(Being the second issue of the Italian Cuisine Newsletter)

January 5th is an important night for Italian children: The Befana, a frightful witch, will mount her broom and fly through the sky to fill their stockings, with candy if they've been good, and with coal if they've not. Though now the kids just get their stockings on Epiphany, until quite recently they received almost all of their gifts on the 12th day of Christmas. If you think about it, the practice of giving a gift on Epiphany makes sense, since that's when the Magi arrived at the manger. And the Befana? There are a number of stories; according to my favorite, she refused the Magi hospitality, then changed her mind and tried to follow them. But they were gone, so she still seeks the Christ Child every Epiphany.

Many people celebrate her arrival with the first batch of a traditional Carnival pastry known by a variety of names, including Cenci (rags) in Florence and Frappe in Rome; Ada Boni, who borrows Pellegrino Artusi’s recipe, uses the more poetic “Lover’s Knots.” They are very pretty when carefully made, so she is probably right. To make a batch you will need:

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• 2 1/4 cups (225 grams) flour
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup (35 grams) confectioners sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon brandy
• A pinch of salt
• More confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Make a fairly stiff dough with these ingredients, kneading it thoroughly, and adding more flour if it comes out too soft. Flour it and let it rest, covered. Then roll it out into an eighth-of-an-inch-thick sheet, and use a serrated pastry wheel to cut it into strips as long as your palm and two fingers wide. Make a cut down the middle of each cencio (so as to obtain two strips joined at the ends), twist the side strips without breaking them, fry them in hot oil or lard, and dust them with confectioners sugar when they’re cool. This recipe is sufficient to make a platterful. Should the dough have formed a crust while it sat, knead it again before you roll it out.

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Moving onto other things, Italy is a wonderful place for a gastronomic excursion, and the time to begin planning one is now. If you plan to be in the country during the winter months you will be best off in the south. Sicily is quite beautiful and naturally comes to mind first. However, Puglia is also very nice – wild, and thoroughly unexplored, with spectacular Norman fortresses, collapsible stone houses (built to fool the tax inspector) called trulli, and all sorts of other marvels, including superb fish. For information on Trulli and a listing of some events, see my article.

Come spring the North will begin to warm. If you like wines, you should think about stopping at Visiting VinItaly, the annual wine trade fair held in Verona; it will be open to the general public on Sunday April 19. The city, as I discovered last year (I arrived the day before the show opened) is very pretty and well worth a journey, especially if you like Romanesque churches and Roman buildings.

Summer of course means excursions by car. Tuscany will be beautiful, as will Piemonte and Liguria. For a better idea of what to expect, here are several itineraries:

• From the Etruscans to Sodoma, a drive in Southern Tuscany.
• Rimini: Italy’s beach town, but quite pretty and perfect if you have small children (cheap too).
• The Lunigiana area: a craggy valley with forbidding castles, caves, beautiful scenery and very nice white wines.
• San Gimignano: La cittá delle belle torri, with excellent wines too.
• Chianti Rufina – a wild area just a half hour from Florence.
• Villas and Fortifications in Chianti: some of the most beautiful homes anywhere, and very fine wines too.
• Come fall there will also be festivals of one kind and another. I especially recommend Tuscany’s wine fests, in particular the one held in Mid-September in Greve, which gives the opportunity to sample most of the better Chianti Classicos (alas, they don’t feature the Super Tuscans). The dates in the feature are alas those of 1997, but the events should take place on the equivalent weekends of 1998.
• Also in the fall, the grappa distilleries will be working their wonders, and are as unique as they are beautiful; the link leads to seveal in Tuscany.
• Finally, in late fall, the truffle season begins. White truffles, and if you walk into the tent of a truffle fair you’ll suddenly understand what the fuss is about as their scent grabs you and shakes you. The most famous fair in Italy is in Alba (Piemonte), and a visit is a perfect opportunity to sample the magnificent tuber and some of the world’s finest wines. In Central Italy the major fair is at San Miniato, in Tuscany. However, Umbrians are discovering truffles, as are Laziali, and soon we will have much more opportunity to sample one of the gifts of the gods. For information on the major fairs (the dates are alas those of 1997, but the events should take place on the equivalent weekends of 1998) see On the Truffle Trail. This page will also give you a good introduction to Alba, with links to other pages devoted Castello Grinzane Cavour and Renato Ratti’s wine museum. It’s a spectacularly beautiful part of Italy.

Happy Befana!

Kyle Phillips

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