Dreaming In Italian

What do people think of when they think of Liguria (if anything). Probably Cinque Terra, those cute as a button little towns hanging from the cliffs with very limited accessibility other than by train or footpath. Admittedly they are cute but the stones are practically worn smooth by the hordes of trampers (English) or their counterparts from just about everywhere else. What about Genova – the birthplace of Cristopher Columbus and foccacia. It was one of the major powers in Italy during the Renaissance and still is one of the country’s major economic centers (5th). The old town is a warren of narrow streets wide enough only for perhaps a donkey cart and they still have a few port city disreputable types loitering around from time to time. I’m not sure that I’d want to be there late at night but during the day it was great. Of course in addition to foccacia there that wondrous Ligurian invention, pesto. I’ve already written about that here.

The lovely D and I visited Liguria and spent a day in Genova. Aside from the requisite day trip to Cinque Terra we also visited several other towns along the Riviera de Levanta – that is the part of Liguria south of Genova. The home base was Sestri Levante that I just loved. The touristy portion is a relatively narrow spit of land that juts out into the Mediterranean with hotels and beaches on both sides.  We were there in early October and the water was still really nice for swimming and we were blessed with the absence of the crush of tourist, mostly Italian probably, that would have been there even a month earlier. We also visited Portofino that I already talked about here as well as Camogli (a bit dour really), Santa Margherita Ligure (heavy tourism) and Chiavari (perhaps my favorite). You can click on the pictures below (in fact in any of my posts to get enlarged versions). The trompe-l’Å“i (that french term meaning fools the eye) is rampant in lots of these places. One of those delights that you find and don’t expect prior to a visit.

The food was fantastic. Perfect for the lovely D since she is a fishetarian.  Heavy on seafood including terrific scampi – the animal not the dish.  See the photo below. They are kind of like shrimp but have long slender pinchers and are sweeter and more delicate than shrimp – I’m salivating just thinking about them. There were also tiny octopi called moscardini. These were not those that I see regularly here in California that are 2” long; they are truly tiny, probably less than ½ in. and, my, are they good. There was also a kind of mushroom that looked a lot like a porcini but had a mildly reddish colored cap. There was a couple in the restaurant next to us one night that had driven down from Milano just to have some of these very special mushrooms that are served raw, sliced thin and lightly dressed. I didn’t get a photo of the these reddish mushrooms but the porcinis were definitely in season as shown in the photo. I also fell in love with Vermentino which is a perfect wine for the seafood there. Pigato is also a local favorite but I’d go for Vermentino every time. I also learned the italian word “morbido” here in discussions about grappa. Morbido means “smooth”. Pretty different from the english language connotation, eh?

I could go on and on but maybe I’ll do another Liguria post since it is my favorite area of Italy. Like the billboard along the autostrada said (in English ?!) when driving south from Torino “Relax, you’re in Liguria”. One final photo for this post. As is so often the case the people really make the trip. At our hotel in Sestri Levante the bartender told us he knew how to make the “Martini Cocktail” – his words. Dino treated us well and I’ll hope to see him one of these days when I make a return visit. Has anyone else been to Liguria?  What was your impression?

I can’t help but come back to opera again. This time to sing the praises of the best tenor that I have ever heard. I don’t think that I really had ever adequately appreciated the talent of this man. I have gone to some operas but not very many. I find them interesting and even on occasion sublime but really don’t know that I have the experience, the “ear” to make the distinction between one singer and another. When doing an NPR pledge drive last year I won one of the little raffles they have for volunteers and chose the original Three Tenors CD. So now I listen to that in the car when the pledge drive is on. This has been quite an eye opener. All three are very good and if I were to be so fortunate as to be sitting in the audience for an actual performance would surely be enormously impressed with any of these top tier guys. Jose Carreras is the weakest of the three. I was going to suggest his place on a scale of ten but probably that wouldn’t make much sense because I’d really need to make the scale big enough to accommodate all of the professional opera tenors. So maybe I’d need to make it on a scale of 100 (like the wine thing). So maybe Jose would be at about 85. Then there’s a pretty big gap between him and Placido Domingo. Now we’re getting into the truly eye-popping realm of vocal ability so Placido is maybe a 95. Of course the absolute tip top of the scale is Pavarotti. He just has amazing power and clarity. Here is is doing one of the most famous of all arias for tenors “ Nessun Dorma” – sorry about those spanish subtitles.  Watch the intensity he brings near the end  – amazing.  The man is giving everything he’s got.

While researching him I found him to be a complex person in at least one surprising way. Despite his enormous talent and accolades he also was notorious for essentially being a no-show. A Chicago opera house even severed all relationship with him after he canceled 26 of 41 performances over 8 years. One famous aria from Rigoletto “La donna e’ mobile” (The woman is fickle) could be applied to one of it’s most famous performers as well. I did not know that Pavarotti also did a lot of charity concerts “Pavarotti and Friends” in his hometown of Modena which raised substantial sums of money for worthy causes. In these concerts he sang with people as diverse as Mariah Carey, Sting and Freddie Mercury of Queen (now that must have been something else!). He performed in charity concerts throughout the world and received many medals and awards for his good works. If you liked the other video, here is an additional one of “La donna e’ mobile”. This let’s you compare the three tenors. Placido on the left, Jose in the center and of course the big man himself on the right. They really look like good buddies really having fun don’t they?

Pavarotti died of pancreatic cancer in 2007 at the age of 71. Perhaps there were greater tenors but it’s hard to say since they probably predated really good quality sound recording. Still it’s hard to imagine how anyone could be better than Luciano. I hope that you have enjoyed this post and the sounds of Pavarotti. Let me know if you did and especially if you have your own Pavarotti experiences to share.

What can be more Italian than pizza? Well, maybe pasta or even risotto but if I ask what is more popular than pizza nobody seems to be able to come up with an answer. But how many people make their own at home. Not too many. And why not? Probably because like a lot of what holds us back from doing stuff – we can become intimidated. There are those big ovens at pizza parlors and the images of pizzaiolos tossing rounds of dough in the air that make it seem too complicated or requiring too much skill . But be not afraid. It is really pretty easy. Of course like anything else it takes a little practice but it is definitely worth the small learning curve. For one thing you can make better pizzas and you can make them cheaper. If the dough is already made you can do the whole thing before you could get one delivered. You can make a pizza with almost anything that you could put on pasta. The one that I’m going to show here was as much a collection of stuff that I happened to have in the refrigerator as it was about planning. The ingredients that I used for this one were some left over onion, broccolini, garlic, oven dried tomatoes and regular and smoked mozzarella. So here we go.

First let’s consider tools. Apart from the too obvious oven, you need a peel and some tiles to go in the oven. The peel is that paddle shaped thing that slides the pizza into and out of the oven. The one shown in the picture above is one that I have had for years. I like the fact that it’s wood but you can also get them in metal and if you want you could just use a cookie sheet without a rim. Of course with a really hot oven you might really decide a handle is a good thing. Next you really should get some tiles to put the pizza on. This bakes the bottom of it so it’s not doughy. I bought mine at a local tile place and they were ridiculously cheap. The ones that I bought were 12 inches square and I needed three and I think that the bill came to a whopping $6. One needed to be cut into exactly two pieces and the store here (Import Tile) even had a tile saw that I could use to do the job. So measure your oven and get a set of tiles that will leave a little airspace all around and you’re set. As you can see in the photo above, the tiles get a little stained with stuff – ingredients, olive oil, etc. but that’s just what happens and no cause for concern.  Put those tiles on a rack in the oven and turn it on as high as it will go. It will take a while to heat up because of the tiles but you’ll get a nice pizza. It helps to have an oven thermometer but I’ve learned it takes about half an hour to get my oven up to its 550 degree limit.

I’m not going to really go into making the dough. The recipes are really simple and you can find them all over the web. I make enough dough at once to make 4 two person pizzas and then I freeze 3 out of the four portions. It works great! You do need to think about pizza in the morning and get that dough out of the freezer but it will be ready to go in the evening when you’re ready to use it. I use a recipe from the “The Italian Baker” by Carol Fields and I heartily recommend that book. But let’s move on.

So get everything ready. The toppings should be prepared, cooked, chopped, grated and whatever else needs to be done to them and in little bowls awaiting the moment of truth. Now’s the time to take the peel and sprinkle some polenta meal over it. This acts like little ball bearings so that the dough doesn’t stick to the peel when you want to put the pizza in the oven. I do this with the peel over the sink so I don’t get the polenta all over the place.  Now all systems are go. Stretch or roll the dough to the size you want and try to get it fairly thin. I use a rolling pin. I saw the pizza guy at Chez Panisse roll out the dough for his pizzas so if it’s good enough for Chez Panisse it’s good enough for me. Now put the dough on the peel and shake the peel a bit to make sure it’s not sticking. Now put on the ingredients and shake it a little to make sure that it’s not sticking and pop that baby into the oven. BTW if it is sticking you can usually get it unstuck with use of a spatula around the edges. You might want to practice the motion that you need to use to get it off of the peel and onto the tile. Do a dry run with just about anything as a pizza substitute and a cold oven. Put something on the peel and move the peel into the oven with a continuous motion and then jerk the peel back  to leave the object on the tile. It’s pretty easy to get the hang of it. After it cooks about 6 or 7 minutes I use the peel to turn the pizza around so that it bakes pretty evenly. Another 5-7 minutes and it should be done. I let it rest a minute or so, cut it into the usual sections with a chef knife and mangiamo!

There are a few things to keep in mind about the toppings. I mostly make white pies, i.e. without tomato sauce so that’s what I’m most familiar with. Keep in mind that some veggies require some kind of precooking. One reason is that the pizza may only be in the oven for 15 minutes or less so if it won’t cook that fast, cook it some first. Slicing things thinly sometimes does the trick. The other reason is that some veggies (or other ingredients) have a lot of moisture that they give off when they are cooked. I learned this the hard way when I put a bunch of raw thinly sliced onions on the dough and made a very soggy pizza. You can give some protection to the dough by brushing or rubbing it with just a little bit of olive oil before putting everything else on. The only other thing that I might add is a plea to have a fairly light hand with the toppings. Too much stuff, especially cheese makes a heavy pie without much character – you could get that at Round Table so shoot for something better when you make your own. The crust really tastes good but you need to give it a chance and not smother it.

Any other hints or experiences with pizza that you’d like to share? That’s what the comments are for – I’d love to hear from you.

After resuming the study of Italian sometime last spring I have done a number of things. I found my old textbook (Da Capo), my Italian/English dictionary and the indispensable “201 Italian Verbs” and started self study. Of course I was inspired to do this after attending the biweekly Gruppo Italiano meetings at which coffee is drunk and the language is spoken. Alas, the lovely Mira is off to Argentina for some unknown period of time. Whether she is overcome with the desire to Tango, is yearning to dramatically improve her Spanish language skills or just has itchy feet may remain a mystery. In any case without her guidance I have fears that the Gruppo may become dormant until (and if) she returns. There is nothing like actually talking with people to improve your skills and especially your confidence to speak the new language. That confidence is important. I have found that the thought of sounding like a 3 year old because of my poor language skills can hold me back from speaking and therefore learning more quickly.

If not talking to people, then exchanging emails certainly helps as well. It can expand your vocabulary, sharpen your grammar and give you a better feel for how people actually use the language. On Facebook I found the Tandem Language Learning BOLOGNA that led me to my first correspondent. Paolo is an orthodontist from Bologna and, like me, is studying a different language in this case English of course. The formula for this kind of exercise is for each of us to write in both English and Italian. Then when responding, I correct his English and he corrects my Italian. It is a tad painstaking but I thought worth the effort. Not, however, for Paolo since he stopped responding after two or three weeks.

Next,  just by chance, I met Rita when playing bridge (you know, the card game) online. She is Sicilian and speaks no English. She is an attractive widow of 74 and nonna of the year 2000 according to her Facebook page!  We corresponded via Facebook for quite a while and may do more yet when she returns from her extended vacation. That has certainly been a different experience and I enjoyed the exchanges. Then there was Sandra who is 25, lives in Bologna and only wrote for about 2 weeks. Finally I have a fairly long correspondence going with Massimiliano who is 39, lives in Turin and works for Fiat and was not offended when I told him the American experience with Fiat (when they were still sold in this country) was summarized by saying that F.I.A.T.  meant Fix It Again Tony. He said that he bleeds black and white, the colors of Juventus, the famous soccer team from Turin. It’s this kind of stuff that makes the interaction fun. I like Massimiliano and hope that our conversations continue for a long time. The photos below are in honor of Massimiliano!

Recently I met Antonio, a chef from Naples. He married a woman from this area who was living in Italy for, I think, 6 years. They moved back here some time ago and his English is still a bit weak. We are trying to get together at least weekly and talk some in both languages. How does he live here without knowing the language as well as he’d like? He is very busy with his work and apparently has little trouble in the kitchens because so many of the staffers in the kitchens speak Spanish and it is not all that difficult for Spanish and Italian speakers to communicate. Of course he is also married to a woman that speaks Italian well. I want to help him with his English and really like being able to talk to him in Italian and get corrections in the process.

Of course most people, including me, take classes and I just started a new one now. The teacher is great, a Roman to her toes. She’s a real kick and keeps the class moving. It’s just about the right level and I can hardly wait for the weekly give and take of her class.

One last item. I mentioned above the the Tandem Language Learning BOLOGNA Facebook page. If anyone reading this has stumbled across anything similar to connect with Italians who want to work on their English I’d love to know about it in a comment. What ways have you found helpful in learning another language?