Pasta Fresca - Fresh Pasta

I had to return to Jesi in early May for a few days to finish some school admin business. I also visited one of the many very nice people I have come to know there.

In Jesi, there is an open air market every morning, with numerous stalls selling, well, everything - to cook, eat. The fruits and veggies are fresh, so are the meats, and the seafood is, in some cases, still flipping. If you need a break while shopping, you can get coffee and pastries. And don't be surprised if you run into someone you know.

This is Paola Ruzzo. Her shop sells salumi, cheese, and she also sells her own fresh pasta. I've come to know her because whenever I would visit between days at school, we would chat about food, and she would give me samples of things to taste. One day, I bought a chunk of bread and some lettuce from another stand, some salumi and cheese from Paola, and she put the sandwich together for me.

The little room behind her is where she makes pasta.

Here are videos on making pasta by hand:



Here is a sheet of pasta ready to be cut:

And here is the sheet of pasta being cut into tagliatelli:



Once all is said and done, you have wonderful fresh pasta which, together with your equally wonderful ragu, makes for one of life's greatest pleasures.

Near the Finish Line....

Wow!!! Five months have and gone.

Upcoming will be the last week for me at Al Vedel. That went by fast.

I can honestly say that I learned tons, and on many levels. But at the same time, I can also see that this same amount is a mere dr0p in a huge bucket that comprises the grand cooking traditions of Italy.

The restaurant closes 6 July. I'm sure we'll have some semi-big celebration, and then everyone will go on vacation for about a month. Why don't we in USA-land do vacations like this? My vacation will be as a tourist - I will visit Lake Garda, Liguria, several towns in Tuscany, and finally Rome. Come early August, I will be a Californian again.

Whew!!!

And I will be able to play Fetch once again with my dog on the beach...

Lo Storione

Storione is the Italian name for sturgeon. I think that, served in a smaller portioning, this would be a great appetizer in the U.S.

Chef Matteo has been selling this dish like crazy. It is a study of various contrasts: lean and rich, soft and crunchy. The lean is the storione - cut into large cubes and sauteed in a very hot pan to get that crusty caramelization. The rich is foie gras, also cubed large and beautifully caramelized. The crunchy is a refreshing salad of julienned celery and carrots, dressed simply with olive oil, salt and pepper. All these are nestled atop a pea sauce - peas cooked in bacon or pancetta fat with a pinch of salt and sugar, which are then pureed. Whole peas finish the decoration.

Rich, and yet light - you'll come away feeling comfortable and refreshed.

Progress Report from Al Vedel....

It occurred to me a few days ago that I have been preparing a vast majority of the fresh pasta at Al Vedel, from simple to filled pastas. I feel pretty proud of this....

Little ol' me, an American making and serving fresh pasta to Italians, in their own country. A few months ago, if you were to tell me I'd be doing what I'm doing now, I would have looked at you funny....

Over one stretch of two weekends I must have made around 2500 pieces of the various filled pastas we serve, mostly Tortelli Erbetta. This includes a day where I made over 1000 pieces...

Where is my massage therapist when I need one????

Chocolate Gelato!!!!!!

Beware!!!!

It's Gelato Season!!!!

Gelato is not merely ice cream. Nooooooo. It is much more than that. It is a conspiracy. It is cruel. In fact, I cannot think of many more diversionary tortures in Life than this.

Gelato is devious. It has telepathic powers. It can, and will, control you. It works like this: Imagine yourself walking somewhere, perhaps for a hair appointment, perhaps home. Suddenly, you are abruptly yanked by your ear into the gelateria, and a cup of your favorite gelato appears in one hand. Inexplicably, the other hand moves to place a morsel of this gelato on your tongue. You feel powerless. No. You are powerless. Paralyzed.

You are levitated to another dimension that you cannot touch or hear. It seems that you can perceive the world (as you know it) around you, but just the same, it seems very far away. At this moment, it is just you, and that gelato. You are compelled to consume it. You find that you actually enjoy its company. Then, suddenly, inexorably:

It is just you, and your gelato. There is nothing else.

And it is at this moment that the gelato has you, not the other way around, as most people would believe.

I've had quite a number of these moments while here in Italy, and unfortunately for me, I don't regret any of them. Some of my best out-of-body gelato experiences have been in Jesi, where there is a small bar that produces some of the best gelato in all of Italy.

But I digress. Take heed and be warned: Gelato is actually a experimental vehicle for an extraterrestrial being that is looking to take over the earth. This is fact, and yet you see untold numbers of humans being consumed by gelato.

We must be vigilant!!!

OK - all kidding aside - my latest ritual on my days off are this: on my way back to my bus stop, I stop in at my favorite gelateria, and then ooze my way to said bus stop in sheer bliss over silky smooth choco gelato....

Go Sharks!!!!

The only regret I have about this escapade to Italy is that I am missing telecasts of the hockey season. And with the NHL playoffs underway, I am gnashing my teeth in agony - my only source of hockey is online sports news updates. And what's more, it's not just hockey - it's Playoff Hockey!!! I so miss the excitement of watching...

Sigh....

Can someone please send me game videos???? Pleazzzzze????????!!!!!!!

And now for the shameless plug: Gotta love those San Jose Sharks!!! Congratulations on the conquest of the Calgary Flames, and now on to battle the Dallas Stars! Oh, Yeah!!!

My team is looking pretty darn good right now.....

Go Sharks!!!

Testaroli: Italian for pancakes....

We North Americans love our pancakes. Light, fluffy, and resplendent with butter and maple syrup (or whatever else we love on them...) - there are few finer ways to start a day.

But the Italians have them, too, little do we know. And they use them a little differently.

A food item from the region of Lunigiana, in what is now Tuscany, right next to Liguria, Testaroli are amongst the many examples of how humble ingredients such as flour and water are transformed into food that satisfies.

And how humble this is - just two parts flour to three parts water and a pinch of salt, mixed together to form a thick batter. The secret to leavening the testaroli is to have a large, thick pan heated very, very hot. Cast iron would be pretty ideal here. The steam from the heat will be the leavening. Starting from the center of the pan, pour the batter in a spiral fashion to form a large pancake. From there, proceed with the cooking as per pancakes.

Once removed from the pan, let it rest a few minutes, then cut it into two-inch squares. Toss with a sauce, and it is done.

Per Lunigiana tradition, you can use pesto, or an asparagus cream, or simply butter and parmigiano. We use a simple lamb ragu for the sauce. And just like fine pasta, the testaroli are finished with a handful of grated parmigiano reggiano.

...My Front Door...

It looks as if I live in a barn, and it might as well be one - it is big enough for a flock of barnyard animals. But instead, there "lives" the salumi - culatelli, salami, etc. - that are doing their time, going through the inescapable aging process. Once mature, they will move to the grand aging cellar adjacent to the restaurant.

But no, I don't live here. There are stairs that lead up to an upstairs apartment.

Relatively sparse by North American standards, this place that is my home for the next few months is still comfortable just the same. It even has a small deck, which I will be using come warmer weather. There are two rooms, both very spacious, and lucky me, I have my own room all to myself. Since I am the only occupant, I am a pretty happy guy.

To get to work, all I do is exit, turn left, and walk about 150 meters (or so). No car, no hassles with traffic and parking...

Life is pretty simple right now...

We get to work at 0900 (most of the time in a beary-eyed zombie state), prep until 1100 or 1115, at which point we eat lunch, and talk/laugh about whatever topics de jour happen to evolve. At 1200, lunch service commences, and when the last order goes, we clean up and resume prep work until 1700/1730 (that's 5 pm to 530 pm to the rest of the world).

At this point, I'm usually pretty tired, so all I do is go home and crash. I can't actually fall asleep, because I'm wired from work, but lying down and closing the eyes still still feels really good. At 1800 (6 pm), I go back to the restaurant and get dinner, and then return home. Dinner service begins at 1930, and we work until 2300, sometimes a little longer.

Alas, I ease myself one final time through that barn door. Home at last, I unwind and await that first big inescapable yawn that beckons the visit to Dreamworld...

Le Salame Fritte Con Le Vecchie

This is another very traditional recipe from the Parma region. Back some number of generations, somebody (or somebodies???) figured out what to do with the trimmings and scraps of meat from making their salumi, as well as what to do with the salumi and scraps that were not suitable for sale. The solution was to grind it all up into sausage meat with salt/pepper/the local white wine, form it into patties, and fry it up in a pan. At Al Vedel, Chef Matteo finishes the Salame Fritte by deglazing the pan with a very healthy dousing of Malvasia, which has a slight sparkle and a sweeter character. This deglaze reduces to form a pan sauce of intriguing contrast of tastes and textures.

Le Vecchie ("The Old") - the vegetable stack that you see is a saute of fagiolini (Italian for green beans), potatoes, tomatoes, roasted red and yellow peppers, and onions. The sauce underneath is a puree of roasted red bell peppers.

These two components are melded together on the plate - sunny, brilliant, and fresh as springtime - some wonderful flavors in the grand Parmigiano tradition.

Tortelli ed Erbetta - Tortelli with Herbs

If there is a dish emblematic of the region of Parma, this is it. Rich and lush, this is the celebration of the ingredients that predominate Parma: Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, the wonderful pasta made with eggs, leafy veggies that here are referred to as herbs (usually spinach), and Ricotta.

A side note:

Here in Italy, Ricotta, the translation of which means "recooked," is not classified as a cheese, even though we North Americans incorrectly call it as such. It is a product made after the production of cheese. The best example I know is this: after the production of pecorino cheese (that made from sheep's milk), the remaining whey is gently heated to around 80 degrees celsius. This heating promotes the curdling of the remaining protein, which is then collected, drained, packed...

And eaten.... Yummm!!

Ok - back to the Tortelli...

For the filling, the recipe calls for ricotta, spinach (blanched, drained, squeezed dry, and chopped fine), eggs, salt, and parmigiano reggiano. The two ingredients you cannot measure out consistently are the chopped spinach and the parmigiano. These two ingredients will vary in taste from season to season, and in the case of the parmigiano, from one wheel to the next. So even though a recipe will specify a certain amount of parmigiano reggiano, you can only rely on the taste to determine exactly how much to add.

I know some of you are gnashing your teeth over the issue of measuring, but keep in mind - the fun part of cooking is always the tasting.

Cheese: Parmigiano Reggiano and Il Caseificio Gennari

On my second day of work, Chef Enrico was kind enough to arrange a visit to Caseificio Gennari, the cheese producer from where Al Vedel gets its Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

We arrived mid-morning, and the day's cheesemaking was well underway. If you imagine the aroma of a glass of warm milk on a cold day - well, think not of one single glass, but a huge roomful's worth - this was my welcome into the cheese making room.

In the room were two rows of ten vats, each of which hold up to 1300 liters of milk to produce two wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano that in the end weigh approximately 38 kilograms (84 pounds) each.

The milk used to produce parmigiano reggiano is actually a mixture of two different milkings - the first is from the previous evening, which was allowed to settle in large flat tanks, the cream rising to the top. The following morning, the cream is skimmed off the milk, and this skimmed milk is combined with this same morning's fresh whole milk. The proportion of the two different milks are at the discretion of the individual cheesemaker (Casaro).

We were guided through the making of Parmigiano Reggiano by the daughter of the Gennari family. They make it look so simple, this art of cheesemaking. And it is an art, taught and learned, passed from one generation to the next. What you cannot really see is the decision-making that goes into each step of the process - the casari know by instinct when to proceed from one step to the next.

Once the curdle was collected into the muslin sheets, we were treated to a sample's worth. Warm and springy, it had a sweet milky flavor that was pretty good on its own...

After seeing the massive brining vats, we saw how the cheese is transformed by time to that final Parmigiano Reggiano that we love.

And then we were lead to the aging rooms. Huge, about the size of an airplane hanger, with numerous rows of the cheese wheels, 20 wheels high by roughly 100 wheels long, the views of which seemed to go on endlessly.

At the end of the day, forty wheels of cheese per day at roughly 500 euros/wheel (retail) come out to be not bad for a day's work.

And in keeping with the philosophy that nothing goes to waste - the cream from the skimmed milk is used to make wonderful parmigiano butter, and the whey from the cheesemaking is used to feed the local pigs, from which come the same region's Prosciutto di Parma, culatello, and other salumi.

For a more comprehensive pictorial of my visit to Caseificio Gennari, please visit my Picasa photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/spottybird/CaseificioGennari1February2008

You can also read more about Parmigiano Reggiano at these websites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmesan

http://www.parmigiano-reggiano.it/default.aspx?newlang=7

Salumeria Garibaldi - Parma

I pass this place every time I go to and from the bus stop/train station in Parma.



As in any city in Italy there are countless coffee bars, pizzerias, and other small eateries, all of them serving up the same things. In other words, you've seen one, you've seen them all. But of this place I almost always have to stop in and have a look. Featured amidst the usual assortment of proscuitti, culatelli, other salumis, cheeses, and pastas are stuffed rabbit, stuffed cabbage, stuffed veal in the storefront display windows, roasted chickens, veggie dishes, rice dishes, and various pastas in the inside display case, and a grand tableful of cakes and desserts in the middle of the store.

Places like this drive me nuts. Remember that expression "Never go shopping for food when you are hungry?" Of course this store is located on the way to my ride home - right when I am getting hungry.

This store also happens to sell culatelli and other salumi that are produced at Al Vedel's salumi making venue. The picture hanging in front of the salumi display is that of the aging cellar at Al Vedel. There are hundreds of culatelli there, waiting for that perfect moment to be picked and sliced. Hmmmm... Kind of like fresh fruit from the orchard....

Cioccolata Calda - Hot Chocolate:

Hot chocolate, hot cocoa - however we've called it, we've all had a good cup. But not like this...

This stuff is so thick, your spoon could almost stand upright in it. Or better yet, you (or I) could stand upright in it. It falls from your spoon in a thick ribbon, and the chocolate richness sticks to your ribs.

On a chilly day, there is not a whole lot that'll warm you up better than this.

Il Pollo Dorato - Golden Chicken:

This is one of the best sellers at Al Vedel. This recipe for fried chicken has been in the Bergonzi family for the past five (now going on six) generations. It is a very simple recipe - dredge in flour, shake off the excess, dip in beaten eggs (seasoned with salt), and shallow fry to golden brown. You get a light crisp that does not overshadow the wonderful flavor of the chicken.

The secret to its goodness is really fresh chicken, which is then not overcooked. We get the chickens whole and break them down ourselves into portions that are really easy to eat, like boneless pieces, but still have the bones and thus all the flavor (unlike boneless pieces).

Just how fresh are the chickens? They might even have a few feather quills attached to the skin, they haven't leaked any of the juices out of the flesh, and they have no smell whatsoever.

Here is Matteo Bersellini, one of the nicest people with which you can work. And a pretty darn good chef, too. This picture pretty much sums him up - I was taking pics of this wedding celebration dessert arrangement, and he snuck into the frame.

Matteo grew up in this area near Parma, had his culinary training here, so he knows the roots and traditions of Parmigiano cuisine. When I started my internship at Al Vedel, it was at his station, the Secondi, which is the equivalent of what we call The Main Course. And even though chef Enrico has the last say of the menu choices, Matteo designs all the secondi plates, staying true to their respective traditions.

To say that Matteo is a pretty cool dude is a gross understatement. In fact, he is actually pretty goofy. He is also cool as a cucumber, even under fire. Even in the middle of a very busy dinner service, he will be singing (softly, of course) whatever is on his brain.

Which can be any number of tunes.

Now when you are The New Guy as I was, you are at least somewhat reserved, if not outright nervous, at the beginning. But on my first day, having my head down while focused on cleaning beef or fish or whatever I was doing at that time, I suddenly heard the theme to The Flintstones!!!?????!!!! I looked over, and there was Matteo whistling this as he worked. I knew right then and there that I could get along really well with this guy. Since then I've heard quite a number of other things out of him, ranging from rock of the 70's to the 90's, reggae, and even Boy George (oh, the horror!) but at heart he is bluesman and a headbanging rock star wannabe. So yeah, he is really cool....

And when I am finished here at Al Vedel, I will make a compilation: The Greatest Hits of Matteo Bersellini.....

This is chef Enrico Bergonzi, who rules supreme over his kitchen. Watch him make Tortelli :

(Kids, don't try this at home....)



He's not even breathing.....

....Intro....

Well, I have been in Italy for almost seven months now, and after going through two rounds of computer problems (and I'll spare you the details) ....

Yay!!!! A blog! This will serve as my journal to remember the experiences of my internship near Parma, and I'll also be recalling the highlights of my school term in Jesi, Le Marche, as well as other travels. Oh, do feel free to reply however you wish to my musings....

(Click me....)

Thus far, I've been through 10 weeks of school, and 5 months of internships. I've lived in three different places in Italy, and traveled to a bunch more. I've picked olives, been to a cheese festival, a balsamic vinegar exposition, and a dessert/gelato/chocolate/bread expo. I've learned tons about food in Italy, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Yet what seems like tons is but a tiny drop. There is so much more. And I'm not yet done.

There is too much to write about, but I hope to catch everything, a bit at a time.

Enjoy!!!
Ciao!

JF

Trattoria Al Vedel

It doesn't look much from the front, and the name is even more unassuming.

Fom very humble beginnings at the end of the 18th century, Trattoria Al Vedel ( http://www.alvedel.it/ ) has been the centerpiece of the Bergonzi family, and has evolved from a general store to one of the most traditional and yet progressive restaurants in the Parma region.

This is the site of my current internship. I have been working here since the end of January, and I am loving it. The hours are long, and so is the work, but it is good work - lots of learning and lots of practice - exactly what I have been expecting.

If you were a diner here, this is a little of what you would see:

The dining room... (Click me...)

The Cantina (Wine Room)...

One of the "Natural Resources" of this restaurant is their very own Culatello. In fact, nearly all the salumi (cured meats) that are served here are made here. Culatello is arguably the King of Salumis (and I have no doubt that fistfights will start over this argument). But one bite may have you converted.

I'll write about Culatello in another post, as it deserves its own time. But for now, enjoy this thought: a thin slice of Culatello, butter from the same milk that produces Parmigiano Reggiano cheese on a slice of freshly baked bread, leaving you with an incredibly sweet saltiness and a delicately silken chew.

(Click me!!)

This is a collection of the salumis at Al Vedel: Culatello, prosciutto, salami.... Yummmm...

The Cheese Trolley - more on this later. For now, you cheese crazies will just have to wait ...

(Click me....)

And here are some of the main courses (Secondi in Italiano). I start with these because my internship started at this station.

Lamb... Hmmmmmmm........

Guancia (Veal Cheek) - braised until you can cut it with a spoon...

Strisce di Seppia (Strips of Cuttlefish) - this is a lot like squid...

I'll go more into these dishes later...

But now I gotta eat my lunch!!!!

Stay Tuned!!!!!