Pork tenderloin with balsamic vinegar and baked radicch
Ingredients (serves 4)
. A fillet of pork of about 600/800 g
. A marinade consisting of: 1 peeled lemon cut into slòices, 1 carrot, 1 stick of celery and 1 onion chopped together, a piece of cinnamon, a spring of thyme, 6/7 grains of coriander , a glasso f wine, half a cupo f cognac, half a cupo f ordinary balsamic vinegar, and a tablespoon of white vi negar
. 2 large balls of red radicchio
. extra virgin olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, half a teaspoon of corn flour (cornstarch)
Method
Dip the fillet in the marinade, and leave in a cool place for 24 hours turining it occasionally. Then remove in from the marinade and wrap in paper towels to dry for a few hours.
Remove the lemon, then place the marinade on the heat, reducing by half. Pour through a strainer pressing well to extract all the flavour from the vegetables. Add salt and pepper.
In a good size non stick pan, heat 30 g of butter with one tablespoons for 8 to 10 minutes, and add salt and pepper. Remove from the heat. Dissolve half a teaspoons of corn flour mix in three tablespoons of cold water, and when it is dissolved pour in the hot marinade, stiri t and leave it to thicken. Meanwhile, heat the grill, remove the outer leale from radicchio balls, wash, dry well and cut into quarters, lay them in a newly oiled non-stick pan, add salt and coock under the grill until they are well roasted.
Cut the tenderloin into slices one inch thick and place on a flat dish spread with the hot sauce. Serve with the roasted radicchio dressed with a little oil, and the remaing sauce.
I’ve always loved the Christmas Holidays both here and in the U.S. I have to admit, however, that in Italy there’s a much more festive feeling for a longer period and so many more traditions.
There are two i’d like to mention. One is the live Nativity representation in Barga on December 23 and one, more falily oriented, is making the coockies called befanotti, wich the Befana gives to children who’ve been “good” during the year. If they haven’t, they get charcoal.
The Nativity representation in Barga take place every year on December 23 starting after 9 p.m. It takes place trhough Barga’s lovely historic center and ends at the cathedral at about midnight when the bells ring out announcing the birth of baby Jesus. Everyone follows the two people representing Joseph and mary as they walk from hostelry to hosterly aking if there is room in the inn for them. Jospeh and mary are enacted by a young couple from the town. They are, of course dressed in period costumes and i have to say how well made the are. People follow them and the donkey and as they walk through the town, they can watch various crafts being dine by carpenters, shoemakers and weavers, al dressed in period costumes. Of course there are people roasting chestnuts over an open fire, making sausages and also the pancakes called necci and frittelle which are made from chestnut flour.
Nothing isa charged for. You are only asked to make a small offering to cover the expenses of organizing suach am important event.
Making befanotti i san important family tradition, especially for those living in the villages in the mountains. These are a kind of butter cookie made in various shake such as the Befana, animals, stars and trees. The Befana then distributes them through the village on the eve of the Epiphany.
.“Dried cannellini” beans 200 gr.
. Fresh porcini mushrooms if is possible from Garfagnana 200 gr.
. 2 small potatoes
. 4 garlic cloves
. A bunch of fresh nipitella (herb similar to majoram and mint, very popular in Tuscany)
. 4 cups of meath broth
. Salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil,, parsley soak the beans in salted water for 24 hours.
Change the water and boil the beans with two garlic cloves and two peeled potatoes, until they are tender. (For best result with this recipe: cook at minimum heat after boiling starts, and add the salt at the end of coking. I twill take more than one hour).
Save half of the beans and whisk the others together with the garlic, the potatoes and the broth.
Carefully clean the mushrooms, cut them in pieces or thick slices.
In a large pan, fry two chopped garlic cloves in oil until light gold, add the nipitella leale and the mushrooms, cook for ten minutes.
Pour the saved beans and the mushrooms into the whiskey beans and potatoes, boil for two or three minutes and serve, hot, with freshly minced parsley, black pepper from the grinder and an excellent extra virgin olive oil.
Again i want to remind everyone that there isa a free lending library in Lucca!
Yes i know you can’t believe it but it’s true, and it’s been there since 2005. I’d like to invite everyone who is interested to use the “melograno Lending Library” part of the local circoscrizione library situated in San leonardo in Treponzio which ha san extensive section dedicated to books in English started in february 2005.
The books at the library are all donations and there are almost 1400, mostly fiction and biographies as well as dvd’s and VHS in english and many italian books. It works as a regular library does. Borrowing books is free and they can be kept for up to a month. Many of us expats are using its services but we would like to see an increase. Feel free to bring in any books you would like to donate.
See bottom of article for opening hours and address! Activities are occasionally organized at the library in english, thanksgiving dinners, wine tasting etc.
Again for the fith year we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving thursday November 26th with all the traditional trimings at the restaurant L a Cantina di Alfredo in Colognora di Compito.
Come on, admit it, British bread is much better than this Italian stuf…
On a recent trip to the UK, i finally found something that i mis; it’s a nice fresh soft load of Mother’s Pride from the local supermarket.
Processed food, probably filled with all kinds of weird modified, life-threatening chemicals, but doesn’t it taste good? It makes perfect toast, lightly grilled with butter or, better still, a real treat with the centre pulled out and rolled into a ball in the palmo f your hands and then eaten in one mouthful. Delicious. It i salso a really good way of clearing your hands. Admittley, your local branch of Sainsbury’s or Waitrose is more likely to be offering French baguette or Italian ciabatta but at least you can still buy unhealthy bread in Britain if you go to the right places. You can even geti t in restaurants. Well, i say reastaurants but you know what i mean, those places where you can get a real English breakfast anytime of day.
Actually, Eglish breakfast is another thing i miss, but i’ll tray and stay focussed on the bread. On my recent trip, i was reminded that Englsh breakfast even comes served with a dollop of brown sauce, unless you are really quick and stop them, but who is that together at 8 am after the insanely early Pisa_Liverpool Ryanair flight? But then who said there is no remaining traditional colour in the UK? An equivalent activity in one of the villeges of the Garfagnana Valley would have us all trekking up there in search of some local caracter and maybe a glass of grappa as we head for the door. But try buying a grappa anywhere else in the world but Italy and you will run into problems there must be a reason for that? Sorry, i am getting diverted again.
Sure, you can get approximations of soft bread in Italy. Conad makes one which isn’t bad when it is fresh. Giusti’s, the excellent bread shop in Lucca, however, singularly, fails to come up to the mark in the field of unhealty processed bread, in spite of being an otherwise impressive operation.
Just off Piazza San Michele, i have never seen such a popular shop. It can be quicker getting served in the bank than buying your daily bread from them. They have an unusual queuing method where everyone who arrives after you seems to get served first.
But i suppose it at least helps you learn to mix it with the locals; either that or starve. They also have unusual names for the bread, boy Scouts? Militari? What is that all about? Give me a couple of baps every time.
But their bread is admittedly excellent; crusty, fresh, tasty, it even has salt in it. And Giusti’s flour is a prime ingredient, brought in fresh from the wheat fields of the Padana river basin, or somewhere, and lovingly prepared by committed professionals. Just think of a Mulino Bianco advert to get the full effect of the image i am trying to create here. You know the thing, crusty bread with rich green olive oil dripping down your chin as you take a bite, sorrounded by laughing children and old folk gathered around the farmhouse table.
So what is my problem? Why the login for the processed aquidgy stuff which is about as good for you as a dose of Swine Flu?
I’m not saying that Mother’s Pride is a real alternative to fresh Lucchese bread. Even if it does fit in the toaster it still doesn’t absorb the olive oil. I’ve tried; it still doesn’t absorb the olive oil. I’ve tried; it all just drips off leaving the bread completely unmarked.
So iìm not really sure where the login for nasty processed British bread comes from and what it says about my mental health. But it is there so i guess it is just something i need to deal with and try to accept what is probably obvious to all for you: That you cannot really compare production line bread with something produced by an artisan. It is like comparing a Ford Focus with a Ferrari.
But then again, which one would you choose if you actually needed to drive somewhere? (Mauro Vincent)
