Tuscany Archives - Page 9 of 11 - attheitaliantable.com

August 13, 2013 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Simplicity of Summer al Fresco dining

summer tomato salad

It was almost 100 degrees today. When it gets this hot in the US, Americans disappear into their air conditioned houses and cars, but Italians come out to live on the street, in their gardens, on their terraces, under their neighbors’ noses. All the windows are open to the warm night and the still air is filled with voices of the neighborhood chatting about the days’ events, silverware clinking on plates as the evening meal is shared al fresco. Normally private conversations are open to everyone. Nothing is concealed in the still heat. Clothes come off, people come out and the entire town becomes your living room.

The simplest of meals is served. Tomatoes tossed with fresh basil, olive oil and salt. Sliced salami and cheese. Cold tuna and white beans, maybe a slice of frittata from lunch. Glasses of chilled white wine. Nothing that requires turning on the stove or oven. It’s too hot for heat.

An ice cream is suggested and we walk to the crowded bar to see what might be left in the freezer case.

Summer salad of Tomatoes with Basil

Cut up 3 or 4 very ripe large tomatoes, tear or chiffonade several basil leaves, sprinkle with sea salt and drizzle with great extra virgin olive oil. You can toss in a whole garlic clove and let it flavor the dish for a few minutes if you like. Be sure to serve with some good bread for sopping up the juices.

Tuna and Cannellini Bean salad

Open a can or jar of the best quality tuna you can find and a can of cannellini or white beans. Thinly slice a red onion. Toss the whole thing with some great extra virgin olive oil and sea salt, maybe a few leaves of parsley, and serve.

January 9, 2013 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

How to Eat a Kale

steamed kale w bruschetta I read one of those columns by some food writer about what’s in and what’s out for 2013, and on the list of what’s out was kale. And I thought, how can kale be out when it’s hardly been in?? It’s so good for you and is so abundant right now that we should work a little harder to figure out how we can work it into our diets. We can’t give up so easily and declare it out of fashion so quick.

I’ve found that drizzled with some great extra virgin olive oil, steamed kale is a delicious side dish, especially with pork. While cooked spinach goes limp, kale retains a satisfying chewiness after it’s cooked. It’s the perfect addition to a big pot of vegetable soup, adding color, texture and nutrition. I love it raw in a salad, chopped very fine. Kale chips are fun, although I find you have to eat them right away; they don’t taste so good the next day.

But I think my favorite way to eat it is on a slice of toasted bruschetta! Take some great country bread, sliced and toasted in the oven, then drizzled with the new oil you brought back from Tuscany, or just picked up at Costco* (see below!), then topped with juicy steamed kale and lots of olive oil. Maybe a sprinkling of crunchy sea salt.

Oh, the vegetable that article said was in for 2013? Cauliflower.

Bruschetta with Kale

One bunch of kale, washed and chopped

1 garlic clove

Extra virgin olive oil

Bread slices, toasted

Place the kale and garlic clove in a large saute pan, add 1″ water and sea salt, put a lid on it and cook over a medium high heat until it’s cooked through and wilted. Drizzle it generously with the olive oil then place it on the bread slices that you’ve also drizzled with olive oil. Eat.

If you want to add a little protein and make it a meal, add a can of cannellini beans!

*Costco sells new Tuscan olive oil. Look for the square green glass bottle that says “Kirkland Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Tuscany 2012”.

December 13, 2012 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – modern vs traditional techniques

The first time I saw olives being pressed at a frantoio in Tuscany, it was a romantic affair straight out of the middle ages.

The large stone wheel, turned by a donkey, crushed the olives into a fine paste. The puree of olive was poured onto thick woven straw mats that were then stacked on top of one another and put into a press. As pressure was applied to the stack of mats, you could see the water and oil running out into the pan at the bottom. The liquid was centrifuged to separate the oil and everyone gathered around the fire, using freshly toasted bruschetta to taste the brand new oil. It was the freshest thing I’d ever tasted.

My next visit to the olive press, many years later, was a bit of a modern industrial shock. Instead of the stone wheel and donkey, there was a large closed metal machinery that was macerating the olives, rather than pressing them into a pulp. There were two centrifuges, one a large cylinder, the other smaller and attached to where the oil poured into the stainless steel pan.

You never saw the puree or the process; you just heard the loud machinery. The puree was centrifuged twice in another closed metal unit, and finally the oil exited at the end of the line, as beautiful a green liquid gold as I’d ever seen and smelling heavenly.

Using modern, high tech machinery is the current method for pressing and extracting oil from olives in Tuscany and southern Italy. There are hundreds of large and small olive presses all over Tuscany. Because the equipment is expensive and because the season is so short, lasting just two months in November and December, most press owners do something else during the year. My favorite mill, Pesavento, is an autobody shop the rest of the time!

The ancient techniques for pressing the olives and removing the oil was beautiful to see. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make very good oil. The straw mats were impossible to thoroughly clean and often caused the oil to go rancid quickly. Modern methods are much less romantic, not beautiful to look and and extremely noisy. But the quality of the oil is so much better that it’s given the entire industry a boost.

December 5, 2012 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

A visit to the olive press – my favorite things Part II

It’s not just the taste of new olive oil that knocks you over, it’s the smell. My second favorite thing to share with visitors to Tuscany in November and December is a visit to the olive press to see how extra virgin olive oil is produced. When you walk into the frantoio, or olive press, your senses are overwhelmed: the roar of the machinery hard at work macerating and centrifuging fresh olives into liquid gold and the heavy organic greenness of the air assaults you. While just tasting the bright new oil is a delicious experience, a visit to see the process is a chance to delve into a Tuscan tradition.

For a successful visit to the frantoio, you must be prepared. Make friends with the owner and you can be assured of having what you need for a delicious repast, mainly a roaring fire in the fireplace and a large pitcher of excellent new oil. To that you add a large loaf of bread, a bottle of wine and maybe some sausages.

Because we’re in Tuscany there will be a wire grate for grilling bruschetta and sausages, and you’ll need the wine of course to wash it all down. If you’re really prepared you can make pinzimonio, which is basically fresh veggies such as carrots, fennel or celery, dipped into a bowl of the new oil and salt.

You’ll want enough to share with the others, bringing them into the seemingly impromptu celebration at the mill. The best part is meeting the farmers, sharing our wine and toasted bruschetta.

If you’re lucky there will be a chestnut pan, long handled and riddled with holes, for roasting chestnuts, and all of you can happily sit and have a light snack while waiting for the oil!

The owners of the olives, having first procured an appointment, must accompany the olives and wait for their oil. They stand around, chatting, and there is an excitement in the air as the old farmers wait to see how much oil their olives yield this year. As with all farming, a good or bad harvest depends on the weather the trees were subjected to during the previous 10 months.

In all, I’ve enjoyed sharing this particular Tuscan pleasure with all my clients who come to visit in November. People ask me how long they can keep their new oil and I always say “Use it UP! We’ll press more next year!” And if you come see me in Tuscany during November I’ll be more than happy to take you to the olive mill and share my bruschetta and sausage with you!