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Next Restaurant: Sicily

June 17, 2012 in Food, Italian, Restaurants with 4 Comments

guttuso vucciria21 Next Restaurant: Sicily

As in certain sweet and savory dishes that contain everything, where the savory merges into the sweet and the sweet into the savory, dishes that seem to realize a hungry man’s dream, so the most abundant and overflowing markets, the richest and most festive and the most baroque, are those of the poor countries where the spectre of hunger is always hovering. . . in Baghdad, Valencia or Palermo, a market is more than a market . . . it’s a vision, a dream, a mirage.

-Leonardo Sciascia, Sicilian novelist

La Vucciria, Renato Guttuso’s remarkable portrait of the Palermo market that has stuffed Sicilian bellies for seven centuries offers just such an illusion. An astute eye enhanced by a fanciful imagination can peer straight into the Mezzogiorno’s undulating entrails. That term describes  the craggy, volcanic island that teeters atop the point in the Mediterranean where “Europe is no longer entirely Europe but also Africa, Asia, and America.” Welcome to a world of deceptive simplicity and consistently circumvented expectation. Welcome to Next Restaurant: Sicily. Continue Reading…

Bitter Rice / Riso Amaro (1949)

December 21, 2011 in Film, Italian, Other Cuisines, Reviews with 0 Comments

bitterrice 300x212 Bitter Rice / Riso Amaro (1949)

Naked feet grazed by swampy grass. A gushing stream splashed against smooth skin. The camera then ascends to reveal dozens of women, leg deep in a brackish pond. Their backs bent. The sun beating down overhead. With their faces obscured by woven hats, they slave anonymously.  Cut to a closeup of a fedora festooned radio personality. He may well have emerged from the shadows of Warner’s backlot. He ascends his pulpit to preach of small bones and small bodies. Working women of northern Italy united to bring forth the bounty that will birth their homeland’s greatest dish. Risotto, that clingy stove top marvel.

The year is 1949. The action is set aside the Piedmontese paddy fields that intermittently dot the foggy Po River valley. The film is Bitter Rice, a post-war picture little seen stateside prior to 2011. This fall it graced TCM, Criterion’s Hulu Plus channel, and Chicago’s Italian Culture Institute. Though his name won’t ring many bells, director Giuseppe De Santis was a prominent figure in the neorealist landscape. A proper appreciation of his early directorial work hinges on knowledge of his screenwriting collaboration on Luchino Visconti’s debut Ossessione (an early adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice). Chronologically, it demonstrates that De Santis was not a latecomer to the movement. It was his pen that shaped key aspects of the pictures that heralded a new aesthetic. Continue Reading…

Cauliflower Ragu

May 26, 2011 in Food, Italian, Other Cuisines with 0 Comments

IMG 3573 300x200 Cauliflower Ragu

Observe the lowly cauliflower. Rent asunder,  it resembles a mad scientist’s experiment gone awry. Often considered broccoli’s  insipid, tasteless cousin, it can be a tough sale. It was India’s delicious array of vegetarian dishes that first opened my eyes, but it was Molto Mario that revealed all. Bear in mind that multiple friends and acquaintances have accused me of prejudice toward Emilia Romagnia’s chief American ambassador. The claim I can’t get past his belly or waterproof trotters. I’ll admit that I’ve shied away from him, but that has more to do with the excellence of Marcella Hazan, Claudia Roden, and Lynn Rosetta Kasper than directed toward Mr. Batalli.  Let this dish, one of many high points from Molto Gusto (his quick dinner book), stand as proof of my acknowledgement of his talents. What’s more, this dish cost $9.76. It provided dinner for two and a pair of gut busting lunches. Elitist, sky high priced nuevo-Italiano fare this is not. Continue Reading…

Pork Loin Braised in Milk, Bolognese Style

May 15, 2011 in Food, Italian with 0 Comments

IMG 35611 300x200 Pork Loin Braised in Milk, Bolognese Style

A few weeks ago I cooked a dish that would’ve made Christopher Columbus proud. Cradle of Flavor‘s Spice Braised Tuna was just that; a compilation of practically every spice cultivated in the West Indies. While intriguing, at times it was too much to process. The fish was lost to the spicy amalgam. Some time later I was fortunate enough to have a supreme of chicken (the tenderest part of the breast) cooked sous vide with a minimum of flavorings. It was, perhaps the closest I’ve come to tasting chicken as it truly is. There was nothing to mask its natural flavor. No need to douse it with overpowering sauces.

It is with that idea in mind that I approach Marcella Hazan’s Pork Loin Braised in Milk, Bolognese Style. Though it requires nearly three hours on the stove top, it is the simplest preparation imaginable. A kilo of pork is browned in an oil/butter mix; a roux of sorts. A cup of salt and peppered whole milk is added. It is simmered in the slowly browning sauce. Form time to time it is turned. Additional milk is splashed. That’s it. No herbs. No esoteric ingredients. Nothing you don’t already have in your kitchen. Utter simplicity. Though I have no plans to step away from more complex dishes, the idea of devoting some of my summer to the perfection of simple dishes is extremely appealing. In this dish’s case, I would be more careful during the final stages. I cooked away too much of the sauce leaving very little to smear about with the pork and sage braised carrots.

 

Sicily: Pasta con le Sarde

February 23, 2011 in Food, Italian with 0 Comments

IMG 28271 300x200 Sicily: Pasta con le Sarde

Oh, the joys of working a second shift job. The March 2011 Saveur showed up last night. Aside from a fascinating article about the closing of El Bulli and a profile of Chicago’s own The Girl and the Goat, it features recipes from Sicily and Haiti. This being a season where fresh sardines are not only available, but easy to find, I indulged in a Sicilian lunch. I’ll post a link to the recipe once the issue goes live on the magazine’s site, but here’s the low down. Continue Reading…

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