Although most children want toys as a gift when parents come back from a trip, what our eldest daughter, Gabriella really wanted was a tube of white truffle paste.   This year, she decided that’s what we should have for our after-Thanksgiving celebratory dinner.  Our family loves truffles.  So much so that we even named our dog Truffle!   Unfortunately for our wallets, our girls actually prefer a white truffle to the chocolate kind.  If you’ve never experienced a white truffle, it is more aroma than flavor.  It literally perfumes the food.  Truffles are not a mushroom as commonly thought, but a tuber. They grow symbiotically with oak, hazel, poplar, and beachwood trees and typically fruit late in autumn.  In Italy, you can find both black and white truffles.  Black truffles are fairly plentiful in northern and central Italy and are marvelous, but it is the rarer white truffle from Alba that is the aristocrat of truffles, much more intensely perfumed than the black—and, unfortunately, also much more expensive.  The record price in 2007 for a 3.3lb truffle was $330,000.

Truffles also grow outside Italy.  Black truffles are found in Oregon and France and the rare white truffle has been found in China.  Although entrepreneurial farmers are working on it, they are still not able to cultivate white truffles.  In France truffle hunters use pigs; however, Italian tartufai prefer dogs.  Truffles tend to grow in the same locations every year and truffle hunters guard their secret locations jealously.  Although there are people who will take tourists for a truffle hunt, it is usually more of a show than an actual hunt.

Usually truffles are eaten very simply.  Either shaved over sunny side up eggs or homemade egg pasta.  They are often eaten at special occasions like Christmas and New Year.  Some people believe that truffles were the “manna” sent to the Israelites through Moses as they traveled through the desert for forty years.  My children would have no problem eating that kind of manna.

Although eating the shavings of a fresh white truffle is an amazing experience, it is also a very expensive one.  A good alternative is truffle paste.  Although there are oils and preserved truffles, we have found that the paste tends to capture the aroma best.  We like it best mixed into a risotto alla Parmigiana.  The creaminess of the rice carries the truffle flavor perfectly. For us, the risotto and a salad, was the perfect after-Thanksgiving dinner.

We have come to see the Gazzani rice mill.  It has been in continuous operation since 1648 and still uses the mortar and pestle method that is found in only one other place in Italy.  The owner, Marco Soave, comes out to greet us and quickly takes us through the “modern” method of rice milling that dates from the post WWII era and uses 14 machines.  We climb through a rickety wall opening and see what looks like an ancient water wheel that still powers the entire factory.

After our “modern” tour we enter the original part of the factory.  Stretched out before us are 8 applewood pestles that have never broken or needed repair.  They slam into a bank of mortars made of the finest Rosso di Verona marble.  Stone that back home we would only use for the most expensive counter tops.  The mortars are also covered in rice dust, but they too have never needed replacing.  The operation runs by a system of wheels and pulleys that are all attached to the ancient water wheel by a camel skin belt.

Marco stops one of the pestles.  There are only four that are used at any given time.  He scoops up a handful of rice to show us how the hull has been removed.  He then detaches a large round sieve from the ceiling that looks like an overgrown embroidery hoop, and pours the rice into the center.  He slowly moves the hoop in a circular fashion, twisting it faster and faster as the dust falls to the floor.  He says he repeats the process three times before the rice is completely cleaned.

What takes 14 separate steps using the modern machines is accomplished over four hours in one step using the mortar and pestle. However, the more modern method takes only 20 minutes and the rice is polished to a shine.  Everyone on our bus bought the rice made with pestles, and later commented on its rich nutty flavor.

From Every Night Italian, by Giuliano Hazan, Scribner, 2000

RISOTTO AL PROFUMO DI ZUCCA

Butternut Squash Risotto

One of the many glorious dishes available in Venice in the fall is a risotto made with a local pumpkin called zucca barucca.  Its aroma is rich and sweet and its deep golden color resembles the changing leaves in the countryside.  In the US I have found that butternut squash most closely resembles the flavor of this pumpkin.  Risotto is very easy to make.  Its most trying requirement is having to stir it constantly for the 20 minutes it takes to cook and you can enlist the assistance of guests or family members to share stirring duty.

Total time from start to finish:  about 45 minutes

serves 4 to 6 people

1/2 cup yellow onion, finely chopped

3 tablespoons butter

1 pound butternut squash (about 3 cups diced)

salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 cups Italian rice for risotto such as Arborio or Carnaroli

5 cups homemade meat broth, or 1 beef bouillon cube dissolved in 5 cups water

2 tablespoons Italian flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano, freshly grated

1.  Put the onion and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large heavy bottomed pot over medium low heat.  Sauté the onion until it turns to a rich golden color.

2.  While the onion is sautéing, remove the rind and the seeds from the squash, then cut it into 3/4 inch cubes.  When the onion is ready, add the squash to the pan with about 1/2 cup of water.  Season with salt and pepper and cook until the squash is tender, about 10-15 minutes.

3.  While the squash is cooking, heat the broth in a sauce pot and keep it at a very low simmer.

4.  When the squash is tender and all the water has evaporated, add the rice and stir until it is well coated.  Add a couple of ladlefuls of the heated broth and stir with a wooden spoon.  Continue stirring and adding broth to the rice as the liquid in the pot evaporates.  The right amount of broth to add is just enough to produce the consistency of a rather thick soup and it is important to wait until all the liquid has evaporated before adding more broth.  The rice will be done in about 20 minutes, when it is firm to the bite but not still crunchy or chalky in the center.  At the end the risotto should have a creamy, almost “wavy” consistency.

5.  Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped parsley, the grated parmigiano and the remaining tablespoon of butter.  Taste for salt and serve at once.

CATCHING FIRE,  How cooking made us Human, by Richard Wrangham is rightly taking the food world by storm.  Well researched and documented, the bibliography alone is thirty pages long, it is also an engaging read.  The book itself begs to be read in a group format.  While reading, I kept wanting to discuss passages with the author or fellow readers.  Astonishingly, no other writer has previously advocated the importance of how cooking effected the nutritional quality of food; therefore, enabling human beings to evolve.

Not only does Dr. Wrangham detail the evolution of human kind in terms of our understanding of fire, he also gives historical examples throughout the book.  He takes on the trendy raw food community as well as the fast food chemically processed nation.  He argues that eating calories that are too easy to digest is now a bigger problem for many than getting enough food.  His is a clarion call to gain understanding of how food is actually processed in our systems.

Catching fire, is definitely a book that will be talked about.  It is a must for any foodies library.

Cin Cin!  That is the sound our glasses make when we toast with a Bellini Tropicale.  Welcome.  What is a Bellini Tropicale you ask?  It is a mixture of Prosecco, a sparkling white wine from the Veneto region of Italy and guava juice.  Guava, a small greenish/yellowish fruit with a smooth sweet flavor, grows in abundance around our home in Florida and we thought it appropriate to mix our local fruit with the more traditional Italian aperitif.  Like the Bellini Tropicale, we hope that this blog will be a bridge between the traditional flavors of Italy and the local flavors and ingredients in our home.

It is a Venetian tradition to welcome a guest with a special aperitif called a Bellini.  The traditional Bellini is a mix of Prosecco, and white peach juice.

Prosecco is a fairly inexpensive, dry white sparkling wine made from grapes of the same name that grow in the hills of the Veneto.  The grapes were supposedly cultivated since the times of the Romans.  The second fermentation, which gives the bubbly effect, takes place in steel tanks, in a method called Charmat. The Charmat method is significantly less time intensive than the bottle turning that raises the cost of champagne.  Prosecco is a very accessible, fresh and fruity wine.  It is drunk young, is low in alcohol and is enjoyed on most festive occasions.  Giuliano and I served it at our wedding, and always welcome our students in Italy with it.

Like the Bellini, created by Giuseppe Cipriani who named it in honor of the great 15^th century artist, our blog will serve to be an entrée point to the wider realm of genuine Italian cuisine, culture, and history.  We have been privileged to know Italian artisans who come from generations of producers proud of their work, as well as entrepreneurs who are redefining food sources.  With this blog, we will introduce you to them, as well as show you what it is to live a life, married to food and food production.  We hope to bridge Italian sensibility with American organization; mostly, we hope to give you something to enjoy!

After all the guests have been served, we hold our flutes high, touch the rims together twice and say, “cin, cin”. It’s the informal welcome given to friends with whom you hope to spend a bit of time.

Cin Cin

BELLINI TROPICALE

Lael and Giuliano Hazan, copyright 2009

Serves 8

One bottle Prosecco

Guava juice.

Pour two parts Prosecco to one part guava juice into a pitcher serve in Champagne flutes.

CIN CIN