August Newseltter from Elizabeth

Elizabeth Minchilli
EATING MY WAY THROUGH ITALY

August 2020 Newsletter

While it might seem like I haven’t gone anywhere, since my last newsletter I’ve officially left Zucchinilandia and am now spending most of my time in the Tomatostan. Which is a good thing, because I was just about ready to give up my citizenship. I mean enough with the zucchini, am I right?

All kidding aside, if you had asked me at the end of May where I’d be right now I would certainly have told you that at least for part of July we’d be at the beach. Because Italy is open and we are totally allowed to travel. And you know that I completely understand the desire to travel and the absolute need to support hotels and restaurants up and down Italy. My friend Maria wrote a moving post about this.

But a funny thing happened. I realized that at least for now, I’m pretty happy right where I am. Yes, there is currently a heatwave. But I realized that I rarely get to spend so much time here in Umbria doing things like making jam, pickling everything and just hanging out. Since I know the next couple of years are going to see me traveling almost non-stop with our tours in 2021 and 2022, I’ve decided to slow down as much as possible and just enjoy where I am and what I’m doing. Remember those endless summers of your childhood? When time kind of stood still? That’s as close as I can describe it. That’s a feeling I’m happy to embrace as long as possible.

The one other important thing I’ve discovered about myself during this period? My ritual of a cocktail and a bowl of potato chips at the end of the day is here to stay.

What's New

Sophie is back from Puglia and is full of ideas for new things to add to our Week in Puglia Tours. That’s the one thing that I always try to explain to the guests who join us for tours. Since our tours sell out way in advance, and you might be signing up for one of them up to 2 years before they happen, the original itinerary I send out may look a bit different from our finalized plans. That’s because we are ALWAYS discovering new things! For instance Sophie discovered an amazing nonna who would like to teach us how to make a potato pizza; a young woman farmer who grows heritage tomatoes and wants to invite us to lunch; and a castle by the sea that is also a cooking school. And of course tons of amazing restaurants. Can you blame us if we want to include as many of them as possible? So all I’m saying, is that if you want to see our current itineraries for Puglia, and you think they look pretty fantastic, they will be even better by the time you arrive!

Speaking of tours…all of our tours for 2021 are almost full. We only have a handful of spots left for:
Puglia in March
Sicily in April
Umbria in May
Abruzzo in June
Puglia in July

We also just had a few spots open up for our Pasta Grannies tour in November! And of course, loads of spots still available for 2022. You can visit this page to find out more about all of our tours, or else send me an email.

What I'm Eating

This is the summer I learned that one of the upsides of spending more time than ever at home was that our vegetable garden couldn’t be happier. While we always have a garden, since we are basically spending most of our time watching everything grow, it’s basking in the extra added attention.

So while I continue to cook, a LOT of my time has been spent in preserving the bounty. This past month has been mostly about zucchini and cucumbers. As Sophie said , I’ve definitely become an Italian mamma. And even though our lockdown has long since ended, the 3 months we spent semi-isolated at home, convinced us we needed a bigger freezer. So that was our home improvement project last month and I am filling up the deep freeze with summer goodness.

For preserving zucchini I’ve gotten a lot of great advice from Rosetta Costantino, and her book My Calabria. Actually, although I have her book, and love it, it’s her IGTV videos that I’ve found the most inspirational. Through her I’ve learned to sun dry zucchini (who knew?). I’ve also been turning to Carla Tomassi, who has a large garden in Lazio.

Specifically, since so many of you have asked on Instagram, here are the recipes I’ve used so far to fill my larder:

Zucchini sott’olio from Domenica Marchetti
Zucchini sott’olio from Carla Tomassi
Shatta (an amazing spicy condiment) from Falastin
I’ve frozen kilos of zucchini following this method
I’ve begun to slow roast cherry tomatoes and freeze them

I’ve also realized that just freezing vegetables is kind of boring. So I’ve been cooking completed dishes to freeze. So far:
Zucchini Parmigiana (the recipe is in The Italian Table)
Summer Squash Curry Coconut Soup (similar to this)
Zucchini Soup
And Sophie made a huge batch of green bean sauce

I can also basically open a pickle shop since Domenico somehow decided it was a great idea to plant 14 kirby cucumber plants. Luckily I was able to find dill so have made vats and vats of Anya Von Bremzen’s Dill Pickle recipe from the now out of print Please to the Table. And I’ve just bought Olia Hercule’s Summer Kitchens and plan on using one of her many many Ukrainian recipes for the rest of the kirby crop which shows no sign of stopping.

And while the next recipe may not be in the same topic as ‘preserving’ it’s certainly part of my new pioneer woman brand. Even though I have failed miserably at making sourdough bread (my friend Thomas asked if I was aiming for flat bread ?) I have become an expert at using up sourdough starter discard! Crackers are my friend. (I leave the bread making to Sophie)
This basic cracker recipe from King Arthur is a workhorse. I’ve made dozens of variations using different types of flour as well as add-ins like seeds and herbs. Sometimes I make it with butter and sometimes with olive oil. Once I even used Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel seasoning on top and it was perfect.

I’ve also fallen hard for this Seed Cracker recipe. Although it calls for sourdough discard, you should try to make it even if you don’t have any. You can just substitute the amount of discard for a 50/50 water/flour mix. Really. If you make them you will either thank me or curse me, since they are 100% addictive.

Where I've been

This is the section where I usually talk about places I’ve travelled to over the last month. Since I’ve been at home almost the whole time , and figure you have too, I thought I’d use this space to give you some inspiration for a few virtual trips!

While everyone else was posting black and white selfies of themselves last week (it was never quite clear why) I took the opportunity to show my support of the women I work with. While both Sophie and I have been busy making cooking videos on Instagram, our friends and colleagues here in Italy have also been doing online classes, as well as virtual history tours. If you are reading this from abroad (and 99.9% of you obviously are) you must realize how hard hit the Italian Tourism industry is. Many of my colleagues (like me) have lost a full year’s work. So please keep this in mind, and if you can, sign up for one of their classes. It will not only be fun, but it will help make sure that the next time you come to Italy (soon I hope!) my colleagues will still be up and running.

Agnes Crawford - Rome based historian for online seminars
Domenica Marchetti -DC Based Italian food cookbook author zoom classes
Casa Mia Tours - Italian Food and Wine Tours offers online cooking classes
The Beehive in Rome - Family run hostel in Rome has 2 online series: Cooking with Steve and Reading with the Beehive
Juls Kitchen - Virtual Tuscan Cooking Classes from cookbook author
Curious Appetite - Italy based food tour company offers online gourmet experiences
Yummy Yummy Italy - How to make pasta from an expert in Bologna
Amanda Wotring - Urban Gardening Consultations and Fermentation Workshops
Carla Tomasi - Rome based cooking instructor Carla teaches online private classes. Email her.
Divina Cucina - Judy has been teaching Tuscan cooking for 30 years. Her classes are legendary.
Ristorante Michelangelo - Online private courses from Capri’s best chef
Grano & Farina - Rome based pasta school offers online pasta classes
Eat Pray Move Yoga - No, it’s not food. But at this point you should also be moving. These virtual retreats offer yoga as well as a bit of pampering.
Artviva - Online virtual artistic visits

And if by any chance you are in the New York area and want to go on a actual real live tour, my sister Robin's company GoLoveNY is organizing socially distanced tours to places like sculpture parks, private mansions and Alpaca Farms in Westchester.

What I've Been Reading

We’re All Adults Here was the perfect poolside read

Just started Afterland and while it may been too close to reality, it’s the kind of page turner I was craving.

Recent cookbooks I’ve been devouring:
Falastin - Sami Tamini’s latest
A Table for Friends - Skye McAlpine’s gorgeous new book
Summer Kitchens - I love this look at Ukrainian cooking as much for the history as the recipes.

In case you were wondering, this is how Italy did it.

A letter written to us all.

And finally.....

A few of my favorite tomato recipes:
Tomatoes stuffed with rice
2 Summer Pasta recipes
And another pasta recipe with roasted tomatoes
Yes, you have permission to use tomatoes instead of zucchini in this tart.
Tomato and Bread soup is a thing

May the rest of your month be filled with as many tomatoes as mine will be.

x,Elizabeth

PS: Please make sure you are registered to vote. There are less than 90 days until the election and chances are you may be voting by mail. This means that if you aren’t registered soon, and get your ballot, you may not be heard. Here is a link to find out how to do it in your state.

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