5 March, 2017: Everywhere we went in Southern Italy, there was dry bread. We saw it in grocery stores and bakeries by the side of the road that smelled of wonderful fresh yeast. We saw it spread out on platters at an outdoor bar where you could go up to a little table spread with olives, roasted vegetables, sardines, mushrooms… Read More
4 July, 2016: We went to Italy (Calabria and Sicily) on a food research trip. If you hadn’t been following that journey, you can scroll back to the posts tagged Italy. It was funny: many of the things we learned were less recipes to bring back and more ways to approach food. We kept seeing this salad in Calabria. This one was at a… Read More
14 May, 2016: One of my fondest memories from my trip to Tuscany last summer was Autogrill. So when we spotted one out on the highway outside Palermo I knew we had to stop. Autogrill is a fast food chain located inside gas stations. They have fresh-squeezed orange juice from local oranges, fresh-made espresso, and fresh-made panini. Those 3 things alone… Read More
13 May, 2016: Wherever we went in Italy, there were delicious local olives and local pecorino on the table. The olives and the cheese were always a bit different from one place to another. Some olives were tangy, some were savory, some were sweet. Enzo’s relatives told me that the olive harvest is at the end of October, and some olives are ready… Read More
12 May, 2016: We just realized that Calabria is really close to Sicily, and Sicily is the home of the panelle sandwich, one of our best-loved seasonal sandwiches. If you remember, the idea of the panelle was given to Ayr by a customer from Sicily who used to eat it as a snack as a kid. We asked Enzo’s relatives… Read More
10 May, 2016: The city we’re visiting, Vibo Valentia, has been in existence for 8000 years. Uncle Enzo directed us up a mountain, we parked, and found ourselves at a simple outdoor cafe. We were at the base of a castle that was built by the Normans in the year 1000. A round of Aperol and seltzer for everyone! There is no such thing as… Read More
2 May, 2016: Nuvole di patate, purchased at a gas station in Calabria. I guess they tasted like what a cloud might taste like. Kind of like…nothing? From this experience I might hazard a guess that processed food in Italy is worse than it is here. Read More
1 May, 2016: We are learning that every region of Italy has its own shape of pasta. We kept seeing the word Fileja in Vibo Valentia. Uncle Enzo took us to a restaurant and there were only two choices for pasta, and one was this: fileja. of I was confused by the use of the letter J, because that letter… Read More
30 April, 2016: This is Uncle Enzo, Enzo’s uncle, known to us on this trip as “Zio.” He’s from Calabria, used to run a restaurant in Massachusetts when our Enzo was a teenager. It’s where our Enzo first realized that cooking could be a real career. He’s going to be our tour guide for our first full day in Calabria.… Read More
30 April, 2016: In Italy they have a concept called Sagra. My friend Francesca took me to a Sagra when I was visiting her family on the coast of Tuscany this past July. A Sagra is a festival where you go to eat one single item of food. The one I went to in Tuscany was a fundraiser for a local sports team – and… Read More