Highway Robbery and Other Crimes.

Last week the mayor of Venice came up with a new way to help pay for keeping his city clean and provide essential services: "Let's charge visitors admission!" Not much, just a thousand lire per person, he says, something the "average tourist won't even notice." After all, they're all swimming in cash. Otherwise they wouldn't be traveling. Within the space of a week Lipari chimed in with a similar proposal, and now the Mayor of Florence thinks it's a great idea too. Only rather than do it directly, he wants the city's museums to slip a surcharge into the admission prices, because this way he'll get the day-trippers too. You scrimp and save to come over here and get saddled with what's essentially a garbage tax, or several if you visit several city-run museums. And then get hit by more of the same when you move on to Venice.

This stinks. While one could make a case for charging an admission to Lipari, since it's a small island and has to clean up after several million visitors every year, Florence (and Venice) are already among the most expensive places to visit in the peninsula. Restaurants are expensive, coffee's expensive, museum (and church) admissions are expensive, and even going to the bathroom is expensive in Venice, where it costs visitors a thousand lire per shot to use the public facilities (according to today's lunchtime TV news, which also said that residents pay considerably less, and get discounts on museum admissions and other things). While it's true that tourists add wear and tear to a city's infrastructures, they're also a tremendous bonus for local coffers -- they do after all come and spend money. I sincerely doubt Florence's Via Tornabuoni would have all the major fashion designers and jewelers (Valentino, Armani, Prada, Tiffany's, Versace, Gucci, etc.) if the city didn't get several million visitors per year, and I expect half the elegant cafes would close if tourists went elsewhere; the same is likely true for Venice. Certainly some of the taxes already being collected from the cities' primarily tourism-driven economies can be funneled back into cleaning up after visitors and providing them with services.

This is all the more vexing since the mayors could easily solve the litter problem by telling the municipal police to enforce the laws already on the books. There will be howls over the fines to begin with, especially from the locals, but the cities will become very clean very fast. Much cleaner than they will if the tourists are dunned. And those of us who live here won't have to worry about the trickle-down effect -- I don't want to have to pay admission the next time I stop in some backwoods hamlet.

Getting into Florence's Corridoio Vasariano

All is not grim for travelers, however. I just got a note from Weekend a Firenze, http://www.waf.it, informing me that they have reactivated their on-line sales of tickets for the Corridoio Vasariano, the passageway built to allow the Medici dukes to go rapidly and unobtrusively from Palazzo Pitti (their residence) to the Palazzo Vecchio (the seat of Government) via the Ponte Vecchio and the Ufizzi. It's a fascinating and unusual bit of Florence, and also has one of the most important collections of artists' self portraits in the world. Weekend a Firenze also handles ticket sales for other museums, and the box office sales for musical and sporting events of all kinds. Definitely a site to check before you come.
More about the Corridoio Vasaraino, from See Tuscany (my travel site).

Spaghetti allo Scoglio

Moving on to other things, a while back Ingrid wrote, "Hi, Do you have recipe for a main dish served at Carrabba's Italian Grill restaurant, the one that comes with all kinds of seafood including shrimps, scallops, and mussels and spicy sauce over the linguine pasta?"

Haven't been to Carrabba's, but this sounds like spaghetti allo scoglio, reef spaghetti, which is made with all sorts of crustaceans and shellfish. Exactly what goes into it depends upon what's available at the fishmonger's, but here's a suggestion, drawn from La Pasta, a compendium assembled by the Editors of La Cucina Italiana. To serve 4 you'll need:

• 1 1/4 pounds (500 g) fresh live clams
• 1 1/4 pounds (500 g) fresh mussels
• 12 ounces (300 g) shelled shrimp tails (you can also use other crustaceans, or a mixture of crustaceans)
• 2-3 ripe plum tomatoes
• A bunch parsley
• Basil
• 1 clove garlic
• Olive Oil
• A shredded hot pepper (optional)
• Salt & pepper
• 3/4 pound (350 g) spaghetti

Scrub the shells of the clams and mussels. Shell the shrimp tails. Salt a pot of water for the spaghetti and set it to boil. In the meantime, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a broad skillet, with a crushed clove of garlic. When the garlic has browned, remove it and discard it, then add the clams and mussels. Cover and cook over a brisk flame, shaking the pan every now and then, until the shellfish have opened. Turn off the flame and let them cool slightly, then remove and discard the shells of some of them (but not all -- NOTE: do not try to open any that failed to open when heated. Discard them; they were already dead and eating them could make you quite sick.). While doing this make sure the clam broth remains in the skillet. Next, finely mince a second clove of garlic and sauté it in 3 tablespoons of oil, in a broad skillet. When it has turned light gold, slice the tomatoes directly into the pan. Shred six basil leaves into the pan too, a touch of salt, the hot pepper if you're using it, and simmer the sauce for ten minutes. In the meantime strain the clam juices through a fine cloth. Once ten minutes is up, stir in all the shellfish and a half cup of the strained clam juice, and simmer for five minutes more.

While the sauce is simmering, add the remaining clam juice to the pasta water, which should be boiling by now, and cook the spaghetti. Transfer the cooked spaghetti to a bowl, dribble a couple of tablespoons of oil over them, add a turn of freshly ground pepper, about 20 parsley leaves (either whole or shredded) and toss. Stir in the sauce and serve at once, with a crisp white wine.

A printer-friendly version of this recipe.

Spaghetti alla Carrettiera

I've also gotten a request for spaghetti alla carrettiera, cart-driver's spaghetti. You might expect that something aimed at people who spend the day out in the elements would be hearty, and it is. It's also quite common in restaurants, and I was surprised at how many cookbooks I had to leaf through to find a recipe. To be honest, what I found is quite different from what I recall, which is a simple quick-cooked tomato sauce with a healthy jolt of garlic and hot pepper (slice a couple of cloves of garlic and sauté them with a shredded red pepper, and when they have begun to brown slice several ripe plum tomatoes into the pot. By this time the pasta water should be boiling; cook the pasta, check the seasoning of the sauce, and sauce the pasta. Grated cheese on the side).

La Mia Cucina's recipe is much richer, with a funny combination of pancetta, porcini mushrooms, and tuna. To serve 4:

• 3/4 pound (350 g) spaghetti
• 2 ounces (50 g) pancetta, diced
• 2 ounces (50 g) canned tuna (I'd be tempted to omit this and increase the pancetta to 3 or 4 ounces)
• 1/2 pound (200 g) fresh porcini or similar wild mushrooms, or 1/2 ounce (10 g) dried porcini
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon meat extract (this comes in cans and is similar to bullion)
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano, at the table
• Salt & pepper

If you're using fresh mushrooms, scrub away the dirt with a dampened cloth, and slice them. If you're using dried mushrooms steep them in warm water for 10 minutes, then mince them.

Set lightly salted pasta water to boil.

Peel the garlic clove. Shred the tuna, if you're using it.

Slowly sauté the pancetta and the garlic in a skillet with the olive oil, until the fat has become translucent. Add the mushrooms salt & pepper to taste, and the meat extract. Continue simmering for 10 more minutes (if you're using dried mushrooms you may want to add a little water at this point). Then remove and discard the garlic, stir in the tuna if you're using it, cover, and turn off the flame.

While during the simmering you will have added the pasta to the water. As soon as it's al dente, drain it and season it with the sauce. Serve at once, with a light red wine, a tossed salad, and the grated cheese for those who want it. Traditionally Italians do not season fish with cheese, but some may want to. And they will certainly want the cheese if you omit the tuna.

Why the disparity between recollection and printed recipe? As Artusi said a century ago, Italy is a linguistic Babel, where the names of dishes change from place to place, and where the same name can be applied to different dishes in different places. This adds a sometimes disconcerting element of uncertainty to eating away from home.

A printer-friendly version of this recipe.

A presto!
Kyle Phillips

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