Vegetable Market in Rome
My new Winter 2014 cooking class series is out! Some classes are already sold out. Hope you like these menus! 🙂
Winter 2014 Italian Cooking Classes
Punt e Mes: A Sip Transports You to Italy
Punt e Mes
When I first discovered Punt e Mes I felt like I’d been initiated into a secret club. It was in the 80’s. I was taking an Italian language class (one of the many I’ve taken over the course of too-many-to-mention years). There were just 5 of us around our teacher’s dining room table delving into Italian in a conversational, relaxed and fun way.
Bretta Bracali was our teacher. She was a stunningly beautiful woman with a sharp Italian-Roman style. She taught with enthusiasm and class. And we all loved her, which helped us learn. I was living in NYC at the time and Bretta’s apartment was in the world-class Ansonia “Hotel” on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The building is impressively ornate and huge. It always felt like a privilege just to have someone to visit there (later my tax accountant had offices there, too).
Bretta was on one of the highest floors. She had porthole-sized windows that were near the floor. If you leaned down and peeked out you’d see Broadway stretching out with its army of taxis.
One night she brought out a few small glasses and a bottle of Punt e Mes. No one had ever heard of it and I believe she had just brought it back from Italy. She didn’t describe it or say much about it, just gave us all some to taste as we struggled through speaking and understanding Italian.
I understood the Italian of Punt e Mes right away. The drink, on some rocks and maybe with a lemon twist, tastes like Italy. It’s a fortified wine, a vermouth, but it’s filled with subtle essences that are a little bitter and little floral and a little tart. If I want to feel like I’m in the atmosphere of a Roman street or an Umbrian hilltown or any number of quintessential Italian locations, I drink a little Punt e Mes.
I always remember one of Bretta’s language teaching points. To demonstrate how to pronounce a double consonant in Italian, she took your hand and pulled as you hung on. She’d say: “spaghet-ti.” And let your hand go between the two “t’s” (like pulling taffy together that just suddenly broke) …you got the idea of pronouncing both “t’s.”
Writing about her made me look her up on Google. She’s still teaching Italian. Here’s her website:
Bretta Bracali’s Italian Lessons
Punt e Mes
Roman Peas w Asparagus & Pancetta Recipe
Roman Peas & Asparagus
Ahhh. A simple but luscious vegetable dish from Rome. Roman Peas with Asparagus & Pancetta. So easy to make and so satisfying.
Slice a medium onion into thin half-moons. Saute in a little olive oil. Add diced pancetta (from about 3 thick slices) and saute till they cook through and onions soften. Add asparagus that has been cut into bite-sized pieces. Cook about 3-4 minutes. Add peas, cook till simmering. Add about a 1/4 cup of white wine. Cook till evaporating. Season with salt & pepper.
Easy. All these flavors come together creating a palate piazza where your taste buds congregate on their Roman passagiata and say: “Che Buono!”
Artichokes. Carciofi. Keep it simple. But do indulge.
Carciofi alla Romana
I can’t begin to tell you how much I love and admire artichokes. In Italian: carciofi. Also, my favorite Italian word. If I had the opportunity to change my name I would change it to carciofi. First name or last name. Or both. Carciofi Carciofi, pleased to meet you.
I can’t remember the first time I had artichokes. It had to be very young. My family takes the artichoke in stride. Artichokes are as common, and as likely to be part of the table, as a plate or fork. Or possibly bread. Ridiculously easy to prepare. And so tastebud fulfilling, you always feel confident in the meal when artichokes are brought to the table.
My recipe has evolved over the years. I used to stuff the leaves with parsley and garlic. Now I simply put parsley and garlic in the cooking water with a heavy douse of olive oil, salt & pepper. First, trim the tops. Cut off about a third. Snip the thorns from the tips of all the leaves. Cut off the stems. Set them up, standing tall, side by side in a heavy sauce pan. Fill with water about halfway up. Drizzle a bunch of olive oil on artichokes and in water. Season with salt & pepper. Let cook for about 30-40 minutes until very tender.
Enjoy by nibbling the leaf tips. And if you’re drinking a glass of wine, with each artichoke bite your sip of wine will taste Odd/Strange. Some chemical reaction. But that never stopped me. Don’t let it stop you.
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Rialto Market, Venice, Italy
Osteria La Zucca in Venice Italy
La Zucca, Venice Italy
Zucca means squash in Italian. Specifically those pumpkin-like green-skinned orange-fleshed squashes perfect for pasta filling, roasting, grilling, and all-around indulging in tasty earthiness that’s also SO good for you.
The restaurant La Zucca is in the sestiere Santa Croce in Venice, a bit of a ways from the neighborhood we stayed in of Dorsoduro. But with map in hand we strolled from calle to calle to campo to campo, getting lost but finding beauty at every lost turn…it’s inevitable…it’s Venice. Getting lost is actually on many top 10 lists of what to do in the city. I highly recommend it!
La Zucca in Venice
Up a pretty bridge and over a pretty canal we finally found La Zucca. We all agreed it was so worth the effort.
Different than a typical Italian restaurant, this one had a lovely creative focus on vegetarian cuisine, but didn’t shy away from meats, too. The interior immediately hugs you upon entering in a warm, yet modern way. The walls are covered in multiple slats of comforting wood. The tables are of the same wood. The menus are beautiful little sculptures of yellow shaped like small houses. And the place mats match the friendly yellow.
La Zucca menu
Just reading the menu is an impressive culinary journey. Deciding what to order is the hardest part. You want to try everything.
La Zucca place setting
I ordered the tagliatelle with lamb ragu. The flavors were deep, multilayered and PERfect.
La Zucca lamb ragu
Duane ordered Porri Grattinati…leeks in a gratin of cheese & cream…seriously heavenly.
La Zucca porro gratinatti
Lana ordered the red rice with tofu and almonds…the creative winner of our table …light and scrumptious.
La Zucca Red Rice w Almonds & Tofu
Our co-travelers sat at another table and enjoyed more and wonderful menu choices.
La Zucca co-diners at another table
Of course, we could not resist dessert. Duane had the luscious limoncello mousse…
La Zucca limoncello mousse
Lana the panna cotta, a dessert of gorgeous taste and color!
La Zucca panna cotta
And I had a fig topped cake drenched in bittersweet chocolate. Yes. To die for.
La Zucca fig cake w chocolate
If you’re in Venice this is a must visit. Here’s their website:
Lana & Paulette
Duane at La Zucca
Beer “bionda” at La Zucca
Thanks to Lana who suggested it (and Whitney, too!)
Lana at La Zucca
Wine Bars “Bacari” of Venice, Italy
Wine Bar
One of my favorite things to do on my recent visit to Venice was to take a meal at a wine bar. Not just a liquid meal! At wine bars they serve cicchietti, small bites, like Italian tapas. These bites, with a small glass of wine called un’ombra (literally meaning the shade), is dinner enough and a small, satisfying adventure.
Osteria Portego, Venice
At one such place, Osteria Portego, we nibbled on potato-onion cakes, octopus salad, and crostini w baccala mantecato (a tasty spread of creamy baccala) . Most of these places have standing room only that spills out to the calle, or campo, or canal-side ledge. I had a glass of pinot grigio, my husband a glass of Castello beer. So fun. So delicious.
Cicchetti at Portego
At another wine bar, this one in Dorsoduro called Al Squero, I tried the popular drink “spritz”…a combo of Aperol, white wine, and sparkling water. Mine had an orange slice, too.
Wine bar menu
One favorite cicchetto that I learned years ago in Venice and still make is simply mortadella and green sotto aceto pepperoncini. Get a 1/2″ slice of mortadella. Cut it into bite-sized squares and triangles. Top with a small green pepperoncino and put a toothpick through it. A yummy bite to follow or precede a sip of wine, beer, or a spritz!
Let me know if you’d like more details about these wine bars and others. Buon Appetito and Cin Cin.
Sweet Pear Pizza Recipe
Sweet Pear Pizza w Sage
This pizza blows me away. It is SO good. So easy too. It’s a taste you haven’t tasted before but you’ll be so happy to be introduced. Taste buds meet sweet pear pizza, prepare to be WOWED.
“Duly wowed!”
Start with 1 lb. of pizza dough. Make your own or buy a bag o’ pizza dough from the supermarket. Lightly oil a medium bowl. Place dough in bowl and then turn over so all sides are slightly oiled (stops dough from forming a “skin”). Cover loosely with a clean dish towel. Let it get to room temperature and rise a little bit, too…about 1-2 hours.
Meantime, peel and core 2 Bartlett pears. Cut into quarters and cut into thin slices.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment. Lightly oil the parchment. On a work surface dusted with flour, press out the dough (with your fingers) into a flat disc. Pick up the dough and drape a wide edge over your fists. Gentle move the dough edges over your fists, pumping your hands up and down so the dough stretches some more. Lay dough out on the prepared baking sheet. DOn’t worry about a perfect shape. It can be round. It can be oblong. Whatever.
Place pear slices in a nice pattern all over the pizza. leaving a narrow border around the edges. Press the pear slices into the dough a bit. Now sprinkle with about 1/2 cup sugar. Sprinkle some torn up sage leaves. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 20-25 minutes until crusty and golden. Cut into slices or squares to serve.
Pear PIzza
Zucchini Agrodolce Recipe from Venice
Herbs at the Rialto Market
Here’s a short video of my cooking segment on Channel 4’s More at Midday WSMV-TV Nashville…includes a brief glimpse of video from the Venice trip…but I will be posting MORE soon!
Just Back from Venezia
Rialto Market, Venice, Italy
Just led a group of 8 people on a cooking tour of Venice. What a fabulouso trip! Details and recipes coming soon!
Spaghetti alle Vongole
Chef Paulette 