Tag: cooking

[Episode 100] The Meta of Food – All About Food Besides Eating It!

Jason is back on the podcast for one last, final episode! Yes, Thoughts on the Table ends today as it hits its 100th episode with the biggest topic we could think of: the meta of food, i.e. anything that has to do with food besides the physical sensations of actually eating it. Join us in our journey through this fascinating subject as we touch on the concept of authenticity and on how culture influences our appreciation of flavor.

Conversely, in the second part of the episode, Jason and I discuss some cooking trends that affect the flavor of food. These include the tendency to finish cooking pasta in its sauce and to alter traditional recipes to make them visually pleasing for sharing on social media, more so than with our guests!

Special Thanks

I’d like to thank all of you who have been listening and the 65 amazing guests that I had the pleasure of interviewing and collaborating with. I’d like to make a special mention to those who have bought into the project and really helped drive it, starting with Jason, and including Gino De Blasio, Manu, Frank Fariello, Diana Zahuranec, Raffaella De Amici, Rick Zullo, David Scott Allen, Nick Zingale, Mark Preston, Simon Pagotto, Melinda King, Tina Prestia, Sim Salis, Eva, Diana Pinto – who also contributed to this last episode with her precious research and insight.

Episode References

Carbonaragate

Cookbooks

  • Marcella Cucina, by Marcella Hazan, William Morrow Cookbooks, 1997
  • Millericette, by Erina Gavotti, A.Vallardi, 1995
  • Mangiare e Bere all’Italiana, by Luigi Carnacina and Luigi Veronelli, Garzanti, 1962
  • Recipes and Memories, by Sophia Loren, GT Publishing Corporation, 2000
  • Le Quattro Stagioni in Cucina, by Lisa Biondi, AMZ Editrice, 1981
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[Thoughts on the Table – 99] Taste and Flavor Flashbacks with Jason and Paolo

As Thoughts on the Table approaches 100 episodes, I chose to dedicate episode 99 to the series’ beginnings, dating back to August 2013. I was an avid podcast listener and, inspired by great productions like This American Life and Stuff You Should Know, I involved my friend and then-coworker, Jason, and branched off from my blog to try the more colloquial format of a podcast.

Today’s issue contains extracts from the first six episodes where Jason and I discuss taste and flavor, as well as cultural differences between Italy, North America, and Japan. Among other topics, we touched on why as an Italian I would never try to put salt on pasta, whether eating spicy food can damage our taste buds, the reason why desserts tend to end the meal, why many people learn to appreciate “spoiled” foods like Gorgonzola and Nattō, what exactly astringency is, and the path to appreciating subtle flavors. To wrap up the selection, I couldn’t help but include extracts from episode seven, a recording that took place right in the center of Milan on Jason’s impressions from visiting Italy for the first time.

After these seven episodes, Jason could no longer continue as a co-host. So I started looking for a new podcast partner by enlisting some of my dearest blogger friends as collaborators. This eventually gave me the idea to turn the podcast towards the format of the interview. I enjoyed it a lot. With practice, I learned to connect with my guests in a way that would capture their spontaneity in entertaining and informative chats, and I made many lasting connections as a result, for which I’m grateful. My guests included food bloggers, writers, cookbook authors, chefs, food professionals, food photographers, event organizers, cooking instructors, and fellow podcasters. Overall, in nearly nine years of activity, Thoughts on the Table saw a total of 65 collaborators for a combined playback time of 39 hours, 19 minutes, and 13 seconds.

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Paccheri with Mushrooms, Gorgonzola, and Mascarpone Cream

Paccheri are undoubtedly the most majestic kind of short pasta one can find! With a diameter of 1 ½ inch (4 cm), thick walls, and a rough surface, each guarantees an unbeatable bite, or two!

The Paccheri shape originates in the Campania region of Italy, which is also where you find Gragnano – a town near Naples recognized as the capital of dried pasta. As you can imagine, when I stumbled upon a box of Paccheri made in Gragnano, I couldn’t resist!

However, I was still waiting for inspiration for the right sauce that would bring out the fantastic character of this pasta. As a northern Italian, now that it’s colder outside, I naturally drifted towards creamy mushrooms. But that wasn’t enough. So I added Gorgonzola for a pleasant blue kick and Mascarpone for extra creaminess and depth. The resulting recipe is very straightforward, quick to make, and very forgiving in the amounts, even in the timing.

Ingredients for 2 servings

  • 5 oz Paccheri (150 g) (can also use Rigatoni or other short dried pasta of sufficient presence)
  • 1 Tbsp coarse salt
  • 5-6 chestnut mushrooms (about 100 g), sliced
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp white wine
  • 2 Tbsp Mascarpone (about 75 g)
  • 2 Tbsp Gorgonzola (about 75 g)
  • 1/4 cup double cream
  • 1/4 cup Parmigiano, grated
  • table salt

Preparation

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a Tbsp of coarse salt per 2 liters of water.
2. In a large nonstick pan, heat up oil and butter, add the crushed garlic.

3. Add the sliced mushrooms to the pan and roast them at high heat.
4. Continue sautéing the mushrooms until they have softened.

5. Start boiling the pasta for the time written on the box (usually around 14 minutes), which corresponds to an al-dente cooking level.
6. Add a splash of white wine to the mushrooms and let evaporate completely.

7. When the pasta is 5 minutes from ready, go back to the mushrooms, remove the garlic, and season lightly with salt.
8. Add the Mascarpone, Gorgonzola, and cream.

9. Still keeping very low heat, add ½ of the grated Parmigiano and mix everything into a creamy sauce. Note: should the sauce become too thick, add some of the pasta water.
10. When the pasta is ready, drain it quickly and add it to the pan with the sauce. Note: save some of the pasta water by draining the pasta back into the pan where it was boiled.

11. Finish cooking the pasta in the sauce for a couple of minutes, adding some of the pasta water to ensure the sauce remains silky smooth. This won’t overcook the pasta.
12. Plate gently into preheated bowls, then sprinkle with the rest of the Parmigiano.

Paccheri with Mushrooms, Gorgonzola, and Mascarpone Cream

Yield: 2 servings

Total Time: 30 minutes

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Paccheri with Mushrooms, Gorgonzola, and Mascarpone Cream

Ingredients

  • 5 oz Paccheri (150 g) (can also use Rigatoni or other short dried pasta of sufficient presence)
  • 1 Tbsp coarse salt
  • 5-6 chestnut mushrooms (about 100 g), sliced
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp white wine
  • 2 Tbsp Mascarpone (about 75 g)
  • 2 Tbsp Gorgonzola (about 75 g)
  • 1/4 cup double cream
  • 1/4 cup Parmigiano, grated
  • table salt

Preparation

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a Tbsp of coarse salt per 2 liters of water.
  2. In a large nonstick pan, heat up oil and butter, add the crushed garlic.
  3. Add the sliced mushrooms to the pan and roast them at high heat.
  4. Continue until the mushrooms have softened.
  5. Start boiling the pasta for the time written on the box (usually around 14 minutes).
  6. Add a splash of white wine to the pan and let it evaporate completely.
  7. When the pasta is 5 minutes from ready, go back to the mushrooms pan, remove the garlic, and season them lightly with salt.
  8. Then add the Mascarpone, the Gorgonzola, and the cream.
  9. Still keeping very low heat, add 1/2 of the grated Parmigiano and mix everything into a creamy sauce. Note: should the sauce become too thick, add some of the pasta water.
  10. When the pasta is ready, drain it quickly and add it to the pan with the sauce. Note: save some of the pasta water by draining the pasta back into the pan where it was boiled.
  11. Finish cooking the pasta in the sauce for a couple of minutes, adding some of the pasta water to ensure the sauce remains silky smooth. This won't overcook the pasta.
  12. Plate gently into preheated bowls, then sprinkle with the rest of the Parmigiano.
https://www.disgracesonthemenu.com/2021/12/paccheri-with-mushrooms-gorgonzola-and-mascarpone-cream.html

[Thoughts on the Table – 95] Introducing Chicca Maione from Chicca’s Cooking Club

My guest today is Chicca Maione, an extraordinary cooking instructor for both in-person and online classes on Italian cuisine. Based in Castagneto Carducci – Bolgheri, Tuscany, Chicca and her partners have created a community of people from all over the world who love Italian food and participate in workshops, share their experiences, and create connections.

During the episode, Chicca invites everyone to attend their free cooking workshop on October 2nd. Please follow this link for all of the details and to register.

Chicca MaioneBesides talking about her classes, Chicca shares her fascinating story, from her Neapolitan origins to the amazing experience of cycling all over the world for over ten years, before settling in Tuscany and seeing her love for food and cooking materialize into a new career.

In the episode, Chicca Maione also goes over her philosophy on food, how to bring joy into the kitchen, and the benefits of cooking every day. Finally, she talks about the food she cooks the most (Italian-Mediterranean), which was studied for its links to health and wellbeing (as I had touched on in a previous episode with Diana Zahuranec).

To know more about Chicca and her Cooking Club, please check out her website: cookingintuscany.cc as well as her page on Facebook, TripAdvisor, YouTube, and Instagram.

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Eleven years of blogging, eight of podcasting

Another year! The good news is that this blog is still active and luckily keeps being found by those searching for Italian specialties like pizzoccheri or canederli or Italian misconceptions like my 6 Italian myths. The bad news of course is that I haven’t posted any new articles or recipes this year. I know, it’s terrible – but it’s also okay, given that social media has taken the place of blogging in many ways.

But I did resume podcasting (yay!) and produced 16 new episodes with as many guests and collaborations this past year! This continues to be a lot of fun for me and I’ve already started to work on a new round of episodes to hopefully reach my dream milestone of 100 episodes very soon!

Here is a list of the episodes this year. Thanks again to all of my wonderful guests!

On a personal level, we keep well here in southern England, still working from home and enjoying plenty of homecooked food. We pretty much spend our time planning meals, cooking, cleaning the kitchen, and being grateful for having a dishwasher. As the government lifted all social distancing measures exactly two weeks ago, we are far from back to normal, unfortunately. Traveling is still not really possible, including to and from Italy which of course breaks our hearts. But we enjoy our area, which is wonderfully green after a very wet summer, and spending time with our cat Rascal, who just turned 19, overall doing great and still a great source of comfort and inspiration to us both.

I hope you’re all well, wherever you are, and please get in touch for collaborations, to be on the podcast, or just to say hi – I’d love that 🙂

[Thoughts on the Table – 92] The Quest for Authentic & Original Recipes, with Diana Pinto

Thoughts on the Table is back with a new guest, Diana Pinto, and a very special episode. As she describes it, Diana became interested in noting recipe variations across different cookbooks. Incidentally and unexpectedly, this brought her to challenge the concept of authenticity or at least the implication that there’s one true way to cook traditional Italian dishes, a claim that we see so frequently on social media and that risks having a deeply damaging effect.

Diana mentions several cookbooks and authors (though she doesn’t endorse them all necessarily!) Here is a written list for your reference, in order of “appearance”.

  • The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
  • Anna del Conte
  • La Scienza in Cucina e l’Arte di Mangiar Bene by Pellegrino Artusi
  • Il Talismano della Felicita` by Ada Boni
  • Il Cucchiaio d’Argento / The Silver Spoon
  • Sauces and Shapes by Oretta Zanini de Vita
  • Popes, Peasants, and Shepherds by Oretta Zanini de Vita
  • The Italian Baker by Carol Field
  • Le Ricette Regionali Italiane by Anna Gosetti della Salda

During the show, we also mention bloggers Frank Fariello (Memorie di Angelina) and Tina Prestia (Tina’s Table) who were previous podcast guests and also touched on the theme of authenticity:

You can follow Diana Pinto on Instagram @cremafrangipane and on YouTube.

The music in the episode is by www.purple-planet.com.

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[Thoughts on the Table – 84] Introducing Christine from Italian Dish Podcast

My guest today is Christine from Italian Dish Podcast, a fantastic audio project featuring one recipe per episode from Christine’s point of view of an American in Florence. With that as a premise, Christine’s charming storytelling, fueled by her love for food and her fascination with cooking, brings each dish to life via an uncut chronicle of the cooking process, with digressions on the ingredients and the traditions that surround the dish.

During our chat, Christine and I compare our experiences fitting in into the culture of our adoptive homes and how we found it important to try to master the language, but also the local cuisine. Christine also reflects on how talking-while-cooking helps her be her real self and connect with her audience. Finally, we digress on the difficult task of cooking Italian food for native Italians, with the high bars set by their nonnas and with the brutal honesty they are known for!

You can listen to Christine’s Italian Dish Podcast on italiandishpodcast.com as well as stream or download it on any podcast client, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher. You can connect with Christine on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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[Thoughts on the Table – 83] Introducing Cooking with Mamma Marzia Cookbook

Marzia Bellotti Molatore from Bella Cibo introduces her first cookbook titled Cooking with Mamma Marzia – Authentic Italian Recipes for the Whole Family.

In the episode, Marzia describes how much this cookbook means to her and the importance of creating family traditions in the kitchen. In the second part, Marzia talks about a few of the recipes featured in the book: Casatiello Napoletano (savory stuffed bread), polenta Taragna (buckwheat polenta with cheese), pizzoccheri, pesce all’acqua pazza (“crazy water” poached fish), vitello tonnato (veal with tuna sauce), and crostoli (fried sweets)!

You can order Cooking with Mamma Marzia on www.mammamarzia.ca. You can hear Marzia’s touching story from her own voice on episode 71. For daily updates, Marzia is also on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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a href="../2020/10/romano-pepper-soup.html" rel="bookmark">Romano Pepper Soup

Among all vegetables, peppers arguably have the most unique flavor! Romano peppers are sweeter and caramelize wonderfully when roasted, which makes them a great addition to a tomato-based soup, balancing its acidity and gaining depth in return.

If this isn’t enough, like most Italian soups this recipe makes use of the classic celery/carrot/onion soffritto both as a thickener and for its flavor. Again, roasting is key to cause browning and the development of the many aromatic compounds that go with it. 

The predictable addition of chili powder adds yet another layer of complexity and, of course, the nerve endings stimulus that we perceive as heat (please check out my very first podcast titled Salty and Spicy to hear more about the chemistry involved.)

Oh, this recipe happens to be vegan 🙂 Enjoy!

Romano Pepper Soup

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Romano Pepper Soup

Ingredients

  • 1/4 onion, chopped
  • 2 celery sticks, sliced
  • 1 carrot, cubed
  • 2 red 'Romano' peppers, sliced
  • 200 g 'passata' strained tomatoes
  • 20 g tomato paste
  • 2 cups vegetable stock
  • olive oil
  • salt
  • chili powder
  • black pepper, ground

Preparation

  1. Roast the peppers in olive oil, with some salt, in a frying pan at medium heat until tender - 15 minutes (add a splash of water from time to time if the peppers start to burn).
  2. Meanwhile, roast the other veggies in olive oil for 10 minutes at high heat in a medium pot.
  3. Add the roasted peppers, the strained tomatoes, the tomato paste, and the veggie stock to the pot with the vegetables. Bring to a boil.
  4. Lower the heat and cook for 1/2 hr stirring from time to time.
  5. Strain the soup using a strainer or a food mill with a fine mesh.
  6. Re-add the strained soup to the pot and resume cooking for another 1/2 hr stirring occasionally.
  7. Add chili powder to taste and adjust the salt.
  8. Serve with a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper.
https://www.disgracesonthemenu.com/2020/10/romano-pepper-soup.html