Food Lover's Odyssey

Twist on a Venetian Spritz and Embracing Italian Culture

 

 

I spent the majority of 2009 in Italy.  Fabulous food, luscious landscapes, the magnificent Mediterrenean, and passionate people, who you want to befriend or strangle depending on the moment. 

 

During my time in Italy, I realized there are a few things about Italians and their culture that are important to understand and embrace to travel sanely in Italy.  Here are my top 6 tips for embracing Italians and their culture:

 

 

  

1.  You’re not invisible, you’re in Italy

Cutting in front of line is a national sport in this country. Don’t take it personally when the line-cutting athlete races past you. It’s best to join in.  It’s actually quite a good use of time management.  Why wait for a group of children or tourists to sample each gelato flavor when you know exactly what you what. 

 

 

2.  When you see the streets deserted and stores closed, don’t worry the rapture hasn’t come. 

You haven’t been left behind. It’s 1pm and feeding, er I mean, lunch time, that’s all. It’s best to get yourself to a trattoria, too.  Because if you think you’re eating when it’s convenient for you (say like 3pm), think again.  Stores close, even grocery stores, from 1:00-3:00pm (some until 4:00pm) for lunch. 

  

 

3.  The most dangerous person in Italy is an Italian grandma (la nonna) with her rolling shopping cart. 

Yes, Italy has the mafia and Berlusconi, both quite scary, but NOTHING is scarier than when you get in the way of la nonna and her daily shopping.  She’s had that rolling cart (her weapon of choice along with her elbow) a long time, and knows how to wield it wisely.

  

 

4.  Crosswalks, stop signs, and red lights mean nothing to the Italian driver. 

And, the pedestrian that thinks they have the right away (which they legally do) is crazier than the guy who bludgeoned Berlusconi with a metal souvenir.  However, the Italian driver will stop for someone, la nonna with her rolling shopping cart!  If you fear for your life while trying to cross the street (and you should), follow la nonna. 

  

 

5.  Timeliness is NOT close to godliness.  Complaining about the late is an even greater sin.

Being on time is looked at as a character flaw.  Actually, I’m not an on-time person (this might be the understatement of the decade).  However, I am always on time for planes, trains, buses and boats.  Even in these cases, in Italy it’s never correct to badmouth the late.  Twice I complained about a friend being late (once we almost missed a train, the other a boat).  Each time the Italian, to whom I complained, frowned and defended the tardy “Brava la tua amica.”  (Well done, your friend) one said. 

  

 

6.  Gli anziani (the elderly) are always right, and you are maleducato (badly raised by your parents) to question them.

The elderly man (or woman) has every right to yell at whomever he wants, even your young niece.  If you step in to calm him, you become his new target.  Suddenly I was maleducata and told Vai alla tua casa! (Go home!).  Visitors aren’t the only ones susceptible to the wrath of the anziani.  I’ve seen plenty of young Italians who got the same, or worse, treatment.  It’s better to agree and smile.  Best places for watching gli anziani at their best are buses, the metro, supermarkets and street markets.  You'll have some laughs and great stories to tell.

  

  

 

Make no mistake.  I ADORE Italians and all their quirks.  One thing I realized during my stay in Italy is that they lead with their hearts and not their heads.  Sometimes this creates altercations, but most of the time they are endearing, especially gli anziani!  Any other tips you can think of to add to the list?

If all else fails, sit at an outdoor cafe and have a drink.  I've come up with a twist on the Spritz from Venice that you can easily make anywhere.  Spritz is the happy hour drink of Venetians.  They drink it before lunch, after work and before dinner, to start a party, to end a party, as they munch down cicheti, or sit along a canal and watch gondola after gondola glide by.  It's one part bitter (Compari or Aperol), one part Prosecco (Italy's sparkling wine), and one part sparkling water.  I've added my own twist to this and used Pomegranate juice instead of Campari or Aperol.

Pomegranate Spritz

 

(serves 6)

 

2 cups Pomegranate juice

2 cups Prosecco

2 cups Sprakling water

6 orange slices

  

 

 

Mix the pomegranate juice, Prosecco and water together.  Pour into 6 glasses filled with a few cubes of ice.  Add and orange slice into each drink.  Enjoy!

  

 

 

 

Happy New Year's all and best wishes for 2010!

New Year's Eve Cocktail with Sicilian Granita

 

 
Celebrate! It's the end of the year and a beginning of a new one, actually the end of a decade. (Wow, did 10 years just whiz by me?)

It's a time to share with friends and family.  A time to reflect on the year.  For me this year included, a lot of  fabulous stuff: an absolute dream of  six months eating my way through France and Italy plus a bunch of great new friends I found along the way, starting this blog and meeting a whole new community of people that live for travel and food as much as I do.  It's a time for reviewing accomplishments and setting new year's resolutions---maybe THIS will be the year I actually exercise more and lose those extra "pastry chef" pounds (ya right).  My friend makes a "bucket list" and at the end of each year she crosses off the things she accomplished and adds new items to her list.  On my list for 2010 is to travel more, try more new foods, and write more.  Maybe I'll even make my own "bucket list."  What's on your "resolution" list for the coming year?

Food and alcohol are usually a big part of a New Year's Eve celebration.  This spiked Meyer lemon granita is a perfect beginning and end to your celebration.  Along with the recipe for the drink, I've included a few of my favorite pictures from Sicily where I had similar versions of this cocktail. I hope you make it and enjoy a little taste of Sicily with your New Year's celebration.

 

Spiked Meyer Lemon Granita Cocktail

(Makes 8 cocktails)

  

4 cups Meyer lemon granita (recipe below)

1 cup Vodka (citrus flavored, preferred)

8 slices of lemon

  

Place 1/2 cup of the granita into each of eight glasses.  Pour a 1-ounce shot of vodka over the granita in each glass.  Garnish the rim of each glass with a lemon slice and serve.

  

  

Meyer Lemon Granita

(makes 8 servings)

  

2 cups water

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

Rind from 2 Meyer lemons (use a peeler and remove all of the white pith)

1 1/2 cups lemon juice (from about 8-10 lemons)

  

Boil the water and granulated sugar.  Remove from the heat once the mixture boils, and cool to room temperature.  Add the rinds from the lemons and lemon juice and put in the refrigerator for 1 hour.  Strain out the rinds, and pour into a 13x9-inch glass dish.  Put in the freezer.  Every 30 minutes, scrape the mixture with a fork.  Repeat this process every 30 minutes for 3 to 4 hours.  The mixture should be frozen but in small chunky shavings.

  

Here's to a happy New Year's Eve for everyone!

 

Related Posts:

 

Christmas Markets and Events in Italy

 

Twist on a Venetian Spritz and Embracing Italian Culture

 

A Merry Christmas Gingerbread House

 

Christmas Baking Memories and a Snowball Cookie Recipe

 

A Culinary Traveler's Year in Photos

 

A Merry Christmas Gingerbread House

Something about a Christmas Gingerbread house releases my inner child.  Could it be all the colorful and surgary candy I use to dress the house?  Maybe it's the scent of ginger, cinnamon & molasses wafting through the house that makes  me think I'm in a candy store.  It could also be that I can create somehting whimsical and unrealistic for the sheer enjoyment of doing it and looking at it.  Whatever it is, my inner child eagerly came out to play for the December 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge because we've made gingerbread houses this month!

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

 

 

I don't remember the first time I made a gingerbread house.  I know by the time I was 14 years old, I was experienced enough to be able to make three houses in one Christmas (oh to be so young and energetic).  Yes, that year I made one for our family, one for my best friend's mom, and one for my boyfriend.  The boyfriend didn't last. My best friend is still around and now, I help her daughter Tristen make a gingerbread house each year (we've been doing it since she was 3 and she's 11 now).   As Tristen gets older, she wants all creative control of her house (seems like she's taking after her "aunt" Kathy in this sense), so I haven't actually made my own gingerbread house for quite some time.  Thanks to the Daring Bakers' I had a great excuse to create my own gingerbread house.

 

 

For this gingerbread house, I used the recipe from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book, which you can find here and here.  (I adjusted the recipe by adding an egg for extra moisture, and replaced the water with dark molasses for color and scent.) I made my own forms, using manilla folders, then measured, cut, and taped the forms together to make sure the house would stand up.  Something I do after a few house collapses.

 

 

I doubled the recipe for the gingerbread dough, as my house was a bit bigger than the model. This came in handy, as I had a mishap with one of the roof walls.  After I had just "tiled" the roof with red icing, I dropped it and splattered it and the icing all over the floor.  What a mess!  But, the mess you make while making the house also helps to release your inner child. 

 

 

It took a while to make, about 11 hours--which includes time to make the forms, mix, roll & bake the dough, assemble the house and decorate it.  I tried to make it as childlike as possible and used a fair amount of candy and red, green and white royal icing to add more color. The gingerbread house fills our real house up with the scents of spices and sugary sweets as soon as you open the door.  Thanks again Anna and Y for giving me an excuse to act like a child again.

 

 

  Related Posts:

Christmas Baking Memories and Snowball Cookies

Holiday Dessert Recipes

Italian Biscotti from Tuscany - Cantucci

Flaky Apple Tart - Croustade aux Pommes Inspired by Pavillon Margaux

One Cannolo Two Cannoli - Cannoli Siciliani Recipe

Crimini Mushroom Ravioli with Lemon Cream Sauce

In my family Christmas and ravioli go together like Santa Claus and reindeer. Our dinner isn't complete without ravioli as the first course. Both my grandmother and mother treated us with ravioli. I remember watching my grandmother take a ball of pasta dough and turn it into a paper-thin sheet that covered the surface of her 8-seat kitchen table. It seemed like it took her seconds and a few flicks of her wrist.

It's not at all as easy as it looks. The dough isn't as cooperative as my grandmother made it seem. I also remember my grandmother trying to teach my mom how to roll out pasta. Year after year, she would let my mom start rolling, coaching her for a bit, then finally grabbing the rolling pin from my mom and doing it herself. Once my mom learned, my grandmother said she would teach me, but that never happened. Maybe the trick is that you must be an Italian-born grandmother to master the art of pasta rolling by hand.

Luckily I have both a stand mixer with a dough hook and a pasta machine to roll out my dough. It makes ravioli making much easier, and without them, our family might not be having ravioli for Christmas. This year, I've lightened up our traditional meat, spinach and cheese ravioli and made crimini mushroom ones instead.

The crimini (baby portobellos) are meaty and rich with that earthy mushroom flavor. Paired with a lemon cream sauce, the dish is rich and creamy but still light enough to lead you into a the next course. The lemon in the sauce brings some acidity to the dish to balance the cream sauce and richnes of the mushrooms. It's topped with a parsley/lemon zest gremolata for a fresh finish.

Crimini Mushroom Ravioli with a Lemon Cream Sauce

(Serves 6 as a main dish or 8 to 10 as a first course)

For the pasta:

4 1/2 cups (600 g) all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

7 (140 g) egg yolks

3 (150 g) eggs

1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil

1 cup (250 ml) water, plus 2-3 tablespoons if needed

For the mushroom filling:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium-sized yellow onion, finely diced

1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

5 cloves of garlic, finely diced

24 ounces (680 g) crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced

1/3 cup (80 ml) Madiera wine

8 ounces (225 grams) grated Parmesan cheese

For the egg wash:

1 egg

2 tablespoons water

For the lemon cream sauce:

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 medium-sized yellow onion, finely diced

1 cup (250 ml) chicken stock

1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 bunch chopped flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

Zest of 2 lemons, for garnish

Grated Parmesan cheese, to taste

To make the pasta: Using a stand mixer with a dough attachment, stir together the flour and salt. Add the egg yolks, eggs, and olive oil and stir on low speed until combined. Slowly add the water until the dough comes together. You may need 2-3 tablespoons more. Continue mixing until dough has a smooth surface, about 3-4 minutes. Divide into 3 equal portions and wrap each in plastic wrap. Let rest for 30 minutes.

To make the filling: Heat the butter and olive oil in a sauté pan. Add the onions and half the salt and sweat the onions until they are translucent, 3 - 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the mushrooms and the rest of the salt and cook on high heat until all the moisture from the mushrooms has released and evaporated, 8 - 10 minutes. (Depending on the size of the pan, you may need to add only half the mushrooms and cook them down; then add the remaining mushrooms.) Deglaze with the Madiera wine and cook about 3 minutes, until the alcohol has evaporated. Cool the mixture and stir in the grated parmesan cheese. Refrigerate until the mixture is cold.

To assemble the ravioli: Lightly flour a working surface. Roll the pasta out until it’s paper thin, about 1/16 inch. Using a pasta machine, start on setting one (the widest), and ending on setting 5 or 6. Cut the sheet in half. Place heaping teaspoons spaced about 2 inches apart on one sheet. (You should be able to get 10 to 12 ravioli "filling mounds" on the half sheet, being 2 wide and 5-6 long.) Brush the pasta dough with egg wash (the egg and water beaten together) around the mounds of mushroom filling. Lay the second half of the pasta sheet on top of the sheet that has the filling. Press around each mound of filling to release any air pockets. Cut 2 inch ravioli and place on lightly floured parchment paper. Continue until you have rolled out all the pasta. (You can store in the refrigerator for one day or in the freezer for one month.)

To make the sauce: Heat the butter and olive oil in a sauté pan. Add the onion and salt, and sweat until the onions are translucent. Add the chicken stock, cream and lemon juice. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat to medium low. Reduce by half, about 10 minutes. Add salt to taste.

While the sauce is reducing, bring about 2 quarts of generously salted water to a rolling boil. Place the ravioli in the boiling water and cook until tender to the tooth, 3 to 4 minutes for fresh ravioli and 6 to 7 minutes for frozen. Add to the lemon cream sauce and serve, topped with the chopped parsley, zest of lemon and grated Parmesan cheese to taste. Buon Appetito!

Related Posts:

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Favorite Regional Pasta Dishes

Pugliese Pasta and Making Pasta by Hand: A Lesson with Nonna Vata

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Meyer Lemon Tart Topped with a Lightened Lemon Cream

This Meyer lemon tart is inspired by one of my favorite desserts from Gerard Mulot in Paris. When I lived in Paris, during culinary school and my apprenticeship, I lived across the street from Gerard Mulot's patisserie on rue de Seine.  Every day I would gaze at his window display, memorizing how each cake was created.  The patisserie is one of the best patisseries in Paris.

 

 

Chef Mulot does beautiful things with creme citron: macaron, tarte au citron and another dessert called Le Harliquin.  It's an individual dessert with a base of sable breton (a salted-butter shortbread cookie from Brittany France), topped with creme citron and topped again with a dome of more creme citron that has been lightened with whipped cream.  One of my favorites, it's packed full of flavor--tart, sweet and buttery, creamy and crunchy.

 

My Meyer lemon tree is in full bloom, (I just picked 150 lemons from the tree, and it's still full of ripe lemons) I made this Meyer lemon tart similar to Le Harliquin, with both a crumbly shortbread crust and topped with little pearls of lightened lemon curd.  The "lemon curd" in this recipe is more like the French creme citron, which has much more butter and eggs than its  American counterpart.  I hope you make it and enjoy it!

 

  

 

 

 

Meyer Lemon Tart with Lightened Lemon Cream 

 (makes 12 individual tarts or two 9-inch tarts)

 

For the Crust:

1 3/4 cups  (300 g) all-purpose flour

1/3 cup (115 g) granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (240 g) butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 (40 g) egg yolks

 

 

For the Meyer lemon curd:

1 1/2 cups (375 ml) Meyer lemon juice

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) (330 g) butter, room temperature and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

4 eggs

8 egg yolks

1 3/4 cups (375 g) sugar

 

 

For the lightened lemon cream:

3/4 cup (180 g) Meyer lemon curd

1 cup (220 ml) whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks

 

 

Candied lemon peels for garnish, optional

 

 

Preheat oven to 325ºF and very lightly grease 2 baking sheets

 

 

To make the crust:

Mix together in a stand mixer on low speed the flour, sugar, salt and butter until the mixture is the consistency of peas.  Add the vanilla and egg yolks and stir together just until combined.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

 

 

Remove from the refrigerator and roll the dough out to 1/8 inch in thickness.  Using a cutter 5-inch in diameter, cut dough into circles.  Place the cut circles into 3 ½- inch (90 cm) tart ring molds.  Press the dough into the bottom corners and along the sides of the molds.  Cut the excess dough off the top and form an even edge that rises just barely above the rim of the mold.  Place onto baking sheet (6 should fit on one sheet).  Refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

 

 

Remove from the refrigerator and bake for 18-20 minutes, until just lightly golden.  Cool for 2 minutes, then remove the baked crust from the ring mold and place on a cooling rack.  (Don’t let the crust cool completely or it will stick to the mold and the baking sheet.)

 

 

 

To make the Meyer lemon curd:

In a non-reactive saucepan, bring the lemon juice and butter to a boil.  Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs, yolks, and sugar until the mixture has lightened in color.  Once the lemon juice mixture boils slowly add a little of it into the egg mixture to temper the eggs.  Once you’ve combined the two mixtures, pour it back into the saucepan and cook to 175ºF (82ºC), or until it coats the back of a spoon, stirring constantly.  Once the mixture has come to temperature, remove from the heat and cool completely, stirring occasionally. Refrigerate until chilled. (Make sure all the steam has evaporated before putting the lemon curd into the refrigerator.  This will prevent the mixture from becoming watery and help it to set up well.)

 

 

To make the lightened lemon cream:

Using 3/4 cup of the lemon curd, fold the whipped cream into it.  You should first fold 1/3 of the whipped cream into the lemon curd to lighten the lemon curd.  In two more steps fold in the remaining whipped cream to achieve a light homogenous mixture.

 

 

Assembling the tart:

Fill each tart with the Meyer lemon curd so that it is even with the lip of the crust’s edge.  Place the lightened lemon cream in a piping bag with a 1/2-inch round piping tip. Pipe a ring of balls in a circle on top of the lemon curd, at the outer edge of the tart.  Pipe another ring of balls inside the first ring and one ball in the center.  Garnish with 2 or 3 candied lemon peels and serve. 

 

  

 

  

 

Related Posts:

 

Meyer Lemon Cheesecake

 

When Life Gives You Lemons - Make Lemon Granita

Strawberry Fraisier - French Birthday Cake

 

Paris Walks for the Food Lover: Rue de Seine and Rue Bonaparte

 

Paris Pastries and 10 Top Patisseries in Paris

 

Cooking Classes for the Culinary Traveler in Paris

  

The Dish From Paris: Macarons with Ice Cream from LaDuree

 

 The Dish From France: Viennoiserie

 

 

 

Christmas Baking Memories and Snowball Cookies

 

My first food memory is making cookies with my mom, in particular, Christmas cookies.  I can't remember a childhood Christmas when I wasn't in the kitchen with her.  At first she would only let me dip the  cookies in sugar, coconuts or nuts.  Then I graduated to making the thumbprint cookies. I would delicately insert my thumb into the raw dough, making sure each impression was exactly the same.  I was in bakers' heaven when she finally let me form them before baking.  Imagine my delight when I could use the mixer and actually MAKE the batter! 

At age 8,  I was possessive of the kitchen  and my baking equipment like most girls are of their Barbies.  When my sister and brother came to help, I barked orders at them and gave them "gofer" tasks. (humm, no wonder they don't come into the kitchen to help, even now).   

 

My mother laughed at my meticulousness and ignored my bossy behavior.  As I got older she let me take on more of the baking responsibilities, and even let me add a new recipe to the list each year.  We gave cookies away to friends and family, making and giving away more and more each year.  Friends requested cookies as soon as Thanksgiving was over.  When I moved on to another job, the first question a coworker asked was, "Will I still get Christmas cookies?"  By the time I was 20, our Christmas cookie-making became an elaborate process.  We made over a dozen different kinds and around 1000 cookies each year.   

The kitchen was not only filled with the sweet scents of cinnamon, chocolate, toasted nuts and sugar, but there was a melody of laughter, song, and good-natured heckling that filled the room.  I tried to sing Christmas carols and my mom would come back with stinging comments rivaling any by Simon Cowell.  Our banter would ping pong back and forth as we rolled, dropped, cut  and baked cookie after cookie.   Christmas meant cookie-making with my mom, more than anything else, even Santa Claus or a decorated tree. 

This is the sixth year that my mom has been absent from the Christmas kitchen.  She passed away in 2003 from lung cancer.  The first year, baking without her alone in a silent kitchen was unbearable.  Nothing came out right.  Too many tears went into the biscotti dough, and it was too wet to bake.  Each year, I continue to bake (maybe not as much as before), and it gets easier.  I have great memories of our baking together, and they have filled her spot in the kitchen.  Only physically absent, she is still in each cookie I bake. All I've learned, all the memories, and the joy of baking together are still there.  She also taught me to share what I make, so now I'm sharing with you. 

 

Of the various cookies we've made over the years, these snowball cookies are the most requested of friends and family.  They have several names, Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes, and Italian Wedding Cakes.  In our family, we call them snowballs, because, well, that's what they look like.  I hope you make and/or share them with someone you love.

  

Christmas Snowball Cookies

 

 

Makes 4 dozen cookies

 

  

1 1/2 cups butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups roughly chopped toasted almonds

  

 

 

Cream the butter and the sugar in a stand mixer.  Once the mixture is creamy, add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until incorporated.  Add the vanilla with the last egg. 

   

Sift together the flour and salt, and add to the creamed mixture.  Mix together on low just until the flour is combined.  Add the chopped almonds and mix just until incorporated.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.

 

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

  

 

 

Remove the dough from the refrigerator, and roll about a tablespoon of dough into a ball (Each ball should be about one inch in diameter.)  Bake for 20-22 minutes, until lightly golden on the bottom.  After you remove them from the oven, let them cool slightly for about 5 minutes, then roll in powdered sugar.  After they cool completely, give them another dusting of powdered sugar.  Enjoy!

  

  

 

 

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  What are some of your fondest baking or cooking memories?

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Related Posts:

Christmas Markets and Events in Italy

Holiday Dessert Recipes

A Merry Christmas Gingerbread House

 Quince Crostata for an Italian-Inspired Thanksgiving

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

Italian Biscotti from Tuscany 

Cannoli alla Siciliana