Emiko Davies's Blog, page 3

Quick chicken ramen inspired by “Magic Ramen”

I have had my eye out on interesting food books for kids and came across this Magic Ramen book from a post by Amy Palanjian from Yummy Toddler Food and it immediately caught my eye because, well, ramen! The girls (4 and 10) both immediately loved the story, honestly so did I — the inspiring true story of Momofuku Ando, who invented instant ramen after witnessing the devastation of hunger and food shortages of World War Two. “Peace will come to the world when everyone has enough to eat,” he said.

It’s a wonderful story for a couple of reasons — it is firstly a story of hard work, dedication and resilience. Even though Ando fails over and over and over again, he keeps experimenting and trying new things like a true inventor, so even if the dough is too soft, or too crumbly or too soggy, he never lets this stop him. And it is an inspiring story because he is trying to make something for the greater good — his goal, after seeing long lines of poor people shivering in the cold waiting for a bowl of expensive chicken noodle soup, is to make a nutritious, delicious bowl of noodles simply and in minutes so that anyone and everyone can enjoy a warming bowl of noodle soup whenever they want (in fact, later, he goes further and invents Cup Noodles, so that you can literally make noodles on the run anywhere).

The illustrations are cute and fun and the story flows well enough to keep a 4 year old and a 10 year old equally engaged (and older kids might like the additional biography at the back of the book about Ando’s further inventions — he even invented noodles to eat in space!). But what is really telling is that the other night after requesting this as her bedtime read, my 4 year said, Mamma, this magic soup sounds yummy, can we try that?

She has actually had it before but I admit that ramen isn’t something I make very often at home, it’s not featuring in my upcoming cookbook on Japanese home cooking, Gohan, and it’s not something I grew up eating even visiting Japan every year of my life until I was in my mid-20s. Even though my Japanese mother loves noodles, like many Tokyoites, her preferred noodles are soba and udon.

Compared to centuries-old soba, somen and udon noodles, ramen is a relatively new arrival on Japan’s culinary scene. Thought to have been brought over by Chinese immigrants after the Meiji restoration in 1868, Tokyo’s first Ramen shop opened in 1910. Ramen, for most Japanese, is a very quick, cheap, practically “fast food” lunch option when you’re not at home.

I can remember as a teenager growing in Beijing, Cup Noodles (the same ones invented by Momofuku Ando) were a reliable, filling, cheap lunch or dinner when we were on China study trips and traveling on a long, slow train (in 1992, it took us 24 hours to train from Beijing to Xian!). Just add hot water and wait a couple of minutes — perfect! At some point some classmates showed me how to eat instant noodles as snacks, dry — have you tried this? Just open the packet, sprinkle over the magic dust and chomp on it or crush them up in the bag and eat them like crisps! Later, during my early 20s, I remember appreciating the little standing-only ramen joints in Tokyo where you punch in what you want in a machine before hand, pay with coins, it spits out a ticket and you take it up to the counter – a very spartan, no nonsense, tiny eatery that fits a handful of people standing. The size is not really a problem since you are in and out so quickly. The noodles come out in a flash, they are warm and filling and everything you need in a quick meal.

It’s a little funny to me that ramen noodles have taken on such cult status outside of Japan and have become a well appreciated, almost gourmet thing, because they will forever remain in my mind as these quick, cheap eats!

So this quick noodle recipe is along those lines too — I’m sorry, this isn’t a long, slow pork bone broth, this is quick and simple, using things I usually have in my fridge (but see the notes at the bottom for other ideas and substitutions) and if you like, I’ve added a 30 minute chicken stock recipe too (a hack where I use a rotisserie chicken picked up at the supermarket rather than my usual 2 hour chicken stock). I managed to find some instant ramen noodles — as you might guess, Japanese ingredients are not the easiest to find in Tuscany but it’s getting better. I could have just left it at that and made the instant noodles with the packet seasoning but I decided to make it a bit more interesting.

I had half a roast chicken in the fridge so I took some slices of chicken breast and put the rest of the carcass in a saucepan to make a simple chicken stock, along with some carrot and leek (you could use spring onions or regular onion). Separately, I wilted some spinach in a small pot of boiling water boiled, then pulled it out and popped in an egg (7 minutes if the egg is at room temperature) to garnish with too. When the stock is ready, strain it, and now turn this into a more delicious noodle soup stock by adding dashi (powder or liquid dashi is ok), soy sauce and a splash of sake or mirin if you have it. This is a simple shoyu ramen. You could also, if you like, make it miso ramen by adding — yep — some miso (Just One Cookbook has a recipe here).

This soup is really where this is at, so taste as you’re making it and keep adjusting a bit of this or that until it is very tasty. Ladle this over the noodles in a bowl, cover for 3 minutes, then fluff up the noodles and add the garnishes (I added also the leek but if I had had it for this photo, I would definitely have sprinkled over some finely chopped green onion).

Quick chicken ramen soup 

For one

1 packet instant ramen noodles (see notes for using fresh ramen)2 cups of chicken stock (see below if you’d like to make your own)1 tsp dashi powder1 1/2 -2 tablespoons soy sauceSplash of sake or mirin if you have it3-4 thin slices of roast or grilled chicken breast5-6 spinach leaves, blanched then squeezed of excess moisture2 green onions/scallions, finely chopped1 soft boiled egg (simmer a room temperature egg for 7 minutes for a perfectly jammy egg), cut in halfA square of nori, if desired

Heat the chicken stock and add dashi powder, soy sauce, sake or mirin if you happen to have it for some extra umami and let simmer for a few minutes, then taste. Adjust with some salt if necessary (depending on whether the chicken stock is already salted or not).

Place the instant ramen noodles in a bowl. Pour the chicken soup stock over the noodles to cover the noodles completely, then cover with a lid or a plate to let it steam for 3 minutes. Fluff the noodles with a fork, then place the garnishes over the top (see notes below for ideas on what else you could add here) and ladle over a bit more soup stock to warm them slightly.

I quite like a drizzle of sesame oil over the top, my husband likes some heat from chilli flakes. You can also just place these extras on the table for people to add as they wish. Real life: my 4 year old ate the nori first, then took everything off except the carrots and the puppy stole her jammy egg.

To make a quick chicken stock:

1/2 roast chicken (use a rotisserie chicken or if you have leftover roast, this is perfect for making stock!)1/2 leek, cut into two sections (or use 2 spring onions or 1/2 an onion)1 small carrot, roughly choppedsalt, as needed

Place everything in a pan and cover with 1 litre cold water. Bring to a gentle simmer and let cook for 30 minutes. Skim the top of the stock then strain. Use any of the meat left on the chicken in the soup too if you wish, I also used to the leek and the carrots in the soup, but you can leave them out or discard if you like. I usually salt the stock lightly as there will be soy sauce added later and then adjust for salt after that has been added.

If you want to make a really divine chicken stock (not that this isn’t good, this is great for when I have less time available) with fresh chicken, take a look at this recipe, which calls for a longer, slower cooking of 2 hours of gentle simmering on the stove.

Kitchen Notes:

Other ideas for things you could add here are tinned or fresh corn, carrot or leek from the homemade chicken stock (below), fresh mung bean sprouts, blanched bok choy, cooked mushrooms (shiitake mushrooms can be added to the stock below), fresh ginger, pork belly, leftover roast pork or turkey, toasted sesame seeds or gomasio, fresh chilli, chilli oil or powder, a splash of toasted sesame oil, anything else your heart desires! Generally speaking the garnishes aren’t warm but don’t worry, they will warm when put into the soup, which will be piping hot, really too hot to eat right away, so those first 2 minutes will help the garnishes warm through while you blow on the noodles.

You are aiming for a soup that tastes delicious and savoury, one that you want to drink on its own — if you need to add a bit more soy sauce, salt or pepper or anything else to suit your tastes, go ahead and do that. If I’m not making this for my kids, some fresh ginger grated in this is wonderful.

If using fresh ramen instead of instant ramen, this is still pretty quick only you’ll have to cook the ramen noodles separately in a pot of boiling water (don’t salt it!) for several minutes. Once cooked, drain and rinse in cold water quickly (it helps separate the noodles and give them a bit of “spring”), then place in bowls and ladle over the stock.

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Braided fig and nut pastries for Christmas morning (treccia con fichi e noci)

There is a bar I pop into now and then that always has a pastry in the counter that I almost never say no to — they call it simply a fig and walnut pastry (treccia con fichi e noci) and while it’s different to this (that one has something like a frangipane type base and a deep caramel flavour), it definitely inspired the braided shape of this pastry. The thing is that making pastries at home means you get to eat them while they are fresh out of the oven, shatteringly crisp, the filling oozing and warm.

This filling is essentially the filling of a Sicilian cookie that I love called buccellati (which I wrote about here for my newsletter, with a Christmas cookie tin idea). It tastes like Christmas as it’s heavy with dried fruit, candied fruit and nuts of all kinds, plus it is scented with orange zest and cinnamon — so festive!

What I love about this too is that the filling can and should be prepared in advance to let the flavours develop nicely, which makes this a really perfect one for Christmas morning as you can prepare the filling in the days before you need it. Then, the morning you want to bake this, just pull it out of the fridge, arrange it on a store bought sheet of puff pastry (why not?) and bake. You’ll have these crisp, flaky, warm fig pastries to munch on while opening presents or perhaps you know someone who would love these and you can share some (the perfect gift?) — I already know that these will be an annual tradition for me!

For some other ideas for Italian treats for Christmas, try one of these:

Maritozzi always have a special place in my heart.My ultimate Yule Log (tronco di natale) with candied walnuts and sugared rosemary decorations.Australians who have cherry season might like to try these fresh cherry crostatine with my favourite shortcrust pastry.Although these might be a bit strong for breakfast, panforte is probably one of the best ways to end a Christmas meal (or as a pick me up in the late afternoon!) — there is a chestnut version too.If you love pandoro, try turning it into a wonderful no-bake dessert with homemade mascarpone and fruit.

Braided fig and nut pastries
Treccia con fichi e noci

Use any of your favourite nuts here — almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts… and the same goes for the jam component, though I think the best flavours would be fig, apple, apricot or marmalade. I veer slightly from the original buccellati filling here a little bit by adding brown sugar instead of honey and an egg to hold things together. I took out the raisins and added more nuts. This recipe is enough for two puff pastry sheets that will make 8 serves each (or 4 larger ones), which means you have a second one to give away as a gift to someone special.

Makes 16 pieces

150 grams dried figs, halved
80 grams walnuts (or your favourite nuts), chopped roughly
2 tablespoons brown sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
75 grams (1/4 cup) fig jam
1 unwaxed, organic orange or lemon, zested
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs (save one for the egg wash)
2 sheets store-bought puff pastry

Soak the figs in just boiled water for about 15 minutes to soften. Drain them completely then pulse them in a food processor until they become like a rough paste. Place this is a bowl and add the brown sugar, jam, citrus zest, cinnamon and an egg and mix until well combined. Let this chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, overnight is even better, if you are good at preparing things in advance, as the flavours have time to develop. You can even leave it for 3 or 4 days if you need to get things out of the way.

When ready to bake, heat oven to 200C (390F).

Unroll a puff pastry sheet and place the filling in the centre, so that it is about 3-4 inches (7-10cm) wide or taking up about a third of the pastry sheet. On either side of the filling, cut strips at an angle (refer to the photo). Now to “braid” it, simply alternate strips in a criss-cross fashion over the top of the filling from each side and at an angle — it’s not a true braid but it looks like one! Repeat with the second pastry.

With the saved egg, beat it in the bowl and brush over the top of the braids, then sprinkle some brown sugar over the top.

Bake until the top is golden brown, about 20 minutes. If the bottom looks quite pale, give it an extra 5 minutes on the bottom shelf of your oven for a total of 25 minutes.

Remove and let cool slightly so you can handle the pastries, then slice into 8 smaller slices or 4 larger ones. Serve immediately if you can (if serving these later, you can always warm them up again in the oven until crisp).

 

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Yamaura, a hidden gem in the mountains of Japan

I have been coming to Japan my whole life, ever since I was a baby, my Japanese mother would bring me home with her to visit my grandparents. In 1985, when I was about to turn five, the government made a law that children of Japanese women could now claim citizenship and I got my first Japanese passport, a complicated privilege since children can only hold this dual citizenship until they turn 20 years of age. We continued visiting, every single year until both my grandparents passed away within a year of each other, 17 years ago. One summer I even flew over alone, I think I was 12, and spent the entire summer with my grandparents at their home, attached to a Buddhist temple where my grandfather was the priest, about 45 minutes outside of Tokyo. Their home was my only constant, rooted place, growing up moving back and forth between China and Australia. Visiting Japan for me now is pure nostalgia. Every sound, sight, smell and flavour makes my heart leap. The ravens calling; the electric green of lush vegetation; the smell of the Kinmokusei or the Autumn Osmanthus tree with its unassuming but powerfully scented orange flowers; the texture of chilled, sweet mochi with a warm, fluffy whipped matcha tea.

I haven’t been back to Nagano since I was a child — we visited one summer and picked blueberries, buckets of them, which my Obaachan turned into the most delicious jam I can ever remember having tasted. So I was curious to come back after so many years and spend a couple of days with my parents and my sister. My mother said she wanted a place to relax; I was on a mission to capture artisan tofu being made and if possible, in my very last days before speeding back up to Tokyo on the train (a 2 hour journey) and heading straight to the airport, to visit an onsen, the hot springs. We found all these and more at our stay in Chino.

Chino is a town in Nagano prefecture that sits at the foothills of an ancient, long inactive volcano, Mount Yatsugatake. There are in fact several beautiful mountain ranges that surround Chino, and this is mostly what it is known for — beautiful mountain trails, skiing in the winter, hiking in other seasons, lush moss forests and lakes. It’s also a rural area with fields everywhere you look, but its cold climate and high altitude (Chino sits at 800 metres above sea level but goes up as you head into the mountains past 2,000 meters — the highest peak is 2,899 metres) mean that there is a “rice line” — literally a boundary where the rice paddies stop and the mountain forests start. The rice paddies and their interlocking shared irrigation system were built by samurai centuries ago to encourage people to move to the area. The dark, volcanic soil means it is fertile land but the winters are long and frosty so farmers took on a tradition of freeze drying goods during those long cold months and this is still what the area is known for, gastronomically speaking — in particular freeze dried daikon, tofu and kanten (a seaweed used for its gelatinisation effects). There are also soba fields (sporting pink flowers when we were there), fields of hozuki (Japanese lanterns, also known as winter cherries) and plenty of vegetables — namely cabbage and daikon — and perilla seed fields (known as egoma in Japanese, the seeds are used much like sesame seeds, to be ground into a delicious, sweet paste to top rice balls or turned into a highly prized, expensive oil). Cosmos flowers are blooming everywhere while we were there, popping up on the side of the road as much as in people’s perfectly curated gardens.

We turned to Chino Tabi, the local tourism organisation, to help us organise our dream stay here and the whole experience did not disappoint. In fact, the moment we arrived I knew that 2 days was nowhere near long enough, we should have stayed at least a week, and I immediately started planning in my head another trip here — perhaps in the summer, which is humid but thanks to the elevation is not as hot as Tokyo.

Through them we found our accommodation at Yamaura Stays, a series of traditional Japanese farmhouses — they call them “retreats” and they are in every sense of the word a place to retreat to, a sanctuary — run by Chino Tabi, which have been so thoughtfully and beautifully restored with the help of Alex Kerr, a Japanologist who restored his own 300 year old Japanese home in the 70s and who founded the Chiiori Trust, a non for profit organisation that helps develop sustainable tourism projects — giving people the opportunity to experience traditional village life.

We stayed in the Kiyomizu house in pretty Sasahara village just outside of Chino. It had been brought to Sashara over the mountains 150 years ago — traditional Japanese homes don’t have nails, just an interlocking system of wooden beams. So it was taken apart and transported on horseback and built again. Our beds were futons on warmed (ah modernity, underfloor heating bliss!) tatami mats. I slept like a baby in this place, I can’t remember having had such deep sleep in so many years. Perhaps it was not having my children around, perhaps it was just that this home reminded me so much of my grandparents’ temple home that I felt cocooned and so at peace there.

Everything has been thought of in this place, from the irreplaceable antique ceramics and decorations in the house to the coffee beans from a local roaster. The table mat was made by a local rice farmer who weaves the rice straw from his last harvest into these circular mats and the bed runners are made of old kimono that are torn apart and rewoven into new fabrics by local women. Even the beautiful lacquered chopsticks are made by an artisan from nearby Kiso (known as one of the most beautiful villages in Japan, I wish I had had time to visit but see, this is going on my list for when I return) and the folder that houses the manual for all the modern gadgets in the house (even the bathtub is filled by the press of a button) is made with rescued timber from the original house restoration. I mean, the thoughtfulness of every single detail in this place is staggering.

Outside, the house is surrounded by garden and this is the first greeting when you arrive. There is a kura, a traditional store house, that is virtually untouched. These kura were decorated with plaster of paris in the 1800s and you can spot them around the villages with different designs, colours and crests — this one is a leaping rabbit. Every garden in Sasahara has a pond and they are all connected by the same water. Let me back up because this is one of the things that struck me most about this community. To paraphrase what I learned at Kiyomizu house, there is a picturesque, mirror-like pool of water called Mishaka Pond, which is part of a network of streams known as “segi”, those waterways I mentioned earlier made to irrigate the rice fields. The villagers dug kilometres of these out themselves, helping transport water from the mountain rivers to each field to better the community’s chances at growing rice. In Mishaka Pond, the cold mountain water is warmed by the sun before heading to the fields. And it passes through each home, too. The ponds in each home were used to raise koi fish, carp, for food for the harsh winters. They are all cared for because the are each filled by the same water that flows from the mountains to the village, from house to house. Everywhere you go you hear this sound of running water that connects each home and if you take a stroll, which you should, especially in the direction of the most charming cafe I have ever stumbled upon, Tosenbo (about a 15 minute walk through rice fields and cosmos flowers and under chestnut trees from Kiyomizu House), you will see some of these gushing streams and the pretty gardens and ponds of other people’s homes.

You can also walk to the local tofu shop from here. It is the place I came to Japan for, basically. I have been wanting to capture artisan made tofu for my latest cookbook, Gohan, as one of my strongest, best memories of my grandmother’s cooking is her breakfast, which always featured a block of that morning’s freshly made tofu. She didn’t make it herself, but there were a number of small tofu shops on her street — sadly, all gone now — which made it so easy to have the freshest tofu. I’ve never tasted tofu like this outside of Japan and to those who don’t know what I am talking about, I liken it to proper buffalo mozzarella in Italy. It’s just not the same when you find a vacuum-packed, hard, tough version of “mozzarella” or “tofu” abroad. It’s so delicious that all you need to dress it in is some soy sauce and perhaps some katsuobushi bonito flakes or grated ginger. Or, as I learned in Chino, with just a sprinkle of salt and some herby egoma (perilla seed) oil. Incredible.

Chino Tabi actually organise tofu making classes at the tofu shop, with the tofu maker himself, Kobayashi-san, and his smiley wife and daughter helping too. He makes all the tofu for the local schools by himself in his tiny laboratory. We first watched him make tofu with the help of his machines – a surprising process that takes only about 30 minutes. Then he showed us how to make small batches of tofu for home (which I’ll share a version of soon) and we all sat down to a delicious tofu lunch of our own handmade tofu and some of their specialties like doughnuts made with okara (the soybean pulp, leftover from the soymilk making process) and a delicious miso soup warmed on the wood stove.

I couldn’t wait to make it myself as soon as I got home to Tuscany. I may not have the special mountain spring water of Chino flowing through my kitchen as Kobayashi-san does (full of minerals, he points out) but it came out as delicious as I could hope for.

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A Puglia guide to summer in Taranto

I will just say first of all, traveling in Italy in summer is not for the faint of heart (you might want to read this post on how to survive an Italian heatwave). This was our first full-blown summer in Puglia experience. Most of my trips have been either in autumn or winter and I personally love visiting in these months (this New York Times article agrees). Our very first visit was in early June, 11 years ago. It was a pleasantly warm trip with beautiful early summer produce, but not a sweltering one (hello climate change). This June it was almost too hot to even be at the beach but the water was incredibly refreshing and sparklingly clear. But fit in some long afternoon naps somewhere cool and quiet and keep your shutters closed in the hot parts of the day, plan to be eating out when it’s dark and you will keep your cool.

We were house sitting for new friends, Julie Ann Marr and her husband Francesco Creanza, of Everyone at the Table. They have created a beautiful home in the white washed town of Oria (above), which lies between Brindisi and Taranto, the Adriatic sea and the Ionian sea. Together they run workshops and cooking classes from their home (below, dream kitchen!) and their newly renovated studio in Altamura, which is famous for its bread. So if you’re looking for a really beautiful food experience, learning about local traditions and cooking together, contact Julie and Francesco through their website.

Taranto

Taranto isn’t the first place people tend to visit when they arrive in Puglia in search of white washed towns, crystalline beaches and abundant good food (though the first two are close and latter there is definitely no shortage of). It’s a bit rough around the edges (a true port city is with a crumbling, half-abandoned old town, a history of corruption and Ilva, the largest steelworks in Europe, polluting the otherwise charming skyline. But what brought us the first time was personal research – a visit to the state archives to pull up a birth certificate that set off a project that resulted in a cookbook and a full family tree of Tarantini dating back to the mid-1700s. But what kept us coming back was the food, a special experience of rustic, incredibly fresh and simply prepared seafood and… no tourists.

“Taranto is a perfect city. Living in it is like living in a shell, in an open oyster. Here, new Taranto, there, the border, old Taranto, around them the two seas and the promenades.” Film director Pier Paolo Pasolini put it perfectly, especially as oysters (and shellfish in general) are something that Taranto does so well. The Mare Piccolo, Taranto’s natural bay, is home to thirty-four citri (fresh water springs) that surge up from the seabed, creating bubbling pools on the sea’s surface. The mixture of fresh and sea water in the bay creates an ideal environment for cultivating shellfish like mussels and oysters, which has been done in Taranto since the third century BC when it was a Spartan colony.

Earlier this year, in 2022, Taranto’s mussels were finally recognised as a Slow Food presidium. Try them any chance you get in Taranto, but in particular, lovers of crudo, raw seafood and raw oysters should try them raw, yes, raw. You’ll find them as part of a raw antipasto in any of Taranto’s seafood restaurants.

I would suggest a taste of Taranto’s specialties in an old school restaurant like Basile Luzzi (Via Pitagora, 76) in Taranto Nuova (the “new” side of town), for abundant antipasti and wonderful plates of seafood pasta or the Cassola, a rich seafood stew (more from this instagram post here). They do pizza here too but we have never been able to shift our attention away from the mussels to try the pizza. If you want a real port experience, try one of the ristopescherie (fishmongers that function as restaurants too, or vice versa!) like Trattoria del Pescatore. And if you are after something a little more casual, don’t forget that panzerotti — deep fried pizza pockets — are from Taranto, as are pucce, delicious sandwiches that are made from plain, woodfired pizza dough that is sliced in half and stuffed with fillings.

I have more in my Taranto guide on my newsletter.

Cisternino

I had wanted to bring my mother in law to see this charming town in the Valle d’Itria and to eat at one of the Fornelli Pronti (literally “ready ovens,” they are butcher shops that cook your food for you) that I first wrote about in 2011. I hasn’t been back since that trip and was pleased to find it just it hadn’t changed. If anything it was even cuter than I remembered it. We ate at Zio Pietro and it was absolutely perfect, the kids loved it, my mother in law loved it and I have to say we had our best meal of the trip here. The way it works at fornelli pronti (read more about it here along with the recipe for bombette, you will want to re-create these breaded involtini filled with ham and cheese at home!) is that you order your meat directly from the counter — these will be cooked on huge skewers in a roaring wood-fired oven, then brought out to your table in the white-washed alleyway (above). You can add on drinks and sides such as salad, grilled vegetables and woodfired roast potatoes. It’s simple and the atmosphere is magical. More here.

Martina Franca

A stunning, elegant town, Martina Franca is, for me, the Queen of the Valle d’Itria, and if you are in the area you have to make a stop here. If you are a treasure hunter, you must time the visit for the third Sunday of the month when the flea market will be sprawled out in Piazza Crispi, or come for the huge, much-anticipated antique market, the biggest in southern Italy, which is held over a couple of weeks in August. And market lovers will appreciate the weekly produce market here on Wednesday mornings.

Stroll through town to the wonderfully old school Caffe Tripoli (Via Garibaldi, 10, above) and order some wonderful gelato or perhaps some bocconotti and caffe leccese (espresso over ice with almond milk or a creamy almond syrup) and people watch from the chairs outside. Bocconotti (the name comes from the word boccone, mouthful) look simple enough from the outisde but inside, these little pies harbour sweet fillings of custard and sour cherries, ricotta, perhaps with pear or chocolate, apple or jam.

Manduria

We drove through Manduria and its ancient surrounding olive groves and vineyards each time we headed to the beach and back, with tired or eager kids in the back, stopping only to buy wine or fresh vegetables from the side of the road! So this isn’t so much about the town but to tell you about Manduria tomatoes, a Slow Food presidium, and if you get a chance to buy them and taste them, do! And if you do want to visit a winery — Manduria is well known for its primitivo, a DOC wine — then seek out Morella winery. Such a brilliant discovery (though Marco had already drunk their wines a decade ago in Melbourne). A husband and wife team run this winery in Manduria, he’s Pugliese, she’s Australian. They tend to ancient primitivo vines that are cultivated with biodynamic principles that are made into incredibly elegant wines.

Grottaglie

I couldn’t come all the way to Puglia and not visit the ceramic quarter of Grottaglie, especially as it’s only 20 minutes drive from where we were staying in Oria! I revisited the places I wrote about already in this guide to Grottaglie, especially Nicola Fasano, but also want to mention a cute spot for a coffee at the top of the ceramic quarter is the literary cafe of Casa Merini (via delle Torri 4), above.

Beaches on the Ionian coast

If you’re here for the beaches you won’t be disappointed. We spent most of our time on the Ionian sea, Puglia’s west coast, just south of Taranto and not far from Manduria. This coastline is spoiled for choice with fine white sand and the clearest, most beautiful water I have ever seen in Italy. I read it is because of the low salinity of the sea around here, with a number of fresh water sources that flow into the sea creating this extremely fresh, clear water. You could see the fish swimming around your ankles — fish that are camouflaged with the sand — and you can count every grain of sand. Luna kept saying, “Mamma come into the pool!” She was not wrong. It was like a swimming pool, only better. One tip, go during the middle of week. The number of people you see in the photos here are not orchestrated, we practically had the place to ourselves.

Campomarino — First of all, do not let google maps mistake this beach with the town of the same name in Molise, a four hour drive away! Campomarino is close to Maruaggio, a charming village between the sea and Manduria. It’s a very cute seaside resort town with a ferris wheel and plenty of shops, gelaterie (go to Sandrino, a chain of natural gelaterie) and bars around. Not being prepared with beach umbrellas and all the accessories, we went to a beach resort with cold water showers and a simple bar, it really did the trick. Tuareg (above) was the perfect spot to plop ourselves on the beach and the bar served us a perfect, simple lunch with spritzes, frise or friselle (you must try these, twice cooked bread rings that you dip in water and serve topped with tomatoes and olive oil) and an ice cold plate of summer fruit. The girls loved the panini and easy access to magnums and other ice creams! It was simple but all you needed on a lazy beach day. Although we didn’t make it as it’s only open in the evenings, a very good friend told me the fish panini at La Barchetta Fish Bar were worth a stop, and I believe her.

San Pietro in Bevagna — This is the beach that Francesco told us we should visit and I’m so glad we did, it was stunning (below). The town around it doesn’t have as much going on as Campomarino but we stopped at a bakery to pick up some delicious olive buns for snacks, and headed to a beach resort, MurMur, where you can simply book your beach umbrella online. They also have a simple bar for cold drinks, snacks and meals — their seafood pasta and fried calamari, served simply on paper plates, were ideal. You can also get hot showers and wifi here.

Punta Prosciutto — Marco wanted to go simply for the name! I first came here with Maria Grazia and Chiara from Masseria Potenti (which is not far, and a divine place to sleep and experience a beautiful traditional Pugliese masseria), and was blown away by the crystal clear, light blue shimmering water so characteristic of this beautiful section of the Ionian sea.

More…

Further down the coast towards Gallipoli there is a wonderful spot for a meal with rooms that I wrote about here. And if you’re going north, up towards Andria you should find every way you can to eat here. Have you been? Is there anything else you’d like to know about this part of Puglia?

The post A Puglia guide to summer in Taranto first appeared on Emiko Davies.

Fabrizia’s Sicilian Involtini di Carne and a Summer Bounty Workshop

When I think of cucina povera — literally “cooking of the poor” or peasant cuisine — I think of things like this dish of Sicilian involtini, which are satisfyingly filling and relatively inexpensive to make for a large gathering as a little goes a long way.

We got to make and taste these when I was at Anna Tasca Lanza last year for their annual tomato paste making in August with Fabrizia Lanza. I said to myself as I took a deeper second bite, this will be the first thing I make when I get home. It turns out I actually made Fabrizia’s chocolate cake first.

But these involtini were so memorable, incredibly tasty and comforting. Mariù, my daughter, was with me and was inspired to draw this recipe while she watched us prepare it. Basically, you have long skewers of little sandwiches of soft white bread, thin slices of beef, ham, cheese, onions and aromatics like mint, bay leaf and orange zest. Pistachios too. We ate them, to the sound of satisfied sounds of mmmmmmm and ahhhhhhh in the courtyard of the beautiful Case Vecchie in central Sicily. I can’t wait to be back there in September this year to host a summer bounty workshop. It filled up so quickly that we are putting on another one scheduled for September 2023, keep your eyes peeled on their calendar or email them to find out when it is announced!

Fabrizia’s Involtini di Carne

These make an absolutely wonderful sharing dish or family dish but feel free to scale down if preparing for one or two. Fabrizia suggests being “Sicilian” and playing around with what you have — exchange pistachios with almonds or even sun-dried tomatoes, for example. The recipe comes from Fabrizia Lanza’s Coming Home to Sicily: Seasonal Harvests and Cooking from Case Vecchie. This makes about 2-3 involtini per person for a generous serving, as these seem small but are filling.

Serves 8

For the filling:

1 small red onion, finely diced
60 ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
115 grams (2 cups) stale white sandwich bread, crusts removed, cut into 5mm (1⁄4 inch) cubes
115 grams (1 cup) prosciutto cotto (cooked ham), cut into 5mm (1⁄4 inch) cubes
115 grams (1 cup) caciocavallo or mild provolone cheese, cut into 5mm (1⁄4 inch) cubes
25 grams (1/4 cup) pistachios, finely chopped
20 grams (1⁄2 cup) fresh parsley and/or mint, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
1 orange or lemon, zested
Fine sea salt and black pepper

For the meat rolls and skewers:

24 slices (about 1 kilogram or 2.2 pounds) of top round beef or veal, which should be pounded to 2.5mm (1⁄8 inch) thick and cut into rectangles measuring circa 12×10 cm (5 x 4 inches)
2 small red onions, cut into 2 cm (1 inch) wedges
About 24 fresh bay leaves
500 grams (1 pound) white sandwich bread (day old/stale is ideal), cut into 1 cm (1⁄2 inch) thick slices
360 grams (3 cups) breadcrumbs to coat involtini
120 ml (1⁄2 cup) olive oil

Method:

For the filling, cook the diced red onion with the olive oil, then add the diced bread. Cook lightly and stir to incorporate all the flavours together. Remove from heat and bring to room temperature, then season with salt and pepper. Stir in the cheese, ham, pistachios, beaten egg, orange or lemon zest and chopped herbs.

Heat the oven to 200C/400F.

Roll a small portion of the filling in a ball and place at the end of the sliced beef. Tuck in the sides and roll away from you into a tight little bundle no bigger than an egg. Place on a plate and repeat with the rest of the beef slices.

Thread the beef involtini onto long metal skewers sandwiched between slices of onion wedges, bay leaf and bread, alternating evenly. In two large trays pour the olive oil in one and the breadcrumbs in the other and dip the long skewers into the olive oil on each side to coat, then into the breadcrumbs to coat completely.

Roast in a baking tray for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. This is just perfect with a green salad dressed in olive oil and red wine vinegar and a bowl of olives.

The post Fabrizia’s Sicilian Involtini di Carne and a Summer Bounty Workshop first appeared on Emiko Davies.

A stay at Adler, the original spa resort in the Dolomites

Last spring I was invited to spend some time in the Dolomites at Adler, at the original, historic lodge where the resort first began in 1810 in the centre of the picturesque, pastel-toned town of Ortisei (Urtijëi) in Val Gardena in the South Tyrol. Around the Dolomites area, Adler have four resorts (the other we stayed in on this trip and I’ve written about before is Adler Lodge Ritten), plus one in Tuscany at my favourite hot springs Bagno Vignoni, and one in Sicily.

Surrounded by the stunning Dolomites mountain range, which you can see from every angle, you can soak in the warm waters of the outdoor pool, enjoying the views and breathing in that fresh mountain air, or sunbathing in the garden. It’s easy to imagine how incredible it would feel, after a day of hiking nearby in the summer or skiing in the winter (the resort is right next to two lifts that take you to the Super Ski area of the Dolomites with 1200 km of skiing to be had, and if you’re not a skier there are horse carriage ride or tobogganing), to have a long soak in the spa and then relax in the day bed by a fireplace. But to be honest, even just a weekend enjoying the spa and not going anywhere other than a stroll through town — as we did — was absolutely blissful.

The theme here is wellness and relaxation and this is what Adler deliver so well. From the moment you step into the beautifully designed building with its warm wood interiors and large windows with views to the mountains, you can feel it. I indulged in a full body massage — there is an absolutely dizzying choice of offerings and packages from the impressive spa menu with solutions for everyone in the family (my girls would love the chocolate massage with a milk bath in the wooden Tyrolean tub for kids!), which you can combine with a visit to their salt grotto for the ultimate relaxing treatment.

The bar was our favourite spot to wind down in the late afternoon, there is an enticing buffet of cakes and other treats (I couldn’t say no to a slice of the traditional apple strudel), a selection of local wines and great cocktails that we enjoyed on the winding wooden terrace with it sweeping views, cosy blankets and outdoor fire pits — the whole place is teeming with that wonderful Alpine atmosphere. The restaurant offers a Tyrolean-Mediterranean menu with plenty of lighter dishes, a salad buffet and all of it with a preference for organic, local and seasonal — their olive oil and wine comes from their own production in Tuscany.

We left our kids home this time but I know that if they were here they would have absolutely loved it, and especially loved the kids club (as they did at the Tuscan resort in Bagno Vignoni), which even has an all day juice bar and snack bar for the children!

As in the other resorts, dressing gowns, flip flops and spare towels are provided in the rooms already. Bring your workout clothes so you can take advantage of the well-equipped gym and activities such as yoga classes on offer too — just perfect before another long soak.

Thank you Adler for this rejuvenating, special stay.

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Pecorino e Vino Culinary Retreat 2022 in Pienza, Tuscany

5-10 June 2022, join us for the Pecorino e Vino Culinary Retreat

{UPDATE: SOLD OUT! Let me know if you’d like to be on a waiting list!}

We will be based in Pienza, in the the heart of the Val d’Orcia, pecorino cheese country and a UNESCO world heritage site, in a truly stunning, unique, beautifully restored Tuscan home, Villa Pienza, with a 360 degree view of the surrounding undulating Tuscan hills, on a highly curated trip to bring you our favourite food and wine experiences in Tuscany.

Our days together will consist of our most favourite things: a combination of day trips to beautiful local towns, hands-on cooking classes, visits to a cheese farm (the one that started this blog, actually), wine tastings and a visit to a family run flour mill. We will cook together and enjoy aperitivo every night together, but for those who prefer a bit of down time and lounging by the saltwater pool at the gorgeous villa we’ll be calling home, you can choose to do that too and just join in on the eating part! See below for all the details.

Highlights:

Call a stunning, lovingly restored Tuscan villa home, complete with a pool and 360 degree views of the Val d’Orcia UNESCO World Heritage landscapeCheesemaking lesson with a master cheesemaker at his sustainable family farm3 cooking classes with cookbook author Emiko Davies2 winery visits with wine tastings and daily natural wine pairings with sommelier Marco LamiVisits to a local organic farm and ancient grain flour millVisits with free time to the beautiful towns of Pienza and MontalcinoTaste Tuscan traditions in the local trattoriasHealthy breakfasts, lunch and Tuscan dinners cooked with organic produce

The itinerary:

Day 1: Late afternoon arrival at the villa and welcome aperitivo, followed by homemade wood-fired pizza dinner.

Day 2: After breakfast we visit an organic sheep farm for a tour of the farm to see cheesemaking from the stable to the table, after a cheesemaking lesson we will have lunch including a taste of delicious “Pecorino di Pienza” raw milk cheese. We will pop into a organic, ancient grain flour mill to see how their flour and pasta is made and taste their artisan beer in their medieval garden, and spend some free time in the gorgeous fifteenth century town of Pienza, a city designed for Pope Pius II as the “ideal Renaissance city,” and wonderful for browsing the cheese shops, quaint alleyways and stunning views with a gelato. Later, a relaxed cooking class and dinner back at the villa.

Day 3: After breakfast, we will have a cooking class with Emiko, preparing the area’s famous pici pasta and making fresh curd cheese together. The afternoon will be free for a dip in the pool or relaxing, or maybe a wander through the kitchen garden, and in the early evening Marco will guide us through a lesson in pairing cheese and wine before dinner.

Day 4: After breakfast, we head off for Montalcino, which sits up high overlooking the Val d’Orcia. The home of Tuscany’s most important wines, Marco will take us to two very special wineries to taste their Brunello. We’ll have time for a stroll through the town and aperitivo, of course. Dinner in a wonderful restaurant in the historical centre of Montalcino.

Day 5: After breakfast we will spend the morning immersed in a cooking class using stoneground local flour and making our own mascarpone. After an easy lunch, relax by the pool or read a book on one of the day beds or hammock on the hill and for our last evening, we will make a classic Tuscan bistecca cooked over coals and tiramisu with our handmade mascarpone.

Day 6: Breakfast and goodbyes!

Retreat cost per person: 2,500 euro in double occupancy, single supplement: 600 euro (2 available). BOOK HERE.

What is included in the price:

5 nights accommodation in a beautiful Tuscan villaDay trips and transport included in the itinerary aboveTwo winery visits and tastingsCheese tasting, lunch and organic farm visit5 healthy breakfasts, 4 lunches and 5 dinners, including meals out at local restaurantsDelicious natural wine during mealsThree cooking classes with cookbook authorOne professional cheesemaking classesCheesemaking equipment to take homeWine tastings and pairings with a sommelier

Not included in the cost:

Airfare and travel costs to and from the villaTravel insurance

We will be based in the Val d’Orcia, an untouched, beautiful valley lying roughly between Siena and Orvieto with the most picturesque, unique Tuscan landscape. Think cypress trees and undulating wheat fields and every film set in Tuscany that you can think of from The English Patient to Gladiator. The villa that we will call home for the retreat is set on a hill top with 360 degrees views of the valley. Villa Pienza is a beautiful, traditional Tuscan home with 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, air conditioning and wifi. There is an 18 ft (5.5 meter) long saltwater pool, several communal kitchens, a cosy lounge room, a pool table, outdoor and indoor dining spaces and a vegetable garden at our disposal.

All the rooms are double but two are available for single occupancy at an additional price of 600 euro (first come first served) — if traveling alone but you would like the double occupancy rate and don’t mind getting to know a roommate, we will be happy to pair you in a twin room with someone else wanting to do the same thing. Please quote the room name when booking if you have a preference:

PRINCESS ROOM – on the ground floor, this room is named for the romantic, handmade canopy over the double bed (cannot be made into twins). Ensuite with a huge double head shower. Also available as a single. {BOOKED}

SWAN ROOM – this large room upstairs has a super king size bed and a huge hydromassage jacuzzi along with an ensuite with shower. Special for a couple but this can also be made into twins. {BOOKED}

SKY ROOM – second bedroom upstairs with beautiful pale blue walls and double bed which can be made into twins, and an ensuite bathroom with double sinks and double shower heads. It shares a communal loungeroom with a pocket terrace with the swan room. {BOOKED}

OCHRE BEDROOM – a upstairs double room in a quiet part of the house, fitted out in neutrals, with an ensuite that has a hydromassage tub. Available as a single or double. {BOOKED}

PIENZA ROOM – this quiet, elegant ground floor room can be a double or twin shared room and has an ensuite bathroom. {BOOKED}

To book your place, head right here.

We require a deposit of 50% upon booking; the remaining 50% should be paid by 1 May 2022. When booking, please specify if there is a room you prefer (I will do my best to update the website with those that have already been booked, but please select a second preference too incase your first is unavailable) and whether you would like single occupancy (paying a supplement fee) or double occupancy.

If coming with a friend or partner, please let us know so we can match up the bookings otherwise let us know if you are happy to share with any roommate.

Please let us know of any dietary requirements when you book.

The booking is non-refundable but if you need to cancel, we can accept someone to take your place.

Important: You must have your own travel insurance and a Green Pass to participate (indispensable in Italy now, even have a simple coffee at the bar).

A note on Green Passes:

At the time of writing, a Green Pass (proof of vaccination or recovery from covid-19) is necessary to eat at restaurants indoors or outdoors, enter shops and do many activities in Italy such as going to swimming pools, traveling long distance on trains and public transport etc. We also require that you have a Green Pass to attend the workshop — be assured that the hosts are vaccinated and boosted and those involved in the workshop will also have a Green Pass too.

Getting here:

Pienza is in the province of Siena. The closest international airports are Florence, Perugia and Rome. You could rent a car from the airport, Pienza is roughly 80km from Perugia (1 hour drive), 115km from Florence (1 hour and 45 minutes drive) and 190km from Rome (2 1/2 hour drive). The nearest train station if you’re coming from Perugia, Florence or Rome is Chiusi-Chianciano Terme and from there we can organise transfers from the station for arrival and departure (about 36km, a 45 minute drive) or there are several local busses. For train schedules check the Trenitalia website.

Tuscany in June:

Expect very warm weather! Tuscany in June is has long, sunlit days and warm evenings, (but possibly getting even chilly at times so a light layer might be handy). We will do our best to ensure everyone is comfortable with the heat – there will be breaks at the warmest time of the day (for a dip in the pool or a rest in your air-conditioned room), cool drinks and fresh meals suited to the warm weather. We encourage you to dress comfortably for the heat and wear comfortable shoes for day trips and farm visits – and don’t forget your swimmers!

Things to note:

The retreat will take place with a minimum of 5 and maximum of 10 participants. The itinerary is a guide; we reserve the right to make changes as necessary, such as where we may need to change the order of activities or replace some of the activities with something equally wonderful.

If you have any questions, please email: workshops@emikodavies.com

The post Pecorino e Vino Culinary Retreat 2022 in Pienza, Tuscany first appeared on Emiko Davies.

The Lagoon Workshop, a deep dive into the heart of Venice

To celebrate the release of my upcoming cookbook, Cinnamon and Salt: Cicchetti in Venice: Small Bites from the Lagoon City, I am offering a very special trip that I like to call The Lagoon Workshop! The idea here is to introduce you to a part of Venice that is so often overlooked by visitors to Venice but yet is the “internal organs” of the city, as activist Jane da Mosto says: the lagoon.

We will have three nights together and we will based in a beautiful property of the sustainable resort Venissa on the ancient, colourful island of Burano. Once a fishing village, the fisherman painted their rustic homes bright colours so they could see them from afar. Famous for lace and the delicious, buttery buranelli, or S-cookies, it is also a photographer’s paradise for the unique buildings and canals.

It will take place on May 26-29, 2022, a time when you can still say crowds haven’t rushed back to Venice just yet and we can enjoy the sunshine but also the delightful late spring produce.

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The itinerary:

Day 1: Arrival in Venice, meeting for our first aperitivo of cicchetti and spritz in the charming neighbourhood of Cannaregio (see some favourite spots in this mini guide here) before taking the vaporetto to Burano and settling in. In the evening, we will walk over the wooden foot bridge to Mazzorbo island to visit the walled garden of Venissa, where they grow vegetables and have revived a rare and ancient Venetian grape, for a wine tasting (read more about this incredible project here at Wine Spectator) and dinner at their Michelin starred restaurant.

Day 2: For early risers, I suggest a walk around Burano early in the morning before anyone else arrives! It is a special time to be there and a wonderful opportunity to take photos and enjoy the stillness. We will take a converted fishing boat with fisherman Manuel Bagnolo to visit the southern side of the lagoon towards the salt marshes and the last of the moeche (crab) fishermen, before enjoying aperitivo and lunch on the boat anchored in the middle of the lagoon. After a three course lagoon seafood meal that has been fished by Manuel and his family, we will visit the abandoned islands in the north of the lagoon (anyone who wants to visit one or jump in for a brave swim can do so!), while Manuel tells us his stories. Dinner in a classic trattoria in Burano (to get you in the mood watch Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode in Venice).

Day 3: After breakfast, a visit to the Rialto markets and a look at all the wonderful late spring produce. We will have a walk with Venice historian Rosa Salzberg through the backstreets of the Rialto, where you can find some of the most ancient osterie, and of course plenty of stops for cicchetti along the way. We will have free time for shopping, coffee and pastries in a wonderful campo, or perhaps you’d like to pop into my favourite museum, and we will end the evening in a charming neighbourhood osteria for natural wine and a locally sourced meal before heading back on the vaporetto to our island bed.

Day 4: After breakfast we check out and glide back over the lagoon to Venice for your next adventures.

Included are:

Accommodation at the beautiful Casa Burano in either a superior room or junior suiteBreakfast every morning at VenissaCoffee, lunch, aperitivo, dinners, including a Michelin-star dinner at VenissaWine tasting of the one of the most sought-after white wines in the worldCicchetti tour and photo walk with cookbook author Emiko DaviesWalk with Venice historian Rosa SalzbergTicket to Palazzo GrimaniVaporetto pass to get around the lagoonBoat ride around the lagoon with a three course meal and aperitivo cooked on the boatA signed copy of Cinnamon and Salt!

This Lagoon Workshop costs 2,000 euro per person in double occupancy (450 euro single supplement and a supplement of 180 euro total for an upgrade to a junior suite). There are only 8 rooms available in this workshop.

To book your spot with a deposit, head right here.

We require a deposit of 50% upon booking; the remaining 50% should be paid by 1 May 2022. When booking, please specify if there is a room you prefer (I will do my best to update the website with those that have already been booked, but please select a second preference too incase your first is unavailable) and whether you would like single occupancy (paying a supplement fee) or double occupancy.

If coming with a friend or partner, please let us know so we can match up the bookings otherwise let us know if you are happy to share with any roommate.

Please let us know of any dietary requirements when you book. Note that seafood is an integral part of this tour so please let us know if you can’t have it!

The booking is non-refundable but if you need to cancel, we can accept someone to take your place.

Important: You must have your own travel insurance and a Green Pass to participate (indispensable in Italy now, even have a simple coffee at the bar).

A note on Green Passes:

At the time of writing, a Green Pass (proof of vaccination or recovery from covid-19) is necessary to eat at restaurants indoors or outdoors, enter shops and do many activities in Italy such as going to swimming pools, traveling long distance on trains and public transport etc. We also require that you have a Green Pass to attend the workshop — be assured that the hosts are vaccinated and boosted and those involved in the workshop will also have a Green Pass too.

Getting here:

Venice has its own international airport, Marco Polo Airport which is on the mainland and from there you can get a taxi to Venice’s Piazzale Roma Terminal (less than 20 minutes drive) or public transport (bus or taxi to Piazzale Roma or a water taxi!). If you’re coming from a major Italian city you can get to Venice by train — for schedules check the Trenitalia website.

Venice in late May:

Expect beautiful weather, cool evenings, sunny days but the weather can be unpredictable in late spring too so layers are always a good idea, especially for the vaporetto rides across the lagoon. If you’re game enough to go for a swim in the lagoon, bring swimmers too!

Things to note:

The retreat will take place with a minimum of 5 and maximum of 12 participants. The itinerary is a guide; we reserve the right to make changes as necessary, such as where we may need to change the order of activities or replace some of the activities with something equally wonderful.

BOOK NOW

Keen to know more? Email me at workshops@emikodavies.com

The post The Lagoon Workshop, a deep dive into the heart of Venice first appeared on Emiko Davies.

Brodo di pollo, chicken broth for winter solstice

This is the simplest recipe, which is part of the beauty of it for me. All you need is a really good, organic, free range chicken and you’re halfway there.

Around Christmas and New Year’s in Italy, it’s not unusual to see cappone, or capon, a castrated rooster, on offer and this would be one of the classic ways to prepare cappone too. Castration of a rooster has been practised since ancient times, initially being a way to keep roosters together with chickens in their coop, and then kept as a tradition that guarantees very flavourful, succulent meat.

Capon broth has been a popular dish for the winter solstice since the Middle Ages, where it was appreciated for its nutritive and comforting properties and even used as medicine for anyone ill. Capons themselves were often present on noble tables at Christmas time, given a gifts from local farmers who had raised them (there is a famous exchange of capons in Alessandro Manzoni’s I Promessi Sposi, one of Italy’s most important novels). From central Italy such as Le Marche heading north through Tuscany, Emilia Romagna and finally in Piemonte, you can easily find brodo di cappone still on people’s tables for special occasions at the end of the year.

Typically, you might serve it as tortellini in brodo (the ultimate), or perhaps with passatelli (a dough made with breadcrumbs, eggs and Parmesan) but it is even delicious in tazza (in a mug, where it is sipped) and you can even of course use it as a base for minestre (soups) but when you have a very good chicken broth there is something about keeping it simple so you can enjoy the full flavour.

My butcher Andrea Falaschi suggests cooking cotechino in this brodo rather than plain water, cotechino (a large, boiled pork sausage, one of the most ancient of all Italian sausages and particularly connected to northern Italian regions of Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino) being another classic of new year where it is eaten on a bed of lentils, the flat round legumes resemble coins and so a symbol of prosperity for the new year.

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Once you’ve made your broth and you have the leftover boiled chicken, pull apart the meat and separate it from the bones and skin and this of course can and should be enjoyed in other ways — at Christmas I served insalata di cappone, a salad of valeriana (lamb’s lettuce), poached capon, pomegranate seeds and sultanas revived in water with a vinaigrette (a version of which will appear in Cinnamon and Salt, my new Venetian cookbook) and for boxing day we made chicken sandwiches (I chop the meat and add finely sliced spring onion and celery, chopped walnuts, a squeeze of lemon juice and mayonnaise to bring it all together).

And with any other leftovers you can of course make the ultimate chicken noodle soup with the broth, adding some vegetables, herbs and pasta to your liking — as Laurie Colwin wrote, “The best soup I have ever eaten was made from a friend’s leftover Christmas pheasant, the remains of the potatoes Anna, peas, cabbage and stock.”

Brodo di pollo (Chicken broth)

Use cappone if you like, it is significantly larger than your average chicken so you should make sure to use a large pot that fits it nicely so that it will be completely covered with water. Try not to chop it into pieces if you can help it. Some recipes for brodo di cappone include juniper berries, peppercorns or other spices, but I abide by the simpler the better rule — when you have a very good chicken that is really all you need and extra additions just hide the true flavour. You can also find a really great beef broth recipe from my favourite old Italian cookbook by Artusi here.

Makes about 3-4 litres of broth.

1/2 chicken1 onion1 carrot1 celery stick2 bay leavessalt to taste

Place the chicken in a pot large enough to hold it. Peel the onion and if small, keep it whole, otherwise halve it and add to the pot. Wash the carrot and celery stick and cut in half and place in the pot, along with the bay leaves. Cover with cold water (depending on the capacity of your pot and size of your chicken, about 3-4 litres).

Turn the heat to low-medium and keep an eye on it as it gets hotter — you really do not want this broth to boil but only barely simmer for about two or even three hours, covered. Skim the surface as any impurities come out. After two hours, add salt if you like and taste (I like to do this at the end or make it optional so that you have more flexibility for using this broth for different preparations. You can add salt in the step when you are preparing a dish instead, for example). The chicken should be falling apart and the broth should taste and smell wonderful. You can continue cooking the broth further, covered, if you like you can now uncover to reduce it for further flavour, depending on how you would like to use it. For this tortellini in brodo, 2 hours of the gentlest simmering was enough.

 

The post Brodo di pollo, chicken broth for winter solstice first appeared on Emiko Davies.

Involtini di cavolo con patate e funghi

I tasted this dish of cabbage parcels with potato and mushroom recently at a wonderful trattoria, Osteria di Golpaja at the wonderful Villa Pietriolo, a sustainable, organic estate with its own farm animals, olive trees and vineyards, tucked in the hills between Vinci and San Miniato. Everything they use in this beautiful osteria is grown or reared on the property, from the Cinta Senese to the vegetables, and naturally, the seasons dictate the menu. It was a damp, muddy late autumn day and this warming dish — which was served as a main and came after the chestnut pasta with wild boar ragu and polenta with mushrooms — was just the thing.

The first thing that hits you is the sweetness of the roast cabbage – when I haven’t had it in a while I forget how sweet it is! Then you get creamy, cheesy mashed potatoes and pops of small, chiodini (honey fungus) mushrooms. If this isn’t comfort food I don’t know what is. It is a joy to eat.

I knew I wanted to try to recreate it at home, and while I love this as a vegetarian main dish, I thought about adding just a little bit of speck – a smoky, dry-cured slab of pork thigh, an IGT status product from Sud Tyrol, which was a little wave hello to the friends we ate this with, who live in Trento and had brought it to us as a souvenir (edible souvenirs are the best). Bacon would be close to it, if you can’t get speck, or you could use any ham you like. If you want to keep it vegetarian, however, you could easily leave out the speck completely. I thought as I was putting this into the oven that roast chestnuts in place of the speck, crumbled a little, would be absolutely delicious here.

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There are three parts to this recipe that could all be prepared separately the day before (or simply, if you happened to have left over mashed potato), then putting them together is a cinch: blanching and drying the cabbage leaves, making the mashed potatoes and cooking the mushrooms.

I indicate more leaves than you might need because some may break as you are handling them or they may be smaller than you thought – small leaves can be overlapped to create one larger parcel. This recipe will make about 8 parcels, which could feed 8 people if part of a bigger meal.  We shared one of these at the restaurant as we were greedy and wanted to try a bit of everything — salumi, pasta, polenta and all the desserts! But if on their own I could easily eat two of these for a simple lunch.

Involtini di cavolo con patate e funghi
Cabbage parcels with potato and mushrooms

8-12 fresh savoy cabbage leaves500 grams (3 medium sized) floury potatoes100 grams butter60 ml (¼ cup) milk40 grams (a handful) of grated Parmesan cheese150 grams chiodini (honey fungus) or other mushrooms2 tablespoons olive oil1 garlic clove60 ml (¼ cup) white wine1 thick slice of speck, cut into matchsticks (optional)a few sprigs of parsley100 grams of Asiago cheese, diced

Rinse the cabbage leaves. Bring a large pot of water to boil and place the leaves in the simmering water and blanch for about 1 minute. Drain them and place in a single layer on a tea towel to drain further.

Peel and chop the potatoes roughly and place in a pot of cold water. Bring to a boil and cook until a fork slides easily into them. Drain then place them back in the warm pot, add half of the butter and the milk, along with the Parmesan and a good pinch of salt and mash until smooth. Set aside until needed.

Cut the bases off the chiodini to separate them (they grow in clusters). If there are any large mushrooms, you can chop them in half or in smaller pieces. Pour olive oil into a wide pan and add the garlic clove. Carefully heat the oil over low-medium heat until the garlic begins to sizzle and infuse the oil – make sure not to brown it too much. Remove, then add the mushrooms, followed by the white wine and cook them until they are tender, about 10 minutes. At the last minute or two, add the speck and toss everything together.

Remove from the heat, add the parsley, then mix the mushrooms into mashed potatoes (if using cold mashed potatoes prepared earlier, this is easier to do if you warm them first). Finally, stir in the diced cheese and taste – it probably won’t need much seasoning but adjust if it does. Try to resist not simply eating the filling from the pan, although it is very, very good eaten this way, I promise it will be even better with the cabbage parcel wrapped around it!

Heat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). With a little of the butter, grease the bottom of a baking tray.

Now get back to the cabbage leaves. It is quite helpful for rolling (not to mention fun) to give the thicker stems towards the base of the leaf a bit of a bash with a rolling pin. Using two tablespoons, place heaping spoonfuls of filling (if you have cups, they would be ½ cup portions) into the middle of each cabbage leaf. Roll up the bashed stem end first, then the top down and finally the sides. Place the little package, seams down in the prepared baking tray. Continue with the rest. If you have small or broken leaves, simply use one of the extra leaves to overlap and wrap as if it were one leaf.

Divide the rest of the butter into little pieces and place these on the top of each parcel (the original, in the top photo, also had a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top; do as you wish), then bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are beginning to brown and melted cheese that has escaped its enclosure is sizzling. Eat immediately.

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