Il Cappero

Update on our home in L'Aquila

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:51:00 +0000

Saturday it was our buildint's turn have it's damage assessed by the experts from the fire department and the Bank of Italy's Engineers.
Since our appartment complex and a dozen buildings around it are owned by the Bank, a public institution, they were assesed before the rest in the city center and our surrounding neighborhood. The whole area is still off limits without accompanyment from the firefighters.
The basemente level is in good shape, as are the primary walls (I forget the name in English). Our appartment and the one on the same floor are in the worst shape - at least a dozen fractured walls, with more and more pieces falling off every time we come in. It now looks like the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, AND the sex pistols were staying there.
But despite that it is not to be knocked down. It will take months, when they do get around to it. We still don't know. But the important parts are standing and in good shape. The unimportant walls are not, but they don't matter, it seems.
Still kind of depressing to see the room I watched the first half of Hairspray with Silvia and the girls the night of the quake with cracked walls and broken glass everywhere.

Hugs to all of you.

Joshua

Please join this group and spread the word to help my city of L'Aquila fly agai:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=66535648631&ref=ts

Helping L’Aquila Soar Again

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:29:00 +0000

To everyone who loves Italy,

I grew up in Wisconsin but have been lucky enough to call L'Aquila my home since 2001. My wife, Silvia, teaches Renaissance history at the university here and my daughters, Sofia and Emily are in school. Fortunately all safe after the Earthquake less than two weeks ago although, like thousands of others, we don't know when, or if, they'll be able to live again in our apartment. This message isn’t about us - our car wasn't destroyed and thanks to the hotels on the coast we have shelter and most things we need for the immediate future. I have work to get back to in Rome.

Reconstruction in the long-run and getting people into stable shelter and some normalcy will take time. To date a third of the buildings surveyed are unsafe to live in, and the historical center has not been included in that survey yet. Tens of thousands of people are in the tent communities in and around L’Aquila and many more are guests in hotels like me, or with relatives in Rome and elsewhere.

I have been told that the media in the US and UK have already moved on to other subjects (no Americans like me died or were seriously injured), although many grass roots groups - mostly connected to academia or the Italian-American communities are still very active.

With a few friends, both in the US and England, we noticed that we could help both the people of l’Aquila and the city and region that we love. We started with the first English-language group on the subject on Facebook ( L'Aquila Renaissance - Helping L'Aquila and Abruzzo , http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=66535648631&ref=ts)

We have also set up this petition in favour of L’Aquila and the villages and towns around it: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/laquila-renaissance/signatures.html

For now the group tries to give information on how to donate form the USA (often tax deductible). The list is incomplete.

USA
- NIAF - The National Italian American Foundation have created a Abruzzo Relief Fund & their online donation form is in English. Again here you can make a fast & easy online donation to assist in helping L'Aquila now and rebuild their lives, it's tax free for those in the US.
https://www.niaf.org/relief/Relief_info.asp
Italian Academy Foundation (IAF) has established a L'Aquila relief fund. Additionally, the IAF headquarters in L'Aquila (Bisegna) is open to the victims of the April 6, 2009, earthquake who are seeking shelter. View the IAF website at italianacademyfoundation.org.
Catholic Relief Services http://www.crs.org/emergency/italy-earthquake.cfm
- The Sons of Italy Foundation (SIF) has created an Emergency Relief Fund. View the Order Sons of Italy in America website at www.osia.org.
UNICO Announces Initiation of Fund to Aid Abruzzo Italy Earthquake Relief. website at www.unico.org-
The American Red Cross https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=514161456&df_id=1094&1094.donation=form1&s_subsrc=RCO_link

UK
- Global Giving for Abruzzo - http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/pr/2700/proj2695a.html
- Red Cross UK - http://www.redcross.org.uk/donatesection.asp?id=93852&entrypoint=37220_mainItaly

While no one can argue that the human loss is greater than the cultural loss, I am also worried that during the reconstruction, the beautiful old city will be neglected. If I had talked to be before the quake, I would have spent half the conversation trying to convince you, especially those living in or visiting Rome, to come look at this jewel that so few Americans see but is an hour and a half drive from the Eternal City. I hope to be able to push the city like that again soon.

As always, to make sure things work in the long term it will be helpful that people keep on experessing, through letters and email, to officials in L'Aquila, in the Italian government, and in the U.S. government, the Press and other “piazze” in favor of rebuilding the city and not expanding it. Many of us have seen the result of the "modern urban suburbs" created, some never finished, after similar events, In the long term we hope that this group - and what may grow out of it, can contribute to the future of this city just as the world’s love for Assisi and Florence help their rebirth after natural disasters.

Thank you.

L’Aquila, April 16th

Joshua Lawrence
L’Aquila, Italy / Madison, Wisconsin.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=66535648631&ref=ts

Earthquake in L'Aquila (we are all fine)

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:31:00 +0000

We woke up at 3.30 a.m Sunday night/Monday morning to a Earthquake that was 5,7 richter but brought down the entire antique city center, and, unfortunately, many new buildings as well. Me, my wife, daughters and extended family are all alive and unscratched. We were able to save the animals two days ago too. But almost three hundred people lost their lives, 1000 injured and tens of thousands are homeless, at least temporarily. I am staying with relatives almost 100 km away now where we can no longer feel the aftershocks. I thank everyone for their words, worries, prayers and offers of help. I've always believed in people, now I believe in them even more. Even if some "people" are the criminals who built the modern buildings that fell - Abruzzo is seismic but usually this magnitude does not bring down buildings if they were designed and built properly.

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:25:00 +0000

G-Spot: Liver & Lamb

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:07:00 +0000

When the owners of Garibaldi (see post “Galleons and Sloops in the Apennines”) decided to add on this little restaurant right across the street, the idea was to offer a simple selection of grilled food to the same sort of people who were stopping in for a glass of wine and the company of friends friends and colleagues before going home for dinner.

Davide and Daniele insist that name of the place - Punto G - Piacere della Griglia (literally “G Spot - Pleasures from the Grill”) - was inspired by the letter “G” in both “grill” and “Garibalidi” the name of both the street it’s on and the bar the run across the street. It was not originally a play on the Gräfenberg spot, but that didn’t stop them from hosting a public conference on the matter by sexuality and psychiatry professors from the University of L’Aquila last summer.

You don’t have to eat red meat if you don’t want to. They do grilled vegetables and bruschetta as well. But grilled eggplant, zucchini, red sweet peppers, onions and radicchio (red bitter lettuce that’s heaven when seared) are almost sublime when served with a half pound angus steak from Ireland. Even better when you’ve reignited your taste buds before hand with bruschetta (grilled toast with toppings) covered with black truffle paste, porcine mushrooms, hot pepper sauce, or marcetto (a spreadable tangy aged pecorino sheep cheese).

Just don’t leave without trying the spiedini, the tiny little shish kebab skewers that the Abruzzi are famous for. Traditionally made sheep the pieces are tiny so that they grill down tender and tasty. Ultimate finger food for a glass of ruby dark red wine, you eat them right off the sticks and can imagine people doing the same in the same room hundreds of years before. They also have a turkey and chicken version, but their most interesting variation on the theme is liver and hot peppers. Another bottle of this red please.

Polar Hot Chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:34:00 +0000

Once again a little break away from the home office and the Rome office. A quick stop to write and think in my little book bar haunt in L’Aquila - Caffè Polar. The music is from Ray Gelato’s most recent album, a current jazz singer who’s sound seems more at place alongside Louis Prima recordings. It’s cold and humid today, my older relatives here would say c’è aria di neve, in other words the air is perfect for it to snow soon.
It’s five-fifteen in the afternoon and it’s pampering time - hot chocolate, almost as dense as pudding, with a little island of crushed coconut in the middle.
You can find excellent hot chocolate all over Italy, and sometimes it’s better. But today I like it best here.

Carbonara.wordpress.com
ilcappero.blogspot.com

I love comments, would be thrilled if you would subscribe, and even grudgingly accept criticism from time to time

Joshua

Soggy Noodles?

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:30:00 +0000

My daughter likes her breakfast cereal soggy. I think that's gross and hope her tastes will change as she grows up; thankfully she already is food-curious for an eleven year old.
Breakfast cereals are slowly becoming popular here after years of marketing by multinationals, which can even be a good thing - corn flakes are not evil.
Breakfast cereals are part of our half-american household but we still usually go for dipping Italian breakfast cookies in warm milk, colored with chocolate or espresso shots according to the age of who’s dunking.
But most of us would rather our cornflakes are still crunchy when we eat it.
It's the same with pasta. Think about it. It's just more pleasurable to have something to bite into than something squishy that falls apart under your tongue. It's called "al dente" - literally "to the tooth” because your teeth still have to deal with eating it - but Ricciolidoro (Goldilocks) would have called it "just right".
How do you tell when Ricciolidoro will finish her whole plate?
Folk legend has it that you throw a strand of spaghetti on a vertical wooden cupboard and when it starts to stick it's ready.
I have tried this so you don't have to at home.
First, it has to be a simple wood surface, or it will just slide off anyway. Second, it's really quite disgusting. When was the cupboard last cleaned? How much pasta material will stay up there and for how long? And trust the insights of the rocket scientist who tested the theory (me) that the taste of wood finish and traces of cleaning liquids and wax were not enjoyable when I was 19, and there’s no way I’m going to verify if they have gotten any better today.
I mean, who dreamt that up?
Gross.
Basically the pasta is al dente the minute the center is cooked, and the exterior is just becoming soft enough to make the sauce stick but not so soft that it absorbs the sauce.
You can actually see this moment happen. As your spaghetti boils try taking a piece out and biting into it a few minutes before the cooking time indicated on the package and look at the subtle color difference like you would count the rings of a wooden stump to identify the age of a tree. When the inside yellow disappears, it should be ready. I prefer it a bit rawer, when there’s still a pinprick sized darker core.
If you’ve been eating soggy spaghetti for most of you life, try eating it the hard way.

ilcappero.blogspot.com
carbonara.wordpress.com

Galleons and Sloops in the Apennines.

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:29:00 +0000

The Garibaldi Caffè e Enoteca is another of my favorite little places in L’Aquila. It’s a neighborhood all-hours place kind of like the Bar Pasquino under my apartment in Rome. In other words, cappuccino, brioche and newspapers (in Italian only) in the morning, wine and spirits from aperitivo time until after midnight. Both have pannini and other simple but delectable food at lunchtime, but I’m always somewhere else then.

The place was tiny when I first stumbled in 10 years ago. The walls were lined with bottles, boutique chocolates and fake masterpieces up to the arched ceiling and stacked along a wall like in an art counterfitter’s hideaway. Davide and Daniele the two friendly and attentive young brothers who own and run the place also have a gallery that sells professional fakes of famous paintings. As I write this I have two enormous scenes of venice above me (Tintoretto, I believe) Klimt, Hopper, and Van Gogh above the wall of white wines and grappas in front of me, Renoir, Modigliani, Monet and Bottero to my left. When I first stumbled in back then were the model sailing ships among the wooden chess sets and humidors filling the windows. They also have a small but interesting selection of cigars and a nice little bench on the cobblestone street outside - no smoking in bars in Italy anymore.

Despite being on a medieval street 2000 feet up in the mountains the boats fit in because the place was tiny, lined with dark hardwood, the bathroom was tiny like those on sailboats and after a few glasses of wine the world might start to pleasantly sway. They have added another room since I first started coming here, but the lived in, slightly cluttered atmosphere is the same.

This evening as I’m killing time before I meet up with my eleven year old daughter who hanging out with friends in the main square (I’m sometimes jealous of kids growing up in Italy. Just me, a notebook, and a plate of olives, mixed cold cuts and taralli (crispy dried bread in bite sized curls) meant to dampen the effects of a glass of Pecorino, white wine from varietal native to Abruzzo that is undergoing a sort of Renaissance here. The music goes back and forth between Spanish jazz and Astor Piazzola inspired lounge.

The only thing missing is dinner, but recently Davide and Daniele opened up the Punto G - Piacere della Griglia grill (literally “G Spot - Pleasures from the Grill”) across the street. Strictly carnivores only.

But that’s another post.

carbonara.wordpress.com

ilcappero.blogspot.com

Why Dracula can’t cook

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Garlic, like anchovies and raw onions, gets a bad rap. Just because it’s smelly or fishy or salty and stays on your breath doesn’t mean it’s not scrumptious.
Peanut butter eaters shouldn’t throw stones.
Even here in Italy, a land famous for garlic and anchovy eating, these wonderful foods have their detractors. I think the detractors are clueless.
Forget about the proven health benefits of garlic for the heart and the immune system. They are part of why garlic is good, but only a small part. It’s because they are heaven.
My first garlic epiphany is still a fond memory today. My mother had just ordered a plate of baked garlic cloves with our hamburgers and steak sandwiches in a basement bar in what little was left of the Italian-Irish neighborhood in Madison, Wisconsin.
I loved it.
And the bad breath? It’s only bad if you don’t like it (poor unknowing fools) and have not also eaten garlic in the same meal. The important thing is that you eat garlic together, then none of those involved will care.
I still remember a meal I cooked for my friends Erin and Bill when I first came back to Madison from Bologna in 1990. Oven-toasted rosemary potatoes, grilled sirloin with oregano and black pepper, and truffled champignon mushrooms.
Truffled mushrooms are as simple as it magical. Clean, dry and slice the mushrooms and get them ready. It’s going to be fast. Peel and crush a few cloves of garlic and get them ready. Get some good Italian olive oil up to frying temperature. Throw the garlic and turn the heat down low just before the garlic fragments turn crunchy and golden. Then slide the mushrooms and cook until they are soft, grey and have absorbed the garlic and the oil.
I like them straight up as a side dish, but they are great as an appetizer on toasted bread (with or without melted provolone cheese).
What made the dinner with Erin and Bill so memorable? The moment I tossed in the garlic in the yellow tuscan oil (yes, even back then you could find it in Madison) a mushroom cloud of garlic steam burst up and filled the studio apartment. I looked back and saw them both, noses up in the air and huge silly grins like dancing Peanuts characters in It’s a Charlie Brown Christmas.
They say blood is thicker than water, but garlic bonds.
To all my garlic brothers and sisters.
anche carbonara.wordpress.com

Rosemary’s nose

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:15:00 +0000

The quick basics of Italian cooking: keep it simple and care intensely about the ingredients. Try to get them fresh and in season unless the preservation method makes them something better (sun dried tomatoes, for example, or spicy artichoke hearts or salt cod, the list a mouth watering few). I learned my first year here as a college exchange student in Bologna that one of the easiest ways to impress dinner guests is is baked potatoes and rosemary.
But you need fresh rosemary. Rosemary is a brush-like wooden herb that grows well even in cold corners of walls and outside windowsill pots. It’s a compulsory ingredient in Easter roast lamb and other early Spring dishes all over Italy, but especially in the mountains and the hills. Here around L’Aquila many people have a bush growing in a corner of their yard.
Cut the potatoes thin - whatever potatoes you like. I like them razor thin but have been known to cut them into thicker disks with the skins still on. Spread it out over oven paper or a pan slightly greased with olive oil. Sprinkle more olive oil, salt and a couple handfuls of fresh rosemary twigs. Bake away until they look as crispy as you like them. Open the oven a crack occasionally to free up the aroma of baked rosemary to fill the kitchen and tease the the dinner guests who are keeping you company. Bring them to the table warm, making sure that the plate gets passed around under everyone’s nose.
And if it smells good, it tastes good.

ilcappero.blogspot.com
carbonara.wordpress.com

The Great Rice Compromise (Cinnamon Winter)

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:25:00 +0000

I was never that fond of white foods. Lack of color was a signal that it would be boring.
I’ve gotten better with age, but I still have to add something to normal boiled potatoes to find the desire to eat them - cheese, oregano and capers, diced boiled ham and cheese, artichoke hearts - anything. Grand Sasso blue and Marsican red potatoes come close to being edible alone, but still sea salt and freshly grated black pepper help them out.
Boiled white rice is still problem, even with butter and Parmesan I was never wild for it. Especially in elementary school.
Growing up I was adamant about it. Why eat lumpy pasty stuff? So it would sit there and a little verbal arm wrestling would pass. But not for long. I don’t know when she started (I was too little at the time) but Mom would doctor it by reheating the rice in milk adding a tablespoonful of sugar (Mary Poppins-style) and then tap cinnamon over it all to make a soup. The powdered cinnamon would form islands and swirls on the surface of the milk.
It was gone in a flash.
Since then sweet milky cinnamon rice soup has been one of my comfort foods. Years ago a friend with a cold with nothing in her apartment phoned me for advice on what to eat. There wasn’t much, and she had to substitute coconut milk for the bovine variety. When it was ready there was silence on the other end of the line. I hung up and let her eat and sneeze in peace.

Panzerotti (clogging arteries on brisk Friday afternoon in Milan)

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:59:00 +0000

I just got back from a Friday business trip to Milan. The trip was a whirlwind of appointments but still, as I crossed through Piazza del Duomo on my way from one meeting to anther, I felt something familiar call out to me and draw me in for a greasy tasty pause: Panzerotti from Luini.
Even though the Luini bakery is tucked out of site behind the back entrance to Milan’s up-market La Rinascente department store, it is an institution.
Luini means panzerotti, and panzerotti mean deep fried pocket pizzas. Puffy and a bit chewy, the dough is slightly sweet and very addictive. The classic version is simple tomato and mozzarella, other seasonal versions (mozzarella and ham, pesto and cherry tomatoes) and so on give you enough variety to harden your arteries almost every day, and when I used to work nearby it was hard to resist.
Originally just a bakery, it’s now traditional stand up street food at it’s best. Their other specialty is focaccia pugliese and other traditional baked treats from the Puglia (Apuglia) region of Italy.

Luini Bakery
Via Santa Radegonda 16, Milano

Don't forget the chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 11:46:00 +0000

Had another Terra e Vento today…forgot one other ingredient…just a touch of liquid chocolate at the botton of the glass. Just a touch. It’s the Earth to the cinnamon wind…the espresso is the world between

mea culpa

Joshua

………….

Earth and Wind

Today the words “terra e vento” were printed across the chalkboard in my favorite Saturday afternoon bar, just above the names of the CDs that were playing.
“Terra e vento?” I asked the barista as I studied over the pastries.
Espresso with cinnamon. She replied. A bunch of Germans came through last week and they all ordered it. Terra e vento, (earth and wind) was their translation.
There was just a light sprinkle of cinnamon, barely enough to affect the taste of espresso in my little glass cup, but then taste wasn’t the point. It was aroma. The weather was brisk and windy, so a touch of cinnamon became the aroma that ran ahead of the coffee, awakening both senses before the coffee touched my tongue.
A newspaper later I remembered I still hadn’t had my second Saturday morning breakfast. A pane e cioccolato roll and a cappuccino, with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top.
Again the aroma raced ahead….
Neve e vento? Wind and snow?

Good for the Worm

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:30:00 +0000

I had polenta for the first time this season on Saturday. My mother and Dan have been visiting us from Madison and Fabrizio suggested we go eat polenta a village over from his.
Polenta is basically corn meal mush, but tastier than it sounds. The Veneto region (where Venice and Verona are) is best known for it, but it’s also common in much of the central Apennines. (I will talk about polenta later on as it’s considered more of a winter food. The grey haired men in the tiny little neighborhood restaurant served it to us on traditional rectangular, cutting-board like wooden platters instead of plates and we alternated tomato and sausage and tomato and wild boar sauces on top. All that we had to do was sprinkle grated pecorino cheese over it all and, a few drops, for those who wanted it, of homemade hot pepper olive oil.
Afterwards we were back at Fabrizio’s to show my parents around and give them information on hiking and cooking experiences he organizes in the area for groups of
English speakers. If you’re too impatient to wait for my description of them, you can see what they are like on the http://www.vacationinrome.it/ (and click on “program”).
Just before dusk, as rain clouds rolled over the mountain ridge across from us like slow motion foamy waves we spotted two trees of limoncello apple trees that somehow still had a few apples on them. We snapped up two buckets and went down the slope to pick them before the rain, our hiking boots freeing up the aroma of wild mint as the first few drops of rain came down. They were full of spots and scars and some of them had been pecked at by birds, but Fabrizio reminded us of what his father would always say: “Se era buono per il verme, è buono per te”
If it was good enough for the worm, it’s good for you too.
Diced apples are simmering on the stove as I write this and I’m trying to decide between chestnut flower honey or cinnamon.
Both?
Of course.

How about them apples?

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:09:00 +0000

(Cinnamon Fall)

I missed apple picking weekend at Fabrizio’s this year, we came two weeks late this year and could only pick the stragglers.
Fabrizio is a friend of mine who lives in Trastevere in Rome but he’s originally from a small town near L’Aquila called Colle di Lucoli, a small hilltop village on the way up to the Campo Felice (“happy field”) ski slopes. His house is in the middle of beautiful area of rolling hills dotted with tiny stone villages full of hiking trails and curvy roads.
As Fabrizio was growing up his dad would plant a new apple tree every year on the steep slope cascading down from his childhood house. He planted a different tree every year - varieties ranging from big red delicious to the tiny, yellow apples called “limoncello”, which means lemony, a name which derives from their color, small size and aftertaste. They were once once coveted in the mountainous areas of central Italy because as they shriveled up slightly during the winter in basement storage rooms they became much sweeter just before spring.
It’s an organic apple orchard, in the sense that neither Fabrizio nor anyone else does anything to the apples or the trees. Bugs, birds, squirrel and the like have free reign. Many of them are scarred and ugly. But tasty. I’m not as adventurous as I may seem - I strategically bite where they are not scarred and where it looks like bugs have not travelled. Tiny, little bites. But wonderful.
The wind knocks most of them down before we can get to them so the sloping field is filled with the smell of wild mint and baked apples. We were able to fill just got two bags, not enough for apple sauce this time around.
Three years ago we came the right weekend and there was a bumper crop. After lugging buckets of them to the apple storage room (which doubled as storage for wine, oil and preserves from their little garden) and the pile was shoulder-high we stared taking the rest directly to our cars.
But what do you do with buckets full or apples in a city apartment?
Applesauce, of course.
No real recipe. Peel and cut the apples in little pieces, cook slowly in a big pot with just enough water at the beginning to keep it from sticking until the apples melt. If you want it a bit sweeter or more rustic at the end, melt in some honey. And my favorite touch - cinnamon to taste. I love the smell of caramelized apples, honey and cinnamon just before I take it off the burner.
Then eat and smile.

Cinnamon Fall

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:27:00 +0000

Today the words “terra e vento” were printed across the chalkboard in my favorite Saturday afternoon bar, just above the names of the CDs that were playing.
“Terra e vento?” I asked the barista as I studied over the pastries.
Espresso with cinnamon. She replied. A bunch of Germans came through last week and they all ordered it. Terra e vento, (earth and wind) was their translation.
There was just a light sprinkle of cinnamon, barely enough to affect the taste of espresso in my little glass cup, but then taste wasn’t the point. It was aroma. The weather was brisk and windy, so a touch of cinnamon became the aroma that ran ahead of the coffee, awakening both senses before the coffee touched my tongue.
A newspaper later I remembered I still hadn’t had my second Saturday morning breakfast. A pane e cioccolato roll and a cappuccino, with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top.
Again the aroma raced ahead….
Neve e vento? Wind and snow?

Slush puppy heaven.

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:17:00 +0000

(or Cinnamon Summer II)

Growing up one of my favorite dirty pleasures was the slush, or slurpy, or slush puppy. The names changed with the convenience store, but the recipe was always the same. Crushed ice was pumped into a cup and copious amounts of sweet, florescent dyes were squirted in. You drank this concoction until it gave you a dizzy headache, or you sucked all the syrup out of the ice. It didn’t matter that your tongue was green for the rest of the afternoon. Actually, it did matter –– it was a fringe benefit!

In Italy, they have a name for it: Granite. Anyone who has been to Italy is familiar with the machines swirling the already mixed ice and mystery liquid that are in every bar or gelato joint around the main tourist attractions. The flavors are often better than the convenience store variety of my youth, but not enough to take your mind off the fact that they are just slightly more liquid snow cones.

Only a traveler to Sicily, where they claim to have invented granita, will understand just how satisfying flavored ice can be. Although, it is possible to find standard, tourist-trap granite – those candy shop machines are everywhere–– I have yet to find a more sublime granita anywhere else in Italy. One of the best is at the Bar del Porto at the, well, at the bar at the port on the small island of Panarea in the Aeolian archipelago just north of Sicily. Here the granite is dished out of stainless-steel ice cream containers, like those at Giolitti in Rome or other historic Italian ice cream parlors. The choices may be few: lemon; coffee (great sandwiched into a brioche for breakfast); gelso (white mulberries and almond milk, but all are wonderful. The almond milk classic is my particular favorite.

Last year a friendly bartender (who sadly was not there this summer) suggested we try different combinations - gelso and almond, coffee and almond, etc. But, it was not until the third to last night of our vacation when he greeted us with cinnamon sticks and a hand grater and, before our eyes, created something we call “cinnamon summer” -- thin layers of almond milk ice separated by freshly grated cinnamon dust. Summer may be over, but I can still taste that cinnamon summer.

Cinnamon summer

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:11:00 +0000

Cinnamon is one of those spices that bring back memories. Especially, freshly ground cinnamon. This evening I made a quick stop at the Caffè Polar, the tiny bookshop café, with a free hotspot (still not very common in provincial Italy) here in L’Aquila, the city in the Apennine mountains where I live. My goal was a short cappuccino and a newspaper break, but that change, as I stepped up to the bar to order and caught a whiff of that, oh so familiar spice. The young woman behind the bar was busy grating cinnamon over a small glass cup of espresso. As she tops it up with panna (dense cream), I ask how she would do espresso and cinnamon cold. It is a warm day, after all. “I would make a

Caffè Shakerato,” is her response.

Caffè shakerato is the hedonistic Italian version of iced espresso. It consists of two shots of espresso straight from the machine, ice and sugar. The ingredients are mixed in a cocktail shaker then poured into a flute or cocktail glass. In Milan, and a few other parts of northern Italy, Rebarbaro, (a semisweet bitter), or Biancosarti, (a vanilla-based liquor) are added before shaking. It is great with a touch of freshly ground cinnamon.

What I like about the best spices is how they can turn on your memories that play on all of your senses. I’ll tell you how cinnamon transformed evening strolls on the Sicilian island of Panarea last summer, in the next installment

Blood on my hands

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:49:00 +0000

For two Sundays in a row we were greeted at the gate of the my family’s country home in Navelli by a tree awash with cherries. I don’t know the exact species but when you have 4 buckets of dark, fresh, organic (we do absolutely nothing to the tree) juicy cherries just two steps of a ladder up and you don’t really care about the name. I am not a born gardener or farmer, the idea of having a little farm or taking care of the garden makes me want to pull up the covers and hide in bed. But when it’s just calling out to you like that…..

So as Emily rode her bike and chased farm cats, Sofia read under the pines and Linda cared for her wide-blossomed roses, I put on some old clothes and started picking. After about 15 minutes of plucking cherries so ripe a handful would come off without their stems, I was already taking breaks to rinse off the sugar when the stickiness started to make it hard to keep the leaves off. At the end I looked like a doctor in a Mel Brooks film.

The problem, of course, was what to do with four buckets of ripe, fresh Apennine mountain cherries. By nightfall we had already eaten enough to last us a year. A few Tupperware container full when to friends and family. This time I tried to make a marmellata (marmalade). Fania, my sister and law is the real expert on this, simple but long process of making topping for ice cream or yoghurt or to spread on toast. The original recipe calls for melting down (but not boiling) sugar in exact proportion (1lb cherries, one pound of sugar) in a few tablespoons of water. Just before the sugar starts to brown, we throw in the well-rinsed and dried cherries and bring to a slow boil, stirring periodically until the juice around the cherries no long rolls down a wooden cutting board. Fania and I prefer putting in as little as a quarter the amount of sugar (you can always add it in later), which means that the boiling process takes longer until the cherries’ own sugars kick in.

In addition to the sugar amounts, there are many variations on the theme: add cherry, or amaretto o limoncello, or spices like cinnamon.

But the important thing is that my bunch did not shed their blood in vain.

Il Cappero - the Caper

noreply@blogger.com (GrowingAbruzzo) — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:51:00 +0000

Why Il Cappero?

I was a picky eater as a child. I hated things I called "wet meat", "yucky mushrooms" or - the horrors - "quiche" or anything distant from steak or hamburgers. Fortunately some of us do grow up.
But for some reason, I loved capers. I still do.

That's right. "Il Cappero" means "The Caper". And did I say I love capers?

Capers, just to make sure we are talking the same language, are those little round green things that you usually find pickled in little jars. But in Europe they are often sold under salt (layers and layers of salt) as are anchovies (although the fish are often in huge tins). The best ones I've had so far are from Panarea. I picked up two bags (500 grams each, about a pound and a quarter) of local capers under salt.

The good part of the prehistoric tradition of preserving food under salt is not only that they last longer, but they also keep more of their original flavor than pickling. The drawback is that you have to rinse them almost obsessively.

Tonight's baked potatoes are a bit boring? Rinse a handful under running water and toss them on. Add freshly ground pepper (but no salt, of course).

Looking for a hint of Mediterranean character at a moment's notice? Throw a handful on your salad, or n your potato salad, drop a few in with the oil and vinegar with your freshly-cut summer tomatoes.

"Il Cappero" is where I hope to share some of the discoveries I've made about food, wine, and just plain eating, with a particular, but lovingly critical, emphasis on the magic of Italian food. This will take as through neighborhood markets, local foods and traditions, street food (a better word than fast food" kitchens (not just mine), wine bars and restaurants (but for those I'll also be writing on DeliciousCityIt) .

Oh, just in case you're asking, why should you look to me as your expert on food and wine, especially Italian food and wine?

Because I eat quite a lot of it. And I'm good at it too.

Did I say I like capers?

Just checking

Joshua Lawrence - L'Aquila, Italy