Il Forno

Darling, did you dig up the cheese? or the tale of Formaggio di Fossa.

I had intended to post a bit more about the contents of the package I got from Italy, but too much got eaten before I even had a chance to take a picture. Sometimes it's quite hard to resist a fridge full of delicious food, only waiting for you to bite into it. Something did survive the slaughter, though: half a Formaggio di Fossa di Sogliano cheese. Given my fascination with fermented foods, formaggio di fossa is one of my favourites: it's twice fermented!

Parmigiana di melanzane: on an aubergine high

If Italian cooking is one of your food interests, you'll probably now that Italian cuisine is a very regionalised one. Dishes and food products can vary greatly even from one small town to the next. That's why in most Italian trattorias you'll hardly find those dishes that are so common in Italian restaurants abroad. There are a few exceptions to this rule of thumb. On of these is a recipe that has spread throughout Italy: parmigiana di Melanzane aka eggplant or aubergine parmesan/parmegiana/parmigiana. The recipe is probably original of the Neapolitan areas form where it spread first to southern Italy and then the whole peninsula. For me parmigiana is THE aubergine recipe. Every time I get cravings for aubergines the first idea that comes to mind is this one. I usually resist the temptation mainly because of the amount of calories the recipe has and because of the lengthy preparation. But sometimes I just give in. It's worth the weight I put on :-).

Creative commons content of the week

If you got here following the Cretive Common Weblog link, welcome. Have a look around and if something strikes you I'd love to read your comments.
Thanks to the Creative Common people for picking this blog :-).

Schwarzer Bär

I had been delaying my long due first visit to the restaurant of the hotel Schwarzer Bär for quite a while now. Many locals consider this the best restaurant in town, making me curious, because of it's well done classic Thuringian dishes, which made me far less curious. Not that I have anything against German cooking, only it would not be my first choice for the few occasions me and Daniela can go out baby-free. It would be cool to say we went there because of "my journalistic integrity" or "for my readers" :-))) but the main reason was another. I had a bad conscience. Yep, that's it. A bad conscience because I'd sometimes find myself talking to people about local eat-out places and Schwarzer Bär would inevitably pop up. And I would have nothing to say about it, which is something I don't really like having to do ;-).

Some serious bread baking

Since I started this blog I have had a mixed feeling about the compliments I receive about my baking posts. On one hand I'm really pleased about them, they're a great morale booster and mood-improving. On the other I know there's quite a few people out there who are much more serious than me and much better bakers. Don't get this wrong, please continue with your nice comments ;-). It's just that I'm well aware of the fact that there are too many interesting things in the food-drink world for me to keep concentrated only on baking. A few days ago I received an e-mail regarding my blog entry about baguettes with a very good recipe from Petra. Petra is definitely what I mean with serious baker. She keeps, since 2002, an incredibly good baking website, sadly for most of you out there, only in German. It contains around 140 recipes, concentrating mostly on wheat flour based breads and containing a large rolls and buns section. Even if you can't read the German text I'd have a look: most recipes come with a mouth-watering bread pic.

Petra was kind enough to answer a couple of questions I had about her interest for bread. She explained to me how her passion for bread was stimulated by tasting breads abroad, so different from those she was used to. She then tried to reproduce them at home. It was really interesting to find out that her source of recipes and inspiration is, like mine, American baking books. It's funny that countries as Italy and Germany that do have an Artisan Bread tradition (long proofing, starters and so on) don't manage or want to spread the knowledge to amateur bakers. I, like Petra, turned to American books frustrated by the lack of decent baking books in my mother language. Given my weakness for books, this "inspiration" can be at times critical for my account balance :-). At least now I can go to Petra's website for some free ideas... I think I already have two or three to try out.

On reading and classic sauces: "The making of a chef"

A book themed post for Unesco's world book day.

Sometimes books can be full of interesting information but not written in a way that really keeps your attention there. Other books might be great to read, fun, thrilling but ultimately just like junk food: no "nourishment" there. And then, once in a while, you stumble across a book that's well written, enthralling and loaded with interesting and stimulating info. Such as Michael Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef.This book is an account on the CIA, the Culinary institute of America, the way this famous school works and how it prepares its students. It is also a book that inevitably challenges my opinion on classical French cooking and makes me feel like preparing some of those sauces described by Escoffier at the beginning of the last century.

Il panino

Recently I've been getting the impression that the simple sandwich has been progressively more under the media spotlight. Just a few days ago I read this interesting article about how the French are embracing the good old sarnie (sandwich for the non British) to come to terms with today's shorter lunch breaks. The next day, to remain in topic, I received an Italian gastronomic magazine with a panino on the front page. Inside a couple of interesting articles on what panini are today in Italy, how (again) the changing lifestyle has helped making them more popular than ever and the best addresses around the peninsula. It would seem that even in Italy people are noticing how popular panini have become abroad and finally taking pride in that. Stimulated by these articles I decided to write a post on Italian panini. After all, loving bread so much I couldn't ignore what comes between those delicious slices.

IMBB 3rd edition: The Cake Walk

I'd really like to thank all those who took part to the last edition of Is My Blog Burning?, baking some seriously delicious cakes and especially Renee for being such a fantastic host. I hope that all had the same fun I had in baking and reading what people came up with.

As usual: If anyone would be interested in hosting another edition, just drop me a line. We probably have volunteers for the next two but other suggestions/offers are always welcome.

IMBB cake walk: Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

It took me a little time to decide which recipe to pick up for this edition of "Is my Blog Burning?" hosted by Renee. I was divided whether to take something I had tried before at least once, to avoid possible embarrassing failures, or try a completely new recipe, to make things a bit more interesting. I decided to go for both in a certain sense. I chose a cake I know well, cause it's one of my favourites, but had never baked myself before: Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte better known as Black forest cake. There are loads of versions for this classical cake: the old-fashioned original German one, different modern versions, some with a French touch, some with an American touch... I've even seen a deconstructed one. In this case I stay true to the original German one. Maybe it's a question of being used to it, after all I've been eating this cake at least once a year for more or less the last 30, but I think it still has an edge on the modern versions. I usually got this cake from my parents for my birthday and what started as an almost-necessity, we were living in Germany back then, became a tradition. Finally, after all these years I'd give it a go myself.

The return of the artichoke, part II: pappardelle sauce

I was actually considering calling this post The Vampire Slayer, for reasons which are evident in the above pic, but decided to leave that title to Buffy :-). Anyway, having still two artichokes left after preparing the ravioli I started looking for a recipe that could be done with this limited quantity. I found my solution in Slow Food: Recipes from the Osterias of Italy (in the already published Italian version). Slow food recipe books are, in my experience, quite inconsistent when it comes to recipes: some work great and some just don't. The one I tried was luckily well written and delicious: pappardelle all'agnello e carciofi, a southern Tuscan recipe for pappardelle with a lamb and artichoke sauce.