Picking Plums, Fresh Pasta and Palio of Siena

copyright, 2008, Maria Liberati
The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm
As I began my morning very early yesterday to finish picking our fresh plums and ‘susine’ (another type of plum)- I was serenaded by a band marching through our little town. I didn’t realize it  was that time of the year again, but Saint Rocco is a Saint that is celebrated here, and it always is done for his birthday-August 16th and begins early in the morning with a street serenade and a procession that goes through the town.
Making fresh marmelade- although well worth it is such a a laborious process. First to pick the plums then choosing the ones that are best for the marmelade- they must not be too mature and just beginning to become ripe. The plums are grown organically  on our farm here and get no chemical treatment whatsoever. Marmelade and crostata made with these plums are a real treat.
The whole experience, although tiring, was also relaxing-being in the Italian sun, on a small farm, serenaded by a local band while picking the plums and hearing not much more than the birds chirping and of course the church bells ringing off and on. Unfortunately I had to miss the Palio of Siena but we were able to watch it on TV while making the marmelade.
I want to leave you with a photo from the Palio of Siena en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palio_di_Siena
I also want to leave you with  the recipe we used to make our fresh pasta- tagliatelle since I have just about returned from what was the first and very successful The Basic Art of Italian Cooking culinary tour and cooking program at our farm/country resort in Orvieto-not far from the Tuscan hills. We cooked some wonderful recipes using the fresh ingredients produced at the farm. Of course eating the meals under the Italian sky on the hot August nights added to the experience. I will be making a series of posts of the recipes we created.
Here is the recipe for the fresh tagliatelle we made and  enjoyed! Buon Appetito!
TAGLIATELLE (for 6 people)
2 lbs of ’00’ flour (for recipe)
1/2 cup ’00’ flour for dusting wooden board while rolling out dough
8 whole eggs
3 tablespoons of semolina flour to dry pasta
Place flour on large wooden board and form a well in center. Break eggs into the center of well.  Beat eggs for 1 minute till blended. Then begin working flour into egg mixture with fingertips.  Gradually  work until dough is formed. Form dough into ball. Dust board with flour. Knead dough until it is smooth and elastic.
Then dust board with flour again and roll out in a large oval shape and about 1/10th inch thickness. Sprinkle dough with semolina flour and let dry for approx 5 minutes.
Then roll up each end of the dough this way- roll up one side, roll up the opposite side and continue till both sides meet and you have a jelly roll type of form. Then cut noodles by making 1/8″ cuts into roll. Separate into noodles after cut. Dust noodles with semolina flour and let dry for 5 minutes.
Boil a pot of water (1.5 gallons of water) place in handful of salt when boiling. When water has reached a full boil place in noodles for approx 3-4 minutes. Cook till ‘al dente’. Drain quickly but gently.
Be sure to have on hand some extra virgin olive oil and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for the next part of this recipe.
We served this dish with an Orvieto Classico wine-a locally produced wine
Next post will include some of the sauces we created to top this dish. Ciao for now!!
For more recipes get your copy of the bestselling book – The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at https://www.marialiberati.com