Tuscany Archives - Page 8 of 11 - attheitaliantable.com

May 22, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

April showers bring May flowers

After all the cold rain of April we are rewarded with the burgeoning flowers of May. Poppies, roses and peonies cover the Tuscan landscape. Acacia is rampant along highways, turning miles of roads into soft white shoulders. Elder flowers dot dark elder bushes throughout the countryside and I’m preoccupied with how best to get at them while they’re in their prime. Both acacia and elder are edible and I love adding them to a simple fried antipasto along with baby artichokes and the big sage leaves that come out in the spring. It’s a brief, fleeting season and so we have to hurry.

Acacia smells beautiful, reminiscent of orange blossom, with white droplets bunched together like grapes, drooping from the branches. Acacia is everywhere and generally has branches that grow within reach, giving easy access to the flowers.

The elder (sambuco in Italian) has an unusual smell with large pale yellow lace-like flowers against dark green leaves. It is more difficult to pick as the bushes tend to grow on steep slopes on the sides of roads, maddeningly just out of reach.

I first fell in love with fried elder flowers when I was little girl in Italy and my mother learned how to fry them, which is common in the area around Verona. Not understanding the concept of seasons, I would bring flowers home all year long that I hoped were the right blossoms for frying. I was so often disappointed. Elder isn’t eaten or used much in Tuscany but in the northern regions they make tinctures and syrups of both the flowers and the berries.

The batter is the simplest thing in the world and you make just however much you think you’ll need for the flowers and leaves you want to fry. Put flour in a bowl with a little salt. With a whisk start pouring white wine and stirring to incorporate. Use just enough wine that you have a batter the consistency of crepe batter. Heat peanut or grapeseed oil on a high heat, dip your flowers into the batter and put them in the oil. Turn them when they’re golden brown, not too dark, and drain them on paper towels.

In the summer we have zucchini blossoms and sage leaves, but in the spring we celebrate the short season of acacia and elder blossoms. If you can’t find any flowers to fry, try small artichokes, zucchini slices and mushrooms. Buon appetito!

May 13, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Spring Artichokes

Stuffing an Artichoke

This is the season where we’re transitioning out of winter and into late spring and it’s the perfect time for artichokes. While in Italy we have a wide range of artichokes, from slender and purple to plump and green, in the US the most common is the globe artichoke and one of the best ways to enjoy them is stuffed.

The artichoke is actually the bud of the flower of a thistle plant and if allowed to grow on the plant they bloom into a thorny flower with a prickly purple center. Most of the artichoke is inedible and the only way to eat it is to make your way through the tough leaves to the cap-like center heart. In Tuscany we generally will clean the artichoke before cooking, cutting away, tearing off and scraping out the choke, then sautéing them with olive oil, garlic, lemon and parsley.

When you first begin to deal with artichokes, it’s difficult to throw most of the vegetable away, but once you embrace the reality that most of the leaves and the choke are completely inedible and tough and that you eventually have to throw it away anyway, they become easier to clean and prepare.

You can also find small artichokes right now, they come in packs of 12. These are the babies that grow on the plant late in the season. They are simple to prepare as they require less cleaning and there isn’t as much to throw away. Just cut off the top half of the artichoke, peel off the outer leaves until the leaves become pale green and yellow, trim the stem, and gently simmer them until tender, then stuff them. You would probably want two or three per serving.

Artichokes can seem intimidating but a little practice and you’ll soon be enjoying these delicious vegetables often! Stuffed artichokes make a lovely starter and are a delicious way to enjoy the bounty of the spring season.

Stuffed Artichokes

4 large globe artichokes

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 tbsp parsley, minced

1 tbsp basil, chopped

1 teas dried tarragon, or 1 tbsp fresh

3/4 cup grated Parmigiano

Sea salt

2 cups fresh bread crumbs

olive oil

hot pepper flakes

Cut the stem off the artichokes even with the bottom so the artichoke can sit up on a plate. Peel the stems, chop them and put them in a little water with lemon so they don’t brown. Cut the top off the artichokes about half way up and discard; with scissors, trim the tips of each leaf, discarding the smallest leaves that grown on the base of the flower.

In a pot big enough to accommodate all the artichokes, put enough water to come halfway up the artichokes, squeeze a lemon into the water, add salt, a garlic clove and 1 tbsp of dried tarragon. Place the artichokes in the pot, stem down, drizzle them with olive oil and bring to a boil. Boil 15 minutes and remove with tongs, putting the artichokes cut side down to allow them to drain. When cool enough to handle, open the artichoke flower and remove the hairy choke in the middle, scraping with a spoon. Place in a baking dish. (Or you can leave the choke inside and stuff them as is, discarding the choke and any inedible leaves at the table when eating.)

Sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil until soft, add the mushrooms and the chopped stems from the artichokes, and the hot pepper flakes. Sauté until softened, put in a mixing bowl and add the herbs, bread crumbs, Parmigiano, extra olive oil and salt. Stuff the artichokes with this mixture, packing it in the cavity as well as within each layer of leaves, drizzle with oil and bake at 400 for 20 minutes until browned.

March 5, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Experiencing the Palio of Siena, greatest horse race in the world!

The Palio of Siena is an ancient competition of horses and men that has been run in the Piazza of Siena since the 1700’s, with roots going further back to the middle ages. A bareback, no-holds-barred race held in the city’s main piazza, Siena’s Palio is more than a horse race; with both secular and religious overtones, the Palio is a four-day cultural event that relives the glory of Siena’s medieval past and is the lifeblood that feeds the city and its residents. If you happen on Siena during the days of the Palio, it’s exciting and easy to get caught up in the energy that envelopes the city. But actually living all four days and experiencing each important event along with the Sienese people is a rare opportunity to share in the passion and history of what has been labeled the world’s best sporting event.

In the fourteen years I lived in the Siena area, it was my good fortune to be accepted into the Selva contrada, one of the seventeen neighborhoods that make up the city and compete in this ancient race. I’ve attended every Palio since July 2000, with the exception of last summer when my mother passed away. When people find out I live in Siena, many ask me “Gina, do you go to the Palio?!” If you’re serious about the Palio, you don’t go to see it, you LIVE it! And for the four days of the Palio of July and that of August, like so many Sienese, I don’t work or teach any classes because, honestly, living the Palio takes up too much time to do anything else! It’s a rare honor for a foreigner to belong to a contrada in Siena, whether that foreigner is from Arezzo, Rome, or America. I am fiercely proud to be a member of such a victorious and honorable contrada. (We’ve won more races than any other since the end of WWII but that’s because we use better strategy, play fair but are the cleverest, and hence, the first contrada in the field!)

The Palio is the most important event in the calendar year in Siena and is taken very seriously. It is not a tourist event staged to draw more tourists into the city; it is a celebration of Siena’s proud heritage and gives meaning to its present and future.

For the first time this year, my sister Mary and her husband will attend. Mary was on the other end of the phone when I called sobbing with joy after our victory in August 2006. She has attended two victory celebrations with me, both in 2006 and 2010; she’s met countless dignitaries, Selva members and jockeys through the years; and she’s helped us cook in the contrada on numberless occasions. I’m excited that she’ll finally be able to see the actual race, one where Selva is running and sure to be attempting another victory.

And you can come too. This year for the first time we’re offering to our clients a special Palio tour for the week of June 27 to July 4. Together we’ll attend the event where they pick and assign the horses, see the trial races, study the horses and jockeys running, and discuss the possibilities all while eating sumptuous Tuscan dinners and drinking delicious Tuscan wines at our lovely estate in the country just outside the city. An estate where they actually held a special Palio in the 1700’s in honor of a Pope who was elected from the Chigi family of Siena!

The night before the race we’ll attend the special dinner in the Selva held in anticipation of a victory, and the day of the race we’ll be on the best balcony in the Piazza with an exceptional view of the whole course, start to finish. And if the Selva wins, I’ll be launching myself over the railing to join my fellows in a raucous celebration!

I’m excited to be back in the Piazza, to hear the pounding of the horses’ hoofs on the tufo, to hear the tolling of the ancient tower bell, to once again feel the anxious anticipation of joyous victory or agonizing defeat, to be in communion with the lovely people of Siena for whom this race is everything and enough.

If you would like to join us for this fantastic event, please contact either Mary or myself.

marystipopotter@yahoo.com

ginastipo@yahoo.com

viva il Palio, viva la Selva!

October 13, 2013 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Sotto Sale: baking fish under salt

It must be orata (sea bream) season because beautiful specimens are showing up in the fish market and recently a friend called to say he’d procured two fresh caught orate from Orbitello on the Tuscan coast, and would I come over to show him how to cook them sotto sale, or under salt. Then last week for cooking class I had a special request to do an all fish menu with a whole fish sotto sale for the main course, and I found the most gorgeous 6 pound orate in the market. We baked it under several boxes of coarse salt, a procedure so simple you don’t need a recipe.

If you look on the internet or most cookbooks for a recipe for whole fish baked in salt, current chefs seem to complicate the whole procedure and have you mix kosher salt with egg whites. It’s a step that’s really not necessary, save your egg whites for a meringue cookie. In Italy we just grab the box of sale grosso, or large salt, and cover the fish completely, giving it a good bed of an inch of salt to lie on and a nice comfy blanket of salt to put it to cook in the oven.

A note on salt: you can find sale grosso in Italian deli’s or in a lot of supermarkets. It has a large crystal than sale fine or fine salt. It shouldn’t cost a lot of money and don’t use any of the expensive flake salts like Maldon. Never use kosher salt for anything other than salting the driveway in the winter. Kosher salt is highly processed and rends a bitter acrid saltiness to anything you use it in. While fish baked under salt doesn’t taste salty because the flesh never comes in contact with the salt, the salt you use should be a natural, sweet salt, not a processed acrid product.

When deciding what fish to bake, choose a nice plumb, like branzino (sea bass) or orata (sea bream), or even a fresh trout. Always get a fish that’s been wild caught as they’ll have more flavor. The salt acts as an airtight cover to keep the moisture in while baking and the end result is a fish that is moist and delicate and not salty.

You have the option of adding something to the fish cavity to flavor the meat, like lemon or onion slices or a sprig of parsley, but it’s not necessary. The Tuscans like to add rosemary to fish dishes, but I’ve always felt rosemary is way too strong for the delicate flavor of a white fleshed fish.

So here’s what you do: get your whole fish, gutted and with scales on. Find a baking dish big enough and put a solid bed of large grain salt down, place the fish on it and cover it completely with more salt about an inch thick. Put it in a 400 degree oven and bake it for about 40 minutes. If the fish is very small, less time; I cooked the 6 pound orata that was 4″ thick and it took an hour.

When you pull the fish out of the oven let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Then gently start to remove the salt crust, being careful not to open the fish or pull away the skin to expose it to the salt. When you have most of the salt brushed off the top, pick up the fish and place it on a clean board or platter. Gently pull back the skin, keeping a bowl of warm water nearby to rinse your hands of excess salt. With a large fork or fish spatula, pull off the white meat onto a separate warm platter. Work quickly but carefully. Garnish it with lemon slices and some parsley sprigs. A little black sea salt sprinkled on top gives a lovely contrast!