May 17, 2012 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Duck eggs and pasta

While there are many different types of pasta in Italy, the most luscious is that made at home with soft “00” flour and fresh whole eggs. The fat of the yolk gives the pasta added elasticity and richness. Throughout Italy, the duck egg is the most prized for making pasta. Hard to come by, duck eggs aren’t for sale, you just have to know someone with a duck. Luckily I know Novelia.

Novelia is my friend from Abruzzo whom I visited recently, and while she doesn’t have a duck, she knows someone who has a duck. It’s all about who you know in Italy. Well, this duck of a friend of a friend is having a pretty good spring and has been producing a lot of eggs. Novelia had been given three of them. If you can get your hands on a duck egg, it is a treasure to be guarded and protected and sometimes shared. Since she could use only two and as she shares my passion for pasta, she also shared her treasure.

I carefully brought the treasure home in a nest I made in the car, double wrapped in aluminum foil and plastic.

I introduced it to the hen eggs and let it lord over them for the night, then the next morning we made pasta.

One large duck egg is equal to about four medium hen eggs. The shell is more compact and heavier than a hen’s, the white is clearer and thinner and the yolk is denser and stickier. Encased in an elastic sack that’s thicker than a hen’s, the yolk yields to the touch before breaking and oozing slowly out of its encasing. The pasta was soft and beautiful, we used about 3 cups of “00” flour and kneaded it until it was satiny and elastic.

Fresh Pasta Dough

Following is a basic recipe for the dough for whole egg pasta, used for making homemade tagliatelli, papparadelle, spaghetti alla chitarra and all stuffed pasta shapes.

1½ cup “00” flour or 1¼ cup all purpose flour

2 large eggs

Use 1 egg for every 2 people you are cooking for. If you can get a duck egg, it should feed six people. Place flour in a bowl or on the board or table, make a well in the center, add the eggs and beat with a fork or two fingers, mixing the yolk and white together and gradually incorporating the flour. When the dough starts to come together, form it into a ball, gathering and scraping up all the loose ends of dough. Knead it until it’s smooth and elastic. If the dough is at all sticky, add additional flour, just enough to keep it from sticky to your hands and the board. The dough should be smooth, satiny and stiffens the more you work with it. Depending on the humidity and the size of the eggs, you may need more or less flour, which can be determined while you work it. When the ball is smooth and elastic, cover with plastic wrap and let it rest at least 10 minutes. Use a pasta machine to elongate and shape the sheets of pasta.

May 12, 2012 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Frying Spring Flowers

There is one week in the spring, sometime in May, where I’m driven to distraction by all the acacia and elder flowers lining the roads and fields. They look and smell heavenly, but I’m just praying to find the right opportunity to pick them and fry them before the end of the brief season.

Acacia smells beautiful, reminiscent of orange blossom, with white droplets bunched together like grapes, drooping from the branches. The elder has an unusual smell with large pale yellow lace-like flowers against dark green leaves.

Acacia is everywhere and generally has branches that grow within reach, giving easy access to the flowers. The elder (sambuco in Italian) 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. Not understanding the concept of seasons, I would come home with flowers all year long that to me resembled the fried elder I’d loved so much, hoping these were the ones and my mother would fry them for dinner. 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.

This was the week and here are the pictures. We fried up a big batch of them in class yesterday, along with baby artichokes and some huge sage leaves.

May 5, 2012 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Loris and his Poggio al Bosco (place in the woods)

I was up in northern Chianti Classico region, closer to Florence than I usually go, and being hungry I stopped for lunch at a little osteria on the side of the road. The food was delicious and the quarto of red wine was exceptional, so I asked who made it and where I could get some more. The waiter directed me to a small azienda up the road, Poggio al Bosco, and said, “Ask for Loris.”

As if he would be hard to find! Loris is everywhere and his personality is bigger than he is. Loris is the most ebullient man I’ve ever met and makes one of the most delicious wines I’ve ever drunk. I spent a lovely afternoon tasting the vast array of wines he makes, looking at his Vin Santo barrels, meeting his mother and wife and in general being welcomed and made to feel like I can’t wait to get back there!

There is an old recipe for Chianti Classico, laid down by the Baron Ricasoli himself at Castello Brolio back in the mid 1850’s. Mostly sangiovese, the red grape of Tuscany, the recipe called for a small percentage of white Trebbiano grape as well. That recipe was revamped a long time ago and now Chianti Classico is made with all red grape, some indigenous and some French. I was astounded to learn that Loris and a small number of producers still make their Chianti Classico with Baron Ricasoli’s original recipe! Actually, he makes several Chianti Classico’s, all with the Baron’s recipe but some aged more than others, so obviously I had to try them all. Research, my friends. Come on over and do some for yourself! When you’re south of Florence around Tavarnelle or Barbarino, give Loris a call, you won’t regret it!

Poggio al Bosco

via Chiostrini 5

50028 Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI)

http://www.poggioalbosco.it/index.php/en/

April 28, 2012 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

How to fry a slipper.

In a previous post, I talked about how much Italians love frying and how averse to this cooking technique Americans seem to be. (Click here to see that post) The reasons for this reluctance are many and completely understandable: the smell of cooked oil that lingers in the house; the fear of getting burned by hot oil, a real and present danger; the fear of not getting it right and producing an inedible mess, wasting time and money.

Growing up I knew very little about how to fry and shared many of those fears. In my family, we never made fried food at home, we went out to get our fix. I have fond memories of Howard Johnson’s fried fish special on Friday nights.

When I moved to Tuscany, I was in awe of how simple they made it look. Working with Loredana, my Tuscan mentor, I stood at the stove and watched her turn out platter after platter of perfectly fried, golden brown nuggets of rabbit or cardoons or eggplant. I wanted to be able to master frying without fear, to have complete confidence in turning out evenly cooked and beautifully golden crunchy goodness. In the end it was just a matter of practice.

The process is simple. You need a skillet or saute pan with oil, kept hot over a moderately high fire. Pat the meat or vegetables with paper toweling before dipping in the batter. Don’t crowd the pan. After a few batches the oil may cool down; let it heat back up to temperature before continuing with another batch. Use tongs to turn each piece as it browns and when the pieces are evenly browned, lift each piece with tongs and let the oil drip back into the pan. Stand each piece up on paper towels to drain.

Each season brings something new to fry, so start here, keep practicing and Buon Appetito!

Pastella per Friggere (batter for frying)

1 cup flour

1 cup white wine (or beer for fish)

½ teas sea salt

peanut oil

This is enough to fry 20 zucchini blossoms or a pound of mushrooms. Make as much as you need.

Put the flour and salt in a bowl, whisk together and begin adding the wine in a slow steady stream while whisking constantly, until you have incorporated all the flour and the mixture is smooth with the consistency of thin pancake batter.

Put 1½-2” peanut oil in a deep skillet and heat until drops of batter bubble immediately and turn brown quickly. Dip each piece of food into the batter and add to the oil until the pan is full but not crowded; turning each piece when it’s golden brown. Drain each piece on paper before serving.