I hear the Wine is good in Italy...

Some "almost ready" red grapes

I swore I would blog about our recent wine-tasting tour before we head to Tuscany this weekend to do  some more wine sampling. Not that any 2 wines (or wine tours) in Italy are the same- or even close! I remember shopping for wine in the States before moving here, and getting excited when I saw an Italian wine. "Ohh-Italian! It has to be good!" my inexperienced self would say. Granted, I haven't encountered too many bad wines here, but I am learning the ins and outs of Italian wine and how they vary vastly from region to region.

In most parts of Italy the natives will tell you Naples is nothing to brag about-even the Neopolitans will tell you this! While there is certainly much to experience outside of Naples, I think my temporary home has some things to boast about too, and wine is one of them. So boast I will!

Wine made in the Campania region is unique because of one of the nearby landmarks- Mount Vesuvius, which is an active volcano that famously erupted in AD 79 destroying the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, and most recently erupted in the 1940's. The volcanic residue drastically changes the mineral content of the soil, giving it a distinct "feel" and taste. It is often bubbly and somewhat "salty," as the wine growers describe it. This, in combination with the fact that Naples is a coastal city allows for endless variations of the mineral make-up of the wines. During our first unofficial wine-tasting experience (in the lobby of the mini-mall on base), the wine expert/seller/our-new-friend taught us about how to identify wine grown "on the mountain" versus wine grown "by the sea" and wine with combination of mountain/sea soil. We were utterly fascinated! So depending on the mineral content, a wine may be more or less bubbly, and more or less "salty"

Side story: My husband and and I experienced this "slight" carbonation first hand when we re-corked an opened bottle of Naples red wine and awoke the next morning to a red-stained kitchen (which was mistaken for blood for the first 10 seconds). We quickly identified last night's wine as the culprit and said a silent prayer of thanks for military tiled kitchen walls. However, some of my cookbooks will forever bear the mark of our first Neopolitan bubbly wine.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our recent wine tour at Cantina del Vesuvio. This particular vineyard is the closest to the peak of the volcano, and the wine it produces is well known in South Italy and among the locals.

Rows of grape vines

Green grapes which will make white wine



Steel vessels used in the fermentation process



Oak barrels where some of the wines are further aged

Viola! The finished product



Va bene! A good wine consumer gives it a good sniff first



..And make sure you have a good bowl of pasta nearby.

101 ways to use a zucchini

Zucchini, like all seasonal produce, is overwhelmingly abundant here in Italy. Like the garlic, and tomatoes, and onions, and eggplant- if it's in season, it's about all one can find at the market. And I've learned that it is not just garlic that comes in large quantities, but it's quite a struggle to try to purchase uno mezza chilo (or 1/2 kilogram, versus a whole) of anything. (My husband asks, "well, why would an Italian need anything less than 5 heads of garlic?!) So, because the same angry man who sold me the original kilo of garlic has the best selection of most produce, I usually come home with a crate of tomatoes, 7-8 zucchini, 8-10 onions and about 14 bananas (and he still seems angry.. I don't get it!) Then the mad hunt for recipes using these ingredients ensues.

Well, this week both my mother and a friend of mine here in Italy sent me separate articles on how to tackle an overabundance of summer squash. The choclate cake from this article (http://www.takepart.com/news/2011/08/11/rom-breakast-to-essert-5-ways-to-use-your-zucchinis) looked so good- I couldn't even wait! I grated up some zucchini right then and there and stirred it into a Betty Crocker brownie mix. (See above-It still counts as a vegetable serving, right?) I followed the instructions for cake-like brownies because I knew the zucchini would provide extra moisture. I plopped large spoonfuls into paper lined muffin tins and viola! The husband didn't even know there was zucchini in them (I wasn't sneaking it, I just forgot to tell him.)



picture from C&D website



In addition to my zucchini sweet treat, I also made a Raw Summer Squash salad, which I adapted from another food blog that I have recently become obsessed with: http://cleananddelicious.com/. The recipe can be found here: http://cleananddelicious.com/2011/08/09/raw-summer-squash-salad-w-feta-and-tomatoes/ . Naturally, I added a clove of finely chopped garlic. This recipe is much better after sitting for a while..at least 30 mins. I've been eating it for several days and it gets better every time.

I am anxious to see what the fall and winter seasons will bring food-wise. Not that I am wishing away the summer, but a girl can only eat so much zucchini! At least it is never a challenge to get in those 5 servings of fruits and vegetables everyday :) Next weekend Chris and I are taking a roadtrip to a small village in Tuscany to stay at a Bed & Breakfast on a vineyard. I can't wait to see what we'll come across there! Maybe I'll try real Panzanella Tuscan bread salad.

Other zucchini recipes can be found here:

http://www.cookinglight.com/cooking-101/essential-ingredients/healthy-squash-zucchini-recipes-00400000052685/?iid=newsletter-ck-081011&PromKey=XET



Recipes on demand



Just for fun: restaurant we ate at in Rome



OK, by popular request I am posting 2 of the recipes I blogged about last: The Balsamic Chicken & Mushrooms and the Panzanella (Bread Salad). A word of advice, it really pays to use good balsamic vinegar! I didn't know there was such a thing as "good, better, and best" vinegar- but there is! We learned from some of our friends also living in Italy, then experienced it firsthand on our honeymoon. So naturally, we found it in the budget to buy a $17 bottle of Balsamic from the region of Modena (sold in our commissary like it was no thing! I love Italy!) And this is an above-average vinegar for Italy...the good stuff is aged for decades and costs over $75 or more. Anyway, not to be a condiment snob, but if you have the option, go for "better."

Recipes modified from:

http://www.food.com/recipe/balsamic-chicken-and-mushrooms-54726



Changes I made:

- used 3 cloves of garlic (hello, I had a kilo!)

-did NOT pound chicken, but rather cut into large strips as recommended by another person in the reviews

-use the wine instead of broth if able! Gave a really good flavor

Panzanella:

http://www.chow.com/recipes/10638-panzanella-tuscan-bread-salad



Note: I made a large salad to eat for several days...if doing this, keep the bread separate! It was delicious on day 1, but after that I had soggy bread salad (i.e. not delicious). So, let your common sense lead you where mine didn't: even stale bread that soaks in a vinaigrette overnight gets soggy :)



Italy lately

Well, in the past few weeks I have learned that I will need to blog much more often in order to keep up with all the new experiences, tastes and culinary adventures I've had. My kitchen has seen a lot of new foods this month, and I'm sure my google history is full of searches for ways to use my latest market impulse purchase. For example, I had been eyeing some Italian Squash in our commissary for a few weeks, and finally gave in. It looks like a cross between pumpkin and butternut squash so I assumed it could be cooked the same (it can). For my first attempt I just roasted it with a little olive oil and salt and pepper because I wanted to get a sense of it's natural flavor as best I could. It almost had a sweetness like carrots, to me. I also think this would be wonderful mashed with a little butter and cinnamon...and brown sugar.

And I can't forget about the garlic! Our house has smelled like garlic for the past 3 weeks I am certain. My first use was in what I call Italian Salsa- just chopped tomatoes, garlic, basil, s&p. I eat it by itself but it can served on top of toasted bread like bruschetta. I've grilled fish with garlic (well Chris has), roasted whole garlic cloves, made garlic vinaigrette dressing, a delicious balsamic mushroom sauce (recipe to come), and a traditional Panzanella (Tuscan bread salad, which is a way to use leftover-almost-stale bread). I'm even freezing some garlic as an experiment to see how it holds up. A funny sidenote (and this is either the dietitian or the hypochondriac in me; I'm not sure which): I stubbed my toe on a cabinet yesterday and it wouldn't stop bleeding. I think garlic (a natural blood thinner) is affecting my ability to clot blood. Hmm..maybe Italians have more durable bandaids.

Italian Salsa 



 (Pre) Grilled Salmon with lemon, dill and garlic

 Panzanella (bread salad)

Balsmic Chicken and Mushrooms (my fave!)

 And while I can sing praises of Italian food all day, I must be fair and say I've had my share of dislikes. The seafood that everyone raves about was, well, not to my taste. I'll try anything once- so seafood risotto sounded so promising! But after a few bites of octopus (not in the form of fried calamari), my stomach informed me that I was done. For some odd reason, it began to resemble intestines.  



Seafood Risotto

 

Now it's just rice with octopus..eww.

Another dislike: I'm still not loving these Italian so-called breakfasts. During our recent trip to Rome, our hotel boasted of a "breakfast buffet." I should have known better, since I have yet to see a breakfast that doesn't look like a pretty dough-nut, but again, the word 'buffet' reeled me in. Below is our breakfast buffet:

But I must end on a good note, because at the end of the day, right down the street I can get the absolute best Pasta Siciliana at a cute local restaurant near our home. It's penne with eggplant and tomato sauce, and Naples' buffalo mozzarrella cheese. It is just delightful!

Pasta Siciliana

A little Garlic goes a long way...

...but a LOT of garlic goes a really long way! Another day at the market and another lesson learned: when the man says 1 kilo of garlic, you get 1 kilo of garlic. That’s right, I came home with about 2 lbs of garlic for the price of 1 Euro! Seemed like a steal until I realized I didn’t know what the heck I was going to do with it all. TGFG (Thank God For Google).

I know garlic is used in everything here in Italy, and I am a-ok with that, but before I walk around breathing garlic fire (or at the very least scare my husband away), I wanted to know: is garlic freeze-able? How can I store it?  If for some reason I can’t manage to use all 4 large heads of garlic, will it be a waste? In the back of my mind I imagine a little Italian old lady chasing me down the street and cursing me for wasting such a jewel, if I were to allow it to go bad before using it all.

Of course I can roast them whole and they are delicious by themselves..but, like I said, I have a lot of garlic. So I sought the help of my cookbook library and came across a Garlic Puree, which can be stirred into things like mashed potatoes or pasta sauces. (Now I just need my Magic Bullet to arrive any day now). Then in my email box today I received a monthly newsletter I subscribe to that had a recipe for Basil and Garlic Tomatoes. What a coincidence, I bought a kilo of cherry tomatoes today also!

All ingredient amounts here are flexible…obviously I increased the garlic J It’s best to let the mixture sit at room temperature for at least an hour to absorb the flavors. Eat by itself, on toasted bread, or as an easy pasta mix-in!  I had planned to drizzle with olive oil right before eating, but it didn't need it!

Basil & Garlic Tomatoes

• 3 cups quartered cherry tomatoes (or any good tomatoes chopped)
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped (unless you like big chunks- I don’t!)
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• ¼-1/2 tsp salt  

The jury is still out as to whether or not garlic is freeze-able. According to my credible google search, it is possible, but may not keep quality-wise. Oh well. 3 cloves down, 57 to go (there are usually 10-15 cloves in a head, fyi).

When in Rome...

Well, I haven't been to Rome yet, but I have been living in Naples, Italy for almost a month now (Gricignano to be exact). This saying in it's full  context ("when in Rome, do as the Romans do") has provided a good guiding principle that I've adapted for my time in Italy. Basically, (according to the ever-reliable Wikipedia) St. Ambrose's advice was to immerse oneself in the culture around them; to accept it and learn it and enjoy it. Well, for a dietitian who writes a blog about food, this of course applies to eating! I decided before I left for Italy that for the next 2 years (at least) I am going to eat real food. Like the Italians. I will abandon Splenda and low fat milk and turkey bacon and I will eat pasta and gelato and drink wine with dinner (and lunch too if I want to), and I will like it! In 3 short weeks here, I think I'm well on my way to eating like an Italiano. I've had pasta in some form almost daily, pizza at least twice a week, I am practically on a first name basis with the woman at the wine store, and I realized with amusement that I think I've eaten bacon more times in the last month that I have in my whole life prior to being in Italy (and married). I saw my dad's eyes glisten with pride when I told him this on skype. (AND I still fit into all my skinny jeans in case you're wondering).

Granted there are some traditions that my American body and mindset just can't adjust to. For example, I am and always have been a breakfast eater. I still believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but in Italy if your breakfast is anything more than a chocolate-filled pastry and cappucino- then you're really pushing it. I would likely pass out if I tried to survive on sugar and caffeine alone until mid afternoon (which is when they eat lunch). I also am not quite sold on their dinner schedules. Dinner usually doesn't begin until 9 or 10pm, by which point it would become unsafe to be within a 10 foot radius of me because I would likely try to eat your arm off. A lot of the restaurants don't even open until 7pm, and IF there's anyone there at that time, you can 100% count on them being American.

I look forward to writing about my Italian adventures and the wonderful food. I told Chris semi-seriously after the first week that if I had to choose between traveling Europe or staying in Naples and just eating yummy food, I would choose the food. It's that good! Among my personal food-related goals for the next few years: master homemade tomato sauce (they have the best tomatoes here!), learn to make biscotti, and learn to drink espresso (caffe) without milk-straight up. Chris desires for me to become a little bit more of a wine critic, because so far I just say "I like it!" about every wine we've tried. I say, maybe every wine in Italy is good! Until next time, Buon appetito!

Pantry Party

I have a confession: When my roommate and I are cooking, we like to talk about which Foodnetwork personality we are most like, and sometimes (ok-often) we pretend that we are that particular chef. Our identities always change depending on what we're making. For example, if one of us is using butter, we are automatically Paula Deen. If we don't measure anything, we are Rachel Ray, and when we just feel like speaking with a southern accent then we are the Nealys (except we never make anything BBQ). Well tonight, I was undertaking another pantry clean-up recipe and felt very much like our new favorite TV chef Claire Robinson from 5 Ingredient fix. 

I used a few more than 5 ingredients, but my new rule is to not purchase any more than one ingredient (that way I don't add to the current stock I am trying to get rid of.) So tonight I created an Apricot Chicken Quinoa salad. I don't want to brag, but it's my blog so I suppose I can- it was GOOD! This was another that I made up without a recipe, and therefore slowly contributing to my growing self-confidence in my cooking creativity. I had everything except the dried apricots already! Here it goes:

Apricot Chicken Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup dry quinoa ( you could also use rice, or any small grain)
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 of a large red onion, chopped
6 oz cooked chicken
3/4 cup canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup water
Dried thyme
Salt

Directions:

1. Rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer. Mix with broth, water, onions, and a few dashed of thyme in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.
2. Reduce to medium low and simmer for about 15-18 minutes.
3. When there are about 3-5 minutes left of simmering, add the dried apricots.
4. When the liquid is absorbed after 15-18 minutes, remove from heat. Add cooked chicken and chickpeas, and season with salt. Cover and chill. It is best served cooled.

Serves 4