Our weather is foul. It’s the only word for it. High of 5C today, spitting cold rain, with howling winds. Doesn’t that sound lovely? That doesn’t mean I am not enjoying my Sunday. The apartment is warm and cozy. Of course the stufa is burning in the living area. Last week we had 30 bags of pellets delivered which should see us through the winter. We buy them and they bring them to the steps on the ground floor. We then hire two men, our downstairs neighbor, Pietro, and Walter an unemployed but very nice fellow who is a fixture in Umbertide. They are happy to make the money — it is a lot of work. They huff and puff. I have emergency services on speed dial. 😁 At least Luther doesn’t have to carry them anymore. 💕
The stufa has a big hopper in it. You pull it out and fill it and it feeds the pellets in throughout the day. One hopper full lasts a day and a half. We turn it off at night. The living/dining room is a big room with high ceilings so we augment the radiator heat with the stove. Very cozy.
Energy costs are high here, so many Italians heat with wood. Some have whole house pellet systems that heat the water and the house. Others, who have access to wood supplies, use wood. Fireplaces or wood stoves. I, personally, love a real fireplace. When we move, a fireplace or wood stove will be on the ”must have” list.
Tonight I am grilling an enormous bistecca which we bought from our favorite butcher, Etrusco in Bosco. I will grill it on the kitchen fire. The fire will warm the room and also allow me to make a fine dinner. The firewood is brought by a nice Romanian gent named Quintino. He brings five big bags whenever I ask him and delivers it right up to my terrace. I must admit, I pay him handsomely. It is worth it to me, and he appreciates the money.
This time of year many greens grow in the fields despite the cold. I like to take advantage of them. Orecchiette con rapini or orechiette con cima di rapa are two staples of Italian cuisine, usually served as a primi but we have them for dinner. The first is broccoli rabe. The second is turnip greens. Orecchiette is a pasta shape from Puglia. It means little ears because it is shaped like ears. The shape is particularly nice because the cup-shape holds sauce well.
Luther really loves this dish and I like to take advantage of it because it is also a favorite of mine and I like to have meatless meals. To us it is comfort food. Here are pictures. it is super simple to make. The only fussy part is cleaning and trimming the greens.
You get a nice big skillet and put in a good amount olive oil. Smash a couple of cloves of garlic and saute in the oil until brown. Then discard. Add 3 or 4 anchovies and let them melt into the oil. Don’t be afraid of anchovies, they add a rich umami flavor. Sprinkle pepper flakes in and turn off heat.
Boil water and cook orecchiette. About five minutes before it is al dente put the greens right into the water with the pasta. Finish cooking the pasta. Save some water and drain. Turn on the heat under the pan with the oil. Add the pasta and greens and cook, tossing with some water until saucy. Add some grated cheese. Toss. Serve with more cheese.
A little catching up is in order I think. We have been working once again to get our long term permissions to stay (Permesso di soggiorno UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo (ex carta di soggiorno)). Much paper to gather. You may remember we tried for it last year. Two of our documents were time sensitive (we didn’t realize) and had expired. So my new hobby is copying all our myriad cards, IDs, passports, tax returns, financial statements, house certifications, and compliance with the language proficiency certification and other requirements to live here. Whew! I think I am almost there. We are still waiting for our police reports, and the Certificato Contestuale. When I’m done killing trees I will take a photo.
The month of February is more than half gone. It is that time of year when the temperatures are all over the place, but more warm than cold now. Today it was mid 60s but cloudy. We are having sunlight until six PM now which is nice. I have been walking so I notice the buds on the trees.
Along the city walls next to the river. We have a brand new fence. The fishers where out this morning in force.
After my walk I stopped to shop in the local Saturday market. I got a big bunch of rapini, called broccoli rabe in english. I will post on Monday the way I love to have it with pasta. Super good and super easy. But meanwhile I’m have a salad tonight among other things, look at this. So pretty! Like a flower. Salad-to-be. It is much like radicchio.
Tomorrow we celebrate a friend’s birthday at Calagrana. I will try to post pictures. Buona domenica everyone!
For our next soup…did I tell you I make at least one soup a week 😁?…Today I made a Minestra di Fagioli but kind of my own adapted version. It will my/our lunch for a few days. It is very healthy, and of course yummy. I did do more than you have to because I made my own stock and cooked the dry beans. But, Hey! I’ve got time. You could use canned stock and canned cannellini beans to save time. I make stock out of many things. This time it was vegetable leavings, you know, the stuff you normally throw away, which I freeze, and the rinds of pecorino cheese which we save for this purpose. The cheese adds quite a lot of flavor. You can even make just plain cheese stock using the rinds, which I’ve done.
I cooked the normal starting ingredients used in most of the world it seems, carrot, celery, onion, in olive oil. Next a couple chopped garlic cloves for 30 seconds. Then I added a sprig of rosemary, a branch of thyme, and a bay leaf. I add the entire branches/sprigs, then remove. Next I added the cooked cannellini beans with cooking liquid (a couple cans worth at least), the stock (about 1 1/2 to 2 quarts), the cleaned, de-stemmed and chopped cavolo nero (black kale sometimes called Tuscan kale in the US), and one potato chopped small. I simmered it for about an hour until the beans and potatoes were softened enough to disintegrate a little into the sauce to thicken it some. Adjust the salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. I served it drizzled with some good olive oil. Ta da!! 🎺🎺
The month of February is the turning point of winter. The days are noticeably longer. The very early buds and tiny ground flowers are visible. The big fields of winter wheat are fluorescent green. But it is still cold.
February is when the farmers in these Umbrian valleys and in the nearby Tuscan valleys start the seedlings for their most important cash crop – tobacco. [previous post about Tobacco growing] It is labor intensive. The soil is completely removed and the beds are refilled with straw and manure and fertilizer and then rich alluvial earth is added from near the rivers. The seeds are planted according to the phase of the moon. It must be full and beginning to wane. They do things by the old ways here. ~~~~~~~~ At this time of year, beans are a very big part of the daily diet. The one recipe I chose from the book – “The Tuscan Year” – for February is for Minestra di Fagioli. Ingredients: one onion, one rib of celery, two cloves of garlic, small bunch of parsley, 2 oz pancetta, 3 Tablespoons of olive oil, small can of tomatoes chopped, 5 1/2 ounces cooked white beans, 3 1/2 ounces short pasta, salt, and stock. Instructions: chop onions, celery, garlic, parsley and pancetta. Heat olive oil in large pan and add to pan and cook until soft. Add tomatoes, stir and allow to cook for 10 minutes. Meanwhile coarsely purée beans and then add to soup. Simmer 10 minutes. Add stock to thin. Cook 15 minutes. Add pasta 15 minutes before serving, cook and add more stock as needed for your preferred soup consistency. Serve with pecorino or parmesan cheese and a spoon of good olive oil. ~~~~~~~~ February is normally the month when Lent begins (This year, Lent begins March 2 because Easter is late). Most Italians still take Lent seriously. But first! There is Carnivale! This is literally ”farewell to flesh”. In Germany it is called Fasching. We would be familiar with Mardi Gras because of New Orleans. Here in Italy, in the large cities, they have huge parades and feasts. But in the little mountain valley of our friend Silvana (from the book ”The Tuscan Year”) it is a bit more low key but still a festive occasion, looked forward to by all.
First the traditional sweets must be prepared. This one is called Castagnole.
Photo credit – tavolaartigusto.it
The pre-lenten dance is called veglione, a ballo in maschera — masked dance. It was held in a cleared out barn. The young women don their finest, fluff their hair and make themselves sultry with makeup. The young men slick their hair and wear their new trousers. The middle aged dance in their Sunday suits and flowery dresses. Silvana just watches. She lost her 16 year old son in a tragic accident. The big tractor tipped over and killed him. Silvana will be in mourning for many years.
Excerpt from the book… ”About halfway through the evening, the door is flung open and a group of masked, costumed figures rushes in. The band strikes up a new tune and the masked dancers form lines and perform a strange dance like a fast minuet. Their faces are covered with veiling pulled tight and they have all manner of odd hats and garments on. There are men wearing sunbonnets and cotton frocks and girls in patched trousers hung with tin cans, but the veils make them all anonymous and slightly sinister. The music changes, the formation breaks up, the masqueraders grab at the nearest onlookers and whirl them round in faster and faster circles as the tempo quickens. Suddenly, at an unheard signal, the music stops and the dancers disappear as quickly as they arrived. It is midnight and time to eat!” The party goes until 4.
Carnevale, Fasching, Mardi Gras…whatever you call it…always has a sinister and slightly spooky feeling.
I am re-reading a book. This will be my third reading. There are only one or two books I have re-read in my life. This one is entitled “The Tuscan Year – life and food in an Italian valley” by Elizabeth Romer. It was written in 1984. It is still in print. I first read it a number of years before we even thought of moving here. I brought my copy along when we moved and re-read it after moving. It was only then that I realized I now live within just a few miles of where this takes place. The book is divided into the months of the year and chronicles the lives of a family of land owners in Tuscany. This farm was just near the border with Umbria. The way of life would have been the same in both regions. They were self sufficient. They grew all they needed, cured their own prosciutto, made their own pecorino cheese, raised wheat and milled it, and made bread in a communal oven, once a week. The life fascinates me.
“The only animal whose death the old Tuscan people really mourned was the ox, the beautiful white beast that drew the plough; they were mourned almost as if they were human because they too need nine months in the womb before they are ready to be born.” from the book.
Photo credit Agricultura.it
The author was an Egyptologist, British, and wanted a place between England and Egypt. She rented a house on the farm of the Cerottis. She made friends with Silvana, the wife and matriarch. By doing so she could sit and observe their way of life. There are recipes at the end of each chapter. For a cook and Italianophile it is a wonderful read. ~~~~~~ The first chapter, January, is all about the dead of winter; the chores that are done in this month – the butchering of the pigs and the making of prosciutti, salami and sausages. It is about how they cooked and were nourished when there was no garden to speak of. These were the bitter months when they didn’t work in the fields. The book says during this time their lives were very like their ancestors. These forbears would have spent the time making and repairing baskets for collection of olives and grapes. They would have made wooden sleds and carts to be drawn by the oxen. The women would have spun woolen cloth and embroidered their trousseaus. They decorated all their linen sheets and nightgowns with lace and embroidery. Nowadays the men repair farm equipment and tools. Silvana knits socks and shawls, using wool from their sheep. The book said she used two intertwined wools, one light, one dark so she could see in the firelight.
As I said there are many recipes in each chapter. This particular passage I loved: “The Scottiglia is made with a mixture of meats and cooked with the odori, carrot, celery, and onion, then served on a slice of bread that has been toasted and rubbed with garlic. The dish originated in harder times when there was not much meat to be eaten and all the neighbors would crowd into one house for the evening, bringing with them whatever piece of meat they could obtain: a piece of rabbit or prosciutto, some chicken, a little veal or maybe some tripe, very often game of some description. Then the meat would all be cooked up together in the large cauldron and flavored with the usual vegetables and wine. The oldest recipes for this dish specify that absolutely no oil was to be used in the preparation of the stew, maybe because the meat was fattier in those times. While the meat was cooking what is known as the veglia would take place: the people, usually all from a small hamlet…would sit around the fire and give recitations of Dante and verses that the men had made up themselves. These would very often contain veiled references to the girl who had caught their eye, and in this way the cold evenings passed in a pleasant manner.”
Photo credit Arezzonotizie.it
The Scottiglia is served in a bowl with a toasted piece of bread on the bottom, rubbed with garlic. Juice is ladled on the bread and then a helping of meat. ~~~~~~ I think I may include an excerpt now and then, in this journal. This January chapter is so evocative of times gone by and cold, dark winters which we still endure but I am reminded it is nothing like they had to endure back then. Then, death was very near and if you weren’t prepared, you could die.
Such fun to make something new. Our lunch was not formal nor fancy. But it was good, and fun! It was especially fun to share with friends.
First thing I had to do this morning was de-head, de-shell and de-vein the shrimp. I wanted to use the heads and shells for my shellfish stock. Once done I browned the shells in olive oil. Then I added tomato paste for a couple of minutes and the vegetables (carrot, celery, parsley, bay leaves, spices) and finally, I deglazed the pain with white wine. It smelled great. I added the canocchia. Thanks to Phil, one of my readers, I now know the name of the unknown crustacean🙂. I simmered for about an hour and then strained it all through cheesecloth. I ended up with a beautiful rich stock for the brodetto.
I used my big cast iron pot for the final product. I sliced the pepper and sautéed it, I added garlic and tomatoes and simmered it all for fifteen minutes.
I scrubbed the clams and mussels. Then I soaked them in salt water so they could expel their grit. After their soaking, I cooked them separately in a big pan in wine.
I added the whole fish to the pepper/tomato mixture and then some broth. I cooked it a bit. Then I added the shrimp.
At the end I strained the cooking liquid from the mussels and clams. Then I added them and some of the broth to the pot. Finally it was all ready go!
It is served with toasted bread to soak up the juice. I will say it was a feast!
Big project tomorrow. Il Brodetto alla Termolese on the menu for Pranzo. Two friends will join us. you might remember my friend Jen and I had this special fish soup in the town of Termoli in Molise on our trip together (see post about the trip). We have been craving it ever since.
I went out to the big Wednesday market to see if my normal fish truck was there. It was missing last week and, alas, it was missing again today. Probably because of the holidays. So I decided to visit the other fish truck. I don’t know why I don’t normally go to him. Maybe because the lines are always so long. Today, I was out early, even before some of the stands were set up. So there was no line at all. As I looked over the large amount of very fresh seafood, I noticed about 40% of it was still moving. Now, THAT’S what I call fresh! It was really beautiful stuff. He even had oysters. I wanted to buy some, but I didn’t.
I bought all the food for our feast tomorrow. Two whole spigole, which are sea bass in English, shrimp, mussels (cozze), tiny clams (vongole) and the funny crustaceans they have here to make stock…not much meat and a pain to eat but for stock they should work well. I forget their name.
Cozze Vongole ShrimpThe mystery crustacean.
The mussels, clams, and the mystery crustaceans are all still alive. I remember once, long ago, I bought mussels at Whole Foods. They are always sold alive so you must let them breath. When I got to the checkout counter, the checker, a young girl, tried to tie the plastic bag, which held the mussels, closed. I told her not to do that since they were still alive and must breath. The shock on her face was priceless! She obviously didn’t know!
Tomorrow, the Brodetto. I will post the finished product after we make it. And hopefully I remember to take pictures before we eat it!
For the festive season I made several things. We went to the local Coop grocery store for what I call a “big buy”. I keep lists and we stock up on all the things we have run out of. But on that same trip we were surprised that they had an itty bitty turkey! It was only 2.7 kilos. I have never seen anything like this here so I couldn’t resist buying it. On the same shopping trip Luther also pointed out his favorite — anatra/duck. So I decided that would be our Christmas dinner.
We also had friends over for dinner one night so we took a trip to our favorite, amazing Etrusco butcher and ordered a prime rib…called costeletto here.
Anyway, the turkey turned out great and we indulged ourselves with turkey sandwiches for a few days! The costeletto was also very good and we had it as leftovers the next day. Finally the duck was our Christmas dinner.
I have an amazing way to cook duck. I saved the recipe and I’ve used it many times. It is not your usual method of cooking duck. It is simplicity in itself. The recipe is from The Omnivore’s Cookbook. The duck is stuffed with citrus fruit, heavily salted, and the breast skin is scored with a knife but not into the meat. Once this is done you pop it, uncovered into a very low temperature oven, 95 to 120 C / 200 to 250 F for 6 hours. Yes, I said six hours…you don’t touch it. You leave it be. It smells amazing as it cooks. When it comes out the skin is crisp and the meat pulls apart and is very tender. Try this! It is incredible. And, if you set your temperature low, it is fool-proof. If you like Peking duck you can buy or make the little pancakes and serve with hoisin sauce. The meat works perfectly for this.
I’m afraid I didn’t take any pictures of any of these meals…my bad! ~~~~~~~ Today, I was craving pasta. So I made Spaghetti con le Sarde. I have made this before from different sources and the ingredients are the same. This recipe is traditional. You can google it. It comes from Palermo, Sicilia. It is the typical moorish inspired Sicilian recipe that is both savory and sweet. Picture. Recipe is below.
Spaghetti con le Sarde – 2 servings
About 3 tablespoons raisins – soaked in warm water 1 tablespoon bread crumbs toasted, or panko 3 tablespoons olive oil Handful of pine nuts 2 tablespoons onions 1/2 cup diced fennel anchovy filets – 2 or 3 one 4 ounce can tinned sardines or 250 grams fresh – cleaned and boned Pinch of saffron spaghetti or bucatini for 2 Lemon if you’ve got fennel fronds use them as garnish
Boil water, add fennel and cook 5 minutes. Drain, save water for pasta. In large sauté pan add oil. Cook onions until soft, and the fresh sardines if using. Add drained raisins, pine nuts, anchovies, fennel, tinned sardines if using, saffron, pepper. Cook 15 minutes. While cooking boil spaghetti or bucatini until al dente. Add to sauce and toss, adding a little pasta water if dry. To serve, sprinkle with crumbs and fennel fronds, if using. ~~~~~~ As for news on the Covid front, Italy extended the state of emergency until 31 March. They also came out with a new decree on Christmas Eve. From 25 December, there are new restrictions. The Green pass showing vaccination or recovery in the last six months is required to do just about anything. Even workers who had been doing work-arounds by being tested every two days can no longer go to their workplace. It is mandatory to wear a mask inside and outside. One must wear an FFP2 mask when attending concerts or events or on public transport. No food allowed at indoor events.It is mandatory to wear a mask inside and outside. You must have the pass to go to inside a restaurant or bar. People cannot take a train, plane, bus or underground, use a gym or swimming pool or attend any concerts or sporting events. All nightclubs and discos are closed until 31 January. All New Years celebrations are canceled. The numbers are jumping here by around 5,000 new cases a day. Last number I saw was 55,000 new daily cases. I have a feeling after the holidays we will see even more restrictions.
The weather has broken and the cold has abated. Warmer and rain is on the way for Christmas 🙁. Until the last day, it has been crisp and cold with blue skies. A picture of or Collegiata as I returned home from an errand. I love this church. It is unique.
Sunday, we had, at Luther’s request, hot dogs. We bought them at the market. All beef and larger than my usual frank. To my credit I did roast them over the fire. But what amused me was the package for the buns.
One of the things I’ve noticed here…hot dog buns, hamburger buns are not sliced. You must cut them open yourself. Not a big deal. But also, in Italy they don’t cut pizzas into wedges. People usually get a pie each and then just cut it themselves. I guess Italians are cut averse! Hah! ~~~~~~~ Today I made an interesting dish for dinner. I had bought a bunch of chard at the Saturday market. I also had the tops from two turnips. I wanted to use them somehow for our dinner. I decided to sauté it in olive oil and garlic with pepper flakes. Then I added a handful of cooked chickpeas and some crumbled feta. I cooked some tagliatelle and tossed it into the chard mixture with some pasta water. To finish I chopped some toasted almonds. I put them on the pasta with some pecorino Romano cheese. I fried a egg for each plate, which went on the top. It was good.
~~~~~~~~ Numbers continue to go up here. State of emergency was extended until 31 March. This allows the government to act quickly during the pandemic. I think the government is letting people enjoy the holiday, but afterward there will be big spikes of the disease and things will get more difficult. January and February will probably be peaking (yet again) with the virus. We are again, sadly, staying home for now. I have to say, it is getting old. I want our world back. I want to travel again. But it looks like I’m going to have to accept the fact that life has changed forever. That all said, we need to live our lives. We just need to decide what are acceptable risks. This is all new to us all. We will figure it out. Andrà tutto bene 🌈.
