Magnets on a Fridge #6 - Spring edition
A random collection of links, books, and recipes
Tommaso suggested I called this collection of links and reads Magnets on a Fridge, as when we want to remember something, we pin it to our fridge, along with magnets bought during our holidays, Livia’s drawings from pre-school, and my reliable recipe for farro pancakes. You can read the previous issues here.
So welcome to the sixth issue of Magnets on a Fridge, a random collection of things worth reading/cooking.
In the past months, we have met 170 people during our cooking classes, we’ve made several kilos of homemade pasta, and we taught our classes to guests coming from the United States, Germany, Holland, Japan, Canada, and Australia.
The most appreciated newsletters have been:
What it means to go dairy-free for an Italian (that would be me)
Thoughts on Seasonality, and Olivia Cavalli's cookbook "Stagioni"
We hosted two Italian Cookbook Club authors:
And now, let’s start, I collected something to share with you. This will be a long list, so get comfortable and enjoy reading!
Something to listen to
I love every single episode of gilly smith’s Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith. I so appreciated her talk with Georgina Hayden about her book, Greekish, that I bought it immediately.
I am a long-time listener of Radio Cherry Bombe, as I find all their guests and conversations inspiring and entertaining. I especially loved the latest episode with Rebekah Peppler about her life-changing move to France and her latest cookbook Le Sud, which went straight into my to-read list. Two recent conversations with Giada De Laurentiis and Nadia Caterina Munno, aka The Pasta Queen, gave me so much to reflect on about the way Italian food is portrayed and who are the storytellers of Italian cuisine in the United States.
I had so much fun talking with Nicki Sizemore about my recently discovered lactose intolerance and my new dairy-free diet, and life. Talking with her, I also realized how empowering this decision has been and how much it helped me to reshape my identity as a food writer, recipe developer, and cooking class instructor. You can listen to the conversation here: Navigating Food Sensitivities, Identity and Health.
Two favorite newsletters on Substack
Two of my friends and colleagues moved their newsletters to Substack recently, and I am so happy to introduce them to the best community of Italian food lovers.
Taste of Liguria, written by Enrica Monzani, cookbook author, cooking class teacher, and food tour leader in Genoa and Liguria. If you plan to go to Liguria or Cinque Terre, and crave first-hand insider information on where to go and what to eat, or if you love the vegetable-forward Genoese cuisine, this is the newsletter for you. Want an example of her writing? Read Cinque Terre, beyond the ordinary.
Spaghetti ABC, written by Flavia Giordano, cookbook author, food educator, and certified taster in Puglia. After 8 years in Sweden, Flavia moved back to Puglia and is eager to introduce you to the real flavors and tastes of her home region. Want an example? Read In Puglia, cooking is easier.
Subscribers-Only May Cook-Along
We will meet SUNDAY, MAY 19th at 9.00 pm CET - 3.00 pm EST - 12.00 pm PST. We will be making cavatelli and orecchiette from scratch, and we will talk about the many uses of semolina flour: if you buy it specifically for this recipe, you’ll discover how many uses it has, from cakes to pasta to gnocchi. I’ll also suggest you the best sauces to dress this easy, delicious, fun pasta from the South of Italy.
Chatting and cooking together during our live Sunday events is the closest thing to joining me in one of our cooking classes in our studio in the Tuscan countryside: you will be able to ask all the questions you want, have a close look at how I shape the pasta into cavatelli and orecchiette, and you’ll be surrounded by other people having fun together, a supportive community of pasta lovers.
Paid subscribers will receive the recording of the live event the following Monday.
Click the post to get the recipes and the link to join (paywalled).
Orecchiette and Cavatelli
Here’s the recipe we will be making SUNDAY, MAY 19th at 9.00 pm CET - 3.00 pm EST - 12.00 pm PST. Make ahead of our Cook-Along: Read through the recipe below to make sure you have all the ingredients and equipment required. Prepare the mise-en-place, that is: measure all the ingredients in separate bowls and have them ready near your workspace.
Upgrade your subscription and you will get access to a full back catalogue of exclusive recipes and all the past recordings of our live events.
This is an event designed for those who subscribed to Letters from Tuscany: we’re slowly building friendships and shared memories and having lots of fun!
Watch the past cook-alongs here:
Favorite dishes during the Spring classes
Here you can find some of the recipes we’ve been cooking in recent classes, something you could replicate at home for a late Spring gathering:
Spring panzanella. I tossed the diced stale bread with salt and pepper and browned it in a large skillet, adding at the very end a good handful of fresh spring vegetables. Drizzle with your best extra virgin olive oil and a dash of honey vinegar for a flavorful seasonal dish.
Warm Spring vegetable salad. This is a warm Spring vegetable salad, made with artichokes, fava beans, and asparagus, served with grilled pecorino cheese, a slice of toasted bread, and a lemony citronette.
Potato and asparagus tortelli. A dairy-free version of plump, stuffed pasta parcels: tortelli with a filling of potatoes and asparagus, and plenty of fresh herbs and lemon zest.
Stewed artichokes. Instead of stuffing the artichokes with pancetta and garlic, we often leave them whole and place them upside down in the pot. Be heavy-handed with herbs and olive oil, that’s the secret to a successful dish.
Strawberry Tiramisù. If a tiramisù and the lemon and sugar marinated strawberries of my childhood had a baby, it would be this strawberry tiramisù.
Strawberry olive oil cake. Learn to make the olive oil cake and you’ll have a dairy-free cake in your cooking repertoire to bake through the seasons. Make it seasonal by adding fresh fruit to it: crisp apples in the fall, the zest and juice of an orange in winter, roasted strawberries in spring, and juicy nectarines in the summer.
Cooking Experiences in Tuscany with us
Do you know we also offer in-person cooking classes and edible experiences in Tuscany? Our calendar is slowly filling up, almost 400 people have already booked a class this year, and there are only a few openings left for the summer.
Every meal will be an excuse to travel through Tuscany thanks to local recipes, memories, and stories. Learn more about our cooking classes here.
We also launched our 3-day Seasonal Cooking Masterclass, for a deep dive into Italian cuisine.
These masterclasses are thought to highlight the seasonality of local produce, recipes, food traditions, and cultural habits. Learn more about the Three-day Masterclass here.
2024 Masterclass Dates
19-21 June 2024[SOLD OUT]25-26 September 2024[SOLD OUT]13-15 November 2024 – [6 spots left]
11-13 December 2024 – [6 spots left]
In November we will feast on Fall products—porcini, squash, chestnuts—and we will bake pan co’ Santi, the local sweet bread studded with walnuts and raisins. In December it will be about Christmas, so we will work on a Christmas Tuscan menu, and we will bake the typical Sienese treats, from panforte to ricciarelli and cavallucci.
This was such a delightful read, thank you for all the great reading and listening recommendations!
Great list. Yes! The way Italian food is portrayed in non Italian cinema is an interesting notion. Recently I attended a lecture about food as politics in the Montalbano series and it was a fun eye opener because Inspector Montalbano is very Sicilian and so is the food he eats. His girlfriend, from the north, is depicted as a terrible cook, not necessarily because she can't cook, but because she cooks food from the north which, to a Sicilian, is not worth wasting calories on, lol!