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Spring is upon us and we often use this season as an opportunity to start fresh and declutter. In doing so I came upon a pair of black suede ankle boots that seem to be standing on their last legs. Their color has become faded and tinged with salt, the soles have thinned and the heels are worn, and yet, I cannot bring myself to part with them. Despite their less than glamorous appearance as of late, they represent more than a mere pair of shoes, they are the physical manifestation of heart warming memories and unforgettable taste adventures.
I bought those boots to wear on my trip to Italy last winter, something cozy and stylish that I could easily dress up or dress down during my 10 day stay. Travelling on my own I wanted to pack light and of course leave room in my suitcase for my new fashion finds. I wore those boots to take my first steps out on my own, on a journey of self discovery. Their first stop, after departing from Toronto, New Jersey, where I would take my connecting flight to Milan. At Newark Airport, I strolled along the terminal and discovered Crumbs Bake Shop, where I had my first taste of the infamous Black and White Cookie (a must-try for someone who also happens to be a huge Seinfeld buff). From there it was onward and upward to Malpensa airport in Milan where I would have the first of many aromatic espressos accompanied by a warm and flaky Nutella filled cornetto.
Over the course of my 10 days in the Italian fashion capital I donned my boots to see some of the city's most noted monuments, to take advantage of the saldi in designer shops and dance the night away in a circolo of folk music. But most notably, to savor exquisite eats with friends and loved ones. A pizzetta all'aperto on Via Dante, a palatte pleasing piadine at the Food and Fashion Cafe followed up with a sensational Sicilian cannolo at Antica Focacceria San Francesco. Tempting thin crust pizzas, such as the Mammola at Pizzeria Ciripizza, (which actually boasts an anti-aging pizza among its many delicious varieties). Mouth-watering pastries in Monza, my morning cappuccio and brioche accompanied by friendly greetings in local caffe bars, and enticing acquisti at the local food markets. They also brought me to and from the homes of my gracious hosts who lovingly prepared for me, paste al forno, risottos, minestrones, costolette, and parmiggiane to name a few.
A few short weeks later, I would once again slip on my stivaletti for a wintery weekend in Montreal. Here too I strolled the picturesque settings, discovering unique finds in small boutiques, taking in the magnificence of Notre Dame, touring the Bell Centre and cheering on the Canadians, all the while stopping to enjoy a notable nosh along the way. The warm and toasty panini at Club Social, fantastic, creamy Fettucini Gigi at Elio's, the melt-in-your-mouth, colorful array of macarons at M Cafe, the sinful and stunningly beautiful hand made truffles from Suite 88 Chocolatier, and the scrumptious smoked meat at Schwartz's. The final steps along my tasty travels in this belle ville , comforting poutine and distinctly delicious bagels.
 
In the months that followed I wore my boots out for many more moments and meals shared with family and friends back at home. Then back into my suitcase on a trip to Canada’s breathtaking West Coast. Vancouver, a waterfront city who’s beauty was equally matched by the tastes it offered up indoors and out (and also the subject of a previous blog).
Their last memorable venture, whisking through wine country for the Taste of Niagara. Two incredible days of food and wine pairings, at 26 wondrous wineries, in the spectacular Niagara peninsula. Where tastes ranged from sweet and savoury, to delicate and earthy, to rich, bold and spicy. Marvelous mouthfuls of fine cheeses, gamey meats, succulent seafood and aromatic herbs accompanied by sparkling whites, fruity roses, oaky reds and candied ice wines.
These particular shoes have certainly accumulated some mileage on my amazing adventures in food and it is because of this, that I find it hard to part from my little black boots, which aside from being meant for walking, were meant for eating. Buon Appetito!
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It’s hard to believe that a food tradition would be born on Good Friday, typically a day of fast, but it is precisely on this day that my mother maintains one of my favorite traditions; the preparation of the Easter Sguta.
As in many cultures, this is a sweet bread that is made to celebrate the holiday, comparable to the Jewish Challa or the Portuguese Bolo Douce. Our sguta (as it is known in the particular dialect of my family’s town in Reggio Calabria) is a deliciously golden cuyura (wreath) with a chewy exterior and a moist anise-scented, melt-in-your mouth interior.
The process of making this traditional Easter bread takes 2 days and begins on Good Friday. Early in the morning I can recall my mother pulling out a huge plastic tub along with all her ingredients to begin the bread making. As a child it was fun to watch her getting her hands in the sticky dough and kneading it, and even more exciting was being able to get my hands in there as well. As I grew, I went from playing with the dough, to being able to knead it myself, and I have to admit that there is something so therapeutic and gratifying about connecting with the ingredients and feeling them between your fingers. It is simply amazing to see the transformation of a well of ingredients, eggs, flour and sugar, turn into a smooth and airy dough.
Once the kneading was done, the waiting began. The dough was covered up and set aside for a good part of the day to rise. As children, we were told that dough was being put to bed as my mother covered her large mixing basket with a heavy blanket. Once the allotted amount of time had gone by, the next step began. My mother would uncover a huge mass of risen dough, knead it down again and then begin to tear off pieces which would be rolled out and shaped. The shaping was always the best part and the one task we were allowed to help with. We formed braids and wreaths, small buns and even our initials, but the one shape that was always first, was the shape of a cross. In my eyes, it was an offering up to the Lord as part of the Easter celebration. That one cross would bless the rest of the bounty that formed a traditional part of our Easter table.
Another part of the tradition is working eggs into the shapes, an obvious symbol of the holiday and a tasty addition that would feed us at lunch on Holy Saturday.
Once the sgute had been formed, they were once again put to sleep for the night, after which I too would go to bed and dream of our wonderful sweet braided bread whose scent would come wafting through the house and awake us the next morning. It always seemed miraculous that these shiny glazed loaves were warm and ready to be eaten on Saturday morning, at which time we would break the Lenten fast by breaking the bread and dunking it into a caffe latte.
Later at lunch, we would once again partake in devouring the loaves only this time cracking open the eggs and eating them alongside homemade spicy soppressata and salty cheese. The sweet and savory combination of the meal is unmistakable. Over the years we have even discovered that the little golden buns made an incredible ice-cream sandwich or delicious vessel for Nutella as well.
The sguta has been a longstanding Easter tradition that I cherish and will continue with my daughters, hoping that it captures for them all the heartfelt memories that it does for me.
Ingredients:
12 large eggs
½ cup olive oil
½ cup white wine (at room temperature)
2-3 cups sugar (1 cup for every kilo of flour)
1 packet of dry yeast (80 gram packet of Fleischmann’s)
1 cup of warm water (to dissolve yeast) + 1 additional cup
3 kg all-purpose flour (approx. 1 kg for every 4 eggs)
1 packet Lievito Bertolini
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. anise extract
Additional whole eggs for decorating
Directions:
Beat the eggs and sugar together and then add remaining wet ingredients.
Measure the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and create a well for the egg mixture. Pour the wet ingredients into the well, then add the dissolved yeast and the additional cup of warm water and start mixing together the dough. Keep a bowl of warm water nearby to dip your hands into from time to time to help work with the sticky dough. Thoroughly knead the dough (approximately ½ hour) until you get a firm smooth dough. To ensure the proper consistency of the dough, cut it with a knife and check to see that there are tiny air bubbles throughout it.
Form into a large loaf and cover with a blanket and allow to rise (approximately 5-6 hours). Once the dough has risen, knead it again and form it into balls of dough to be stretched for shaping, keeping unused dough covered with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out. Form the dough into wreaths, braids, buns, being sure to weave in the whole eggs. Place the shapes onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, cover and let rise over night. When ready for baking, brush the leavened braids with an egg wash and place in a preheated 275 degree oven. Bake until they are golden switching the loaves from the bottom to the top rack halfway through. Remove from oven, allow to cool and enjoy. Buona Pasqua e Buon Appetito!
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They are pastel bites that melt on the tongue and make the mouth sing, delightful confections currently taking the dessert world by storm, macarons.
They are sweet meringue-based cookies made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar and almond flour. Then can be further embellished by food coloring and exotic flavorings and are commonly sandwiched with buttercream, jam or ganache filling. They are characterized by a smooth, domed top, ruffled circumference known as the "foot" and flat base. They have an egg shell-like exterior and a light moist interior that once fused with their filling create a wonderful marriage of taste and texture for the taste buds.
Often confused with their North American counterpart the coconut macaroon, their only similarity is their chewiness, one has very little do with the other. Despite their massive popularity of late, macarons (spelled with only one "o") are dainty delights whose origins date back to the 1500's. They can be traced back to Venice during the Renaissance. In fact, the name macaron comes from the Italian maccherone, which translates to "fine dough" (this by the way is also where the name for the pasta came from, but that's another story). It is believed that delicate biscuit was brought to France by Caterina di Medici and her pastry chefs, but didn't gain notoriety until 1792 when two Carmelite nuns seeking asylum in the town of Nancy, during the French Revolution, baked and sold macarons in order to support themselves and soon became known as the "Macaron Sisters". Other accounts state that the sisters created the cookie to fit the strict dietary requirements of their order. No matter the variance in tale, the one commonality is that the treats they created were a simple combination of ground almonds, egg whites and sugar, a humble cookie, without a filling. The introduction of the macaron as a sweet sandwich came in the 1900's when Pierre Desfontaines, chef of the famed Parisian pastry shop and cafe Ladurée, decided to take two of the cookies and fill them with ganache. Almost 150 years later, the pastisserie has become the macaroon mecca of Paris selling 15,000 a day and making it a definite stop in the city of love, for lovers of the almond cookie.
The almond merengue exploded onto the pastry scene after the 2006 film “Marie Antoinette” featured star Kirsten Dunst satisfying her sweet tooth by indulging in the Ladurée macarons. They have now become known the world over. Outside of France, where macarons are even served at McDonald's, they are extremely popular in Switzerland where they are known as Luxemburgerli, in Japan, known as the "makaron", in Korea known as the "ma-ka-rong" in Korea and of course here in North America, where they are available in a myriad of flavors and a rainbow of colors.
So legendary has the pride of France become, that it is celebrated with its own day. In 2006, Pierre Herme of the noted Parisian boutique patisserie began Le Jour du Macaron, a day dedicated to honoring the famed treat, but also to giving back. In collaboration other members of the prestigious Association Relais Desserts, Herme handed out free macarons to his patrons in the hopes that they in turn would make a donation to charity. The day was hugely successful in raising money and awareness, and is now celebrating its 7th anniversary. Le Jour du Macaron has expanded beyond the French border to other corners of the world, including here in Toronto, where some of the city’s finest pastry shops will be handing out free macarons and 25 percent of all additional sales will be donated to a worthy cause. So enjoy an elegant sweet today and honor the magnificent macaron.
Bon Appetito!
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Buon Onomastico, Happy Name Day, a common augurio if you happen to bear the name of a celebrated saint, and if that name is Giuseppe, it is one of the most recognized and exalted in Italy. Not only those named Joseph are honored, but all fathers as well, as March 19th is observed as the Festa del Papa. There are many ways to commemorate the occasion, the greatest of which, enjoying a heavenly treat known as a zeppola or St. Joseph's Day cake.
The delightful golden wreaths, also known as sfinge, crispelli, or bigne' di S. Giuseppe, are typically light-weight, deep fried rings, usually topped with powdered sugar and may be filled with custard, jelly, pastry cream or a butter and honey mixture. Depending on the region in which they are produced, their consistency ranges from light and puffy, to bread or pasta-like. Their popularity has extended beyond their regions of origin, Rome, Naples and Sicily to a following in many Italian communities abroad.
The tradition of zeppole dates back to 500AC and the Latin celebration of Baccanali on March 17th where ancient Romans honored the gods of wine (Bacchus) and wheat (Silinus) were by consuming copious amount of wine and wheat-flour fritters. Somewhere along the course of history, the celebration of the divinities crossed over with the patronage of St. Joseph on March 19th and was bestowed with a zeppola. A derivative of the Baccanali fried dough, the modern-day zeppola is said to have been created in the 19th century by a convent of monks and perfected by Neopolitan baker Pasquale Pintauro. The well-known pastry chef had the tremendously successful idea of frying rings of choux pastry, piping them with pastry cream, dusting them in powdered sugar and crowning them with amarena cherries. The phenomenal aroma of this process was sent wafting through the city streets as Pintauro would churn them out from a friggitore (frying stall) on the sidewalk just outside his shop. The pastries grew in popularity and soon became synonymous with the festival of the beloved saint. In Naples they are often referred to as zeppole del pasticcerie to distinguish them from savory fritters also made during celebratory periods in southern Italy.
While it was a native of Napoli who made them famous, it is often argued that Sicilians were the original creators of the famed pasti , that they refer to as sfinzi. During a period of severe drought in the Middle Ages, the people of Sicily prayed to St. Joseph for rain and in return promised him a great feast. When St. Joseph complied with their request, he got a feast named in his honor. Among the dishes laid out on St. Joseph's table were treats made of fried dough that were rolled in sugar or drizzled with honey. The addition of the creamy filling came later.
No matter their specific birthplace, they are a specialty enjoyed across the Italian peninsula and beyond on March 19th when pasticcerie and friggitorie produce them in astonishing quantity. The tradition of eating the sweet, delicate pasta bigne flavored with cream and cherries is one that must be observed. Auguri di San Giuseppe and Buon Appetito!
For more information and even poetry about zeppole, visit the official website at:
www.zeppola.it
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Milk's favorite cookie turns 100 today and the little black and white treat has certainly been aging gracefully. The little cookie sandwich is timeless and has pleased the palates of young and old alike over the past century. While other variations have emerged over the years such as the short lived lemon, and later the double stuffed, golden , fudge cream with peanut butter or mint, and even ice-cream sandwich Oreos in vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Whatever the flavor, its popularity is undeniable. Since its introduction, over 491 billion Oreo cookies have been sold, making them the best-selling cookie of the 20th century.
The original birth name of the Oreo, conceived on March 6, 1912 in Chelsea, New York was the Oreo Biscuit. In 1921 it was changed to Oreo sandwich, followed by Oreo Crème Sandwich in 1948 until it took on its final pseudonym the Oreo Chocolate Sandwich cookie in 1974. Each face of the cookie developed by the National Biscuit Company (later rebranded Nabisco), has been stamped with exactly 12 flowers and the Oreo name in the centre since its beginnings. The sweet white filling usually referred to as cream, sandwiched between two circular chocolate cookies had such an enormous following in North America that Nabisco continued to introduce its beloved biscuit across the globe. Since the 1990’s Oreos have ventured into the Asian, Australian, European and South American markets, each with tremendous success, often specializing for their target audience, for example the Green Tea Oreo introduced in Japan and the Dulce de Leche Oreo introduced in Chile and Argentina.
The famed cookie, also knows how to dress up for a special occasion, it has been football shaped to celebrate Superbowl and has donned the appropriate color for the season, blue and yellow cream for spring, orange cream for Halloween and red and green for Christmas. It’s even decked out in sprinkles and birthday-cake flavored filling for this monumental birthday.
Changing consumer needs have not gone unnoticed by the company either, in recent years, Nabisco has introduced the Organic Oreo, the Oreo Thinsations (100 calorie pack), the Sugar Free Oreo and the Reduced Fat Oreo. The crowd pleasing confection has also partnered with other leading food manufacturers to expand its product line beyond cookies to ice-cream and other frosty treats, cereal, pudding, chocolate candy bars and even pie crust. Oreos have also become an invaluable ingredient in the kitchen, aiding in the creation of beverages, parfaits, candies, cheesecakes, frozen desserts, pies and tarts, cakes and cupcakes and cookies and bars. There are seemingly endless possibilities for the use of this wonderful wafer.
Whether you twist it, break it in half, lick it, dunk it or just bite right in, be sure to pair it with a tall glass of milk and celebrate Oreo’s 100th Birthday!
Buon Appetito!
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