Where It's Going, Traditional/International and More: Being the 131st issue of Cosa Bolle in Pentola

Greetings! To begin with the sites, the latest on Italian cuisine is an illustration of how to chop onions and herbs (by hand). I know this sounds obvious, but a great many people reach for a chopper or blender, neither of which does as good a job, and both of which take much longer to clean up after. The latest on the IWR is a vertical of Cantalupo's Collis Breclemae, a beautiful single-vineyard Ghemme.

Where's it Going?
This year Sale e Pepe, one of the major Italian cooking magazines, is celebrating its 20th birthday, and in addition to a picture of a ring cake with candles on the cover, they've picked a recipe per year to reprint. The selection is fascinating, and shows what an Italian food person, who takes the standard dishes, e.g. maccheroni alla Bolognese, pizza, pasta e fagioli, tortellini, and so on, for granted, finds interesting, and perhaps innovative.

Fruit in savory dishes, for example risotto with a terrific abundance of strawberries, or veal with kumquats, both in the late 80s, and a pork crown roast with pineapple, in 2002. Fruit has always played a part in Italian savory cooking; what's different here is that the fruit is fresh, rather than the dried fruit one can encounter in elegant, very traditional north Italian roasts, or in south Italian dishes that draw from Arab traditions. They also reveal an openness to new ingredients; kumquats were virtually unknown when I moved to Florence in the early 1980s, and the pork crown roast with pineapple (another relatively recent import) is in a sweet and sour sauce that is an obvious nod to oriental traditions. A further nod to foreign cooking traditions comes with the curried chicken proposed in 1995, which is authentic, though it does call for curry powder rather than the individually ground spices that would be difficult to find in much of Italy.

Ingredients that suddenly became the rage, with a nod -- in 1989 -- to arugola, which found its way just about everywhere, including pasta with arugola and bacon, a simple dish that draws upon the common Ligurian custom of cooking vegetables with the pasta (string beans and diced potatoes are especially common additions to the pasta pot), and then seasoning everything with a sauce; here the sauce is very simple, diced bacon sautéed in oil, and shavings of Parmigiano. The end result is minimalist, savory, and though some might find it dated now, quite tasty. While savory dishes continued to be minimalist in the 90s -- there's also a Cornish game hen stuffed with spinach and roasted with bay leaf and diced pancetta -- desserts could be quite showy, and for 1993 they picked a strawberry meringue wife Elisabetta remembers very well.

These are all dishes that fit well within the traditional Italian meal; the pasta is obviously a first course, while the meats would be second courses, and the meringue would be dessert.

They also pick a number of things that would not, and in doing so recognize that Italian life has changed tremendously in the past 20 years; the number of people who eat out or eat light during the day because they have to get back to the office in the afternoon has increased substantially, and in 1996 they present what they call a Panino Mediterraneo, or Mediterranean sandwich, a triple-decker with all sorts of greens and a little fish that will be substantial enough to assuage hunger pangs, but not so rich that the diner is unable to get back to work.

They also take stock of the tremendous expansion fast food joints have enjoyed in Italy over the past 20 years, and for 1999 suggest a double cheeseburger. With all the fixings: onion, shallot, lettuce, tomato, cheese, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, mustard, and even pickles. If made with care it will be quite good, and it shows that Italians are anything but monolithic in their view of foods: On the one hand we have Carlo Petrini, who, after discovering a McDonald's under the Spanish Steps in Rome, founded Slowfood, an organization that is making a determined (and successful) effort to preserving traditional foodstuffs, recipes, and agricultural techniques, first in Italy and now world wide. And on the other we have people who note how full those McDonalds restaurants are -- even in areas tourists don't visit -- and suggest how to best use the freshly pressed hamburgers that now occupy a significant portion of the meat section in most Italian supermarkets.

To come back to the question of where we are going, in many directions at once. On the one hand there is a renewed interest in traditional dishes, which Sale e Pepe's editors touch upon with several of their recipes, especially the rich Zuppa Inglese, or English Trifle they drew from Artusi for their 2006 recipe. And on the other there's a great deal of curiosity with respect to new ingredients and cooking techniques, both in restaurants and in the home; almost every Italian city now has shops that sell either African or Oriental ingredients, and the ethnic sections of supermarkets, which simply didn't exist when I moved to Italy in 1982, are expanding steadily. And finally, the foods are adapting to reflect changes in lifestyle, and in doing so greatly increasing the variety one can choose from. It's an exciting time to be following Italian food.

Some of the recipes:
The strawberry risotto is quite similar to one I have on Italian cuisine; with respect to it they omit the celery, use slightly fewer strawberries, and add a third of a cup or so of cream, rather than grated cheese.

Vitello al Kumquat, or Kumquat Veal
Interesting, and very easy to prepare:

• 1 3/4 pound (800 g) veal fesa -- the cut used to make scaloppini -- in a single piece; boneless veal roast will work
• 2/3 pound (300g) kumquats, washed, patted dry, cut in half, and seeded
• A shot of brandy
• 2/3 cup dry white wine
• A little broth (unsalted bouillon will be fine)
• A bay leaf
• A sprig of rosemary
• A few sage leaves
• Olive oil, salt, and white pepper
• Butcher's twine

Preheat your oven to 400 F (200 C).

Tie the meat so it will keep its shape. In the meantime, heat a quarter cup of olive oil in an ovenproof dish, and when it is hot brown the meat on all sides. Season it with salt and pepper, and with the rosemary and sage.

Sprinkle the brandy over the meat and cook over a brosk flame until it has evaporated. Next, add the white wine and continue cooking, turning the meat occasionally, until almost all of the wine has evaporated too.

Add the kumquats and the bay leaf and transfer the meat to the oven. Cook for about 75 minutes, turning the meat occasionally, and spooning the drippings over it more often; should it look to be drying out, add a few tablespoons of broth.

When it is done, remove and discard the herbs. Let the roast sit for a couple of minutes, and then slice it, Spoon the sauce over the slices, ring them with the kumquats, and serve at once.
A wine? I'd go with a white from Friuli, perhaps a Chardonnay.

Meringata di Frutti di Bosco, or Berry Fruit Meringue

This looks beautiful, and if you have some experience with a pastry bag, is quite easy to do, though it does take a while. You'll need:

• 4 egg whites
• 2/3 cup (125 g) granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 cups (250 g) powdered sugar, of the kind without vanilla added
• 1 cup (250 ml) whipping cream
• 1/2 pound (225 g) fresh raspberries
• 1/4 pound (100 g) wild strawberries, hulled
• 1/4 pound black currants

Combine the granulated sugar and a cup and a quarter of the powdered sugar. Add half the mixture to the egg whites, and beat them to very firm peaks with an electric mixer. When the sugar/whites mixture is firm and shiny, slowly beat in the remaining mixed sugars.
While you are doing this, heat your oven to 212 F (100 C). Also, take a cookie pan and line it with oven parchment.

Fill a pastry bag with a smooth nozzle with the meringue mixture, and use it to make two 8-inch (20 cm) diameter disks, and one 1-inch wide ring that is 8 inches in diameter; dot the ring with dots of meringue (if you switch to a star-shaped nozzle you will obtain a pretty decorative effect). Cook the meringue in the oven, leaving the door partially open, for three hours.

While the meringue is cooking, see to the filling: Blend half the raspberries. Beat the cream with the remaining sugar, and when it is soft and fluffy incorporate the blended berries.

Put one of the disks on a serving dish and spread a third of the cream over it, dotting it with the fruit, especially around the edges. Set the second ring over the first, spread another third of the cream over it, and dot it with more of the fruit. Put the ring atop the disks, put the remaining fruit in the center, and use a pastry bag to add the ring the fruit with the remaining cream. Chill the meringue in the refrigerator until it comes time to serve it.

Panino Mediterraneo

This sandwich sounds a lot more involved than it is. You'll find just about all the ingredients in the deli section of the supermarket.
For the sandwich you'll need:

• 3 slices Tuscan bread, lightly toasted
• 2 slices grilled eggplant
• 3 slices grilled bell pepper, of the colors you prefer
• 4 cherry tomatoes, halved
• A hard-boiled egg, sliced
• 2 canned sardines, drained
• 4 pitted black or green olives, halved
• A clove of garlic (optional)

And for the sauce:

• 2 fresh basil leaves
• A couple of sprigs of mint
• The leaves from a sprig of thyme and a sprig of marjoram
• Half a garlic clove (optional)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon pickled capers

To make the sauce, blend everything together. And then see to the sandwich: put down the first slice of bread, and arrange half the ingredients over it, and sprinkle them with half the sauce.

Lightly rub the second slice of bread, top and bottom, with garlic if you want to, lay it over the ingredients put down so far, and top it with the rest of the ingredients. Sprinkle the remaining sauce over all, top with the last slice of bread, and that's it. I'd go with a light, crisp white wine.

Spaghetti Frittata
Here's a last thing, which will be nice come picnic season, and is a good way to use up leftovers, if you have them. If you're instead starting from scratch, you'll need:

• 2/3 pound (300 g) spaghetti
• 2/3 pound (300 g) chopped tomatoes (canned will be fine)
• 1/2 pound (220 g) mozzarella
• 4 eggs
• 5-6 basil leaves
• 4 sprigs parsley, minced
• 1/4 pound (100 g) spicy Italian sausage
• 1/2 cup mixed freshly grated Parmigiano and Pecorino Romano
• A clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Set pasta water to boil, and while it's heating heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pot; add the garlic, and when it has become golden add the tomatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and simmer for 10 minutes. Then add the basil.

In the meantime, slice the mozzarella and drain it well. Peel the casing from the sausage and slice it too.

By now the pasta water should be boiling; salt it and cook the spaghetti.
Beat the eggs in a large bowl and add to them the parsley and half the cheese mixture; season with salt and pepper to taste.

Drain the pasta, run it under cold water to cool the strands, and combine them with the egg mixture.

Heat the remaining oil in a large non-stick skillet, spread half the pasta mixture over it, and then spread the tomatoes, cheese, and sausage over the pasta. Cover the tomato mixture with the remaining pasta, cover the skillet with a lid that doesn't have a lip, and cook for 5-6 minutes over a low flame, or until a crust has formed at the bottom of the frittata.

To turn the frittata, grip the handle of the skillet with one hand, and hold the lid firmly against the skillet with your other hand, using a potholder lest you burn yourself. Lift everything, and flip the skillet and lid; the frittata should come free from the skillet, resting with the unbrowned side down on the lid. Turn the skillet right side up, slide the frittata into it, and return it to the fire to brown the other side. This will be nice hot, with a tossed salad and a white wine -- perhaps a Falanghina -- or cool, and if cool will be a very nice addition to a picnic.

Traditional and International, or Modern Italian Wine: What am I talking About?

When I discuss a wine I will often classify it as either traditional or international, which are fairly precise concepts in Italian wine journalism. But if you're not Italian, you may have no idea of what they mean.

Traditional, as you might guess, is a wine made from varietals traditional to the area in which it is produced, say Sangiovese and Canaiolo for a Chianti Classico, or Barbera, Dolcetto, or Nebbiolo for a wine from Piemonte's Langhe.

The differences begin in the vineyard, with the harvesting: Everybody aims for top quality fruit, but traditional producers are not as likely to overripen their grapes, at least not intentionally (in a very hot year it will happen) -- many keep an eye on grape sugar levels, and when they reach the point that will give a wine of x percent alcohol, they harvest.

After harvesting the grapes are fermented, either in steel tanks, cement vats, or upright wooden containers, with temperature control to keep the must from getting too hot if the winery has it, and most now do, and pumpovers (when the must is pumped over the cap of grape skins and such that rises to the top of the tank during fermentation) or pushdowns (when the cap is pushed into the must) to increase extraction.

Following fermentation a simple wine of the kind to be released young is kept in tank (steel or cement) for a time prior to bottling, while more complex wines are aged in botti, which are large casks (high hundreds to thousands of liters), generally made of Slavonian oak. The young wines don't have any oak at all, while the more complex wines, e.g. Barolo, Brunello, or Amarone have comparatively little, because the surface area of the cask is small with respect to the volume it contains. In other words, there won't be much in the way of vanilla/cedar aromas on the nose, and in terms of color the wine will be fairly pale, and tending towards garnet -- no poured ink. On the palate it will be fruity, with lively red berry fruit and (perhaps) quite a bit of acidity, while the tannins will be from grape, and will be lively in youth, tending towards velvet with time. Not much in the way of pencil shavings nor cedar in the aftertaste, which will likely be fruit driven.

In a nutshell, with respect to the international style, traditional wines tend to be brighter, with more marked acidities, fruit that's ripe, but not overripe unless the vintage was very hot, and have more aggressive tannins, especially when young. Problems? One is determining what is a traditional varietal. In most of Italy, if you mention Cabernet or Merlot, people will nod and say, "French." And they are, but the farmers of Carmignano, outside Florence, began working with Cabernet in 1720, while the vineyards around Lucca are full of cuttings -- Syrah, among others -- brought home by merchants in the 1800s.The situation is similar in many parts of northern Italy, where foreign varietals were introduced more than a century ago. Vines that have been in an area for this long have become, as far as I'm concerned, local.

The other problem that can arise with traditional wines is an attachment on the part of the winemaker to equipment that is, yes, traditional, but also just plain old. Specifically, though botti, the big oak casks, have a much longer lifespan than the small oak barrels used by the modernisti, they do eventually reach a point where they begin to impart off aromas and flavors, what are known as puzzette (little stinks). A stink is a stink, and not a tradition, but you still can come across traditional wines aged in casks that should have been changed long ago. Fortunately they're not as common as they once were.

Wines of the international style, which is also referred to as "moderno" by some journalists, much more closely resemble the wines made elsewhere in the world -- Bordeaux, California, South America, and also Australia, and were indeed introduced in the 60s and 70s in large part to appeal to international markets. At least that was the initial goal; now they enjoy a great following in Italy too.

With respect to traditional wines, international wines differ in a number of respects. One of the most important is the varietal makeup; whereas traditional wines are made from varietals that have long been grown in a given area, international wines often contain significant percentages of newly introduced French varietals, in particular Cabernet and Merlot, though now people are also working with other varietals, including Syrah, Petit Verdot, and Pinot Noir. Some appellations, for example Chianti Classico, allow the inclusion of French varietals, while others do not; in many areas where the primary appellation doesn't allow them, there will be a catchall appellation that does, e.g. Langhe DOC for the Barolo-Barbaresco area, or Sant'Antimo for Montalcino.

The other major difference between the traditional and international styles is wood use, and indeed the use of small oak -- 225 liter French barrels, called barriques -- in many ways defines the international style: the surface area of the barrel is large with respect to the volume of wine it contains, and as a result the wood has a tremendous impact upon the wine, imparting vanilla and cedar aromas, stabilizing color, which tends to be darker and more purple, and smoothing the wine, providing velvety tannins that have cedar or vanilla overtones, while also reducing the overall acidity.

With respect to traditional wines international wines tend to be richer, softer, smoother, and thus more approachable. They also tend to be less unique, because the wood, unless it is very deftly used, acts as an equalizer, smoothing the wine over and giving it something in common with all the other wines in the world that are aged in small oak barrels.

This is of course the goal behind the style, but is also the reason that as you drink more Italian wine you may find your preference shifting from the international style (if that's what you start with) to the more traditional style: there's more to discover in the traditional wines, where the grapes are going it solo, and in doing so revealing aspects of their varietal character and the terroir that produced them, rather than performing a duet with oak. In short, though there are some notable exceptions to this generalization, traditional wines tend to have more character. Because of this, though there are international style wines I greatly enjoy drinking, I tend to prefer the traditional style, and have more traditional than international bottles in my cellar.

This time's proverb is Piemontese: Chi veul savei la vrita' c'a i ciama a i ciuch e a le masna' -- He who would know the truth should ask drunks or children.

Kyle Phillips
Editor, The Italian Wine Review
http://www.italianwinereview.com