The Italian Food Experience

On Sunday as I leaned back in my chair, stomach full to bursting with an assortment of amazing foods we had just finished for lunch, and thinking how delicious it had all been I suddenly realised something. I have been in Italy for over a month, the country known for its fantastic food, but I still hadn’t written about it! So here it is, my first (and I say first as I am sure there will be more to come on the topic!) blog post dedicated to Italian food.

 

Who doesn't think PASTA when you hear 'Italian Food'?
(http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Niccosspaghetti.jpg)

 

 Before I had spent a decent amount of time in Italy I thought Italian food basically consisted of pizza, pasta and gelato. These are of course all readily available and absolutely delicious, but to think they are the only foods of Italy was definitely one of my more ignorant moments. So I hope to share some of the not quite so well-known foods of Italy. In saying that, I cannot help but first talk about the most famous of Italian foods; pizza!

 

Gelato - an Italian specialty
(http://ed.files-media.com/ud/gal/dcp/19/54436/500295_429677f3979b1db88cfe4434cc1bd10d-413x350.jpg)

Pizza, as everyone knows, originated in Italy. In Naples to be exact. I have always liked pizza, how could you not? But when I moved to Italy I fell in love. Italian pizza is what a pizza should be. It is almost as if my whole childhood of pizza was a lie. Whenever I thought of pizza it would the Pizza Hut style, heavy crusted with endless toppings and covered in cheese and strong sauce that came to mind. I enjoyed these, but didn’t love them, and I would very rarely eat a whole pizza to myself. If I ever did I would feel bloated and heavy. And then I met Italian pizza. The first time I had pizza here was on the night I arrived. We picked up the pizza on the way home from the Florence train station. I waited in the car with the kids and Filo while Massimo picked them up. I was expecting him to come back with 2 maybe 3 boxes, but then I saw him head over with 5. Each one of us, even the kids, had an entire pizza to ourselves. My first thought was this was crazy, followed by a panicked oh my gosh I am going to get so fat here! It wasn’t until I had (easily) finished the entire pizza by myself did I realise not only did it taste amazing, but that it was very different to what I used to think of as pizza. The crust was thin. I don’t mean Pizza Hut thin, I mean really thin. So thin, in fact, that last week the centre of my pizza stuck to the box and I could not scrape off the delicious base without taking the paper with it! On top is a rich tomato sauce followed by mozzarella cheese (not pre-grated Colby or cheddar). After this you basically add only an extra 2 or 3 ingredients (my favourite is ham and mushroom!) Eating pizza this way means that you can really appreciate every flavour, the rich, savoury sweetness or the sauce, the stringy texture and slightly salty taste of the cheese and whatever other few ingredients you choose. There is no problem with only having a few ingredients as their flavours do not have to compete with a thick, doughy base. Instead is a light, thin companion to the topping, a foundation that doesn’t overpower, but simply adds to the overall taste. Pizzas here have few, good quality ingredients, all so full of flavour that to add any more (let alone overpower sauces such as BBQ sauce) would simply be murder to a masterpiece. And thankfully due to all this, Italian pizzas generally have fewer calories, and thus you can eat an entire one to yourself without worry too much! Now I am not saying that I do not like, and have not enjoyed both Pizza Hut style pizzas in the past and undoubtedly will again in the future, but it is and now always will be my preference to have proper Italian Pizza.

 

Real Thin Crust Italian Pizza
(http://globetrottergirls.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Pizza.jpg)

 

Something I didn’t really expect was that Italy and Italian food has taught me a new way to look at food combinations. I already knew that melon and prosciutto was an Italian food combination which may seem (and did seem the first time) rather odd but turns out to taste amazing. The sweetness of the melon with its soft texture contrasted with the salty prosciutto, thin and slightly tough makes for an amazing mouthful. However, I have found out and fallen in love with further combinations since living here. The first I am sure some people know about and may not seem that weird, though to me it did. After the main part of lunch one sunny Sunday afternoon, Filo stated that she would get some cheese and honey. Cheese and what!? Yes, it turns out cheese and honey is an amazing combination. When she returned she had a board with a selection of sheep and cow cheeses and a small bowl of warmed-to-soften honey. I proceeded to copy her in drizzling the honey over one of the slices of cheese. And oh my word was it delicious! It’s like cheese and chutney, but better! Though I had been sceptic at first, I have to admit I ended up eating the better half of that platter, enjoying every mouthful!

 

Cheese and Honey - AMAZING!
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK5h9o_-eyq_CFL2K7P3T7DFdhJB1G5jy1U-ZUfPBL2TH3uwGDROnvHeX23QpTK0lprnSQgNa_dsWnQQXm4cLvwlR6gHTeEcJXekQMZAGtv2ZxWMG5kkHjNZWzwH2UKky0HAx4Zeuqd9g/s1600/cheese+and+honey.jpg)

 

The second odd combination I have come across was cantuccini (biscotti to us English speakers) with sweet wine. When Filo mentioned this combination (a typical Tuscan specialty) I laughed before realising she was serious. Biscuits with wine? I don’t know about the rest of you (not including any Italians that is!) but I usually have tea or coffee with my biscuits. However, as always I decided to give it a go. She poured me a shot glass of the sweet wine (high in alcohol as it turns out) and told me to tip the cantuccini into the glass. Even more hesitantly than the cheese and honey I did so, and was even more surprised and delighted by the amazing taste that followed. In fact taste doesn’t quite cover it, it was an experience. You see while you usually taste food, have this hard cantuccini dipped in this high alcohol wine made it more than taste. Yes, initially you tasted the sweetness of the wine and cantuccini but then you felt the texture of the hard biscuit that was disintegrating in your mouth as the alcohol broke it down. And as you swallowed you could faintly feel the warmth of that sweet wine down your throat, warming you from the inside. I have no more to say other than wowzah!

 

Cantuccini and Sweet Wine
(http://foodloversodyssey.typepad.com/.a/6a010536a07d60970b0133ec8a0cf7970b-800wi)

 Another I-will-give-it-a-go that led to a miracle in my mouth was olio con peperoncino (that’s oil with red chili in English!) First I have to say that I have never been one for spicy food. It was not so much the way in which it burns out the inside of your entire head, but more the odd flavour it brings and the way in which (in my past experience) totally overrode and killed any flavour in the food it was supposed to accompany. The first time I had pasta here I noticed both Massimo and Filo putting an oil over there pasta. It was from a jar, half filled with the oil, and half with crushed dried hot chili peppers. They offered some to me, to which I responded, “No no! Me and spice do not go well together!” Filo laughed and said, “Well I will offer it to you ever time. We will have you using it before you leave.” I didn’t say anything, but secretly thought she had set herself up for failure. However, as promised, she asked every time and every time I refused. Until once. I decided that the best thing to do was to prove how much I could not handle spice. I opened the lid of the jar and tentatively put two tiny teaspoons of the oil over my entire plate of pasta. After stirring it around so that I wouldn’t have my head blasted off with one mouthful, I took a small bite. The usual spicy fire swept around my mouth, but surprisingly I could still taste every flavour. The fresh pasta, the slow-cooked sweet tomato sauce and the strong, tasty parmesan. I looked up and half laughed. It was amazing! And from that day I have always been the first to put that oil spice over my pasta, more and more each time. It makes the meal more than a taste, but again an experience. In fact in so many ways that is what food is here in Italy. It is more than the flavours. It’s the textures, combinations and contrasts, and how it feels as you eat it. Eating Italian is more than a meal, it’s an experience.

 

Olio con Peperoncino
(http://honestcooking.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/chilipepper2.jpg)

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: As this blog post was written about food experiences over a period of time, I unfortunately do not have my own photos and thus I DO NOT OWN ANY of the above photos and no copy right infringement is intended.

 

 

 

Easy Peasy Pasta Recipe

One year for my dads birthday (when I had far more money then I have now!) I decided to buy him a pasta-making machine. To be completely honest I can't remember why I bought it for him, it wasn't like we were a huge make-your-own-pasta family or anything, but for whatever reason, I did. To my memory since then (a few years ago now) we only ever used it twice. The recipe we were using seemed complicated, the process of making it too hard, and the taste was far from expected. This and the fact that I knew nobody who actually made their own pasta led me to believe that pasta making was difficult.

Within a month of being in Italy, more than half of my pasta meals have been made with freshly made pasta that tastes even better than the store bought stuff. The first time I had it I was hugely impressed, thinking how amazing it was that these people had made it. When I mentioned this I received not thanks but looks of confusion followed by rather a lot of laughter. You see here in Italy EVERY woman knows how to make pasta, and usually has her own favourite recipe. It is so part of their lives that it seems ridiculous that I would find it so amazing. After this experience I decided if it was so ordinary here surely it can't be that difficult and I asked to learn. Only once I had made my own first batch of pasta did I realise just how easy it is. So to anyone out there who has had the same misconceptions as me about  making pasta, here is an incredibly easy and yummy recipe you can use to wow anyone (well anyone except Italians!)



Pasta - Made by Me!

 

The real reason that I found out pasta making was so easy (or rather what was produced actually tasted good) was by learning a few tips and tricks that you wouldn't usually find in a recipe book. I will include these in italics along the way!
 

 

Ingredients:

 

• Flour
• Eggs
• Pinch Salt

 

These are literally the only ingredients you will need. For quantities use the incredibly easy ratio of 100g of flour to 1 egg.

 

Something I have noticed being in Italy is Italians have something for everything. By this I mean they have pizza yeast for pizza, specific cheeses for specific meals and yes, specific flour for pasta. It is a pasta semolina but just using semolina should work also. If you choose to use this use approximately about 2/3 semolina to 1/3 
normal flour. Giving about 66g semolina to 33g normal white flour to one egg. If you do not want to use semolina using normal flour will work perfectly fine!

 

Method:

 

1. Put flour and eggs into a large bowl. Mix together until all egg is incorporated into the flour.
 

2. Transfer dough and remaining flour onto a clean, floured surface and knead into a dry dough.

Pasta dough needs to be VERY dry. It will be tempting to add water or more eggs so the dough is wetter and comes together easier. DO NOT DO THIS! I promise if you keep kneading you will eventually get one ball of dough. Patience is key!
 

3. Continue kneading until the dough feels soft and elastic.
 

4. CHEAT: If you do not want to make the dough by hand and have access to a bread making machine you can make the dough in this on the basic dough setting. However, you will probably have to 'help' the machine to make sure all the flour is incorporated into the dough. Do this by moving the flour from the edges onto the central dough ball with a wooden spoon. If the dough does not feel soft and elastic at the end of the machine cycle, finish kneading it by hand for a few minutes until you achieve this result.


 

5. Cover dough in clingfilm and leave for at least 30 minutes.

In saying this the longer you leave it the better, so if it is a few hours there is no need to worry. It is said in Italy that pasta dough is ready when it sings. If you lightly hit the dough straight after kneading it there is only a very dull thud, but after leaving it to rest you will notice that the sound bounces back, this is it singing! When it does this it is ready.

 

6. Once your dough is ready it is time to make the pasta! Clear a space on a table and sprinkle on some flour. Keep this handy as you will need it later. Be prepared to make a mess, making pasta is not a tidy process!

 

Pasta Making Mess (there was flour all over the floor too!)

7. Set up your pasta machine on the lowest setting. Unwrap the dough and cut of a piece roughly half a fist in size and put it through the pasta machine (you will need to really push it through the first time!) If the pasta feels wet sprinkle on some flour, fold it twice and put it through two or three more times. It should be rectangular in shape. 
 

 

8. Once the dough has gone through setting 1 a few times increase up to setting to 2 and put the dough through again.
Note: After setting 1 you do not need to fold the pasta dough anymore.
Keep increasing the settings on the machine, rolling the pasta through twice on each setting. Apply flour if it feels wet.
You can skip settings, for example I did settings 1, 2, 4, 6, 7. Most pasta machines go up to setting 10 and it is totally up to you what thickness you want to finish on.

Pasta Sheet Finishing Setting 7

 

9. Once you have your lasagne looking strip of pasta, apply a good amount of flour and then fold it half and half again until it is about 5 cm in height. Then simply cut along the width about 1.5 - 2cm wide. Unravel and ta-da, you have tagliatelle pasta!


 

10. Repeat the above process until all the dough is gone.
 

11. Once all the pasta is made, put it in salted boiling water for no more than a minute or it will over cook.


 

12. Serve with a basic tomato sauce and parmesan (if desired!)




 

 

 Buon appetito!

Note: Freshly made pasta is best cooked straight away. If you are wanting to save it, store in the freezer for later use!

 

Two Lessons and an Amazing Day

 

On Sunday I learnt two important lessons. One: always say yes to opportunities (I know everyone tells you this but I learnt it) and two: I must ALWAYS take my handbag when I leave the house. The latter will explain itself shortly!

 

Sunday started off as a usual Sunday. Relaxing and slow. At 12.30pm we (the family I live with and myself) squeezed into their new mini-cooper and headed off to their grandparents for a family lunch. In Italy it being Sunday qualifies as a good enough reason for a full family reunion over ravioli and red wine. Just one of the many reasons I love it here! After an incredibly loud, delicious and Italian lunch where 10 adults and 2 kids all squeezed around a too small table in the tiny kitchen I was given an offer to spend the afternoon with the kids Aunt and Uncle in Vada, about an hours drive away. Having not had a very good sleep the night before I had kind of been looking forward to an afternoon nap but for some reason (not because I thought particularly about saying yes to opportunities, but just because) I decided, why not.

 

As promised, after an hour of mostly motorways we arrived in Vada stopping only briefly at their small holiday home before heading off for the beach. After a maze of streets and a small pine forest we emerged onto the beach. And in that moment I learnt my two lessons. One: I was glad I had said yes and would make an effort to do so in the future, two: I did not have my handbag which contains everything from my wallet to a Swiss army knife. Everything including my camera and blogging notebook. So here I will pause from my descriptive writing and apologise for the lack of photos. The only one of mine was taken on someone else phone and sent to me on Facebook. All others were borrowed from my dear friend Mr. Google (but I promise all these were places I actually saw!)

 

The beach, as I said, was beautiful. When I think of the word 'beach', white sand large wave beaches come to mind, the beaches I had grown up around at home in New Zealand. This beach was not like that at all. Instead of sand there were tiny little stones, blues, grey, browns and blacks created a dappled look along the shore. Every few hundred metres there was an outcrop of large rocks into the water were the small waves lapped up against them. I emphasise small waves. They were barely existent. It was the kind of beach that would be a paddle boarders dream and a surfers nightmare. The water itself was beautiful shades of navy, sky blue and turquoise which reflected the perfectly blue sky above. And I loved it. The lack of waves and "typical" beachyness made it incredibly peaceful and brought on a deep warm feeling of happiness for being alive and able to see places like this. It was the kind of place I could stay all day provided I had a sunny day, picnic and a good book to read.

 

 

Me on the Beach

 

Instead of going home the way we had come, we took the scenic route along the coastal road. At first there was not much to see as the coast itself was hidden behind a wall of tall pine trees and I was starting to wonder if I would even see the sea again that day. But then after a small incline and turn to the right the trees disappeared leaving the most spectacular view I had seen all day. The sea stretched out lazily for miles, fading from the deepest blue at the horizon to a clear turquoise that lapped over  the rocks. Each breaking wave helped create a beautiful, thin white border along the shore. The coast was not made up of beaches as I had expected, but from odd small stony beaches and predominantly, steep, jagged cliffs that fell straight down to meet the vast blue.  

 

The Amazing Tuscan Coast
(http://www.tescoutazas.hu/szallas/hoso/hotel-baia-del-sorriso)

Scattered on top and down the cliff face were beautiful, bright buildings; houses, hotels, churches and castles. It was so beautiful that I could hardly believe I was seeing it. It was more like staring at a postcard that had somehow magnified itself to take up my full range of vision. Later when I googled images to use (due to my idiocy of leaving my handbag and camera behind!) I had to remind myself that, yes I had actually seen this in  real life!

 

An Unreal Beauty by the Sea
(http://rete.comuni-italiani.it/foto/2008/25952)

 

Fifteen or so minutes into my constant staring-in-amazement we began to slow, pulling up at a sign that read "Il Romito - Hotel, Ristorante, Pizzeria, Bar".  The building was large and semi-circular with a balcony bordering it's curved edge. With a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice in hand we headed out onto the balcony. I could have stayed there all day. Being able to just stand and stare at the sea, the waves and rocks far below, the tall cliffs tinted green by the bushes that covered it's surface and the castle standing old yet proud at it's higher point was an experience I will never forget. I was reminded again how I had wanted my afternoon nap, and how insanely glad I was I had decided instead to say yes. Let the tiredness come, this was worth it!

 

View from Il Romito
(http://www.cucineconvista.it/il-romito-livorno/)