Making Gnocchi

The other weekend when pondering what to make for dinner, I looked around our kitchen and saw we had a bag of potatoes and really not much else so I decided to make gnocchi. I looked at the recipe and it seemed doable until I got to the step where I had to add the flour to the mashed potatoes...for the quantity of flour the recipe said q.b. which stands for quanto basta and basically translates to "enough". This is a common notation for measurements in Italian recipes. It is as if the recipes assume that we all grew up in the kitchen helping our nonne (grandmas) and mamme (moms) make pasta and sauces and such. As I did not have any such exposure growing up, I just winged it and as a result my first batch of gnocchi had a much too high potato to flour ratio. They barely survived being cooked in the boiling water and were a mushy mess. Into the compost bin they went. I added more flour to the dough and it transformed into something much more malleable. Rolling the dough into a long, snake like shape and cutting it into small pieces reminded me of so many times during my childhood when I did very much the same thing with playdoh (so maybe I did have a little childhood gnocchi training after all).



My gnocchi - waiting to be cooked.




The cuoco (chef) and her gnocchi with a much deserved glass of vino.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the finished product. As soon as the gnocchi were done cooking (which is remarkably fast - it takes only 2-3 minutes after being dropped in the boiling water for the gnocchi to rise to the surface signalling they are done) I mixed them with the sauce and served them. Andrea ate his with a tomato sauce and I had mine with gorgonzola (if you are a fan of gorgonzola, the easiest sauce ever for pasta is to heat up a little milk and a hunk of gorgonzola cheese in a small sauce pan until the cheese melts and then pour it over your pasta. Yum!) much to Andrea's olfactory dismay.

This recipe made a ton of gnocchi and I found the leftovers to be even better the next day - it seems the gnocchi firmed up a little more being left overnight in the refrigerator. I also sauteed the gnocchi a little after cooking them in the boiling water. This gave them a nice, slightly crispy edge and immensely improved the overall texture and flavor.

I am excited to try these again. Next time, I would like to do spinach and ricotta gnocchi for a lighter take or gnocchi made with squash instead of potato like we tried last year at a restaurant up in the Dolomites.

I highly recommend trying your hand at this dish. It is an economical dish to make and it gives you an excuse to get your hands dirty and reconnect with childhood pleasures.

La Cova Fumada

La Cova Fumada, in Barcelona, is one of my favorite restaurants in the world which I think is saying a lot seeing as I have lived in Italy for the past three years! We discovered the restaurant last year after reading about it on Food and Wine's website (FYI their website is a great place to find awesome restaurant recommendations). I have to say that if we had not read that recommendation we probably would not have gone in because the outside doesn't look like much...





Waiting out front of the Cova Fumada for a table. The wait isn't so bad when they have already served  you your first round of beer.



The inside doesn't look like much either, the whole restaurant including the kitchen is contained in one big, open room, but we knew it would be good by the crazy amount of people inside. Every seat in the place was occupied and there was a crowd of people standing around the small bar sipping Estrella Damm beer and eating and another crowd of people occupying any space they could while they waited for a coveted spot at one of the few tables.



This is the entire inside of the restaurant. The kitchen (pictured below) is just to the right and is completely open to the room.


 


The kitchen - I love the grandma looking lady in the apron.







The beer fridge - packed full with Estrella Damm.


When you order a beer here you don't say what kind you want you just say big or small.



Our meal was delicious. Like in many places in Barcelona, here they serve small plates of food so you can order and try a lot of different things. I think we must of ordered almost everything on the menu but some of our favorites included the small artichokes cooked alla plancia (the flat grill) and doused in butter (the butter dribbled down my hands and wrists while I ate), calamari also cooked alla plancia and mussels on the half shell served with a dollop of creamy, smooth garlic aioli atop each one. This place is also credited as being the creator of the Bomba - a mashed potato and ham mixture which is made into a ball and fried and served with the aforementioned garlic aioli and a fiery red sauce.

To finish off the meal and revive us from our food induced coma we always have a Pirata. It is a hot coffee drink created by the crew at the Cova Fumada which consists of a slice of lemon, an espresso shot and I think at least two different kinds of liquor (it was a little difficult to keep track at that point of exactly what was going into our drink).



The two gentlemen on the outside are both part of the family that runs the restaurant. The man who is second in on the right is named Peni. We met him last year during our first visit to La Cova Fumada and we were able to reconnect with him this year thanks to the man in the blue shirt and some great pantomiming from Andrea :)



Of course, we had to get a photo with the grandma.

 

We absolutely love this place. To us it feels like real Barcelona and a place we could easily imagine ourselves visiting with strict regularity if we lived in Barcelona. We love it so much that during the last year, after our first visit to La Cova Fumada, we often found ourselves saying that if we could find a cheap enough flight we would go to Barcelona just to have lunch at La Cova Fumada. In fact, it was at the top of our list of things to do when we returned to Barcelona and on our first full day of our vacation we found ourselves there enjoying a nice, leisurely and delicious four hour lunch.

If you find yourself in Barcelona, please pay these guys a visit and ENJOY!

Serghei

Last night for my birthday dinner we went to Serghei.

It is a tiny, there are only seven tables in the whole place, family run restaurant. There was only one man running the front of the house and a few ladies in the kitchen - two of which appeared as though they could be the nonne (grandmas) of the family.

We had heard that the restaurant served home-style (think like your Italian grandma made it), traditional Bolognese food. Andrea had even heard from a local reporter that the tagliatelle con ragù was the best in Bologna. We went hungry and were excited to try this new to us restaurant.

The inside is decorated with knick knacks ranging from on old radio to a guitar propped in the corner and an old advertisement for a Singer sewing machine and many, many bottles of wine some which appear to be quite old. If the Italian grandma was suppose to be in the kitchen then the dining room felt like grandpa's den.



The decor was warm and welcoming. It immediately made us feel relaxed and at home.



This is one of those types of restaurants that do not have a printed menu, always a good sign that the food will be fresh. Before the waiter even had a chance to tell us any of the options for the first course, we ordered the tagliatelle con ragù (if you are not familiar, tagliatelle are long, flat noodles and the ragù is a meat sauce which outside of Bologna is referred to as Bolognese sauce). We had to try it to see if it lived up to the hype. Apparently, its reputation proceeds it because when we walked in each of the five people at the table next to us had a plate of tagliatelle in front of them. We also ordered the tortelloni di zucca (pumpkin) with a butter and sage sauce (always one of my favorites). And of course a bottle of red wine - a Barbera d'Alba (also a favorite of mine).  




The waiter was very nice and split the two pastas for us (tagliatelle is on the left and the tortelloni di zucca is on the right).





The tortelloni were delicate and refined. The texture of the pumpkin filling was silky as was the butter coating each piece of pasta. The sweetness of the filling contrasted perfectly with the saltiness of the parmiggiano.

The tagliatelle were perfectly cooked with a bit of a bite remaining. The slight variation in the width of the noodles revealed that they were most likely made by hand by the ladies in the kitchen (fatta a mano). The flavor of the ragù was full and round and it coated the noodles nicely without being oily.    

For the second course, Andrea ordered the roasted chicken and I ordered the stinco di maiale (which is the lower part of the pig's leg).




My stinco was so huge it absolutely dwarfed Andrea's chicken.



Andrea's chicken was good but not anything incredible. My stinco, however, was excellent. It had been braised in Barbera wine and as soon as I plunged my fork into it the meat fell off the bone. The meat was tender and juicy and full of flavor. The Bolognese know how to do pork!




I was very satisfied with my caveman portion of meat.

 


A little pause was definitely needed between the second course and dessert.



For dessert we ordered creme caramel and mascarpone with chocolate sauce, crumbles of almond cookie and Amaretto. 

The creme caramel was okay but could not hold a candle to the mascarpone (which actually had a candle in it when it arrived to the table due to Andrea's request). The mascarpone was amazing - perfectly smooth with little bursts of crunch due to the pieces of cookie. The chocolate sauce was rich and a little bitter providing a nice contrast to the buttery, rich flavor of the mascarpone. And then I found the pool of Amaretto, which I guess I had missed the waiter mentioning in the description of the dessert because it came as a very happy surprise to me, at the bottom of the cup and I had to refrain myself from loudly exclaiming "OH YUM"!

We were very happy with our dinner and we would gladly return again to celebrate another special occasion.

Sweet Sunday

There is so much amazing produce at the farmer's market right now! Out of everything available strawberries and asparagus are definitely tied for the number one spot of most purchased.

This weekend I decided to make jam out of some of the strawberries


The jam is super easy to make and so much more delicious than anything you could find at the store. I roughly followed the recipe here (I highly reccomend checking out The Kitchen Sink blog, where I found this recipe, - it has become my go to for new recipes).

But in the end I could not stop at jam...I needed a vehicle, a vessel for the jam so I made this

Strawberry tart!

I did not have enough dough or pastery skills to make a lattice top hence the cookie cutter heart topping. The flavor was really nice - a perfect balance of sweet and hint of tartness that kept it light.

I am looking forward to making many more of these tarts as the various summer fruits come into season and I am sure Andrea will not mind as this tart is nearly gone after only two days.

A rose by any other name...

What does peperoni (and in this case olive) pizza look like in Italy?

That's right, here peperoni does not equal spicey, sliced meat but are bell peppers! I always feel funny saying the word (usually when ordering a pizza or shopping at the fruit and vegetable market) because it always makes me think of my favorite meaty topping from childhood but I know what I will receive (on my pizza or from the fruit and vegetable guy) is a vegetable.

Yums

Andrea and I have recently started going to the Farmer's Market here in Bologna on Saturday mornings. All of the fresh, beautiful, local produce has inspired me to spend extra time in the kitchen and to try out new recipes. Here are a couple of the recipes I tried this weekend:

Soup is one of my absolute favorite things about winter time! This Split Pea is extremely easy to make and your whole house will smell delicious. The end result is hearty and flavorful and in my opinion is best paired with some crusty bread and red wine. You can find the recipe here (and while you over at The Kitchen Sink blog checking out this recipe - I recommend browsing the rest of Kristin's site. She has some amazing, super yummy recipes!).

These little gems are hazelnut shortbread cookies sandwiched together with dark chocolate and finished with a sprinkle of roasted hazelnuts. They are buttery and crunchy with a rich chocolate presense and hints of hazelnutty goodness. You can find the recipe here.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in February? I know it is a strange time to retell about my Thanksgiving adventures but it was such a great event I could not leave it outjust because I am a bit (ok, almost 3 months) tardy in posting about it. So without any further ado...

For Thanksgiving this year my friend, David, and I planned a dinner for 60 people!

The preparations started a month in advance and thankfully in that time we recruited about 10 people to help with the cooking - there were four people making pies, two on stuffing, one on vegetables and another on bread. We actually eneded up having so much help that I didn't have to cook anything. I was excited about that because cooking for others (especially 60 others) tends to make me a little (or a lot) anxious. I was happy to be the behind the scenes planner and also, later, the menu maker. So here is how the days and hours leading up to the dinner went:

Thursday November 25th (actual Thanksgiving day): It is strange to be outside of the US on Thanksgiving. It is just a normal day! No family gathering together or the smell of a bird roasting - just the usual, wake up, go to work, come home. This year it all threw me into a bit of an existential crisis of questioning what is real. Very dramatic, I know. I made it through work and then I headed home to start making the menus. For those of you that know me well, you know that I often take on really huge tasks with no ability to foresee how much work will be required - this is exactly what happened with the menus. David and I had the idea to make Turkey hands, like you did in kindergarten, and have them serve as the menu. I took this a step further - I traced my hand 60 times on brown construction paper and then Andrea and I proceed to cut them all out. Then I drew and cut out around 180 "feathers" out of red and orange construciton paper. I then glued these onto the turkeys along with yellow construction paper beaks. I also drew an eye on both sides of the turkeys. Then I typed up the menu and a description of what Thanksgiving meant to us. I printed these and then cut them out and glued them onto the turkeys. I was up until 2 am at which time I was forced to go to bed because I had run out of brown construction paper. The turkey menu making would have to continue the next day.

Friday November 26th: Work. After work I met David and some other helpers at the venue for the dinner (a sort of community center with a large room which served as our dining room and a huge industrial kitchen). David made a marinade for the birds out of 2 kilos (almost 5 pounds) of butter and paprika while Monica, a friend of ours, and I, a former vegetarian, pulled all of the leftover feathers out of the birds. Is it normal for whole birds to have feathers left in them? Then David proceeded to inject each of the birds with the marinade using a mad scientist looking syringe that he had specially ordered online.

With the birds all loaded up with butter and tucked into the refrigerators for the night we left and went for pizzas. Then I returned home to finish the turkey menus. I crawled into bed after 2 am with 60 completed menus and bruises on my hands from too much scissor use.

Saturday November 27th: Our Thanksgiving Day! Looking back now the day was oddly multicultural and very wirlwind. Andrea and I went by the kitchen around 11 am to drop off the menus and the cranberry sauce. We found David along with some other helpers already hard at work. Then Andrea and I had to go to Modena to take some of his clients to a rugby game. It was sunny and surprisingly warm at the game.

The game was enjoyable although often totally incomprehensible. Gosh, I thought I knew a little bit about rugby but it is a complicated game. Here in Itlay though I have learned that if you just scream the word "dai" (prounced amusingly enough as die) you will look like you know what is going on. The word in this context means, more or less, come on. It does not matter what is happening in the game, good or bad, people will be screaming "dai"! Italy defeated Fiji much to my surprise - not to be unpatriotic but the Fijians had a lot of size and weight on the Italians.

Then Andrea and I were off back to Bologna. We arrived at the hall around 6 and began preparing the dining room. Trying to arrange the tables to fit 60 people was like one of those bad jokes: how many Italians does it take... After much discussion and people speaking over one and another we arranged the tables and got them set just in time for the first guests to start arriving.

Frank and Pasquale manned the door and acted as our cashiers.

The funny thing about the Turkey menus is how culture specific they are. When the Americans saw them they all exclaimed, "Turkey hands! Like we made in Kindergarten!". The Italians on the other hand all said, "What are those?".

All of our guests came and mingled and found their seats.

David pulled the turkeys from the oven and began the butchering.

We prepared the buffet.

Then we began the celebration!

Everything tasted amazing! People came back for seconds and even thirds. Then we had the dessert buffet complete with pumpkin and apple pie, homemade whipped cream and brownies.

Then we all went dancing.

Seasonal Pictures - Fall & La Sagra del Tartufo

Andrea and I spent the last two Sundays in the picturesque village of Savigno at their annual Sagra del Tartufo. Sagre are festivals that are typically held in small villages to celebrate a local product including those that are planted and harvested (squash and pumpkins for example), collected or foraged (like the tartufo) or prepared and cooked (like tortellini). Spending a Saturday or Sunday exploring a village and enjoying the goods at their Sagra has become one of my all time favorite things to do here in Italy and this (late fall and early winter) is the peak season for Sagre!

This is the second year in a row that we have gone to Savigno for the Sagra del Tartufo and it has become something for which I anxiously await. The great access to truffles here still absolutely astounds me. In the states truffles are such an exclusive product that they are reserved for only a very few. Here they are everywhere and so much more afforable in comparision! Truffles are offered in restaurants on everything from steaks, to pasta and even on pizza! The varieties of different truffle products is also outstanding! First, there are the whole truffles for sale

The truffles on the right are the black truffles which can be cooked and have a more subtle, less intese flavor. The truffles on the left are the prized white truffle which have a strong, intense flavor and smell. These truffles cannot be cooked but will be shaved on top of the already prepared food.

Now when I said affordable I meant in comparision to the states. As you can see, the truffles are a very desired and respected product and the larger ones demand quite a big price tag. I always find it interesting to watch the truffle sellers carefully weighing, measuring and examing their truffles much the same way a jeweler might exam a diamond. There is a true sense of respect and reverence towards the truffles.

Now if you are not in the market for a truffle in the raw, as I found out that I am not after Andrea bought me one last year and I was too intimidated to use it so it went bad in our cupboard, there are many other wonderful truffle products to buy...

Truffle sausage
(That is one long sausage and the woman selling it simply cuts off how much you want!)

Truffle Cheese
(which are actually the small rounds to the right - the huge round of cheese was just too impressive not to get a picture of. Also check out the huge piece of Coppa di Testa in the back. It is delicious but I am a little afraid to know what it is made of as the whole time I was eating it yesterday the boys err, I mean gentlemen I was with were teasing me about what I was eating. I told them better to just enjoy and remain in ignorant bliss.)
Truffle Eggs
(I find these to be truly amazing! The people that make these put the eggs and truffles into a big air tight, glass container and then seal it up. The truffles are so pungent that their smell/taste permeates the shell of the egg so that when the eggs are cooked they taste of truffles! I have yet to try a truffle egg but I am very curious.)

Then there are also many, many non-truffle delicacies to purchase as well...

More cheese (I think this Gorgonzola looks to die for) and more Coppa di Testa

Beautiful Tigelle
(think flat biscuit that are fantastic when they are hot and fresh with some sliced meat and cheese)
Exqusite fresh pasta

And candy pink Pesca
(These are a soft, cake like, cookies. The two halves are baked seperately and then soaked in liquor before being sandwhiched together with chocolate and then rolled in sugar - devine!)

This is my favorite part of Italy. I feel so grateful that there are small towns with real pride in what they make, forage and grow. It is in these towns that I feel a real, genuine sense of history, time, tradition and culture. None of this is done as a show or for tourists from faraway places. It is so very nice to be absorbed into the country and to intimately come to know the people and places that I feel make up the true Italy.

Seasonal Pictures - Fall

fall and especially November will forever and always make me think of Tartufi (Truffles)

Chocolate is back!

Yummy hazelnut chocolates at one of our favorite bars

One afternoon this last August, after finishing lunch with Andrea, I felt like a bite or two of chocolate would be the perfect way to end my lunch hour before heading back to the office. Andrea and I headed into the nearest bar and he asked the bar men if they had any chocolate. This seemingly innocent question was first met with confusion, then a look to me at which point they quickly realized I was (a crazy) American, then looks of clarity came over their faces as all the pieces fell into place. They began to crack up and explain that of course they did not have any chocolate because it was the height of summer. "Well yes", I thought, "I know it is summertime but I did not realize that summer and chocolates are mutually exclusive". We went to three other bars and tabaccherie and were met with similar reactions. That day, in August, I learned that when the weather gets warm the chocolates go away because how would they ever keep chocolates with the heat of summer.

As we are enjoying the very last days of summer here in Bologna and the temperatures have plummeted from the high 30s down to the low 20s, I have been slowly watching chocolates pop up around town. A small sign of the changing seasons.

Saturday in Toscana

This Saturday we travelled to Toscana...

First stop was at the Barbarino Outlet mall just north of Florence. They have great deals on designer products. This trip I focussed exclusively on Dolce and Gabana and I picked up a new, gorgeous, cranberry colored wallet (my friends could attest to how badly I needed a new wallet - the old one was literally in pieces) and a pair of black, skinny dress pants which I hope will take my day to day dress up a notch from the typical jeans.

Next we headed to San Gimignano, one of my favorite villages in Tuscany, for lunch.

The main porta (door) heading into the walled city of San Gimignano
The main piazza

Cinghiale (wild boar) they are ugly but oh so delicious and quite the regional speciality

We had a wonderful lunch at Locanda Di Sant'Agostino a restaurant we went to over a year ago and have longed to go back to ever since. We enjoyed cinghiale in umido con olive which is wild boar cooked slowly in sauce so that once it arrives to the table the meat is falling apart. Thank goodness they served us this dish with plenty of bread to soak up the delicious sauce otherwise we might have just licked our plates. We finished the meal with the house made tiramisu which was somehow creamy and robust without being heavy.

After lunch we set out to find a restaurant we went to last winter where we had the very unique treat of salvia (sage) gelato. The flavor resembles mint but is more delicate and extremely refreshing. We wandered the streets and eventually found the restaurant, Ristorante Peruca. When we went in we found the restaurant closed and the family who owns and runs it sitting together having lunch. We explained to them that we came back especially for their salvia gelato and they graciously offered to serve me some and in the end they refused to let us pay - amazing hospitality!

Sitting out front of the restaurant enjoying the salvia gelato. It was just as good as I remembered it.

The beautiful Tuscan countryside

Then we were off to Panzano in Chianti for the Vino al Vino festival. It is the beginning of the wine harvest so many towns host festivals to highlight the wines of the region and give people a chance to taste them.

The vines are all heavy with dark purple grapes!
The hillside town of Panzano in Chianti

The festival was held in the town's main piazza with twenty different winemakers pouring a range of their wines. For the amazingly low price of 12 euros we each bought a glass (along with the accompanying neck bag/wine glass holder you can see me modeling in the above photo) that enabled us unlimited tastings! Obviously the majority of the wine being poured was Chianti but it was also interesting to taste the Rose and Rosato coming out of the region.

I was also particularly excited to travel to Panzano in Chianti becuase this summer I read Bill Bufford's book Heat which in part details his experience working as in intern under Dario Cecchini, the world's most famous butcher. Bufford tells great stories of this passionate man who would spontanesouly began to quote Dante at length; needless to say I was ecstatic to see the Butcher shop and meet Dario.

in front of the butcher shop

Inside there was Dario behind the display case, a tall man with strong features but an ever present smile (something that surprised me because in the book he came off as a somewhat daunting character), clearly commanding the room. In the shop, they were also serving lardo on bread. I hesitantly picked up a piece and thought what better place to try this delicacy. I took a small bite, not expecting to like it, and was instantly surprised and very, very delighted. There was an amazing contrast of crunchy, crusty bread and the smooth, silkiness of the lard as well as a healthy kick of garlic. We went back for seconds and then thirds before my heart began to hurt. While we were at the shop we found out that Dario has two restaurants in town and we quickly made reservations at Solociccia for dinner.

We arrived at the restaurant and were guided down two flights of stairs to a small room with stone walls and a large table for twelve people that took up almost the whole room. I didn't realize it was going to be a communal dining experience but I am so glad it was! Everyone came to have a good time and we enjoyed drinking copious amounts of red wine together, sharing stories and laughing. The seven course dinner was all served family style (which I love) and featured beef (what else could it feature at a butcher's restaurant). Now I would never say that I am a fan of meat in general and especially beef but this was fantastic. I actually haven't been able to stop thinking about the food since. Both Andrea and I loved what they called the "sushi of Chianti" which was a raw meatball which had been quickly seared on the outside and served with white beans. I never thought I would like raw beef, in the past just looking at the words tartare on a menu made my stomach flip, but this had a fresh, light flavor that was totally different than what I had imagined. The other big standout dish was beef cooked in vinegar. The beef was very tender having been slow cooked and seemed to just melt in our mouths. The full rich taste of the beef was balanced out at the end of each bite with the slight acidic tang of vinegar coming through.

Me and Andrea at dinner

We finished the evening my gathering in the street between the butcher shop and the restaurant (they sit directly across the street from each other) where Dario and his staff were carrying towers of shot glasses and serving after dinner liqueors to everyone. They were beyond happy to pour us as many drinks as each of us wanted.

Dario and all the ladies from our table

As we stood outside it began to rain and we could hear the low rumble of thunder in the distance and see brief flashes of lightening above us. No one ran for cover. This party was too good. The good time that all of us, so recently strangers to each other, were sharing was stronger than any rainstorm. So we got wet and we loved it.