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!

UNHAPPY HOUR

Proposals in the UK to ban or curb "happy hour" alcohol sales are being reported with some surprise in Italy: first there is an explanation of what the "happy hour" actually is and this is followed by statistics on the behaviour of alcohol-fuelled British youth which would dismay any Italian parent thinking of allowing their offspring to visit our country.

Incidentally, the one negative aspect of the UK mentioned by one of Marco's sons [just back from a long stay there] at yesterday's lunch was that he felt threatened by crowds of hostile youths in city centres in Britain during the evenings. What a testimonial for us!

It may not seem so, but most Italians drink very little, limiting themselves to a glass or two of good wine at lunchtime [maybe a little more on a Sunday or feast day, when they don't have to drive afterwards or go to work the next morning] and spirits are rarely drunk, except for a tot of the homemade limoncello at the end of a long, leisurely repast. [However, see here for evidence that this is not always the case.]

Being very much a g & t girl myself, I am hardly in a position to pontificate, but I don't drive and what Mutley calls my "terrifying liqueurs" are rationed for home use these days!

Alcohol - Live Better, Live Longer

Abigail Zuger, of the New York Times gave some advice in 2003 [pre-blogging days and unattributable] which I plan to wholeheartedly accept, irrespective:

A study published in May in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirmed that alcohol raises the blood levels of HDL, the "good" cholesterol. Moderate drinking can raise the levels more than 10 per cent. Heavy drinking raises them even higher.

By comparison, running a few kilometres a week increases HDL a fraction of that, while the B vitamin niacin, probably the most effective medication for raising HDL levels, has to be taken at high doses with many side effects for similar results. The statin low-cholesterol drugs, which work by reducing LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, seldom raise HDL levels substantially.

Half the heart benefits of moderate drinking stem directly from the HDL gain. Alcohol also makes the blood flow a little more freely, by decreasing blood proteins that promote clotting, and increasing those that prevent clotting. Like low-dose aspirin, which also helps prevent heart attacks, alcohol keeps the tiny blood cells called platelets from adhering to one another and forming damaging clots.

Alcohol may also help the heart by preventing diabetes, a risk factor for heart disease. Moderate drinkers are, on average, a little thinner than non-drinkers, and less likely to develop the diabetes associated with obesity and insulin resistance.

Besides alcohol, red wine contains more than 200 natural chemicals, mostly derived from grape skins and seeds. Many are antioxidants. The antioxidant activity in a glass of red wine equals that in seven glasses of orange juice or 20 of apple juice, one researcher estimates.

Antioxidants are widely thought to have many good effects, such as increasing tissue blood flow and protecting cells from oxidative injury much as rust-proofing protects a car.

Last December, researchers in London announced in the journal Nature that alcohol-free extracts of red wines kept blood vessel cells from producing endothelin-1, a chemical that constricts blood vessels. That may mean that red wine enhances the blood flow to organs such as the heart and brain, above what might be expected from its alcohol content.

Sounds great to me. Here's ta lookin' at ya, kid!

Crossposted at Nourishing Obscurity