Copyright 2009, Maria Liberati

Sundays in Rome always turn into special days..and this weekend was no exception. A  trip there  for an event on Saturday  for my latest book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking-Holidays & Special Occasions turned into more than just that ..Sunday was  filled with finding  favorite foods in Rome and seeing old friends-Moses &  Michelangelo..

 It  became a  trip to revisit those old friends..a stop to see Michelangelo’s Moses, the Trevi Fountain and canlt forget Santa Maria sopra Minerva… I have seen them many times and can sit in front of them for hours upon end and take in their beauty..almost embarassingly so..my eyes become wide open in amazement.. thinking of Michelangelo toiling in front of his Moses…

But enough about the art..let’s get into the food.. From cornetto & cappuccino near Santa Maria Maggiore to Pizza in Trastevere..coffee at St.Eustachio and EUR and gelato near Montecitorio…what a weekend program..  attempting to fit in all the local food stops one could fit in..It seemed like so many foods but  so little time to get them all in..

Pizza in Rome is at its best when it is thin ,made with fresh mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil and most places display a sign to tell you the ingredients uses as do the places that make their own gelato. The sign is usually somewhere on the glass case that displays the pizza and/or gelato..

In 100 degree weather the  gelato creations, looking as something that may have been created by one of the masters, melt so quickly one has but a split second to  admire the aesthetic beauty. Enjoying a dish of gelato outside in Rome under the summer sun is an experience in contrast..the heatof the August sun beating down,the cool,creamy liquid refreshing your senses..the intense flavors hypnotizing…almost diverting your attention away from the uncomfortable temperatures at least for a few minutes.

A linguine with cold pasta sauce coming later today  for lunch..

Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene,

Maria

http://twitter.com/Marialiberati

 copyright, 2009, Maria Liberati

It is amusing to sit and watch how people that are extremely cold warm up. Some will stare in disbelief at their reddened hands, almost frozen and unable to move. Others seem to think that laughing  to shake off the cold’s icy touch is the best solution. Then there are those that will just sit without uddering a word, who seem to sit mute  almost as if  in shock.

After visiting the ’square coliseum’, we knew we needed  some solution  to the cold wind.  The Solution ………was a visit to Palombini  (coffee bar) next door, the visions of sweet pillows of pastry and colorfully decorated cakes for Carnevale and Easter  was all that was needed to get us inside. That was the easiest decision, now came the world’s most difficult decision..what should we order or not order…

It was the perfect resting place for cold weary shoppers.. in the Eternal city how can anything but indulgence be your mission..food ,fashion, beauty, art, architeture..

To my next visit to Palombini and enjoy some tramezzini at home if you can’t meet me there.

Join me at The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm Cooking School in Italy on Sept 23-Oct 6th at the villa. Stay for 6 nights/ 7 days with us and enjoy hands on authentic cooking classes, vineyard tours, visits to artisan food producers, wine tastings and more. (Almost all inclusive)_Everything exept airfare..Included is all meals cooking classes, lodging, excursions, wine tastings and transport from airport and back. Limited to 12 participants and if yo uregister by May 1st you receive $200 off the price. An Experience you will never forget. Makes a great Mother’s Day gift!

Visit our recipes and articles page, updated frequently with all the recipes you have been asking for and more to come.

Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene

Maria

Today will be another day in the US, but for most children in Italy it marks the last day of the Christmas Holidays. The day the good witch known as ‘La Befana’(taken from the word Epiphania or Epiphany) leaves caramelle (candies) and toys in their stockings if they were good,if they were bad they can be sure to receive a stocking full of ‘carbone’ or coal.

Although, in the US the Christmas trees have been put away and decorations are just a memory, in Italy they still linger ,Christmas music is sitll playing ,stores still offer  Christmas wrapping and plenty of Holiday treats still abound in mnay homes.. at least for one more day ..today, January 6th, the Epiphany.

But for me here it is a day trying to decide which celebration to go to..for instance in Venice there is always the La Befana Regatta..The men dress up in La befana costumes-complete with red lipstick and wigs- and compete in their small boats. after the race, they hand out little candies to the crowds of people and hot wine and sweets are served ,there is usually a concert by a local choir..

Then in Rome, Piazza Navona concludes it’s final day of the Christmas market.  Both ‘La Befana’ and Santa Claus are walking around and available for photo taking. Stockings filled with candies and  toys can be purchased as well as nativity scenes, la befana dolls, flying  la befana’s  (on a broomstick),candies, roasted nuts and more..

In the small towns nearby the piazzas all have their own little celebrations…

I have already attended many a La Befana Regatta in Venice and Christmas market in Piazza Navona in Rome.. I think this year I will opt for something quieter since both of those events have grown into ‘touristy’ attractions. 

I am opting to do a dinner .. since we have many  recipes we have been working on at The Basic Art of Italian Cooking Kitchen here in Abruzzo.Here are some recipes you can try also and no matter what age you are you can still have your own La Befana Celebration at home with some of these recipes for dinner, a Prosecco to accompany dinner or even a sparkiling red wine that is festive -Bracchetto D’Acqui.

Here is more info on La Befana Celebrations

http://marialiberati.com/blog2/

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/17784/la_befana_italys_good_witch_rules_italian.html

Some Special Recipes we have been working on at The Basic Art of Italian Cooking kitchen:

Mille Feuilles & Sapori

*3 cups Grana Padano cheese

*1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms

*2 cups fresh or frozen peas

*2 potatoes (cut into small cubes)

*2 tsps Sempre Sapori spice blend (Tuscan picnic flavor)

*1 scallion minced

*1/2 cup vegetable or chicken stock

*1 clove garlic

*extra virgin olive oil

Place dried mushrooms in a small bowl and pour 1 cup of water on top. Let sit for 30 minutes.In center of non-stick, hot pan, melt a tablespoon of grated grana padano cheese over low heat. As cheese melts it becomes a wafer. Before it browns, transfer to flat plate and allow to cool. Repeaat and make 16 wafers. Place 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in saute pan, warm and place in chopped scallion and cubed potatoes. Saute till till golden. Add in broth and fresh or frozen peas. When mixture begins to boil, remove from heat. Place in food processor. Transfer t omixing bowl and fold in Sapori spice blend.

Place 1 tblsp of extra virgin olive oil in saute pan and warm, place in whole garlic clove and drained mushrooms. Add a pinch of salt. Saute for 5 minutes abd remnove from heat.

Prepare dish by alternating layers of cheese wafers with mushrooms and puree. Top with puree. Decorate plate with sprig of fresh rosemary.

Walnut, Pomegranate ,Gruyere salad

*4 handfuls mixed salad greens (arugula, romaine,baby spinach)

*1 lb gruyere cheese

*2 hard boiled eggs

*3 tblsps extra virgin oilve oil

*4 tblsps shelled walnuts

*2 tsps Sempre Sapori spice blend (Tuscan Picnic flavor)

*2 tblsps pomegranate seeds

Wash, dry salad greeens. Slice cheese int overy thin,transparent slices. Boil eggs for 8 minutes, peel and chop. Fold cheese, eggs, walnuts,pomegranate seeds into salad in a large bowl.

In small bowl whisk together lemon juice, 3 tblsps extra virgin olive oil, Sapori. Pour over salad, toss and serve.

Buona La befana!
Stay tuned for our video blogs and recipes from my upcoming visits to parts of Umbria Italy..Borgo Fontanile and La Veranda farm  resorts there as well as some sights from some medieval cities there!

For more great recipes get your copy of the bestselling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com\

Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene

Maria

Buon Natale as I am writing here from my office high in the mountains of Abruzzo. Yesterday was a whirlwind of Christmas celebrations-from Rome to Umbria and Abruzzo.

The culinary tour I am hosting here will get to be part of many special events not to mention the Holiday cooking classes of traditional Christms dishes and a wine pairing at a vineyard in Umbria..

Although I am on a whirlwind of going back and forth between Umbria and Abruzzo- I was able to fit in a ‘vigilia’ ( christmas Eve) dinner was filled with many fish dishes. Though many of you are still emailing my assistant for this article about the traditional seven fishes Christmas dnner-here it is http://www.gomestic.com/Cooking/Traditional-Italian-Feast-of-the-Seven-Fishes.58592

But I have been doing some research of my own on this ‘tradition’ that many seem to be fascinated with especially in the US- and have come to the conclusion that eating a variety of fish dishes on Christmas Eve is the tradition. The part about the seven fishes may well be something that our grandparents and-or great grandparents who came to the US when they were young teens- began as a tradition in the US.   The households questioned in many parts of Italy are not at all familiar with the seven fishes dinner. So it could also have been a very old tradition from the late 1880’s or early 1900’s…

And all of the fish dishes served are light dishes using fresh fish, no heavy tomato sauces, dishes ranging from Clam Casino to seafood salad to fresh pasta with seafood in a light tomato sauce to fritto misto (fresh fish dipped in flour and then  flash fried lightly)… Delicious and authentically Italian using only the freshest and best ingredients.

Wishing you all the best and brightest of Holidays..Stay tuned for recipes and photos from the culinary tour to Umbria, and side events in Rome and Abruzzo.

Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene

Maria

For more recipes get your copy of the best seling book  The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com

copyright, 2008, Maria Liberati

Editor-Michaela Pompeo 

It only figures that the Italians would invent a Holiday to honor their most revered of foods..PASTA..So one of my favorite Holidays has become World Pasta Day. This year it is on October 25th. In honor of this  being one of my favorite holidays and a day set aside to worship one of my favorite foods I will be highlighting some facts from some of the Pasta conferences (yes that is right conferences on pasta!!) that I have attended in Italy and of course some recipes too!

If you have ever been to Venice or want to experience Venice in your own kitchen, here is a local pasta recipe that originated in Venice, it is interesting and certainly different than the regular pasta with a tomato and parmigiano cheese topping. Try this and  get a taste of Venice in your own kitchen.  Oh.. and by the way if you can’t find  Bigoli pasta- although some gourmet stores may carry them, try a perciatelli or thicker spaghetti instead.

As everybody knows, there are many different types of pasta, enough to allow a great variety to Italian daily meals.

Bigoli, (in Venetian dialect they are called bigoi), is one of them: they look like spaghetti, long and thin, but they are empty inside. Their diameter is 2-3 millimetres and they are about 20-25 millimetres long. There is a special machine that makes a long ‘hole’ inside them. They are typical of the whole Veneto region and they are especially eaten with a fish-based sauce (in salsa as the name of the recipe says) during the period of Lent. For Catholics, to keep Lent meant in the past to fast every Friday. Nowadays, it means not to eat any kind of meat on Fridays. That’s why fish is used instead. And no wonder that, since Veneto looks on to the sea (let alone Venice!), fish is something always present in its cuisine.

Apart from the traditional in salsa they can be served with many kinds of sauces. The ones prepared in Vicenza, for example, in duck sauce (bigoi co l’arna= bigoli con sugo d’anatra), are very famous. The dough is made with flour, butter, eggs and milk. These last two ingredients have been added quite recently to make the dough softer; of course in the past, when milk and eggs were expensive, they made it with only flour and some butter.

A variety of bigoli is the ‘black one’ (bigoi neri). To give them their black colour there are two ways: either you use whole wheat flour in the preparation of the dough (in this case the colour is really brownish, rather than black) or you add nero di sepia (= sepia): black indeed!!!!

So, if you want to prepare delicious bigoi in salsa, this is what you have to do (first you’ll have to buy a packet of them! Impossible to make them at home because you would need a special tool to make the hole inside them!):

Ingredients:

1 onion

1 clover of garlic

4 or 5 salted anchovies

2 or 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

pepper to taste.

Chop the onion and garlic very finely. Put the oil in a frying pan and when it starts boiling throw the chopped onion and garlic and immediately lower the heat. On a very gentle heat let them cook for about half an hour, so that they can soften without burning. In the meantime, bone the anchovies and rinse them thoroughly under running water so that they will lose most of their ‘too salty’ taste. Add them to the onion and garlic in the frying pan and, with the help of a fork, press them till they almost ‘melt’ into the sauce. Cook for about 5 minutes: the sauce should look brownish in colour and its taste should be a balanced mixture of salty (from the anchovies) and sweet (from the onion).

Cook bigoli in abundant salty boiling water and strain them. Add the sauce, some pepper and serve very hot.

“Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene”

Maria

For more great recipes get your copy of the best selling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com or now available as an ebook at http://http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=3101829

Ahh the Italian countryside..beautiful and so rustic, quiet. But work still goes on… I have been getting so many emails from colleagues, assistants and more telling me how they wish they were here with me in Italy. Recently an ezine from Austarlia decided to catch up with me to ask me what life is  like living in rural parts of Italy. Here is the interview:
http://www.ourpatch.com.au/australia/users/hunterdundee/blogs/509-delicious-life-in-italian-countryside
 But coming to Italy  at least for me is another place I work at.  Just because I am in Italy does not mean I am lounging on the beach on the Riviera or doing the fashionable ‘passegiata’ everyday on the Via Veneto.  

I am well connected by internet, internet phone, portable office and fax. I am also doing some work on our farms here- that may mean assisting with picking the fruits and vegetables,conserving them and preparing them into dishes as well as continuing to experiment with them  in developing  new recipes.

Of course I would rather work out of my office here and be able to look out my window and see a view of the mountains of Abruzzo, it is inspiring.

Living rurally also has its’ benefits though of making it easy to pick up local produce  and locally produced products. pecorino produced here in Abruzzo is one of my favorite cheese but the process of making cheese from the sheep milk produced here is really unfortunately a dying art. So it is difficult to find this cheese from this region anywhere else.

 But my recipe for today is one that contains pecorino cheese but the pecorino cheese that is easier to find in the rest of the world. It is a pecorino romano-which has a sharper taste. This dish like all traditional Italian dishes is simple but delicious, healthy for you and has some historic significance since it is connected to Pecorino Romano cheese which is an artisan process that dates back to the medieval times in Rome and Lazio.

Here is one of my favorite pasta dishes. It makes for the best and simplest combinations of cheese and pasta you can find.:
 Cacio & Pepe

*1 lb of spaghetti (made from durum wheat)

*1/2 cup pecorino romana cheese freshly grated

*dash of freshly ground black pepper

*Extra Virgin Oilve Oil

Cook the past in lightly salted water. The cheese you will be using is salty so in this case you only want to lightly salt the water and don’t want to give the pasta an overly salty taste. It will disrupt the balance of the taste combination of the pecorino and spaghetti. Cook spaghetti for time indicated.

Drain pasta, but reserve a few tablespoons of the cooking water. In a bowl add some of the reserved cooking water (a little at a time ) to the grated pecorino cheese. Stir till you get a smooth sauce  and cheese is melted.  Toss in the pasta. Top with a dash of freshly ground black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil and your dish is ready. Please serve hot!

For more recipes and tips get your copy of the best selling book at The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at http://www.marialiberati.com

copyright 2008,. art of living,PrimaMedia,Inc

Ciao for now!
Maria

http://www.marilaiberati.com

Get more recipes and info on coffee, Italy and more in the best selling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking order your copy  at http://www.marialiberati.com

Ahh Rome the eternal City!!  The Spring sun always reminds me of the city of Rome. It seems as though Rome is almost always sunny or I’d like to believe it is , or maybe that when I am in my favorite cityin the world it just feels that way. It also gives me that strong desire to plan my summer in Rome or you can plan to go there anytime of the year. Rome is always  beautiful . The Roman sun is like no other. 

Also please note that Rome is much more than the Colisuem and the Vatican (As if that was not enough). Rome has many different neighborhoods and sections that all have their won charcteristics and delights to see. One of my favorite eclectic neighborhoods in Rome is Trastevere. Out of the center, but a mix of the eclectic, artsy, beautiful churches and -oh yes- you can find great pizza there also.

It is a big city, so request a hotel near some of  the sights you want to see.

Christmastime is also a wonderful time in Rome..not as commercial as the U.S. but especially beautiful and festive.

You can book way in advance in fact as far  ahead as 12 months in advance . So if you want to plan that vacation and don’t want to worry about whether or not you will get reseravtions try a service  I have begun using.

HotelClub is a great  website that I have begun using, especially when I need to make reservations way in advance. They will make reservations up to 12 months in advance for hotel and accomodations.  HotelClub also has an almost infinite amount of hotel choices in over 5,000 cities all over the world. So for me, it has become almost like a one stop shop for about anywhere in the world my appearances and work takes me. 

Make your reservations way in advance  to Rome  or even last minute reservations to Rome. Either way you will have a large choice of hotels and if you would like to stop somewhere else like Paris or Barcelona while there- you can make reservations for these at Hotel Club. So it will save you time and energy and if not those cities you can at least ask and find out what else is available.

 Check back for the next blog it will be about a special place to visit while in Rome

Ciao for now!
Maria

http://www.marialiberati.com