Italian Immigrant Cooking, Football (Soccer) and More: Being the 150th issue of Cosa Bolle in Pentola

Greetings, and I'm sorry to (again) be late with this: last week I was in Alba for Alba Wines, the annual Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero presentation. Since it is news, a few quick thoughts about the vintages:

Roero was the 2005, and presented us with little to go on, because the appellation has just achieved DOCG status, and many producers have decided to hold off until next year when they can put fascette (the pink or green -- depending upon the color of the wine -- paper strips affixed to the necks of DOCG bottles) on their bottles. In all there were 11 Roero samples ranging in style from fairly traditional to decidedly modern. Some were good and others less so, but I'd want more samples before I tried to conclude much about the vintage because the variations could producer-related.

We had more than 50 2005 Barbareschi, and this is a sufficient number to draw some conclusions. I came away with the impression that 2005 in Piemonte was similar to 2005 in Tuscany: a chiazze di leopardo, in other words like a leopard's spots, with location having a much greater impact on quality than it does in some years.

In particular, though I did find some good wines from the Communes of Barbaresco and Neive, many were lacking in fruit and acidity, with oak stepping in to provide direction, fullness and structure in a way that wouldn't be necessary in a richer vintage, and I found myself wondering if the conditions had been as cool and wet in these two communes during the summer of 2005 as they were in my neck of Chianti. As is often the case under these sorts of conditions, producers who tried to make Important Wines (including many top producers who are usually quite dependable) were less successful than those who accepted the hand Nature dealt them and made wines in a lesser-vintage key.

Conditions were better, I think, in the Commune of Treiso. At least the wines were better, with richer fruit and more pleasant acidities that allowed the wood to settle back into the supporting rule that it should play. I confess to feeling quite relieved by the better quality of the Treiso wines, and several colleagues I talked with said the same thing.

Bottom line for the 2005 Barbaresco: It's a vintage to be approached with caution, and the provenance of the wine is much more important than it was, for example, in 2004.

2004 brings us to Barolo.
In one word, impressive, and I found wines worthy of note in all the Communes of the appellation. As was the case with Barbaresco, there were considerable differences from Commune to Commune. The wines of Barolo, which often stumble with respect to the others, were quite nice this time, with lively aggressive wines blessed with considerable acidity, and while they were very unsettled last week, they have the legs to age quite well and do very interesting things with time. I was also pleasantly impressed by the wines of both Verduno and Novello.

The wines of Castilgione Falletto were (I thought) a bit weaker, and there was less that really grabbed and held my interest, though we are to a degree picking nits here.

Monforte also showed less well, with wines that seemed somewhat unsettled, and while this may mean greater power that needs more time to come together, it could also mean that the weather wasn't quite as nice.

Serralunga was also a bit of a surprise for me; the Commune is known for producing the most powerful Barolo, but there were a fair number of wines that were softer, riper and less acidic than I might have expected of a young Barolo, and since 2004 wasn't a vintage plagued by overripening, I can only conclude that this soft ripeness is a conscious stylistic decision on the part of the winemakers. One that I don't agree with, because though the wines are approachable now, I wonder how long they will age and how they will develop given their softness and relatively low acidities.

Finally, La Morra showed very well, especially the wines from L'Annunziata, a vineyard-draped hollow below La Morra. Wines to think about, seek out, and set aside.

Bottom line: I don't often give 90 points at a vintage presentation, especially not to wines that are very young and not really ready yet (if I give a toddler 93 now, what do I give it when it has improved markedly, coming into glorious adulthood a few years from now -- 102?), but I found a number of 2004 Barolos worth 90 points or above already, and with time many of these wines will be spellbinding. A memorable vintage indeed, well worth seeking out, I think many of the wines will age well for decades.

Italian Immigrant Cooking Revisited: Chicken and Other Things

Moving in a very different direction, when I heard Francesco Nardi would be roasting a piglet in a wood-fired oven and that I could take pictures, I jumped at the opportunity, especially when he said they'd also be making focaccia (just posted a series of photos illustrating focaccia, while the piglet is here).

When I drove up to the villa, however, the first thing I saw was a 2-foot in diameter, shallow iron bowl (for want of a better term) sitting on what looked like the legs of a trivet, above a busily burning logwood fire.

"Not mine," Francesco said when I shot him an inquiring glance. "His," and he indicated George (I'm not sure how it's spelled), a Rumanian farmhand who helps Francesco tend to vineyards and olive groves, and lives on the estate with his family. "It's something farmers do in Romania."

Upon closer examination I realized one would have to be a farmer to cook this way, because the disk, which is about a half an inch thick and has serrated teeth, came from an old disk plow, and what looked like a trivet was actually three legs made by sawing up a half-inch thick iron rod and welding the pieces to the underside of the disk.

George had taken a large piece of fresh pork side (what becomes pancetta when cured) and scored it in one direction, making parallel cuts about a half-inch apart and almost all the way down to the rind. He then turned the pork side 90 degrees and cut ti into inch-wide strips, and set the strips on the hot disk, where they began to smoke and give off quite a bit of fat.

While they were rendering, his wife brought out a bowl filled with chicken pieces -- it looked like they had chopped up at least two birds -- that she had liberally seasoned with salt, pepper, and paprika (and perhaps hot pepper -- there were red flakes) and then rolled in coarse corn meal so they would form a crisp crust.

George arranged the chicken pieces in a ring around the disk, leaving the middle free. He then took a cup of lard, dribbled it into the center of the disk, where it formed a pool of hot fat, and when he added a bowl of home-cut fries, I realized why the chicken pieces ringed the middle of the disk.

The coals continued to heat from below, and he used a pair of tongs to turn the pieces, and also to stir the fries around so they cooked evenly. At some point during this phase he removed the strips of pork side, which had curled some, and now resembled strips of zipper teeth, salted them, and set them aside, putting a large piece of turkey where they had been.

Another few minutes, turning the fries occasionally, and when they were done and removed, he shifted the pieces of meat down into the fat to finish up their cooking by frying them. By the time he removed the pieces, about 45 minutes after having set them on the disk, they were a pretty golden brown.

I had never seen anything remotely like this, and though Francesco's sister Francesca, who is a GP, shook her head in horror at the thought of how much cholesterol and fat the Romanian Sunday meal entailed, I found it fascinating, and a testament to human ingenuity: With the simplest of tools -- a fire, tongs, and a shallow steel bowl -- these people had cooked what looked to be a very tasty meal.

This is something most people could not eat every day -- it's a high energy meal that will take quite a bit of exercise to work off, and one's cholesterol count must be able to take a hard shot -- but it is a very interesting example of immigrant cooking, with the tables reversed: Rather than the Italians who traveled elsewhere bringing their recipes with them, here we have people coming to Italy to do things Italians are no longer willing to do, and bringing their dishes and techniques with them.

Want to try this? Unless you have access to old farm machinery and are handy with a welding torch or arc welder I doubt you will be able to duplicate the bowl Geroge cooked with. However, one could achieve something similar with a pair of trivets and two cast iron skillets, one for the pork side and initial chicken cooking, and the other for the lard and potatoes. Something decidedly alternative that will turn heads at your next cookout. And what did they drink with it? Beer.

Fragole al Marsala, o All'Aceto Balsamico
Artery-Hardening Chicken not your thing? We're also in strawberry season, and while Italians generally season (for want of a better term) bowls of strawberries with sugar and either white wine or lemon juice, one can use other things.

Marsala, for example:
1 1/8 pounds (500 g) strawberries, washed, drained, hulled, and quartered
1 1/2 cups (150 g) powdered sugar
1 cup (250 ml) dry Marsala
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Put the strawberries in a bowl, sprinkle the vinegar over them, turn them to coat them well, cover the bowl, and chill it in the refrigerator for an hour.
In the meantime, combine the Marsala and the sugar, and stir until the sugar has completely dissolved.

Sprinkle the Marsala over the strawberries, mix gently, and chill the strawberries for another hour before serving them. Will serve 4.

Or Aceto Balsamico:
1 1/8 pounds (500 g) strawberries, washed, drained, hulled, and quartered
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar

Put the strawberries in a bowl, sprinkle the balsamic vinegar over them, mix gently, and chill them for 15 minutes. Gently mix the sugar into them and serve. Will serve 4.

Inter Campioni!
Winding down, the soccer season has come to a close, with Inter Milano winning the championship for the third year in a row, though this time they had to sweat it -- Roma trailed by a point at the beginning of the last game, and was actually Campione Virtuale for an hour, because they scored before Inter did during the last game.

This time's proverb is Neapolitan: A ppava' e a mmuri', quanno cchiù tarde è pussìbbele - Pay, and die, as late as possible.

Until next time,

Kyle Phillips
Editor, The Italian Wine Review
http://www.italianwinereview.com
Want to comment? Drop me a line at Kyle@cosabolle.com

PS -- Please forward this to anyone you think would enjoy it! If you would like to read past issues (nothing in them really gets stale), you'll find recent ones at Cosa Bolle.Com, http://www.cosabolle.com, and older ones at http://italianfood.about.com/blbol.htm.