Verdure / Vegetables

Asparagi olio e limone / Olive oil and lemon asparagus

Bruschette con verdure e tofu grigliati e salsa al mango e tomatillo / Bruschette with grilled veggies and tofu and mango and tomatillo salsa

Carciofi ancora piu' semplici / Even simpler artchokes

Cavolfiori al gratin / Gratin cauliflower

Curry vegetariano multietnico / Multi-ethnical vegetarian curry

Imam Bayildi / Turkish stuffed eggplants

Insalata di quinoa e cavolfiori colorati / Quinoa and colored cauliflower salad

Kale al vapore fatto in padella / Steamed kale in a pan

Martatouille

Verdure alla griglia / grilled vegetables

Sformato di spinaci / Spinach 'sformato'

Tofu con melanzane cinesi e long choy in fiore / Tofu with chinese eggplant and blooming long choy

Pess-coj

I was inspired to make this recipe because I happened to have at the same time in my fridge some cabbage and some ground meat, and I had just read the recipe on my favorite traditional Piemontese cookbook.
Pess-coj is piemontese dialect. I never spoke about dialects in this blog, but in Italy, not only every region, but every town and village has its own dialogue. Honestly I struggle to understand Piemontese (my region's dialect), I cannot speak it, and if I go to Milan or to Genova (1h 1/2 from Turin) I just don't understand anything. Just imagine how I feel if I go to Naples or Sicily and people speak in dialect. It's like being in a foreign country!
So, here you have an example in the title of this recipe: 'pess-coj' means, in Italian, 'pesce-cavolo', i.e. 'fish-cabbage'. Now, do you see any resemblance between 'cavolo' and 'coj' (cabbage for both of them)? Honestly they're not very similar.. so, that's the same for every word. Dialects are different languages, in Italian. If for example you are interested in Piemontese, I even found a dictionary Piemontese-Italiano on- line :)
Anyway, given this small introduction, here is the recipe for 'Pess-coj', taken from the Piemontese cookbook.

Pess-coj
Boil ~8 leaves of cabbage for ~5 min in salted water. Let them dry and cool down on a towel.
In the meanwhile cut finely a handful of leaves of some greens (I used kale, which doesn't exist in Piemonte, so the original recipe would call for spinach), and mix it with 1 lb ground meat (you can mix beef and sausage, I used only beef). Add 2 eggs, ~2 tsp salt, a pinch of pepper, a pinch of nutmeg, 3 minced garlic cloves, and ~2 tbsp grated parmigiano cheese.
Set this mixture at the center of the cabbage leaves and fold them. Then, the original recipe suggests either baking, to eat this as a hot dish, or frying and then soak in a mixture of vinegar, wine and sage, to eat this cold. I chose to saute them in a bit of olive oil, and add some red wine to them while they were cooking, and eat them hot. They were very good! They are called 'fish-cabbage' because they do really look a bit like fish, when they're done!
I ate them with rice and some kale, which I cooked in the same pan where I cooked the cabbage rolls, so there was a tiny bit of olive oil and wine on the bottom of it, and I just added ~ 4 tbsp water and ~1 tbsp salt to it, so it was kind of like steamed but with some more taste to it. It was really good!!

Cene da single per tutta la settimana - pesce azzurro con capperi e pomodorini

I haven't learnt how to cook for a single person yet. Anytime I make dinner for myself it ends up being enough for almost all the meals of the week.. which is good and bad at the same time.. luckily though so far I managed to make pretty good one-week-long-dinners so I'll show you some of them in the next few posts.
Let's start with one week ago, when I made some bluefish with capers and tomatoes
Pesce azzurro con capperi e pomodorini
I bought a one-pound piece of bluefish at Whole Foods Market. It wasn't too expensive, I guess because it had a few bones in it and Americans don't like fish with bones in?? :) Anyway, then I covered it with some flour on each side, heated up a little bit of olive oil, and I cooked the fish in it for ~5 minutes on each side. In the last 2-3 minutes I added some capers with their vinegar and some small tomatoes, cut in half, on top.
It was really good, I was quite happy, and it's really fast to make. Serve with steamed rice and enjoy!

Il mio blog ha compiuto un anno!!

Yesterday I forgot to write that.. it was my blog's first birthday!!!! :)
Happy birthday to 'An Italian in the US' !! :) And thank you to all the readers who stop by! It's been a really nice experience and I hope I'll be able to keep it up for a long time :)

Cena con Cinzia, Marzio e Orazio

After we went to Villa Genero, Cinzia invited me to have dinner at her place, and cook together. Both Cinzia and I like to cook and when we're together it's a lot of fun to try new recipes. I like to cook with Cinzia, she's so relaxed, so it's really just fun. We decided to make a hazelnut cake and some cheese fluffy appetizers. We took the recipes from the book 'Cucina di tradizione del Piemonte -ricettario a fumetti', which I gave her for Christmas, after trying so many good recipes from it.
So I'll post the recipes and pictures here! But before that, a portrait of Cinzia's family - a very intellectual family :) :)


Gonfiotti al formaggio (Fluffy cheesy appetizer)
1 cup water
2 tbsp butter
4 tbsp white flour
2 eggs
4 tbsp grated parmigiano cheese
olive oil
Add the butter to the water and bring to boil. Add the flour while stirring for about 2 minutes. Remove from the stove and then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well. Then add the parmigiano, while still stirring. Warm up the oil in a pan and add the batter in small amounts, and fry until you obtain nice fluffy and golden 'clouds'. Serve warm or hot. They're delicious!

Torta di nocciole (Hazelnut cake)
3 eggs
3 1/4 (100 g) tbsp butter
1 2/3 (200 g) cups flour
2 cups (200 g) roasted and coarsely ground hazelnut
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
Beat the eggs, add sugar, flour, butter, and baking powder, and when it's a nice cream, add the hazelnuts. Warm up the milk and add it, mix and let the whole mixture rest for 10 minutes. Preheat oven at 320 F (160 C). Butter and flour a pan, pour the batter in that and cook for ~30 min. Serve cold.
Here is Cinzia preparing the cake. Note the wooden spoon - she said it is necessary to use that in order to make a really good homemade cake :)

Now, wasn't this a nice dinner? Gonfiotti al formaggio, some tomatoes, and a cake :) - just perfect!! Ah, such nice memories..

Villa Genero

The first day I was in Turin (when I wasn't sick yet) I went for a walk with my friend Cinzia and her child Marzio in Villa Genero, one of the many beautiful parks in Torino. Villa Genero is on the hills right past the Po.. so here are some of the views from there.
Torino with a little fog:
On the right, la Mole Antonelliana: it's that unbelievable tower that dominates the town. It was supposed to be a Jewish synagogue, but it was never finished as such, and it became property of the town. Now there is the Museum of the Cinema inside. It's noteworthy and the view from the top of the tower can be breathtaking in a clear day.
On the left side, the really big square in front is Piazza Vittorio, it's really large and now they just fixed it, so that cars cannot park on it anymore. It's gorgeous, and there are portici all around it, again.
The round building on the right side, in front of Piazza Vittorio, is la Chiesa della Gran Madre, a church dedicated to Mary, modeled on the style of the Pantheon in Rome.
Far away, you kind of see the Alps!

A view of the hills at the sunset

Cinzia and Marzio in Villa Genero

Una camminata attraverso Torino

Here are pictures from a short walk I had around Turin. During the first part I was with my sister, and then I was by myself.
An open air market:
One of the flower stands
One of the olive stands
I love so much the open air markets in Italy. Turin has many, one of them is the biggest one in Europe (Porta Palazzo). It's an experience, I'd recommend visiting it to everyone who happens to be in Turin, especially on Saturday morning.

Walking downtown, in the most elegant part of the town:
Via Roma, i portici.
Torino is well-known for having miles and miles of portici, sort of arcades that cover the sideways, with houses on top of them, and shops inside. It's really nice and protects you when it rains or it's too hot.

Arriving from Via Roma to Piazza Castello
The building you see at the end of Via Roma was the royal palace. Torino was the capital of Italy for a while, and the king used to live in that wonderful palace.
In the same square, this is Palazzo Madama
This was where the queen used to live. The two palaces are interconnected by some underground passages. Turin has many underground passages, some of them may be still unfound!!
This is Via Pietro Micca.
You can see, another street with portici.
And this is one of the many historical caffes:
This is again in Via Pietro Micca. Not sure if it's good or not.. I never tried this one!
Well, this was the only moment I was able to walk around and take some pictures of the town.. I'll add some next time I go, but I hope you got an idea of how wonderful Torino is :)

Di nuovo negli States!!!

Hello to everybody!! Here I am again after two weeks in Italy.. sigh.. it's always short, especially when you spend half of your time stuck in bed and the rest doing visa stuff and attending a conference for work :)
But no complaints, I had a good time, I managed to meet most of the people I wanted, although not everyone, unfortunately. Also, due to the fact that when I was sick I wasn't too hungry, I couldn't really eat all the good food I would have liked, but I did get to eat some which was really good :) For example, my friend Chiara made some zabaione for me, which I _really_ liked, and I will try to make it and post the recipe here soon. It's a sweet egg cream with Marsala, a white strong wine. De-li-cious!
So I'll spend the next posts showing the few places I managed to visit and take pictures of.. enjoy!

Milano

It's driving me crazy that I'm in bed and it's a wonderful day outside and I'm in Turin!!! But I'll try yo be good so maybe tomorrow I feel well enough to go around at least for a bit. Anyway, from my bed of sorrow and mucus, here are some pictures that I took three days ago when I was in... Milan!
(The cathedral, the upper part of its facade just renewed)

I had to go to Milan to get a part of my visa done. Usually this trip to Milan is just a pain and a duty for me.. stay two hours in a line at the Embassy and go back.. but this time, my dad came with me, and it was a lot of fun!! We had a nice lunch at a Self-Service close to the American Embassy (amazing how good and cheap the food was, especially if you got the grilled meat that was prepared on the spot). And then, after my visa, we had some time to wander around.
Here we are in Piazzetta della Scala.
My dad is in front of La Scala, the most famous opera theatre in Milan, taking a picture of me in front of the Statue of Leonardo.
(this is Leonardo)
And this is the entrance to the gorgeous gallery that brings into Piazza del Duomo.
And these are pictures from inside the gorgeous gallery:
(there was a humongous Christmas tree decorated with precious glasses in the middle of the gallery).
Piazza del Duomo was gorgeous. As I mentioned, part of the cathedral has just been renovated. There are Christmas decorations everywhere, and I found kind of neat some humongous lit balls made of wire on the back of the Cathedral:
We visited a few churches. The one I liked most was S. Francesco da Paola.
It's not one of the famous churches in Milan. I think I liked it so much because it reminded me of the churches that are typically in Turin, in Barocco style, quiet, scented with incense.

L'ultimo dell'anno

End of the year's Eve was Lucas's and mine last night together in Raleigh. So we decided to do something special and we went to eat at 'Mo's diner', a very nice restaurant in Raleigh which we never went to before. It's really elegant, and it's set up in a real house, with a few tables in each carefully decorated room. This is an example of the room where we were (sorry for the blurry picture, but at least it gives an idea).


The food is really good, and so is the wine. I had some delicious lamb rack and Lucas some grilled quails. The dessert was particularly good:
It was called 'Banana Napoleon', and it was made with crispy layers of dough sandwiching pieces of banana and a custard-like cream. It would be nice to try to reproduce it.
The final bill was quite expensive - I guess the wine really helped increasing the price.. but once per year...
On our way back we saw Raleigh's first of the year decoration: an ice sculpture..
And the big acorn:
They take this huge acorn up in the air with a crate and when it's midnight they drop it down.. well, Raleigh is not NY, but it does try to entartain its residents :)
We didn't stay there until midnight, though. We went back home and cheered together with our friends Jorge, Luisa and Jorge's brother and sister-in-law, who just came from Mexico:
What's better than starting the year with friends?

Ricordando Natale - dall'Italia e malatissima!!

At last, I'm back to Italy! So you will probably wonder: don't you have anything better to do rather than writing on your blog?!? Well... I'm sick and confined to bed :( - so after sleeping all the morning, at least I now feel like writing something..
I'll start with memories from Christmas in Virginia, at Lucas's parents, when we were (sigh) still altogether.
Christmas in the US is quite similar to Christmas in Italy: Christmas trees, nativities, lots of food and gifts. Well, as usual, things are bigger in the US.. so this is Lucas's parents tree:
Very nice, isnt't it? and it's real, one of the many trees that Lucas's dad cultivates.

I felt particularly happy when I noticed that Lucas's mom prepared a 'Christmas sock' for me too, which made me feel part of the family:
This is a tradition which is not present in Italy. We put up socks only on Jan 6th, the Epiphany, when la Befana comes and fills them up. Pasticciera put up a very nice post about la Befana, so if you're curious, go look at her Jan 6th post!!
The food was very good as always..
In my plate, you can see (from the top, clockwise): stuffing, gelly, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and mushroom soup, turkey and baked apples in the center. Of course there were also many different pies (see the Thanksgiving post). But what impressed me most was the amount of wonderful cookies that Debbie baked. Her e is a sample:
The pink one was a butter cookie, then the round one was a 'Christmas ball' (a delicious crunchy one with nuts inside), then there's a peanut butter cookie and then an almond paste cookie. She made hundreds of each type.. they were irresistible :)
My contribution was given by Panettone:
I made it according to a recipe that I found in 'Bread Alone'. I was really happy of how much it raised, but I think next time I'll put more sugar and butter in it (the recipe called only for 1 stick of butter, whereas panettone is a really buttery dessert), and I'll cook it for a shorter time. I'll put the recipe online as soon as I'm back, I don't have it now. I hope I remember!!

Cena con Lubos da 'Oishii'

After Lucas's graduation, Lubos took all of us out for dinner in a really nice restaurant in Cary. The food is gorgeous and the atmosphere very nice. We had a great evening. The restaurant is Oishii, and it doesn't have a website, but its address is
2425 Kildaire Farm Rd
Cary, NC 27518
(919) 858-0893
Keep it in mind for a nice dinner with great food at affordable prices. It's eclectic food, with a japanese-asian basis.
Here are two examples of what Lucas and I ordered:
Cod marinated in sake with bok-choi and vegetable noodles (mine)

Lamb rack with asparagus and other wonderful vegetables (Lucas's).
The desserts are also great.
Here is a nice picture of Kelley and Jason, who were sitting in front of us:
And a group picture with all of us:

Cene per celebrare il Dottore

Lucas's parents, grandparents, brother and sister came for Lucas's graduation. So this was a nice excuse for a lot of good dinners!
We had two home-made dinners, the first with Lucas's parents and grandparents and sister, and the second one with his brother and sister-in-law. I made a large amount of food for the first dinner, so the second was basically a replicate of the first.
I prepared some food that I already prepared some time ago.. so I'll just give you the menu here:
Appetizers:
Rotolo di Tonno/Tuna roll
Insalata alla Marta/Marta's salad (variation with mushroom and tiny bits of mozzarella)
Tomini al verde/Cheese under oil
Soups:
Zuppa di cipolle/Onion soup
Zuppa di lenticchie/Lentil soup (Too bad, I forgot to take pictures of this and I never spoke about this before. Well, I guess I'll make it again and explain it some other time).
Entree:
Saltimbocca/Jump-in-your-mouth
Dessert:
Macedonia con sorbetto al limone/fruit salad with lemon sorbet. I'll give the recipe for the lemon sorbet in a next post).
I was quite happy - everyone enjoyed it and now Lucas's family knows how lentils taste like :)

Lucas e' ufficialmente 'Dottore'

Wow.. such a long long time since I last posted on the blog. Sorry guys, I've been really busy between celebrations, holidays, and work.. And tomorrow, I'm flying out to Italy, the same day that Lucas is flying out to California. So, lots of changes in this short timeframe, and still no many knows in my future.
Anyway, I have a lot to catch up with! I'll start with one of the main events:
Lucas's graduation!!!!!!!
Now, he managed not to have a picture taken when he was dressed in his robe!!! So here is a peek at him seated in the crowd of students and professors during the big ceremony.. Can you find him?!? Behind him, there is his adviser, Lubos. Sorry for the quality of these pictures.. It was hard to take good pictures from far away.

The big ceremony was kind of interesting for me. In Italy, there's nothing like this. Especially after you graduate as a Ph.D.. They didn't even call our names!!! Anyway, this was instead really pompous.. The ceremony start with music, while all the students and professors, deans and so enter. There are some really interesting figures and things going on.. one is the 'University Mace' (una mazza!!!! Una vera mazza pseudo medievale...):
To be honest with you, it was a bit funny.. the description of all the symbols supposedly hidden in this 'mace', and then, when it was carried in and out by this tiny old lady...
The whole crowd all dressed up was also 'interesting'.. - I'm really not a huge ceremenoy person. It was also quite amazing to see, at the end of the ceremony, soldiers coming in (with rifles), to put up the American flag. People are so mmuch more patriotic in the US than in Italy.
There was also another pretty weird moment: the 'turning of the tassel' (tassel e' il cordoncino che pende da sopra il cappello piatto che gli studenti indossano). I had no idea about this other 'symbolic' gesture.. the students who graduate for their bachelor (laurea) enter the scene with their tassel on one side (I guess left?) and at a certain point of the ceremony, they all take it and swap it to the other side.. to show the turning point of their life.. Interesting :)
Just to give you a final taste of the atmosphere, here is a shot of the crowd.

Un'altra ricetta per il pane

I already explained how to make italian biova. This time, though, I improvised a little bit, and the result was even better.
In fact, this time the dinner was on a Friday, and I didn't have time to wait four hours for the bread to rise.. so I made the dough the night before.
The doses are, very approximatively:
1.5 cups warm water
1.5 tsp yeast
6 cups flour
2 tbsp salt
Dissolve the yeast in the water, and add a tsp sugar to activate it. Make sure it bubbles. Add the flour into the water/yeast mixture, stirring, and when it's workable, start kneading it on a floured surface. You may have to add a little bit less or more flour depending on your flour type. After 2 min of kneading add the salt on its surface and keep kneading so it gets all incorporated. You should knead the dough for at least ten minutes.
Let it rest overnight in the fridge. The day after, deflate the dough, which will have doubled its volume, knead for one more minute, and let it rest out of the fridge for another 8 hours (while you go to work :) ). Then, deflate it, and make two balls out of it, and let them rest for another hour or two, depending on how much time you have. Cook in the oven, preheated, at 400 F (if possible, on a stone) for ~30 min. Take it out when the crust is gold, and let it cool down on a rack. You can cut it after at least 10 min (better 20) of cooling.
This bread is really wonderful. You can add a little bit more salt, if you like it more savory.

Ravioli di magro al ragu'

The recipe for ravioli is a mixture of two recipes that I found on this nice cookbook that my father gave me: 'Cucina di tradizione del Piemonte, ricettario a fumetti' (I already cited this book a few other times). In particular, I used the dough for 'Agnolotti alla piemontese' and the filling for 'Cannelloni di magro'. When we say 'di magro' (lean) we mean that the pasta is filled with cheese and vegetables instead of meat (not sure if it's really leaner.. :) ). So instead of making cannelloni (sort of rolled lasagne) I made agnolotti filled with this non-meaty stuffing, and then I decided that to be really Piemontesi, there should be some meat somewhere, and thus the idea of serving them with ragu'.
So here is the recipe with pictures.

Pasta dough:
800 g (6 and 2/3 cups) white flour
3 eggs
2 tsp olive oil
warm water
Filling:
1 1/2 cups boiled spinach
1 lb ricotta
1 egg
1 tbsp heavy cream
1/2 cup parmesan
1 tsp nutmeg
For the pasta: mix the flour and the eggs and the oil, and add as much water as necessary to have a workable dough. Knead for at least 10 min. This was _very_ hard. No comparison with the bread dough.. there's no yeast here, and the dough stays hard. It becomes nicely elastic after a while, but it's a good workout, be aware. Let it rest for 10 minutes and then roll down the dough until it's _really_ thin. There's your second part of working out. It's supposed to be so thin that you should be able to read a newspaper through it. Mine wasn't _as_ thin, but it was pretty thin. It takes another pound of sweat..
For the filling: mix all the ingredients, add a little salt.
Place some filling on the dough..
...then fold the dough on top, and cut into squares.
Fold the borders so the filling doesn't come out during the cooking.
Bring some water to boil, add salt to it, and then throw the agnolotti in it. They take about 10 minutes to cook (mine were pretty big).
To serve, mix with ragu sauce (see previous post for recipe) and add some grated parmesan on top.
I'm telling you, they were _really_ good but _really_ laborious to prepare. I think if I make them next time, I'll have some tools like a pasta machine to mix and spread the dough and some ravioli machine to cut them :) - although, then I won't feel the same sense of accomplishment as I did this time :)

Note: after getting more experience with ravioli making, I understand I should not have folded the borders, but just stuck them together with some water. See here for a better description on how to shape ravioli.