AUNTIE PASTA: Caldarroste - Hot Roasted Chestnuts

CHIAVARI, Italy – Nothing says Italy in the winter like the sweet scent of roasted chestnuts sold from a street vendor in the piazza of your favorite town. It’s a centuries old tradition that has survived the test of time for one simple reason – roasted chestnuts are irresistible.  They are called caldarroste (hot roasted) in Italian and all you have to do to find them is follow your nose and look for the crowds.

 

Caldarroste - An Italian Treat (Photo: Andrea Massoti)

You can recreate that same delicious taste and smell at home. It may not be as much fun as buying them out on the street, but it’s easy to do. In Italy there are two types of edible chestnuts – one is small and flat and is known as castagna commune, the other, the marrone, is bigger and plumper.

Over the centuries chestnuts have provided an important source of income for many Italian towns and regions. Those days still live in the memory of many, and every November chestnut festivals are held in many remote areas of Italy, like the villages of Monte Amiato in Tuscany.   

 

Who Can Resist?

The secret to making good roasted chestnuts is in knowing how to cut their shell so it’s easier to peal them when they are cooked. Here are some tips from one of my favorite cooks, Marcella Hazen.

1.  After washing the nuts in cold water, soak them in lukewarm water for about 30 minutes. This step softens the shell and makes it easer to cut.

 

All You Need: Chestnuts and a Fire

2.    When the nuts have finished soaking, with the tip of a sharp knife, start cutting at one edge of the flat side and go all the way around the plump belly of the chestnut. Don’t cut into the flat side and keep the cut shallow so you don’t cut into the chestnut meat.

Other cooks say that the best way to cut chestnuts is to make an X or a cross on the flat end. I’m not a chestnut expert but I think I would X them as that is the way my grandmother did it, and they always turned out pretty good. Try it both ways and see which one you like best.  

 

Peel and Eat

How to Roast Chestnuts

To duplicate that tantalizing flavor of roasting chestnuts, first  heat your oven to 475 degrees. When the oven has reached that temperature   spread the cut chestnuts on a baking sheet and put the baking sheet in the oven on the middle rack.

When the chestnuts are tender, about 30 to 45 minutes, take them out of the oven and wrap them tightly in a cloth towel. You want them to steam for about 10 minutes.  Unwrap and serve.

AUNTIE PASTA: Bari's Best - Orecchiette with Pomodorini

CHIAVARI, Italy – I saw a Facebook post a few days ago of an adorable little girl sitting at a kitchen table with pasta and pasta dough spread out in front of her. Her grandmother was teaching her how to make orecchiette. The photo made me smile. It reminded me of a trip I made to Bari a few years back where I saw grandmothers and granddaughters sitting at tables outside their houses in the old city, doing exactly the same thing - making orecchiette.

 Bari, Italy

Pugliese food is simple to make and simply delicious. There are no complicated sauces or techniques needed, just some good Pugliese olive oil, a little garlic and the freshest ingredients you can get your hands on. Right now you can find beautiful, blood red pomodorini –  cherry tomatoes - in the markets across Italy, which makes it the perfect time to make Orecchiette with Pomodorini. 

Orecchiette are a very old pasta that originated in Bari sometime during the twelfth and thirteenth century. The ear like shape allowed them to dry faster, and they could be stored in case of a future famine, an all too frequent problem in Europe in the 1300 and 1400’s.

 It's a Family Affair

Living in Italy these past years, I’ve learned that it’s best to keep fresh pasta in the refrigerator, Fresh pasta has to ‘breathe’ so it’s best not to cover it with Saran Wrap or other clingfilms, or keep it in a closed plastic container. And while paper food containers or wrapping it in cooking paper are both OK, the best way to keep it is on a ceramic plate covered with a clean cotton cloth.

As for cooking fresh pasta, you need plenty of salted water, and it’s important to put the pasta in when the water is boiling. When you drop the pasta in, the water stops boiling so you have to turn up the heat in order to bring it back to a boil. Once the water is boiling again, adjust the heat so it boils gently. It’s not a good idea to cover the pot when cooking pasta as the water will boil over.

 Orecchiette with Rucola and Pomodorini

Filled pasta is another story. It should be dropped in the water just before it comes to a boil, and then cooked with care. If it’s cooked too long, or if the heat is too high, the pasta shapes may break or split open.

 Orecchiette with Pomodorini 

 Serves 4

400 grams of fresh orecchiette  

300 grams di arugula (rucola in Italian/ aka rocket) or another type of bitter green

10 mature cherry tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic  

10 black olives  

1/2 of a hot chili pepper or red pepper flakes

50 grams of aged ricotta  (or pecorino)

Extravergine Italian olive oil

salt

2 tablespoons of toasted breadcrumbs (optional) 

Wash the arugula under running water and dry. Boil it in salted water for about 2 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and let cool. Then squeeze well to remove excess water. Save the cooking water for the pasta.

Wash and peel the cherry tomatoes, cut them into quarters and place in a colander. Sprinkle with coarse salt and set aside. Peel the garlic and dice it, along with the pitted olives.

Heat 4 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil in a saucepan, add the chopped garlic and olives, the drained cherry tomatoes, chili pepper, stir and cook over moderate heat for about 5 minutes.

Add the arugula, season with salt and turn off the flame. Cook the orecchiette in the same water that the arugula cooked in. When the pasta is cooked, (if you are using fresh orecchiette they cooked rather quickly), drain and put them back in the pot and add the sauce. Mix and cook together for 30 seconds. Turn off the flame. Serve with a grated ricotta or pecorino, a few drops of olive oil and a sprinkle of toasted breadcrumbs.

LIFE: Notable Noto Redux

CHIAVARI, ITALY – There is something about Sicily that makes me break out in adjective-itis. Words like fanciful, fantastic and extraordinary seem to pop up out of nowhere and take up residence in almost every sentence I write about the place.

 Noto, Piazza Duomo

Take Noto for example. Strictly speaking it’s just another small town on a island full of small towns, but unlike my adjective heavy sentences that are forgotten as soon as they are read, there is something about the place that sneaks in and takes up residence in your soul.

It may have something to do with all those baroque nymphs, mermaids, lions, trolls and other mythical creatures that look down at you as you walk along the streets.

 A Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Balcony in Noto

Or it may be the way the town glows in the late afternoon as the sun slowly sets in the west, reflecting off of the soft limestone buildings. I don’t know. My only consolation is that I’m not alone in my unabashed admiration for things Sicilian, and Noto in particular. It seems to affect everyone who comes here.

“Go to Noto,” wrote the Sicilian writer Gesualdo Bufalino, “it is a place where if one happens to come in, he is trapped and happy and never goes away.”

Bufalino was right. The danger is real.

 Via Nicolaci

The day I got to Noto, artists were on their hands in knees on Via Corrado Nicolaci, putting down the outlines for the various sections of a brilliant tableau of flowers.  Via Nicolaci is one of the prettiest streets in town, rising gently from Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Under the watchful eyes of the grotesque gargoyles that decorate the balconies of the elegant baroque buildings that line the street, artists were following patterns that resemble the canvases in paint-by-number kits. There was an aura of excitement in the air as the town prepared for the annual spring Infiorata, a week-long celebration of concerts, handicraft fairs, parades and special events.

The Noto we see today is a relatively new town, at least new by Italian standards. The original town, Noto Antica, is about ten miles away, up on a nearby hill. In 1693 Noto Antica was completely destroyed by an earthquake, and rather than rebuild over the damaged site, the survivors decided to try their luck elsewhere.

Earthquakes are a problem in this part in Sicily. In 1990, a minor earthquake caused a wing of Noto’s Jesuit College building to collapse, and a few months later cornices from building facades began to tumble to the ground. But the most tragic event of all happened in 1996 when the roof of the 18th century Cathedral of St. Nicholas fell into the nave, leaving a gaping hole and exposing the treasures within to the elements.

 Cathedral of Noto

I remember standing in the Cathedral shortly after it happened, looking up at the lions, winged horses, allegorical putti, bizarre Hellenic demons and grotesque stone masks that make up the interior. Pained faces frozen in time and space staring out at me through eerie, hollow eyes, as if to say, do something.

The roof is repaired now but it took more than ten years of plowing through bureaucratic paperwork and complicated maneuvers through the world of Italian and Sicilian politics. In the meantime, as the roof waited, Noto was added to the list of Unesco World Heritage sites. At least the world appreciates its treasures, and that’s good, don’t you think?

LIFE: Shroud of Turin

TURIN, Italy - The Shroud of Turin, arguably Italy’s most famous holy relic, will be on display from April 13 to May 23 at the Cathedral of Turin, in northern Italy. This will be the first public showing of the Shroud of Turin since it was restored in 2002.

As many as 2 million people are expected to view the Shroud over the 44 days it will be available. So far, almost 1 million requests have come in to reserve the three to five minutes each person will be allowed to admire the cloth that has fascinated pilgrims and scientists alike for centuries. 

According to tradition, the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus, but even with the use of special carbon dating techniques, experts have been hard pressed to date it much before the 14th century. Even though French crusader Robert of Clari mentions seeing the cloth in 1203 in Constantinople at the imperial palace, the first actual records trace it only to Lirey in France in 1354. 

There are historians who believe that the shroud was taken by French knights of the Fourth Crusade during the sacking of Constantinople in 1204. The basis of this belief comes from a letter written in 1205 to Pope Innocent II which says in part, “The Venetians partitioned the treasure of gold, silver and ivory, while the French did the same with the relics of saints and the most sacred of all, the linen in which our Lord Jesus Christ was wrapped after His death and before the resurrection.” 

There is also some evidence that on August 15, 944 CE an image bearing cloth known as the Cloth of Edessa, was taken from Edessa to Constantinople (now Istanbul). It had been in Edessa since it was found hidden behind some stones above one of the city gates sometime in the middle of the 6th century. According to legend, the cloth, with a miraculous picture of Jesus, was brought to the King of Edessa sometime between 13 –50 CE by a disciple known as Thaddeus Jude, who claimed to have been sent by the apostle Thomas. 

If the Edessa Cloth is the Shroud of Turin, then written record of its existence goes back to the sixth century. But is it? The controversy continues. And while no new tests are officially scheduled, scientists at Oxford University, where the original tests were done, are taking another look at the data and methodology of the original tests to see if any mistakes were made and if the Shroud could actually date back to the time of Jesus. 

Groups dedicated to researching the relic argue that the shroud has been handled so many times that it could easily have been contaminated, altering the chemical makeup of the carbon in the linen which in turn would affect the results of the carbon dating. To avoid further contamination the Shroud is now kept in a covered, bulletproof, climate controlled case inside the Cathedral of Turin. 

If you are planning on going to Turin I can tell you from my own experiences to see the Shroud in 1998, the city is well organized and even though there are a lot of people, lines move quickly and you never feel lost in a sea of humanity. And if you do have a chance to go I strongly suggest staying a few extra days. Turin is one of the most historically interesting and architectually beautiful cities in Italy, albeit not traditionally Italian. It was the city of Italy's royal family, the French Savoy, and they turned the city into a spectacular European capital. Vale la pena, as they say. You won't be sorry you stayed. 

Reservations to see the Shroud of Turin can be made on the Internet (www.sindone.org) During the Exposition period there will also be a booking service for same day visits at the reception point that will be set up in Piazza Castello, near the Cathedral.

More Information is available on the following sites: www.comune.torino.it
www.provincia.torino.it
www.regione.piemonte.it
www.turismotorino.org
www.comune.torino.it/torinoplus/

Photos: (1) Pilgrims viewing the Shroud of Turin 1998, (2) Cathedral of Turin, (3) Interior Cathedral of Turin

For more on Turin see Auntie Pasta: Italy's Dark (Chocolate) Secret published Feb. 10, 2010.