Archive for the ‘uniquely italian’ Category
news from italy: love, olive oil, and lamborghinis
Ninety-nine-years-young Maria Caterina Reitano moved to Australia at age 41 from Reggio Calabria and will turn 100 years old in January. She has turned down several marriage proposals in her lifetime (two from the same man) and has never made love to a man, but that doesn’t mean her search for love is over.
When she was interviewed by The Daily Telegraph for a story on her, ahem, status, she made it a point to say, “Tell them I’m single.”
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Do you think you know your olive oil?
If so, you might look into joining Italy’s anti-food piracy unit, 20 specially-trained officers who are in charge of tasting olive oil and identifying counterfeit versions claiming to be extra-virgin.
In April of this year, 25,000 liters of oil were confiscated and 25 people arrested when it was discovered that what was being sold as olive oil was really vegetable oil infused with beta carotene and chlorophyll. Similar tales of fake olive oil have become disturbingly common in recent years, so hopefully this squad knows their stuff.
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As the home of Armani, Prada, Versace, Gucci, and Dolce e Gabbana, Italians are known for style. Rest assured the police can continue that reputation now that Lamborghini has donated a specially-designed car to the polizia.
This €175,200 ($220,000) Lamborghini Gallardo has a 560-horsepower engine and can reach speeds of up to 325 kpr (200 mph); it also has a mini-refrigerator inside for organ transport and a built-in defibrillator for emergencies.
Pretty stylin’ huh?
So what’s up where you are?
Onion, Oregano & TimO Focaccia: O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month
OK, raise your hand if you love focaccia! I do! I do!
I had never made it before, though, so I thought this What’s Cooking Wednesday would be a great time to learn, especially since I came across a recipe for Focaccia with Onions. In addition to the thyme (timo (TEE-moh) in Italian) that was listed in the ingredients, I threw in some oregano, because, you know O Foods and all.
What? You haven’t heard of the O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month Contest? Check out the details here.
As you can see, my onions were super-cooked when all was said and done, but they’re still really tasty. Note: I used red onions, so they’re not *as* cooked as they may seem. Anyway, I think next time I’ll slice them just a little bit thicker and maybe adjust the cooking temp.
If you have any other suggestions on making focaccia, please do share. Overall, I have to say that this is a fabulous basic recipe from The Italian Cooking Encyclopedia published by Barnes & Noble (with my adjustments below).
Onion, Oregano & TimO Focaccia
For dough:
- 2 1/2 tbsp fresh yeast or 1 package dry
- 1 c warm water
- pinch of sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 3- 3 1/2 c flour
For topping:
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 medium onions, sliced
- Sprinklings of dried thyme and oregano
- Coarse sea salt
1. Put yeast in warmed medium mixing bowl (swirl around some hot water and then dump it out to warm the bowl). Add warm water, stir in sugar, and mix with fork. Let sit for 5-10 minutes until the mixture starts to foam.
2. Mix in the salt and one cup of flour with a wooden spoon, then add in another cup of flour and mix until dough begins pulling away from the sides of the bowl.
3. Sprinkle some flour on a flat work surface and knead the dough, adding the rest of the flour a little at a time. Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is elastic and smooth, and shape it into a ball.
4. Place dough in lightly oiled mixing bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let stand in a warm place for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size. To test if the dough is ready, poke it with two fingers; if the indentations remain, it’s ready.
5. Preheat oven to 400°F.
6. Punch down the dough to release air and then knead for 3-4 minutes.
7. Brush a shallow cookie/baking sheet with one tablespoon of the oil.
8. Place the dough in the pan and spread it to the edges with your fingers. Leave this sit, covered with a towel, for a half hour.
9. In the meantime, heat two tablespoons of oil in a pan on low heat, add onions, and cook until tender.
10. Stir in thyme and oregano and remove from heat.
11. Remove towel from pan and make indentations in the dough with your fingers.
12. Brush oil from the onion mixture on the dough, then spread onions over top evenly. Sprinkle lightly with coarse salt.
13. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, until just turning golden.
14. Cut into squares or wedges, and serve focaccia by itself, as a side dish, or even as the bread of a sandwich. It is best warm or at room temperature.
Buon appetito!
Don’t forget to submit your O Foods recipe by September 30
and/or donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund!
Also, Megan’s Expat Snapshot of Italy Contest is still going on until tomorrow night–just head over to Career By Choice and fill in the blank: You Know You’re in Italy When….
You Know You’re in Italy When…
Yesterday over at Twitter, the always lovely and informative ExpatCoach asked those of us with, ahem, Italian experience to fill in the blank:
You know you’re in Italy when…
A smattering of what ExpatCoach, Cherrye, Miss Expatria, Tina, and I came up with, within minutes:
- …you can have a conversation with a stranger comprised entirely of facial expressions, hand gestures, and no words.
- …you can say, “Boh?” and you’ve said a mouthful.
- …you have to APPLY to complete an application for something.
- …you wait in line for three hours at the Post Office…to pay a bill.
- …your taxi driver’s hands are too busy waving & threatening other drivers to actually touch the steering wheel.
- …you pour the wine over-handed and your guests gasp and bless themselves.
- …your ability to digest milk (at any time of day) and drink ice cold drinks even while eating hot food astounds.
- …perfect strangers worry about your catching a cold because you’re not dressed warmly enough. In July.
- …you’re handed a scarf when you say your throat feels a bit scratchy.
- …you’re the only person at IKEA without their entire extended family in tow.
- …someone you just met invites you to dinner at their house.
- …€5 on a bottle of wine is a splurge.
- …posted schedules, hours of operation, etc. mean precisely nothing (except sciopero ones).
- …someone, somewhere is in sciopero.
- …you get honked at for letting an old lady cross the street.
- …someone thinks your turkey wrap is a foreign food they’d never touch.
- …your friend says “I quit drinking coffee. Now I only have three cups a day.”
- …you find figs on your doorstep.
And now I’ll add:
- …your morning errands take you to one shop for produce, another for bread, another for cheese, and yet another for meat–and you love every single minute of it.
I thought this woud be a fun weekend fill-in, so Italophiles, play along please:
You know you’re in Italy when…
Need some inspiration?
And be sure to visit ExpatCoach at Career By Choice and show her some love!
Buon weekend!
Whatever You Do, Don’t Eat the Free Figs
The other day I came home and found this on my doorstep:
When P came home, I told him, but we still didn’t know the identity of our Fig Fairy even though I had asked around the neighbors.
P told me: “Don’t eat the figs!”
Because, um, we live in medieval times in which our nemici might foil our dastardly plans with tainted figs left outside our house? Please.
Needless to say, I ignored him and ate three of them later that evening.
And then was awake most of the night with a stomachache. Gah!
I pretended like I had no idea what I could’ve eaten to cause the discomfort as I certainly couldn’t tell P I ate the figs.
Thankfully, the pain passed and the next morning, before I discarded the figs, I ran into a woman who owned up to being our Fig Fairy. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as she’s certainly one of the nicest signore around–yet another one of my nonne in the village.
And only then did I tell P the full tale of the figs, which he, of course, found hilarious.
I’m thinking I’ll just listen to him next time — just in case.
crucified frogs, disabling church bells and two contests!
Yes, I know there’s a little something political happening in the US right now. I haven’t written about it yet, probably will soon, but in the meantime, if you’re interested in my opinions on the subject, make me a friend on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I haven’t been shy elsewhere on the Interwebs about my political leanings.
Oh and remember to check out my Guarda! column at Italy Mag this week: The Feast of the Madonna of the Sick in Misterbianco, Sicily.
Now, speaking of Italy, here’s a bit of what’s been happening in the Bel Paese:
(1) Pope Benedict XVI declared blasphemous the artwork (pictured at left) by late German artist Martin Kippenberger called Zuerst die Füsse (Feet First).
And so, the governing board of the Museion Museum in the northern Italian city Bolzano met to discuss the fate of said amphibian art.
In short, the board told il Papa to go frog himself.
I’m paraphrasing.
(2) Ding dong, my hearing’s dead (again with the paraphrasing), said a woman in Lavagna, near Genoa, who blamed the bells of the church next to her house for causing her “moral and physical harm” for 23 years.
An Italian court agreed, awarded her €59,000 ($85,000), restricted the bells’ ringing to Christmas and Easter services (only for twenty seconds at a time!), and also ordered that bells of a nearby church be lowered in volume.
Tough times for the Catholic Church in Italy, I tell you.
But now I’m thinking…our church bells (two houses over from me) ring every fifteen minutes to mark the time and several times a day for Mass, noon, etc. Hmm….
(3) And finally, we have two contests from Italy-based bloggers.
Check out Cherrye’s Southern Italian nickname contest here and Alex’s La Cucina Italiana contest here. I’ll be talking more about the latter soon as I’m also participating as one of the taste-testers!
So, what’s going on in your neck of the woods?
Buon weekend!
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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