AUNTIE PASTA: Tuscan Red

SARONNO, Italy - Today's recipe for Tuscan pot roast calls for wine from the Chianti area in Tuscany, wine country. Some of the best wines in the world come from this region which extends over the provinces of Florence and Siena, covering the area between the two cities and beyond, going toward Arezzo, Pistoia and Montepulciano.

Greve in Chianti - Wine Country

There are all kinds of Chianti wine, regular Chianti, Chianti Classico and the top of the line, Chianti Riserva. If there is a black rooster on the label, that is your guarantee that what you are drinking is true Chianti and not another type of Chianti-like wine that some unscrupulous wine producer is trying to pawn off as Chianti. Not to say that there are unscrupulous wine producers in Italy – wink, wink.

 The Vineyards of Tuscany

You know how particular Italians are about their food and drink, their number one worry when they travel is what they are going to eat, seriously, so it was a natural progression from regular Chianti to Chianti Classico to Chianti Classico DOCG as Chianti progressed from an everyday table wine to the super star category. (For an explanation of the designations see Aunti Pasta: PDO, DOP et al February 4, 2010 http://thisitalianlife.blogspot.it/2010/02/auntie-pasta-pdo-dop-et-al.html). 

 Classic Chianti Classico

The first upgrade came when Chianti no longer used grapes that were not grown in Chianti. That is what the DOC, Denominazione di Origine Controllata means,  the grapes used to make the wine in that bottle really came from the Chianti area. Then they began producing Chianti Classico, which qualified for the DOCG designation, the DOC for the control of the origin of the grapes, with an added G for Garantita, guaranteed. So now, the grapes that make Chianti Classico were not only checked to make sure they were actually from Chianti, it was guaranteed that they did.  And that is still true.

 A Wine Tasting in Greve

Not to get wonky but the rules and regulations wine has to adhere to in order to carry the DOCG designation are lengthy, to say the least. Forget any ideas you might have had about dark eyed beauties stomping grapes in the sunshine, the wine industry in Italy has more rules, regulations and controls than a NASA launch. For the Chianti Classico they include the  percentage of Sangiovese grapes used in relationship to the amount of Canaiolo and Colorino grapes, and while Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes were once allowed, under the DOCG rule they were out.   

  The Black Rooster Guarantees its Chianti Classico

The list of rules and regulations actually goes on ….. and on……  and on…….right up to just before the wine is bottled. That is when it must undergo a final chemical exam to insure it meets all the requirements, and also pass a final ‘tasting’ test. The rules say that the wine has to be bright ruby red color tending to garnet; it must have a grapey odor with a scent of violets that is more pronounced if the wine has been aged; and it must be dry with a pleasant, slightly tanic taste that finishes to a velvety softness, their words, not mine.

 Making Tuscan Pot Roast

I hope I can remember those lines the next time I’m served a Chianta Classica. I’d love to be able to say,  “oh my, this wine has a wonderful ruby red color bordering on garnet with such a delicious taste, is that a hint of violets  I detect? And what a wonderful velvety finish, don’t you agree?” I might find myself tossed out on my backside, but it would be fun.  While I wait for my perfect opportunity I think I’ll whip up a little Tuscan pot roast. 

Tuscan Pot Roast 

 Serves 8

2 lb beef (in one piece)

1 lb canned tomatoes

1 cup Chianti wine

5 onions

1 carrot

1 stalk celery

1 clove of garlic

1 half cup extra virgin olive oil   

Meat broth to taste 

Preparation

30 minutes preparation + 3 hours cooking

1. In a fairly deep pan, stir-fry a mixture of finely chopped onion, celery and carrot (when in season, a handful of basil leaves). Once the vegetables have softened, add the meat, larded with garlic slivers*, season with salt and pepper, and tied up with kitchen string. Carefully brown the meat, then pour in the wine. (I wouldn’t use Chianti Classica or worse yet, Chianti Classica Reserva, but don’t use a really cheap wine either.)

2, Once the wine has evaporated, add the tomato purée; cook slowly for 3 – 4 hours, adding a little meat stock if the tomato puree becomes too thick. Once cooked, take the meat out of the pan, let it sit for at least 10 minutes, remove the string and slice it; reduce the cooking juices and pour the piping hot sauce   over the meat slices. Serve with polenta or mashed potatoes.

*How to Lard Meat

With a sharp kitchen knife make several incisions on the surface of the meat. Insert a sliver of garlic into each incision. 

Slices of Garlic for Larding

 This is Not Beef, But it is the Way to Prepare Meat for Larding

There are other ways to lard meat, more complicated and complete, but right now I hear a bottle of Chianti calling me, so I'll save the larding talk for another day.

LIFE: The Curse of Montecristo

SARONNO, Italy – There is a small island, about 40 miles off the coast of Tuscany, called Montecristo. It’s coastline is rugged and rocky, the black volcanic stone riddled with dark caves. Nothing grows there, no one lives there, no one has ever been able to live there although many have tried. That is the curse of Montecristo.

Tuscan  Island of Montecristo  (photo AP)

Over the centuries the Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Spaniards and Genovese desperately tried to colonize Montecristo, just as they had colonized other islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, islands like Capri and Ventotene. But to no avail. Montecristo, like a wild stallion, refuses to be tamed.

In the glory days of the Roman Empire, a Roman senator once built a summer villa on the island. but they say he never lived there. He was fascinated by the island's wild beauty, and believed Roman mythology which said Montecristo was one of the seven jewels that fell from Venus’ headband when she bathe in the Tyrrhenian sea.

 All That Remains

It sounded like an earthly paradise to the Senator, but he soon fled in desperation from the huge rats that dominate the island. The rats fascinate me. They are the true keepers of the island. They have been there forever, and they are still there. Every method conceived by man has been tried to eradicate them, including bringing in snakes to dropping poison pellets from airplanes. The rats always win. Could it be that they are the reincarnation of dammed souls, forced to live out eternity on a speck of volcanic rock in the middle of the sea? Are they the manifestation of the curse of Montecristo?

So many questions, with no real answers. But nonetheless man has persisted in his effort to conquer the dark forces of nature that are at work there.  In 1852 an Englishman, George Green Taylor, spent a fortune fixing up the island for colonization. But after eight years of struggling to complete his project,  he gave up. They say the final blow came when a band of pirates set fire to all he had created, but other rumors say he had given up long before that, defeated in his effort to break the curse.

Thirty years later the Marquis Carlo Ginori-Lisci thought the island would make a good private hunting ground and so he stocked it with wild game. For reasons we will never know, he then gave the lodge to Italy’s King Victor Emanuel II to use as a royal retreat during World War I. The Marquis told the King about the island’s ancient curse, but the King went ahead and built a 26 room palace anyway, only to abandon it several years later.  

Then an Italian construction engineer, Dino Vitale stepped in. He too saw potential in the island, but once again the problem with the rats surfaced. If only he could find a solution, a way of getting rid of them permanently. He spent a lot of money to refurbish the King’s old palace, but then the project stalled.  Viale, who had managed to acquire the title of Count became the first  Count of Montecristo. There was another, a fictional Count, immortalized by the French writer Alexander Dumas in his swashbuckling tales of the Count of Monte Cristo. While Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo gets rich and destroys his enemies, Vitale, the real Count of Montecristo, suffered a fatal heart attack leaving behind a dire warning of the island’s dreaded curse.  

 Perfect Hide-a-Way for Pirate Treasure

The Italians, who are very superstitious, have given up on trying to populate the island. Instead they have given in to nature and created a protected nature reserve. Only 1,000 visitors per year are allowed to visit the island, and only during specific periods during the year (from April 1 to July 15 and from August 31 to the end of October). The Italians are very clever and never openly discourage visitors, but in order to visit the island you must apply in advance for a special permit and then sit through a lecture on the environment of the island the day before the trip. The word curse never passes anyone’s lips.

AUNTIE PASTA: Over the Moon in Lunigiana

SARONNO, Italy - The Lunigiana is a strange kind of place that even many Italians have never heard of. It’s like an insiders secret, located in the provinces of La Spezia and Massa Carrara, It’s half in Liguria and half in Tuscany, going from the Apennine mountains to the Magra River.

The Lunigiana, A Well Kept Secret

The story is that before the territory was settled by the Romans, the Etruscan lived here. No news there, most of the towns, particularly in that area got their start exactly the same way. The story is – and you know how these stories are, often more fiction than fact – that the borders reflect the medieval diocese of Luni, which no longer exists. It is really was part of Luini, then Lunigiana was once the most important urban center on the northern Tuscan coast.

The Moon, The Bear and the ???

It is said that the area was called Luini because the people who lived there worshiped the moon. Luni is close enough to luna which in Italian is the word for moon, so it could be true. To add fuel to that fire, the symbol of modern day Lunigiana is a crescent moon held in the paw of a bear.

 Stele in Piagnar Castle Museum

Along with traces of both Roman and Medieval settlements, there are wondrously interesting stele, late pre-historic and Bronze Age stone statues which have been found in large numbers in this area.    

More Stele

From time immemorial, the ‘panigaccio’ and ‘testarolo’ have been a simple and low cost dishes eaten in the entire territory of Lunigiana and the Garfagnana. Panigaccio and testarolo are not the same thing as I initially wrote and now stand corrected by Andrea. He told me that panigaccio are a little like foccacia while testaroli are cooked like crepes, then cut into diamond shapes or strips and served like pasta. That part I knew because I've cooked, and made, testaroli, it was the panigaccio that confused me. He said that he used to eat panigaccio topped with a little cheese or ham. Nice to know and I stand corrected.  

Testaroli with Pesto

The recipe for testaroli is simple. Equal parts whole wheat or buckwheat flour and water, (buckwheat is best and white flour is not recommended) mixed to a consistency of heavy cream. Two cups of flour should be enough for four people. The cooking technique is basically the same as cooking crepe, with one small addition. Before you start to cook the batter, take a half of a peeled potato or half of a peeled onion, stab it with a fork, dip it in extra virgin olive oil and run it over the hot oil before you add the batter. Do this before you cook each one. These crepes are not quite as thin as French crepes so they take a few seconds longer to cook.

A Stack of Panigaccio

I prefer to use a large frying pan rather than a crepe size pan since I’m only going to cut them up anyway it’s easier to make a couple of big ones than a bunch of small ones. When the testaroli are cooked, lay them out on a clean dishtowel to cool. They don’t keep well but you can roll them up in cooking paper and freeze them to use another time, or cut them into wide short strips or diamond shapes and drop them in a pot of salted boiling water for a few seconds. Lift them out with a slotted spoon, drain them, put them in a dish and top with pesto and a little grated parmigiano reggiano cheese. Eat immediately. 

Where is this place, anyway?

On this map, the Lunigiana is the small yellow part between La Spezia and Massa Carrara. The first time I saw testaroli was in Parma, in an old shop that sold a little bit of pasta, a few cans of tomatoes, a couple of bottles of wine and some kind of a large, brown pancake. The shop owner seemed a bit perplexed when I asked him what they were, I guess he never had anyone ask him that before. At any rate, he said, they were testaroli and to cook them you just cut them up any old way, and boil them for a few minutes, drain them and top them with pesto. So I did. Once again it was love at first taste. 

Simple dishes like testaroli really speak to the heart of Italian cuisine.Many of the dishes Italians prepare in this day and age of high speed trains and the internet, were developed centuries ago. They are the thread that connects the Italy of today with the Italy of yesterday, and that is one of the reasons why, for me, Italy is so special.

And can I add one small rant regarding pesto? American Chef Michael Chiarello suggests adding a pinch of vitamin C powder (ascorbic acid) to your pesto to keep it from discoloring. He adds ascorbic acid to his pesto because his pesto is made so far in advance of serving there is a danger of it discoloring. But if you are making pesto at home there is absolutely no need for it.

AUNTIE PASTA: Viva la Pappa

SARONNO, Italy - Sometimes you just can’t keep a promise. In this case the promise was to post a blog about summer food in Italy this week. I was all set to write about butterfly pasta with zucchini and saffron, veal in tuna sauce and Tuscany’s classic tomato soup, pappa col pomodoro. 

Pappa col Pomodoro

But when I was checking the internet to compare my recipe for pappa with some of the recipes on the Italian cooking sites, I found the fantastic step-by-step photos you see below. Their recipe is a little different than mine, but the end results are pretty much the same.

Interestingly the site is managed by a company that sells saffron, and there is no saffron in this simple, but delicious Tuscan favorite. You can check out the website  @http://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Pappa-col-pomodoro.html

Pappa col pomodoro originated in Tuscany, specifically in the town of Sienna, and has been a Tuscan favorite since the Middle Ages. It was originally devised to make use of left over bread and the abundance of red, ripe tomatoes you find in Tuscany in the summer.  The dish became popular throughout Italy  after singer Rita Pavone recorded her hit song, Viva la Pappa col Pomodoro. The catchy tune  was an instant hit and is still one of the most popular songs ever recorded in Italian history. I doubt there is an Italian who doesn’t know the words.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqIKVEh9BPI  

While Italian food is fairly easy to prepare, most Italian recipes tend to utilize fresh ingredients rather than take shortcuts. I, on the otherhand, do - take shortcuts that is. In my humble, albit lazy opinion there really is no need to go to the bother of peeling, chopping and pressing fresh tomatoes  through a passavedura, as the recipe calls for, when I can just open a can of good quality already peeled Italian tomatoes and get excellent results.

If you are wondering what “pappa” is, it is any kind of food that is mushed up, most generally for babies but it can also be food for the infirmed and old folks who don’t have any teeth. On that appetizing note, here are the recipes.

Pappa col Pomodoro

500 g (about 1lb) of fresh ripe tomatoes

Half a round loaf of unsalted Tuscan bread or firm, rustic bread, slightly stale.

3 heads of garlic, peeled  

Bunch of fresh basil – washed, dried and torn into small pieces

About 4 cups of vegetable broth, preferably homemade

Extra virgin Italian olive oil

Salt and pepper QB ("quanto basta" is Italian for "to taste")

1/2 teaspoon sugar

 

(1)Cut the bread into slices and lightly toast. Let cool and then rub each slice with a piece of peeled garlic. (2) Dip the tomatoes into boiling water for one minute;

 

(3) Peel them and (4) push them through a passavedura. (5) Collect the juice and mashed pulp from the tomatoes in a container. (6) Layer the bread slices in a terra cotta or non-stick pot;

 

(7) Ladle the tomatoes over the bread slices, (8) add the vegetable broth to cover, add salt, pepper and sugar, (9) cook over low flame for 40-50 minutes, mixing the bread and tomatoes occasionally to break up the bread;

 

(10) When cooked, taste and add more salt if needed, and pepper to taste, (11) add the shredded basil and (12) pour into serving dishes and top with a drizzle of good quality olive oil. Serve at room temperature.  

My version of this recipe is just a little different. Besides using canned tomatoes I cut the bread into slices and then into 1/2 inch cubes and set them aside. In a terra cotta pot I lightly brown 2 cloves of garlic (which I have smashed with the side of my knife) in olive oil, and then add the torn up pieces of basil. 

Let the garlic cook for about 2 minutes then add the bread cubes, mix and let cook for a couple more minutes. Then add the tomatoes straight from the can and mix thoroughly. At this point, add the broth and salt and pepper to taste. (Prepared broth can be very salty, so be sure to taste it before adding additional salt.) 

Keep in mind that regardless of which recipe you use, tomato pappa should be very thick, not liquid. The key to making this great summer dish is the quality of the bread and tomatoes you use. If they are good, the pappa will be good, and you won't believe how delicious this simple dish will be.

Serve in soup bowls with a little olive oil drizzled over the top. This dish tastes even better if refrigerated it overnight and served the next day. Buon Appetito.

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