An artisanal julienne tool from the market

Every time I go to the market I find something new and fascinating. Usually it's the food; some prepped and ready to cook vegetable dish or a new seasonal arrival at the market that merits being photographed and then eaten. I also love to chat with the vendors and see what they're up to. It's no small task to clean dozens upon dozens of artichokes daily, to prepare the minestrone and ribollita that's for sale and, in this season, to clean the puntarelle.
Puntarelle, pre-cleaning, look like this:

and once cleaned and placed in acidulated water (cold water with lots of fresh squeezed lemon juice) they look like this:

and once you get them home, drain and toss them in their olive oil/garlic/anchovy/white wine vinegar dressing they look like this:

and what do they taste like? Well, nothing short of amazing. Hence, they sell like crazy when they're in season. They are so easy to make, that is, assuming you're not doing the cleaning. I don't know anyone who actually buys the uncleaned puntarelle. It's a laborious, time-consuming task that yields very little satisfaction in the food-prep department.
The market vendors are amazing to watch cleaning all the different types of produce and they are incredibly fast and adept at these tasks. Yet even they look for the faster, easier way. Today the elderly zio of one of my vendors was cleaning puntarelle with a hand-made tool that I would best describe as an artisanal julienne device. He was using it to clean the puntarelle by pushing them through the device, rather than slicing them with a knife the traditional way.
I loved this little tool and managed to purchase one of their spares from them. I thought I'd be able to use it on other vegetables (no, I still had no intention of cleaning puntarelle) like carrots and zucchini. Once I studied the tool better at home and realized it was a bit too delicate to use ona hard veggie like a carrot, I decided to steam the vegetables briefly to make them more tender and then pass them through the device. It worked:

So here's how this cool little tool is made. There's a square of wood about half an inch thick with a whole cut out of the center. On each side of the circle there are two staggered rows of nails. A guitar string has then been woven back and forth between the nails creating the criss-crossed rows that you see here:

It's really quite ingenius in its simplicity and I'm glad to have welcomed it into my collection of odd & unique, but highly functional kitchen tools.

By the way, here's how to make the puntarelle dressing:

Place the following in a small blender:

• About 1/2 cup olive oil
• About 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 small garlic clove
• 4 to 5 anchovy fillets

Blend until creamy, toss on your puntarelle and serve!

Pumpkin & Amaretto Ice Cream

Who says ice cream is just for the summer? I love it all year round!  There are so many fruits, veggies and treats that you only see in the fall and winter that lend themselves beautifully to ice cream. One winter flavor combination I love is pumpkin and amaretto. Pumpkin and amaretto are used together in the Lombardia and Emilia-Romagna regions  as a tortelli (large tortellini) filling. So why not use them together in ice cream? Pumpkin is readily available in a can in many places, but avoid the temptation. There's nothing like fresh pumpkin for this ice cream.
I'm trying to keep things light these days so I used skim milk instead of cream. I also used brown, demerara sugar instead of white sugar:
Ingredients:

• Pumpkin - 600 grams
• Egg yolks - 2
• Skim milk - 400 ml
• Brown (demerara) sugar -30 grams
• Salt -1/8 tsp
• Amaretti biscotti, crumbled - 60 grams

Procedure:

• Steam the pumpkin unrtil a knife slips through it easily
• Puree the pumpkin, then cook over a double boiler until thickened
• Cook the milk,sugar, salt and egg yolks over a double boiler, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the ack of a wooden spoon
• Whisk the pumpkin into the milk mixture
• Cool thoroughly, then place the mixture in the ice cream maker
• Five minutes before the ice cream is done add the crumbled amaretti biscuits

Day trip to Cortona, in the Tuscan province of Arezzo

The town of Cortona is easily reachable by train from Rome: a pleasant and affordable 2 1/2 hour train ride ((Euro 16 in first class). Once you reach the Camucia / Cortona station you can take a bus (runs about every 40 minutes) or a taxi (Euro 10) up to Cortona centro.

The entrance way to Cortona is flanked by two enormous wooden doors. I've always thought that crystal topped doors like these would make a spectacular dining room table...

Camucia / Cortona station

 The train station has taxi driver phone numbers listed, but in case you want to book in advance:

Every Saturday morning in the centro storico's Piazza Signorelli plan to enjoy the outdoor market: cheese, porchetta, fresh produce, local salumi.

The market has a nice assortment of handmade tablecloths, inexpensive print tablecloths, brightly colored linens and clothing. as it's olive season I bought two print tablecloths with an olive motif: perfect to decorate a casual, fall lunch table.

Olive Motif Tablecloths

Aprons and dishtowels displayed in inverted umbrellas

Lots of locally produced cheese...

and porchetta, prosciutto and Tuscan salami.

Cortona is small (about 2,000 residents in the winter and triple that in the summer months) so it's easy to explore the whole town on foot in a day....and to enjoy a nice meal and local wines.
Cortona is filled with ancient stone walls and doorways, each hinting at a story from the past. I love the juxtaposition of this charming green door with the assortment of winter veggies and herbs for sale, right around the corner from Piazza Signorelli.
 

Piazza Signorelli takes its name from Luca Signorelli, the Italian Renaissance painter.

At 1 pm I met up with my IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) colleagues and friends. We lunched at the quirkily decorated restaurant Osteria del Teatro. Stairs leading up to the restaurant entrance were laden with flowers.

What once must have been an apartment has been turned into a restaurant with a number of small, cozy dining rooms. Each room is chock full of an eclectic array of decorative items: paintings, bottles, knick-knacks, jars, candles.

The oddest room by far was the ladies room: filled with dolls...on the shelves and windowsills, hanging, propped everywhere. So many so that it was hard to find the soap, towels and flushing mechanism among the menagerie.

Our lunch, a delicate play of sweet and savory in the menu: pears and pesto, sweet tomatoes and Cinta Senese ragu, fillet with prunes...

• Fennel Stuffed with Pecorino di Pienza
• Fagottini filled Pasta Stuffed with Goat Cheese, with Walnut Pesto & Slivered Pears
• Strozzapreti with a Cinta Senese Ragu' and Seared Cherry Tomatoes
• Filetto al Lardo Colonnata, with Prune Sauce and Sauteed Rape

The wines were local: 2010 wines from the Montecchiesi Dal Cero Tenuta. We started off with a chardonnay: Il Bianchino. Our main course was accompanied by a robust Selverello sangiovese. With dessert we had a Vin Santo del Chianti Geografico 2007.
Although I'd planned to do more wandering following lunch I opted instead for an earlier train getting me back to Rome at dinner time. After our hearty lunch in Cortona I bowed out of dinner and finished the day with a bowl of fruit instead.

Hills surrounding Cortona: beautiful despite the overcast day

Rome's Dirty Little Secret

If you live in or are visiting Rome you may have seen posters throughout the city announcing the closure of the Malagrotta garbage dump, couched in self-congratulatory back-patting wording on the part of Rome's mayor Alemanno and Polverini, the director of the Lazio region commission.
Most of you are probably asking yourselves what Malagrotta is. Fair enough, as the city of Rome and the Lazio region certainly aren't making a point of airing  this bit of its dirty laundry. Malagrotta is the largest garbage dump in Europe: a dump of all of Rome and the Vatican's municipal waste....unrecycled waste. The European Commission has fined Italy repeatedly for this blatant violation of European regulations, all to no avail. Yes, Malagrotta is closing after 35 years, BUT....
It will be re-opening in a new location in Riano, north Rome. No steps have been taken towards an effective recycling program so Malagrotta will be perpetuated in a different location but twice as close to Rome's city center.

Just last week a meeting was held at the Lazio Region offices to discuss this issue. Renata Polverini (presidente della giunta regionale di Lazio / president of the Lazio Region Commission) and Rome’s mayor Alemanno have appointed a Commissario Straordinario (emergency/extraordinary commissioner), Pecoraro, to preside over this issue and make a decision regarding the Quadro Alto site in Riano. By categorizing this as a Situazione d’Emergenza (an emergency situation) and appointing an emergency/extraordinary commissioner this allows Polverini to supercede the law and avoid due legal process. It also allows Polverini and Alemanno to wash their hands of the issue and avoid making the uncomfortable decision directly themselves to put the landfill site in Riano. Neither Polverini nor Alemanno nor Pecoraro has visited the Quadro Alto site.Polverini and Alemanno say the Quadro Alto site will be a temporary solution. As Rome has made no progress towards recycling how can the Quadro Alto site possibly be temporary?
There are many shocking aspects to this situation. The owner and president of Malagrotta, Co.La.Ri. (the Lazio Consortium for Municipal Waste), is Manlio Cerroni. Two years ago Co.La.Ri. made an application to the town of Riano, the province of Rome and the Lazio region to use Quadro Alto in Riano as a landfill site. The request was denied by all three. Riano, the Rome Province and the Lazio Region all three stated clearly that Riano is not an acceptable site for a landfill. How can the Lazio region now claim that Riano is an acceptable location, just two years later? The town and the surrounding area have remained the same. Riano’s population is constantly growing which, if anything, makes it all the more unacceptable as a landfill site.

Last week on October 14^th Co.La.Ri. purchased 93 hectares in Riano which Cerroni has stated publicly will be used as the next landfill site to replace Malagrotta. This purchase occured just days before the Lazio Region meeting to discuss using Quadro Alto in Riano as a landfill site. In addition, Pecoraro still hasn’t made a formal decision or pronouncement regarding the use of Quadro Alto as a landfill site. Although there should be a competitive tender for the management of a landfill site it is quite clear that there has been collusion in this case.

Why the possibility of starting up a new landfill site in Riano is alarming to its 10,000 residents and the thousands of residents residing in nearby municipalities:

• Co.La.Ri. now operates Malagrotta. There is no recycling of any type being done at this landfill site. Every day thousands of garbage trucks arrive at Malagrotta and dump an alarming number of metric tons at the site daily. Although there are several TMB incinerators at Malagrotta only one is operative….at just 60% of capacity. If Malagrotta is not doing any recycling and the incinerators are not operating then why is there any reason to assume that Co.La.Ri. will operate and manage a new landfill site differently?
• Riano is just 15 kilometers from the historic center of Rome (Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish steps). Malagrotta is double that distance. St Peters Dome is visible from Riano.
• There are hundreds of residences within view and a short walk to Quadro Alto.
• There are schools and pre-schools close to Quadro Alto.
• There are roughly 200 people working each day at the Quadro Alto quarry. All these people stand to lose their livelihood.
• There is a restaurant that has been operating for 50 years just 100 meters from Quadro Alto.
• The proposed landfill site of Quadro Alto lies right above a falda acquifera (underground water source) very close to the surface, and just several kilometers from the Tiber River. The damage a landfill would do to the water is unfathomable. Hundreds and hundreds of residents rely solely on well water for their homes as no city water is available……I am one of those.
• The Parco di Veio (a protected regional park) and the Universita’ Agraria are located next to Quadro Alto. The area is filled with innumerable flora and fauna, including over a hundred edible herbs and greens, free range cattle, horses, wild boar, birds and many other creatures.
• Quadro Alto in Riano is a designated area of archaeological heritage.
• The city of Rome has made no progress towards an effective recycling program that could move this region away from needing a landfill site. The mayor of San Francisco invited Rome’s mayor Alemanno to visit San Francisco to see how an ideal urban recycling program works. Alemanno did not accept the invitation.
• No-one has ever been to Riano to perform a site visit at Quadro Alto.
• No-one has consulted the municipal management, any of Riano’s citizens or those employed at the Quadro Alto quarry site to discuss the plan to turn Quadro Alto into a landfill site.
• The Quadro Alto site still has hundreds of employees, the underground water source is just below the quarry surface and nothing has been done to prepare the site to be used for landfill. How can it possibly be used in two month’s time when Malagrotta closes?
• The ecological damage to the Riano area would be overwhelming, as would the economic damage to the residents. Property will lose its value drastically and businesses will suffer and close. Already property values have decreased by over 50% as Riano and Rome citizens live in fear of what may happen in Riano.

Why has Quadro Alto been selected, particularly when no-one has ever visited this possible landfill site? The Riano area has quite a few tufo quarries (Romans have been mining tufo in this area for thousands of years…..one of the reasons this area is of great archaeological value) and consequently represent already prepared holes in which to dump municipal waste indiscriminately.

Yesterday a great post appeared on this topic on the Under the Tuscan Sun blog. What a wonderful summary of the garbage situation in Rome! I suggest you add it to your favorites and "like" their Facebook page. It's an excellent way to keep up on Italian issues....and enjoy a little tongue in cheek humor!
Rome: WAKE UP!!! It's time to declare war on garbage and on the politicians (Polverini and Alemanno) who are perpetuating one of Rome's dirtiest problems (pardon the pun): the mega-discarica. Join the November 5th Rome city center protest against the proposed new garbage dump in Riano. For details check out the www.sosdiscaricariano.it website (give it a few days to be up and running) and follow SOS Discarica Riano on Facebook.

Wild Spinach (Lambsquarter) Pappardelle

The fields behind our house are a veritable forager's dream. Last weekend we spent all day Saturday enjoying the prolonged Indian summer we've been having in Rome this October. As we walked along we managed to pick a variety of greens for a misticanza salad. We also picked bunches and bunches of wild spinach which I used to make wild spinach pappardelle. We used the very last of our cherry tomatoes for the sauce.
There's something so gratifying about hiking in the beautiful fields and hills surrounding our home and then making lunch from the wild herbs and greens we've picked along the way.

The spinach (Lambsquarter) grows prolifically in the Lazio region, and elsewhere. The leaves are very delicate, thin and tender: quite different from cultivated spinach. Once you know what it is and are on the lookout for it you'll find that it's just about everywhere you turn your head.

As with cultivated spinach, pick the leaves from the stems and rinse them off. Cook in a covered pan without adding any additional water. The water that clings to the leaves is sufficient.

Cook until just wilted and tender, drain and squeeze dry. Chop finely and knead about a quarter of a cup into the pasta dough. Not much remains once the spinach is cooked and squeezed dry so be sure to pick quite a bit.

Sometimes I work the greens into the pasta so they're thoroughly blended and the pasta is a uniform green. Other times, like today, I preferred a less-blended look. I like to see the wild greens that I've taken the time to pick.

Sperlonga Seafood Festival

I've been going to Sperlonga for over twenty years; it's become our seaside home away from home. It's an easy drive to get there and an even easier, more relaxing train ride. The whitewashed centro storico is lovely and beautifully maintained. It spills down to two beach areas: one is the side with remains of Emperor Tiberiuses residence and a small museum featuring the spoils from his villa (sculptures and artifacts). The other beach side below the centro storico is the more recently developed commercial area of Sperlonga, with its shops, alimentari and small hotels which are all family owned and operated. The seafood festival was mostly below this side of the centro storico.
The seafood festival takes place every year and features local artisanal products and hand-crafted items. There are a few extras like music every evening, an art show and various seminars on local seafood and the sustainability issues facing Italy and its surrounding bodies of water. The latter, sadly, was the most poorly attended part of the seafood festival. People want to have fun, eat well and put on blinders for gthese other issues. most people in Sperlonga, country folk by and large engaged in agricultural activities, just don't get how endangered our oceans are and how depleted seafood has become.
In sperlonga's favor are the pride the residents and municipal management take in their town, its cleanliness, the cleanliness of the waters. The seafood served (free of charge) to everyone was a frittura of the most sustainable fish in the ocean: anchovies, sardines and other local, tiny fish.
I love this festival and issues confronting our oceans aside, fully enjoyed the frittura and community spirit this week-end.

Local volunteers worked tirelessly flouring and frying up all the fish for hundreds of people on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening.

Fish were served atop a slice of oil-drizzled bruschetta, made with local casareccio bread. I stayed around long enough to have several servings of fish. Such simple fare, but the freshness of the fish, the simple preparation of  a dusting of flour and then a quick fry in fresh, good quality oil made for a more than satisfactory dinner. Local white wine was served with the fish: house wine, but perfect with the fish.

The beautiful port area, which loops around Sperlonga, was lit up each night and full of stands selling other local foods and artisan goods. I could have left after our little fish fest, but decided to move along to other stands and try out some other foods.

What meal is complete without pasta? In Italy it's almost a must. Never mind that we had our pasta following our main course; it certainly didn't affect our enjoyment of this seafood and tomato pasta dish.
After our pasta, a stroll and gelato we headed back to our house with full bellies ready to sleep and enjoy the following day on the beach.

Saturday Market in late September

It's hard to believe that for twenty euros we purchased all the fruit and vegetables we need for the coming week and gorgeous, almost all organic, at that. We're in that enviable moment of the season when we still have a lot of summer fruits available but are starting to see some fall and winter produce appearing too.
Figs are one of my favorite fruits. Although they aren't available most of the year they are available twice: mid-summer and then again in September. The September figs are appropriately known as settembrini. We eat the figs whole; the purple figs are sugar sweet and the green ones less so but both kinds are delicious.

The woman we purchase from at the Saturday outdoor market in Prima Porta grows a lot of the produce herself. The grapes we purchased are from her vines and are even sweeter than the purple figs. This month is the vendemmia and all grapes are ripe for the picking.
Peaches and plums are still selectively available; the peaches come from cooler areas of Italy where the peach season is slightly later.

Bitter greens are our favorite and a favorite of most Italians: arugula as an addition to salad; cicoria pan sauteed with olive oil, garlic and hot pepper.

Fresh borlotti and cannellini beans are now available. It's time-consuming to remove them from their pods, but well worth the effort. As I remove borlotti beans from their pods I'm continually struck by their beauty; the pods and the beans look like they have been hand-painted.
We prepare a mixture of finely minced red onion and fresh sage, olive oil and balsamic vinegar and once the beans are cooked mix them piping hot into the sauce. The heat of the beans slightly cooks and amalgamates with the other ingredients, producing a surprisingly tasty side dish. Recently we've been making this dish a lot in our cooking classes and it's usually the favorite dish.

One of my favorite things about going to the market is the complimentary odori that are given to you when you make your purchase. Odori are a handful of herbs: parsley, basil, a carrot, celery stock and sometimes a small onion. These are the basic ingredients needed to make a vegetable broth or to season other dishes. It's a nice little added touch to the market experience.