SUMMER CUPS

Believe it or not, there are times, in Sicily, when you wonder if it will ever stop raining and thus it has been for the past three days. Bad drainage in the streets, the cold of houses built for summer and drivers who soak pedestrians from head to toe add to the misery. In these circumstances, a reminder of summer is welcome so I was pleased to receive these pretty ice cream cups as a "gift" with my Bottega Verde points; doubly pleased, in fact, as the mean old Conad supermarket chain has forsaken "gifts" for discount vouchers which are such a fuss and bother to apply for that I have given up. [Yes, I am aware that I am not really being "given" anything but it is nice sometimes to receive a loyalty award that you would not buy.]

Roll on, the ice cream season, so that I can use these!

ON NOT BEING A DOORMAT

Once again, I am just back from a supermarket and once again, my pazienza has been sorely tried: This time it was a supermarket that I don't usually go to, but as they have certain offers on this week and a friend had offered me a lift, tonight I went there.

I hadn't intended to buy a doormat but I do need one, so when  I saw a very cheap and jolly specimen I picked it up, only to be told, at the cash desk, that it couldn't be sold until tomorrow. I asked why, in that case, it was on display and the response was a shrug. I asked for the manager, who only repeated that the item could not be sold tonight,"because it won't pass through the system" so I asked if it could be put aside for me until tomorrow. The answer, again, was "No". I found this unhelpful to say the least and I'm also British enough to expect to hear the words "I'm sorry" but what flabbergasted me was that my Italian friend thought it was all perfectly acceptable.

The first time I came to Italy, in 1969, one of the reasons I thought it was a wonderful country was that service standards were so high compared to those of the UK at that time. It remains a wonderful country in many ways and you can still find excellent service in some sectors, particularly in bars and restaurants, pasticcerie, small shops and when dealing with most craftsmen. But in the intervening years, the rest of the world has moved on where Italy has not and service standards in some supermarkets leave a lot to be desired. [I'm not even going to start on post offices this evening!]  This is sad in a country that was once so proud of its tradition of good service and in these economic times Italy cannot afford to be uncompetitive.

I have now decided that I am not going to be a doormat even if I can't get one and have just taken the supermarket chain in question to task on twitter.  Needless to say, no reply has yet been receieved.

WHAT'S THE POINT?

Over the years, I've received some nice "gifts" through my supermarket's loyalty card scheme, including a battery-operated cheese grater, a coffee machine, china, bed linen, numerous saucepans, an onion chopper and a cake slicer that plays "Jingle Bells". Therefore I am sorry to see the "gifts" scheme go, and even sorrier to see what has replaced it.

Sometimes I think the Italian national motto should be, "Don't make things simple if you can make them complicated" and there can be no finer example than the new discount coupon scheme that replaces points and gifts. Here's what you have to do to get your €5 discount coupon:

Present your card at the checkout every time you spend so that you can get one "bonus" [instead of a point] per euro. OK. Then, when you've accumulated 200 "bonuses" you have to BOOK your discount coupon. Yes, book it! You get a receipt for the "booking" which you are supposed to keep and after a week you can collect your coupon - if you remember to ask for it before the expiry date on the receipt and can find the latter in the first place . Finally, if you spend €25 in one go, you  can use the coupon!

For goodness sake! Why can't the coupon just be automatically sent to customers' home addresses? Because it would be too simple, that's why! I give up, Italy.

Bring back the points and gifts, please! I could do with another fun cake slicer.....

PRETTY PECORINO

Spotted in the supermarket the other day.

BANGERS AND.....

"You're going to cook sausages with apples and almonds?!!" exclaimed my Sicilian friends with that incredulity which they manifest whenever a mixture of sweet and savoury is proposed [unless the hapless foreigner's intention is to cook coniglio [rabbit] in agrodolce, which for some reason doesn't feature on the "prohibited dishes" list].  Anyway, I made the dish of sausage roasted with apples, almonds, sage and lemon juice and the result was very good.  For those of you in Italy, the recipe is in the March edition of the Conad supermarket chain's free magazine.

CARO DIARIO

I'm rather fussy when it comes to diaries.  I know you young folk use your cellphones to schedule your lives but I still like to use pen and paper for this purpose. [I hope we're not quite at the point where someone will ask, "What's pen and paper?"]

Anyway, I usually end up with several diaries, as I can never find one which suits all my purposes. I have an academic year diary for work purposes but find I need a calendar year one as well.  I favour a double-page week-to-view format with spaces big enough to write in several reminders for each day but for some reason this type of diary is difficult to find in Italy.  Last year my bank gave me one and I nearly fell over right there at the desk because the shock of a bank employee handing me something that was not unpleasant was too much for me.

I also acquired this one, coutesy of the Mondadori bookshop and I like it because it has literary details:

This one is rather complicated, what with tear-off bits that seem to be inserted at random and no clear format

so in June I stopped tearing my hair out in frustration and contented myself with prettying up the cover for the Jubilee:

It seems a bit early to be thinking of next year's diary, though in reality it's not and I was pleased yesterday when the cashier at the Conad supermarket gave me this one.  It has two days to a double page, you can tear them off to make a shopping list and there are tips and recipes as well.  I like the bright cover, too.

Let's hear it for the Conad!

INVOLTINI WITH MUSHROOMS AND POMEGRANATE SEEDS

The inspiration for this comes from the involtini con pancetta e salvia recipe in this month's Conad supermarket chain's free magazine. Their involtini are made with chicken breast escalopes and filled with chestnuts and mirtilli [whortleberries]. Well, I can't stand chestnuts and couldn't find any mirtilli, so I used a mushroom mixture and what has accidentally become my ingredient of the month - pomegranate seeds.

The Conad butcher, pleased that someone was going to cook something from the magazine - I didn't tell him of my sabotage plans - suggested I use skinless chicken thigh fillets instead of breasts and, although there were thin strips of pancetta already on display on the counter, he decided these were not thin enough and cut some more especially. This kind of service and advice always cheers me up and he hasn't been wrong yet!

Anyway, this is what I ended up doing:

First, soften about 200 gr sliced mushrooms in 125 gr butter and add a handful of pane grattugiato or fresh breadcrumbs plus some chopped fresh sage.  Stir well and take off the heat. Lay the fillets - I used 6 -  out on a chopping board and spread the mushroom mixture over them. Distribute the contents of half a pack of pancetta dolce cubes over [about 85 gr] and sprinkle over some pomegranate seeds, a little ground cinnamon and about half teasp ground cloves. Add a few twists of pepper and some seasalt, roll up the fillets in 2 slices of pancetta each and secure with cooking string. Tuck a sage leaf into the top of each involtino. Brown them on all sides in 4 tablesp olive oil in a wide pan, then add a glass of white wine.  When it evaporates, add 200 ml chicken or vegetable stock and some more pomegranate seeds. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 40 mins, turning the involtini over after 20 mins.  Take the involtini out and place on a serving dish and snip the string off, then quickly add a roux of a dessertspoon of butter and the same quantity of flour to the sauce. Stir to dissolve and thicken the sauce, pour over the involtini and serve.  [You can slice them to serve if you like but I'm not good at slicing meat thinly and, in the absence of one of those meat-slicing contraptions that most Italian women have, would make a terrible mess.] Decorate with even more pomegranate seeds if you wish.

Buon appetito. [I think I've used up all those pomegranates now!]

TREAT OF THE WEEK - 11

As many of you know, I am a night, rather than a morning, person and even 10 am is "dawn" to me.  Because of this, I am not normally in the supermarket early enough to get a loaf of pane condito but today I managed it and it was worth the effort!

This one is "seasoned" with olives, herbs, cheese and, of course, olive oil.

BRESAOLA ROLL-UPS

We're all sweltering in Italy's Scipione l'Africano heatwave so cool, light, easy food is called for. 

I can't remember in which publication I saw that Bresaola and Robiola cheese are a good combination but anyway I couldn't find any Robiola yesterday.  However, my old friend Mr T, who has reappeared at the supermarket deli counter, suggested I use creamy Certosa instead, so I did.  Now Bresaola can be the very devil to get off that transparent paper the slices are laid upon but when Mr T cuts them, I can manage it!

All you do for this is lay a large fresh basil leaf on each slice of Bresaola, spread over some Certosa Stracremosa, Certosa Light or whatever spreadable cheese you prefer, then roll the slice up and tie a blanched chive leaf around it. [I have neither the patience nor the dexterity to make bows but you can if you like!]

Serve this with a dish of olives and another of sundried tomatoes and you have a feast.

IT'S IN THE CARDS

When I first arrived here, only one or two supermarkets issued loyalty cards but in the past few months Italy has gone loyalty-card-mad:

I have had some nice "gifts" using my supermarket points - sets of plates and saucepans, a cake knife that plays "Jingle Bells", a quilt, even a vacuum cleaner - but I can't keep up with all the new cards. I'm going to have to buy a bigger purse, not to keep my ever-dwindling cash in, but to find room for the cards - unless I take to keeping some up my sleeve!

Update:  One of the comments has prompted me to point out that "purse", in British English, is a wallet [for women] or small coin purse, not a handbag.

GOT IT!

Why my local Conad store has only one of these handy wheeled baskets is one of Sicily's great mysteries.  A few months ago nine of these arrived at the store and it's hard to believe that eight disappeared at the same time. 

There are trolleys, of course, but I don't usually need one and I object to paying a trolley deposit because when you don't have a car it's a real nuisance having to put all your bags on the floor so that you have a hand free to retrieve your precious euro, then trying to organize them on your arms again.

Anyway, today I achieved a minor victory as I got the wheely basket!

LAMB PIECES WITH CHERRY TOMATOES & MUSHROOMS

When you finally receive the supermarket points pan that you have been waiting for since February and, on the same day, your butcher has some lamb pieces which he has marinated with pink peppercorns, seasalt,  rosemary and garlic, it is a sign that you should use the lamb to inaugurate the pan, no?  Lamb is not often found here outside the Easter season, although it is beginning to be sold more often than it was when I arrived six years ago. 

Anyway, here is the recipe that I invented last night and I am calling it Better-Late-than-Never-Pan Lamb:

Heat 3 tablesp olive oil in a pan and add 500 gr fairly large, bone-in, lamb pieces which have been marinated as described above.  Cook, turning, for about 10 mins and then add 2 sliced shallots.  Continue cooking for 5 mins. Then add about 300 ml white wine and, when it has reduced a bit, the contents of a can of cherry tomatoes in their liquid.  [If you can't get this where you live you could use fresh cherry tomatoes and a small box of passata.] Mix it all well and add about 250 gr mushrooms, cut into chunks if large.  Mix again, put the lid on and cook over a low heat for 50 mins.  Serve with salad.

Buon appetito.

SOSPAN FACH

I am happy for the kind folk who work in my local Conad supermarket that their company is doing so well in the midst of a recession - I really am.   It's just that, with its profits up by 5.1 % at the end of 2010 and its market share at 15.4%, you would think that the chain could afford the delivery cost of a few saucepans.  

The loyalty stamps I collected over the Christmas period entitled me to a saucepan, you see, but by February, when I finally had enough stamps, my local store only had the lids in stock.  The staff dutifully wrote my name down and promised I would eventually get the pan but it's been rather a long time, don't you think?  The lid I have is very smart but it's not much use without the pan! 

Anyway, pazienza:  it gives me an excuse to post this reminder of Wales:

Cerys Matthews - Sospan Fach

MORE ALMOND POLPETTE

Making this dish of veal and almond polpette gave me a chance to use my truffle flavour spray and the result was, I think, more successful than the veal and almond meatballs I previously tried.  The recipe uses Italian panna di cucina which has an entirely different texture from British single cream - it is much lighter.  It also uses fondo di vitello but neither the butcher nor I knew what it was!  Upon discussion of the recipe, we decided that it must be a fancy northern term for a chunk of veal fat so that is what he gave me.  I thought this might make the sauce too fatty but it didn't and imparted a delicious flavour. In this recipe crushed fette biscottate [similar to the French toast biscuits you can get in Britain] rather than breadcrumbs, are used to thicken the polpette mixture.  Those aren't pieces of black truffle decorating the polpette, by the way - they are slices of black olives!  For those of you in Italy, the recipe is in the July - August 2010 edition of the Conad supermarket chain's magazine, Bene Insieme:

POLENTA WITH BEANS

It's getting colder outside now so one evening recently I decided to turn to the comfort food that is the "gold" of Northern Italy, polenta.  This is another recipe which I've adapted from the Conad chain's November Bene Insieme magazine. The recipe uses dried beans but, as I don't care for them, I used fresh, green ones:

First blanch or microwave 200 gr fresh, green beans, cut into pieces, until just tender.  Set aside while you cook around 100 gr chopped lardo [Italian white bacon] a chopped onion, 2 chopped cloves of garlic and a handful of chopped parsley in 2 tablesp olive oil.  When the onion becomes transparent, add a can of chopped tomatoes and the beans and mix everything well. Remove from the heat.  Bring 1.5 litres salted water to the boil and add 500 gr instant polenta in a constant stream. Immediately start mixing like mad for the amount of time indicated on the packet. Then add about 200 gr grated parmesan and continue to mix off the heat.  Add the bean mixture too, then tip the lot into an oiled dish.  Leave for a few minutes before cutting into slices to serve. You can also serve this cold.

Buon appetito.

LEMON CHICKEN WITH ONIONS AND POTATOES

For those of you in Italy, this recipe is from the Conad Supermarket Chain's November edition of their free magazine, Bene Insieme.  I've altered the recipe slightly so will give my version here: 

First of all, oil the base of a deep, oval roasting dish well.  Cut 3 large potatoes into rounds - as you all know, I refuse to peel them - and arrange them in the dish. Then cut 3 medium onions into rounds - the recipe says white ones but I used a mixture of white and red - and add to the dish.  Cut 2 lemons into rounds and squeeze another while you're at it.  Of course, I am convinced that this works so well because of the flavour of Sicilian lemons but if you are in the UK, try to get unwaxed ones.  Now put 2 fresh bay leaves into the cavity of your chicken and add a bunch of fresh herbs such as rosemary,sage, thyme, basil, mint and oregano.  Don't bother chopping the herbs - that's for wimps!  Now stuff in as many of the lemon slices as you can, too.  Pour a little olive oil into the cavity, then sit the chicken on top of the vegetables in the dish.  Pour the lemon juice over the chicken and put any remaining lemon slices around and on top of it.  In fact, I cut up another lemon to do this.  I put some more sprigs of rosemary around the chicken, too, just because I like it that way.  Season to taste and cook the chicken at 200 C for 50 minutes, basting now and then. 

Breathe in  the aroma and then serve four lucky people.

LITTLE LIDL RANT

It is rare to meet with discourtesy when dealing with staff in shops or public service offices in Italy.  The Post Office may be slow and the Water Office inefficient, but nobody in either office is rude.  In Modica's Lidl, however, finding myself without a euro in change for the stupid trolley deposit, I just had the following exchange:

Me to cashier:  Excuse me, could you change these 2 fifty centesimi for a euro for the trolley?

Cashier:  No, there aren't any euros.  [Not , "I'm so sorry, signora, but I don't have any change.]

Me:  Well, can you suggest something?

Cashier:  What can I do, if I haven't got any, I haven't got any!

Me: Well, can you call someone?

Cashier:  Who can I call, signora?

Why didn't I say, "the bloody manager"?!

By now, I'm extremely angry as a male customer is just standing by agreeing with the cashier.

Cashier:  Take a couple of carrier-bags and put your purchases in those, signora.

Me:  I can't carry everything round the store!

Cashier: Oh, there are some customers outside, now.  Ask them, signora.

So I go outside and change my centesimi-pieces there.  I think there are two factors at play here, the first being that there is still enough of the Brit in me to remember service in British supermarkets, a sector with so much competition that staff will do anything to retain customers [except for Marks & Spencer, who are extraordinarily stingy with carrier bags].  The second is that Italians always prefer to ask anyone other than a member of staff or an official for help.  

OK, now I'm armed with a trolley and I complete my purchases. I go to the check-out and it's the same guy again:

Cashier [pointing to the end of the counter]:  Put the trolley there and put everything in it.

I avoid saluting and clicking my heels to attention and follow orders. I put a few things in a carrier before putting them in the trolley.

Cashier: In the trolley first, signora.

Now at last I lose my temper:

Me:  I'm not stealing things, you know.  Why are you being so rude to me this afternoon?

This brings cringing apologies, which I accept.

I did think of ringing Lidl HQ as soon as I got home and possibly losing the young man his job, but I seem to have become Sicilian enough not to do that.  A rant here will suffice.

One thing everyone who deals with the public in their job should learn is this:  A little discourtesy can ruin someone's day, just as a little courtesy can make it.

MY SATURDAY

First thing yesterday morning - "first thing" to this owl being about 11 am - the fruitseller who calls me bambina waved while I was out with Simi. I waved back to signal that he could bring me some of his goods and he crossed the road to ask what I wanted. Five minutes later, he had delivered these plus a crate of oranges for juicing:

Next stop was the deli where Mr B cut some speck into cubes for me:

Lunchtime and I'm in Raffaele the hairdresser's, for he doesn't close on Friday or Saturday lunchtimes. He had put a tray of dolci out in honour of International Women's Day on Monday. Take a close look at the yellow and white cakes on the right. The yellow decoration has been made to look like mimose as these are a symbol of International Women's Day in Italy. I thought they were real at first.

Hair done and I walk down to one of the larger supermarkets to buy treats for Simi. The cashier informs me that it's the last day for collecting points so I have to choose a "gift". I chose this stoneware casserole and luckily, it was in stock. I am rather pleased with myself as it's the first time in nearly five years that I've managed to redeem any points from that particular supermarket, which I don't use often. Now what shall I make in the casserole and where am I going to store it?

It's 4pm by now and most of the smaller shops have reopened. On the way back I call into my local bookshop , where they have managed to get for me Riprendetevi la faccia ["Reclaim your Face"] by Barbara Alberti. Alberti's thesis is that western women are not allowed to age any more, such is the pressure on us to have plastic surgery or other invasive treatments. She calls plastic surgery "the western woman's burqa". I am very much looking forward to reading this book.

5pm and two students arrive for a private lesson. By 6pm we are done and the long, Italian evening has begun. Simi and I have more walks, eat, then flop down in front of the BBC-less TV.

REGALI, REGALI

I must say I'm very pleased with these French plates, which I obtained with my supermarket points. Now I have to find somewhere to put them!

NEW TOYS MORNING

I've had a very jolly morning indeed for behold, reader, all these new toys I have got to play with!

First of all, I asked at the supermarket if any of my "gifts" [ordered with my accumulated points] had arrived and was able to collect this battery-operated cheese grater, a pretty antipastiera on a swivel base and a parmesan dish.

No sooner had I arrived home with these than the doorbell rang and it was the corriere with my smart new jam-making machine from Lakeland [a UK kitchen store]. It's not very often these days that I read about something I can't buy here and really want it but I really wanted this. I'll let you know how well it works! Rosa is coming out to play with me and it tomorrow.