Arriverdeci Italia!

Here is the long awaited post of my trip to Italy back in July. I admit that travelling with two small children under the age of two is no easy task. Boy, was I in for a big surprise with my two year old. During take off and landing, he wouldn't sit down in his seat and he made sure that everyone could hear him screaming at the top of his lungs. I had never received so many dirty looks in my life. I felt so overwhelmed, embarrassed and tired. Needless to say, I was happy to see familiar faces when my uncle and cousins picked us up.

The week in Italy went by quickly. It was wonderful to see the whole family again after having not seen them for over 3 years. We didn't do much travelling. We just hung around the house trying to figure out ways on how to keep cool in the 40+ deg C (104+ deg F) weather ... plus humidity. Just like in Germany, not too many Italians own an air conditioner. Sometimes we headed over to the air conditioned mall to keep cool for several hours. The kids kept cool by skinny dipping in the kiddie pool. How lucky they were!

But my favourite moments were the precious time I spent in the kitchen with my aunt and cousins. For me, it was a culinary trip down memory lane. We recreated some old family favourites and I learned to make some new dishes, as well. Here are some of the things I found pleasure in:

Photo courtesy of Cosa Cucino Io 4 cookbook.

Pizzoccheri is one of the dishes that my aunt made for me. She introduced this dish to me when she came to Canada for my wedding 4 years ago, and it became and instant favourite for me. It is a typical northern Italian dish made with swiss chard, potatoes, fontina, and noodles. The noodles are what make this dish, though. They are made with buckwheat and white flour (in some cases, whole wheat is used). I'll be making this dish in the winter and I will share the recipe in another post.

My aunt also made zucchini flower fritters (not pictured), another one of my all time favourite foods. Nonna Bettina used to make them for me everytime we visited her in Calabria during the summer. The way she prepared it was a simple batter of chopped zucchini flowers, parsley, parmesan, eggs, flour and salt. Sometimes my nonna would also put in cubed mozzarella for a bit of variation. My aunt made them a bit different, though. She added beer to the batter, which made the fritters so much crispier. We would eat them as soon as they came out of the fryer. I was in heaven when I ate them.

Another treat prepared by my cousins was a 2 kg / 4 lbs chocolate salami (not pictured). Twelve of us devoured the whole thing in one sitting. It was so good! This is a rich chocolate dessert loaded with broken biscuits and chopped nuts, and then shaped like a salami (hense, the name). It is either chilled or frozen, depending if butter is used. The version my cousins made also had espresso in it (which deepened the cocoa flavour) and it just melted in your mouth. My cousin told me the recipe, but my memory doesn't serve me well these days. I will have to ask her for it and then make it this winter or for the holidays.

Here are some of the things that I bought while in Italy:

Lievito Bertolini (blue package in photo) was easy to find when I lived in Canada, but it's very hard to find here in Germany. This is baking powder for sweets (dolci) accented with vanilla aroma. In the middle is scamorza affumicata, (smoked mozzarella), and over to the right is aged ricotta cheese.

These are some cooking magazines (La cucina italiano, Cotto e Mangiato) and cookbooks that I bought, with the exception of Prestigio, which is a crocheting magazine.

I also found a decanter with six matching shot glasses by RCR Crystal (two photos above). This is the same pattern as my stemware called Aurea. Unfortunately, it was discontinued years ago in Canada (and in Italy as well) and the pattern has become a challenge to find. However, when I do see something in that pattern (which is very rare), I won't hesitate to buy it. It was only by luck that I found this set. 

As for the pizzelle maker, I was not able to find it. I did find some interesting facts, though, but I will share them in another post.

I usually don't like writing long posts, but I really enjoyed writing this one and remembering the good times I had in Milano. Thanks for bearing with me and reading it through (or at least parts of it - LOL).

Tanti saluti,