.“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)
Ingredients:
1 chicken weighing about 1 kg;
one bottle of Montecarlo Bianco wine;
one 400 g (approx.) bunch of Trebbiano Toscano grapes;
a little podere cinnamon;
3 glasses of brandy, salt, pepper, a little white flour, some bay leale.
Marinade the grapes in the brandy and cinnamon.
Place the grapes inside the chicken and close the opening. Add salt and pepper and brown the chicken in a saucepan with the bay leale.
When it is well browned, add a glass of wine and continue to cook for about 40 minutes in the oven.
Baste woth glasses of wine to keep it moist.
Carve, place on a serving dish and surround it with the grapes and sauce made by adding the flour and glass of wine to the coking juices.
Ingredients for 4 people:
8 slices of thinly sliced day old tuscan bread, 1 garlic clove, extra virgin oil, salt and pepper, 2 chopped ripe tomatoes (optional).
Lightly toast the bread under the grill (or on the BBQ), rub each slice with garlic and arrange on a service plate, sprinkle some salt and pepper on top and coat with extra virgin oil, oil add the tometoes.
Serve warm.
