Burton Anderson: Mi fa depressa

I am reading the 1980 edition of this book:  Vino:  The Wines and Winemakers of Italy and I feel I have been cheated.  Born in the wrong era!  This book is one of the most beautifully and poetically written books on wine I have ever read, and there are many stories about wine legends, now departed and the sensual, unforgetable but also not replicable wine they made.  This is a time before the phrase Super Tuscan, a time when there were no terms like biodynamic, sustainable, or natural wines.  Those catch phrases now used more as a marketing tool rather than an adjective describing the passion of a wine maker.    The men and women who made their wine in the traditional way, with organic and natural procecsses did it out of love, not for marketing.  This was right on the cusp, the time of the greats was peaking and Coca Cola just spent $36 million investing in Montalcino to produce more industrial crap. I am on the hunt for one of the last great bottles ever made by a Prince who spent his time tending his vineyard like it was his special, and who, to prevent his vineyard being molested by the wrong people, tore out all the vines and never looked back.  This all happened before I got out of high school.

Rocca Massima: Locanda dell'Arcangelo

Narrow streets of Rocca Massima

     Yesterday I barely moved from the sofa because it was so hot and humid here.  Poor Ettore had to work under the hot Roman sun, and when he came home it was much cooler than what the Romans feel in the summer, but still deathly hot for me.   We live in the hills outside Rome, the Castelli Romani.  The air is cleaner, fresher, and cooler during the summer, which is why on weekends, loads of Romans come up here to eat, cool off, and take a swim at the Lake near Castel Gandolfo.   We Castelli residents need to cool off as well, and we need to escape the loads of nasty porchetta eaters in Ariccia.  Last night,  Ettore and I headed up to the hills to a small little town called Rocca Massima.  It was a lovely evening.  We could see the Castelli from a bird’s eye view, and gaze from the top of the town that overlooks the sea.  Rocca Massima is very close to Cori, and has pre-roman roots.  Like many towns in Lazio, it is a small medieval hilltop town built on the foundations of a previous culture.  Rocca Massima belonged to the Volsci, which is also the same people of the town of Velletri, and many argue that the greatest emperors of Rome had Volsci roots, as they came from these towns. 

Tuscany's new rival?

     We hoped into our car and drove through fields that could easily compete with anything I have seen in Tuscany.  I went a bit wild with my new camera’s panorama setting! 

     We escaped the heat of Genzano, and of course ran into a bunch of Genzanese people with the same idea.    The difference for us and a Roman meeting another Roman in the Castelli is that we all actually know each other.    There was a local food and wine festival going on which had an itinerary that led visitors all around the town.  We didn’t come for the festival, though.  We came to have a relaxing dinner with a nice view.  

Locanda dell’Arcangelo

     We decided on a cute little B&B at the very top of the town called Locanda dell’Arcangelo.  They had a wonderfully descriptive menu filled with local treats and a wine menu that had a fantastic selection of wines from Lazio.  Everything was very inexpensive.   Ettore and I love going to these old towns outside the Castelli and outside Rome.  Latina is a province in Lazio that I think is the place to watch.  We eat fresh and seasonal vegetables, we try new wines by winemakers that have a passion for the history of their land, and we learn about cultures of the region.  What I love about Lazio, besides the food and wine, is the fact that for us, a drive of about 20 minutes took us to a completely different place.  Homogeny doesn’t seem to exist between towns once you escape the province of Rome.

View from our table

     Another delightful point:  Lazio is one of the easiest regions to be a vegan.  The kitchen is loaded with incredible vegetables.  They are also extraordinarily diverse.   We always order an antipasto of vegetables, and every place we go outside the province of Rome  has their own selection of locally available goodies.  

In Rome and the provinces of Rome it is always the same plate of boring grilled vegetables.  Outside the province of Rome t

hey are sometimes what the family has growing in their garden, what was available at the market that day, and sometimes what they find in the field. 

Antipasto

     

    Locanda dell’Arcangelo  had an enticing antipasto di verdure which included grilled eggplant, stuffed eggplant, lightly roasted carrots with thyme, cipolline in agrodolce(sweet and sour pearl onions),  Gaeta olives, insalata d’orzo(Barley salad) , bruschetta, and zucchini.  The bruschette were inedible.  The bread was at least a week old and they didn’t add any salt.  Everything else was fine.  The pearl onions were especially delicious.  We ordered a bottle of Marco Carpineti  Capolemole Bianco 2009.  Carpineti is the winery I want so much to succeed, and I wrote about in an earlier blog.  The wine had a lovely hay yellow color, lovely floral and fruity aromas, with a hint of bread, but it was someone flat and lacked acidity.  

Gorgeous Pasta

     
     For my first dish I ordered an absolutely scrumptious pasta con zucchini, radicchio con olio, aglio e menta(pasta with zucchini, radicchio, oil, garlic and mint). It was a well balanced plate of heaven.  The radicchio and zucchini were perfectly cooked, the pasta wasn’t loaded with oil, the aromatic flavors from the garlic and mint were utter perfection in my mouth.  And despite the wine’s lack of freshness, the aromas and fruitiness paired well with my aromatic dish.  I was very happy.  And full. 

Super greasy radicchio ;(

    

Of course we ordered everything at the beginning of the evening when our stomachs were empty from not eating lunch earlier(too hot to cook) and we both had a case of eyes are bigger than the stomach, but we did not cancel our contorni of vegetables we ordered.  We ordered grilled radicchio, cicoria, and French fries (say what you want, they were delicious).  The radicchio was grilled and swimming in oil and Aceto Balsamico  that tasted artificially sweet.  We only took a few bites.  The cicoria was nothing special, but at least it was cooked well and not dripping in oil like I tend to see in Rome.  The French fries were homemade and perfect.  Almost as good as the perfect plate of fries I once had at the Madonna Inn many years ago. 

     

     

          Cost for two people with starter, first, sides, a bottle of wine and a fantastic view? 

€50

I love Latina.

Zucchini: What to Do With All Those Extra Summer Zucchini

     Some of my gardening friends may be wondering what the heck they are going to do with all those zucchini they grew this summer.  Many of you are practically swimming in zucchini!  You’ve steamed them,  fried them, made soups, breaded them, and eaten them raw with hummus.  All of which are noble endings for the simple zucchini.   I have also had to get a little creative this summer with the zucchini.  Alas, unlike my mother, I do not have a green thumb, everything dies, including weeds!  However, when I go to the local markets, what is in season?  Zucchini, of course.  So I have been eating them all summer, just like the rest of you.  With a little bit of creativity, zucchini can be delicious and fun.  I made up the following recipe while I was trying to eat up everything in the fridge and cupboards before I went stateside.  It turned out fantastic, and I have since made it many times.  This blog is dedicated to Jenny, Thomas, and my favorite baby in the world, Max.

    

INGREDIENTS:

For four people

4 tablespoon of olive oil

4 tablespoons of pine nuts

4 tablespoons of sultanas or golden raisons

4 cloves of garlic

15 cherry tomatoes

2 medium zucchini

1/2 tablespoon of dried calabrian red pepper

dry white wine

500g of whole grain fusilli

course sea salt

Directions:

Prepare everything in advance.  you will want to cut up the tomatoes and zucchini into small quarter sized pieces, or dice them, whichever you prefer is fine.  First, you are going to start with toasting the pine nuts.  To do this, take a small pan, drizzle a small amount of olive oil in it and put on full heat.  Throw in the pine nuts and flip them every 30 seconds until  they brown.  Put to the side.  In a large deep pan, use the rest of the olive oil and a splash of dry white wine and crush the cloves of garlic and red peppers and sauté with a medium heat.  Add the tomatoes and zucchini and sautè with the garlic.   Add the toasted pine nut and sultanas.  In a large pot, bring water to boil and add salt to taste.  Since I do not use salt in the veggies, I add a bit more in the water.   Add the dry fusilli and cook until al dente.  While the pasta is boiling simmer the veggies on a low heat setting.  I like to use a whole grain pasta for this dish, my favorite is pasta made from farro, or, spelt.  I think it brings out the nutty flavor of the pine nuts.    I use a whole box for four people.   Serve in large pasta bowls.  This pairs well with a dry rosato, or a lovely Vermentino di Gallura.    Enjoy outdoors if possible.

Voilà

 Buon Appetito!!

Wines of California: Graeser Winery Cabernet Sauvignon

  I have finally escaped the heat of Rome and am relaxing in sunny California.  Everyone keeps complaining about the heat, which makes me laugh to myself if I think about the absolute inferno that Rome became in the days before I left.  Can a Southern Californian ever really complain about the heat or cold?  I do not think they can or should.  I was sweltering under the Lazio sun while working at the Forum in the middle of Rome.  The only thing that kept me sane was the idea of an upcoming vacation to my homeland, California.  I envisioned potato tacos, California Burritos, leopard sharks in La Jolla, laying out on the beach and actually being able to cool off in the sea rather than just get warmed like one does in the Med, and lastly, all the California wines I would try to taste.  Unfortunately, I do not have any friends or even family members who are as passionate about wine as I am, so it looks like I will be doing this solo. 

     What is more ubiquitous to California than Cabernet Sauvignon?  Ok, maybe Zinfandel.  Though I make a lot of fuss about traditional and natural wine making and native grapes and so forth, California Cabernet Sauvignon is here to stay, and far be it from me to make a blanket judement based on the industrial wines that one finds in Vons or Albertsons.  There are excellent Cabernet Sauvignons to be had.  The last one I had from Pointer Run Vineyards is a great example of a wine that has a great potential to evolve.  I first had this wine in the winter of 2007, when my friend Harmony, a fellow wine lover and sommelier, was still living in Southern California, so I had a great time trying lots of wines and trying out a few of San Diego's wine bars in Hillcrest and downtown.  One of my favorites is the Wine Lover and 6th ave in Hillcrest.  I think they have a great wine buyer and it is in a perfect location. 

     Harmony moved to Portland,  I went back to Italy, and I took a bottle of 1997 Graeser Cabernet Sauvignon from Pointer Run Vineyards.  As I mentioned above, I tasted it at the Wine Lover in 2007, when it was 10 years old, and even then, the tannins were holding up, it still had an excellent backbone, and had a lot of potential to evolve and soften up.  This was not an oak bomb surprise.  Overly oaked wines never lose their vanilla, and sometimes the oak hides the richness of the actual wine.  I drank this wine and enjoyed it.  Ettore decided to try this this year, and I wished I had a large enough budget to allow me to buy cases of wines I like rather than having to make due with one bottle.  This is because it is very interesting to open these bottles every few years and see how they are holding up, and then to taste them when they are peaking.  Nothing is better for a wine lover. 

     Move forward to 2010 and the this wine is lovely.  It had a lovely color that was garnet with brickish reflections.  It had a very nice separation in the nails, which really showed off it's color development.  It was consistent and there was no sediment at all.   On the nose it was floral, spicy, vegetal and had subtle fruits.  The flowers were reminiscent of violets and dried roses, but they were very soft, not sweet at all.  There were black pepper notes, soft rosemary, raspberry and blackberry jam, tobacco, roasting coffee, green peppers, sage, and a slight hint of wet autumn leaves.  It was, indeed, a nice complex nose, though no minerality at all.  On the palate it was a very well balanced, dry and full bodied Cabernet Sauvignon.  The tannins were still quite strong but obviously softening from the last time I tasted this wine.  It was round and big on the palate, with a smooth somewhat velvety texture, as well as the nice sapidity and acids. It also had a very long finish, and the herbal qualities were the most persistent.   I would describe it as a slightly fresh wine.  It could handle a few more years in my opinion.  The tannins and acids were very well balanced,   It was not fruity on the palate, but rich and herbal.  I think this is a wine that is somewhat ready to drink, but could also handle a couple of years. 

     I made chickpea cutlets with a red wine roux that I made with another California Cabernet Sauvignon.    I thought it was a pleasant pairing.  I wish I had more of this wine.  Who knows, maybe it will still be available at the Wine Lover in Hillcrest.  I also read this online about this winery: Graeser Winery is also a dog friendly destination. What does that mean? Richard's two large and very friendly dogs wander freely and you can bring your dog into the tasting room (air conditioned in summer)! Love of dogs runs so deep that one of the Graeser wine clubs is called Fo Paws and raises money for the Humane Society. Dogs are also featured prominently on many of the wine labels at Graeser.  I think my dog Chardonnay deserves a trip to California.

Graeser Winery

1997 Cabernet Sauvignon, 

Pointer Run

Ban the Horse Drawn Carriage in Rome

The so-called "botticelle" that is, the Roman horse-drawn carriages are not a tradition of transport for people, but represent a degeneration of what was their original meaning and purpose. In fact, the "Botticelli" owe their name to the barrels: the carriage pulled by animals in 1800’s was used solely for transporting goods, and barrels in this case. There was never a "tradition" of tourist transport, therefore, as misleadingly one wants to make the tourist believe.

Nowadays there is no need to justify the use of animals for transport or freight, let alone people. Tourists can have, in Rome in 2009, many means of locomotion, extremely comfortable, fast, with accessories for every need, and far cheaper than the carriage. As well as transportation that does not cause suffering to horses.

Horses are obviously subject to a state of continuous suffering, being forced against their will to haul extremely heavy loads every day (more than one ton, the empty carriage weighs 800 kg ...). The working conditions are inhumane and the animal is brought along fast roads (like the Tiber) where the proximity of cars, speed and the roar of traffic so terrific, with the serious consequence of accidents, often fatal, while the horses are often forced to travel on uphill on cobblestone pavement which is slippery and uneven. These cobblestones, known as Sam Pietrini creates further discomfort when a horse is forced to stand on them without movement, often for many hours. The conditions worsen in summer when the hot sun makes the effort even more unbearable. And yet, the drivers pay no attention to laws, nor are laws enforced.

In times past, the horses traveled on isolated and relatively quiet roads in Rome. Today, the crazy traffic, chaos, smog, the sounds of horns, the speed of vehicles and scooters whizzing close to the carriages, etc. .. make this means of transport absolutely unfit to the conditions of congestion in the city. The carriage is so configured a practice that is deeply anachronistic and certainly cruel to horses, and is thus there is no longer any reason for them to exist today.

La Panzanella-Bread and Tomato Salad

It has been over a month since we designed and ordered our kitchen.  A very long and frustrating month it has been.   I have hosted a lovely lunch outside under the Gazebo, had my first swim at Lago di Nemi, and enjoyed amazing strawberries at the Sagra delle Fragole.  At the same time, I have no place to put any of my kitchenware.  We have lived here since the end of April, but I do not yet feel unpacked or settled in.  There is a lot to do.  Most of what I want to do with this house and property are landscaping and gardening projects.  I am looking forward to the enormous potential of this place, the land, and I am forging a friendship with my neighbor down the road.  She is incredibly generous and kind.  I am blessed in this regard.  The apricots and figs are finally ripe which means summer has officially begun in these parts.  How great would this time be if I could make amazing meals for the people I love?   The terrace and the gazebo were the real selling points for the house, besides the enormous size of the kitchen.  I am so anxious to get started, to put my kitchenware away, and get cooking!
     Luckily, I live in the bread basket that is the Castelli Romani.  I have bread from Genzano or Lariano available to me, there are local veggie and fruit stands so I am buying the freshest produce.  Summertime, in this case, means we don't need a lot of prep to make a nourishing and delicious meal.
   I am always amazed by the plates of the region that have their roots in total poverty.  They were born out of the concept of making due with what we have.  Sometimes, these families might have only some stale bread and a few vegetables at hand.  Nowadays, people pay top dollar for these dishes in the priciest trattoria of Rome and beyond.  Panzanella is a great example of this food culture.  Ettore and I debate whether this is a true Laziale dish or if it comes from Campagna. For me it is from Lazio.  Irregardless, is there anything more heavenly than the sweet combination of ripe summer tomatoes and basil?  Panzanella is so simple, so filling, and utterly delicious.  I have made it a few times because all that I need are the following:  A cutting board, a bread knife, ingredients and a bowl.  There is no cooking involved, and it can makes a lovely lunchtime meal.  It is light, fragrant, and cool.
    Thank goodness for dishes like this!  Without them I would be still living on pizza and take-out.

Panzanella-Bread and Tomato Salad

Ingredients:

• 1/2 loaf of crusty, stale, rustic Italian bread, sliced into 2 cm pieces and then cut up messy into bite size pieces(about 10 slices from the loaf)
• 1/2 kilo ripe cherry tomatoes sliced into quarters
• 10-12 sprigs of basil broken into small pieces
• 6 TBSP of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  I like the fragrant oil from Alatri
• about a 1/2 TBSP of coarse Celtic sea salt
• about three turns of the pepper grinder for pepper

Directions:

• In a Large Salad bowl, put the sliced tomatoes and basil and stir everything together
• Add the olive oil, salt and pepper
• Let this mixture stand without bread for at least an hour.  Room temperature is best, but also in the fridge would be fine.  This will ensure a much more fragrant salad as the tomatoes and basil will have time to marinate in their own juices for a time.  I also add about a TBSP of water.
• After and hour, add the bite size bread pieces, stir everything and let it sit for a few minutes so the breadt absorbs the flavors and juices.  If you need to add a bit of water and more olive oil and stir again.  The bread should be moist, but retain its bounce.

We enjoyed this with a lovely chilled Frascati, although I think it would have been nice with a Rosato

Buon Appetito!!

Kitchenless Cook

Well, this is my kitchen, folks.  I haven't been able to cook for over a week now so I am going stir crazy.  I feel like an addict trying to overcome the overwhelming desire for my drug of choice.  I find myself pouring over cookbooks, I buy magazine after magazine full of recipes I want to try.  The kitchen never arrives.  They are missing one part, so therefore, the kitchen that should have arrived by the 28th of May. is still not here.   We designed it and paid in full the first week of May!  We gutted the old one thinking it would just be a day or two before the magic would begin.  Alas, I have been forced to eat out, buy pizza, eat vegemite sandwiches for dinner, and sometimes, go to bed hungry.  My inner Buddha drives me to be patient, I know this is just a short amount of time in the scheme of things, but, I can no longer bear to look at the empty walls and the hideous tiles of the previous owner.  I think I have eaten enough pizza for two Roman legions.  I want to have people over for lunches outside in the gazebo.  At this point, they'll all be lucky to get a cracker with a sun-dried tomato.
   In my spare time I write up menus for make believe dinners and lunches I will host.  I think the lack of creative outlet in the kitchen is starting to make me hallucinate.  I wonder about last suppers or what I would serve to The Golden Girls.
I express myself through food and wine.  I make lunches and dinners according to how I am feeling that particular day.  And right now, I am craving a giant bowl of fusilli with a sauce made of roma tomatoes, onion, lots of red peppers from Calabria and some basil.  I could eat at least a kilo of the stuff right now.  You guys can decide what that says about me.