Archive for the ‘life in calabria’ Category
What’s Cooking Wednesday: Rigatoni with Tuna
Welcome to What’s Cooking Wednesday!
It’s pasta again, folks, but I swear one of these weeks, we’ll go carb-free. I’ve been dying to slip a dessert in here, so perhaps next week. But there will probably still be flour. Oh well.
If you have been searching for recipes for tuna, search no more…rigatoni with tuna is a super-easy, super-fast recipe so it’s perfect when you get home late but still want something homemade.
I’ve been trying to convince P to let me make this for about a year and a half now as this was a staple of mine when I was single and cooking just for me.
Well, apparently it was also his go-to dish, because he kept refusing the offer. He finally agreed to the tuna last week, and we’ve now had it two more times since then.
Three notes before we get to the recipe:
(1) I serve rigatoni with this because I like the way the grooves catch the sauce and the holes catch the tuna and tomato chunks. Most recipes I’ve seen, though, do this with regular old spaghetti; obviously that works too.
(2) Many recipes for pasta with tuna don’t use onions. I don’t know why because I love tuna and onions together (especially on pizza!), and I think they work well together here as well. That said, if you don’t happen to have an onion, feel free to do this recipe without it and double the garlic. Because many of you will have garlic and not onion, I’m sure.
(3) This is a great recipe to switch up and add other ingredients you like–basil, black olives, and capers come to mind, but the possibilities are endless.
Rigatoni al tonno
(Rigatoni with tuna)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 small cans tuna (if yours is packed in olive oil, use that for part of the oil above)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 can peeled tomatoes, run through grinder or coarsely chopped
salt and peperoncino to taste
First, put on the water for the pasta. By the time it’s boiling, your sauce should be about 10 minutes away from ready–perfect for rigatoni cooking time.
Put olive oil in skillet and sauté onions on medium heat until translucent. Add garlic and peperoncino and cook for a few minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic.
Add tuna and let cook a few minutes, mixing them well with the onions, garlic, and oil.
Add tomatoes, parsley, and salt (at least a hefty pinch will be necessary), lower heat, and let simmer for about 20 minutes or until the tomatoes are cooked to your satisfaction.
When your pasta is cooked and drained, mix well with the sauce.
Serve hot and with grated Parmesan cheese if you like (even though purists would say no cheese with tuna).
Buon appetito!
quantifying weirdness
Shelley of At Home in Rome modified the famous “Six Weird Things About You” meme into the “Six Weird Things About Your City” meme. I’m an overachiever, so I’ll tag myself with both. Anyone who would like to play along, feel free and then come back and leave a link in my comments so I can find you in all your weirdness.
Let’s start with me:
1. I have neither set foot in a Starbucks nor drunk their coffee. Ever. I don’t have anything against them, but we just never crossed paths before I left the U.S. Now I’m quite proud of this, so I will spend the rest of my life purposefully avoiding that caffeine-pushing Siren out of sheer stubbornness. Lucky for me, in southern Italy, this is quite easy to accomplish. I crack easily when it comes to coffee.
2. I arrange my silverware drawer in a very particular way and get upset if someone goes in there and moves things around. Of course all like items are together in slots, but the most important rule is that the bigger ones face up and the smaller ones face down (talking mostly forks and spoons here). And they are stacked, not willy nilly all over the place. Sharp knives all together *in their sheaths* as I don’t need to be slicing myself reaching into the drawer. The rest of the knives congregate in another slot and wallow in their dullness. Don’t worry, if you’re ever a house guest, I won’t ask you to put away silverware. In fact, I’ll probably ask you not to.
3. I can recite all of the Presidents of the United States in order. Wanna hear? Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams….OK, I’ll stop. We had to learn this when I was in 11th grade to recite every week to our teacher as a quiz, and what can I say? Some things in my brain just won’t give up their prized positions. On that note, sorry if I forget your name. There’s only so much room up there.
4. I can tie a cherry stem into a knot using only my tongue. This has more value in the real world than most scholastic accomplishments, so, kids, get practicing!
5. I used to have an intense fear of fire, as in fear that my house/apartment would burn down. I can’t say it was irrational because my family’s house did burn down in 1971 (before I was born) and so THE FIRE was always part of our lore. On the other hand, seven years of college and apartment building 3 a.m. fire alarms only fanned the flames, so to speak. I’m getting past it now that I live in a stone house, but the fact that people burn off their land still freaks me out. A lot.
6. I have two different sets of 4 cups each.
The narrow, flowered ones are for coffee and the wider ones are for tea. In the morning, first I choose coffee or tea (usually coffee), then I pick the mug to match my mood and/or my outfit. Yes, my doggie is the only one who sees my morning routine, but this process grounds me. Get it? Coffee? Grounds? I’m here all week folks!
Moving on to the second half, which I’ll call “Six Weird Things About Southern Italy (although some may apply to the entire country).” Now, to be clear, I’m not necessarily complaining, just observing. And remember, this is all from my experience, so if yours differs, do share in the comments:
1. The whole wedding process. This includes but is not limited to: (1) hand-delivering all invitations; (2) inviting 500 of your closest friends; (3) the fact that only women actually enter the church except for the groom, best man, fathers (maybe), altar boys, and priest; (4) as a guest, being expected to give an envelope full of money–anywhere from 150 euro per person on up is the norm; and (5) having to get married in the comune even if you have a church wedding. This last one might or might not be Italy-wide although I’m not sure.
2. Another general Italian thing–milk in boxes, unrefrigerated and on normal shelves. I’m used to it now, but it’s just an odd concept to get used to when you’re used to a big ole plastic container in the refrigerated dairy section.
3. Southern Italians’ proficiency with knives. I don’t know if this is country-wide or not, but man, down here, even children are adept with knives. Maybe part of it is because they peel all their fruit, and I’m not just talking about oranges and lemons (which, incidentally, is also done with a knife). Apples, pears, really anything with a skin. Even potatoes get peeled with a knife as opposed to a potato-peeler.
And if you’re ever in southern Italy up in someone’s campagna, you’re bound to see each and every man pull out his own pocket knife to cut up bread, salami, and cheese. Seriously, this is the go-to utensil, and when it comes right down to it, it is rather hard to argue with the logic; you can poke things/hold them in place like you would with a fork, scoop things like you would with a spoon, and of course cut. Weird but kinda genius.
4. The fascination with the wind. Shelley wrote about how people are always concerning with taking in the wind, you know, getting sick, and yes, this is true here as well, but I’m talking about the actual wind. The scirocco and tramontana are the biggies. At any given moment, someone is ready to tell me that the weather is all due to whatever type of wind blowing, and, for instance, whether or not I should take my laundry off the line because the scirocco is blowing up odd pink ash from Mount Etna that I’ll never get out of my clothes no matter what I try. Weird but kinda cool, actually. I love the wind.
5. Female friendships. I’ll probably get some flack for this one, but I’m going to say it: it’s difficult to form friendships with many Italian women. Some are closed off to the possibility, others have far different interests than your average Western woman, still others are just worried we foreigners are just man-stealers. In their defense on that last one–show of hands! How many expat bloggers are with Italian men? Uh huh.
Anyway, it seems to me that many Italian women just have a different mentality regarding female friendships–that they are formed very early on in life, and after that, it’s tough to break into the circle. Not impossible, especially where there are open-minded, curious Italian women, but difficult nonetheless. Weird and sad.
6. The strict adherence to the coffee routine. By this I mean the fact that coffee may be drunk in the morning, around 10, after lunch, and possibly after dinner. A cappuccino may only be drunk sometime before 10 a.m. as far as I can glean, and never, ever after meals. I know many of us expats have written about this one, but it’s so weird and so prevalent that it bears mentioning yet again.
Come on, share your weirdosity with the world!
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[tags]weird things meme, memes, calabria, italy, life in italy, life in calabria[/tags]
recovering, regrouping
Had another round of the Hiring Process: Italian Style this morning. Amazing how three weeks have passed and yet so little has changed. It’s nothing too awful or discouraging, but I’m still mentally recovering.
The regrouping time isn’t helped by the thought of two entirely different bureaucratic experiences that I have to face tomorrow–one in the morning and one in the afternoon for a full day of fun!
So I may get around to writing something coherent (wouldn’t that be fun for a change?) later today, but for right now, I’m turning to Old Faithful:
She feels my pain.
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[tags]dogs, italian bureaucracy[/tags]
a considerable amount of nothing
Busy morning today without accomplishing anything whatsoever.
First P pointed out to me that “la tempesta perfetta“ just might be brewing over the Ionian Sea.
Those clouds looked more ominous in person, I swear. If only I had a more powerful camera! I know. I’m never satisfied.
Then, sporadically throughout the morning, one of my neighbors (who normally lives in Hawaii) and her visiting friend delivered many perishable food items, and I’m not complaining. They’re off for Rome, so all that good stuff would’ve only gone to waste/be thrown away.
I think we’ll be eating a lot of cheese today and tomorrow. And again, I’m not complaining. I love me some cheese.
In addition, I also received some beautiful pink and white gigli. Of course since I’m oh-so-cultured, they are now in a big ole glass jar that I’m quite sure is meant for salami or something else to be submerged in olive oil.
In a past life in my house, though, the jar also temporarily housed a lizard that P brought home for me.
And you thought that he only brings me flowers. Hah! Clearly P knows that nothing says love like lizard.
Here are the lilies:
Also during this action-packed a.m., my full-time neighbor you all know and love stopped by to ask me to check on whether her Coca-Cola has expired. Her eyes aren’t as good as they used to be, so she has trouble seeing those little numbers. So do I many times, truth be told, especially when they’re coded in with other numbers and letters. These manufacturers sure can get tricky when they want to.
Anyway, I’m sure Anna Maria actually does want to know this information, but mostly it’s a ploy to give me a bottle of Coca-Cola. Or a bag of coffee. Or a container of milk. Or a can of tuna. You get the picture.
It all works out well because now I’ll pass along to her some of the goodies I received this morning.
Circle of Life–southern Italian style!
And then came P’s mom bearing the bread that P likes. Yes, they sell bread up here in the village, but it’s not baked in a wood-fired oven or by his friend in the Marina–two facts that make said bread inedible (according to P). So every few days, Mamma brings up a kilo of the good stuff just for her baby.
Mammone you say? Actually he’s not at all, but, you know, an Italian’s bread is not something you want to mess with. It could get ugly.
In other exciting news, I received my law school transcripts in the mail today. Those translation job people keep asking me for proof of my degrees, so I figure this will have to do for now since I don’t have my diplomas with me.
They’re big on this proof thing here, by the way. Guess a lot of Italians would (gasp!) lie about their credentials if they didn’t have to prove them. Or this could simply be the Italians’ love of documents rearing its (with any luck) paper-cutted head again.
The transcripts also have little stamps and seals, so that should even further satisfy them. Italians *love* stamps and seals, you know (although they prefer the kind you have to pay for).
I graduated law school 6 years ago (oh my goodness, I’m old) and, um, there are classes listed that I honestly don’t remember taking–and I did well in them! I’m talking about you, Trusts and Estates. I scored an A, which means it must’ve been an easy exam because right now I’d struggle to define even the most basic concepts about a trust or an estate.
Probably a good thing that I don’t practice, eh?
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[tags]law school transcripts, weather, stormy weather, clouds, lilies, flowers[/tags]
making rainbows and answering age-old questions
How’s that for a lofty post goal?
Let’s start with rainbows.
It is often said that if you’re coming to Italy and want to blend in, you can’t go wrong if you bring a lot of black clothes. Are Italians afraid of color?
In clothes, perhaps, but I present to you this morning’s vehicle rainbow in the piazza:
There is actually a woman who has a purple car, but she must have gone out this morning.
The nerve!
Now if the rest of you will pardon me for a moment, I have some things to say to two people who found my blog while searching for answers that weren’t previously to be found here:
(1) To GoogleIsOurFriend#1: The Parthenon is Athens was built between 448-432 B.C. The Pantheon in Rome, if that’s per chance what you meant, was built from 118-126 A.D. Rome’s Coliseum was built between 70-82 A.D. That would make the Parthenon the oldest, followed by the Coliseum, and then the Pantheon.
Bravo for your interest in ancient history (or the fact that some teacher somewhere made you find this)!
(2) To GoogleIsOurFriend#2: I can’t imagine that there would be particular negative side effects (please note that the proper spelling is with an “e”) to smoking basil leaves other than the usual, general smoking ones, but I’m certainly no doctor so don’t take this as medical advice.
To be clear, I’m against smoking of all kinds, but I noticed you’re in California where you can buy medicinal marijuana. Maybe that’s an easier and more well-tested route? And call me an Italian herb purist, but I’m thinking the basil might just be of better use in a caprese salad or a nice pesto. But I don’t judge.
Bravo for your ingenuity!
Let it never be said that I don’t support my inadvertent readers and their quests for knowledge.
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[tags]cars, european cars, rainbows, parthenon, pantheon, coliseum, smoking basil, basil[/tags]
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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