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What are we bringing with us?
What are we bringing into the new year? That’s the age old question we seem to ask ourselves every year. The start of a new year brings heavy reflection from the year past. I started this newsletter many times, all flowing in very different directions from uplifting to depressing to ironic - it makes me laugh just thinking about the range of emotions this page has seen. But, I’ve decided, that if I want to get anything down on this blank page and into your inbox, I better stop worrying about the long laundry list of wants and goals for 2024 and just jump straight into it. As if it were any other day, without the list of goals I’d like to set for myself and somehow conveniently forget I set them. Trust me, I have goals, I think that’s true for us all. Whether they’re small or big or unrecognizable, they’re somewhere; tucked away, waiting to be achieved. My goal today is to bring you a newsletter you’ll be happy to read, with a recipe you’ll want to cook. So maybe, at the end of the day, I’d like to set a goal for each day. Because it’s the little wins that turn into the big ones, right? Let’s jump into another year of sharing recipes, stories, funny moments, not so funny moments, random thoughts, and overall deliciousness…shall we?
Insalata russa
I’ve spent Christmas and New Years in Italy for the past 3 years - it’s a beautiful time of year in most places, but Italy has an added benefit, the food. And my gosh, am I stuffed to the rafters with salami, cheese, panettone, chocolates, pasta, insalata russa (ear marking this, I’ll explain below)…you name it, we probably ate it. As you know, I was sick for some of the holiday season. A straight eight days in bed, but I made it up and out of the mattress by Christmas Eve and I guess that’s what matters.
Christmas Eve in Italy is fish based. Just like Christmas Eve in most Italian-American families (mine included), the meal is centered around fish. Not only did we indulge in the many fish that arrived at the table, but there’s another special dish that’s served during this time of year. Insalata russa - Russian salad. Now, my first question to my Italian family this year was the question you’re probably asking yourself. Why Russian salad? What makes it Russian? And why during Christmas? And why are Italian’s making and naming this Russian salad? The answer…it’s tradition, it’s something we just do. I respect that, but my curiosity led me to Wikipedia. There’s a laundry list of theories behind the great insalata russa, but what I’d like to comment on is the fact that this dish is simply a potato salad with additional vegetables mixed throughout. But I must give it more credit than that, in fact it’s a tedious dish to make. The potatoes are expertly cut into small cubes, along with carrots, peas, eggs, and pickles; all tossed together with mayonnaise. Fancy potato salad right? I know. Insalata russa is served as an appetizer and while you might be thinking that there’s nothing wrong with that, think again. Potato salad followed by 5 more courses is a heavy plate to hold.
The theories of insalata russa, which is sometimes known as Olivier salad, include one in which Belgian chef, Lucien Olivier, created the salad. Olivier opened a famous French restaurant in Moscow called the Hermitage in 1864 where he invented his coveted salad. Although his recipe was a secret, it also included ingredients like meat and fish, making it a rich mans dish.
The theory I think I love the most is that this dish was cooked for Catherine de Medici when she moved from her home in Florence to France. She brought her cooks in tow who also brought recipes from Italy with them. It wouldn’t have been called insalata russa during this decade as it was the 16th century. However, if this is the salad’s origin, a salad cooked by Italian chefs in France for the Medici family, then it makes sense that Lucien Olivier, a French cuisine cook, would have brought this dish from France to Moscow in the 1860s.
The dish truly goes full circle and I’m sure each country would like to claim it as their own. It’s a funny thought and one that’s overall amusing; that our top food centric countries are looking to claim this simple potato salad as their own. Pretty ironic if you ask me.
House hunting & Carpi for Capodanno
And just like that, Christmas came and went and New Years crept up. We spent the days leading up putzing around Rome and even took a trip to visit a house in Orvieto. This is a house I’ve visited twice, but Gianluca needed to see it to believe in its full potential. It has what we’re looking for but with lots of work to be done. I’m counting on you all to reassure me that you’ll come visit! What do you say? Would you like to visit us in the Italian countryside for cooking classes, wine tastings, retreats? We need all the encouragement we can get to push this project along. It’s taking the leap into the unknown that’s most scary, but we’re being diligent and putting it on paper. Who knows, you might have a new hot spot in Italy to visit soon.
Carpi. We traveled to Carpi for Capodanno (New Years Eve, conveniently Gianluca’s birthday) with a group of friends who are based all across Italy. We rented a big villa which fit 10 adults and 2 babies (yes, we’re at the age where some of us are totting babies!!!). Carpi is located just outside Modena - the home of famous chef, Massimo Bottura. This area is completely different from anywhere else in Italy. For starters, it’s extremely flat. No rolling hills just flat land. And second, it’s very foggy. I know I’m not selling it, but the city of Modena is beautiful and we found the people to be very kind and gentle. You all know me - I have one million places saved on my maps so obviously, without a doubt, I knew I had something up my sleeve for Modena. And once again, it brought us to the perfect spot.
I’m not sure if it was the perfect spot for our group of 10 adults and 2 children, mostly because this was a bar. Imagine - very few seats, quick coffee’s, aperol spritz, and small dishes. But I knew we had to try the one and only dish they were known for - gnocco fritto. These are special. Think fried dough with various cold cuts. Is there anything better? And just like that, the bar was frying up enough gnocco fritto for 10 people, prosecco glasses chimed, and the babies were passed around the table (giving the parents a free hand to bite into the warm fried dough).
What we found in this bar was more than gnocco fritto, it was the warmth of the family who ran it. Once we had cleaned the plates of fried dough and prosciutto, the owner brought us bowls of zabaglione. If you’ve never tried zabaglione, I highly recommend you find it and eat it straight away. It’s simply made of whipped egg yolks, sugar, sometimes a sweet wine, and topped with a dusting of coco powder. It’s devine and rich but light at the same time, if that even makes sense? The son came to the table to ask how many coffees we’d have and in typical Italian fashion, the hands flew up to the sky - 10 coffees. As we were leaving the owner came from the kitchen (he was also the cook) and handed us a panettone - a treat for the New Year. And just like that, I think I have my new favorite bar in Modena. Bar Tiffany.
Ettore’s New Year’s Eve Eve Risotto
The dish I’m leaving you with today and one I hope you make is a dish our friend Ettore cooked for us on the Eve of New Year’s Eve. It was warm and rich and overall delicious. Risotto with pumpkin and sausage. Perfect for a cold winters night, the sausage gives the dish an extra heartiness and the pumpkin, an overall creamy texture. The dish would also be great without sausage if you’re looking to dial back on or, don’t eat, meat. There’s a lot of stirring in the making of risotto so get ready for an arm workout! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did.
Serves 4
600g of pumpkin or firm squash such as butternut (skin peeled and cut into into 1-2cm pieces)
250g of sausage removed from casing (or however much to your liking)
320g of rice / 1.8 cups of Carnaroli or Arborio rice
1.5 quart/liter of broth (either chicken or vegetable broth)
1/4 cup of white wine
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup (80g) of parmigiano
Salt and pepper to taste
In a pot, bring your broth to a warm temperature and continue to keep warm. In a pot or sauté pan (depending on the amount you’re making), heat the olive oil and garlic until fragrant. Add the chopped pumpkin and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add a ladle or two of broth to help the pumpkin soften and cook; stir the pumpkin, season with a pinch of salt. Cook for about 20 minutes - adding a bit more broth as the liquid evaporates. While the pumpkin is cooking, in a small pan, cook the sausage. Make sure to break the sausage up as you go and brown it slightly to give it some color. Once cooked, remove from heat until it’s ready to be mixed into the risotto.
Once the pumpkin has softened, with an emersion blender, back of your spoon, or potato masher, mash the pumpkin into a creamy consistency, allowing some pieces of pumpkin to stay intact for some variation in texture. In a clean sauté pan (for an easier clean up, transfer the pumpkin into a container and simply give the sauté pan a good wipe down - less pans, less mess at clean up) add the rice to the dry pan. Toast for 2 minutes, stirring often to make sure the rice doesn’t burn. Add the white wine and stir. Add the pumpkin and continue stirring until the white wine has evaporated.
Bring the broth to a simmer/hot temperature. Begin adding your hot broth one ladle at a time, stirring the rice constantly and waiting to add a ladle of broth only until the previous ladle of broth has somewhat evaporated. Depending on the type/brand of rice you use, this process could take up to 20 minutes. Midway through the process of adding broth, add the sausage. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Add about half of the parmigiano just before serving and serve with additional parmigiano on top, if desired. Enjoy!
Until next time at a standing reservation…
With love & snacks,
Paige
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Need a happy moment?
It’s January, it’s cold, maybe it’s snowing where you are…need a happy moment? We’re still booking our sailing trips for summer 2024! I’m looking outside at a very grey day here in London and I probably won’t stop writing about this sailing trip until the very day I step on board again. So, with that said, reach out with any and all questions! Trust me, you’ll love every minute at sea. What’s not to love with a spritz in hand, swimming in this blue sea?
Maybe it’s how you wrote this newsletter but I picture you and gianluca at the house in Orvieto welcoming folks just like you and your friends were welcomed at Bar Tiffany. I 1000% will visit and cheer you on wholeheartedly. I’m all about small moments, every day goals for our big wins and they will come!! 💛✨