Posts from October 2008

Risotto ai funghi

Posted by Serena 1 Comment
Oct 19 2008

After having enticed you with wild mushroom hunting, I thought I might teach you how to make a nice Risotto ai funghi. Risotto means „cooked rice“ and it is a general name for many Italian dishes. For a perfect risotto it’s best to use Arborio or Carnaroli rice. These two varieties, grown in Italy, are short and plump and cook to a nice creamy consistency, ideal for risotto.

Now the recipe!

Ingredients (serves 4):
350 gr. Porcini mushrooms
320 gr. Arborio or Carnaroli rice
1 liter of chicken or vegetable stock
1 glass of dry white wine
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
Butter
Salt and pepper
Parmigiano Reggiano freshly grated (optional)

Wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth and cut away the bottom of the stork. Slice the mushrooms (not too thinly). Finely slice the onion and the garlic. Have the stock ready at boiling temperature. In a saucepan heat two tablespoons of oil together with a knob of butter. Add the onion and garlic and cook gently (don’t let them burn). Add the mushrooms and cook them for a couple of minutes. Add the rice and stir until it’s all well mixed then pour in the wine and let it evaporate quickly. Finally add the boiling stock one ladle per time. Stir the rice often and let it absorb the stock before adding the next ladle, keeping it at a gentle boil. Season and cook for about 18 minutes. Turn the heat off, add another knob of butter and freshly grated pepper, cover and leave it to rest for 5 minutes. Serve it hot with freshly grated Parmigiano.

Buon appetito!

P.S. This is just one version. Every family will have its own variation of it, e.g. with or without the onion and/or the garlic, or sprinkle some fresh finely chopped parsley at the end.

P.P.S. If you don’t have fresh porcini, you can use ordinary mushrooms and add a handful of dried porcini. The dried porcini should be soaked in advance and then added with the mushrooms. Save the liquid that you soaked the mushrooms in and add it to the stock.

Plurals: what a nightmare!

Posted by Serena 10 Comments
Oct 13 2008

Unlike most Western European languages, the Italian language pluralizes by changing the final vowel. But as we Italians are very creative and chaotic, we are not happy with just a couple of changes. Here I’ll try to make sense of the various possible plural forms which you might encounter whilst studying Italian:

 

  • 1. The most common group of nouns is the one ending in -a in the feminine singular and in -o in the masculine singular. They respectively change to -e and -i. E.g.: la casa/le case; il cappuccino/i cappuccini.
  • 2. Another main group of nouns presents only one ending in the singular (-e) and one in the plural (-i). The difficulty with this group is that it includes both masculine and feminine nouns. E.g.: il padre/i padri; la madre/le madri. As you can see from the examples these nouns look exactly the same but they have their own gender, so articles and adjectives have to agree with the noun gender: il padre buono/i padri buoni; la madre buona/le madri buone.
  • 3. The third group behaves very strangely because it changes gender as it moves from singular to plural. Names of parts of the human body form the bulk of this group. E.g.: il braccio/le braccia; il dito/le dita; l’uovo/le uova.

 

Is this confusing? Well, we haven’t finished yet!

 

  • 4. There is another group of nouns that have their origins in Greek and these are characterized by the ending -ma in the singular, but the gender is masculine. E.g.: il problema/i problemi; il teorema/i teoremi.
  • 5. A similar group to number 4 is composed of nouns ending in -ista and it mainly describes professions. These nouns have the same ending in the singular for both the feminine and the masculine, while in the plural they follow the rule of group 1. E.g.: il dentista/i dentisti; la dentista/ le dentiste.
  • 6. Finally, there are nouns that do not change when they become plural. Within this class of nouns we can distinguish 3 main groups:
  • A. Words ending in -tà. E.g.: la città/le città; l’università/le università.
  • B. Foreign words. E.g.: il bar/i bar; il computer/i computer.
  • C. Abbreviations of nouns that were originally longer. E.g.: la foto/le foto (from fotografia); il cinema/i cinema (from cinematografo).

 

Oh dear! There are still a few mischievous nouns that do not fit in any of these groups: la mano/le mani; l’orecchio/le orecchie; il poeta/i poeti.

 

I hope I haven’t confused you too much. I certainly need a nice espresso after this!

 

P.S. If you find other Italian nouns that do not fit in this classification system, please let me know.

A trip to Le Cinque Terre

Posted by Serena 12 Comments
Oct 11 2008

Last summer I had the fortune to stay for a few days in Vernazza, one of the five small former fishing villages that form Le Cinque Terre (lit.: The Five Lands) in the Ligurian Riviera di Levante. We stayed in a small apartment on the first floor of an old building located in the harbor piazza just a few steps away from the clear blue sea. Yes, I’m spoiled! My uncle’s family is originally from the village and he still owns the family apartment. It was great to sit on the minuscule balcony in the evening watching the passeggio going on below, or seeing the sun lighting up the colorful buildings early in the morning.

Towering buildings and narrow alleyways (carrugi) scrambling up the steep escarpment are characteristic features of Vernazza. The four other villages that together with Vernazza make up the Cinque Terre are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia and Monterosso. These, together with an extensive area of sea have now been designated as a National Park and UNESCO world heritage site (see: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/826).

The best way to get to the Cinque Terre is by battello (the passengers’ ferry) from the main town of La Spezia set in the Golfo dei Poeti (the Poets’ Gulf), so named because of the many famous literary figures it attracted in the 18th century, in particular the British poets Byron and Shelley.

The battello leaves from La Spezia harbor (an important naval base) and calls first at Portovenere (lit.: Venus Port!), a small picturesque village unique in Liguria in that its line of colorful case a torre (tower-like houses) hems the quay, turning the village into a fortified medieval citadel. Just off the coast are the islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto, full of caves and grottoes. This area is very popular with tourists and VIPs, so look out for posh yachts: we saw the fashion designer Cavalli’s private yacht, which changes color depending on the angle you view it from, wow!.

Continuing to the West you come into the Territorio di Tramonti (lit.: territory between the mountains), where the five hamlets of the Cinque Terre are set amongst vineyards and cliffs. During the boat trip you’ll see some isolated houses built near the sea on the cliff faces. They were (and sometime still are) used during the vendemmia (the grape harvest) by the villagers who own the land. These steep cultivated terraces can only be reached by boat and the grapes too are taken away by boat. This area produces one the rarest Italian DOC wines, sciachetrà, which is made from the local sundried grapes.

The battello stops at all the villages except Corniglia which is perched inaccessibly up on the cliffs and therefore lacks a harbor. The other four villages have no proper dock, only a small gangway joins the boat to the landing place, therefore when the sea is rough the boat can’t land. In fact, before the railway line was built, these villages were completely cut off for days during bad weather. The only alternative was a narrow footpath that climbs up through the cliffs amongst vineyards, orchards and the luxuriant macchia mediterranea, the typical Mediterranean vegetation.

Riomaggiore and Manarola are linked by a beautiful path cut out of the sheer rock and romantically called Via dell’Amore. Between agaves, cactuses and pine trees you catch glimpses of the emerald green sea below you.

Buon viaggio!

“Lei” part 2: a brief history

Posted by Serena 1 Comment
Oct 2 2008

Following on from Natasha’s blog, I would like to add a few historical notes.

The use of Lei (lit.: She) as a form of respect goes back to the XVII-XVIII century, when it was common not to address somebody important directly, but to use abstract forms such as la Signoria Vostra. E.g. “Cosa pensa la Signoria Vostra di quest’opera?” that is: “What does Your Lordship think of this opera?” or “La Signoria Vostra desidera un caffè?” that is: “Would Your Lordship like a coffee?”.

As you can see from these examples, the sentence is constructed in the third person singular, and because titles like signoria (lordship), maestà (majesty), altezza (highness), etc. are all feminine, this explains the use of the feminine pronoun Lei (she). There are some wonderful examples of the usage of these titles in the comedies written by Carlo Goldoni, the famous Venetian play writer.

Originally all the adjectives had to be in the feminine form to agree with Lei, but now, in modern Italian, you use masculine ending adjectives when talking to a man. E.g.: “Lei è troppo buono“.

The Italian language as we know it today was created following the unification of Italy in 1870 and there are still many linguistic variations throughout the country. In certain parts of Italy the Voi was used much more frequently than the Lei, particularly in the South and in Emilia Romagna. In 1938 Mussolini, who was from Emilia Romagna, tried to introduce the use of the Voi believing that the Lei was from Spanish origin. This usage is known as the Voi fascista, and is now very rare, used only by some older people.

Finally, good news for all learners of Italian: in spoken language the Lei is disappearing and Tu is becoming far more common, particularly in shops and restaurants. Lei it’s still used in official written language and when you speak to somebody very important, like Professors or Doctors.

 Un cordiale saluto a Lei

Funghi fever

Posted by Serena 5 Comments
Oct 1 2008

I live in an area of Italy particularly famous for porcini mushrooms (boletus), the main ingredients for many Italian dishes. It’s the end of September, the season for wild mushroom hunting and funghi fever is reaching its climax. About two weeks ago we had a big rainfall that was greeted with joy by all the villagers, as it meant that in 8-10 days mushrooms would grow (spuntano i funghi we say). Now, as soon as you walk outside, even just to throw your rubbish in the communal bin, you hear: “Andate per funghi?” (Are you going for mushrooms?); coming back the question is: “Avete trovato funghi?” (Have you found mushrooms?).

Porcini means “little pigs”, but the origin of the name is unknown. Their scientific name is boletus edulis and they belong to the boletus family, which unlike the more common champignon don’t have gills, but a sort of sponge. They can be preserved in several ways, and the most common system is to slice them and let them dry out in the sun. At this time of year the main village road is lined with wooden boxes filled with sliced mushrooms set out to dry, and the whole village smells of porcini.

Our first Porcini mushrooms!

Porcini grow in forests of chestnuts, beeches and oaks. They are very difficult to spot because they are the same color of the dead leaves that cover the ground. The first time we went mushroom hunting we came back after three hours with only three sad mushrooms that weren’t even edible! We almost gave up, but when we saw the oldest lady in the village (92 years old!) coming back from a little stroll at the car park with a basket full of porcini our pride was badly hurt. The following day we went out again and in four hours we managed to pick a dozen small but wonderfully tasty porcini. With practice we got better.

Of course it’s impossible to equal the locals. Everyone has her/his secret place that will never be revealed even to other members of the family. They get up before dawn to be there first, in case somebody might discover their secret place. At the weekend people drive from the towns in hoards to pick mushrooms. There is a beautiful short story written by Italo Calvino, entitled “Funghi in città”, which perfectly describes the sense of fever and ownership for the wild mushrooms.

In order to protect the environment there are some precise rules about wild mushroom picking: you are meant to cut the stem with a sharp knife; to leave at least one mushroom from each ring or group; to carry them in a basket and not in a carrier bag in order to let the spores drop. Unfortunately not everybody follows these simple rules.

If you have never picked wild mushrooms before, it’s best to be safe and show them to an experienced hunter, or you can take them into town and have them checked by the municipal police or by a specialist grocer. In fact there are many poisonous mushrooms that are easily mistaken for the edible ones. This is particularly true of the amanita Caesarea or ovolo buono, which is regarded as the best wild mushroom (the Latin name means “worthy of Caesar”), but belongs to the same family of the amanita muscaria or ovolo malefico, one of the most deadly ones.

N.B. In Italian we don’t differentiate between mushrooms and funghi or toadstool. They are all Funghi, whether they are edible or poisonous, cultivated or wild.

Porcini can be cooked in many different ways: in risotto, fried, in tomato sauce, but la loro morte (lit.:”their death”; a common expression used to mean “the best way to cook something”) is funghi trifolati. This is the simplest and most tasty recipe: cut away the soil at the bottom of the porcini and clean them with a damp cloth. Slice them (not too thinly). Chop a clove of garlic and some fresh parsley. In a frying pan gently fry the garlic in extra virgin olive oil, add the porcini and let them cook for a few minutes. Add a little salt, sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Buon appetito!

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