Miscellany – Page 11

Colosseum “Naming Rights”

Posted July 29, 2010 by Sharon 1 Comment

Telecom Italia Colosseum has a certain ring to it. Or maybe Fiat Group Colosseum will triumphantly cruise into the winners circle. But then again, the Banca Popolare di Milano may have deeper pockets to make the Colosseum its own.

If all goes to plan, a corporation could soon be restoring the Roman Colosseum, one of the most-recognized antiquities in the world.

As Ella Ide of Reuters reports in Italy Turns to Private Sector to Help Colosseum in the Washington Post, the cash-strapped Italian government is looking for a corporate angel to pony up $32 million to completely restore the Colosseum and make it fully accessible to visitors by 2013.

Of course, I’m using the phrase “naming rights” ironically. The article does not specify whether the donor will plaster its name on the facade. Plus, there is precedent. The Vatican carried through a controversial deal with Japan’s Nippon Television Network to fund the restoration of Michaelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. In return, Nippon filmed the entire project and also released a massive coffee table book documenting the process.

Are corporations the new-millenium Medici? Do business conglomerates know the first thing about restoring priceless antiquities? How do you feel about the Colosseum going begging?

Frank & Fred on the Road

Posted June 2, 2010 by Sharon 1 Comment

Starring Francesco Maria Talò, Consul General of Italy in New York and Fred Plotkin “Pleasure Activist,” Frank & Fred on the Road: Crusin’ New York, produced by Italian/American Digital Project, is a charming homage to la cultura italiana, cinema neorealisma and the iconic Fiat 500.

Bello!

Market to Table

Posted May 5, 2010 by Sharon 4 Comments

Berks County, PA farmers Charis and Michael, opening day of the Emmaus Farmers Market 2010.

How do I get in touch with my Inner Italian when I’m not in Italy? For seven months of the year, I purchase just-picked produce at my local farmers’ market. It’s one of the best ways I know of to eat “Italian.”

Dinner possibilities sprouted before me.

Walter grilled onions and asparagus coated in olive oil while I cooked rigatoni.

I tossed in some cooked cannellini beans and sage for the first of many simple, satisfying summer meals to come.

Sprinkle on freshly grated Parmesan or breadcrumbs crisped in olive oil for a vegan dish.

How does seasonal produce inspire your meals? Share your story.

Mad Men Rome

Posted October 6, 2009 by Sharon 3 Comments

250px-Madmenlogo Inner Italians who are fans of the award winning AMC TV program Mad Men received a gift-within-a-gift with Sunday night’s “Souvenir,” the eighth episode of the third season. (You can still catch it at various times on October 6 and 7. (Check the AMC schedule for days and times.)

We learn that gorgeous Betty Draper, frustrated early 1960s homemaker and wife of sizzling ad man Don Draper, has an Inner Italian that’s been stifled in the suburbs (just in case we don’t “get” that Betty’s really trapped, the Drapers reside in Ossining, NY, where Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison is located). Betty’s along for the ride on Don’s two-day visit to Rome (hmm, let’s see . . . fly across the Atlantic, have dinner, fly back across the Atlantic?) to check out client Conrad (call me Conny) Hilton’s property, the Rome Cavalieri.

To many Americans in the early 1960s, Rome seemed the height of jet-set glamour -- la dolce vita -- the sweet life.

Betty no sooner says grazie to the bellman than she’s on the phone in fluent Italian (albeit, not with a fabulous accent — not sure here if creator Matthew Weiner wanted her to speak with an accent or if actress January Jones had bad coaching) making an appointment at the parrucchiere (hair stylist). Next we see her in an outdoor cafe straight out of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, which was released in the U.S. in 1961, just a couple years before the Drapers fictional jaunt.

Betty is straight-up channeling the sultry ‘60s Italian actress Virna Lisi with a blonde updo, major eyeliner, and a very little black dress. Two Italian men at the next table take notice. Betty chooses to go with the man at the opposite table, who is her own husband Don, acting mysterious, just as he does when he’s away from her in Manhattan. (Check out the insightful blog commentary by Adam Wilson How Betty Draper Learned Italian (and Why I Don’t Care) at thefastertimes.com.

Rome has revitalized the troubled Draper marriage as we see when Don and Betty return to their room after dinner. The view from their window, with St. Peter’s dome in the distance, looks like the photograph on the “Deluxe Room” page at the Cavalieri Hilton Web site. (This show is known for its near fetishism in period detail, but seriously, this view looks like the art department just enlarged the photo.)

Back at home in her knotty pine kitchen, Betty — usually seen in demure shirtwaists — is wearing a vibrant Emilio Pucci (or maybe a knock off) silk jersey print dress, cutting edge fashion at the time. Pucci was a Florentine nobleman whose early ‘60s designs cut the thread with the staid ‘50s.

Although she looks fabulous in the Pucci, Betty’s boring old life is not a good fit. As she tells Don, “I hate this place. I hate our friends. I hate this town.” She’d rather be in Italy, certamente. But all she gets is a souvenir charm of the Colosseum from Don.

What would Italians make of this episode? I’m not sure and they won’t have a chance to find out until probably 2011. The second season of Mad Men premieres December 28, 2009 on Fox TV Italy. Click here for some amusing clips of the hard-drinking, hard-smoking, hard-loving, and occasionally hard-working Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency gang speaking in Italian.

Goodbye, Gourmet

Posted October 5, 2009 by Sharon 4 Comments

It wasn’t devoted to Italy but it was “the magazine of good living” and what could be more Italian than that?

Conde Nast is closing Gourmet magazine, which has been published since 1941. To those of us in the food community, this feels like a death in the family. Gourmet has always been there, as the standard bearer, like a culinary Statue of Liberty.

The times they are a changin’. . .perhaps not for the better?

Here’s a link to our post about the magazine’s Italian-American cooking issue from January 2009.

How do you feel about Gourmet’s demise?

Unimpeachable

Posted September 9, 2009 by Sharon 2 Comments

Torta di pesche in a tender butter cookie crust.

I’m living in a kind of peach frenzy.

Peaches and ricotta for breakfast. Baked peaches blanketed with pastry cream. Peach sorbetto. Peach tart in a sweet cookie crust.

Pondering how long my supplies will last, I just spoke on the phone to the friendly clerk at Bechtold’s Orchard in Bucks County, PA. She said peaches will be available for about one more week. O-N-E week? Sadly, the days of peaches dwindle down to a precious few.

Like a squirrel frantically stashing nuts for the bleak days to come, I’m stockpiling peaches in my freezer. It’s easy enough to do. Submerge the ripe but firm peaches in a pot of boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds. Transfer them with a slotted spoon to a big bowl of ice water.

A Bechtold's Orchard peach emerging from a refresing ice water bath.

Start peeling with a sharp paring knife at the stem end and the skin slips off as easily as a satin robe gliding off the shoulder of a 1930s glamour queen. Halve or quarter the peaches and lay them on a tray lined with plastic wrap. Place in the freezer for a day and then pack the frozen peaches into a resealable plastic freezer bag or plastic freezer container.

Peeled peaches ready to be flash frozen.

And, while you still have the chance, you can bake a homey Italian peach tart with the following recipe. It’s sweetened with fruit preserves to intensify the flavor of the fresh fruit filling. Sometimes I replace half the preserves with ginger-peach chutney from Tait Farm Foods in Centre Hall, PA. It makes a sweet, slightly hot filling that’s bliss.

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