Tea on a Tuesday

Image courtesy of -Marcus- / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Italy, the land of Chamomile tea... I guess you thought it was the land of cappuccino, caffe latte and espresso, am I right? Well, you're right... and you're wrong.... The Italians are of course drinking millions of cups of coffee every day. Lots of coffee. Strong coffee. They're Italians, right? And they know both how to make it and how to drink it. 

But mention the word "tea" to the average Italian and the first word that pops into his head is "chamomile" or camomilla as it is called here. This is something I don't understand. They go from drinking coffee that is so strong that it knocks your socks off to this insipid, pale yellow liquid. What on earth happened on the way? Well, part of the answer lies in the fact that they love their coffee so much that they don't need another drink. Only when they have an upset stomach (from drinking too much coffee...) or feel a bit under the weather for various reasons do they consider drinking something else. Oh, and lets not forget when they're "nervous" as they call it. (Sono nervoso...!"%#¤%¤#¤!) At that point the only valid choice is camomilla. I don't know to what extent the tea calmes them down, but anyway....

But what about me? I'm an avid tea drinker. Even if I love my coffee after lunch and dinner I consider myself first and foremost a tea drinker. Have been all my life. Before I moved to Italy I didn't drink any coffee at all. But lots and lots of tea. Black tea, that is. Never chamomile. Ever! Only the smell of it makes me feel sick. I just can't stomach it. 

And what happens when you're at someone's house and you ask for a cup of tea instead of coffee? Out comes the chamomile tea! Or some other herbal tea with fennel, aniseed or liquorice. At that point I just go for the coffee....

If you go to a supermarket to buy tea the story repeats itself. They have a huge amount of all the herbal teas you could ever think of - for an upset stomach; for sleepless nights; for high blood pressure etc etc.... And tucked in a corner you find some tea bags of unknown origins with English sounding names like "Lord Nelson". Well, I'm stretching the truth a bit here, because if you go to a well stocked supermarket you will of course find the English labels Twinings English Breakfast and Lipton Yellow Label, but that's it. And always tea bags. Never loose tea leaves. And I would so much love to be able to make myself a real "cuppa".... Sigh! Oh well, I guess I just have to make do with what I can get hold of. But Camomilla? Never!

I know I'm probably complaining a bit much, but for me drinking Lord-Nelson-tea is the same as for an avid coffee drinker having to settle for a non-label instant coffee for the rest of his life. And I'm not even English! 

PS. I have learnt that they have many shops in Rome selling all kinds of tea and the next time I go into the city I will definitely stock up un a lot of different types of tea. Really looking forward to it :-)

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PPS. On a little side note I have to say that I'm not writing to make fun of or mock the Italians as some people like to think. I've gotten comments in the past saying that I'm a really "%#¤& person for writing the things I do. But I'm only trying to illustrate the differences between living in Norway and living in Italy, which I hope people reading this blog understands. And to do that sometimes I have to exagerate to get my point across. If in doing so I offend people I sincerly apologize. But if I were to write only the facts and nothing else I could just stop writing the blog because it would be boring to both read and write. The post I've just finished  would go something like this; In Italy people drink mostly coffee. If they're ill they drink chamomile. I don't like chamomile. Full stop.

So, in the future I hope people reading the blog can give me the benefit of the doubt.....

Harvest 2013

The harvest this year has been what I would call "miserable". Last year we had an abundance of plums, figs, pears and olives. I made 30 kgs of plum jam and also some fig jam (in addition to eating as much fresh figs as we could possibly stomache for about 3 months). I made canned pears and the olive trees gave us 1600 kgs of olives that we made into 220 llitres of olive oil.

I was of course hoping for the same numbers this year, but no... Mother Nature does as she pleases... So I ended up with 5 kgs of plum jam and I have eaten 2 (?!) pears. The figs did as well as last year - if not even better - so I have 30 kgs of fig jam in the freezer at the moment. Figs & apples, figs & walnuts, figs & cinnamon and figs,apples, walnuts & cinnamon. Yummie! And this will keep me going until next year, I think.

But the really big disappointment this year is that we're not getting any olive oil. Not even one litre of oil. We have 85 olive trees - and this is what they've produced this year......

Not nearly enough to make any oil. From 100 kgs you'll get 12-20 litres of oil and what we have here would probably give us 7-8 litres... But in addition to it being really embarrassing showing up at the mill with two small bags of olives they wont even consider pressing it before you have at least 200-300 kgs.

So, change of plans. I'm now going to brine the olives. So yesterday I picked out the best olives which I've put in a small container with water to cover them. Today I'm buying salt to make the brine were they will sit for 40 days. Then rinse well and put in new brine for another 10 days. And finally I can put them in a glass jar and fill up with brine and olive oil. And then we can eat as much olives as we want for the next year to come. I think I will try putting different flavouring to the olives - such as orange (peel), garlic, rosmary, oregano and chili. I'm really looking forward to trying the end result!

The reason why this year turned out like this is partly because we have been pruning the olive trees earlier this year. And some we can blame on the weather, I think. We've had lots and lots of rain this year so it's not just our harvest that turned out this way. And finally we have the "mosca" which is the tiny larva of a fly that eats into the flesh of the olive and destroys it. Before I didn't understand why people where hanging plastic bottles with some sticky liquid in it in their olive trees. Now I know. It's to attract the mosca to the bottle instead of the olives! I know what I have to do next year....

But anyway, now I just have to sit back and wait for the New Year when I can finally taste my brined olives. Can't wait!

How to increase the use of olive oil...

I told you some days ago that this autumn we made 200 + litres of olive oil. Now I have to figure out how to use as much olive oil as possible..... And I've come up with a few ideas. So today I'll share the list with you. The average Italian use approx. 25 litres of olive oil a year and I'm trying to (at least) reach that level....

1. Make a soffritto. (fry onion or garlic with carrot and celery in some olive oil and use it as a starter for further cooking, i.e salsa, soups etc . ) It makes your food taste wonderful.

2. Put some olive oil on your vegetable soup, it tastes superb

3.  Some olive oil on a piece of toast that has been rubbed with garlic and sprinkled with salt makes a wonderful bruschetta.

4. If you make fried potatoes you will definitely use a lot of oil.....

5. A tasty dessert or a little snack.... Peel and slice an orange. Sprinkle with salt (and pepper if you feel like). Pour over some olive oil and enjoy!

6. Enjoy your gelato (ice cream) with olive oil and salt.  I have to admit that I haven't tried this yet, but I will definitely give it a go when it gets warmer outside....

7. Use oil instead of butter for baking.

8. Olive oil is a wonderful make up remover. On a moist cotton ball pour some drops of olive oil and use as a "normal" make up remover. Rinse with hot water.

9. You can also use olive oil as a face cleanser. Put a few drops of oil on your fingertips and lightly massage your face. After a few minutes put a wet (and hot) washcloth on your  face and leave it for a few instances.When the cloth cools down wring it out again under hot running water and put back on your face. After a few minutes rinse your face with more hot water and pat dry. After this treatment you will have wonderful, soft skin.....

10. Mix a tablespoon of olive oil with the dog food and the fur of your dog will get soft and shiny....

11. Some olive oil poured onto a paper napkin will help you light the fire place at home....

12. If you have an old steel kitchen sink that looks a bit tired it can be polished with a few drops of olive oil.

13. Make a Meditteranean casserole.... I'll post the recipe as soon as possible......

Do you have some great tips that includes the use of olive oil? Please feel free to leave a comment. I'll be glad to hear from you.

Polenta

Inspired by the blog Norwegian Food Illustrated (by an Italian) that often looks into the (strange) eating habits of the Norwegian, I have decided to draw the attention to an Italian dish that I have some problems "accepting". The dish I'm talking about is "polenta", this yellow "cornflour-porridge" that almost every Italian love. But, for me it's something that is hard to "stomach"...

The Norwegians also have their eating habits when it comes to porridge. We have oatmeal/oatflakes-porridge for breakfast, rice porridge "every" Saturday and at Christmas time we make this porridge to bring to Santa Claus. We have porridge made of semolina and last, but not least - we have the porridge made of sour cream that very many serve the 17th of May when we celebrate Constitution Day. So, it's not that we're not used to eating porridge in Norway. It's just that we're used to sprinkle it with sugar and cinnamon. Which is far from what the Italians use on their porridge....

Here in Italy the Italian mamma spend lots of time preparing the polenta - it takes more or less one hour to make it and all this time it needs stirring so it doesn't stick.

When it's ready to be served to the guests she puts it on the table and since I'm Norwegian I also expect to find sugar and cinnamon to sprinkle over the porridge. But here you don't get any sugar and cinnamon. What you get spooned over your porridge is tomato sauce with meat!!!? So, what's the connection between porridge and tomato sauce? Because I don't get it.... But that doesn't seem to bother the Italians.

They eat their polenta with mushroom and cured meat...

or some kind of stew...

The first two pictures are taken from Wikipedia

or with the aforementioned tomatosauce with meat - sprinkled with parmesan cheese....

The picture is from Lo spicchio d'aglio

While I'm still wondering: "Where is my sugar and cinnamon??"

A funny story I once read in a magazine goes like this: Two American tourists on holiday in Italy visited an Italian family. The Americans didn't speak any Italian and the Italians spoke very little English.

The Italian mamma served polenta - which remember, is made of cornflour. In Italian this flour is called "mais".

The Americans asked what the porridge was made of and the Italian mamma answered proudly: It's made of.... (she didn't know the English word "cornflour" so she had to use the Italian one....) which in the end made here say: It's made of MICE!! (For those who doesn't know Italian I can tell you that the Italian word "mais" is pronounced exactly like the English word "mice").

I'm not sure if the American tourists wanted to taste the polenta after this....

What's on the menu??

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here's a little everyday problem from Italy .... It is not exactly the biggest problem in the world, but it makes me feel a bit unsure whenever the situation arises. 

When I'm in a restaurant, tavern, trattoria or pizzeria I'm (as a Norwegian) used to be given a menu where you find listed the food that this particular place is serving. For an Italian, however I think they see the menu as a "nuisance" and this "nuisance" they only give to tourists. Since I am not a tourist anymore I don't get the menu. And when I'm out eating with my husband the following always happen:

The Italian (my husband): What are you eating tonight?
The Norwegian (I): I don't know.
 
The Italian: So, what do you feel like eating?
The Norwegian: It depends on what they have...


The Italian: They have everything (whatever that means...??) So, what do you want?
The Norwegian: I don't know because I don't know what they have on the menu....


Now we have reached the point where the Italian thinks I'm doing this on purpose. From his point of view everybody should understand what "everything" means. If we're in a pizzeria, of course they serve pizza (like I didn't know that..!) But still, we always have the same discussion every single time.

And then the waiter comes and asks us what we would like to eat. My husband is able to tell what he wants and then both the waiter and the Italian is turning around, looking at me. So, what do I want to eat....??

I'm starting to sweat... and with flickering eyes I'm mumbling something about "not knowing what they have on the menu in this place"...


And then the waiter looks at me, saying: 

We have everything ..!!!

 
(Sometimes I actually want to order Norwegian meatballs with gravy, potatoes and "sauerkraut" only to prove that they don't have "everything"!)

;-)

How to eat spaghetti like an Italian

I guess you've seen them before - Italians at the table, eating spaghetti and making it look so easy, while you're trying to get the spaghetti into your mouth without splashing the tomato sauce onto your clothes or the table-cloth or worse - the person sitting beside you.... Everything while inside you feel like a 3 year old that still doesn't manage the art of "self-feeding".

In situations like these many Norwegians start cutting the spaghetti into smaller pieces, making it even more difficult to eat without making a total mess out of the meal.  So they end up trying to avoid eating spaghetti "in public". But the good news is that it doesn't have to be like this. It's much easier eating spaghetti without loosing your dignity than you might think. And I'll tell you how to do it....

Rule No 1. to eat like an Italian is to use the fork and nothing else; never ever use a knife.

And when you're sitting at the table with a fork as your only tool and you're so nervous that you feel the sweat trickling down your spine you just have to put on a brave face.... Put the fork down into the spaghetti in an "upright" position, preferably not in the middle of the plate, but a bit to the side so that you don't get hold of a whole lot of spaghetti. 3-4 strings of spaghetti is enough.

Then you rotate the fork clockwise until you have a neat little roll of spaghetti around it and with an elegant gesture put everything into your mouth without the tomato sauce splashing around. (Just remember to hold the fork in an upright position while rotating it.)

Now that you know how to eat spaghetti like a pro you just have to rehearse (the first time you can try it when you're all alone) and then you can impress all your friends and family - and maybe also an Italian or two - when you're on holiday in Italy.... And you don't have to tell people that you've ruined 4 t-shirts and 3 table-clothes while rehearsing to become an Italian!!

Buon appetito!!

Norwegian food? Lascia perdere!!

My Italian mother-in-law is very concerned that her son isn't fed properly. Or to be honest, I think she's afraid that he will die of hunger because I don't feed him "come si deve" (as one should...)

So to avoid this she is often sending food over to my house so that she's sure that he at least get something nice to eat....

Parmigiàna - Aubergines with Parmesan cheese, tomatosauce and bechamelsauce, made in the oven......

Pasta (fazzoletti) con bieta - Pasta  with chard. (The pasta is called "handkerchiefs because of the shape and size, it's really big....)

Some days ago I had a conversation with her and it went more or less like this:

Mother-in-law: ....do you eat during the day???

Me: Yes, of course. (What a silly question....!)

Mother-in-law: But what do you eat? Le "cazzate"?? (This is difficult to translate, but if you eat "le cazzate" you eat junk food or other food that's not made the way it "should be" or it might be that you eat the wrong food at the wrong time....)

Me: Oh no, I eat proper food. I don't even like "le cazzate"...

Mother-in-law: But do you make a hot meal every day?? (At the moment the thermometre shows 30+, but you need at hot meal every day!!) What do you really eat?

... At this point I'm starting to feel that this is kind of an interrogation of the third degree.... (Especially since I don't like to have two hot meals a day like the Italians have..... So, my answer is kind of vague........)

Me:  Eeeehhmm..... I eat ...... eeeehmm..... I eat "the Norwegian way".

At this point I see that it dawns on my mother-in-law.... Everything that's not Italian is not worthy of being called food. So really, I guess I do eat "le cazzate" ....

And my mother-in-law is clearly not very happy with this answer.... Whaattttt??? Mangi alla norvegese?? ....... What??? Are you still eating "the Norwegian way?! Ma lascia perdere con il cibo norvegese!!! Mo' stai in Italia e hai bisogno di cibo che ti da l'energia!! Stop eating this (stupid) food. Now you're living in Italy and you need food that gives you energy....!!!  Lascia perdere davvero...  You really need to stop! 

And then she gave me a whole list of things that are so easy to make that even I ought to manage.... (I wonder how I survived before..??!?)

And the day after her son - my husband - came home with this.... And it's still 30 degrees.... (Oh well, so my husband will survive yet another day......)

Pasta e fagioli - pasta with beans

In addition my mother-in-law had sent me "gli odori" - some vegetables that you use when making Italian food.. 

And since a Norwegian and an Italian is literally on "different planets" when it comes to what kind of food you're preparing and eating - and the time of the day when you eat it... I didn't have the right stuff in the fridge to make whatever my mother-in-law wanted me to make. But, since I knew that she would ask me what I used them for the next time we talk I had to use them. So I used them to make a "soffritto" (Taken from Wikipedia: it's a combination of onions, carrots, and celery. Either raw, roasted or sautéed with butter, it's the flavor base for a wide number of dishes, such as stocks, soups, stews and sauces. The three ingredients are commonly referred to as aromatics.)

And so (yes, I have to admit that I'm really really ashamed...) I used this in a "frozen-soup" that I had in the freezer...

And lucky for me, my camera didn't work when I was going to take a picture of the final result. So nobody gets to see "le cazzate" that I made. Hooray!!  But at least I can tell my mother-in-law that I used the aromatics for a soup. I have a clean conscience!!!!! Almost...

Breakfast in Italian......

I wonder how many miles I need to walk my dog to get rid of what I ate for breakfast this morning?? Italians just love "dolce" (sweet cakes/doughnuts etc) for breakfast and now I'm going to show you (or confess...) what I - and the rest of Italy - had for breakfast this morning.


Where I'm living there is a kind of a "snack-bar" that's open around midnight where they make and sell this sweet stuff that contains a zillion calories. This is the place where the Italians go to buy what they're going to eat the next morning. And late last night my husband came home with a huge tray full of "breakfast"...

So this morning I just put on the "caffetiera" to make coffee....

And - tadaahh - breakfast was ready... Latte e caffé - coffee and milk and literally a "mountain" of all this sweet stuff.... And we're just two people here... My husband can't seriously think that we're going to eat all of this, or what..??!

This is with vanilla, which is called " con crema" in Italian. If you want creme you need to ask to have it " con panna".

 
This is "semplice" or "empty" if you will. You can get it con cioccolato (with chocolate) or con mele (with apple filling) or con noci (with nuts). 

As a Norwegian I'm used to have healthier things for breakfast. I usually eat yoghurt and cereals or sandwiches, but I have to admit that once in a while I enjoy having a brekfast like this, even though it's so sweet that afterwards I've had enough for the next month or so....

Limoncello - the Italian Lemon Liqueur

Today I'll share with you a recipe for how to make this typical Italian Lemon Liqueur at home.

Ingredients: 6 lemons, 1 litre of 96% alcohol, 1 litre of water, 700 grams of sugar.

Select the finest lemons you can find. Untreated lemons are perfect for this use if you manage to get hold of them. Rinse well and peel with a potato peeler or knife, but make sure you only use the yellow rind, the white tastes in fact quite bitter. Add the lemon peel in a large glass bowl and pour over the alcohol. Leave for 10 days. Then boil the water along with the sugar and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Leave to cool and pour into a glass bowl with the lemon peel and alcohol. Mix well and leave for 1 week. Then filter/strain the mixture and pour into a clean bottle. Store in the fridge and enjoy after a good meal. Salute!

The best Limoncello in Italy is made on the Amalfi Coast, Capri, Sorrento or Sicily - where the best lemons are grown.

Pasta fredda - pasta salad with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese

This is a salad I make quite often for lunch in the summer when it's so hot you really don't feel like eating anything at all. This recipe serves 2.

300 grammes of pasta, I often use "penne rigate"
2 mozzarella cheese, approx. 300-400 grammes in total
6-8 tomaoes
5-6 basil leaves
2 garlic cloves
Salt and extra virgin olive oil

 Boil the pasta for about 18 minutes instead of 9-10 minutes which is normal cooking time for penne pasta. This is because pasta becomes tougher to chew when it's cold so if you cook the pasta for only 9 minutes you'll end up serving your guests pebbles instead of a delicious pasta salad. Note! Do not rinse pasta in cold water after cooking it, because you'll also rinse away the starch that makes sauce and cheese stick to the pasta.

 Divide garlic cloves in half and place in a bowl. I usually also rub the bowl with one of the garlic cloves. The garlic is not to be eaten, it should just give flavour to the food. This is very common in Italian cuisine. Cut the tomatoes into small cubes and the mozzarella cheese into small pieces and add to the bowl. Add some salt and the basil leaves. Stir well with a spoon and add a dash of olive oil. Now you mix in the hot pasta and give it another stir. Put lid on bowl and place in fridge to cool for some hours or even overnight. Before serving, stir well and if needed add some more olive oil if the pasta seems a little dry. Serve the pasta with some nice, fresh bread and possibly also a glass of wine - preferably Italian. 

                                                    Buon appetito!