Aspargus season in Italy!
Asparagus season is officially underway in Italy!
It generally begins at the end of March and lasts through May.
One of the most popular ways to serve asparagus is with crumbled hard-boiled egg (as in the photo above).
But you will also find asparagus tossed with pasta or folded into creamy risotto.
Buona Pasqua… rosemary for Easter
Above: A bee feasts on the blossoming flowers of a rosemary bush. Easter and the arrival of spring are a time of renewal and rebirth.
In many ways, Easter is a “bigger” holiday in Italy than Christmas is.
Indeed, until the time of the Napoleonic conquest, many Italian city states observed and celebrated the new year at Easter and not the week after Christmas as they do now.
Above: A wild rosemary bush in Puglia.
Easter and the official arrival of spring are a time of renewal and rebirth. And while many Italian families certainly will gather for Christmas celebrations in December in their hometowns, Easter is the yearly holiday that nearly all families will celebrate together.
And no Easter celebration is complete without roast “Paschal” lamb that has been seasoned with rosemary, a traditional spice used in Italy — especially southern Italy — for lamb.
Happy Easter to you and your family from the family at the Live Like an Italian blog.
We’ll see you next week. Buona pasqua…
Where extra-virgin olive oil trumps Parmigiano Reggiano
Don’t get us wrong: we have nothing against Parmigiano Reggiano, the classic grating cheese that can only be produced in the provinces of Parma and Reggio Emilia in Emilia-Romagna.
We love topping our ragù alla bolognese or our lasagne alla bolognese with an extra helping of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
And we love eggplant layered with Parmigiano Reggiano, a dish that combines one of the great food products of the north with one of the staples of southern Italian cuisine.
But when it comes to the winter soups of Tuscany, like ribollita, the “twice cooked” bread soup (made with stale bread, Swiss chard, and cannellini beans), we have to insist that the dish be finished with a generous drizzle of Tuscan extra-virgin olive oil. Anything else would be sacrilege!
Radicchio Trevigiano
The most common type of radicchio worldwide is the variety called Chioggia, but in the Veneto, Radicchio Trevigiano proudly rules the table.
With its storied past, radicchio has been part of the Italian diet since the times of Pliny the Elder. Prized for its nutritional properties and pleasantly bitter bite, it adds a kick, not to mention a pop of color to any menu.
There are two types of the variety particular to Treviso: precoce, and tardivo. Precoce, or early radicchio, is long and slender with leaves of even width. The tardivo, or late-ripening radicchio, boasts the famous finger-like leaves and has a more pronounced flavor. Resembling a wine-stained flower, this head of lettuce chicory is anything but ordinary.
Radicchio Trevigiano is available starting in the late fall and produces throughout winter.
The bitter flavor is attributed to a chemical called intybin, which is known to stimulate the appetite and help purify the liver.
There are so many ways to prepare this versatile vegetable. In addition to its obvious use in salad, radicchio is delicious simply grilled with olive oil, sautéed and added to risotto, or braised until tender. The opportunity for creativity endless and any effort made to locate this culinary star is handsomely rewarded at any table.
Pizzamaker eggs (uova alla pizzaiola)
There are SO many wonderful Italian food blogs out there — in English AND Italian. We recently came across this lovely post by Il cucchiaino di Milù and we couldn’t resist writing a post about uova alla pizzaiola, “pizzamaker eggs.”
Image via Il cucchiaino di Milù.
Will all of the fuss over 30 minute meals and otherwise quick dishes for weeknight preparation, we thought it only fair to shed light on the conveniences of la cucina italiana. This can be done with ingredients that you probably have on hand and it’s as home made and wholesome as it is satisfying.
One of the quickest and most satisfying dinners one can prepare is Uova alla Pizzaiola. Italians do not eat eggs for breakfast, it is a protein and strictly reserved for dinner, and sometimes even lunch.
Here’s what you do:
Generously coat the bottom of a skillet with olive oil and brown a couple of cracked cloves of garlic in it.
Take a large can of diced tomatoes, or any leftover marinara-type sauce that you have and place it in the oil. Sprinkle in a little oregano if you like. Let this simmer away for about 15 minutes, or until the flavor deepens.
Make little wells in the sauce for how ever many eggs you wish to cook (for a large can of tomatoes, we recommend about 4 eggs) and crack the eggs right into the pan.
Cook until the whites are just set and the yolks are still runny.
Plate the eggs with a little bit of sauce and serve with a salad and bread.
Dinner is served!
Ragù Napoletano, classic Neapolitan ragù
Above: We really loved this post, recipe, and photo by Italian food blogger Memorie di Angelina. The blog is a great resource for Italian gastronomic culture and cooking. Love it!
Does anything sound more cozy than walking into a house on a chilly fall afternoon to the smell of long-simmering meat in tomato sauce?
Didn’t think so.
Sundays in Naples are reserved for eating a large, late lunch with family. The most popular preparation is the famous Ragù Napoletano (o’ rrau, in dialect). Nonne all over the city lovingly babysit a gently bubbling pot of love over the course of hours.
Ragù Napoletano starts with a base of tomato purée wherein large, tough cuts of meat are simmered.
In addition to the cheaper, tougher cuts of beef and pork, one would typically add pork sausage, braciole, and sometimes even meatballs. The meats are browned in a pan with minced onion, then red wine is added to deglaze.
At this point, the tomato purée is added slowly and the whole lot is left to simmer very slowly for at least 4 hours, but frequently more.
The sugo (sauce or gravy) is used to dress dried pasta (usually a short pasta, although long is used as well) and served with grated cheese as a primo piatto.
The variety of meats, which are now achingly tender, are consumed as the steaming secondo piatto, or main course.
An abundant array of contorni (side dishes) would always be served in any Neapolitan house. They would most likely include broccoli raab and fried eggplant, along with whatever looked great at the fruttivendolo (fruit and vegetable monger) that morning.
And the entire extended family gathers around the table for the warm embrace of ragù.
Buona domenica!
Summer recipe: Pappa col pomodoro by @DoBianchi
Such a great summer dish from Tuscany… a recipe by one of our favorite Italophile bloggers, Do Bianchi…
Summer is here and that means it’s time for fresh tomatoes and pappa col pomodoro, classic Tuscan tomato bread soup — a summertime favorite.
To make pappa col pomdoro at our house, I carefully washed and finely chopped the stalks of two leeks. And then I sautéed them in San Giuliano extra-virgin olive oil from Alghero (my favorite commercial olive oil) with two cloves garlic, peeled and minced.
And then added one jar of puréed tomato (making sure that the only ingredients were salt and tomato), seasoned with salt, pepper, and chili flakes, and then added a generous amount of freshly torn basil.
“Texas basil.” (Yes, I know, everything is bigger in Texas.)
Then I added stock and cooked the soup for about thirty minutes over medium heat and removed.
Then I added the 4-day-old stale bread. It’s important to let the bread soak in the soup for at least 30 minutes. I used a immersion blender to purée the bread after it had sopped up all the soup (in the olden days, I used to use a vegetable mill but, I gotta say, the immersion blender was awesome).
I served the Pappa room temperature, drizzled with olive oil and garnished with a basil leaf.
That’s how we make Pappa col Pomodoro at our house. 
—Jeremy Parzen (DoBianchi.com)
Guest post: Pappa col Pomodoro recipe by @DoBianchi
Summer is almost here and that means its nearly time for fresh tomatoes and pappa col pomodoro, classic Tuscan tomato bread soup — a summertime favorite.
To make pappa col pomdoro at our house, I carefully washed and finely chopped the stalks of two leeks. And then I sautéed them in San Giuliano extra-virgin olive oil from Alghero (my favorite commercial olive oil) with two cloves garlic, peeled and minced.
And then added one jar of puréed tomato (making sure that the only ingredients were salt and tomato), seasoned with salt, pepper, and chili flakes, and then added a generous amount of freshly torn basil.
“Texas basil.” (Yes, I know, everything is bigger in Texas.)
Then I added stock and cooked the soup for about thirty minutes over medium heat and removed.
Then I added the 4-day-old stale bread. It’s important to let the bread soak in the soup for at least 30 minutes. I used a immersion blender to purée the bread after it had sopped up all the soup (in the olden days, I used to use a vegetable mill but, I gotta say, the immersion blender was awesome).
I served the Pappa room temperature, drizzled with olive oil and garnished with a basil leaf.
That’s how we make Pappa col Pomodoro at our house.
—Jeremy Parzen (DoBianchi.com)
Cook like an Italian: don’t mix seafood and dairy
Photo via Cate Can Cook, So Can You!!
Now, please don’t get us wrong: there’s nothing wrong with mixing seafood and dairy, as in the dish, above, Gamberi alla Parmigiana, breaded prawns topped with mozzarella and tomato sauce by Cate Can Cook, So Can You!!
But to an Italian, the thought of mixing seafood and dairy is, frankly, repugnant.
No one really knows the origin of this taboo but it probably dates back to the Middle Ages when the consumption of meat and dairy was forbidden on “Lenten days.” The practice of not eating meat on Fridays and the night before Christmas, for example, is a trace of this gastronomic legacy in contemporary Catholic culture and ritual.
When you consult Italian cookery books from the Renaissance, the recipes are often classified by “Lenten” and “fat” days (mardi gras means literally “fat Tuesday,” the last day you could eat meat and dairy before Lent). On Lenten days, you ate seafood and avoided meat and dairy.
And while few Italians could tell you why they feel this way, the thought of mixing dairy and seafood is repulsive to them.
This is the reason why grated Parmigiano Reggiano is added to chicken and beef stock risotto and meat sauces like ragù alla bolognese but not to seafood dishes.
Eat Like an Italian: Porcini Mushrooms with Olive Oil and Lemon
In the north of Italy, porcini mushrooms are often served in risotto.
And in central Italy, you’ll often find them in the fall, sautéed and tossed with butter and homemade long noodles (usually tagliatelle).
But in Tuscany, we also like to eat our robust porcini raw, thinly sliced and dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and a kiss of lemon juice. Some will also sprinkle with sea salt but if the porcini are good, their natural earthiness should make them savory without the addition of salt.
Buon appetito!
Recipe for Maccheroni alla Chitarra by The Front Burner
Photo by The Front Burner.
You can imagine how thrilled we were to receive the kind note, below, from one of our favorite Italian food and lifestyle bloggers, The Front Burner.
Last week I visited Tarzana Wine & Spirits in Tarzana, California, and I
saw some of your wine, having discovered your website only days before. I
was planning to make a ragu d’agnello the following day. I asked the owner
if he thought your wine would be a good choice for the ragu, and he issued
a resounding yes. It must have been serendipity, because he was so right.I used your Toscana Rosso 2007 in the ragu – my what a perfect match. Your
wine came through in the ragu, and was a most pleasurable pairing at the
table.
Italian food expert Adri had paired Mazzoni with her authentic Maccheroni alla Chitarra with Lamb Ragù (Ragù d’Agnello) and she was gracious enough to allow us to repost a link to her post and step-by-step recipe here.
Buon appetito!
The Harvest Celebration in Tuscany
The Harvest Celebration on the Il Poggione Estate in Tuscany, where the grapes for Mazzoni are grown, is so much more than a commemoration of the harvest. It represents a celebration of life in Tuscany where families join together to give thanks for the fruits of their land. Today’s post comes from Montalcino Report, a blog by Alessandro Bindocci, winemaker at Il Poggione. It’s devoted to the “vines, wines, people, and life in Montalcino.”
Just like every year, Sunday 23 October, we have made the lunch to celebrate the end of the harvest.
150 persons, including our employees and their families have participated in the festivities, which have now become a yearly tradition.
The food was traditional Tuscan cuisine cooked in a homestyle manner and paired with our wines and served in our vinification cellar.
It was also an opportunity to taste the newly pressed olive oil that we began producing a few days ago.
During the lunch, our owner Leopoldo Franceschi (above, center) has made a speech and expressed his thanks to our employees and he has given them an update on the quality of the 2011 harvest and the progress of the winery.
Lastly, in keeping with a yearly ritual, our able cellar master Fabio Guerrini was awarded a gold medal for his 20 years of honorable service at Il Poggione during which he has contributed in a positive manner, thanks to his abilities, in reaching the goals that we have reached.
Chicken Scottiglia
2 pounds chicken pieces (any assortment of thighs, breasts, legs)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh sage
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
coarse salt to taste
pinch red pepper flakes
1/2 cup red wine
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1. Cut any large chicken parts in pieces (breasts may be cut in thirds or halves; large thighs in half). Heat a very large skillet over medium high heat. Add the olive oil and swirl around. Add the chicken pieces, skin side down, making sure not to crowd them (cook them in two batches if necessary). Brown them for about 5 minutes, turn them over and allow them to brown on the other side for about another 5 minutes. (If you do this in two batches, remove the first batch and allow them to sit on paper towels while you cook the second batch). When all of the chicken is cooked, set it all to the side on a plate, and pour off all but one tablespoon of fat from the pan.
2. Return the skillet to medium high heat and add the onion, celery, carrot, garlic, 1 tablespoon parsley, sage and rosemary. Stir for 2 minutes, then stir in the salt and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, until the vegetables turn lightly brown. Add the red wine and stir until it almost evaporates, about 2 minutes. Blend in the tomato paste. Return the chicken to the pan, with any accumulated juices (not worrying if the chicken is a bit more crowded at this point), then add the chicken broth to the pan and bring to simmer. Partially cover the pan, reduce the heat to medium low, and continue to cook at a low simmer until the meat is fork tender and the sauce thickens.
3. Remove the chicken to a serving platter with sides, to hold the juices. If the sauce is still a bit thin, turn up the heat to medium and continue to simmer until it thickens a bit more, about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the remaining tablespoon minced parsley, and pour over the chicken. Serve with rice, mashed potatoes, or another starchy dish to soak up the sauce.
