When it isn’t pouring, that’s what the skies look like here lately. That is the same sky and the same point of view as the banner at the top of the page, only this was shot yesterday. We are slowly going mad here, as we are constitutionally not able to do the mole thing. Yesterday in the late afternoon a thunderstorm came up and it was as dark as 20:45. I had to light all the lights.
This, by contrast, was one year ago.
So here are some June shorts.
Father’s Day. My father’s birthday is in June. I would buy him the complete works of Zane Grey if he were alive now, because that was his favorite read. There are hundreds of Zane Gray books. If you still have a father, I recommend you buy him what he likes to read, not what you think he should read. That would be a good thing. If you like, you can click on the Amazon store in either the USA or the UK at the right of this page, but get your dad something from somewhere. I know it’s a Hallmark holiday, but saying I love you is never a waste.
Eggs. You know how it is always said that a new egg when boiled is messy to peel, and an old one is easy? New ones are hard to peel, but an old one can be too. I don’t know why. This morning 2 out of 3 were a mess, the third shell slipped off like a sock. There are no guarantees of ease, but a guarantee of difficulty if the egg is new.
Herbs. We now have to wait for the hot weather herbs to grow. They haven’t liked this weather and are stalled. Basil, parsley and leaf celery are just not ready to use yet. In foods that usually get those herbs, I am using perennial herbs, like thyme, mint, oregano and tarragon. Use your judgment, because if you switch mint leaf for leaf with basil, you are in for quite a rude surprise. But a little makes for a change and can be quite good.
Flavor. If you buy, as I do, the variously jarred artichokes that are marinated, farmer style, or sott’olio, don’t throw away the liquid. It has quite a lot of artichoke flavor and can be used to make vinaigrettes, as part of the dressing for potato salad or to drizzle over a vegetable served as an antipasto or a contorno. Add a bit of this or that and it is really tasty.
June 14th, 2008
As you can see the excitement around here is mounting. Here are Momma, Tom, Bear and Nonna all quivering with excitement as they await the advent of the first adoptive patron. “Choose me, choose me!” each one cries. Who will be the first? Who will be the most appealing cat who is first chosen for distance adoption?
They are all facing west whence they apparently believe salvation will come.
June 13th, 2008
Whether it was the crusty-topped, oozy goodness of homemade or a slick bowl from the blue box, macaroni and cheese probably made a part of your diet as a kid. I might even say that it probably made up a cheddary part of your diet. But there is no cheddar throughout almost all of Italy. Cheddar sightings are reported like alien encounters in New Mexico.
Join Michelle, of Bleeding Espresso, and her mother to discover how an expatriate makes it work in Calabria.
June 13th, 2008
My column is published this morning. Go read all about those pants!
June 12th, 2008
This is one of the things you might see if you spend time with your cat on the terrace. They come out very late and night and dig holes in the lawn. In a single night a pair of them can destroy over 10 square meters! They never work for the Italian Postal Service.
They always work in pairs. They mate for life, we are told. They are not very intelligent animals, so for life doesn’t mean that long. I have been told several times that hitting one can puncture your tires. I frankly have a hard time believing that.
The above photograph came from a website that should be bookmarked for every lover of Italy. It’s called “Life in Italy” and the “Wildlife in Italy” page lays bare who is doing all that damage to your garden while you sleep. There are insect photographs that instill character and charm into bugs. To be perfectly honest, I have never seen an Italian porcupine looking so laid back and chubby. They always have their enormous spines up when I see them, and then it looks like a tiny creature with an exaggerated hairdo.
Are you feeling well today? If not, have a look here at what is growing in this garden to make you feel better.
Hungry? Here is a recipe made of the familiar nettle — a herb you will find bothers your cat not at all.
Here a claim is made that Italian snails and slugs like red wine instead of beer. Beware of the last photo on that page. You might be willing to sacrifice your plants to that face.
June 11th, 2008
Earlier today, eg sent me a link and suggested it was an idea I could use with the cats. It’s just a fabulous idea, and I am all for it. It seems a bit much work to completely rewrite the entire proposal, however, so for a start, just go here and insert cat wherever it says sheep.
Our situations are very similar. The sheepherders are keeping the hills of Abruzzo in traditional ways. The cats and I are keeping the hills of Umbria in traditional ways. The sheepherders are under financial pressure and need help. We are under financial pressure and could use help. Now it is true that they have many hundreds or perhaps thousands of sheep you can adopt, and I have a varying population of cats that number around seven give or take a litter, they also need more money because they are tending to a larger land mass than we are.
Our initiative, “Adopt a sheep and defend nature”, is meant to invert this serious trend, and propose naturalists, environmentalists, and gourmets, the distance adoption of a sheep, that in exchange of maintenance and rearing expenses, will yield its fruits (lambs, milk, cheese, ricotta, wool, manure) as well as protection of the portion of land it defends together with the rest of the flock. Stock farms taking part in the initiative guarantee their products, including biological products, with quality marks, and among other things offer agritourist accommodation. Therefore the person adopting the sheep will be able to stay at the chosen stock farm and periodically follow the farm activities: grazing, lambing, milking, sharing, and transhumance. All this in full respect of the animals’ needs and habits, as dictated by the regulations of biological production.
Besides the fact that neither I nor Wordpress knows what transhumance means, and that I would be hard put to hire rooms out to all the adopters should they decide to come, I think we can do a bit better than they on some issues. It’s a bit obscure, but the upshot is they are going to sell the products of your sheep to anyone, not send it to you. I am not sure what most of you would do with a year’s worth of wool, milk, lambs, grazing and manure, anyway. I can promise you, on the other hand, that if you adopt a cat I will happily send you anything it produces in a year that I can find. I will make adopters a reservation with Alberta if they want to be near their adopted cat, or somewhere in town with 4 stars if they just want to swing by and pick up their cat’s year’s production.
The advantages of the initiative “Adopt a sheep and defend nature” to the user are the following: a saving of over 12% of the market value of the products obtained, products that are certainly genuine, the option of using products derived exclusively from the adopted sheep (at the discretion of the user), since the adoption is nominal apart from the cheese products that need the milk of a number of sheep, which would still be guaranteed by being reared following the same criteria.
So, it appears that you will be given a 12% discount when you buy your sheep’s products. The cats products will be yours absolutely free!
With an annual contribution of € 190,00 we will be able to count on a capital that will help us by anticipating the shelter and feeding expenses and encourage us in carrying on our activity.
I assure you, that with the exception of Other Guy, who seems to rack up vet bills like E Taylor collected gems, your annual €190 contribution will make life much nicer for the cats and for Umbria. The photo above is where your cat hangs out and where you can meet your cat or shear your cat. The chaise longue on the left is wearing its cat cushion and is accompanied by its anti-cancer umbrella. The table under the gazebo is strewn with embroidered cloths the cats have mounded for lounging. Two sides of the cat habitat are edged with catnip, so you can convince your cat to nip and then try to climb the concrete telephone pole behind. There is ample space to romp with your cat or even get down with him or her and roll around the habitat’s terracing. I think that beats the sheep crib, even if we don’t have lambs.
Special concessions, discounts or promotions for all the events and shows related to pastoral life will be reserved to those who join: the shearing festival in April - May; the transhumance festival at the end of May - beginning of June; the guide to the flocks at the summer mountain pastures on foot or on horseback in mid June; guided excursions in high altitude pastures in July - September; thematic evenings on production, pastoral activity, and taste laboratories, according to a calendar that will be updated every six months.
If it seems really important, we can institute a shearing festival in the spring. The transhumance festival is a bit more difficult, but we will consult a bigger dictionary and see what we can do. All the cats but Gloria do love to go hiking, but they prefer lower ground, not the mountains, and a quarter to a third of a kilometer is as far as they go. We can, however, go that distance and back again any number of times. Thematic evenings are pretty much dedicated to food — theirs — but they share very cheerfully, even with the hedgehog. Tastings should be no problem at all.
We do not yet have a prepared contract to sign, but it will be our pleasure to email you one on request. After all, the cats don’t have numbers, but names. Other Guy, Bear, Gloria, Nonna, Tom, Mamma and Tilda. I’ve talked it over with them and they seem extremely eager to have new patrons and to get home visits!
June 10th, 2008
This is an experiment in presenting a new recipe for a new dish. Throughout the recipe I will place photos of the dish, and at the end we can decide which of the photos is most likely to make someone want to cook it or eat it.
The dish is yummy, and it could easily have been made another way, but I’ve been pondering on how to make a first course that could be plated in the kitchen and made to look quite special. If I baked it in flat layers it would just look like another lasagna. If I just casseroled it, it would look like baked ziti. I wanted something arranged, orderly, presented, in short. I had in mind to make individual ramekins, but mine are all too small and besides 15 of them would be too much for most ovens when I cook for larger groups. I will make this only when I am cooking with an assistant who can run them to the table, because they’d all get cold if I were doing it all on my own.
I haven’t really named it, either. It’s paccheri, of course, and it’s stuffed, and the filling is Sicilian inspired, but it’s not from Sicily, it’s from the nutty cook in Umbria. Have a look at the ingredients and see what you think about a name. Paccheri may not be easy to find where you are, but if you make manicotti and cut them in half it will look about the same, if a bit larger mouthed. You’d reduce the number because each would hold more stuffing.
When buying a sausage for this dish, look for the leanest ones possible. You can use salted capers if you like, but rinse them and soak them in milk before using them if you do. The ones I used are just pickled in brine and I did nothing to them. The cheese to use can be any decently mature cheese that is still soft enough to melt. It might be Fontina, Bel Paese, or another you like. I used Pecorino because it is universally available in Italy and it’s really, really good. Sometimes Pecorino in other countries is not.
Paccheri (senza nome) 
For two people
Preheat the oven to 175°C or 350° F
24 paccheri, boiled to al dente in salted water, rinsed in cold water and drained
Stuffing:
2 Italian sausages, split and meat removed
a piece of fresh bread, a cube 3 cm X3cm X 5cm or 1” X 1” X 2”, torn in pieces
1 tablespoon or less of milk to soak the bread
¼ teaspoon minced dried chili (peperoncino)
1 tablespoon drained capers, chopped
2 heaped tablespoons of pine nuts, dry toasted in a pan
½ a beaten egg (beat it in a little bowl and take half)
about 1 cup (250 ml) simplest homemade tomato sauce
a tablespoon or so of fresh oregano, marjoram or basil
about 1 ounce (30 g) semi-soft Pecorino, grated coarsely
Mix all of the Stuffing ingredients together, squishing thoroughly with your hands. Find a shallow ovenproof dish that is just about the size of all your paccheri stood up on end. Drizzle a little olive oil over the bottom, spreading it around, then a little of the tomato sauce, tipping to spread that as well.
Using a teaspoon, one by one, pick up the paccheri and stuff some of the meat mixture into each one. Alternatively and probably easier, pick up a little of the mixture and roll it into a small sausage shape between your palms, then slip it into a pacchero. As each is filled, stand it up in the pan until you have run out of filling. I ran out after 18 paccheri. Pour the rest of the tomato sauce over the standing pasta, then scatter the fresh herb, then add the grated Pecorino over that.
Put it into the heated oven and bake about 40 minutes until the sausage centers are done. I measured the temperature at 160°F, and left it to finish the climb from reserved heat.
Garnish with sprigs of whichever herb you used. Optionally you may wish to add a few drops of olive oil for gleam. Eat immediately, really hot.
Notice that I did not add any salt. Umbrian sausages are extremely salty. Capers are salty. I did not need a single grain of salt. If you live somewhere else, your sausages may not be so salty and you may need to add a little to the stuffing.
If you click on the photos, they’ll pop up on a dark background and be easier to judge. Which one do you think would tempt you to eat this?
If none look good to you, I want to know that, too, but I’d also like to know the reason why!
And now, having figured out exactly where it is this week, I am proposing this dish to Presto Pasta Night, hosted this week by Closet Cooking. When you look at that blog, you can see what is possible in countries that have closets.
June 9th, 2008
You know that I am delighted to share new to me blogs that entertain me. Well, Snowpea, my Canadienne gnocchi making friend, just introduced me to Hedonia, which while the Italian food offered is Italian American, is pretty, funny, sensitive and in at least one part, hilarious.
Eatsdropper is a feature in which things overheard by readers are published for us all. I laughed out loud more than once. That link takes you to all the Eatsdropper posts so far.
June 9th, 2008
I often joke when it’s foggy and grim, saying “Come to Sunny Italy” like a travel poster. If you move to Italy you should look up details about the weather in the areas you are considering. Umbria is not the sunniest part of Italy by a long shot. It has higher rainfall than most of Italy and our water reserves are the envy of all.
Umbria is called “The Green Heart of Italy” because when most of Italy lies yellowed and sweating under the summer sun, Umbria’s hills are still green; dusty, perhaps, but green.
The last few weeks, however, have made a joke of all the stereotyping about Italy and Italians. It has rained steadily at least part of almost every day for weeks. Plants that need the sun to grow are not growing. Beans and greens came up and stalled. Plants with large flowers are having them beaten off them, petal by petal. The tomatoes bloom but they don’t set fruit. Molds are growing in their thousands of possibilities, some this year which may have reawakened after being dormant for decades, or even centuries, how could we know? Italians are trudging on in the direst of circumstances, still doing what it is right to do this time of year, even though it doesn’t work this year.
The plans I made to have lunches and dinners on the terrace to celebrate the fantastic first flush of the roses lie sodden on the table. I have had to partially dismantle the roof of the gazebo to avoid wrecking it with the weight of too much water and the force of erratic wind. Stones are slick with moss. A thirty foot tree was bent double from the weight of the rain and touching my raspberry bushes. Olga and I had to hoist it up and tie it to a cement post. Once the fruit has ripened, if it ever can, I’ll cut the top of the tree off halfway so it can once more grow erect.
Every day it rains. Every day you can’t mow the grass. Every day the grass grows ranker and taller.
And the crop of pollens and molds sets records in our little valley. Thank eg for the allergy medicines she has sent me. I am a total disaster waiting for the summer and the end to wet!
Photo courtesy of BBC by Ros Baylis
June 8th, 2008
This girl, who once told me she couldn’t cook, has whipped up yet another terrific Southwest treat from Texas. Yehaw!
June 6th, 2008
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