I think this collection is worth looking at for several reasons. First, it’s Oscar de la Renta without Oscar, although it isn’t the first collection without him. Second, it may be helpful in terms of making sure what we buy for summer 2008 will still be current in 2009. Third, the resort collections are always interesting because unlike the two big runway collections, resort wear is intended to be bought and worn. It’s designed to be wearable by real customers because the people who tend to need summer clothes in the dead of winter can afford the real thing.
I like these clothes. They are pretty, colorful and wearable by a wide variety of women, and not just anorexic Russian adolescents. I liked these clothes last year when Marc Jacobs presented them… or am I all wrong there? Could I have mistaken that hat?
May 17th, 2008
I come from a place where the doughnut is king. I even have my own joke about it that goes: the reason why New Englanders don’t make good fried chicken is because when we see that much hot fat we make doughnuts.
When my sisters and brothers and I came home from school in the cold afternoons, we were as likely to be greeted with fresh, hot doughnuts as other kids were greeted by peanut butter and jam sandwiches. It is supposed that policemen especially like doughnuts, and I always thought that were I to have a jewelry shop I would put it next to a doughnut shop to be sure I was protected well by the policemen.
To a great degree that day is over. Factory made doughnuts, not one of which is worth one crumb from a freshly homemade or even shop made doughnut, have all but withered away the once common practice of creative doughnutry. What does it matter that you can buy a maple glazed doughnut rolled in chopped nuts if the doughnut itself is heavy, dense, cold and tasteless? Although it should not be saved in my personal kitchen, doughnut making should be revived and saved. Perhaps the Italians who have managed to maintain a recipe for making noodles out of breadcrumbs for 550 years will taste these and decide to save doughnuts as well?
The truth is, these are really easy to make. They are too easy to make. I feel like Pandora opening this box for you. You can whip these up in minutes. They can disappear in seconds. They are delicious just as they come out of the pan or rolled in sugar and you really only need to learn about glazes and various things they can be rolled in if you open a shop near the Piazza di Spagna, where I will be your occasional client for one plain and one sugared.
It probably leaps to your mind that we do not have doughnut cutters in Italy, and that is true. That’s why mine are doughnut sticks. If you have a sharp biscuit cutter, you could use that and then something tiny to remove the center, or you can order a doughnut cutter and let the dogana figure it out, but ALWAYS claim that it is a cultural object. It’s true; doughnuts are definitely a cultural object. Do not try to wrestle these into a circle like a bagel; this dough is way too delicate. Or go ahead and try anything, and if it works please tell me.
This recipe, which is half a recipe, works. It is from a 1960 edition of Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and is a recipe from New England. To make a lot of them, double it—if you run a B&B or have six children or are married to a policeman?
Doughnuts
2 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon seed oil
3/8 cup milk
1 ¾ cup sifted flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
Oil for frying
Beat the egg yolks well, and then beat in the sugar and oil. Stir in the milk. Sift together the dry ingredients and then beat them into the liquids until smooth. Turn the dough out onto a generously floured board, turning it to lightly cover all of it in flour. It is quite sticky, so use plenty of flour. Gently roll it out to 1/3” thick. (I actually patted it out with a floury palm.)
Heat the cooking oil or fat 3 to 4” deep in a heavy kettle or a fryer. Heat it to 370-380° F (a cube of bread will brown in 60 seconds).
Cut dough with a floured cutter, which should be sharp. The dough is delicate and must not be over handled. Take the cutting board near the oil when you are ready to fry the doughnuts. Using a metal spatula, lift the shapes off the board and slide them into the oil. Don’t crowd them. Fry as many at a time as can easily be turned. Turn the doughnuts as they rise to the surface and show a little color. This allows the center to break the crust as it swells, making the outsides much crispier. Fry a few at a time for just 2 to 3 minutes, until just browned on both sides. Lift the finished doughnuts from the fat with a long fork, but do not prick them. Drain them on paper towels in a warm spot. You can then roll them in sugar, cinnamon and sugar or glaze them. Makes 12 doughnuts.
You can re-use frying fat several times by merely frying potatoes in it, then cooling, straining and storing it in a clean bottle. Whether you eat the potatoes is up to you. The flavors of what you’ve been cooking go into them, and therefore leave the fat ready to use for a different recipe.
In italiano
Questo dolce è comune a prima colazione, ma anche è fatto della mamma per la merenda dopo scuola. Ho tanti ricordi dei doughnuts tra la mia gioventù. Sono cresciuta in uno stato dove faceva un freddo polare tra l’inverno, e il doughnut è perfetto quando una bambina entra la casa, con il profumo un po’ speziato, un po’ zuccherato e c’è anche che dove sono i doughnuts, diciamo che c’è anch il poliziotto. I poliziotti vanno pazzi per i doughnuts. Come mai non fate almeno una volta un dolce che porta felicità e anche securità? Come si pronuncia questa parola? DO-naht.
Doughnuts
2 tuorli
115 g zucchero
1 cucchiaio olio di semi
100 ml latte
240 g farina 00
2 cucchiaini di té di lievita in polvere (quella chimica)
1 g sale
pizzico noce moscato
pizzico canella
Olio per friggere
In una ciottola, battete bene i tuorli, e poi aggiungete lo zucchero e battete bene, bene per sciolgiere lo zucchero. Aggiungete il latte e l’olio e mescolatela.
Mescolate gli ingredienti asciutti e aggiungetegli alla pasta, battendola bene. Disperdete generosamente qualche farina sul un piano di lavoro. Fate girare per infarinarla bene la pasta che sarà morbidissima a delicata. Distendete la pasta a un centimetro. Usando un coltello ben farinato, tagliate la pasta in bastoncini circa 2 cm larghi per 7 cm lunghi.
Riscaldate l’olio per friggere fino a 187 – 193°C. Un dado di pane sarebbe arosolato in un minuto.
Quando l’olio è caldo, alzate le strisce di pasta con una spatula al’olio bollente. Si può cucinare 3 o 4 alla volta, ma dovete lasciare lo spazio a girarle. Vanno subito al fondo, e poi vengono alla superficie, leggermente arosolate di sotto. Girare le strisce fino a tutte sono gonfiate e arosolate e dorate. Togietele a qualche carta da cucina. Continuate fino a tutti sono cotti. Si può spargere lo zucchero come mostrato, o anche un misto di zucchero e canella.
Sono buonissimi tiepidi, ma anche a temperatura ambiente. Possono essere congelati senza lo zucchero, poi riscaldati a quel punto anche zuccherati se volete.
Fa un piatto di circa 24 stecche, o colazione per 8-10 persone normali o 3 poliziotti.
May 16th, 2008
I’ve added a small script that allows me to respond to comments both here and via email all from one page. It’s pleasant and easy, so if you’ve left a real email, you don’t have to come back to get an answer– unless you want to, which would make me very happy.
May 15th, 2008
It happens every spring. I garden too hard and too long– the window of opportunity is short– and mess up my back, arms and shoulders. Typing hurts.
I will, as planned, be posting another American recipe on Friday, however.
May 13th, 2008
As someone who lived a great part of her life near the Chesapeake Bay and her blue crabs, crab cakes and most things crab are dreams in Italy, where I can find only surimi or tins from Belgium. Have you evet heard anyone go faint with praise of Belgian crab? Me neither.
Go to Mary’s blog and let’s find out how she managed this elusive culinary specialty in this country where they serve you whole crabs the size of a shilling and then grin with pride!
May 9th, 2008
I really like this Italian food blog. Ginger and Tomato is full of sensible day to day information and ideas, and the language is very simple and easy to understand. I am not sure why the title is in English, but it is.
Vai al Zenzero e Pomodoro!
May 8th, 2008
This recipe is just a lovely thing, but I have been having a hard time sitting myself down to write it. It is the meat course from the menu of April 7, 2008. I’ve cooked it four times, photographed it once and still I haven’t typed it up and published it. I’m not sure why.
My suspicions lie with the fact that although it’s easy, it’s also easy to screw up. It depends very much on good meat. The first and third times I made it I used ordinary supermarket meat and it was a fine dish if you hadn’t had it the other way. When I used local hand-reared pork from this area that I bought and had prepared at the butcher shop for euro 13 per kilo, it was fabulous. My local Coop now offers the same service at half the price, and it was good, but not nearly as good as the pampered pork
The recipe here was inspired by a recipe I found in an Italian culinary magazine. I actually made their recipe, but I found the stuffing mixture of sausage meat, two cheeses and three salamis too heavy, although it might be great in January. I wanted something springy, and something in which I could use all the fresh herbs jumping up out of the ground these days.
The stuffing looks, even to me, unnecessarily complicated in terms of ingredients, but I found out the hard way that you really do need two different kinds of breadcrumbs and two different kinds of cheese.
The amount it makes is awkward. A whole one of these double chops is too much meat for one person, especially in an Italian meal. On the other hand, I found it impossible to cook less than one per person, because it thought it looked chintzy not to have one bony piece per person, just in case. On the plus side, the leftovers are terrific either cold or gently heated. Oh, and by the way, there is a reason why these are rib chops and not loin chops. By the time these thick stuffed chops were cooked through, the tenderloin bit of the loin chop would have become sawdust. Use the cheaper rib chop.
So how come if I like this dish so well, well enough to have cooked it four times, have fed it to clients and again to friends, how come I haven’t splashed it out onto this page? Never mind, it’s making it today.
Costellette di Maiale Ripiene or stuffed rib pork chops
Four pieces, which I think should serve six people
4 rib chops one rib wide, or about 2 centimeters thick, with a pocket cut in them to the bone
6 to 12 toothpicks
the stuffing:
soft breadcrumbs from one slice of Italian or other real bread
½ cup of dry bread crumbs (a couple of handfuls or 2 espresso cups full)
one medium onion, minced fine
2 teaspoons of fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoons of minced chives
2 teaspoons of fresh oregano leaves
salt to taste
half of one beaten egg
enough white wine to moisten the mixture
3 ounces of coarsely grated relatively unaged pecorino cheese or another very tasty not very hard cheese
another stuffing:
4 ounces of Rambol herbed cheese in Italy and Boursin in other countries
the cooking:
olive oil for frying
about 2 teaspoons of salt
sprigs of all the herbs used in the stuffing
three or four whole garlic cloves
a couple of espresso cups of white wine
Preheat the oven to 375°F or 165°C
If you have not talked your meat seller into making the pockets for you, then you will need to use a sharp knife and carefully cut pockets from the fatty edge toward the bone, being careful not to let the knife wander and cut through the meat. I recommend using your charm on the meat person of your choice!
Mix up the stuffing. It should be moist and cling together when you gather it in your hand, but not wet.
Using your hands, (I use surgical gloves when cooking professionally and touching raw meat) open the pocket in the chop and stuff in a good spoonful of the herbed cheese. Then gather up a fistful of the stuffing and push it in after the cheese. Add another good spoonful of the cheese and then close the pocket up using one or two toothpicks, depending on how wide the meat person made the pocket opening. You can pretend you are a plastic surgeon when doing this part of the operation.
Heat a quite large frying pan, or two of them, if you don’t have one that fits all four chops. Pour in about 2 tablespoons of oil, and then brown the chops on both sides. Be patient so that you will get a lovely golden brown without chancing a scorching. When they are all nicely browned, toss in the garlic and the herb sprigs, toss the salt over the chops, then pour the wine into the sizzling pan.
Put the pan into the oven and cook about 40 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 160°F or 72°C. Remove the chops to a board and allow them to rest 10 minutes while you reduce the sauce in the pan over a fairly high heat.
Using a sharp knife, cut 1 cm (fat ¼ inch) slices off the chops until you almost reach the bone. Arrange the chops on a serving dish and garnish with some of the fresh herbs you used in the dish. Drizzle some of the reduced pan juices over the meat.
You know what’s really nice about this dish? That soft herby cheese melts and coats the inside of the pocket and the outside of the stuffing, making both things extraordinarily creamy and herbalicious. The meat is tender and gently seasoned. The stuffing is springlike with its herbs. I consider it a four-star meat course.
With it I served a good old American carrot and raisin salad which was new to my guests and they liked it!
May 7th, 2008
Some days ago I went here and was inspired to try the recipe because I had just done some very different caramel covered nuts from another source. 
That David never misses, does he? This took some time, but it is excellent and easy. The only thing you need to watch out for is not to let that blazing sugar touch you.
I followed his directions to the letter except I cooled them on my Silpat to avoid leaving any temptation for ants. The added plus was by rolling up the Silpat I was able to separate more of the nuts than was easily accomplished with two spatulas.
The other recipe is good too, but entirely different. I’ll post a photo of the result as soon as I scan it. I gave them to my neighbors as fast as could be!
May 2nd, 2008
Judy Witts, the American cook that Italians respect, has posted this week’s recipe for La Buona Cucina Americana. I think it would be just amazing if everybody made pickles this year.
Uhh, Judy? When I made dill pickles I had to grow my own pickling cucumbers. Where are you getting yours?
May 2nd, 2008
I had friends to dinner Saturday night. Because I was making the meat dish from the April 7 2008 menu, I decided to do a home-sized version of the Pugliese antipasto, because it keeps people busy and fed while a more complicated dish finishes.
One thing that makes this workable and tastier is that not everything is made at the last minute, or even made at home. I served no meat or fish because the course that followed is very meaty, but with something like prosciutto, pancetta or a few spicy mussels, I would consider this antipasto a whole meal and be happy to have it. I am not, however, all Italian– yet.
The dish on the left is of fried red peppers, but I think they are more accurately called braised peppers. It’s peppers, salt and oil, cooked covered for a long time and then served at room temperature. Directly in front, in a tray made just for antipasto, are fresh green olives, goat’s cheese for the potatoes, a cheese called “Crema di Maggio” or May cream cheese, and black olives. The olives are both from tubs and are not very salty. I don”t know why that is, because olives are picked once a year and I think they must be preserved the same length of time, but anyway, I like these very much and often buy them. This tray illustrates Judy Witts’ oft stated philosophy of shop more and cook less. Those four things are really good and I tried a lot of less-good things before deciding these were worthy of replacing something homemade.
To the left is a plate of tiny baked potatoes cooked under salt. On the right is a loaf of pane di Altamura, a DOP bread that is trucked into my Coop from the south every morning. The hand is Paolo’s, who is pouring a Pugliese rosé wine.
This is, once again, purea di fave secche, which recipe was published here a few posts back. It is served warm. My Umbrian guests really liked it, and it surprised me to find that none of them had ever had it before.
Eating like this, among a few friends, is just about my favorite thing. I’m not so busy that I don’t get to talk and eat with everyone else, because they are friends I can experiment a little, and the evening feels relaxed and healthy.
April 28th, 2008
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