Fifteen Pounds of Meatballs

Learned how to "open the kitchen" on day three of my stage.  It was fast and furious during lunch, which was (wo)manned by chef and owner Susan Devereaux.  During lunch I prepped some salads and jumped in to prepare a ravioli dish (butternut squash in a sage and butter sauce) when our chef had to momentarily step away from the kitchen.

  For lunch I enjoyed a cup of the soup of the day -- an onion soup made with a chicken broth base -- followed by the ravioli and a caprese salad.  

During the early evening I prepared 15 pounds of meatballs, then settled in for a nice Montepulciano di Abruzzo, compliments of the kind proprietors of Guido's in Durango, Colorado.

A long and productive day.

Lasagna and Stuffed Zucchini

Day two of my stage was both short and mercifully light on the chopping.  I was left to work without much intervention following, of course, the restaurant's recipes.  Working only one shift, I prepared stuffed zucchini and a very large cheese lasagna.

The lasagna, which I ate at the end of my shift, was a solid, standard Italian American lasagna.  Clearly a crowd favorite, given the number I've seen ordered during two days.

The stuffed zucchini was interesting.    The vegetable was sliced in half with the pulp removed, creating boats.  The pulp was mixed with mortadella, Parmesan cheese, balsamella (a/k/a beschamel) sauce and a trade secret ingredient or two, which then was filled in the zucchini hulls, topped with Parmesan, and baked.  Delicious.

Day three I am scheduled to work open to close.  Mama Mia!

Soffritto

Soffritto is the Italian term for the vegetables (typically celery, carrot and onion--sometimes described as the kitchen's Holy Trinity) which serve as the flavor base for a wide number of dishes, such as stocks, soups, stews and sauces.  Before these vegetables are sautéed (I prefer extra virgin olive oil but many favor butter or a mix of butter and oil), they have to be chopped. 

I'm sure it's an obsessive compulsive tic, but I love to chop vegetables.  This is a good thing, because yesterday I prepared the soffritto for restaurant-size portions of ragu and sauce for osso buco.  I was weirdly content with hours of chopping, but today my right arm feels ridiculously sore.  I see Advil in my future.

The workday ended with an awesome Margherita pizza (very thin crust made from a dough of white and semolina flour) and a glass of Primativo, compliments of Guido's Restaurant.  Today, sauce preparations with my lovingly chopped soffritto.

The Stage

Part of the Master's Course at the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners is "the stage" -- an externship, or practicum-- at an approved restaurant in Italy.  Because of visa problems, I was unable to complete the stage in Italy.  I resolved my frustration by  traveling Italy for a month with two classmates, touring wineries, taking a cooking course, and eating lots of great food.  And spending December with family and loved ones.  Things have a way of working out. The stories of my classmates' stage experiences in Italy run the gamut, some describing slave-like working and living conditions, others complaining of rampant sexism, and a few lucky ones reporting great experiences.  Most of my classmates left their stage within a few days or weeks, citing various reasons from work conditions, to responsibilities back home, to the need for dental work. My luck continued to hold as the school put me in touch with Sean Devereaux, a graduate of ICIF who owns a restaurant in Durango, Colorado.  Guido's Restaurant emphasizes the school's philosophy and techniques.  In other words, the food is Italian, not the typical fat-laden Italian American fare.  Sean has graciously accepted me as an intern. Guido's has a great website: http://www.guidosfavoritefoods.com/. After sixteen hours of driving I finally arrived in Durango, a lovely and charming town which has maintained its 1800s Western feel. I start work today.

Pasta

Today Chef Simone demonstrated how to use an extruding machine to make dry pasta. Dry pasta features semolina flour and water, it dries hard and stores well, and is the sort you find in every grocery. Semolina flour provides the added benefit of a lower glycemic index than flour used in fresh pasta. Dry pasta is served al dente.

Fresh pasta, on the other hand, is made with softer flour (all-purpose) and typically includes an egg. Fresh pasta is great for stretching thin and for stuffed pastas, such as ravioli. Unlike the hearty dry pasta, fresh pasta is served soft, never al dente.

Here is a video of pasta shells being cut from the extruder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yg3m6MEnC4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

"We Don't Serve Beer"

As seen in a Costiliogle restaurant.

Venchi Chocolate

Road trip to Venchi chocolate factory, operating since 1878. They ship worldwide, but have only one store in the U.S., on 5th Avenue in NYC.

The factory is historically run by women, and 90% of the workers were, in fact, women. One seventy year old, who worked for Venchi for fifty five years, sported a large, gold Rolex. Also, the workers were very thin, despite the floor to ceiling chocolate.

I tasted chocolate until I could take no more. Excellent. When we tasted the spicy "montezuma" bar made with Mexican chocolate beans, I thought how wonderful this chocolate would be for a mole sauce.

Here is a video of chocolate being dusted with coconut, which reminded me of the classic I Love Lucy chocolate factory episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeWMU0zY1I0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Cooking with Flowers

Today, super handsome Chef Diego Bongiovanni, author of the cookbook Ricette con i Fiori, taught us recipes incorporating the use of flowers.

Last week when Chef Diego showed us how to fashion a potato into a flower, I thought, "That won't fly in Texas, they will mash that little work of art and pour gravy on it." But Chef Diego is doing some interesting things which stretch my thinking. Whether in food or life, that's a good thing.

This photo is of hollow balls of white chocolate filled with a light cream infused with a sauce of rose petals.

Here is video of Chef Diego opening the chocolate for serving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8Ubzpd5bvs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Whole Foods Recipe Photo Contest

My friends at Whole Foods sent this link, a photo contest for customers who create and photograph a WF recipe. Looks interesting. http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2011/10/cookie-close-up/

My life is so interesting in Italy

Enologia: Blind Tastings

Gianni organized a blind tasting of two reds and two whites, which we knew only as "vino rosso A and B" and "vino bianco A and B".  We did not focus on the visual exam; rather, our attention was directed to smell (intensity and persistency) and taste (sweetness, acidity, sapidity, alcohol content and tannins) and persistency of the taste.

This was a student confidence building exercise.  Both the red and white A wines had little smell and little persistency of smell.  The same was evident on tasting the "A" red and white.  Basically, there was little to no effect in the mouth, and to the extent it could be detected, it was fleeting.

Vino rosso B and vino bianco B were entirely different, even to we novices.  The contrast was quite evident.  The red "B", which we later learned was a 2004 Salice Salentino "Lacarta" Riserva produced by Francesco Candido, had an intense smell, which was persistent.  In the mouth, it was dry and crisp, sapid, with softer tannins and warm with alcohol.  The taste was very persistent.   

Vino bianco B was a 2009 Langhe Arneis "Blange'" produced by Ceretto.  The smell was slighly intense and persistent.  On tasting, it was dry and crisp with some sapidity.  It had persistence in the mouth.  I liked this white very much, but I wonder if it benefitted from comparison to the white "A" that was so awful.

Vino rosso and bianco "A" turned out to be Tavernello box wines of unknown vintage.  They did, however, bear an expiration date on the label.  

Sent from my iPhone

Our Italian Textbook

Nothing kills a good pasta moment quite like a mathematical equation.

Risotto

Risotto, risotto, risotto.  Seven rice recipes in one, long medium-grain day.  Our school is devoted to canaroli rice, not arborio, which is favored in the States.  The technique is the same, which is why it got tiresome after the seventh recipe.  

Here's the drill:  Sautee onion in olive oil, toast rice for 2 minutes, add white wine and let it absorb, then begin adding broth a ladel or two at a time.  Stirring, of course, all the time.  

The difference in the school's method, aside from the grain, is that from the moment the wine is added, they start a 12-minute timer.  After 12 minutes, they reduce the heat and begin the mantecare process, adding butter, cheeses, olive oil, or all three, depending on the recipe, and stirring for an additional three minutes.  Fifteen minutes, start to finish.

The risotto is runnier, saltier, and more al dente here.  I don't favor overly salty dishes, and it has become a joke that my instructor frequently exhorts "più sale" (more salt) when he tastes my dishes and dramatically throws a fistful of salt on my poor food.

Some varieties include adding saphron, or pumpkin, or horse raddish and salmon,  or goose liver, or duck liver... or coffee.  Yes, coffee.       

The coffee risotto was buttered and contained three cheeses, then served over fresh coffee grinds, pictured here.  Alta cucina.  Really?        

Sent from my iPhone

Food and Wine Pairing

We were told that wine and food go together-- in Italy one would never drink a glass of wine without food.  (Gianni, our sommelier/instructor, apparently hasn't spent much time at our student housing.)  The notion is that food and wine accompany each other, sharing a path together, with a perfect pairing allowing for the full possibility of expression of both the food and wine.  

"Fusione delle sensazioni" suggests that our wine and food senses-- smell, taste and tactile-- should walk the path together in a fusion of sensations that depart at the same time, leaving us with a clean palate.  In Texas, we would put it this way: The wine shouldn't overpower the food, and vice versa.  

Gianni introduced us to a technique for pairing food and wine.  Before our course is completed, we will have tasted 29 food and wine pairings.  Today, we learned the basics and paired two wines (a decanted 2000 Batasiolo Barolo and a 2010 Candido Salice Salentino rose' "Le Pozzelle") with an 18-month old Grana Padano cheese (very similar to Parmigiana Reggiana). 

The technique calls for tasting the wine and numerically rating it on a 1-10 scale for intensities of smell and persistency, and again for intensities of taste for sweetness, softness, acidity, sapidity, tannins (tactile sensation), and alcohol content.  These numbers are plotted on a graph.  Next, the food is tasted and likewise measured for sapidity, bitterness, acidity, sugar, fat, natural sweetness, succulence, and greasiness, as well as persistence of taste, spiciness, smell.  

The food scores are plotted on the the same graph, which juxtaposes the wine and food measurements in such a fashion that the sweetness and softness of the wine is opposite the food's rating for bitterness and acidity.  Similarly, measurement of the food's natural sweetness is on the opposite side of the graph's rating for wine acidity.  Another example:  The wine's tannins, which produce that tactile sensation and which absorb saliva, is graphed opposite the food's measurement of succulence, which produces saliva even upon smell alone.

When plotted, good pairings will create a geometrically similar pattern on the graph.  The idea is to train the mouth and brain to make these assessments without having to plot a graph and gaze at geometric similarities.  If that fails, we will at least have notes from 29 wine tastings and food pairings.

Here's how the Salice Salentino rose' and the Barolo worked out.  The full-bodied Barolo, on the graph and in the mouth, overpowered our 18-month old cheese, whereas the rose' and the Grana Padano were both harmonious in the mouth and geometrically similar on the chart.  Gianni's suggestion, if you want to pair Grana Padano with a full-bodied Barolo, try the same cheese that has aged longer, say 36 months, so that the cheese can accompany the wine, creating a fusion of sensations that leave the palate at the same time. 

The short version:  Pair a young Candido Salice Salentino rose' with a young Grana Padano or Parmigiana Reggiana cheese.     

27 pairings to go.

Sent from my iPhone

First Exam Tomorrow

Our first exam requires that each student prepare a recipe which is drawn from a hat (a mixing bowl, actually) and present the dish to a panel of four Italian chefs who serve as judges.

I believed I would be fine so long as I didn't draw a pastry recipe, as I don't even understand how to operate the ovens in the pasticceria. Luckily, I drew gnocchi alla Sorrentina, which is potato gnocchi in an onion and basil tomato sauce. All is well for me, having dodged the pastry bullet. Whew.

In this photo, our humorous and patient translator, Bridgit, oversees the recipe drawing.

Tongue Tasting Zones, in Italian

Enologia

Our instructor and sommelier, Giancarlo Lercara, discussed the various regions for Italian wine production in our last enologia lecture. We tasted two red wines, a 2006 Colutta Refosco (Fruili) and a 2005 Moroder Rosso Conero.

Although I'm dedicated to learning the method, and I'm certainly doing my wine drinking homework, after a few sniffs of a glass, I simply cannot detect such scents as "fruits that have been processed, such as jams," "wood," "dried mushrooms, such as when you first open a package," "bay leaf," etc.

On the upside, I can detect a "cristallino" limpidity when I see the outline of my finger between the glass of red and a light source. (As can anyone with corrected vision, but I believe in setting the bar low when measuring success.)

Here's a neat video of Gianni decanting the Refresco. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozW141SFeyY

Wine Instruction

Enologia

We've completed about 6 hours of lesson in wine, led by our instructor and sommelier Giancarlo Lercara.

Our method of analysis was created by the Italian Association of Sommeliers, and breaks down along the 3 general lines of visual, smell and taste. Each category is subdivided into several subsections, with multiple variations with each subsections. For example, the visual analysis considers 4 factors, including limpidity, which is judged on a 5-part scale, ranging from veiled to brilliant.

It's all very scientific, with the eyes, nose and mouth collecting data that is analyzed according to a detailed methodology. My palate is not so refined, so I look forward to learning this process (and tasting many, many wines).

Here is a video of Giancarlo explaining the olifactory aspect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFVKVgO-Xkg

Biscotti di Meliga

Here's a basic biscotti recipe that can be used to make different shaped cookies as seen in this photo.
Biscotti di Meliga

150 grams white baking flour
125 grams of butter
60 grams sugar
60 grams corn flour
33 grams egg yoke
20 grams egg white
2 grams baking powder

In mixer add butter, sugar and baking powder, mix well.

Then add eggs to mixer.

In a separate bowl mix flours together, then add combined flours to mixing bowl, mix no more than 90 seconds at a slow setting.

Cover and refridgerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll out dough, cut into desired shapes, place on baking sheet covered with baking paper and bake at 170 degrees Centigrade until golden.

Tip of the day: use unsalted butter with low water content, 82% fat content.

Here Chef Massimiliano cuts the cookie dough. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DanRca9r_4

Pasticceria

Chef Massimiliano demonstates biscotti making.

Turin's National Film Museum

Museo Nazionale Del Cinema is one of the more interesting museums I've visited. This grand brick building, completed in 1889, spans several floors. The interior is a post-modern inspiration with ramps, stairs and glass elevators offering a dramatic experience worthy of its subject matter.

Crowning this building is a spire that rises 552 feet over the city, providing breathtaking views of the region.

Inside, homage is paid to Italian and American cinema, complete with sets, costumes, props, movie posters and multi-media visual effects.

Here Dorothy travels the yellow brick road, an image projected on a model.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpAU0mN-VXg

Commitment to food prep

My roommate, showing the love...

24 hours in Torino

I joined a group of students spending Saturday night in Torino, one of those wonderful cities that benefits from its absence from the tourist short list.

We walked around for a couple of hours and discovered Piazza San Carlo, with twin churches, the San Carlo and the more ornate Santa Cristina, pictured here.

Here's a 30 second clip from the street. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85S-xvXySXk

Cathedral of Cheese

This morning we visited Latteria Sociale Stallone's Grana Padano cheese factory. Grana Padano is very similar to its neighboring cousin Parmigiana Reggiana. I love both cheeses and I never substitute inferior and uncontrolled "Parmesan" cheese for the highly regulated and certified "Grana Padano" and "Parmigiana Reggiana."

The Cathedral of Cheese is located inside Latteria Sociale Stallone. It is the resting place where the Grana Padano ages. This photo is of one wall, and I love the crucifix positioned next to the cheese poster. Outside the frame, about five feet to the right, also hangs a calendar featuring nude women. Religion, cheese and naked women, gotta love Italy.

This video reflects the splendor of the Cathedral of Cheese.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CESgWqlnX0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Nebbiolo grape, early Piedmont Harvest

Finished product

Drying the Grana Padano

Grana Padano Cheese Factory

Gnocchi alla Sorrentina

Finished in the oven, with mozzarella di buffala

Gnocchi

This afternoon we learned several gnocchi dishes, including potato gnocchi with tomato, basi l and mozzarella and ricotta gnocchi with squid ink, calamari and zucchini. Tip of the day: The proper ratio for boiling gnocchi or pasta is 1 litre of water per 100 grams of gnocchi or pasta. Here's video of Chef Simone rolling the gnocchi on a fork: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFCmh_u3-D0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Gluten Free TV

Chef Diego's web tv filmed at ICIF
Www.freeglutine.tv, beginning 6:00 pm Italy time, tonight, Thursday Sept. 15.

Pasta and Chef Diego

. We started the morning with Chef Diego and pasta dishes. The women lined up after the lesson to have their photos taken with him. Tip of the day: Add 10 grams of salt to each litre of water for boiling pasta or gnocchi. This chef really knows how to dress up the the pasta dishes common to us all. He prefers serving pasta in glass dishes, including parfait glasses. In this video you can see pasta on a glass plate, resting atop a white serving platter, covered after plating to enhance the aromatic effect at serving. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XupqeBt-FuU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Brazilian BBQ

And a lot of alcohol in our courtyard. I complimented our young chef because, truly, this Texan had to admit this was excellent BBQ.

Not sure exactly how I managed the invite, but I'm sure happy to have been included.

Today, a large contingent of very young Filippinos arrived. Should be interesting.

Antipasti

Today we discussed fresh herbs used in Italian cuisine and learned several antipasti dishes, hot and cold, from various Italian regions. It was often repeated that an antipasto dish is to call the digestive juices into service assisting the digestion of the subsequent first (pasta/risotto/gnocchi) and second (meat or fish) courses, as well as the contorni (side dishes).

Our cold antipasti dishes included a thinly sliced veal with a salsa tonnata, a tuna mixture with the consistency of paté. This was very light and tasty, odd as the pairing of veal and tuna sounds. Another was an octopus and potato tortino on a bed of sauteed vegetables.

The hot antipasti were mainly fried dishes with different batters. Stuffed anchovies, porcini mushrooms, zucchini, and lardo-wrapped prawns all fried in extra virgin olive oil. An amazing hot antipasto recipe is pictured here, an endive roll up, with blanched endive wrapped around a cheese and spinach stuffing. Delicious. And not fried!

Tip of the day: To tenderize octopus, add an everyday wine cork to the boiling pot.

Here, Chef Simone demonstrates one batter recipe and technique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93OsK3vH5_s&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Octopus antipasto

Chef Simone demonstrated how to prepare octopus and potato tortino, a Sicilian dish.

Bread, foccacia, pizza

Today we learned six different bread and focaccia recipes, in addition to a basic dough for pizza Margherita. It was a long day in a hot kitchen, with three ovens in operation.

In Italy they use many different types of flour, and ancient recipes and techniques have been perfected over the centuries based on the particular qualities of each flour. I do believe they would scoff at the notion of all-purpose flour so popular in the United States.

Because of this, I'm not certain how well these dough recipes would work without the benefit of these various flours.

Tip of the Day: Substitute malt for sugar in dough recipes. It adds not only sweetness, but also a bit of color and flavor.

Here is Chef Gino explaining the birth of ciabatta, helpfully interpreted by Bridgit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_017n7Z-l6I

In Uniform

Cutting grissini stirati. Chef Gino, center, told us, "The first job you do each day in an Italian restaurant is to prepare the daily bread and grissini". Grissini stirati (stretched grissini) are like breadsticks.

Student Housing and the Police

Columbia, Mexico and USA are now represented in our small room. We three share a toilet with a fouth woman and it was quite a scene getting everyone turned out on time this morning.

There was a late night row in our dorm courtyard involving young drunken aspiring chefs from across the globe meeting the likes of an apparently sober whack job. I watched it unfold from my balcony. Mama Mia!

The carabinieri arrived around 2:00 a.m., but the show was over by that time, except for the perp claiming to be the victim. Today, our class was visited by the friendly carabinieri again, and they are seen here being assisted by the English interpreter.

As for class, school orientation is a drudgery in any language. We did prep work for four italian bread recipes, which we will bake tomorrow morning during our first actual cooking class. Later this week, pizza making!

Uniforms Issued Tomorrow

A photo of our school, the castle, taken from student housing dining hall.

Classes begin tomorrow and I am both excited and a little nervous. The Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners is like the United Nations, with many different countries represented and languages spoken. World peace through Italian cooking? Italian food conquering the world?

http://m.npr.org/story/137904978?url=/books/titles/137904978/how-italian-food-conquered-the-world

Many of the students are young. I could be the mother of my classmates. That is, if I had born children by foreign men later in life. They seem genuinely nice, outgoing and brimming with enthusiasm. I shall try not to hate them.

Tomorrow we are provided uniforms. Tonight, I get settled into my room, which I share with a young woman from Columbia, and maybe another person. I've heard two people comment that it is much calmer now that the Brazilians have left. I just smiled and nodded, because although spoken in English, I continue still not to fully understand the words spoken to me.

Festival delle Sagre

Asti plays annual host to Festival delle Sagre, a food and wine event featuring over 40 small Piemontese villages. A park is dedicated to the food and wine staging, each town proudly serving its specialty dishes from solidly constructed booths evocative of countryside homes.

I heard not a word of English among the several hundred people in attendance. I walked the park for an hour, feeling an equal measure of wonder and confusion, before I understood the protocol-- Each village house sells tickets for food redeemed at that specific site; tickets are sold an hour before the food is available; it's perfectly acceptable to knock to the ground anyone standing between you and the food server, etc.

But what I couldn't wrap my brain around was this-- for the price of about 75 cents, you are provided an empty glass to be worn around the neck in a pastic Festival holder. With this investment, you get free wine from each village vendor. Three different villages explained this to me, slowly, before I understood that "gratis" really did mean free. They were very patient with me, though I certainly appeared the idiot of several villages. This, before the wine was served.

2 Minutes Inside Asti's St. Secondo

There is an underground crypt where visitors can see the silver urn containing the ashes of this city's patron saint. My video is here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Z0Z-Fh9Eo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

(I exercised a little videographer discretion and dropped the camera to my waist when I visited the alter, to create the visual effect of kneeling. For this I will surely burn in hell.)

Rite of Passage?

>

> My US/EU adaptor blew a fuse, dispatching my beautiful iPhone 4 (and sole blogging device) to power purgatory. Instead of buying another adaptor, I found an Apple dealer in Asti who sold me the European USB power cord (30€/44$). Here, you can see the difference in shape and size.
>

Slouching Towards Piedmont

The Alps hover over Italy's northwestern region ("Piemonte" means "foot of the mountain"), with Switzerland to the North and France to the West. Known as "the Burgundy of Italy", it is a land of castles, white truffles and "finer" wines, including one of my favorites, Barolo.

I'm moving from the Lombardy region and staying in Asti, Piedmont, a couple of days before moving into ICIF student housing in Costigliole d'Asti. I've never lived in a dorm before... we sleep three to a room.

ICIF is housed in one of Piedmont's castles. Here's a youtube of ICIF, which, my time having come, drew me to slouch towards Piedmont for a redemption of sorts. (With apologies to William Butler Yeats.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARaUYXV8byc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Italian Dual Citizenship

I owe to Vincenzo Sicola both my surname and my connection to Italy. Abject poverty drove him, his wife Saveria Marino Sicola, and their children from Bisacquino, Sicily, a tiny town where still today a street bears the Sicola name, and in which town archives trace the Sicolas to The Renaissance period.

Having arrived in the USA through the port of New Orleans, with an occupation listed on the ship's manifest as "peasant," Vincenzo died many years later in Houston, Texas without having obtained U.S. citizenship.

Because my paternal lineage was born to an Italian, not American, citizen, I qualify for Italian dual citizenship. Go figure. Italy considers it a citizenship by birthright.

My dual citizenship journey has been in the works for many months. I'm optimistic that I will finalize dual citizenship when I return to Texas in 2012.

For information on Italian dual citizenship, check out this website and direct questions to Nicola (tell him Mary Sicola says hello). Www.italiandualcitizenship.com

Classes postponed for a week...

The gods must be smiling upon me; the chef school classes were postponed for a week. I didn't plan on passing time on Lake Como, but what's a girl to do? Tomorrow I tour the lake by boat, via Bellagio Water Taxis. http://www.bellagiowatertaxis.com
I've promised my Texas RioGrande Legal Aid colleague and friend in Austin, Texas that I would send my regards to George Clooney. Conveniently, the boat tour should pass his Lake Como estate. How do you say "restraining order" in Italian?

Trattoria Nostradamos

A trattoria is a small eatery, serving simple dishes reminiscent of grandmother's kitchen, if one was fortunate enough to have had an Italian nonna. While they do not have the extensive food or wine selection of a more formal ristorante, a trattoria provides authentic regional cuisine for a moderate price.

I love the informal, home-style cooking of a humble trattoria, and I find the food and service often exceed that of the ristoranti. The late, great Las Manitas of Austin, Texas reminds me of a Mexican food version of a trattoria.

Tonight I ate at Trattoria Nostradamos, a Como, Italy eatery with a one-page handwritten menu. I settled on the stuffed and baked tomatoes for my first dish, and ricotta and beet ravioli in a butter sage sauce as my second dish. Water, vino rosso and an after-dinner limoncello-- a very satisfying meal.

No Matter Where You Go, There You Are

And I'm tasting the pizza and vino rosso at Milan's Primafila Ristorante. Surprisingly good pizza for a tourist location.

Not Lost in Translation

Studying Italian is not the same thing as learning Italian,  at least not for me.  A pretty good student back in the day (well, there was that gaping math/science deficit), last October I rendered an Italian language instructor speechless with my confusing spoken word, which is something like EngliSpanItalian.  Sometimes, I speak two or three words in perfect Italian and then... mid-sentence silence.

Part of my challenge is approaching the Italian language like I'm cooking from scratch, constructing sentences from carefully chosen basic elements.  Since the linguistic cupboard is bare, I resorted to the communication equivalent to fast food--  memorizing a list of expressions.

Not Lost in Translation is an English to Italian MP3 download featuring a list of situation-specific expressions.  In "shopping", we hear a woman with a Scottish accent ask, "Do you have a smaller size?" and a woman repeats the phrase in Italian.  Each expression and corresponding translation is repeated three times to groovy 60's lounge music that makes me want to drink a Martini, which also may impede the learning process.  

While these canned expressions may lack nuance, they allow me to ask directions, order a meal, and buy a pair of shoes.  And knowing how to say "He's a wanker" is pretty useful in any language. Overall, canned expressions are very helpful.  If you recite the correct phrase from your memory, that is.

I noticed this shortcoming when a waiter gave me directions to the pharmacy instead of the house red I thought I had ordered.  No big problem, I thanked him and his expression relaxed when I ordered the vino rosso, no doubt relieved I wasn't about to throw up in his station.

Which brings me to the swear words and pick-up lines segments of Not Lost in Translation.  Phrases like "Do you have a light?" and "Can I offer you a drink?" merit memorizing and are expressions which can do little damage in any given setting.  But what does it say about a language culture that includes the pick-up line, "I'm horny.  Can you help me?", and is it really a good idea to memorize it?   Gotta love the Italians.

I remove the earbuds when the "I'm horny.  Can you help me?" translation is in que for fear that if committed to memory I will mistakenly recite it when what I mean to ask is for the cab driver to take me to the airport.    

You can sample it on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-coolest-language-phrases/id343159055  

Departing Austin, Texas

Version 2011 of the Texas drought and heat wave is brutal in a record-breakingly bad sort of way.  People are posting signs saying things like, "Satan called.  He wants his weather back."  Indeed.  Amidst the Texas heat, water rationing and rolling blackouts I'm packing for the crisp fall weather of northern Italy.  The Masters Course at the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners lasts six months and begins at the school in Costigliole d'Asti and ends with an externship at a restaurant... somewhere... in Italy.  http://www.icif.com/.

This is my blog of that journey.  First stop, Milano.  But first, a few more days of this hellish heat.