So our three months in Italy has come to end much too soon. We have felt the temperatures drop as late summer became autumn and now autumn is turning to winter. The summer clothes have been safely stowed away until once again we are imagining ourselves frolicking on the beaches and strolling through town in flip flops. We have replaced those days with sweaters and boots and hats and scarfs. We are learning how to dry clothes without a dryer when they no longer dry on the line. Now we hang them on the wall heaters and heated towel racks and hope for the best.
As the leaves turn color on the trees and temperatures drop we discover a new Italy, a resilient one. We discover the joys of chestnuts roasting while sipping Novello wine (the new harvest wine only available right after harvest). As daylight wanes and night comes early we start to enjoy cooking and having friends over for a hearty meal. I have become more comfortable in my own shoes and mix a little old with a little new in the Italian kitchen.
One day we had a BBQ outdoors at a park. It was a beautiful setting with picnic tables under trees with an outdoor forno (wood fire cooking stove). Davides parents were there along with Giulia’s parents and sister. They had cooked up a beautiful assortment of rosemary chicken and potatoes cooked in the forno as well as vegetables. Everything tastes better when cooked in a forno. We had been told to bring just what we needed to eat so I had decided to bring a few burgers to grill (how American of me!) but my earlier cooking experience taught me to do what I know and ….this is what I know of outdoor BBQs.
While we were busy grilling Davide had toasted up some Bruschetta (it’s Bruce-SKetta not bruSHetta) The “h”makes every letter “hard”, this is apparently very important…..but either way you say it, it’s delicious. Bruschetta can be made very simple, in this case just artisan bread toasted and drizzled with olive oil and salt. Perfection. By the time my burgers were ready everybody had already eaten the sumptuous feast of rosemary chicken, potatoes and grilled vegetables. So I dutifully made up my burgers with mayo, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions and cheese. I cut them up in bite size pieces and everyone was interested in trying them. I was surprised what a hit they were! Everyone wanted to try the “American Burger” and they all pronounced them delicious by saying “molto buono!” And making the sign of one finger in the cheek (like making a dimple in the cheek) a sign for “very delicious!”. I wasnt very sure about how delicious hamburgers are compared to rosemary chicken cooked in a wood forno but I was happy of their generous compliments nonetheless.
The afternoon BBQ was a success and we all played Italian running games, like tag, danced and sang and enjoyed each other’s company. Then the roasted chestnuts made their appearance along with a pour of Novello wine and this marked my first taste of the fall delight. It’s interesting to me that Italians don’t generally drink wine accept during a meal, not before, not after. In California as soon as your guests arrive you offer them a beverage and you sip on your wine during appetizers while you wait for the big event of dinner. In Italy you don’t eat or drink until you are sitting at the table and the meal starts with antipasta course. Wine is served at this time and finishes with the last course, That will take some getting some getting used to.
The BBQ ended with a spectacular sunset, we all raced the setting sun to our cars and scampered down to the beach like children late to a party. We watched as the sun sank into the sea while it cast its bold colors onto the sky that reflected on the perfectly placed clouds in the sky. Streaks of orange and yellow on purple clouds.
Fisherman were casting their lines into the sea hoping to catch dinner, being perfectly sillouetted against the evening sky casting their lines out and drawing them back in like a choreographed dance between them and the sea. Out in the distance we could see the mountain range of San Felice that looked like a profile of woman who had collapsed at sea distraught from the rejection of her love. The sea will make you wax poetic when the sun sets on a perfect day.
After that evening, one of our Italian friends said she did not get the opportunity to try my now famous “American Hamburger” so I promised I would make it for her. Making good on my promise I invited her and her husband over for dinner. She had also promised me that she would make me a lasagna. So she brought the “primi” to the meal ( the first pasta course) and I supplied the “secondo” (second course) in the form of hamburgers. It was an interesting clash of cultures but it fit the definition of a meat course which the secondo always is. So we had antipasta, followed by lasagna, followed by burgers, followed by chocolate chip cookies. It ws a hit, even if a bit unorthodox.
I learned that lasagna here in Italy is not at all like lasagna at home in America. In America we make it with ricotta cheese, mozzarella and ragu with loads garlic. First of all, I learned that Ragu does not have any garlic, no… in fact Ragu starts in the pan with celery, carrots and onion, has the addition of ground beef and pork as well as pancetta (bacon) and only a half of a cup of tomato sauce in the whole batch. A cup of beef broth is added and a half a cup of red wine. I can’t tell you how hard it was for me to stick with the recipe, my hand was twitching to add garlic! But I held strong.
Next, in the classic lasagna bolognese, you make a bechamel sauce of butter, flour, milk and nutmeg. You heard me right, nutmeg in lasagna… but no garlic. O yeah, and no basil or oregano or any other “Italian”spices. I did have the luxury of freshly made egg pasta from the local pasta shop (when I took a deep sniff of the eggy pasta, it swept me right back to my grandmas kitchen as a child making raviolis). So I cooked up the sheets of freshly made pasta, prepared my bechamel sauce and my garlic free Ragu. I layered the pan with a light spread of Ragu followed by layers of pasta, a generous layer of Ragu, a layer of pasta, a layer of bechamel, a layer of pasta, repeat.
Oh, by the way the other weird thing is that this Ragu has a half of a cup of milk in it! At the end you combine the last of your bechamel with the last of your Ragu and make a creamy red sauce and spread that on top with a sprinkle of grated Parmesan. Parmesan is the only cheese in the whole pan! I baked it in the oven and served it with some garlic green beans (the twitchy hands finally got to put garlic in something!) Let me tell you, it was the best lasagna either of us have ever eaten and my sister makes a pretty mean lasagna. Oh Italy!
When I went to the fresh pasta place today, my local pasta maker, Massimo, surprised me with a free gift of pasta, I guess he wanted me to branch out of my regular request of sheet of pasta. So I took the spaghetti looking noodles home and whipped up a pasta with lemon zest, garlic, butter, pecorino and topped it with parsley. I had been taught to make a simple sauce by ladling some of the starchy water left over from boiling the pasta into a dish with the shredded pecorino to make a creamy sauce. It works surprisingly well! The idea is just strange to us Americans, how can you make a sauce out of shredded pecorino and starchy water? You can… just add black pepper and you have Cacio di Pepe, a classic dish of Rome, so good in its creamy simplicity, The other mistake we Americans make when we are eating pasta is to eat bread with it. I’ve had more than one Italian gasp when we start munching on bread during the pasta course. The rule is, you can use bread to sop up the plate after pasta or eat bread with antipasta or the meat course but it’s taboo to eat it during pasta. Hmmmm, how did things go so wrong by the time three generations of Italians lived in America? Absolute anarchy had broken out! Bread with pasta….crazy.
For Other Great Travel Stories from Italy in our Archives:
A Morning Run in Nettuno (Published September 10, 2017)
A Visit to Castelli Romani (Published September 13, 2017)
Dinner for Six (Published October 1, 2017)
Italian Cooking School (Published October 8, 2017)
Culinary Tour of Napoli (Published November 17, 2017)
Changing Seasons in Italy (Published November 25, 2017)
Our Trip to Englands Cotswolds (Published January 12, 2018)
Cooking with Pasquale (Published January 28, 2018)
A Tour of the Garden of Ninfa (Published May 7, 2018)
A Trip to Montefiascone (Published May 17, 2018)
San Gimignano, a visit to a Tuscan Hill Town (Published June 9, 2018)
Tuscan Hot Springs of San Filippo & Saturnia (Published June 13, 2018)
