We are now (Jun 1999) in the US, in part to take care of family business and in part to give son Riccardo an opportunity to play with American children and thus soak up some English. He's much taken by American sports, especially baseball, which is quite a change of pace from the Italian national game, soccer. Watching the games on TV with him, I am again struck by how different sports are in the US and Italy. In the US going to a game is a family event, with fans mingling in the stands. In Italy, by contrast, the stadiums where the top teams (A and B League) play are fortified, with Plexiglas barriers to separate the fans of the opposing teams, high fences to keep the fans from invading the field, and lots of police in full riot gear. They're not there for show either; the streets around stadiums become battle zones when the major rivals come to town. Nor is the violence limited to the area around the stadium: Salerno's team organized a special fan train for the crucial last game of the season, which they lost, thus dropping to B-League. The fans trashed all the stations where the train stopped on the way home. Since they knew the police would be at Salerno's station to greet them, they decided to create a diversion and set fire to the train in a tunnel a mile from the station. Four teenage fans died. This sort of thing doesn't happen every week, but it shouldn't happen at all.

And what does it mean if you're traveling in Italy during the soccer season (Sep-Jun)? Simply that you should ask who the local team will be playing on Sunday, and what sort of fans to expect if it's a home game. If it's the archrival avoid the area near the stadium (usually not a problem, because stadiums are generally on the outskirts of town) and the main train station. If there's no animosity between the teams, on the other hand, consider buying tickets if you like soccer, especially if you're in a city with an A-league team (e.g. Florence or Rome). The Italian playing style is extremely technical and the players are the best in the world -- it's like watching the NBA if you like basketball.

Returning to things more food related, the Italian Government recently reduced the Value Added Tax on a number of aromatic herbs including basil, rosemary and sage, but not parsley, from 20% to 4%. The press release said that Italians spend an average of 8.5 billion lire per year (about 5 million dollars) on basil, so consumers will enjoy some savings, assuming they don't just buy more basil instead -- I would, because few herbs are more refreshing in summer. The same press release says that the Regione Liguria is also trying to register the recipe for pesto sauce to prevent European food producers from taking excessive liberties with it. This might strike one as overkill, but it's not -- though most Italians will be familiar enough with authentic pesto sauce to be able to tell if a commercial product is authentic or not, people living in other parts of Europe may not. With the registration of the recipe Liguria should be able to keep the most blatant alterations from being marketed as the real thing, much the way the city of Livorno was able to force a commercial producer to relable its unauthentic Cacciucco alla Livornese as a much more prosaic "fish stew".

Next, a few recipe requests. Lynn wrote asking for "Mostachoulli, which are sold in bakeries during Christmas. They're glazed with chocolate and inside is a soft, chewy mixture of chocolate, figs, cinnamon, nuts and orange." I've never encountered these, but did find another mostaccioli recipe on the Chianti Classico website, for traditional cookies made with grape must during the fall. Here it is translated, since they don't have it up in English yet:

"Mostaccioli are small pastries that were once made in the Valdarno, Val di Chiana and Chianti areas during the grape harvest. Modern recipes are likely much more elaborate, but we prefer to present the mostaccioli we remember, in other words the very simple sweets from many years ago, when almost all the farms, villas and hamlets had a beehive oven they'd fire up once a week to bake bread. As the name suggests, the primary ingredient of these cookies is grape must (mosto in Italian), the liquid pressed from the grapes that hasn't gone into the tanks, and thus has not been fermented into wine. Warm some must and work it into a hunk of dough left over from baking bread, adding just a bit of sugar and some anise seed to the dough as you knead. Pluck bits from the dough and flatten them out into focaccie of the shape you most prefer, and dot them with pine nuts or walnut nutmeats, or even wine grapes. Place the mostaccioli in the oven once the bread has baked, and expect them to puff up somewhat, since they are made from leavened dough. Some also use honey as a sweetener."

The recipe doesn't give proportions, which means you are free to experiment. Unless you have access to grape must, you'll have to use honey to sweeten the dough (check a good baking book for a Tuscan-style dough, most of which contain no salt). Though not as sweet as honey, grape must is much sweeter than grape juice, so you won't have to use too much. Assuming a pound of dough, I think I'd try between a quarter and a half cup of must (60-125 ml, or half that in honey) and then taste the dough to see if it's sweet enough (you don't want something as sweet as a cookie dough). Anise seed is also quite powerful, so go easy on it too -- a teaspoon or so in your first batch. With regards to baking, use the temperature suggested in the bread recipe and keep a close eye on the mostaccioli -- they should be done in 10-15 minutes.

A printer-friendly version of this recipe.

Bennett recently asked how to cook fagioli al fiasco and what to do with fresh fava beans. So far as I know, Fagioli al fiasco aren't that different from normal cannellini beans cooked in bianco -- that is, boiled. The major difference is that they are put into a flask, which is settled into the embers of the fire and allowed to cook very slowly. Much like North American bean pots in some ways.

If you're using freshly shelled beans, fine. If they're dry on the other hand, soak them overnight and then slip them into a flak that's been peeled of its straw wrapper, together with a healthy squirt of olive oil, a couple of crushed cloves of garlic, and several leaves of sage. Then add several tablespoons of water -- you want enough so the beans will not dry out as they cook but not too much.

The flask was traditionally slipped into the oven after the bread was baked and let sit, resting on a pile of ashes, cooking very slowly for 3 hours or more (the ovens were wood fired, so once the bread was baked they were allowed to cool as fuel was expensive). In a modern day setting fill your flask and bake it in the oven as you would a bean pot, at a very low temperature -- about 200 to 220 F -- for a number of hours.

When the beans are done let them cool and serve them with a drizzling of fresh olive oil and salt & pepper to taste.

As for what to do with Fresh fava beans, there are certainly more elegant solutions, but few are as satisfying (to me) as the Tuscan custom of fresh fava beans with pecorino toscano. You bring a bowl of bean pods to the table, and a round of cheese; people cut wedges of the cheese and shell beans, alternating morsels of cheese with beans. This works well as an antipasto, or also a dessert in late spring/early summer. One warning: The beans shouldn't be overly large -- at the most 3/4 of an inch (1.5 cm).

A printer-friendly version of this recipe.

And Terry asked for a recipe for ricciarelli, classic Sienese almond paste cookies that were once a Christmas delight but are now made year-round: There are lots of recipes, as you may have guessed. Here's one from Giovanni Righi Parenti's Dolci Di Siena e Della Toscana, which he tones down from an industrial 30 k to about 2. It calls for a scale but the results will be worth it (28 g = 1 ounce, 1 k = 2.2 pounds)

A)

900 g sugar

1.2 k peeled blanched almonds

60 g candied sweet (as opposed to bitter) orange peel

20 g bitter almonds (substitute peach pit nutmeats or omit if you cannot find)

100 g flour

B)

150 g sugar

1/2 cup water

C)

60 g powdered sugar

60 g flour

D)

60 g powdered sugar laced with vanilla

2 egg whites

wafers

Begin by grinding the almonds and the other ingredients of A so as to obtain a smooth uniform paste; this is easier if you have access to a professional quality grinder.

Dissolve the sugar of B in the water and heat over a brisk flame to obtain a thick syrup. When a drop of the syrup pressed between the fingers which are then separated forms threads mix it into the almond cream, together with the powdered sugar and flour of C.

Let this dough rest covered with a damp cloth for 8 hours. Whip the whites to soft peaks with the vanilla laced sugar (D) and incorporate this mixture into the dough.

Dust your work surface with a mixture of powdered sugar and rice starch (or corn starch) and roll the dough out so it's about a half inch thick. Cut the dough into diamond-shaped cookies an inch across and two long (the Sienese cut the loaf into strips, roll them into snakes and press pieces of the snakes into appropriately shaped molds).

Once the ricciarelli are cut out they should be places on thin wafers on a baking sheet, dusted with powdered sugar, and baked for about 15 minutes (or somewhat less) in a 320 (160 C) oven. You don't want them to brown.

Mr. Parenti notes that people now add a little baking powder to the dough to make it rise slightly. I'd add it when I folded in the sugar and white mix just before rolling out the dough, and begin by adding a teaspoon of baking powder the first time I made the cookies.

A printer-friendly version of this recipe.

Winding down, a couple of announcements.

Frank recently wrote asking about restaurants in the town of Montecatini, a town with beautiful turn-of-the-century Liberty Style spas (the Italian equivalent of Art Deco) and a vibrant night life with clubs and ponies. Though I've driven by any number of times (it's on the way to the beach from Florence) I've never eaten there, in part because it's not the sort of place suited for a 5 year old son.

Gambero Rosso's restaurant guide mentions 3 places:

• Cucina da Giovanni & Enoteca Giovanni, Via Garibaldi 25, Tel. 0572 71695
• Gourmet, Via Amendola 6, Tel. 0572 771 012

Cost in the 65-85,000 range, plus wines.

Espresso's restaurant guide also mentions Gourmet, as well as

• Grand Hotel & Palace Via della Torretta 1, Tel. 0572 75801
• Grand Hotel Tamerici & Principe Via 4 Novembre 2, Tel. 0572 71041
• La Torre, in Montecatini Alto, Piazza San Giusti 8, Tel. 0572 70650.

The last one is a family-run trattoria, and they say it's inexpensive.

Moving to Rome, a while back John Martin recommended the Ristorante Asincotto in Rome (Via dei Vascellari, 48, 00153 Roma, Tel/Fax +39 06 589 8985). Owner Chef Giuliano is adding a wine bar, and has also carved out the space for a pastry kitchen, where he will be able to pick up where he left off when he left his post as pastry chef at the Terrazza del Eden. The opening date is June 23.

Sorry that this has gone on at such length, but it's been too long since the last issue.

A printer-friendly version of this recipe.

Thanks for visiting, and have a wonderful day!
Kyle Phillips

Back to the Cosa Bolle Index.
If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter (it's free), visit this page
Back to the General Recipe Index