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How To Travel and Eat Italian-Style

When you love to travel and eat you go to Italy this is why I decidedto spend as much time as possible traveling there while I’m alive.True, there are many fine, compelling, extra-culinary reasons to book a ticket to Italy. I love the architecture, art, ludicrously beautiful landscapes, the most euphonious language coined by man or the whole bella figura, dolce vita deal. It is, you could argue, a price worth paying even for those who aren’t led to Best of Both Adventures by their stomachs. But when I plan a trip to the boot, my prime motivation is simple, unadulterated, pleasurable greed.

I have been going there ever since my late teens, when I maneuvered my way into Italy without any knowledge of Italian — to study medieval and modern Italian promising that I would go to Florence and apply myself to the language of Dante. In fact, as it happened, I landed in Tuscany where I learned to gossip there, to shop for food and to cook and eat it all’Italiana. And to cook Italian, I learned above all, one must think Italian, which means giving the fewest possible ingredients the greatest possible respect.

If, in a court of law (and let’s hope it never quite comes to that), I had to cite two dishes that best exemplified this dictum of respect, I would have no trouble. I present as evidence a certain contender for my last meal on earth, spaghetti alle vongole, and then that perfect Italian creation, a tagliata. The first offers pasta with clams and the second, a thick slab of flavorsome steak, sliced thinly and, in this version, scattered with shredded radicchio and shaved Parmesan –
what more could you want? Well, I’m with Mae West: too much of a good thing can be wonderful. And so I offer add-ons, oven-baked polenta and perfect lemon gelato for dessert.

I got the idea for serving it with a tagliata this summer, at a fabulous restaurant outside Lucca called Vipore. Cesare Casella, I was eating polenta with cheese instead of meat. But I pinched a little tagliata off someone’s plate and dipped it into the polenta and found it to be heaven. There is something about the savory intensity of the strips of beef with the corn-sunny mush that blends elegance with comfort; it tastes plainly fabulous.

Of course, I might in this case hold off on the radicchio topping, and maybe sprinkle the shavings of Parmesan over the polenta instead of the steak.

In Italy, to be honest, if you want a good ice cream you go to the gelateria — and, in fact, even out of Italy there are good
store-bought gelati to be found. But I have never, off Italian soil, come across a proper gelato di crema; think vanilla ice cream, only in place of vanilla, you infuse the milk with a modest grating or shaving of lemon zest.

This doesn’t turn it into lemon ice cream, itself a cool dollop of heaven. What happens, rather, is that the small-volume scent of lemon makes the eggs eggier and the custard creamier. In short, we’re talking platonic ideal of ice cream.

And even if you cannot quite stir yourself to make the effort to make it, just be happy in the knowledge that it exists. As with Italy, sometimes you have to be content to let it be just a state of mind.

Hold the Tomatoes and the Baton

Here are some tips on making the following recipes:

Spaghetti alle vongole - For me, spaghetti with clams has to be ”white,” which is to say without a tomato in sight – I made this in one of my favorite Italian restaurants in Florence This was a very long time ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I have specified amounts for a single portion here, because I feel cooking food you love is never something that should be reserved for company. Besides, this is quick and easy to make, and it’s important sometimes to give yourself the treat of the perfect supper alone.

Tagliata with radiccio and parmesan - I’ve done versions of tagliata myself over the years, but this is how it was cooked for me by a wonderful Tuscan chef, Niccolo Piccirilli. He used T-bone, and then carved the steak off the bone and into slices once it was cooked al
sangue, which is to say, deliciously rare, though obviously you should cook the steak just how you like to eat it. I tend to use sirloin, but really tagliata refers to the way the steak is carved (from tagliare, to cut) not to the cut, so buy whatever kind of steak you want and cook it as you wish, only be sure to carve it in thin diagonal slices on serving.

Polenta senza bastone - Bastone, a wooden baton, is used to stir polenta as it cooks; this
oven-baked method dispenses with the 40 minutes of continuous spit-boiling attention stirring requires, and instead cooks the polenta, that glorious cornmeal porridge, in the oven. It’s a trick I
picked up from a marvelous Italian

Spaghetti with clams

Time: 15 minutes

Salt
8 to 12 littleneck or other small clams in the shell, scrubbed
1/4 pound spaghetti
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 to 1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 dried red chili pepper or 1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1/3 cup Noilly Prat or other vermouth or white wine
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, soak clams in cold water
Add spaghetti to boiling water, and cook until slightly underdone; pasta will finish cooking in sauce. Meanwhile, place a large saucepan over medium-low heat, and add olive oil, garlic and chili pepper. Sauté gently, reducing heat if necessary so garlic does not brown.
Add vermouth and clams, and cover. Clams should open in about 2 minutes. (If pasta is ready first, drain it and toss with a small amount of olive oil.) Add hot drained pasta, cover, and shake pot gently. Allow to simmer for another 1 or 2 minutes until it is done to taste.
Discard any clams that have not opened. Add half the parsley, and shake pan to distribute evenly. Transfer to a plate or bowl, and sprinkle with remaining parsley.

Yield: 1 serving.

Tagliata with radicchio and parmesan

Time: 15 minutes, plus cooking time for steak

3 pounds sirloin or other cut of steak, 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick, at room temperature
1 cup shredded radicchio
1 ounce Parmesan cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler.

Grill, sauté or broil steak to taste. Allow to rest on a carving board for 10 minutes. Slice thinly, diagonally against the grain, and arrange on a large warmed plate.
Pour pan juices over meat, and cover with shredded radicchio. Top with shredded Parmesan, and serve.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Llemon gelato

Time: 40 minutes, plus chilling and freezing time

2 cups whole milk
Pared or grated zest of just under 1/2 lemon
5 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar.

In a small saucepan combine milk and lemon zest. Place over medium-low heat just until steaming; do not boil. Remove from heat, cover, and allow mixture to infuse for about 20 minutes.
In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar. Strain infused milk into a pitcher, then whisk it into yolk mixture.
Pour mixture into a clean saucepan, and place over medium-low heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until it forms a custard thick enough to coat back of spoon, about 10 minutes. (Do not overheat or it will curdle.)
Cool mixture by placing bottom of pan in several inches of cold water; give it a stir. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until well chilled, about 1 hour. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Oven baked Polenta

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Butter for greasing dish and foil
2 quarts stock (any kind) or water
Salt to taste
12 ounces polenta meal.

Butter a shallow 2 1/2- to 3-quart baking dish, and set aside. Place stock or water and salt into a large saucepan, and bring to simmer. Remove pan from heat.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Slowly pour polenta into stock, stirring rapidly with a wooden spoon. Place pan on medium heat. Slowly bring to a boil, stirring constantly in same direction. Boil 5 minutes, continuing to stir.
Pour polenta into buttered dish, and cover with buttered foil. Bake for 1 hour. Remove foil and serve.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 8:11 am and is filed under Travel & cook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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