Primi

The first course of Italian meals typically means pasta, so brace yourselves. I have to say that as I write this, I'm craving Thai, Indian, Japanese...anything that does not involve cooked flour and sauce, but I am suffering from pasta overload...despite Italians boasting the versatility of pasta, there are only so many ways you can do it. Regardless, I'm proud of the fact that I can now make pasta without a pasta machine and know how to cut tagliatelle :)

Pasta fatto a casa

Ingredients
Flour - half durum wheat, half strong bread flour, approx 400-500g each
4 eggs

Method
Make a well in the centre, and break the eggs into the well
Keep a small heap of flour to one side to clean hands every now and then, and incorporate these bits into the mixture
Knead the ball into a smooth homogeneous mixture, using the palms of both hands vigorously
Place a few drops of oil over the ball, and then leave to rest for 1 hour

Use the rolling pin on a floured board/table to flatten and roll out the dough
Start with rolling out the edges, leaving the centre more heaped, because later the edges will be thicker and the centre will start to tear

When the dough is around 8 inches in diameter, start to roll the centre as well as the edges.
When around 12 inches, begin the following method:
- Roll the edge furthest from you a little, then gather that edge around the rolling pin (put flour on the rolling pin)
- Roll the pin towards you gradually, and as you incorporate another roll of pasta, use both palms on the rolling pin in an action that extends the pasta laterally along the pin
- When the whole piece of dough has been gathered onto the pin (Except the closest part which must not be allowed to stick), lay the whole round out form left to right, so that the piece lies flat but turned at 90 degrees.

Repeat this convoluted process, always ensuring that the pasta is floured and does not stick

Be careful not to tear the centre which will be getting thinner from more rolling than the edges are (I am feeling rising anxiety levels as I write this - too much to think about - arrrghhh!)

Leave to dry for an hour or so, take or leave this step I reckon...

Use 4 semicircular edges for lasagna sheets, they won't be useful for tagliatelle, and make a nice rectangle with the rest that you can use for tagliatelle.

TO CUT TAGLIATELLE:

Fold furthest side of pasta rectangle over on itself by about 2 - 3 inches
Then do the same thing on the side closest to you, folding by the same amount, don't push down and make sure they don't stick together (use a bit of flour to stop sticking)
Fold these 2 folds over each other, repeat until the folds meet int he middle and you can then fold one on top of the other.

Use a sharp knife to cut 2-4mm strips. Gather a few of this onto the knife with the blade sliding between the last fold i.e. the middle - as you life the knife, you will see your miraculous creation unfold and know that you have created pasta, amazing!!

Make these into a loose nest and repeat with the other strips to form other nests. Use preferably within 24 hours, as if you could wait any longer!

Bring salted water to the boil, plunge nests into water and when water reboils and pasta is firmly al dente remove.

Add chosen sauce with some of the pasta water and stir to finish cooking with sauce to amalgamate sauce with pasta

SAUCES

Tomato & Basil sauce (I know this sounds so simple, but it really is the perfect combination of ingredients and I've never done it like this)

Ingredients:
Cherry tomatoes (about 2 punnets
Basil
EVOOil
Onion
Carrot
Celery
Basil
Salt and Pepper

Method
Place oil, diced onion, carrot cut in half, celery stick cut in  pieces and basil in a pan and cook gently
Add tomatoes then salt and pepper
Let this boil for what seems like forever until the oil no longer rises to the surface
At the end of cooking, put the mixture through the sieve (to avoid 4 and 6 year old children picking out every tomato skin or not eating altogether - hmmmmm)


Herb sauce
Garlic clove
Wild fennel
Rosemary
Sage
Basil
Wild mint
Majoram
Mint (one leaf only)
Thyme
EVOOil
Salt and pepper
Saffron
Water

Method
The herbs above are listed in order of a lot to only a little bit (very important!)
Use 1 clove of garlic with the centre stalk removed if present (the green part)
Mix with rosemary to form a paste
Place a little water in a frying pan to cover base and add some oil for frying
Slice all herbs finely, place immediately into frying pan to prevent oxidization
Add salt, pepper, saffron (and some sliced cherry tomatoes if you like), boil for 3-4 mins, leaving covered.

Place cooked pasta through frying pan so pasta absorbs the sauce.

More pictures on the process at www.umbriacucina.com/testimonials.html

ANTIPASTI

Here are a couple of recipes from my cooking class that focus on the start of the meal...best served with a prosecco or spritz aperol (aperol, prosecco and soda - recipe is on the back of the bottle of aperol) to whet the appetite...

These antipasti are all bread based so if you’re low carbing it, do not read on.

Sciacciata antipasti - top left

DOUGH

500g flour

20mls extra virgin olive oil (approx)

About 200-250mls water

25g fresh yeast (the type that gets mixed in water)

Pinch of salt

TOPPINGS!

Finely sliced/grated onions, sage, rosemary

Finely sliced zucchini

Finely sliced tomatoes

Preheat oven at 250 degrees (top and bottom element on)

Melt yeast in water

Place flour into a heap on a clean surface, pour water and oil into centre and mix from the centre outwards, adding a pinch of salt. 

Mix until a soft dough has formed, adding more water as needed.

Knead, using the heel of both palms to form a strong action which elongates the dough, for about 10 minutes.

Keep a small mound of flour to one side and use to clean hands periodically, making a new well in the centre and incorporating these little bits.

Form into a ball, incise a cross on the top with a very sharp knife, cover with a cloth and leave to rise for approx 1 hour.

Go and do something else for a while...

After an hour, spread the dough over a well-oiled flat rectangular baking tin and work gently to spread the dough uniformly over the pan, making sure to fill the corners. If you can’t reach it all out to the edges in one go, wait a bit and then come back to it about 5 minutes later.

Apply the 3 toppings to each third (surprise surprise they are the colours of the Italian flag), form small indentations by pression fingers over the onion section, dribble liberally with oil and sprinkle with salt (depending on how watery the tomatoes you use are you might not need much oil in that section.

Place in oven at 250 degrees (top and bottom element on) for 25-30 minutes. Serve at room temperature...

Cornetti (they look like little croissants when they come out of the oven, very cute) - bottom left hand corner

Preheat oven to 220 (top and bottom elements)

DOUGH

Flour

Extra virgin olive oil

Water

Fresh yeast

Pinch of salt

FILLINGS

Crumbled sausage meat (by this I mean an Italian sausage, not your standard Coles BBQ variety)

Ementhal cheese diced

Olive oil

Well beaten egg and sprinkle of salt

You could probably mix this up a bit depending on your tastes, but will leave that up to you to work out :)

Follow dough instructions as per recipe above but you don’t need to put a cross on the top of the dough ball for this one.

Roll dough out finely with rolling pin, cut strips about 3 inches wide, then cut these diagonally to form triangles.

In the base of each triangle, place a small quantity of sausage meat and a cube of cheese with a sprinkle of oil (very small quantity otherwise it’s too hard to roll).

Fold each corner of the base to cover the sides of this mixture and then roll over and over towards the point of the triangle, using the right hand to roll and the left hand to gently stretch the triangle tip.

Press the point of the triangle firmly closed and place on a greased/floured baking tray

Brush each with an egg and place in oven for 15-20 mins at 220 degrees.

ENJOY!!!

Stuffed Pumpkin Flowers

I've heard about stuffed zucchini flowers but I have never heard of people stuffing pumpkin flowers.

Well they are just as good as zucchini flowers and a hell of a lot easier to find around here. A punnet of about 12 flowers will set you back about 1.5 euros, happy with that, I have tried these 3 times and I think I have figured out how to do them justice. Regardless, I'll never serve them to Italians because they always know how to do them better and will make sure you leave the table knowing the 'right' way to do them - not great for my cooking confidence :)

Three important elements - get the filling right, get the batter right, don't wait to eat them.

THE FILLING...

First time I tried to stuff them with ricotta, finely grated lemon rind and anchovies as the stuffing, the ricotta melted and spat all over me...lesson 1 - ricotta is too watery and the boys love anchovies but don't like lemon rind.

Second time I tried to fill them I thought I'd keep it simple and use mozzarella - the fresh bocconcini style mozzarella that you find everywhere here. I thought the boys would definitely like it like this. Lesson 2 - mozzarella is still too watery so if you don't want burns all over your arms from spitting oil, best to avoid it.

Third time - ah ha! With superior culinary wisdom obtained by my week's cooking course I learn that ementhal, of all cheeses, is great for this kind of thing. I don't rate it personally but Shane loves it so it was in the fridge ready for my third try. 

I kept it simple with just the cheese cut into 1cm x 1cm pieces to stuff the flowers - you need to be very careful not to break the petals when you fill the flowers or it doesn't hold the filling. 

THE BATTER...

I'm a massive fan of tempura, so I call on all my Japanese eating experiences in Melbourne to muster up a tempura style batter.

Ingredients:

1. Very cold aqua frizzante (mineral water)
2. Plain flour

Simple. Basically all you need to do is mix enough of the two ingredients together to make a runny paste, that has the consistency of....shampoo is all that comes to mind. 

Dip the flowers into the batter so they are completely covered.

Heat sunflower or peanut oil in a frying pan so that the oil comes up about 1 or 2 cms on the sides and fry those flowers turning once when the underside is crisp. The batter won't turn golden brown (at least it didn't with me, probably because I was too hungry and impatient to try them), but give it a try and let me know if you get them golden!

Drain excess oil on paper towels, season with salt and pepper, put some lemon wedges and homemade mayonnaise or aioli in a little dish and SERVE IMMEDIATELY! 

This was the other thing I did wrong, EVERY DAMN TIME...I put them in the oven trying to prepare other things for lunch and then when it came to serving them, they were shadows of their former glorious selves and I found myself apologizing and explaining how good they DID look when they came out of the frying pan.

The "caretakers"

I really should have started writing about Helena and Danilo before, because there is so much to write about, especially Helena.

Helena and Danilo have lived on the property where we are staying for about 25 years, since they got married, Helena would have been a beautiful and spirited young Brazilian woman and Danilo, I'm sure a very handsome and charming older man (about ten years older than Helena). They lived in the small house on the property, tending the olive trees, the large veggie patch, looking after the owner's villa, grapevines, etc. Pure subsistence farming, and they did it well.  Over the past 25 years they have seen the property they look after change hands three times, they now help the owners of the house prepare our apartment/house for guests, also cleaning the owner's house, pool, etc, and preparing the houses for their guests (and there are a few!) plus everything else to keep the property running, including making wine, olive oil, preserving the produce, etc.

Danilo, now in his 50s, also works for the commune (council of Monte Castello di Vibio), and Helena does the cooking, cleaning, gardening (and that is a term I use lightly because this place is MASSIVE).
They have a son, Anthony. He is 21 years old and a gorgeous guy. Very quiet but he has big dreams of moving to Brazil, buying a block of land away from everyone and becoming a farmer.

The second day we arrived I heard Helena in the cantina (cellar), so I went to introduce myself. About 20 minutes later I was intimately acquainted with her dental problems that were causing her so much pain she couldn't do anything. She looked really miserable.

A couple of days later with Shane in France, I ran into Helena again. She kindly offered to take me to the supermarket because I was housebound without a car. I then learnt about her other allergies, intolerance to gluten and a very bad sickness she had about 2 years ago, that nearly took her life, but by the strength of God, didn't. I know all about the doctors in Perugia, which ones are bad, good, charlatans, the dentists in Todi, where she goes to get her gluten free flour, how it took them so long to diagnose her illness, she was bed ridden for months. I am intimately acquainted with her health situation let's say.

Helena is a character. She fulfills the part of the feisty Brazilian wife very well. She is also a shoe-in for the part of the lamentative Italian woman, with a jealous husband who she doesn't really like that much ('all men are the same' - I get that sense also in the way she speaks to and talks about Shane....), meanwhile she is always busy ironing sheets and cooking etc etc etc.  I am summarizing to get the point across, but you get my drift.

Collecting apricots to make jam in someone's field down a dirt road far away from our house
where there's a farm with a man who wants to make love to her.

Danilo is a very kind man who loves the kids - he is the king of the kids well and truly, and his son has the same talent. Danilo and his tractor rock Sam and Charlie's world in the first few days here and the tractor still pulls the kids regardless of what they are doing (with the exception of TV). Danilo has always lived in Monte Castello di Vibio and is very traditional in his tastes, a true Italian farmer, with his mother who lives just a few houses down. He seems really content with his life and doesn't want for anything, so it seems to me. They are an odd match...

BBQ - what's medium rare?

Helena invites us over for dinner and we are lucky to experience her cooking, what she can do with veggies from her garden puts my cooking skills to shame, and she's not shy to tell me either! Modesty is not really a word I would use, but she is as honest as they come. 'Salt of the earth' comes to mind...appropriate for Helena because despite her claims that Italians use too much salt and she is a very healthy cook, she has a very hand when it comes to seasoning her meals.

These guys have been generous beyond explanation and have opened up their home - so much so, that the boys go over without a word to us and lie on their bed to watch cartoons. Charlie and Sam have a new set of pseudo grandparents, lucky them :)

We get to meet Danilo's mother and her boyfriend one night at dinner, a woman that Helena despises - I can't begin to explain how she feels about her. Needless to say, I'm grateful for my mother in law a million times over!

Helena's Brazilian aunt Jenny who doesn't look a day over 45 is also a character we have had quite a bit to do with. Another spirited Brazilian woman who runs her own cleaning business and from the photos in her house was a latino dance champion and a total babe in her heyday.  Divorced with a capricious, spoilt rude (her words) 26 year old daughter who lives in the basement and who she despises and I get the sense that the feeling's mutual, Jenny lives with her 70 something year old boyfriend Francis, a Dutch ex-drumming teacher who also lives downstairs (in a separate part to the daughter). Incidentally, her boyfriend refuses to speak Italian. How they hooked up a year ago I have no idea, but given that noone in Jenny's family speaks a word of English, not even Jenny, I'm betting they are awesome at charades. We have had dinner with Jenny a few times, when Helena has invited us to dinner and we have been part of a cast of many, also driving the hour to Jenny's house for dinner also to be greeted by lots of other people from different parts of town, and each time we hear a long story about the relationship between Jenny and her daughter. I have just returned from one of these evenings where we have been invited to dinner. I have accepted, but being a bit wary that it's a long night for the boys (and me!) - tonight there were 15 people at the table, and her daughter also had a dinner party at the same time, but separate to the rest of us...random people I don't even know how they fit in, the only person who's name I caught at the beginning ended up being the 50 something year old butcher, Salvatore, who provided the meat for the bbq and who tried to get my phone number. Nice.

Helping hang the onions and garlic in the cantina

Shane's envy reached its peak when Helena told
him that this year was a really bad year for tomatoes.

Who gets watermelon like this in their garden?!!!

At times over the past few weeks I have wanted to pull my ears off so I don't have to hear some of the things these people have said about their family...Helena is open in the extreme, and she talks as fast as the Eurostar in a Brazilo-Italian accent with grammar that I'm sure isn't right. Try catching the stories after a few wines and see how you hold up, it's not easy! Having said all that, she is generous in the extreme and I am learning lots from her, if not grammatically perfect Italian or how to treat your husband :)

Sirolo, unknown jewel of the tourist laden east coast

After Nathan and the McInerneys head for Rome and London, it's just the Heslops. It's our first week with just the four of us together since we arrived 3 weeks ago. We have one week until the next guests arrive that gets consumed by sleep ins, swimming by the pool, playing Uno, Shane doing a few more bike rides before his big Spain trip, the kids sneaking over to Helena and Danilo's house to eat lolls and watch Italian cartoons, and me trying half-heartedly to keep up the running without my lovely running compagnon, Tania...

On one of these languid days when the temperature clings to 40, I make it known that we should head to the beach for a day trip, mind you, this is at around 11am.  The last time I had one of these "why don't we be a bit more spontaneous, who cares if half the day has already gone' ideas, Sam was 6 weeks old, Charlie not yet two, and we headed off to the snow for the day, where Charlie turned a shade of grey/green Ive never seen and we lasted 20 minutes on Lake Mountain before a snow storm set in...Happy that time seems to have erased this event from Shane's memory, he diligently gets out his trusty iPad and starts researching beaches - East coast, west coast, travel time, etc needing to read all the reviews and find out where the best beaches are before we set off, and in spite of my heckling, I'm bloody glad he did, because Sirolo and Numana were FANTASTIC!!!

At Numana Beach

A 2.5 hour car trip (yes I drove!), and we arrive at Numana, about 10 minutes from busy, touristy Ancona (you might know of nearby Rimini, Ricchione, Cattolica that are packed during the summer with Italians and Germans)...we seem to have landed on the family beach, because there are kids playing, women with cellulite and not a brazilian bikini bottom anywhere. We pay our obligatory 16 euro (pretty cheap) for our two sun beds and umbrella near the water and make for the 'waves'!! 

In Australia I've lasted about 2 hours maximum at the beach, but with the sun beds, umbrella, coronas that you could order from the bar 20 metros away we lasted an almighty 4 - personal best!!

UNO!

How good is pizza and beer on the beach?

 After such a relaxing time at the beach we drive to the next town, Sirolo, to see what it's like, and I'm so glad we did because it was beautiful. Shane is still raving about it being as beautiful, if not mores, than Positano...I've never been so I'll have to take his word for it, but it was absolutely stunning. No tourists, whitewashed buildings, a piazza with a view to die for and aperitifs at sunset.

 

Finally, somewhere that serves Bloody Marys, this really is a great town!!!

Back on board...

There's been a bit going on these last couple of weeks which is why I've been a bit slack on the blogging front...but now our most recent guests have left, Shane is in Spain for the week, and the kids are officially sanctioned to 1 hour of 'quiet time' each day, so I should be able to catch up and fill you in a bit better...

You know you're in Italy when....

You know you're in Italy when...

• You're at the petrol station there are at least two men standing around with cigarettes in their mouths despite the no smoking signs

• You witness unnatural levels of tanning in most of the population, even nonnas in hot orange dresses (I know I've already written about this but I'm a bit obsessed)...how good are the orange dress lady's legs!????

• You start to get desensitized to bright pants on middle aged men and start finding it really attractive, especially different shades of peach and pale pink together with loafers and no socks, hmmmmm

• Gelato becomes a standard part of any trip to any place with children

• It seems a normal dinner conversation for a man to start talking to the waitress about how he always wanted her for his mistress...in front of his wife! (no Heslops were involved in this conversation)

• Men expect you to cook and clean up after them (my husband is not included in this generalization thank goodness!)

• You need to wear a swimming cap to a water park for hygiene reasons, and are forbidden entry unless you do, meanwhile people are smoking around the pool....

• Kids go to bed at 10pm and SLEEP IN, bless!!!

• You start getting very used to the 0.80euro croissant for breakfast each morning

• Roads are so bad that an honest morning's bike ride leaves the seasoned rider frazzled and a shadow of his former self

• You become another pink folder at the questura and thank your lucky stars you were born in Australia rather than Africa so the police treat you nicely.

Assisi - city of peace and religious gift shops

Despite being brought up a catholic...I have to say I'm not very good at being catholic (Sorry mum and dad). I'm good at the guilt part, I can feel guilty about just about anything, but I'm not so good at believing the stories. Let's say I'm a bit cynical about the Catholic church, so my children don't really know much about Jesus or God. I'm more of a 'do unto others' catholic, maybe that's what you would call being a Christian. Happy to take the underlying messages but I don't really feel comfortable passing the stories. I think I'll leave the stories to their RE lessons in the Italian education system and I'll just teach them the basics.

Assisi is a beautiful hilltop town in Le Marche region which is renowned for being the birthplace  of Saint Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment. I visited Assisi when I studied in Italy as a teenager. I remember it being hilly and hot.  Heading off with the family and Nathan for a day trip, my new memories will include the Basilica di St Francis, which is pretty amazing, forgetting to bring something to cover my shoulders with and needing to 'rent' a piece of black material to be able to go into the church, and that it is really hilly and really hot, even moreso with kids in tow.





















Despite what I think I know that my nonna will love it and it has great wheelchair access so she is going to be one happy catholic camper when she gets to Italy in 3 weeks!!!

A good day trip, but with young boys probably not something I'd recommend as a family outing.

Bye Nath, have fun in Roma town! xxx

Torta al Vino Rosso

Chocolate red wine cake

I must admit I was dubious when Helena, the Brazilian born Italian caretaker told me about this cake, but after making it and more importantly, eating it, I need to share it so other people can enjoy it's amazing deliciousness.

Preparation 15 mins
Cooking Time 80-90 mins
For 12 people (really? clearly people with polite appetites)
Difficulty 'Medium'


Ingredients
200 g Butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon crushed clove (not garlic cloves!)
250 g white sugar
20 g dark cocoa
150 g small chocolate buttons
4 medium sized eggs (separated)
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
250 g self raising flour (this recipe asked for 1 packet of yeast and plain flour, but doing it this way with aussie SR flour should be okay?!!)
150 mL red wine (you got it, red wine) - the recipe asks for a wine that has a deep red color, so maybe try a cab sav or merlot, any australian red except a pinot should be fine as they are all pretty heavy....

Preparation
PREHEAT THE OVEN TO 150 DEGREES C
1. Cut the butter into cubes and cream it with the sugar
2. Then add the yolks one at a time, and mix well then adding the cinnamon powder, cocoa and cloves.
3. Still mixing, add the red wine and when you've made a batter of uniform colour add the chocolate buttons and the flour and mix gently until all mixed in
4. In another bowl, whip the egg whites into peaks and then add slowly, folding the batter until all mixed
5. Grease and flour a 28cm round tin and put the batter in, leveling with a spatula
6. Put in the oven and wait patiently....

Check it's ready with a toothpick or whatever you normally use...let it cool and ice it with icing sugar sprinkled on top. YUMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYY!!!




Enjoyed with homemade liquor from wild prunes, and other fruits I struggle to understand and translate after the first liquor....magnifico!