Tiramisu

Giorgio, Terre di Nano

We made this in our cooking class in Italy. It is delicious, and simple.

250 g mascarpone
strong coffee, cold

3 eggs, separated

8 large spoons sugar (heaping spoons and it was a small serving spoon he used)

splash brandy

savoiardi Italian ladyfingers

Combine egg yolks with sugar.

Whisk egg whites in mixer until stiff (nothing falls off the whisk when you lift it out of the bowl).

Add mascarpone and a splash of brandy to the egg-yolk mixture. Gently fold the egg whites into this.

Dip each ladyfinger quickly in coffee and put in a square casserole dish. Do this until you have a layer covering the bottom of the pan. Then cover the ladyfingers with half of the cream mixture. Next, dip more ladyfingers in coffee the same way and layer, but alternate the direction of the ladyfingers this time. Spread the rest of the cream mixture on top of this.

Sprinkle cocoa power through a fine sieve to create a solid dusting covering the whole top. Refrigerate for the better part of a day, or, if making it in the late afternoon, freeze for about an hour, then put in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

Gnocchi

from Giorgio, Terre di Nano

We took a cooking class when we were in Tuscany in July 2009, at Terre di Nano, the agriturismo where we stayed. They make wine and olive oil there in addition to accommodating guests, but our cooking class focused on making potato gnocchi and tiramisu the traditional ways. I've made gnocchi a lot of times since the trip. It freezes beautifully and is a treasure to pull out of the freezer on a weeknight along with some cubes of frozen homemade pesto. We had it in Italy with tomato sauce and with pesto. I've also had it sauteed in butter and served other ways.

potatoes (approximately 1 medium per person)flour

salt

an egg if needed

Boil potatoes with peels until very soft. Remove from boiling water and cool slightly. Remove skin. It comes off in big patches when you just peel it back with your fingers. Remove any blemishes.

Mash potatoes thoroughly with a fork on countertop. Add a little salt. Begin kneading flour into the potatoes. With a scoop, generously sprinkle flour all the way around the pile of potato, then work it in bit by bit as you knead, then repeat. You have to work a lot of flour into the potato. He said you know you have enough when you can poke your finger into the ball of dough and it doesn't feel sticky on the inside. If it becomes too dry, you may need to knead in an egg (we didn't need to do this).

Cut a chunk off the mass of dough, roll it into a snake about 1/2-inch thick, and then cut the snake into small, squarish pieces.

With a fork in one hand, pick up each small piece with your other hand and with your thumb, push it down the tines of the fork. This creates the ribbed texture of the gnocchi. Collect gnocchi, not touching each other, on a lightly floured baking sheet.

Next, either cook it to serve or freeze it. To serve immediately: drop gnocchi into pot of boiling water and leave it just long enough for water to return to a boil and gnocchi to pop to the surface of the water and float-- only a couple of minutes. Skim them out individually or in groups as they float to the surface. Toss hot gnocchi with desired sauce and serve. OR, put baking sheet in freezer for a while until gnocchi pieces freeze individually, then dump them into a freezer bag or other container and freeze until ready to use. Once frozen they can be prepared as described above.

Panzanella

from Gourmet, August 1993

I had never had this Italian tomato-and-bread salad until our Italy trip in 2009. We ate it at La Grotta, where we had one of the best meals of our trip. It was perfectly seasoned, cool, and refreshing. I looked for recipes when I got back and found this one that I love to make in the summer. It is more rustic than the restaurant version, with the ingredients in bigger pieces. It's always really satisfying and maybe even more delicious the second day.

3/4 lb. day-old crusty peasant-style whole-grain bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 6 cups)

2 large tomatoes (about 1 pound), trimmed and each cut into 8 wedges

3/4 C sliced cucumber

1/2 C sliced red onion (I used regular onion)

1/2 C extra-virgin olive oil

2 T red-wine vinegar

10 fresh basil leaves, shredded

coarse salt & pepper

In a serving bowl stir together all ingredients until the salad is combined well.

Italy Trip, 2009

We went to Italy in June/July 2009. Since some time after that, I've had these next few posts about Italian food sitting as drafts. It was an amazing trip. It really was as beautiful, or more beautiful, than those Tuscan landscape paintings you see. That was the view pretty much everywhere we went in Tuscany-- which we visited along with Rome, Venice, and Florence, and was our favorite of all those places. Our next trip to Italy will be a trip to Tuscany alone.

I had read once that there is no other country as large in its influence on world cuisine for its size geographically. These are some things we learned about Italian eating, or generalizations we made after about ten days there:

• Italians take a long time to eat. Dinner out, even at a casual restaurant, always took upwards of 2 hours. They just kind of leave you alone and expect you to linger.
  
• Pasta everywhere we went was homemade.
• Breakfast is brioche (a croissant) and cappuccino.
• Breakfast is eaten sitting in the bar where it is purchased (rarely, as it is a lot more expensive to sit) or standing at the counter. We didn't see any paper to-go cups the whole time we were there.
• Italians have espresso in the late afternoon. In Siena we enjoyed seeing a nun and her friend standing at the counter in a "bar" in Siena having their afternoon pick-me-up.
• Bread is bad. Or at least it wasn't my thing. The bread in the basket at dinner everywhere was stale.
• Risotto is just rice there, not necessarily the cooking method and the creamy texture that you think of as risotto.
• They always have wine with dinner. Fully enjoying one's meal is not a special occasion.
  
• Seemingly all Italians know how to cook. Some of our best meals, and the wonderful gnocchi and tiramisu we were taught to make and ate, were prepared by a man our age who ran our "agriturismo" (a place that is farmed-- in this case, for olives and wine grapes-- and where they also host guests).

A few favorite recipes we learned on our trip to follow.

I can't wait to go back someday. Napa Valley (another favorite food and wine and idyllic-lifestyle destination) is on the horizon for this spring as a sort of fifth-anniversary trip...so maybe Italy again in five more years!

Mexican Lasagne

from a coworker of Gordie's, adapted from a recipe from Monica's Aca y Alla in Dallas, TX

12 corn tortillas
16 oz. tomatillo or green salsa
16 oz. red salsa
8 oz. corn
14 oz. black beans
14 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, grated
salt and pepper
1 lb. chicken, cubed and cooked

Preheat oven to 350.

Spread green salsa in bottom of 9 x 11 casserole dish. Spread evenly 4 tortillas, ripped up, 1/3 each of the corn, beans, cheese, all of chicken, and salt and pepper. Repeat with 2 more layers of tortillas, corn, beans, and cheese. Top with red salsa and sprinkle with a bit more cheese. Bake for 45 minutes.

Basic Chocolate Ice Cream

Again, easy but so good.

1 C whole milk
1/2 C sugar
8 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (I've used semisweet Baker's chocolate)
2 C heavy cream
1 t vanilla extract

Heat milk until just bubbling around the edges. In a blender, pulse to process the sugar with chocolate until chocolate is very finely chopped. Add hot milk, and process until smooth. Transfer to large Pyrex measuring cup and let cool completely. Add cream and vanilla. Mix in ice-cream maker.

Basic Vanilla Ice Cream

from Cuisinart Recipe Booklet

Basic, but delicious, and even better with fresh, good milk and cream.

1 C whole milk
3/4 C sugar
2 C heavy cream
2 t vanilla extract

In 2-quart Pyrex measuring cup, whisk milk and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Stir in heavy cream and vanilla. Mix in ice-cream maker.