Italy | Gourmandistan

A better bacon for pasta carbonara.

June 19, 2011 by Michelle

Steve’s guanciale has been sectioned, sealed and frozen, but not before we put some to a very good use. We’ve long been fans of pasta carbonara, even championing Calvin Trillin’s effort to change Thanksgiving into National Pasta Carbonara Day. (Trillin seems interested in the humorous aspects of carbonara-themed parades and presidential portraits. We’re more interested in eliminating the angst and crap food found in so many “traditional Thanksgiving” meals.) Carbonara sauce has a murky origin, but Gourmandistan is partial to […]

Categories: Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Italy, Old cookbooks, Pasta, Pork, Recipes

Gourmandistan unveils guanciale

June 12, 2011 by Michelle

For months, Steve was haunted by hog jowls. At a mid-Winter Bardstown Road market, Matt Corry of Schacht Farm told Steve about two jowls along with a pair of hocks available from one of his recently-processed pigs. Liking Matt and his meat products, Steve bought the meat sight unseen. A week later, Steve proudly informed Michelle he’d spent nearly $100 for four very large, very ungainly pieces of pork flesh. As our little chest freezer had very little room and […]

Categories: Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Italy, Pork, Recipes

Ramp-a-lama-ding-dong

March 22, 2011 by Michelle

Spring is teasing its way into Gourmandistan, and our nation’s population is bouncing in anticipation of fresh, green things to eat. (These things do include spiders and bugs, but only for the cats.) This past Saturday Steve snagged several bunches of ramps, one of the first local greens to pop up, from the Foxhollow Farm Store. Ramps, like onions, garlic and leeks, are part of the lily family and grow wild in moist forests across eastern North America—especially in Appalachia. […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Italy, Pasta, Ramps, Recipes, Vegetarian

Research and risotto cakes

February 22, 2011 by Michelle

Gourmandistan is planning to temporarily plant its flag in a new land this Fall, inside the province of Padua in northeastern Italy. We’ve begun preparing for our trip already—Michelle furiously researching the sites, transportation options and cultural habits of the Veneto; Steve rambling around Google Earth looking for towns named for sausages and cheeses he’s heard of. In addition, we’ve predictably started exploring Italian recipes. We’re not huge fans of risotto-making here in Gourmandistan. Steve’s weak wrists and fidgetiness resent […]

Categories: Breakfast, Cooking, Eggs, Food, Italy, Peas, Recipes, Rice

Struffoli, Steve’s sole holiday food tradition

December 21, 2010 by Michelle

It’s a sign of how denatured Steve’s Neapolitan heritage is that he believed a traditional family holiday dish was spelled “struvela.” It’s actually struffoli—something Steve didn’t figure out until recently. Steve has memories of picking at the honey-covered dough bits as they sat on an increasingly sugar-sticky paper doily for days, a concept Michelle finds bewildering as well as slightly disgusting. Nevertheless, acceding to Steve’s whim, she decided to help bring struffoli to Gourmandistan. Steve’s mother was happy to give […]

Categories: Christmas, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Family, Food, Italy, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian

Remembrance of eggplants past

August 9, 2010 by Steve

Gourmandistan likes oral histories, like those generated by the WPA Writers’ Project (something we wish was still around—are you listening, government recovery people?). We think it’s lovely when individuals get a chance to share their ideas of the times they lived through. (Steve, especially, looks forward to lecturing people about life in Middle American Suburbia, if he can only get them to stop watching “Leave it to Beaver,” “My Three Sons” and just about any other show on TV Land.) […]

Categories: Cooking, Eggplant, Family, Food, Italy, Recipes, Vegetarian

And dough-three: Pasta

July 17, 2010 by Steve

It doesn’t take much to make pasta. Just a cup of flour, an egg, and practice. Oh, and if you’re in Gourmandistan, machinery. Actually, several pieces of machinery. Of course, you don’t actually need the machinery. You can, if you wish, use the 1:1 egg:flour ratio and your hands. Mound the flour in a large bowl, making a well in the center. Lightly scramble the egg, then place in the well. Using a fork or your fingers, stir the egg […]

Categories: Basics, Cooking, Food, Italy, Pasta, Recipes, Vegetarian

And dough-two: Pizza

July 16, 2010 by Steve

We’ve had a few requests for our pizza dough recipe. Since Steve can’t stand to knead (for reasons reaching from his carpal-tunnel-raddled wrists to his brain’s general hatred of things that are boring), the mixer’s dough hook is essential for him. Those made of sterner, less easily distracted stuff can hand-knead to their hearts’ content. Alice Waters (on page 60 of The Art of Simple Food) is right—letting the dough rise slowly overnight in the refrigerator makes it extra tender. […]

Categories: Basics, Cooking, Food, Italy, Pizza, Recipes, Vegetarian, Yeast breads

Disco and Coniglio

July 8, 2010 by Steve

As we’ve mentioned, Michelle has hundreds of cookbooks, enjoying the authors’ stories as much as (and in some cases more than) the recipes themselves. What we didn’t mention is she got this way with the help of her mother. In a recent purge of some of her own innumerable cookbooks, Michelle’s mom gifted Gourmandistan with several volumes, the only real value of most being in the currency of camp, or perhaps of Schadenfreudeistan. (The Joanne & Rick Pitino Wildcat Cookbook […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Italy, Old cookbooks, Rabbit, Recipes