BRONTE TRUFFLES

I enjoyed the joyful BBC series Sweets Made Simple and wish they would bring it back. Perhaps the recipe which most impressed me with its genius and simplicity was the one for gin and lime truffles. I wanted to try it, but unfortunately I can't drink alcohol any more as it's incompatible with my medication. I don't let this stop me sloshing wine into my casseroles or Maraschino into my "tipsy cake" but I was scared I'd find a bottle of gin in the house too much temptation!

This, then, is my take on the truffles and I really want to thank Miss Kitty Hope and Mr Greenwood for the inspiration and especially for pointing out that you can roll truffles in any coating you want. I don't think I'd have thought of the pistacchi otherwise! As I've mentioned before, Bronte near Catania is the pistacchio town and you may be interested to read of its connections with a certain British admiral and of his possible link with three very famous British sisters.

Modican chocolate and lime truffles

100 gr chocolate, broken up - I used half cioccolato fondente [dark chocolate] and half cinnamon-flavoured Modican chocolate
2 tablesp panna da montare if you are in Italy, or double or whipping cream [but don't whip it!]
zest of 1 lime and juice of 2
50 gr unsalted butter in pieces
farina di pistacchi - very finely chopped pistacchi - to coat the truffles

First I must confess that I've lost my double boiler so I decided to melt the chocolate in the microwave:  if you are going to do this, put it in a small Pyrex-style basin with the cream and microwave for 2 minutes on medium low [but keep an eye on it - your microwave may be more powerful than mine.] Give it a good stir.

Add the pieces of butter and stir well to melt.

Add the lime zest and juice and stir till mixed. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, scoop out coffee-spoonfuls of the mixture and roll into balls. Put on a tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate again for about an hour.

Now roll the truffles in the chopped pistacchi, known as farina di pistacchio [pistacchio flour] here.

Even without the gin, I think these taste quite exciting!

A SONG OF HOME

It all started when, in response to this post, I was contacted by Maggie Ayre of the BBC. To be honest, at first I thought it was probably someone "having a laugh", as the British say, but I googled Maggie and found that she really was a BBC radio producer! I emailed her as requested, then she called me here and we talked about the Welsh song, Myfanwy.

Maggie explained to me that, in a news programme, people will put up with audio that is not of the highest quality because they understand that it cannot always be delivered, but in a radio feature programme, where there is obviously no visual backup, they will not. Therefore, she asked me if I knew of a studio where the recording of my contribution could be done. I didn't, but a student of mine did, and he kindly took me to a private studio owned by a friend of his in Scicli. No landline was available to us there so our next problem was possible interference on the mobile line but we got over this with the help of my student, who took the phone from my hands and dashed with it to the door before I answered each question. It was a bit of a performance but the studio owner knew what he was doing and was able to send Maggie a perfect audio file.

Now the BBC Radio iplayer link is up on the Soul Music programme website and, if you missed my minute of glory this morning, you will be able to hear it, for a while, by clicking the link. 

I am proud to have been interviewed on the same programme as Welsh singer Cerys Matthews and others to whom the song means so much. I love Cerys's version and here it is in full:

Cerys Matthews - Myfanwy

IF YOU'VE A MINUTE....

If you have a few moments around 11.30 am BST or 12.30 Italian time next Tuesday, 22nd April and can tune into BBC Radio 4,  you will learn a lot about a very beautiful Welsh song and a certain "Welsh woman living in Sicily" may say a word or two!  The episode will also become available, for a while, on the Soul Music programme website. 

BBC Radio 4 [known as the "Home Service" when I was a child] has, for as long as I can remember, formed the background to my life and I missed it desperately when I first came to Sicily, before you could listen live on the internet. I'm excited to feature in a Radio 4 programme, even for a few seconds and I'll tell you more after the broadcast!

THE MINISTER ON THE MINISTER

Regular readers will know that I am following the political career of Italy's Integration Minister Cécile Kyenge, so I would like to point you all in the direction of what Foreign Minister Emma Bonino had to say about her in this clip from a hard-hitting interview with Zeinab Badawi today. The interview was part of the BBC's 100 Women Conference. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMEONE

There has been much ado - and understandably so - in the Sicilian media about the presence on the island this week of the Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson.  Miss Thompson has been here to film scenes for the forthcoming BBC documentary Shakespeare in Italy and visited Messina, Castellammare del Golfo and Palermo, where she graced the Antico Caffè Spinnato, much to the delight of the staff and their early-morning customers.

The documentary, presented by the historian and broadcaster Francesco da Mosto, will focus on the Italian locations and strong theatrical traditions which inspired the bard as well as pointing out the ways in which Shakespeare has influenced and continues to influence Italy.  According to a BBC press release, there might have been another, secret reason why Shakespeare was so fond of Italian settings and to find out more we'll just have to wait for the screenings.

According to the Palermo edition of La Repubblica, Miss Thompson, when asked what she thought about the theory that Shakespeare was not only Italian but Sicilian, replied that she did not think it mattered.  She believes he came from a mixed background and that the coming together of different cultures can save humanity.  She also said that the British and the Sicilians share a sense of irony and an awareness of the closeness of tragedy and comedy.

The "Shakespeare was Sicilian" theory has been around for some time and Professor Martino Iuvara from Ispica wrote a book about it, Shakespeare era italiano, in 2002.  In this volume he claims that Shakespeare was born Michelangelo Florio Crollalanza [or Scrollalanza] in Messina and that his family later fled to London to escape religious persecution.  "Crolla" can be translated as "shake" [verb] and "lanza" is almost "lancia", which can mean "spear", a theory with which the author Andrea Camilleri [of Montalbano fame] and his friend the director Giuseppe Dipasquale had much fun when they turned it into a play in 2010.

What do I believe? For what it's worth I believe that William Shakespeare was indeed from Stratford-upon-Avon, England but, like Miss Thompson, I do not think that it matters.

A LITTLE BIT OF BRITAIN

Things will never be the same again in the fictional village of Ambridge, home of my favourite soap, The Archers, for the scriptwriters have gone and killed off thrice-married Sid, landlord of "The Bull" pub, mainstay of the cricket team and homophobe. The character died of a heart attack in Tuesday's episode whilst visiting his stroppy daughter Lucy in New Zealand. So that's what too much sex in the shower does for you!

Meanwhile Sid's former wife Kathy seems to be about to commit sati and is at risk of losing loveable partner Kenton. I've never understood how laid-back, self-deprecating Kenton ended up with boring Kathy but perhaps he just likes boring women.  His twin sister, Shula, is among the most boring and smug that you could meet, apart from an episode back in 1998 which earned her the title of "Britain's most sexually active church warden".

My heroine among the Archers women is Lillian. Rich, fun, outrageous and blessed with a heart of gold, Lillian has rotten taste in men. She's how I'd like to be if I had money, apart from the rotten men, whom I've never had any trouble in attracting.

You're either an Archers fan or you're not and for me, here in Sicily, those 13 minutes Monday to Friday and on Sundays are my "little bit of Britain". My Italian friends and students are amazed that so many British people follow a soap which is broadcast on radio rather than television and even more astounded when I tell them it's the longest-running soap opera in the world.

SKYWARS UPDATE - 2

In Italy the regional election results promise us more of Mr Berlusconi, part of Nero's Palace has collapsed in rain and in the South we are all going to be swept away by a tsunami.  What is more, British expats living here will not even be able to cheer themselves up by watching a bit of blood and gore in the TV series "Casualty" as they await  Armageddon for, as I wrote here, Sky Italia removed the popular BBC Entertainment channel from its platform on 1st March.

Sky Italia, however, reckoned without the "spirit of the blitz" and the facebook group, "Bring Back BBC Entertainment" now has over 1,000 members who do not rest on their laurels but bombard Sky Italia with mail, emails and phone calls every day.  Sky continue to claim that they were unable to reach an agreement on contract renewal with the BBC but, from correspondence members of the group have received from the BBC, it is quite clear which company is at fault!  When Sky decided to add an Italian poker channel to its Italy platform group members were, to say the least, unimpressed.

Sky Italia quite simply does not wish to invest in quality programmes and assumes its subscribers are content with sport, sport and more sport, unpopular films and nonsense channels like the poker one.  The company clearly does not listen to its customers and deserves to lose business, which it seems to be doing fast.  I have been waiting for a promised phone call from Sky since the beginning of the month.

The BBC, on the other hand, has listened to its clientèle and is trying to find another platform for its entertainment programmes in Italy.  Meanwhile, in response to requests from members of the facebook group and others, it has made the popular series "Eastenders" available on the internet.  This is a great victory for the facebook group and I am happy for the "Eastenders" fans.  My own addiction, however, is to the hospital dramas "Casualty" and "Holby City" so please, BBC, make these available on the internet too!

We are, of course, aware that there are other ways of receiving BBC programmes in Italy but they all cost money and I feel that I have paid Sky enough and have a contract with them which runs until September.  I took the Sky package five years ago on the understanding that BBC Entertainment was part of it and I intend to fight on until I get it back.

If you are on facebook, do join the "Bring Back BBC Entertainment" group and help us fight an uncaring company which is totally unconcerned with quality.

A little of what I'm missing....

SKY ITALIA, YOU ASKED FOR IT....

In youth, I had a very quick temper which often shamed me in personal relationships despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that I had a job, then as now, which requires infinite patience. Now it is rare for me to lose my temper on a personal level, though I am still angered by war, injustice, hunger, poverty, racism and the "big things" of life.

Tonight, however, I am furious on my own behalf and this post constitutes a rant at the cause: the decision-makers at Sky Italia, who have, without a word of warning, taken BBC Entertainment off their platform. There I was on Monday evening, settling down for my "treat of the week" - two hours of "Holby City" - but when I keyed the channel number in there was a notice from Sky saying that from 1st March BBC Entertainment was unavailable. There was no explanation or advice offered.

Most of you know that I'm an Italian graduate and am fluent in the language, so I do watch Italian TV, though I would rather listen to BBC Radio 4 than watch anything. But "Holby City" and "Casualty" are my little bits of Britain and I look - I mean looked - forward to them. Selina's love life, Charlie's childcare problems, Connie the man-eating medical director and Chrissie, the matron who's anybody's after a martini, are the stuff of which quite pleasant dreams are made. But now because of Sky Italia's actions - or maybe non-actions - I won't know who is sleeping in whose bed in any of the hospital departments from one week to the next. [You didn't think the medical staff had time for the patients in these programmes, did you?] Come on Sky Italia, these are serious matters!

There are , apparently, other cards which you can buy to receive BBC Entertainment in Italy but I'm hanged if I'm going to shell out more when Sky is already so expensive! Oh, no, I am going to keep on and on at Sky until the channel is restored to our screens and, if the facebook group "Bring Back BBC Entertainment on Sky Italia" is anything to go by, a lot of other ex-pat Brits in Italy are ready to do the same.

Not that BBC Entertainment - formerly BBC Prime - is a perfect channel, for it is far from that. It sometimes screens soap opera episodes in the wrong order so you get completely muddled [the sensation is a bit like being drunk] it goes in for Saturday night "stacks", so that you get about three hours of episodes of one programme - this is just lazy scheduling - and it shows repeats of comedies from thirty years ago time and time again. I have to admit, though, that these are funnier than a lot of the comedy that is churned out today and the familiar faces give you a sort of cosy, nostalgic feeling. The channel also angered a lot of viewers a couple of years ago when it announced a decision to broadcast even more rubbish "reality" and "lifestyle" shows. So it was far from perfect but it was, after all, dear old "Auntie" BBC and we put up with it stoically, as Brits do. And now we want it back! It's quite simple, Sky Italia: we have the right to grumble about it but you don't have the right to take it away.

All any of us can get out of Sky is that it "has not renewed its contract" with the BBC and the BBC is confirming that. Is it a coincidence that the Berlusconi government has cut advertising time on Sky or that the BBC announced massive cuts yesterday? Or could it be that Sky's bureaucratic procedures cannot cope with the channel's change of name? Your guess is as good as mine. But Sky had better get its act together or it will find itself losing many of the British clients who keep it in business.

In revenge, here are some Skyisms for you. Sky News, I have to say, is often first on the scene and when it is good it is very, very good. But most of the time it is mediocre and sometimes it is terrible.

On Saturday, for instance, we had pictures of people standing on a Hawaiian beach waiting for the tsunami, digital cameras at the ready [as if the tsunami was going to stop and say "cheese"] while a female news presenter several times described waves which were "crashing in" as we all gazed at a remarkably calm sea. Sky newsreaders can rarely hide their disappointment when a disaster fails to happen and this one was no exception.

Then there was the time when a weathergirl was called in to fill a Saturday afternoon slot by describing what happens in a flood:

"It's like a teacup that overflows", she explained as if she were Einstein.

Well, thank you, Sky, I would never have figured that out!

When Madeleine McCann disappeared nearly every Sky News reporter got a beano out to Portugal. Even the excellent Kay Burley was despatched to an almost empty beach to interview British holidaymakers. Why the task needed someone of Burley's standing was never explained.

But by far the most common occurence on Sky News is some political row or other which somehow always breaks out late at night or on weekends. On those occasions a hapless political reporter, usually poor old Peter Spencer, has to stand, in snow, fog or torrential rain, outside a Downing Street where nothing is happening or outside a Parliament where nothing is happening. Do they think their viewers have no imagination at all? Is this what I pay my 500 euros a year for?

No, it is not, Sky. I pay it to receive foreign channels that I would not otherwise be able to receive. If you cannot restore BBC Entertainment you will lose my subscription and many others and I wouldn't have thought that you could afford this in these desperate times. So what have you got to say for yourselves, Sky Italia?

Da: Patricia Eggleton No. cliente: ********

A: Sky Italia

Oggetto: Canale 138 - BBC Entertainment

Modica, 3 marzo 2010

Spett. Ditta Sky Italia

sono spiacente di notare che, dal 1 marzo 2010, il canale BBC Entertainment non è più disponibile sulla piattaforma Sky e Vi prego di informarmi dei Vostri motivi per la situazione.

Questo canale è importante per molte persone anglofone che abitano in Italia e lo Sky è in grado di perdere i loro abbonamenti. C'è già un gruppo molto attivo sul facebook.

Vi prego di riconsiderare la Vostra decisione.

Mi auguro di sentirVi presto.

Distinti saluti

Patricia Eggleton