Goodbye, February
In January we celebrated the pantry, and it gave us the chance to cook a Neapolitan classic, pasta alla puttanesca, a Southern-inspired onion strudel, and the Florentine rice fritters, Tommaso’s favourite Carnival treats.
For the new column Other people’s pantries, a new series of Q&A with a focus on pantries as a privileged way to get into people’s lives, cooking styles, and favourite recipes, I interviewed my friend Vea from Mas del Saro. You can read the interview here.
We finished the cookbook shootings, now there are just a couple of outdoor photos left (yay).
You can listen to an interview I did for Untold Italy Podcast here. We talked about my favourite Spring recipes and ingredients in Tuscany.
Livia tasted her first rice fritter and played for the first time with Carnival confetti.
I joined Alissa Timoshkina, Zuza Zak and Olia Hercules in their #CookForUkraine project, a UK-based fundraising page for donations to UNICEF Ukraine. You can support the cause by cooking Ukrainian recipes and sharing them on Social Media using the hashtag #CookForUkraine. Read more about it here.
How was your February?
Welcome, March
I used to say that winter was my favourite season, but I might have changed my mind.
When Livia comes back from nursery school around 5 pm, there’s still light outside: it gives an immediate sense of hope and freedom. She runs to the chicken coop and begs my mum to go check if there’s an egg (uouo). Then, she performs all her rituals: a walk among the olive trees, some time spent staring at the chickens, she plays the drums on the faded green corrugated iron hut with the garden tools, then she runs to say hi to my grandma, frantically looking for her black cat.
I see Spring in my girl, I smell Spring in her hair, I recognize Spring in her enthusiasm for small discoveries, daisies, and strawberries.
Despite the longest winter ever (at least in my perception), the disheartening news, the market stalls still crammed with cauliflowers, broccoli, and kale, Spring is fast approaching.
My parents started working in the garden again, planning the new season, and I’m waiting for the first calmer day to go through all my herbs and berry bushes, pruning the dry branches, making room for Spring.
Every morning, when I open the door, I exchange a knowing glance with my lemon balm tree, with the raspberry bushes, with the wilted sage: hold on, I’m coming to the rescue.
It is a silent promise, it’s a passage ritual that archives winter and welcomes the new season. And there isn’t a better place to do this than kneeled down in the grass with your hands in the soil.
Ingredient-wise, March is a challenging month.
Don’t trust the blooming almond tree, or the young wheat blades illuminating the hills with vibrant green. Don’t even trust your cravings for a fresh, green fare. Nights are still freezing, and spring vegetables are still rare and expensive on the market stalls.
I get tempted by the first agretti. The leaves of agretti look like chives, they have a succulent texture which gives a nice crunch when eaten raw. They have a salty, mineral, slightly lemony flavour, similar to spinach.
As Frances Mayes describes them, they are full of the energy of spring.
But most of all are the strawberries that are calling my name. There’s a variety from Basilicata - my nonno’s region in the South of Italy - called Candonga, that is ready on the market in early Spring: these strawberries are large, crisp, juicy, with an intoxicating smell, the first taste of spring.
I’ll slowly introduce my favourite Spring vegetables in our meals through the month of March, and I’ll get ready to cook the Tuscan soup that for me is the perfect celebration of the seasonal produce, garmugia.
Is there something you are really looking forward to cooking?
March will be dedicated to colourful fresh pasta
To celebrate Spring and its colours, to keep our hands and our minds busy, to work some magic in the kitchen, we chose to dedicate March to colourful fresh pasta.
We will add some colour - and extra taste - to silky sheets of fresh egg pasta using natural ingredients, we will play with shapes, fillings, and dressing. Get ready to crack tons of eggs, to knead mounds of flour, and to crank our pasta machines to roll our paper-thin sheets of bright coloured pasta.
We will have fun, and we will give our minds some rest.
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What you missed recently: Florentine rice fritters, Pasta alla puttanesca, Ciaccino with ham and mozzarella, Leek and potato soup, Pittule salentine.
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Ten recipes to cook this month
Garmugia, Spring soup from Lucca. Unlike many other recipes of Tuscan Cucina povera, this soup belongs to the cuisine of the noble class: in the garmugia, there are the first vegetables of the season, but also pancetta and ground beef. This is the best example of micro-seasonality, with ingredients that appear together on the market stalls only for a few days.
Spaghetti with agretti, burrata and anchovies. The simplest spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino, spaghetti tossed with garlicky olive oil and chilly pepper, are a decent meal on their own. Add agretti and you can turn this evergreen first course into a Spring meal. Anchovies are probably one of the ingredients that best complement agretti, so be generous with them.
Pasta with arugula pesto. You can use this arugula pesto also to dress boiled vegetables, or to spread on bread, topping it with a hard-boiled egg and an anchovy for a mouthwatering appetiser or for the simplest frugal meal.
Tuna and pecorino stuffed artichokes. Garlic and parsley are necessary for the taste, tuna has to be of good quality, breadcrumbs are better when home-made, you can’t be stingy with olive oil and grated pecorino. Wedges of potatoes must be abundant, soft on the inside, golden and crisp on the outside.
Risotto stuffed artichokes. You’ll be amazed by the taste of this risotto, which, by the way, could be even served as it is. A cup of good Arborio rice, a few fillets of anchovies – preserved in oil or brined, this is up to you – a wedge of a thinly sliced white onion and an energetic stirring turn three daily ingredients into a risotto with the taste of sea breeze and holidays.
Omelette with artichokes. I used the omelette as a soft wrap and filled it with stewed wedges of artichokes and cubes of Tuscan pecorino, slightly melting from the heat.
Insalata di Caterina, a renaissance salad. This recipe is known also as shepherd’s misticanza, where misticanza means a mixed salad of wild herbs such as sow-thistle, terracrepolo, ceciarello, burnet, barba di cappuccino, chicory, lettuce, dandelion, raperonzolo and wild rocket. This is what you can usually find on farmers’ market stalls these days, or directly in the fields if you know where to forage for them.
Florentine quaresimali. These are local Lent biscuits made with egg whites, sugar and flour, with the addition of hazelnuts and cocoa, orange zest and, sometimes, a pinch of cinnamon. They take the shape of letters of the alphabet, they have a glossy surface and are cracked and rough underneath.
Raspberry ricotta cake. It is a modest cake which you can make without effort: it takes two bowls and a wooden spoon or a whisk. It is moist and fluffy, spiked with berries, the ideal start for the next morning, whether it will be quiet, accompanied by a book and a cup of tea, or on the run, with one foot already outside your house, drinking an espresso standing in your kitchen.
My grandma’s choux pastries. Her choux pastries are made with olive oil, instead of butter. Since I’ve grown up with their flavour, I find it just perfect, even more than butter, because it adds that subtle extra-fruity aroma that makes you ask for a second serving, and a third one… Paired with a thick lemon custard they are just the perfect afternoon treat.