GLASSA

I've been wondering for some time how professional chefs manage to decorate antipasti, for instance, so neatly with balsamic vinegar and it wasn't until I saw this product in the supermarket on Saturday that I realised that most of them use a commercially available balsamic glaze!  What is more, I just read that this product has been around since 2009 so why haven't I seen it before?

Okey-dokey, let's try some on a platter:

 Hmmm.... a bit cack-handed on the mortadella and cheese, perhaps, but not bad for a first go....

Getting better... no, that's not it on the pineapple - I grilled the pieces.

Almost getting good at this now....

I soon realised that you have to serve the food immediately after decorating it with the glaze.

I'll let you know when I can do spirals and figures of eight and stuff!

 

CARNIVAL TIME

The carnival season is upon us and there are chiacchiere biscuits in the pasticcerie to prove it:

These wafer-thin biscuits are fried and derive their name from the verb chiacchierare, to gossip, either because they are said to be shaped like the tongues of old women or because they make a "Psst!" sound when the dough is dropped into the hot oil.

At our local pasticceria, trays of the freshly made biscuits are being brought out from the workroom behind the shop and, before expertly wrapping the small tray I have asked for, the assistant takes them back into the workroom for a final dusting of icing sugar.  Now they are chiacchiere to be proud of!

SABATO MUSICALE

For the third week running, it's the three fabulous young men of Il Volo.  Below the video is my translation of the second song, E più ti penso.  It's for all of you and for someone very special in my life. 

Il Volo:  Per te - E più ti penso - Notte stellata

E PIU TI PENSO – THE MORE I THINK OF YOU

And the more I think of you the more I miss you
I see you with my tired eyes
And in the darkness of night I always think of you
I close my eyes and think of you
Despite everything you’re the most important thing
And you come back into my heart, sweet as you are
I wonder how I would live without you
And answer that if I can’t see you again
I already know what I’d do – I wouldn’t live.

In the darkness of the night you are far away
Without you there’s an emptiness inside me
And perhaps I’ve already lost you
I clasp the pillow now and you are near
And the more I think of you the more I miss you
I’m nothing without you
I feel like a fish
Who has no water to swim in
Breathing without you
Without you
Without you
And if, by chance, I can’t see you again
I already know what I’d do – I wouldn’t live.

STINCO WITH PISTACCHI

Stinco di maiale, or pork shank, is a cut of meat much beloved of Italian housewives.  To be honest, there isn't much meat on it, which is why most people cook several together, but what there is can taste delicious.  There is something very rustic and homely about the aroma of stinco being cooked slowly in the oven and it is on my list of comfort foods.

For those of you who are in Italy, the recipe for this stinco in a chicken, cream, bread and pistacchio crust is in the January edition of Alice Cucina.  The first time I tried it, the crust burnt but the stinco meat still tasted good, so I decided that it was worth persevering. For my second attempt, I wrapped the crusted shank not only in baking paper, as in the recipe, but also in foil and, as you see, this worked!

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."

- Edmund Burke

"They couldn't fail to notice us, to know where we came from: our striped garb, the scarves hiding our shaven heads, our thinness betrayed our origins.  When they went out walking, they were not forbidden to pass by the camp of Birkenau, whose sinister appearance hardly concealed its function.    Did they think that those five chimneys, with their sickening smoke, were for the central heating?  What exactly was I asking for? That this little town of five or six thousand inhabitants shoulod revolt, that its Germanic population, resettled there since the German victory, should rise up and liberate the camp?  Why should they have felt responsible for us?  A sudden surge of violence sent the blood into my head:  they were all responsible!  All men were.  The indifference of a single one was our death sentence."

- Fania Fénelon, "Playing for Time".

To those misguided people who saw fit to "decorate" walls in Rome and other cities with anti-Semitic graffiti last night, I would like to point out that their actions are one of the reasons why we need Holocaust Memorial Day and to quote the following:

"No one is safe when religious or ethnic prejudice is tolerated, when racism is rife and when decent, well-meaning people keep quiet because it is prudent."

- Rabbi Hugo Gryn, "Chasing Shadows".

SOME INTERESTING STATISTICS

The Italian National Statistics Office, Istat, has published Noi Italia, a collection of one hundred up to date statistics which will help Italians and others to understand the country and I must say, some of these make very interesting reading:

With a population of 60,600,000, Italy saw a fall in both the number of births and deaths on its territory  last year, with the greater decrease being in the number of births, at an average of 1.4 children per woman.  The slight recovery in the birth rate seems to have ended and the number of people over 65 is now equivalent to 20.3% of the population. This year 2.8% of the population are over 85 and the number of centenarians has tripled since 2001, to 16,000.

Life expectancy in Italy is the third highest in Europe, with only Sweden and Spain doing better.  The national average is 79.1 years for men and 84.3 years for women.  There are some interesting regional variations, with men in the Marche living the longest [79.8 years] whilst the most long-lived women are those resident in Trento-Alto Adige [85.3 years].  The lowest life expectancy for both sexes is in the Campania region [77.5 years for men and 82.8 years for women] whilst the gap between male and female life expectancy is narrowest here in Sicily [77.5 years for men and 82.8 years for women]. 

The number of foreigners living in Italy is estimated at 4,563,000, an increase of 328,000 on the January 2009 figure.  Of these, Romanians comprise the largest community of 890,000 with Albanians, numbering 467,000,  comprising the second and the country's 432,000 Moroccans the third.  The Chinese form the largest Asiatic population within Italy  and Ukrainians form the fifth largest community.  Foreigners from other EU countries number 1.2 million. 

The regions of Emilia-Romagna, Umbria, Lombardy and Veneto have the highest numbers of foreign residents while the South as a whole has fewer.  Sardinia, where foreigners make up only 2% of the population, has the fewest.  

Shown as a percentage of the population as a whole, the number of foreign residents in Italy, at 6.5%, is strikingly similar to the UK total, at 6.6%.  Does this perhaps tell us something about the desirability of living in both countries?

"THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM"

"Things are not always what they seem", admonishes this old postcard, which I've had in my collection for as long as I can remember:

And this afternoon that's what I told some of my students, who were surprised when my friend Lucia turned up at the school bearing this bottle as a gift:

The bottle contains something that I appreciate far more than whisky, namely some of Lucia's own olive oil.  It has a lovely, clear colour and tastes delicious.

Grazie, Lucia!

INVOLTINI DI MELANZANE

A TV presenter and personality I like very much is Antonella Clerici, as I find her unpretentious, down to earth and close to the Italian people, so I was delighted to receive her cookery book as a Christmas present.

I've tried her involtini di melanzane [which we might loosely translate as "aubergine rolls"] a couple of times now and they are very good.  I must admit that I found the instruction to lay the rolls, of aubergine slices which you first grill and then fill with cooked ham, basil and scamorza cheese, on squashed tinned tomato a strange one, but it works!  I am not a fan of scamorza, so used buffalo mozzarella instead.

My rolls are not perfectly formed and I do wonder whether you would get better shapes if you used the grilled aubergines in oil that you can buy here sometimes, but, in the absence of these, my imperfect shapes will have to do.

Here they are on the tray with the tomatoes 

and, cocktail sticks removed, ready to serve:

A SLICE OF LIFE ON SATURDAY

There is no better way to start Saturday or any day than with a glass of freshly squeezed Sicilian blood orange juice

and, it being the weekend, a slice of orange tart:

Meanwhile, down in Modica Bassa, the farmers' market is in full swing

and even the town's buildings seem to be enjoying the sunny morning:

Lunchtime and back at Bar Cicara a friend and I share a plate of antipasti:

And now it's siesta time!

A FUTURE SOMMELIER

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Young people have always taken for granted the scientific and technological advances that their parents marvel at and today's teenagers - born, I am certain, with a mobile phone clamped to one ear - cannot remember a time when people did not have portable telephones.

When men landed on the moon in 1969 I, whilst conceding that this was, indeed, a momentous event, did not exclaim, like my parents, great aunt and grandfather, that I had never expected to live to see the day but wondered, with all the coolness of my generation, why no one had walked on the moon before.

I was reminded of all this yesterday whilst helping a class of fouteen-year-olds with our school's January quiz:  in one question, I had referred to the winter of 1205, when the Thames froze over and wine which had turned to ice was sold by weight.  Why, asked one of my charges -a sommelier-to-be, no doubt - hadn't people just kept the wine at the correct temperature in refrigerators?  I replied that this might have been rather difficult in the year 1205.

SABATO MUSICALE

More from Il Volo Tenorini.  Enjoy:

Il Volo - O Sole Mio

WHAT IN SICILY? - 30

Two large stones precisely placed against a wall on a busy street.  They are never moved.  Can you guess what they are used for?

A CHEER FOR FONTANAROSSA!

I can remember a time when travelling via Catania's Fontanarossa Airport was not a pleasant experience:   sparse information was displayed in the terminal, , access to its few shops was awkward, there was nowhere to sit once you had gone through security and passengers were packed into gate areas like sardines.  To be fair, I should add that even in those days you could get a good meal there and I never found the staff unhelpful.  

Over the years things have been improving, culminating in a relocation and full refurbishment in 2007.  Now Fontanarossa can compete with the best and figures released today confirm it as the number one airport in the South of Italy and as the third most important of Italy's regional airports after Venice and Bergamo.

Over six million passengers passed through Fontanarossa last year and most said that they used it four times a year.  Baggage checks at Fontanarossa are quicker than the national average in Italy and just 0.2 luggage items per 1,000 checked in there go missing, as against the national average of 2 per 1,000.

The president of Sac [Società Aeroporto Catania] puts the airport's recent success down to good marketing, restructuring and renovation.  

Now we are all waiting to see how Fontanarossa and the long-awaited rebuilt airport at Comiso [Ragusa] will work together.  I must say that the Modicani are rather less optimistic about Comiso than the Transport Minister, Altero Matteoli, who, visiting the new airport's infrastructure on Monday, promised to return with a bottle of champagne to celebrate the opening before the summer.  The Modicani, when asked about an opening date, just shrug their shoulders and laugh.

But meanwhile, let's hear it for Fontanarossa!

TWO TOURISM OPPORTUNITIES

Looking in shop windows at the enormous reductions offered in Modica's post-Christmas sales, it occurred to me that the reason why stores will slash prices to levels that would give UK shopkeepers multiple heart attacks is that Italians, and Sicilians in particular, still think seasonally.  Therefore it is assumed that no one wants to buy winter clothing once Christmas is over and that no one would dream of buying a swimming costume or sundress after about mid-July.  The idea that some customers may be planning to take holidays in different climate zones seems never to have crossed a store manager's mind here and if you were to ask for out of season clothing you would meet with the same pitying look that you would get if you were to express a desire for ice cream in December.

Thus it is that the Marina di Modica, full of happy sunseekers in summer and virtually deserted in winter, finds itself unloved, uncared for and a sorry sight indeed.  Trees that were damaged in last November's storms lie where they fell, the wide boulevard's plants and green spaces are untended and what could be a major winter tourist attraction is not fulfilling its potential.  Why?  Not, I would guess, merely because the comune lacks money but because of a lack of imagination:  What will it take to convince the powers that be here that people from colder countries want to come to Sicily in winter and when they get here, strange though it may seem, they may well want to walk along the beach, just as others come in summer because that is when they are free  and when these intrepid travellers arrive here they expect tourist attractions to be OPEN!

Better tourist news, however, comes this week from Catania, where some enterprising residents of San Berillo, the former red light district, have had an inspiration about how they might turn a negative image of the city into a positive one:  they are thinking of running tours of the area so that visitors can imagine the atmosphere of seedier times  and  see where films such as Il bell'Antonio [1960] , I Vicerè [2007] and the TV miniseries Il capo dei capi [2007] were made.  Well done, the Catanesi and watch out, Amsterdam!

Image:  http:/www./comune.catania.it

SUMMING UP EXISTENTIALISM

Talking of competitions, as I was in the previous post, my friend jams has a great one going over at The Poor Mouth:  Jams has decided he can't get his head round philosophy and has invited readers to sum up philosophical concepts in [short] verse.  Here is my effort:

As Sartre said it's all absurd,
Why read, of his, a single word?

Sartre image: Wikipedia

Why not pop over to The Poor Mouth and join in the fun?

THANK YOU, SARETTA

Some time ago I won a competition on Saretta's blog, Amid the Olive Trees - not, I should add, through skill, but because in the end Saretta decided to have a draw. Anyway, I was delighted to receive, this morning, Apulia - A Film Tourism Guide, by Alessandra Benvenuto et al and translated by Saretta.  Just a glance through the book is sufficient for me to be able to conclude that this is an excellent translation and I look forward to reading it all.

Thank you, Saretta!

ETNA - 2

Etna dust under our portico today:

It missed my balcony but was visible on a friend's balcony in Modica Bassa yesterday:

This is the first time I've found any Etna dust in Modica in nearly six years!

SABATO MUSICALE

This has always been one of my favourite Italian songs and I love this version by the three young tenors who together form Il VoloTenorini.  Enjoy:

Il Volo Tenorini - Il Mondo

ETNA

Grumpy old Etna has been at it again and I just have to post these spectacular videos of Wednesday night's eruption.  No one was hurt but as a precaution, Catania's Fontanarossa Airport was closed for several hours. Things have now quietened down but volcanologists are watching the situation closely, as always.

SIX-FLAVOURED VEAL

I liked the idea of this beef dish a sei profumi [with six flavours] from the Cucchiaio d'Argento.  The beef  or veal is marinated with garlic, basil, parsley, fresh lemon and orange juice plus the grated peel of a lime and some cumin seeds before being cooked.  At the end of cooking, the marinade is poured back over the meat. 

It is not always easy to find limes in Sicily but when I do this is a pleasant way of using them.