Archive for December, 2007
I plan to do some research on the state of coral today. I know that it is a material that has become very tightly controlled in order to protect the reefs, and I know that every scrap in Italy is accounted for and that coral workers have to have permits. I don’t really know exactly how that works or what present figures for any part of the “industry” are.
Carved coral parure of bracelet and necklace with a sculpted pendant. I would wear this with anything.
Meantime, I want to acquaint you with what I’ve been seeing based on a visit I made to a shop here in town recently. Diego Pincardini has a shop and a workroom here in Città di Castello. I first met him when he was participating in our Medieval Artisans days, sitting outside his shop in Medieval costume and working coral with traditional tools. It stopped me in my tracks. In the shop windows behind him were some of the most luxurious and gorgeous pieces I had ever seen. The workmanship went far beyond the “factory” type work I had seen in the south, where coral is a commoner material.
Then I lost him. I never seemed to find him went I went to the shop. The windows grew sparser. The lights were off and the iron gates closed. I purposely went to the next Artisan days to find him. “Why are you never here?” I asked.
“I’m here, but I am only working here. I’m away a lot to sell my work in bigger cities where work like mine sells better than it sells here. If you want to see me, you have to make an appointment.” He whipped a business card from his Medieval gown and handed it to me. So that’s what I did. I called, I went. I went for the pleasure, because he has a safe in the workroom full of treasures beyond belief, and he’s willing to open drawers and show me half-done pieces he is working on. It’s my kind of candy store.
So the other day I went to see what is on the bench. He asked me why I come to see him. I told him it’s because he works in colors. Diamonds may or may not be a girl’s best friend, but except in the case of pavé, where tiny diamonds trace a shape in gold (I don’t like pavé on white gold) I like colored stones better.
I’d inspired joy in Diego Pincardini! Out poured a treatise on the rare and the colored: turquoise, coral, ebony, amber, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and the panoply of what nature colors and hides from us. Shared joy is a wonderful thing. Heaps of colored gems are the last fillip.
This is black coral beads formed into a bracelet with gold links and a red coral cabochon clasp. I would wear it with a black cashmere sweater or a taupe linen dress.
He offered me a CD of photographs of some of his work, a CD he carries to augment what he can carry in his little black bag when he speeds around northern Italy placing his work in the great jewelry stores of the country. I took it, reduced the size of the photos and I am, with his permission, sharing a few of them with you. The original photos were enormous, so that a jeweler could see the details in scale from 200% and up.
Angel skin coral worked as a pendant and a bracelet with a clasp like the pendant. Fabulous with cream silk.
I have watched him carve the stones. Coral is so precious nowadays that even the bits carved off to make one of the major pieces are used to make beads or tiny carvings.
A bracelet of carved links and an intricately carved clasp. I would like this with a sky blue sweater or top that would call attention to the intricacy.
Antiqued brooch of silver and yellow gold, with carved coral details. This cries for something substantial behind it, such as tweed, or a textured stole, maybe a bulky oatmealy sweater. I think this could become a family heirloom piece.
He works in other materials too, and shows Italian turquoise and semiprecious stones. Yesterday he was working on carved ebony, and showed me in great detail how he would make the heavy earrings become light as air. Sigh…
These gold bracelets took my breath away. I would wear them all the time, everywhere, even to do the laundry. Unfortunately, gold bracelets form no part at all in my schemes to survive the dollar crunch and stay in Italy.
I’ll just add a series of thumbnails for more pictures, and you can decide whether to take a closer look by clicking, or not. I’d love your ideas on how you would wear any of these pieces. I need ideas for my daydreams.
I’ll post again, because I have only shrunk a small part of the pictures, and for me this is like living in a museum!
The shop is DP Coral, via della Pendinella, 06012 Città di Castello (PG) Italia. Call ahead if you’d like to visit. (39) 339 382 0718. Or you can shop the great jewelers of Rome and north to the borders and pay a lot more!
December 6th, 2007
This exuberantly ugly thing is a spinach sformato, which means deformed and it surely is. It would have taken me about a minute to make a double cuff of baking paper and tie with a string around the top of the dish and then it would have been a soufflé. It would have been beautiful and delicious, but only beautiful for a minute. I figured that was how long it would take me to get the cuff off and by the time I photographed it, it would be deflating. In the end, this was a bit deflating anyway.
It was delicious. I ate it.
Hardly anybody makes soufflés anymore. They think it’s hard to do. It really isn’t, and if you bother with making the cuff, it will be beautiful. If you don’t want to bother with the cuff, my advice it to fill a lower baking dish 2/3 full to give it room to rise, and call it a sformato. Handy word. The thing is, because there was no restraint and because my oven has a hot spot, this rose up and spilled out like magma on the opposite side and now I have to clean the oven. Careless cook, indeed.
Elaborate vegetable it is, however, and good to eat and healthy. With eggs. milk and spinach in it, it can be a vegetarian meal or a puffily, steaming vegetable dish. You can not, however, drag it outside to photograph it nor get more than a few shots before it starts to deflate, so serve it quickly to some eager eaters.
Sformato or soufflé of spinach
Preheat the oven to 150°C or 300°F
about 6 ounces of steamed spinach, or about a cup, wrung dry with your hands
1 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
a pinch of cayenne or peperoncino in polvere
1 cup milk
3/4 teaspoons salt
2 eggs, separated
a generous amount of nutmeg, to taste
about 1 ounce of freshly and finely grated hard cheese, such as Parmigiano Reggiano
1 teaspoon butter for the cooking vessel
Chop the cooked and wrung out spinach finely with a knife.
Grate the cheese. Generously butter the inside of a baking dish, then use part of the cheese to coat it, as if you were flouring a cake pan. Shake any excess back into the container in which you’ve grated the cheese.
Use a fork to whip the egg yolks in a small bowl.
In a small, heavy pan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and then stir in the 2 tablespoons of flour to form a thick paste. Remove the pan from the heat and very slowly stir in the milk, a little at a time, using a silicon spatula to flatten any lumpy bits. When the mixture reaches the consistency of cream, you may just stir in all the remaining milk. Add the salt and cayenne. Return the pan to the heat and bring to a boil, stirring, then reduce the heat to minimal and continue to cook a couple of minutes. It will thicken and become a white sauce.
Stir about 1/4 of the hot sauce into the egg yolks, then scrape that back into the pan. Stir in the chopped spinach very thoroughly. Grate some nutmeg into it, quite generously. Taste and correct. It should be a bit pungent, because it will be diluted with the egg whites shortly.
Using an egg beater or a mixer, and with the egg whites in a large, rigorously clean, non-plastic bowl, whip the egg whites until they are stiff but still glossy. It took about a minute for me.
One-third at a time, using a silicon spatula, fold the spinach mixture into the egg whites. Scrape all of the mixture into the prepared baking dish, then scatter the remaining grated cheese on top. Pop into the oven and leave it alone for 40 minutes. You literally do have a minute or so to serve it puffy. It’s best served with two forks.
The butter and cheese form a delicate crust that releases from the dish. All the prep dishes are easy to clean. It’s really not much trouble at all.
Dedicated to Kid Magnet, who loves spinach like I do.
December 3rd, 2007
When I woke up and climbed the stairs this morning to make coffee, look who was looking into the window. Remember her? At first I thought she was blooming there to give me a little summery pleasure. Then I went outside and I realized she was trying to get in.
Day dawned with a really hard frost. I tried to dress for it as I prepared to go to the Pugliese fruit and vegetable vendors. They are only at market on Saturday, so it’s buy today or eat supermarket produce. Our supermarkets sell good food, but not as good as this produce that trucks up from Foggia every week. Only Monday I bought Italian white grapes at the Coop, but they were only juicy and sweet. There was nothing about them that shouts grape like the ones grown in Puglia under nets.
Anyway, I’ve decided that this is a budget tip. Shop outside when it’s cold and blowy and you won’t hang around photographing fashions or dawdling through the streets being tempted to buy ridiculous things you really don’t need.
Here’s what we’ll cook this week. It cost €8.80, or about US$13.20.
There are four small artichokes called violetta. Nice name for an artichoke, no? There’s a nice head of romaine or insalata romana. The white grapes I like fill a colander, and there’s an entire tray of tiny new spinach. Those tiny tomatoes will pop up now and again whenever wanted.
Before I left I checked the pasta shelf, where I seal up opened pasta. The unopened pasta occupies a very large space in my pantry armoire. That little chest holds the spices not used in Italian cookery, and it isn’t Italian, either. What’s this?
Gasp! There are two empty jars and the others are close to empty too. I haven’t even made pasta for Presto Pasta Night in two weeks. Polenta, yes, pasta no. What kind of Italian cook doesn’t make pasta? My face is red.
I rushed back from market, abandoning all foolish pastimes, to where it may be a cool 18°C but there’s a radiator to embrace. Later tonight there will be chow. Ciao!
December 1st, 2007
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