Simple Italy

Celebrating Your Inner Italian

The Donati Family

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This article first appeared in the October 2012 issue
 of the award-winning subscription travel newsletter Dream of Italy

By Walter Sanders

Montestigliano is a compound of historic villas.

Montestigliano is a compound of historic villas and farm houses.

I felt at home in Villa Pipistrelli. That feeling of comfort was not an accident.

“It’s simple. We want our guests to feel like part of the family,” says Luisa Donati, marketing manager for the family’s Pipistrelli, Montestigliano, and Palazzo Donati Mercatello (in Le Marche) properties.

To feel like part of this family would be an honor. Signore Giancarlo Donati, the patriarch who’s in his 80s, is a talented business man with a big personality. Sixty some years ago, he learned to fly and bought a small plane. On one of his first flights he shocked the citizens of Mercatello by bombing the town with ripe peaches.

Virginia, the eldest child, is an architect, fearless singer, and animated dancer.

Massimo Donati discusses the olives that are raised to produce the family's signature olio d'olive.

Massimo Donati discusses the olives that are raised to produce the family’s signature extra vergine olio d’oliva.

Massimo is the farmer who manages the olive oil production, as well as the family’s efforts in sustainable energy from BioGas methane transfer. He’s also the leader in solar energy capture on the properties.

Damiano is the family accountant, a spirited singer, and master griller.

Marta provides administrative support for the business.

Together, the family has integrated its dream of sustainability, tourism, and a unique Tuscan experience into a business model that revolves around Agriturismo. (An Agriturismo is a government designation for an operating farm that rents lodging and provides food from its own production.)

The Big Cena at the Montestigliano Property

Once a week, guests from the Pipistrelli and Montestigliano properties are invited to a dinner hosted by the Donati family in the spacious top floor of the old granary. The food is prepared by Anna, the talented young Polish chef, who has been with the family for nearly ten years.

All the food is procured from local suppliers. The olives for the extra virgin oil are grown on the property. Luisa introduced me to a cheese maker named Fiametta whose four different pecorino cheeses were featured. Luisa told Fiametta that she would have the opportunity to address the 60 guests and speak briefly about her cheese, and that Luisa would translate. Fiametta looked very nervous about the prospect but we both encouraged her to try.

By the end of the evening, after Fiametta had taken several orders for cheese purchases, she said to Luisa, “That was great fun, I want to do it again sometime soon!” Ah, a celebrity is born.

Luisa and Massimo make everyone feel like family around their dining table.

Luisa and Massimo make everyone feel like family around their dining table.

I mixed with some of the guests who were staying at the Montestigliano property. Many of them told me that they had been visiting for decades with friends and relatives (some multi-generational) in tow.

The meal was excellent. All five Donati siblings  mingled with the guests. After dessert Damiano grabbed the karaoke microphone and kicked off an hour of singing and dancing.

To be continued:

Palazzo Donati Mercatello and nearby attractions

Making Fresh Pasta in Tuscany

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This article first appeared in the October 2012 issue
 of the award-winning subscription travel newsletter Dream of Italy

By Walter Sanders

Flour and egg transformed into gossamer sheets of fresh pasta.

Flour and egg transformed into gossamer sheets of fresh pasta.

While staying at Villa Pipistrelli just south of Siena, our group visited nearby Stigliano. We were on a mission: to learn how make fresh pasta from scratch. Our teachers were two older women from the village. They were beautiful, gracious and patient. Pasta-making rookies began combining ingredients, and our enthusiasm was evident despite beaten eggs leaking from collapsed flour walls.

With the help of our lovely mentors, everyone finished their dough and formed it into a ball. All the balls were kneaded together, then rolled flat, cut, stuffed, trimmed and transformed into ravioli.

The site was La Bottega di Stigliano, a combination retail shop—specializing in locally produced agricultural products—and a restaurant. The building was a former casa del popolo, a people’s house where in olden times farm workers would meet to sell products. The casa also served as a social center. It was, in a sense, a one-stop shop where people could fill their baskets with food and make social connections. [Read more…]

Is Cinta Senese the World’s Tastiest Pork?

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This article first appeared in the October 2012 issue
 of the award-winning subscription travel newsletter Dream of Italy

By Walter Sanders

Daniele Baruffaldi is a man’s man: bald, barrel-chested and strong. He’s as quick to laugh as he is to roar. Daniele is one of only 60 farmers certified to breed and raise the famed cinta Senese pigs. Cinta refers to the white “belt” marking around the shoulders of their otherwise black bodies. Senese means from Siena. This noble breed has deep roots. It is identifiable in Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s 1348 fresco “Effects of Good Government in the Country” still viewable in Siena’s Palazzo Communale.

Daniele Baruffaldi proudly shows off his heritage breed hogs.

Daniele Baruffaldi and his cinta Senese hogs.

The breed became nearly extinct over the last 40 years when Italian farmers imported the large white breed from the United Kingdom. These hogs grew to maturity quicker and produced leaner meat which was in marketing vogue at the time. The large white was crossbred with the cinta Senese to produce the grigio Senese. It made economic sense: faster growing meant less feed, quicker to market, leaner. “But it doesn’t have the flavor of cinta Senese,” declared Daniele.

Before long, the global population of pure-bred cinta Senese had been, according to Daniele, reduced to only two males and 20 females.

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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…]

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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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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