My Road Leads to Torino

It’s All About the Food Part 2: Cannelloni!

2006-04-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

Today is Easter, and I decided to try out a recipe given to me by one of my husband’s aunts, Zia Alvisa. Zia Alvisa is from Francavilla al Mare in Abruzzo. Abruzzo is a region that I highly recommend exploring for its delicious cuisine. Abruzzo has the added benefit of a coastline along the Adriatic Sea as well as the Appennini mountains inland, meaning a cooking tradition encompassing seafood as well as meat such as lamb. In a family of good cooks, Zia Alvisa is known as a great cook. At home, Italian cooks eyeball most of the ingredients as they cook, so adjust the following recipe according to your tastes and the number of people you are serving.

Cannelloni “Zia Alvisa”

Frittatine, or crepes

Ingredients

1 egg (1 egg makes 3 frittatine)

1 spoonful of flour

½ eggshell of water

Pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients well, beat with a whisk so there are no lumps of flour.

Butter a small anti-stick pan.

Make frittatine one at a time using ¼ of a ladle of batter.

Flip frittantine with a fork so they are cooked on both sides.

Place on plate and set aside.

Filling

Ingredients

Chopped meat: even mix of beef and pork

1 package frozen spinach

1 carrot, 1 celery stick, 1 onion

White wine

Nutmeg

Olive oil, butter, salt

Finely chop carrot, celery, and onion and fry in olive oil.

Add chopped meat, white wine, nutmeg, butter, and salt (you can also use a bouillon cube).

When meat is cooked add spinach that has been boiled and drained well.

Stir well and set aside.

Basic Red Sauce, or sugo

I prefer to make my own sauce, but a jar of store bought sauce would also work if you are crunched for time.

Ingredients

2 cans peeled tomatoes

Carrot, celery, onion, garlic

Fresh basil leaves

Olive oil

Salt, pepper

Finely chop onion in chopper.

Fry onion in olive oil with garlic clove, large piece of carrot and celery for approximately 10 minutes until onions are golden in color.

Blend peeled tomatoes and add to onions in saucepan.

Cook for approximately one hour.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Towards the end of cooking time add several leaves of fresh basil.

Please note:

I leave the garlic clove whole then remove it and throw it away when the sauce is done. Although my husband is Italian he doesn’t like strong garlic flavoring. You could also finely chop the garlic and leave it in the sauce.

I also take out the large piece of carrot and celery. Italian sauce is much thinner than the American version and less is used on each plate of pasta. The carrot and celery are used for flavoring only. I have made sauce where I finely chopped the carrot and celery along with the onion, fried this mix together, thus leaving the carrot and celery in the sauce. The resulting sauce is also good, only thicker.

Making the Cannelloni

Cover the bottom of a large baking dish with sauce.

On a plate, place a spoonful of sauce in the center of a frittatine and spread.

Sprinkle with fresh grated parmesan cheese.

Add filling.

Roll and place in baking dish.

Repeat until dish is full and packed tight so cannelloni keep their shape.

Cover with sauce, sprinkle with more parmesan cheese.

Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 350°.

Use 1 layer of filled frittatine for crispier cannelloni and 2 layers for less crispy.

Variation:

Place a strip of fresh mozzarella cheese in cannelloni along with meat filling.

Let me know what you you think!

It's All About the Food! Part 1

2006-04-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

This Sunday is Easter, or Pasqua, and on Monday Italians will also celebrate Pasquetta, or "little Easter". This long weekend means food, and lots of it. One of the principle protagonists of the Easter feast in Italy is the "columba", meaning dove. The columba devoured by millions of Italians on Easter is not the bird, but a cake in the shape of a dove. The classic columba cake has an almond-covered top crust and a soft inner cake sweetened with candied fruit. Early this Saturday morning, aiming to beat the final rush before Sunday, my husband and I headed to Gilbert, a small sweets factory in Torino producing and selling their handmade cookies, chocolate, and columba. I like the classic, but always end up going for the more elaborate versions. There is columba made with moscato wine and one with pieces of chocolate inside. My favorite and the one we chose to keep for Easter lunch as oppposed to the others we will give to friends is covered with a chocolate crust and filled with gianduja cream. Gianduja is chocolate mixed with hazelnuts and is a specialty of Torino. The first image shows our Gianduja columba at noon. As of 7pm, all that remained was one round end, although I couldn't say if it was heads or tails. I'm not convinced our columba will see Easter morning.

A columba topped and filled with small pieces of chocolate.

A columba given to my husband at work. This columba is made with "frutti di bosco", or candied berries, and made a very nice breakfast Saturday morning!

Italian Driving School

2006-04-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

Am I too old for this?

The last time I was in driving school, Madonna, Wham!, and Duran Duran were playing on the car radio. I was 15 then (yes, at that time in Maine you were able to get your license at 15!). Now, at 33, I am back in driving school, in Italy. After a total of 4 years here I am able to pick up the new vocabulary fairly easily, although it did take me a few classes to master the pronunciation of strada "sdrucciolevole", or slippery. The main challenges are three: memorizing the plethora of road signs, learning to drive a stick shift, and putting all of this into practice on Torino city streets.

There are many road signs which I don't remember ever seeing in the States. Antonio, my driving instructor, says that "they" are trying to pass a law to reduce the number of street signs used in Italy. Anyways, I will try to look at endless memorization as a mental activity to stave off Alzheimer's. The stick shift will take a lot of practice. My first attempt in our diesel station wagon was not successful. Meaning I didn't get the car in motion. I was assured by various family members that diesels are more difficult for new users than cars running on regular gas. This sounds like kind encouragement to me. Switching cars to a smaller Fiat Punto made quite a difference. I am now able to whiz around the empty parking lot of an industrial park where we go to practice on Sunday mornings. I'm so glad my Italian husband is not a rabid soccer fan, as Sunday here is usually devoted to football and food, and teaching the American wife to drive a stick shift is probably not as relaxing as a few hours spent watching "calcio".

This weekend I will attempt my first foray onto an actual road. Don't worry, though. I'm taking it slow and plan to get out there at the crack of dawn. I don't think I am ready to face the comments and gestures of my fellow drivers (optimistic- its too soon to consider myself one of them) when they find their natural environment invaded by a foreign species. As the male half of the population likes to say, "Donna al volante, pericolo costante". As I like to reply, women in Italy pay less in car insurance. Why? Fewer accidents. So there.