cucina povera

why and how

2012-02-01T07:49:00.001-05:00

veering off-topic today to give my old friend George Orwell the copy-and-paste treatment.

From the essay "Why I Write"

Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living. They are:

(i) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive, and a strong one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top crust of humanity. The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers belong in this class. Serious writers, I should say, are on the whole more vain and self-centered than journalists, though less interested in money.

(ii) Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed. The aesthetic motive is very feeble in a lot of writers, but even a pamphleteer or writer of textbooks will have pet words and phrases which appeal to him for non-utilitarian reasons; or he may feel strongly about typography, width of margins, etc. Above the level of a railway guide, no book is quite free from aesthetic considerations.

(iii) Historical impulse. Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.

(iv) Political purpose. — Using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after. Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality.

and from 'Politics and the English Language"

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
(ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do.
(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

lazy. sunday. pizza.

2012-01-29T14:19:00.005-05:00

urge to blog: fading.

but if you take my last two posts and combine them, you end up with a pretty damn tasty pizza.

make the dough as so expertly described here, or pull a ball from the freezer in the morning and let it thaw out for a few hours. if you're going to be making dough, you've got an hour to kill while the dough rises. you might as well use that hour to make some carmelized onions.

peel, slice, and cook down two good-sized yellow onions in a few lugs of oil and a knob of butter. add a pinch of sugar, a few pinches of salt, some thyme or sage if you got it and cook slowly, uncovered and at low heat for an hour, stirring occasionally. they'll are done with they're golden, gooey and sweet. remove from the heat.

take some mushrooms like baby bellas or dried (reconstituted) porcini. slice, cook at low heat in a few lugs of olive oil. add a pinch of parsley or thyme if you got it. when they're just about done, add a knob of butter and a pinch of salt. remove from the heat.

pre-heat your oven at 500 for 20-30 minutes.

knead, flatten, stretch, toss and lay out your dough on your pizza peel. add some olive oil and spread it around. give it a good coating of dried oregano. spread the onion mixture around the entire pizza. top with the mushrooms and the pan drippings from the mushroom pan. finish off** with decent amount of pecorino cheese and sprinkle with some fresh pepper. cook on a pizza stone in the oven for 4-6 minutes.

**you can also top with toasted breadcrumbs before putting in the oven

internet pizza celebrity

2012-01-20T19:40:00.002-05:00

and since literally no one has visited the site in a few days, it must be time for a new post.

the lack of traffic is surprising because i've recently been quoted and linked as a reliable authority on how to make pizza dough at home. the article is here. i think i come out sounding more helpful than mr gee (who perhaps has something to hide, or is trying to protect his business from copycat pizza pirates) and less authentic than the actual italian, ms riina. this sounds about right. kudos to amy for writing the article.

what to do when you find 2 pounds of onions in your cupboard

2012-01-16T14:59:00.004-05:00

make onionade?

almost.

there's a venitian dish out there called bigoli con salsa. i'm going to hijack this dish from the venitians and claim it for the south. i'll explain.

this dish should be southern. first of all, it starts off by slicing 2 or more pounds of onions, much like the magnificent and confusingly-named Genovese sauce from napoli. the cheap onion is your primary ingredient. the 2nd most prominent ingredient is the anchovy, which is so popular in the south that it could run for political office and probably get enough write-in votes to win. the 3rd ingredient is toasted breadcrumbs, which i've only ever seen applied to southern pasta dishes, usually from poor areas where this was used as a substitute for more-expensive grated cheese. so now all you're left with is bigoli, which is a fresh, homemade thick spaghetti from up north. well, i'm going to substitute the bigoli with bucatini, which is store-bought thick, hollowed-out spaghetti that is popular in the south. its also sometimes known, and found in grocery stores, as perciatelli.

so now its clearly a southern italian dish that fits the format of this blog.

first, the onions.

cut them in half through the stems, peel, and cut into 1/4" thick slices. in a large pot, combine 3 tbsp of butter, 3 tbsp of olive oil, a pinch of sugar, a bigger pinch of salt, and a sprig of thyme (if you got it) at medium-low heat. once the butter is melted, add your pile of onions. give a stir, and cook at medium-low heat, uncovered, for about an hour. stir occasionally. the onions will sweat, then soften, then carmelize. they are done when you have a golden, sugary, onion jam. you'll use about half of it for this dish. the rest can be used as the base for a great, simple onion soup. or work it into your bruschetta/focaccia.

boil your water, add salt, and start cooking the pasta. in a saute pan, add a few lugs of oil and a cup or so of the onions. you can also begin toasting breadcrumbs in another pan at low heat at this point. when the oil and onions are sufficiently hot, add about 5 or 6 anchovy fillets. stir until they dissolve. cook the pasta until its almost-but-not-quite-al-dente. reserve a cup of the pasta water and drain. dump into the onion/anchovy sauce, toss up, add some of the pasta water and some roughly chopped parsley. cook over low heat for a minute, toss some more, add the breadcrumbs, and toss for the final time.

this posting was heavily inspired by and borrows heavily from from Tamar Adler's book 'An Everlasting Meal', which I will be returning to the New York Public Library later this week. Then i'm buying it from amazon. you should read it.

two posts in one day. i think i'll take the rest of the week off.

tonno ca' cipuddata

2012-01-16T10:13:00.002-05:00

more seafood from sicily.....

one of my definitions of 'sicilian food' is 'that which some bean-eating truffle-head chef from bologna would never even dream of making' and this falls into that category. this one is quick and easy. the tuna steaks can be acquired for cheap in regular grocery stores or, even better (if you're in nyc), in chinatown. you don't have to pay whole foods $33 or whatever it is for what can easily be found in chinatown for $7.

ingredients:
2 tuna steaks, not too thick. maybe about 1.5 lbs total.
some all purpose flour
olive oil, about 1/4 cup
2 or 3 onions, sliced
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 bunch of mint, leaves picked. maybe about 1/3-1/2 cup
salt and pepper

rinse the steaks in cool water and dry with paper towels. salt and pepper them and dust with the flour. heat the oil in a pan, shake of the excess flour from the steaks, and brown them in the pan. a few minutes on each side. remove the steaks and set aside. add the onions to the pan, add a pinch of salt, and cook at low heat for about 6-8 minutes until nice and soft. add the vinegar, more salt + pepper, and mint leaves and cook for a few minutes more.

pour the onion mixture over the steaks. cover the plate of steaks with another plate and allow everything to soak in the flavors for 30 minutes. serve on top of some cuscus.

now we can eat

2012-01-07T12:03:00.001-05:00

traffic on this site has slowed to a crawl. 85% of the visitors are spam-bots from the USSR (not you estonia, you're cool) and even they are getting sick of my shit. maybe its because i'm posting thierry henry highlight reels and photos of ham? so how about some recipes, yeah?

i know what you're thinking----"enough of this sicilian stuff. how bout something from abruzzo, bozo"

another fava dish---this time a humble zuppa. (soup) zuppa di fave e pecorino.

my local grocer still has fresh fava, which confuses me because i always equate fresh fava with summer. but its summer somewhere. maybe they are flying them in from chile or something. if you can't find fresh, use dried. if you can't find fresh or dried, you're not looking hard enough.

2 lbs fresh fava beans, shelled (or 1 cup dried, soaked overnight)
2 or 3 shallots, peel + chop coarsely
1 head of escarole, trim, wash, cut up
2 cloves garlic, peel
2 cloves garlic, chopped
fresh thyme and parsley
peperoncino (optional i guess)
olive oil
fresh grated pecorino cheese, 3/4 cup or more

in a large sauce-pan or soup pot, put the beans, escarole, shallots, and the 2 whole cloves of garlic. toss in a sprig or two of the thyme, and the peperoncino if you are using it. cover it with water so that it has about 2 inches of water above the solids. bring to a boil, and as soon as it starts boiling briskly reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. simmer an hour if you are using dried beans. when this is done, dump everything in a food processor or food mill---give it a blast, and return to the pan and keep warm.

in another small skillet, heat a few lugs of olive oil at medium heat and add the chopped garlic. after it starts to soften and color, add the minced parsley. pour this into the soup. serve at the table, drizzle with a good olive oil and serve with loads of fresh grated pecorino.

lunch with the legend

2012-01-05T12:30:00.001-05:00

just because

maybe later i'll tell you how to make some food. the request lines are open

strategically placed sales items

2012-01-03T13:25:00.006-05:00

sarde a beccafico

2011-12-30T21:16:00.003-05:00

the local grocery store had some nice looking fresh sardines for $3.49 per pound, so back to sicily we go.

this is yet another dish where if you asked 10 sicilians how to make this, you'd get 10 (maybe more) responses. this recipe was mostly dictated by what i had in the house. if you make this, use this recipe as a guideline and adjust to your tastes. the quantities listed below are intentionally vague.

sarde a beccafico is a fancy way of saying stuffed sardines. they can be stuffed a number of different ways. some recipes tell you make an egg batter and fry them. some roll up the sardine. some (like this one) make a sardine sandwich with stuffing in the middle.

ingredients
1 lb fresh sardines (or close to a pound, but an even number of fish)

for stuffing--lots of typical sicilian ingredients here. sicilian food ≠ italian food
garlic, minced
anchovy, minced
orange zest
lemon zest
parsley, chopped
white wine
pine nuts, toasted
currants/raisins
capers, rinsed
almonds, toasted
plain bread crumbs
olive oil

scale and gut the sardines, remove the head, and butterfly. remove the spine and as many of the bones as you can. put them aside as you prepare the stuffing

in a saute pan---heat up 1-2 tbsp oil at medium heat and cook the garlic for 1 minute, add the anchovy and cook for 1 minute more. add the lemon and orange zest, parsley, salt and pepper, cook for 1 or 2 more minutes. add the raisins, capers, nuts. cook for 1-2 minutes and then add a few lugs of white wine. when the alcohol evaporates and the pan is almost dry, add the plain breadcrumbs and mix well. cook everything for a few minutes until the breadcrumbs have dried out and start getting toasted. if you have a food processor, you can dump everything in there at this point and blast for a few pulses to chop up everything nicely.

preheat an oven to 350, grease up an ovenproof dish with some oil. put a generous amount of the stuffing onto one of the butterflied sardines and top with another sardine. repeat for all of the sardines and put them in the baking dish. drizzle with some oil, sprinkle some of the stuffing on top, and bake for 12-15 minutes.

serve over couscous.

i'm saving a little bit of this leftover stuffing to make a few experimental sicilian-style clams casino tomorrow.

more gloriously harsh restaurant reviews

2011-12-28T17:30:00.002-05:00

because i love the one i posted yesterday so much, and because bad restaurant reviews are infintely better than good restaurant reviews....here's another

this time the los angeles times food critic takes a trip to america's favorite tuscan-themed dispensary of seafood alfredo, breadsticks, and venetian apricot chicken. enjoy.

cavatelli

2011-12-27T21:07:00.003-05:00

cavatelli, and its close relative orecchiette, are the kings of apulia (puglia). all of the great pasta dishes from this part of the country are based on them. they are almost always freshly made and you'd be surprised to find out how quickly and easily they can be made at home. no fancy machines needed (i have no idea what this thing does). no eggs either. its a true pasta in the sense that its just a paste made of just flour and water. the technique to shape the dough into cavatelli/orecchiette is as easy as flicking your thumb.

the dough
equal parts all purpose flour (or better yet italian 'tipo 00' flour) and semolina wheat flour (not farina), usually labeled semolina flour for pasta, gran duro, etc.

cold water....how ever much it takes

if you want pasta for 3 or 4, use 1 cup of each flour, a pinch of salt, and roughly 3/4 cups of cold water. the amount of water needed depends on many factors, but you want to add it slowly to the flour as you mix it with the flours until the consistency feels right. do this on the countertop by making a mountain of flour and hollowing out a hole for the water in the middle of the flour and slowly incorporate the water into the flour. you could, i suppose, do this in a bowl or a mixer/food processor. its better to have a dough that is too wet than is too dry. you can always add more flour to the mix to even things out. once you've gotten everything together into the shape of a ball, you can begin kneading. while kneading, if you think your dough is too dry, wet your hands (slightly) while kneading. too wet, add more flour. knead it on a clean surface for 10 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic. wrap in plastic and let rest for 20-30 minutes.

there are a few different methods to make your dough into a pasta. you could take your ball of dough and pinch off small, acorn sized pieces. you could also cut the ball into four or five pieces and roll each piece into long snake-shaped pieces of dough about as thick as your finger and then chop into the same small, acorn sized pieces. take a clean kitchen towel or countertop and add a bit of semolina flour to a small area of it. to shape into cavatelli, take your acorn-sized piece of dough and put into the semolina area. push it away from you with your thumb. or, use your index + middle finger and drag towards you. apply some downward pressure while doing this so that the ball of dough flattens and curls up around itself. you'll end up with something that looks like a taco shell or hot dog bun. don't worry if they're not all perfect or identical. if you're unsure about the technique, check out some helpful youtube videos. this is how a professional nonna makes orecchiette.

sauce? a quick weekday sauce can be thrown together in minutes by sauteing some aglio, olio e peperonicini [garlic, olive oil and red pepper flakes}. throw in an anchovy filet or two. boil some broccoli florets in the water you have boiling for the pasta. a minute or two later, add the pasta. cook for about 3 minutes, drain, and toss in the aglio/olio sauce. top with pecorino.

if you've got a little more time these pasta are great with a tomato sauce, preferably one flavored with meat, lamb or braciole. or with broccoli rabe and sausage meat. or with arugula (la ruca in the dialect). and always topped off with fresh grated pecorino.

a word from the information technology department

2011-12-27T17:36:00.008-05:00

its come to our attention that the site looks like rubbish if using microsoft internet explorer. the ministry of information technology recommends using something else. the font should not appear white.

perhaps i'll write up a recipe post later.

link of the day, from back in april: a gloriously hostile review of paris restaurant, l'ami louis

lunch break - thoughts for food

2011-12-22T12:48:00.003-05:00

any vegetarians out there that think they're doing the planet a favor by not eating meat should check out what this article has to say on the subject. seems like a good debate for ethics class.

los angeles tried to make their school lunches a little healthier. not surprisingly it doesnt seem to be working as intended. sounds like they're inadvertently creating a junk food black market. flamin hot cheetos are now prison currency

related video---jamie oliver's ted talk

books!---got this at the new york public library yesterday after a reader recommendation. so far, so good. chapter one ("how to boil water") will get you hooked. its not a cookbook, but it will tell you how to cook.

maccarruni ciociari

2011-12-21T22:51:00.003-05:00

i came across this in a cookbook specialising in roman food, which is odd because this dish is not roman. its ciociarian. ciociaria is the land south of rome near the province of frosinone. its the area of italy that i've spent the most time in so therefore it is obviously the best part of italy. if you want a second opinion, read this book

i would be fairly confident if wagering that i was the only person in the united states that had this for dinner tonight.

this ideally should be served with fresh egg tagliolini pasta. you could substitute store-bought fresh pastas, or dried fettuccine or even short dried pastas like penne.

4 chicken livers
1/2 lb chicken giblets
5 tbsp olive oil
2 clove garlic, mince
1 onion, finely chop
1 carrot, peel and chop
1 celery stalk with leaves, mince
3 x 6" sprigs of fresh rosemary, tied with kitchen string
3 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup dry red wine
28 oz can italian plum tomatoes
salt
pepper
pecorino cheese

rinse livers and giblets, remove weird bits. blanch livers in some boiling water for 1 mintue. drain and rinse in cold water. cover and refrigerate for 1 hr. cut giblets into small pieces and set aside

in large saucepan, heat oil at medium-low heat. add garlic, onion, carrot, celery, and rosemary. saute 8 minutes, stir occasionally, until vegetables are softening. add giblets and saute until nicely colored (about 5 minutes). add tomato paste, then wine. cook off the alcohol, about 3 mintues. pass tomatoes through food mill directly into the pan. (if you don't have a foodmill, try to remove most of the seeds from the tomatoes, then crush by hand or blitz in a food processor). season with salt and pepper and simmer for 45 minutes over low heat. the sauce will thicken up and the giblets should get tender. it should also smell amazing.

cut chilled livers into small pieces and stir into the sauce. simmer additional 4 mintues. remove rosemary bundle. check to see if it needs salt or pepper

drain pasta and finish in a saucepan with the sauce for a minute or two. toss with fresh grated pecorino.

to-do list

2011-12-21T17:17:00.005-05:00

by johnny cash

chicken liver pate

2011-12-20T20:32:00.001-05:00

the first of two posts dealing with the most delicious part of the chicken. i truly feel sorry for you people who have never had it before and therefore don't like it.

chicken liver pate on toasted bread [crostini di fegatini]--like almost everything else i've posted thus far, there are lots of different ways to make this. you may be familiar with traditional jewish or french ways of making chicken liver pate but like many other hings in this world, italians do it better (capers + anchovies make it better).

here's a rustic way of making it. the fat-cats in the north will tell you that you need butter, sage, cognac etc to make crostini di fegatini--i beg to differ (although marco's recipe is quite good)

chicken livers, half pound. i recommend getting them from chickens that were relatively happy before they were slaughtered.

onion, fine chop
4 tbsp white wine
4 anchovy fillets, minced/mashed
capers, 2 tbsp
2 teaspoons (good) white wine vinegar
olive oil
salt
pepper
food processor/blender

clean the chicken livers. remove any weird bits. thoroughly dry them with towels.
in large saute pan, add 2 tbsp oil and set heat to med-high. add onions and saute 5 mintues until turning translucent. add capers and anchovies and cook additional 8-10 minutes. you want to caramelize the onions to get the sweetness out of them. once this happens remove everything from the pan. add a few more lugs of oil and turn heat up to full blast. salt and pepper the livers and add them to the pan. cook for 2 minutes (without moving them around in the pan too much). turn over. cook for 1 minute and then add the onion mixture back into the pan. add the wine and vinegar and simmer a few minutes until the alcohol is burned off. remove from heat and let mixture cool for a few minutes.

pulse for a few whacks in the food processor or blender. serve on toasted bread. can be refrigerated for up to a week (it actually gets better with age)

this is a rustic recipe. if you want something a little less liver-y you can make with butter (added with the oil at the beginning), or sage and rosemary (added when you add the capers). you can also deglaze the pan with a little cognac or brandy (instead of wine and vinegar).

if there's more interest in chicken livers i'll post a recipe later this week for maccarruni ciociari, which is some fresh pasta with a hardcore rustic sauce based on tomatoes, rosemary, livers and gizzards. but i might be the only one who would actually make it.

typical roman food

2011-12-17T14:14:00.013-05:00

a two-for-one recipe post today, with two of the most common dishes in rome. first up, coda alla vaccinara (braised oxtail stew, butcher style). this is a roman classic, made now the way that it was made a few hundred years ago in the Testaccio neighborhood of roma. at that time it was a working-class neighborhood filled with slaughterhouses, but now like other gentrified meat-packing districts (new york, copenhagen, etc) it seems to attract mostly artists, "artists", and people who like to drink vodka and dance. but there's still very good food to be found in testaccio. the neighborhood itself is named after the nearby monte testaccio, which is an artificial hill built entirely out of the broken fragments of jars that were used to transport olive oil during the times of the roman empire. if you walk on it, you can hear the pieces breaking under your feet. it is estimated that the hill contains fragments from 53 million olive oil jugs which would have carried about 6 billion liters of olive oil into rome.

oxtail is not a glamorous piece of meat. back when testaccio was the butchershop capital of rome, some of the butchers were paid in offal--a nice word for the less glamorous parts of the animals like brains, kidneys, livers, organs, heads, tails, etc. so naturally some very tasty recipes were developed. in roman cooking, it is called quinto quarto, the fifth-fourth, which is a concept worth explaining. about 1/4th the weight of the animal falls into the category of offal. but to the butchers who took it home, this undesirable quarter of the animal was just as important as any of the other "quarters". the "good" parts of the animal were set aside only to be sent off to the noblity, the army, the rich, and the vatican. what most normal people were left with was 'the fifth fourth'. so they learned how to make stuff like coda alla vaccinara.

like most 'classics', there are hundreds of ways to make it. here's one of them.

ingredients (to serve 4-6)--ingredients with an asterisk* are optional
2-3 lbs of oxtail, cut into small pieces
1 carrot, fine chop
3 or 4 stalks of celery, coarse chop
1/2 cup white wine (from lazio region if possible)
1 onion, fine chop
some all purpose flour for dredging
fist full of parsley, chopped
2 clove garlic, chopped
28 oz canned plum tomatoes,crushed by hand
nutmeg, fresh grated*
raisins, handful*
pine nuts*, smaller handful
peperoncini*
olive oil
lard*
pig foot*, small piece of it, quarter pound?, for flavor. some recipes use pancetta, but i'm going true quinto-quarto here and using something cheap and undesirable. do whatever you want.

some of the more hardcore, authentic recipes call for bittersweet chocolate or cinnamon. i'm leaving those out this time.

if you're using the trotter (pig foot), put about a quarter of the foot into some boiling water for an hour. this will soften it up. pull out any bones and cut it into strips.

you may also want to simmer the oxtail for about 10 minutes in 6 cups of salted boiling water. if you do this, keep a few cups of the water for later use. but if you are using both oxtail and trotter, boil the oxtail first, take some of the water, then simmer the trotter.

in a large pot, start with 1/4 cup of olive oil (and lard, if using) and toss in the carrots, onion, garlic, parsley, and peperoncini (if using). cook at medium heat, about 10 minutes. coat the oxtail in flour and add to the pan after you turn up the heat a bit. (add the trotter slices too, if you are using it). brown well on all sides. add the wine, and let it cook for a few minutes. add the tomatoes and season with salt, pepper, and add a pinch of grated nutmeg.

cook for 4 hours, adding a little bit of water [or oxtail broth from step 1] from time to time so the sauce doesnt reduce too much. when the meat is starting to fall off the bone, add the celery, [also the raisins and pine nuts,if using]. cook for another 15 minutes.

if there is a lot of fat accumulating on the top of the stew, you should remove some of it.

can be served over polenta

recipe #2 today, much quicker. i found fava beans in a local grocer today, so here's a quick and typical roman side dish. this recipe is for two or three portions, so double or treble it if you need more.

2 lb of fava beans, shelled (about 2 cup of shelled beans)
guanciale, one or two thick slices cut into strips)--can substitute pancetta i guess
half of an onion, minced
olive oil
salt
pepper

shell the beans and soak them in water until the time they go into the pan.
saute onion in oil at medium heat for a few minutes. when it becomes translucent, add the guanciale and cook for a few minutes. add a few grinds of pepper and the fave (still damp). toss everything well so the beans are coated. cook for about 15-20 minutes, until the beans are tender. add a tablespoons of water to the pan from time to time. add a little salt, and serve.

pasta con broccoli

2011-12-16T19:13:00.003-05:00

off the top of my head, i can rattle off about 4 or 5 different ways of making a pasta dish with broccoli. all of the regions of the south have their favorite way of doing it. they are all very simple and can be thrown together at the last minute, usually with ingredients that you probably already have at home. i just ran out and spent a $1.75 on broccoli and i'm ready to go with this one. one thing that most of the various pasta with broccoli recipes have in common is anchovies. here's one of my favorite pasta with broccoli recipes, from calabria.

ingredients (serves 4):
broccoli--one bunch. not sure what units to use here. here in nyc broccoli is usually 2 heads with a rubber band wrapped around the stems so thats what i'm considering "one bunch"
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
6-8 anchovy fillets. i use the whole fish, packed in salt. the tinned/jarred ones will also work. avoid the cheap ones
pine nuts, a few tablespoons (3?)
peperoncini (red pepper flakes)
olive oil
pecorino cheese
1 lb of pasta (rigatoni, farfalle, shells, penne)

break the broccoli out into bite size florets [you can use the stems, too] and boil in about 4 cups of lightly-salted water for 3 or 4 minutes. remove from the water but keep the water. we're going to cook the pasta in the broccoli water. add the broccoli water to your usual large pot for cooking pasta and bring to boil and add salt. the sauce cooks quickly, so once you add the pasta to the boiling water you can get started on the sauce.

heat a few lugs of oil in a pan (medium heat) and saute the garlic, pine nuts, peperonici, and anchovies. after 1 or 2 minutes, the garlic should start to get golden and the anchovies should be almost dissolved. add the broccoli to the pan, toss it up, and set aside momentarily. when the pasta is just about al dente, reserve a little bit of the water and strain. return the pasta to the pot that it was cooked in, add about 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water, and add the broccoli sauce. you won't need much salt because the pecorino is salty enough. add a few additional tablespoons of oil and stir up everything. add the cheese (1/3 cup?) and toss for the final time.

bad cell phone photo--sorry...to some extent

coming attractions---oxtail alla vaccinara recipe, pasta con le sarde (experimenting this weekend), and something i'm very excited about....maccarruni ciociari

christopher hitchens is dead

2011-12-16T07:42:00.013-05:00

bummer

everyone knew he was about to go so the obituaries were on-ice for the last year and quick to post. predictably, the Times says some nice things. i guess if you spend most of your life "burning the candle at both ends" [but it gave a lovely light, as hitch was fond of saying], 62 years is a reasonable life expectancy.

update: christopher buckley and The New Yorker get a few words in, edgewise.

some of hitch's "greatest hits" on The Browser. Go read some. you could start with his final dispatch for vanity fair

back later with food-related stuff.

*-

lunch time bogus olive oil edition

2011-12-15T14:03:00.004-05:00

the author of the exposé that appeared in the New Yorker a few years ago has written a book. he also talked about it on National Public Radio.

so use your head.

two important quotes from the Times review (one from each side of the coin):

"Grody olive oil is not killing anyone. We’re talking about a first-world problem here."

"...a Swiss agronomist explains, succinctly, what great olive oil will make a person do. It will make you, he says, “get down on your knees” like a Baptist preacher and shout out a word that’s not printable in a family newspaper."

lunch time, basking in the delicate genius of rachel ray

2011-12-14T13:11:00.003-05:00

do yourself a favor and check out ms. ray's "late night" recipe for microwave bacon.

its a great recipe if you've been unable to solve the mystery technique of exactly how to put something in a plastic box and hit a button.

but what was so darn loveable about this link above is the comments. go ahead, read all 151 of them. enjoy

someone calls her the 'modern day julia child'. however with many of these its hard to tell if a comment is said in earnest as most of the 151 comments are drenched in irony.

some of the commenters suggested pairing your late night bacon with paula dean's english peas and i'd be inclined to agree.

tip of the hat to jay for the link

some reader-suggested design-oriented changes coming to the site tonight. for some reason the site looks wretched in Internet Explorer. maybe a recipe, too.

new background photo taken from the hills of veroli by a critically acclaimed estonian photographer.

branzino ai finocchi

2011-12-13T19:37:00.005-05:00

this one definitely falls under the category of 'sicilian-style'. sea bass with fennel. fennel is everywhere in sicily. i recall wandering around in palermo, near the catacombs, in the late afternoon just after the street vendors went home for the day. there were wild fennel fronds on the sidewalks, everywhere really, and the whole street smelled amazing. unfortunately, there's not much wild fennel around new york city. california, you might have some.

like most island-dwellers, sicilians eat a lot of fish. however unlike most islands, the waters around sicily are (or were) packed full of swordfish and tuna. for this we should all be incredibly jealous.

cooking a whole fish doesn't get much simpler than this. except maybe the branzino al sale

allora......

ingredients (dinner for 2):
2 whole branzino about a pound each, maybe a little more. red snapper would work, too.
i get them from my guy in chinatown for about $6 each. whole foods sells them for around $13 each. just saying.

2 bulbs finocchi [fennel]. i'm saving the stems and fronds for pasta con le sarde later this week.
good olive oil, about 1/3 cup.
water, about 1/2 cup.

method:
cut the fennel bulbs lengthwise into thin slices, about 1/2" thick. soak in water for a few mintues
wash the fish, inside and out. make sure the angry little man from the market in chinatown removed the guts and gills. i leave the head on but you can remove it if you want. or even just use fillets if you don't want to mess around with a whole fish. dry the fish, and give it a nice dose of salt and pepper.

you'll need a big saute pan for this, as its getting cooked on the stove top--all in the same pan. you might even need to cut off the tail of the fish to get them to fit. but first you'll need to cook the finnochi until they are nice and soft and incredibly sweet.

add the cut fennel, oil and water to the pan and give it a quick toss up. cover it and cook over medium heat for about a half hour. give it a toss after about 15 minutes. after 30 minutes everything should be very tender and golden. remove the lid and cook at high heat for a minute or two to cook off some of the liquid, but you should have some nice oil at the bottom of the pan. push all the cooked finocchi to the side momentarily and put the fish in the pan. arrange everything in the pan so that the fish are nice and buried in the now-golden fennel, and baste them with some of the oil thats in the pan. cover, lower the heat back down to medium and cook for about 6 minutes. after 6 minutes, uncover and carefully turn the fish over (will be less time if you are using fillets). again baste with some of the oil in the pan. cook an additional 3 minutes. serve over plain cuscus.

and do be careful how you use the word 'finocchio' around your sicilian friends, as on this island it is a rather crude, hilarious parolaccia [slang term]

based on a recipe found in marcela hazan's book

hey chris, its gluten-free (maybe not the cuscus).

lunch time video highlights

2011-12-13T12:33:00.004-05:00

both spotted on The Browser today (i cannot recommend this website enough. it is infinitely better than this site)

1) - helpful pro-tip from the restaurant world

How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.

2) for liina, specifically. but fans of david attenborough, the english language, louis armstrong, HD cameras or the planet earth should find something to like in this one

also on the internets today, 'A brief history of how we started bequeathing our favorite recipes via 3-by-5-inch index cards—and what will be lost when they finally disappear' (somewhat lady-centric)

later today, a "wonderful" way to cook and eat one of my favorite members of planet earth: the branzino

sunday gravy

2011-12-12T18:25:00.003-05:00

the extreme, almost-tear-enducing loveliness starts about 30 seconds into this clip:

more on this topic in the days and weeks to come

"if you die tomorrow, what do you want to eat today?"
"rragu"

tagliolini con fave e funghi

2011-12-12T17:30:00.019-05:00

new york city is a pretty awesome place. this may be understating it a bit but you can literally find anything here. if you wake up craving sri lankan food, you can take a 20 minute ride on the subway and have it for lunch. you can rent a bear costume at 3 in the morning. and i can find fresh fava beans (and even puntarelle) at chelsea market in december. in your face, locavores.

this was a dish that we ate for lunch in matera at a place called il falco grillaio (no, it doesn't mean 'grilled falcon') and it was talked about all afternoon. food comes up a lot in discussions over there while you are killing time between meals. the beauty of it is that after the first bite you know all of the ingredients in it, so it wasn't too hard to reverse engineer at home.

ingredients list:
2 lbs of fresh fava beans (about 2 cups of shelled beans)
1/2 cup or more of good olive oil
a few nice big pieces of dried porcini. in matera we obviously had fresh ones. about 1/2" thick slices. smoke 'em if you got 'em
3/4 lb of fettuce pasta, broken into quarters (can use fettucini)---the restaurant used tagliolini, made without egg. look, i love making homemade egg pasta but the egg-less stuff just isn't worth the hassle. good store bought brands (setaro) are going to give you better results anyway.

shell the fava beans. in a sauce pan with a lid, cover the beans in water, add pinch of salt, and bring to a boil. simmer for an hour or until the beans become quite soft.

bring a small sauce pan with a cup or so of water to a boil, turn off the heat, add the dried porcini and cover for at least 20 minutes. remove from water and dry with paper towel.

cook the pasta in salted, boiling water

when the pasta is almost done, quickly sautee the porcini in a small frying pan with olive oil.

remove the beans from the water and run through a passatutto [food mill] but passatutto is a much better word for it. i used the plate with the largest holes. don't have a food mill? remove the beans from the water, remove the outer layer of skin (squeeze the bean) and then quickly blitz the beans in a food processor or blender, maybe with a little bit of olive oil.

so now you'll have basically fava bean baby food. to make this into a sauce for the pasta, stir in 1/2 cup (or more) of your best olive oil. you can also add in a little bit of the pasta water. add in the pasta, toss thoroughly, add a little salt and portion into serving bowls. top with the sauteed porcini.

cheese? you're call.

so can you make this dish with canned or dried beans? i'd say probably. just do whatever you have to do to turn them into fava bean baby food. soak dried ones over night and then whack with the passatutto or food processor. same story with the canned ones. the fave might also be called broad beans or butter beans in your local grocer.

photo taken by zia diana at il falco grillaio. note that the finished product was like a thick soup, to be eaten with a spoon.

limoncello

2011-12-11T12:47:00.005-05:00

limoncello is a traditional italian lemon liqueur found all over the south, but generally associated with the areas in campanga around sorrento. the lemons in that part of the world are about the size of grapefruits so the original recipe that i used for this, translated from italian, was a complete failure because i didnt compensate for the fact that american lemons are obviously much, much smaller. luckily the waiters and bartenders at il colosseo restaurant in bensonhurst brooklyn were more than willing to tell me how it can be made in america, with american lemons. somehow i managed to remember it (the recipe was discussed during a few rounds of grappa and limoncello)

you'll need:

hermetically sealed glass jar 3 liters in size.

about 2.5 lbs of good, fresh, organic lemons. whole foods has them. find the ones that still got some spots of green. probably about 10 lemons total , maybe 12.

one bottle of everclear
illegal in some states, but completely legal in new york state. if you can't get it where you live there are recipes out there that use vodka. i have my doubts.

vegetable peeler

sugar

water

time

method:
wash the lemons. wash them again. really give them a good scrubbing. the drink is made out of the peels, so you want organic lemons and you want to make sure they are clean. dry them off. carefully peel the lemons with a vegetable peeler. very important that you don't take any of the white flesh just underneath the outer layer. the pieces of peel should be more or less yellow on both sides.

put the peels and the everclear in your clean, hermetically sealed glass jar. give it a good stir. put it somewhere away from sunlight and leave it there for 7-10 days. give the jar a stir every day or so.

the alcohol is going to extract all of the lemon flavor from the peels, so the liquid will turn yellow almost immediately. you'll know all of the lemon-ness has been extracted when the peels are pale and crispy. it shouldn't take more than a week for this to occur. remove the peels from the jar. you can do this with a little mesh strainer, or by pouring everything out through cheesecloth into another temporary container and then pour it back into the hermetic jar. the yellow liquid you have now is super-concentrated lemon alcohol that you do not want to drink because its nearly 100% alcohol. but adding sugar flavored water will make it into something delicious.

make a simple syrup. combine 5 1/2 cups of water and 3 1/2 cups of sugar in a sauce pan and heat over medium heat. do not let boil. stir occasionally until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid is clear. remove from the heat. let it come down to room temperature.

stir the sugar syrup into the lemon flavored alcohol. it should turn cloudy. at this point you can pour into some clean bottles and freeze. i found that leaving it at room temperature for a few more days (a week even) before bottling will make a smoother product. serve ice cold from the freezer, or at room temperature.

holiday gift guide

2011-12-11T11:12:00.003-05:00

inspired by our first ever reader comment (should i print it out and hang it on the wall?) about the pressure cooker, here are some things that i feel comfortable with endorsing as mad decent gifts.

for someone who deserves a $12.49 gift, the microplane grater.

if you're going to be putting cheese on pasta (you will be) you should be doing it with this. also useful for zesting citrus and grating nutmeg. everyone should have one of these.

for someone who could use a good cookbook, this one comes highly recommended

its massive and contains enough recipes to keep you busy for years. everything i've made from here has been great. there are thousands and thousands of authentic recipes from all over the country. how do i know its authentic? the meatball recipe from puglia calls for horsemeat. but it may not be a good book for the foodies who like to look at pretty pictures. there are none. there are so many recipes in here that it can be difficult to find what you are looking for unless you know the name of the dish in italiano. however there are comprehensive indexes in the back (by name, principal ingredient, region).

for the pretty-picture lovers in your life i would recommend marco's book.

for anyone who doesnt already have one, i would recommend a good knife. if you've been using dull, cheap, lightweight knives with cheap plastic handles your whole life then you don't know what you're missing. you're going to be using it every day, so do yourself (or the lucky recipient of your gift) a favor and buy a good chef knife. go ahead and spend $100 on this. it should be either german or japanese. if its a gift for for yourself go somewhere where you can hold it in your hand before buying it. something simple like this one will change your life. for most day-to-day stuff (onions, garlic,etc) a 6" chef knife gives you lots of control. if you're breaking down chickens and pigs you'll want something bigger.

for everyone else, homemade limoncello. recipe later today.

basilicata

2011-12-10T04:00:00.014-05:00

"So ció che i miei antenati avevano guadagnato venendo a vivire in America, ma volevo vedere con i miei occi ció che si erano lasciati alle spale, e forse, perso per sempre. sono lieto di poter scrivere che la ha mia vista è stata un successo, e che ho scoperto uno stile di vita facilmente invidiabile e che spinge alla riflessione profonda"

"i know what my relatives gained by coming to america but i wanted to see for myself what they lost or left behind. i am pleased to report that my visit was successful, for i discovered a lifestyle that is easy to envy and impossible to walk casually away from"

Lu sfrudidd

ingredienti:
carne di maiale tagliata a piccoli tocchetti
condita con semi di finocchio
peperoncino e aglio

soffriggere con olio di oliva fino ad andorare l'aglio e servire caldo

"lu sfrusidd"
some serious lucanian dialect here. i have no idea what this means. google it and it google will ask you 'did you mean: Los Freddys?'

ingredients:
pork chops
fennel seed
hot peppers
garlic
olive oil

cut pork chops into half-inch square cubes, enliven with fennel seed, hot pepper, and garlic.

fry quickly in hot olive oil and serve warm

- from james martino's book "discovering (alla scoperta) della basilicata : a historical collection of italian recipes from the region" getting a copy of this book was an adventure. lots of time wasted hunting around on the google machine and lots of time dealing with bureaucracy at the new york public library.

but after a week the book finally emerged from the giant rube goldberg machine that works behind the scenes at the NYPL to deliver books from the shelves on the 3rd flr to the hold area on the 1st flr when you place a book "on hold". i picked up the only copy of this book in new york state from the library but about an hour later i spoke with mr. martino on the phone. i'll soon have my very own copy (thanks Jim). his nephew andy covers my beloved new york metropolitans for the new york daily news

photo above of matera. taken (on halloween!) by the great dantino, while i was seeing for myself 'what they lost or left behind'

salsiccia e fagioli

2011-12-09T19:53:00.000-05:00

back on track, almost. salsiccia e fagioli. sausage and beans. like i said before, it's more from the tuscano school of cucina povera, but i had it in roma and it costs almost nothing to make.

ingredients (serves 2):
4, 5, 6? (however many you want) sweet italian pork sausage
cannellini beans yes, the $0.87 cent can from Key Foods is fine to use. i usually don't feel like soaking beans overnight or pre-cooking anything.
garlic 1 or 2 cloves, peeled but whole
a few leaves of fresh sage
about half of a 28oz can or bottle of tomato puree [passata di pomodoro]. the best ones you can find (italian or at least italian-style].
side note: i have to say that i'm curious as to what a $20 can of tomatoes tastes like.
olive oil

method:
this is all getting cooked in the same pan. your building layers of flavor, and some of the best layers you'll ever make are flavored by the pig.

get a saute pan (big enough to fit everything) warmed up over medium heat, along with a little bit of oil. you won't need much (yet). poke holes with a fork in all of the sausages and cook them in the pan until they are almost done (about 8-10 minutes). remove them from the pan. lower the heat, or better yet let the pan chill out for a few minutes. add a little more oil to the pan, throw in the garlic cloves (whole), sage leaves (whole), tomatoes, and add salt and pepper to taste. cook on low-medium heat for about 5 minutes. the sauce should start to come together.

remove most of the liquid from the beans if you're using canned and add that into the pan, along with your already-mostly cooked sausages. bring the heat up a little bit, cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes. during this time everything should start to thicken up. if it doesn't, mush up some of the beans. before you serve, check for salt + pepper (always)

serve with nice grilled (or at least toasted) bread

when you're done you should have something that looks like this

photo from http://www.cookaround.com/yabbse1/showthread.php?t=7303&page=1

i'm not posting the limoncello recipe tonight. maybe sunday. we're closed tomorrow because of the holiday

lunch time talking heads

2011-12-09T12:35:00.005-05:00

it took me all of about 12 hours to take a hard left turn and veer completely off topic. but there's probably more money to be had blogging (or talking to yourself) about politics anyway.

this guy is great. tip of the hat to christopher b.

from the mailbag - volume 1

2011-12-09T11:47:00.009-05:00

long-time supporter of this site diane b. from a lovely little place in the hills just outside frosinone writes in to say (and i'm paraphrasing and perhaps taking liberties with certain facts here):

some lady stole the name of this blog and wrote a book about TUSCAN peasant cooking. loyal reader diane b (HI AUNT DIANE) is concerned with the legal implications and general confusion that may arise in the media between this mysterious book about northern italian food and the upcoming 'cucina povera - southern italian cooking' book and any movie releases (possibly staring roberto benigni)

rather than change the name of the site or have lawyers attempt to get this book pulped, i think i'll just put up (later) a cucina povera recipe for salsiccia e fagoli [sausage with beans] that most people will tell you is a specialty from firenze. but two years ago i had a rather good version of this in a place called cacio e pepe (but not this cacio e pepe) on via prenestina in the pigneto district of roma, approximately 5km from the nearest tourist. so maybe its a roman dish after all.

here's the link to the aforementioned tuscan book. its probably pretty good.

if anyone knows where to find a dvd copy of "johnny stecchino" that works in USA, please point me in the right direction. if you go to palermo, don't touch the bananas.

another long-time fan of the site and future scientist Toad, whom i have known for at least 15 years [with a margin of error of +/- 5 years] suggests that i tap into my vast knowledge of esoteric music and provide musical pairings that go along with the cooking process. he also suggests "linking it up to myspace and whatnot". we'll get working on that right away.

sun enthusiast christopher b from the people's republic of northern california points out that "no one likes reading
but they like pretty photos" and then strongly [in a northern california kind of way] urges me to get a camera. well, chris, i do have a digital camera. in fact, you gave it to me in 2002. in 2009 it was stolen and almost immediately returned by a thief in barcelona. but i still have it. unfortunately it has fewer mega-pixelling capabilities than my shitty mobile telephone. but thanks for reading (or looking at the pictures)

tomorrow's post

2011-12-08T23:36:00.001-05:00

homemade limoncello. just in time for Christmas, whatever that means.

everybody's homework is to go out and buy a bottle of Everclear.

spaghetti/vermicelli alle vongole

2011-12-08T22:02:00.021-05:00

this is my first post for no reason other than that i just ate it. its not my intention to have one of those blogs where i show you photos of what i just made for dinner. but it seems like a good place to start.
allora......

spaghetti vongole....spaghetti with clams. one of the more popular dishes that you can find almost anywhere in the country. this however is the simple, straight-forward version that you'd enjoying eating in the summer and probably every single restaurant anywhere in napoli or campania has it, but its especially good in the amalfi coast.

but i'm making it in brooklyn. in the winter.

here in the states you won't find the mediterranean clams they use "over there" (vongole veraci) but the little Manilla clams are a pretty good substitute. i buy mine in chinatown. $7 will buy you enough to make this dish for 3 or 4 people. a lot of recipes you see for this dish include lemon juice, white wine, or even butter. i think these people are missing the point. i'll give you my simple recipe, then explain.

but first, a quick word about my recipes (since this is the first one that i'm broadcasting):
i'm not a big fan of measuring ingredients. this isn't baking. you don't have to be exact. you won't see anything like "1.5 tbsp chopped garlic". you're getting approximations. if my approximation seems like too much/little, adjust as you see necessary. (hopefully) you won't ruin anything.

for spaghetti alle vongole you need :
2 lb. manilla clams...if you can pick them out yourself, get the smallest ones. make sure they're closed.
1 lb spaghetti/vermicelli . technically the same thing, but in campagna its called vermicelli (little worms)
2 clove garlic cloves, peeled, left whole, and slightly crushed
big pinch peperoncino (dried red pepper flakes)
small handful of fresh parsley ("flat" or "italian" parsley, always--srsly, does anyone know of a recipe that uses "curly parsley")--coarsely chopped--don't be afraid to use the stems
olive oil...probably about 5-6 tbsp all together.

another side note about all of my recipes. i use a lot of olive oil. there will probably be a separate post about it some day. but for now, that's just the way it is and some things will never change feel free to use less, but please...don't use the cheap stuff because its probably not really olive oil.

soak the clams in some water while you.....

boil water for the pasta. rule #1 is always use a lot of water. fill up the biggest pot you have. probably like 5 quarts. never use less than 3, even for small amounts of pasta. it needs space.

not much need to do to prep while the water is boiling. but the timing is critical here. the sauce/clams don't need much time to cook. once the water is boiling pretty good, add salt. use a lot of salt. 2 tbsp, maybe more. i think it should be as salty as the sea, but it depends on what kind of sauce you are making.

but before you put the pasta in the water, get the sauce going.

start building up your layers---like so many other sauces, this one starts with aglio, olio e peperoncino [garlic + oil + peperoncino] in the pan over med-low heat. after a few minutes, and after the garlic has turned soft and gets a little bit of color, press down on the garlic to get all the flavor out of it. you can take the garlic out and this point (or chop it up and put it back in if you'd like). add the clams,cover it, give it a good shake and turn up the heat.

this is when i put the pasta in the water.

shake the clams occasionally. they'll start to open after a few (3-4) minutes. when they're all open, remove them from the pan. i leave them in the shell for the finished product, but if you want a less clumsy dish at the end you can remove them from the shell. but keep the pan going on low heat.

one of the tricks of this dish is to remove the pasta a few minutes early and finish cooking it in the sauce. reserve a little bit of the pasta cooking water, and drain the pasta about 1-2 minutes before it gets al dente. add it to the pan with the oil+clam sauce. the pasta will begin to absorb the precious clam liquid+oil+peperoncini sauce. if it gets too dry, add a little bit of the water that the pasta was cooked in. toss it for a few minutes on the stove on low heat, until its al dente. if you took the clams out of the shells, add the clam meat now. throw in the parsley and toss again. dump into serving bowls. if you keep the clams in the shells, add them now.

you could also make this recipe with mussels.

i'm not one for absolutisms, but please don't put any cheese on this.

make sure you have good bread on hand to soak up all the loveliness at the bottom of your bowl.

you could absolutely make this dish with butter, lemon juice, or white wine. but the simpler, the better. especially with seafood. when you blast the clams in the pan, the liquid they release combines with the flavors of the garlic, oil, and peperoncino and there's really no need to muddle that combination up with anything else (parsley excluded).

and the whole thing costs about $10 and takes about 30 minutes to throw together.

now the one thing that this blogger does not have is a proper camera. but the folks in marketing tell me that there's a whole subsection of society that enjoys pictures of food more than the food itself and that i shouldnt do anything on my first day to alienate anybody. so here's a snap from my phone (including the popular "low and slanty" angle).

watch:
jamie oliver (respect) does a pretty solid version here, despite being in venice
jamie's mate, gennaro, whom i love because he bothers mario batali, eats a similar dish here while bobbing around on a boat somewhere near positano

jim

filosofia

2011-12-08T20:54:00.010-05:00

this is not a foodie blog.

this site just wants you to mangiare bene "eat well", simply and cheaply. cucina povera....poor people's food...is the food of southern italy. take a few simple ingredients and combine them into something you want to eat every day. anyone with a couple bucks in his or her pocket can do this.

my (not yet very well thought-out) plan for this site is to share a bit of the insights that have been inspired by my travels throughout the south of italy (roma and southward, as a general rule). that is not to say that everything you'll see here is taken directly from some unassuming little trattoria in vomero or borrowed from some adorable little old nonna. its much more involved than that.

you see, i'm a bit of a recipe aggregator. a tinkerman if you will. meaning that i seek out various methods or techniques for making a particular dish and then combine elements from various recipes to make something that i think is worth making/eating. there's no one exact way to make spaghetti carbonara, but i'll tell you how i make it someday. if you spend enough time cooking and eating italian food you become quite adept at learning how to tell when a recipe is bullshit even before making it. in some ways i like to think that i'm here to help you over-simplify things.

or sometimes there is just one way to make something. or sometimes i'll just nick something straight out of a cookbook and post it here. either way, you'll be happy. i promise.

if you spend enough time in italy, its inevitable that you spend a great deal of time thinking about food. these are some of my thoughts about food.

also i've been told blogging is the first step to a lucrative book deal.

here we go.

this is my first web-based blogging site/attempt at writing publicly for a non-specific audience/etc. therefore constructive criticism is therefore much appreciated -=--about the food stuff, yeah, but especially the nerd stuff about the website looking all weird and shit---i don't quite know what i'm doing with the HTML. just don't get carried away like this lady. thanks-jim (mgmt)

background photo is from castelmezzano in basilicata. photo taken by my cousin/official photographer Dante. Thanks to him, for that. Also thanks to domenico rotundo for insisting that we pull over and have a look up there.