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Win(e)d down
London winter has officially set in. The sun, when visible, sits at a level in the sky that never really warms your face - even when you try to soak it in. London (and now Rome too), as I type this, is covered in a thick blanket of grey clouds. Rain falls at a constant light drizzle and even though we’re hovering at 51°F/10°C there’s never really any reprieve from the cold - the dampness from the humidity creeps in and keeps you chilled like freshly shucked oysters on a bed of chipped iced. But to be honest, I’m OK with the cozy weather. If only we had a fireplace, then I think I’d be really great. The closest I’m getting to a fireplace this winter is the fireplace at our local pub - which is as idyllic as it sounds. Very British, very local…lots of pints of beer next to a crackling fireplace. What more could you really ask for? Besides for sunshine, of course.
As another year spent living in London winds down and as we prepare to enter into the holiday season, I decided it was about time to get myself well trained on the art of drinking wine. Every year around this time, we set out to dinners and lunches and long festive parties - drinking wine and being merry but (sometimes) with no real understanding of what’s in our glass. This year, I promised myself that I would know more about the wine in my glass than last year. Which brings me to why I’ve been a bit quieter in your inboxes as of late. This past week I took my WSET Level 2 Award in Wines course. I studied more in those 3 days than I probably ever did at university (sorry Mom and Dad). While a lot of wine knowledge comes from tasting, there’s a lot more to remember - not only about grape varieties but where they grow, how wines are classed, and how they’re made. As a film major in university, a lot of our study was by making films - much more practical.
The world of wine is extensive. While the main contenders in the art of making wine hail from France, Italy, Spain and the US, wine is also made at high standards in many other parts of the world. There’s so much to the world of wine that even though we traveled to many continents just through tasting wines in our classroom on Bermondsey Street, we only scratched the surface of the wines being made all around the world. We learned how to identify wines through smell and taste, something I wouldn’t have been able to do in the past. I probably would’ve been able to tell you some of the flavors or notes I smelled, but nothing about the grape variety or the region the wine is produced in just from taste alone.
Much of the wine making process comes from the land your grapes grow on. Are the grapes exposed to certain elements like wind, intense sun, cool climate? Are they near to the sea? A mountain or a river bank? Is the soil sandy or rocky? Most importantly are your vines growing on a slope and which direction is the slope facing? The elements in which the plants begin their life and then the exposure to those elements have a lot to do with how the wine will taste once it is poured out of the bottle. But in between, the winemaker plays a large roll on its fate. It’s a wonderful yet, I’m sure, dreadful business to be in - that is the life of a winemaker. There are so many factors outside of your control that quite literally control the outcome of your wine. It’s fascinating and terrifying all at the same time.
As our search in finding a home in Italy continues, I feel as though a new lens has been added to my house hunting glasses. Do I want to be a winemakers after a one week course? Yes. Is that insane? Yes. But all jokes aside, many of the farmhouses we search for all have some sort of winemaking tools stashed away in dark hidden corners. It’s not the craziest of ideas to have a few vines on a property, I mean this is Italy - if there’s one place to do it, it should be here. So with my new lens, I think it’s time to add vines to the long house hunting wish-list.
Tis the season
While the most wonderful time of the year is upon us, it’s also the time of year when we search for comforting dishes. This past week, after long days of studying, I turned to what was available in the pantry. Chicken stock (which I had made over the weekend) a can of beans, carrots, celery, onion, and a mix of broken pastas - perfect for one dish. Pasta e fagioli. The dish that comforts you on the chilliest and dampest of days. A simple yet filling dish, it’s made different in every household. Some make it with a slight tint of red from tomatoes or tomato paste while others make it only with a mix of broken pastas and some only with ditalini. However you decide to make it, I think the most important thing is that it warms you on a cold day. Since we just landed back in Rome, I thought, what better way to celebrate our return than share with you Gianluca’s mother’s recipe for pasta e fagioli.
Pasta e fagioli di Tizi
Here are some helpful notes before you begin making your pasta e fagioli. First, sometimes you might not have the time to soak dried beans (which was the situation I found myself in the other night). If that’s the case, use canned beans (I won’t tell). I found myself with only one can of red beans the other night and it all worked out in the end. Second, serve this dish straight away and make sure you have enough liquid to keep the soup loose - this dish tends to soak up the liquid quickly due to the starches in the pasta so be sure to serve it quickly. Most importantly, I hope this dish warms you on a cold winter day.
Ingredients
500g or 16oz bag of dried or fresh borlotti beans
Half onion; quartered into chunks
2 carrots; roughly chopped
2 stalks of celery; roughly chopped
2 cups of beef broth or stock of your liking
Peperoncino; spice to your liking and omit if you don't like spice
1 clove of garlic; leave entire
Pork rind, chunks of prosciutto, speck, OR ham bone
300g of ditalini pasta
Salt to taste
Method
1. Gather your ingredients
2. If your borlotti beans are dry, soak them in water overnight with a small spoonful of bi-carbonate.
3. Once the fresh/soaked beans are ready, cook in a normal pot or pressure cooker, together and in water with half an onion, handful of chopped carrot and a handful of chopped celery until they boil, for about 45 minutes. Do not let them get mushy.
4. Once they are cooked, strain and throw the cooking water away. Separate the cooked beans in half. Leave half of the beans whole and pass the other half through a passer machine.
5. In the pot, prepare a soffritto with olive oil, garlic and peperoncino. You are looking to infuse the olive oil with the aromatics of the garlic and peperoncino.
6. Add half the whole beans into the pot with your soffritto, onion, carrots, and celery.
7. Next, add the broth and the pureed beans to the pot along with either some pork rinds, ham bone or pieces of ham or speck, or chunks of prosciutto. Add a bit of salt to taste. Cook for a short time until the soup becomes dense.
8. Once it's ready, add the pasta to the pot and about a cup of water. Cook the pasta together in the same pot with your beans until the pasta is ready.
9. Serve warm with a grating of parmigiano if desired.
Until next time at a standing reservation…
With love & snacks,
Paige
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Need a happy moment?
The time of year is here - auguri season. The season when everyone wishes you well for the holiday season. It also means that we’ve officially arrived back in Rome for Christmas. Every where you go and every shop you leave, “auguri” is the seasonal way to wish someone well as we enter into Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years. I hope you enter into the season with love and many auguri’s. The time we’re living in, which is currently filled of war and hate, is also filled with love. I hope you share and receive that love with friends and family. Tanti auguri, amici miei (many wishes, my friends).
I want to hang out at your local pub! Sounds dreamy.
Auguri my friend 💛✨