Ravioli with radicchio
Radicchio is a red bitter chicory salad that can be eaten raw or cooked with eg. lamb as in this recipe. It is popular all over Italy but especially in the north east regions of Veneto and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia where it is also used as ravioli filling.

I’ve used radicchio di Treviso which is shaped like a Belgian endive, but other varieties like the round radicchio di Chioggia can also be used.

Ingredients
For the pasta
4 dl pasta flour
2 dl water

For the filling
125 g ricotta
125 g radicchio di Treviso
50 g grated parmesan
50 g capocollo, prosciutto crudo or other cured ham
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Preparation
Start by making the pasta dough. Make a volcano of flour on a clean table. Pour a little more than half the water in the middle of the mount and use a fork to stir it with the flour. Add more water gradually, till you have a tough dough. Use the heel of your hand for kneading, when the fork is no longer useful. Keep kneading for at least 10 minutes or use a pasta machine.
Run the dough through the pasta machine once. If the edges are frayed, add more water, and if the dough seems sticky, add more flour. Roll the pasta through the machine at least ten times at max width (to make up for ten minutes kneading).
Decrease the width of the pasta machine gradually, one step at a time. Cut the pasta out in circles.
Leave the pasta on wire rack covered by a clean tea towel.
Meanwhile prepare the filling.
Heat olive oil in a frying pan and fry the finely cubed capocollo until crisp
Add cleaned and chopped radicchio and let it simmer for 5 minutes until the water has evaporated.
Cut out the pasta in round discs and top every other pasta disc with a spoonful of ricotta and radicchio filling
Place another pasta disc on top of the filling and press the edges together.
Boil in well salted water for 2-3 minutes and serve with fried radicchio and capocollo if there is some leftover from the filling.

                          

A once flourishing town in Magna Grecia disappeared for centuries like some Italian Angkor-Wat before it was rediscovered. Now the three temples of Paestum mark a quietly charming World Heritage site.

In pre-Roman times Paestum was a wealthy logistic hub, where trade goods were transferred from ship to land transportation to avoid the long and dangerous passage through the Strait of Messina. People lived in comparative luxury in a town with covered arcades, an entertainment arena, and three temples to ensure their spiritual well-being, before the town was swallowed by a swamp and taken over by malaria and mosquitoes. From the 9^th to the 18^th century, Paestum was all but forgotten until some road builder happened to plough right through the ruins. This led to a partial excavation in the flatlands between the mountains and the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The first thing I noticed when we came to Paestum a hot summer day was not so much the three incredibly well-preserve Doric temples, dating back to the first half of the 6^th century BC. They looked more or less as described and painted by traveling writers and artists in the 19^th century. But I hadn’t expected to see the old ruins surrounded by sun burned grasses, crumbling foundations and flowering oleanders.

My photograph of the Columns of the Temple of Neptune at Paestum beside the same view painted by Danish artist Constantin Hansen in 1838.

Both because there is a strong contrast between the arid undergrowth and the lush proliferating bushes, and because the place was more or less deserted. Apart from a few souvenir shops outside the ancient town walls there were no queues and tourist busses. We – and a population of fat lizards – had the temples to ourselves and the flowers gave the place a tranquil beauty and serenity, I felt lucky to experience.

The atmosphere was precisely as described by travelers from by-gone centuries. According to HV Morton, Horat, Ovid and Martial all mentioned the flowers and especially the twice flowering roses of Paestum. Henry Swinbourne, who was one of the first foreigners to visit Paestum after it had been recovered, writes about a wild, deeply red rose with a strong fragrance, though he didn’t actually see it. And Norman Douglas thought he had found the real rose of Paestum and tried to transplant his pickled specimens to English soil. He didn’t succeed, and the roses haven’t been seen since, but oleanders make a nice if unfragrant substitute, so that Paestum has retained its spirit through the ages.

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I’m a professional Danish journalist with years of experience in travel writing, news and corporate PR and marketing for airlines and tourist organizations. Since the launch of Italian Notes in November 2010 I’ve gained a lot of experience in creating content that reflect my perception of Italy and Italian food, and utilising social media channels for marketing and networking purposes.

I’m based in Copenhagen but go to Italy several times a year for travels and extended stays at my rural house in Puglia.

What is Italian Notes
Italian Notes is a passion driven food and travel website offering inspiration, background information, news and advice on destinations, history, cooking and gastronomy in Italy. The quality of the contents are generally recognized with posts featured on eg. National Geographic.

We offer our audience a blend of travelogues, anecdotes, photography, recipes and advice on Italy mixed with links to articles on Italy in international media. Italian Notes works as consolidating online guide for lovers of all things Italian.

Every year 43.2 million international tourists visit Italy, and more people all over the world have a passion for the country and the lifestyle manifested through a preference for Italian food, wine, design and other products. Italian Notes strive to keep this passion alive and active. Through blog posts and features readers gain a first hand experience of the major and minor sights, bizarre stories and quirky detail, while the recipes promote a healthy Italian diet based on local tradition and seasonal produce.

Italian Notes’ content is shared in an interactive community that covers blog, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Foodbuzz, LinkedIn and other social networks.

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In addition Italian Notes has a large social media platform of loyal followers that can be used to promote your brand or destination to a highly engaged and targeted audience.

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Ham croquettes
These croquettes resemble the frozen mozzarellas coated in bread crumbs called Mozzarelline, you can buy in any Italian supermarket, but they contain no cheese and more taste thanks to the addition of ham and mushrooms. A really nice snack or antipasti.

Ingredients
50 g butter
2 tbsp flour
200 ml milk
100 ml water or vegetable stock
Salt, pepper
10 g mixed dried mushrooms
1 shallot onion
100 g cured ham
1 egg
Fresh white bread crumbs
Oil for frying

Preparation
Soak the mushrooms and squeeze off excess water
Chop the onion, mushrooms and ham finely.
Fry onion and mushrooms in cleared butter over low heat for a few minutes
Stir in the flour and let it brown slightly before gradually adding the milk and stock.
When you have a very thick béchamel toss in the ham and salt and pepper to taste
Leave the sauce to cool until it has become almost stiff
Form the béchamel to small balls, dip them in beaten egg and roll them in bread crumbs
Deep fry in oil and serve immediately.

                          

Walking down the Corso in Montepulciano I was literally struck by the appearance of Punch (of Punch and Judy fame) who counts the hours at the local clock tower. Why is an infamous and anarchistic Neapolitan puppy keeping time in Tuscany?

The English Punch and Danish Mester Jakel derives from the stock character called Pulcinella in the Italian commedia dell’arte, and Pulcinella is normally presented as a Naples bumpkin nicknamed after a young chicken due to his beaklike nose and disoriented stupidity. His basic characteristics are a mean, vicious temperament and a propensity to knock everyone around.

From this point of view Pulcinella’s purposeful knocking on a bell seems out of character, just as his towering over the Tuscan heartland appears out of place. Yet the Torre di Pulcinella  has been standing in Montepulciano for several hundred years. Some claim it was erected by a bishop from Naples longing for and eager to share some of his hometown folklore.

“That’s the way to do it” as Punch would undoubtedly say if presented with the clock tower idea.

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Orange custard cream
This cream is a traditional custard or crema inglese that can also be used as filling in baked cakes or served as a sauce with biscuits, cookies or chestnut bread.

Ingredients
1 egg
1 tbsp wheat flour
80 g powdered sugar
3 oranges – juice and peel

Preparation
Mix flour and sugar with egg in a steel casserole and heat the mixture over low heat while stirring continuously until it starts to thicken
Grate the zest of the oranges and squeeze out the juice
Stir the orange juice in the cream gradually
Remove from heat, mix with grated orange zest and leave the orange custard cream to cool before serving.

                          

As regards tourism in Venice one thing never ceases to puzzle me. Here you have one of the most magic cities in the world spread out over 118 beautiful and independent islands and yet all the tourists crowd  San Marco though it is just one small part of one island. Makes me wonder if most visitors really know what they are missing?

The city of Venice is divided into six sestieri which apart from San Marco are Cannaregio, Santa Croce, San Polo, Dorsoduro, and Castello and in most of these areas it is quite easy to escape the crowds.

Cannaregio is packed with tourists along the main thoroughfare running from the train station to the Rialto Bridge. Still, you don’t have to cross many canals to find peaceful residential areas, ordinary cafés and morning markets as well as what used to be the Venetian Ghetto where Jews were locked in at night. There are also some really nice churches in the area with works of Tintoretto and Tiepolo.

Santa Croce is the only part of Venice open for cars, but if you look beyond the port and the artificial parking island Tronchetto you will find a inconspicuous medieval core with narrow, covered alleys and generous decay. The area is a little messy but very charming. And there are also a few palazzos and museums like the natural history museum in Fontego dei Turchi, Ca’ Pesaro with its collection of modern art by Gustav Klimt, Vasilij Kandinskij and Matisse and Ca’Corner della Regina where Fondazione Prada opened a new exhibition space for contemporary art last year.

San Polo is the smallest and one of the oldest parts of Venice as can be seen from the amazing churches in the area. Main attractions are the Rialto Bridge, the lively fish and produce markets that have been part of the district for more than 1000 years and the Gothic Frari church with art treasures by Titian, Bellini and Donatello. Art aficionados will also appreciate Scuola Grande di San Rocco with more than 50 fabulous paintings by Tintoretto. And travelling children like the open spaces and playground on Campo San Polo.

Dorsoduro is a perfect place to explore the quiet beauty of Venice. Stroll along the Zattere waterfront and enjoy the inimitable gelati, unspoiled cafes, shops and the view over the Giudecca island or go to the right bank of the Rio San Trovaso to see one of the last remaining gondola workshops in the city. Most tourists come here to see the collection of Venetian art in Galleria dell’ Accademia, Peggy Guggenheims Collection of modern art or the Ca’Rezzonico museum house.

Castello behind Riva degli Schiavoni has its own faded beauty with narrow canals, welcoming residential areas and open squares. Part of the old Arsenale where the ships of the Republic were built is still a military area closed, but behind it in Sant’Elena you’ll find public gardens where the biannual Biennale is held.

Visitors who book an apartment with Oh-Venice.com will have plenty of opportunity to discover sides of Venice that are mostly under the tourist radar.

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Salad with wild herbs
In the spring you often see Italians hunting the countryside for wild herbs like cicoria, rucola, barba di frate – a kind of saltwort that tastes a bit like chives, bruscandoli – a kind of humulus or hop, and other edible plants. I have never had any wild salad luck, but my Italian green grocer buys them from the local scavengers and they make an interesting springtime addition to ordinary salads.

Ingredients
250 g wild salads and herbs like cicoria, rocket, barba di frate, bruscandoli, goutweed, nettles, spinach or more cultivated herbs and lettuce from the garden (or supermarket).
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Preparation
Wash all the herbs, salads and peppers thoroughly
Chop and sprinkle with olive oil and vinegar before serving.

                          

Spinach and herb timbale
I’ve just revisited Osteria Michiletta in Cesena where bread and spinach timbales were served as antipasto with a little of their red pepper signature salsa. The dish in itself is very simple and rustic based on no-cost leftovers and seasonal ingredients, but I really enjoyed it along with the busy, unpretentious atmosphere at the restaurant, which is why I’ve made my own interpretation. It is really easy and very like a soufflé that never falls.

Ingredients
2 slices of white bread
4 eggs
250 g spinach
4 tbsp grated parmesan
Salt, pepper and grated nutmeg

Preparation
Remove the crust and soak the bread in a little water
Blanch the chopped spinach in boiling water for 30 seconds
Squeeze excess water from the bread and mix with spinach, parmesan, salt, pepper and grated nutmeg
Fill the mixture in 4 greased cupcake pans and bake at 180 C / 360 F for 20 minutes
Serve the spinach and herb timbales while they are still a little warm

                          

To thousands of Italian Jews, Carpi marked the last stop before the extermination camps in Germany.

Judging from the open spaces, insistingly optimistic orange colours and peaceful coexistence of several architectural styles side by side on the Piazza dei Martiri, I thought of Carpi in Emilia-Romagna as the result of years’ harmonious, sequential development. But the impression was shattered when I passed the inconspicuous former synagogue in Via Rovighi and became aware of Carpi’s role as the last stop before Auschwitz – Birkenau for 5000 Italian Jews.

If you are facing the Cathedral, in the central square of Carpi you’ve got Castello Pio on your right and a columned arcade on your left. Behind the columns you’ll find the usual array of shops, banks and cafés along with a couple of gates leading into the former Jewish ghetto.

There has been Jews in Emilia-Romagna as long as any one remembers, but their numbers increased significantly in the 1400s due to the Spanish expulsion. The Christians were not allowed to lend money so they welcomed Jews with banking experience, and for years Jewish bankers and printers were a successful and integrated part of society. In the 16th century, however, Pope Paul IV decreed that Jews had to live in ghettos and abide by a curfew. The prohibitions were lifted in the late 19th century when many Jews left Emilia-Romagna for the more profitable regions of Milan, Turin and Rome. Today there are only about 400 Jews living in the entire Emilia-Romagna region.

Yet during WWII Fossoli north of Carpi was chosen as the ideal location for a fascist concentration camp. At the beginning “War Prison Camp no. 73” received soldiers, prisoners of war and allied non-commissioned officers, but it was later enlarged to house Jews and political opponents on their way to the extermination camps in Germany and Poland. One of the detainees was Italian chemist and writer Primo Levi, who in ‘Se questo è un uomo’ (If this is a Man) recalls the last night in Fossoli before ‘L’alba ci colse come un tradimento’ and the prisoners were deported to Germany.

It is possible to visit Fossoli though most of the barracks have deteriorated over the years, and there is also a museum in Palazzo dei Pio in Carpi with the names of Italians who died in the Nazi extermination camps and other memorabilia. Along with the more pleasant attractions of a pocket-sized Modena.

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