura Radaelli who escorted our media group around the charming medieval city.

In the course of exchanging e-mails to fact check my “Off the Beaten Track in Monza” article for Dream of Italy newsletter, I learned that Laura is an enthusiastic home cook. She shared some lore about the town’s signature dish along with the preparation method. [Read more…]