AUNTIE PASTA: Herb Garden

SARONNO, Italy – It’s the first week in May and I’m getting ready to harvest my first crop of herbs. With all the rain we’ve had this spring I’ve got a bumper crop of sage, marjoram, thyme, oregano, Roman mint and rosemary growing on my kitchen balcony. I’ve stuck with woody perennials instead of tender annuals like basil and parsley not just because they don’t need to be planted every year, but also because they are the herbs I used the most.

Basil from my garden

Harvesting my herbs several times during the spring and summer months encourages the plants to grow and gives me enough herbs to last through the winter. And honestly, I’d rather use herbs I’ve grown myself than buy them pre-packaged in the grocery store. I know my herbs are from this year’s crop and pesticide free and have not been sitting around in a warehouse for who knows how long.

It’s a good idea to clean your herbs before you dry them. One easy way is to fill a large bowl (or your sink if you are cleaning a large amount), with cool, salted water. The salt water will drive out any tiny insects that may have found a home in your plants. Rinse them in clear water and spin them in a salad spinner and then blot them dry with paper towels. Then you can either lay them out on a clean dish towel or paper towels to dry, or do what I do which is tie them into a bundle and hang them upside down to dry.

 My herb garden

When they are completely dry, which takes several weeks, you can strip the small leaves off of the stems and put them in jars. You can put a sheet of newspaper or baking paper and strip them on that. That way it is easier to pour the leaves into jars. 

At the end of the season you can either cut your annuals, like summer savory, right down to the ground. They will reseed and comeback the next year. With woody perennials like sage or winter savory, it is best not to harvest the whole plant, but to leave about 2/3rds of it. 

 Roman Mint makes artichokes sing

Rosemary does well in a pot and if you live in an area where it gets really cold in the winter, you can bring them indoors and they will do well. Rosemary does like a cool, well lit location so don’t put the plant on a warm window sill. I don’t bother drying or storing rosemary because I find it easier to cut pieces of fresh rosemary when I need it.

 I don’t grow basil or parsley as I find it easier to buy those two herbs at our outdoor market, and since they are so readily available I don’t bother drying and storing them. I do, however, put the bunches of parsley in a glass of water and keep it in the refrigerator until I need it. But apart from that, there is something uniquely satisfying about having my own little herb garden on my balcony and being able to go out there and cut what I need when I need it. 

Oregano, so small, and so tasty

If you decide to try growing some herbs of your own this year, don’t waste your time starting them from seed. It’s easier to buy the plants and then replant them at home. Not everything works. I planted garlic this year and that was a complete failure. But I think I’ll try it again, maybe I just started it too early. Anyway, there is very little to lose and a lot to gain, even from a couple of plants on your windowsill.

AUNTIE PASTA: The Hills are Alive

SARONNO, Italy –  The province of Abruzzo is beautiful, it’s hill country and has more than its share of medieval towns like Castel del Monte. It’s not the best place to farm but definitely a great place to raise sheep. You might ask just what you can do with sheep after you’ve sheered them, milked them and bred them? Well, you can eat them. In fact, one of the most typical and delicious dishes found in Abruzzo is called “arrosticini”,  skewers of lamb meat cooked on a charcoal grill. 

 Castel del Monte, Abruzzo

Writing this post made me think about a dinner I once cooked for some friends, who brought along a friend who was visiting from Philadelphia. I made, among other things, roast chicken and potatoes.  A few weeks later my friend told me her visitor had been very disappointed that I hadn’t made “real” Italian food, even though it’s hard to imagine something more Italian than chicken with potatoes pan roasted in the oven with fresh rosemary. And odd as it may seem, lamb kebabs, usually associated with middle eastern cultures, are also very much Italian.

 Mangia, mangia   (photo from Flickr)

Today’s recipe is super simple, but there is one small trick. The trick is to not use a cut of meat that is too lean. If the meat is too lean it dries out and becomes super tough. Lamb shoulder is good because it has a good proportion of fat to lean. If you don’t want to bother making your own kebabs you can probably buy them ready-made in your grocery store or butcher shop. They sell them in most grocery stores throughout Italy, but not all year round. What we eat at any particular time of the year depends on the season, including meat. Remember my ordeal of trying to find a whole turkey last November?
 

Lamb keb...errr, I mean Arrosticini

The most traditional method of cooking the kebabs is over a charcoal grill, but any grill will do. If you are not using charcoal you can flavor the kebabs by brushing them with a long sprig of fresh rosemary that has been dipped in olive oil and crushed red pepper and maybe a squeeze of lemon juice. It’s not the same as using charcoal, but it’s good. 

Ingredients

800 grams (about 1 ¼ lbs) of cubed lamb meat

Juice of ½ lemon

Crushed red pepper (optional)

Extra virgin olive oil

Sprigs of fresh rosemary

Lay the skewers of lamb out on a plate and brush them with olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and pepper. You can add a squeeze of lemon if you want. Turn them to be sure they are well coated and place them on the grill. Cook them over low heat (too high a heat will burn them and dry them out). Baste and turn occasionally with the sprig of rosemary dipped in olive oil.

Serve with crusty Italian bread, a crispy salad and a glass of red wine and you’ve got classic Italian country cooking at its best.

AUNTIE PASTA: Hello My Little Lamb (Chop)

SARONNO, Italy- This Italian life that I live started long before I moved to Italy, it started back in upstate New York when I was really young. We lived in an apartment next to my Italian grandparents, in a big house that had a large basement. My grandfather used to make wine in one section of that basement and I remember going down there with him as he checked on the barrels of fermenting grape juice, to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to be doing, becoming wine. 

 Sheep grazing in a field outside of Rome

Every now and again there would be something else in the basement, a baby lamb. It would be tied up in the same area as the wine barrels, and when I would go down to check on the wine with my grandfather, I would play with the lamb while my grandfather did whatever he had to do. 

And then the lamb would be gone. I didn’t think too much of it, in fact it never occurred to me that the only thing that had happened between the last time I played with the lamb, to the next time when the lamb was gone, was Easter.  

Roast lamb with potatoes

So ever since I’ve been in Italy, I’ve been looking for a leg of lamb that looks and tastes like the one my grandmother used to put on the table on Easter Sundays, brown and juicy, studded with slivers of garlic and rosemary, but I’ve never found it. The lamb they sell in Italy is baby lamb, but so baby that there isn’t any meat on it. To me, the lamb they sell here looks like a pile of bones. It is a pile of bones.

Once, about six months ago, I saw what looked like a real leg of lamb (my idea of a real leg of lamb). It was at Carrefour, a French grocery chain that is very popular here in Italy. I bought the lamb immediately and cooked it, but it had a different taste than the one I expected. The store offered the larger legs of lamb only that once, I’ve never seen them since. So at this point I’ve about given up. On the outside chance that you can find some meaty lamb where you live, here's an Italian recipe from the Corriere della Sera, Italy's leading newspaper, for lamb alla Romana.  

Macellaio (Butcher) @ Eataly, Torino, Italia

After the recipe was published one viewer wrote in saying: "i filetti di acciuga nell'abbacchio alla romana? ma chi inventa queste ricette? Translation: Anchovy filets in abbacchio alla romana? Who invents these recipe?" Which leads me to doubt the authenticity of the recipe, but maybe it’s like everything else here, everyone thinks their version of things is the one and only true version. As for me, I just hope my grandmother isn’t reading this.

Abbacchio alla Romana

Ingredients for 4 People

2 lbs of leg and shoulder of lamb – cut into pieces

3 cloves of garlic

3 filets of anchovy (preserved under salt)

1 spring of rosemary

3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

½ cup of vinegar

Flour

Salt and pepper

Crush the peeled garlic along with the anchovy filets (that have been well rinsed). When the garlic and anchovy become a smooth paste, dilute it with the vinegar.

On the stove, add the oil to a large frying pan and add the sprig of rosemary. When the oil begins to smoke, remove the rosemary and add the pieces of lamb that have been lightly floured.

Brown the meat well on both sides, then remove it from the frying pan and set aside. Season with salt and pepper.

Reduce the cooking juices by two thirds. Put the lamb back into the frying pan with the cooking juices and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Preparation time: 25 minutes.

Cooking time: 30 minutes