Maggie's Farm

I like Black Beans. Goya, from the can. I always add jalapenos to any Black Bean recipe.

Black Bean soup is traditionally served with a scoop of mashed taters, but I like it on top of a pile of white rice. I hate brown rice. To my mind, rice, like pasta, is supposed to be a vehicle for flavor and not a source.

Here's a Black Bean soup recipe. For me, hold the cilantro please. 

Here's an ordinary Black Beans and Rice recipe. No appeal to me.  I like a pile of beans dumped on top of some rice.

While cleaning out some piles of paper, I found a menu from a nice place where we had lunch a couple of years ago in Modica, Sicily. Go there sometime. I know two couples who have done biking tours of Sicily but, for me, a nice car.

I had their Gorgonzola pizza (gorgonzola, pears, and honey), but I like the look of this one with sliced eggs, pancetta, and olives: 

A classic southern Italian secondo: Grilled Octopus with chopped tomatoes.

A Primo which is new to me: LEMON GARLIC CREAM SAUCE

That's the way you prep pasta or gnocchi: Put them in the saucepan with the sauce when they are done.

Salt Cod has been an important export of the northeastern US for centuries. I think most of it went to Spain, Portugal, and Italy.

The main thing to know about salt cod (bacalhao, bacalao, baccala)  is that it has to be well-soaked in water or it will be too salty to eat. 

Here's Pastéis de Bacalhau ~ Salt Cod Fritters

Aioli sauce is best with them. 

Readers know I am not a pasta fan. In America it's a filling thing, but in Italy it's just a little carrier of some tasty sauce as a primo. 

The classic Tuscan pasta is Pici. Can't find it around here. It looks like earthworms.  Here's a pici primo.

Some readers view me as a food snob for disliking Italian-American food. I find it monochromatic, uninteresting, and there is always so much of it that it is unappetizing to look at. OK, for growing kids I guess they need anything in volume.

Sunday Gravy (aka Red Sauce) with meat and meatballs was a traditional Sunday Italian-American feast. I think one of my grandmothers-in-law (who I never knew) made this on Sundays for after Mass. Here's how Rao's makes it:

We are fortunate to have a pasta shop nearby. They make fresh daily, and make takeout meals too.

While I have never seen any meaningful difference between dried spaghetti, linguine, and things like that, fresh ravioli and gnocchi do matter.  These Italian guys make excellent ravioli (many varieties, from pumpkin to mortadella, to cinghiale) and the fluffiest gnocchi.

Last week Mrs. BD decided to cook up a nice Italian supper for her Dad who had just been allowed to leave the old folk's home. I think it was also in gratitude to me for getting rid of at least a third of my stuff (excess boots, clothing, etc.) as we slowly move back into our refurbished living quarters. I noticed that lockdowns for old folks are terrible for them. They lose muscle and balance. For no reason, at this point.

Apperitivo:  Olives and marinated artichoke hearts.

Primo: Fresh gnocchi with gorgonzola cream sauce. About 8 gnocchi per person is plenty.

Secondo: Trieste-style Osso Bucco. It's different.   Spinach in garlic as the contorno.

Vino:  All I had around was some Pinot. I do not have a wine cellar. 

It's a favorite of diving ducks, and of mine. The US lacks tiny European clams and cockles, but we have Cherrystones - small clams.

Clams, shrimp, squid, scallops, mussels. It's the seafood broth that makes it: Seafood Risotto (Risotto ai Fruitti di Mare)

Best idea is to go to an Italian seaport town, and ask for it. 

Some random norceria, cheese, bread, a glass of wine, and thou

And other amazing holiday hot Hors D'oevres

In recent weeks, I have posted lots of Italian food in Italy. 

Without wanting to be a food snob (I am not a "foodie" - I like burgers and pulled pork), I need to explain again that Italian-American food is not to be found in Italy. The latter is an invention mostly by immigrants from southern Italy who were trying to make do. They used lots of pasta to fill people up, same as they did at home. Not a bad invention.

But, for example, try a pizza in Italy. Inedible. A pizza in NYC can be amazing.  

Depending on where you live in the US, "Italian" can mean entirely different things. Generally-speaking, the fancier the restaurant the better unless you love red sauce. I have made the effort to post some real Italian food here on Maggie's over recent weeks. Northern Italian I suppose. I avoid any tomato sauce. I can make southern Italian killer "pasta fazool." Even Mrs. BD says it's better than her Neapolitano grandmother used to make for her grandfather.

This does not really explain it:  Italian-American cuisine

Since we are approaching Christmas, check out our old post about Italian Christmas Eve food. Fried baccala - great. The feast of the seven fishes. I can't find my own old link right now.

The Atlantic Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) lives from the Northeast US down all the way through the Texas coast.

They grow faster and larger in the south, and, in my view, are tasteless.  In fact, they need to be cooked with something to be any good at all.

Our Wellfleet Oysters are the best in the world, raw on the shell. Some afficionadoes call it "merroir," like terroir with grapes: These oysters grow slowly in mostly cold water, are splashed twice daily with fresh water from the Herring River, and spend low tide in the air. A rare combination of things. They are generally not too large.

Due to demand, they are farmed now in commercial oyster beds, although my father-in-law and I have had some fun snagging a bag of them at low tide because there are still some wild ones. (Wear sneakers.) Don't go near the commercial beds or they might kill ya.

Blue Points are second best, but not perfect.  The history of the Wellfleet Oyster

Finishing up my documentation of some real Italian food from our trip last month. This was a cool supper in Siena. (as I have said, Mrs. and I split each course. We want the tastes.)

We observed that when guys go out for a fun supper together, they have Tuscan steak, cooked rare. They dig into it with gusto, sloshed down with Tuscan wines. Then gnaw the bone. I've had it twice over the years, and it does not compare with a Costco ribeye. 

Our Primo: Poached egg on a cheese fondue with crispy leeks - and a fried pumpkin blossom:

A second primo: Chickpea puree with a chunk of cod, and pancetta. Pancetta is good with cod.

Secondo: Roast Pigeon with foie gras. A little bed of potato puree in the middle. Wow - pigeon is good. It is red meat, like goose.

In parts of Italy (northern, mainly) mashed potatoes are a common accompaniment. I happen to be a big fan of them. Anyway, we happened to have a lunch on the Campo in Siena with some mashed with both courses by happy accident. Classic Italian food:

Primo: Artichoke Pie (wow-good) which came with a little side of mashed. That's pancetta on top of the goat cheese on top of the pie.

Secondo: Cinghiale stew with a side of mashed

Nice lunch. Yes, we share them so it's not as much as it seems. Whatever we order, we split each course. Restaurants are fine with that.

One interesting thing we noticed about Italians is how they go out to dine. Yes, they do that frequently. But we noticed that it tends to be groups of men, and groups of women. Small groups and large groups. Gregarious people who love to go out with pals and have a good time.

Any time we saw couples they seemed to be tourists or young lovers. But young lovers do not eat much of course. One more "real Italian" dinner we had in Siena, before Thanksgiving week when it's different foods.

Primi: Poached egg with goat cheese fondue and caramelized leeks

Second primi (yeah, we share each course): Chickpea puree with a hunk of cod, with crispy pancetta:

And more amazing, rare roast pigeon with some roasted corn and mushrooms, with a fig sauce drizzle. That's Italian:

It's the time of year when I stock up on bags of Cranberries and throw them in the freezer.

The canned cranberry "sauce" pictured is garbage. It's just congealed sweetened cranberry juice.

The recipe on the Ocean Spray bags is pretty good, but I cut the sugar they recommend in half. It's nothing but water, fresh or frozen berries, and sugar.

Better yet for Thanksgiving, game, and even chicken, is Cranberry-Orange Relish. Raw berries and an orange. Thanks to the mother-in-law for introducing me to this tangy thing years ago.

A great food, the Cranberry. I love to put them in pancakes (the combination of the sweetness of the maple syrup and the tartness of the cranberries is perfect).

Here's our old post on Cranberry Season and the Heart.

Funny thing about Cranberries: not many animals or birds like to eat them. Maybe bears? I've seen Box Turtles take a bite out of one, but I've never seen anything else eat them. I love Cranberries, as long as they aren't cooked too sweet. Here's a tiny Massachusetts Cranberry bog, flooded for harvest:

 Here's how it's done on a larger scale:

If driving around southern Tuscany, you might want to stop by and see the hilltop fortress the Sienese built against the threat of the Florentines.

Cool little fortress, but it was all silly then. Chess moves. The fortress was a rook. We split a nice snack up there: A pistachio crepe. Amazing. Ever had one? That is Italian. Mrs. BD, who loves to drive in Italia, had a Coke and I had a glass of Chianti.

I like to drive in Italy too, but she just loved to drive that Citroen.

A good supper in a cool cafe (Etruria) in Volterra. As usual, we showed up as the first customers at 7 but the place filled up at 8. It was chilly so we sat inside. No big COVID deal in Italy.

Our Primo: Gnocchi with a pumpkin and sausage sauce. Far tastier than the photo looks. I had a glass or two of Brunello:

Secondo: Roast Cinghiale with a dolceforte sauce (vinegar + chocolate) on a bed of fried polenta, with a cotorno of canellini beans in some tasty broth because they had no spinach that night. Spinach sauteed in oil and garlic is one of my favorites with a secondi, but the beans were just fine.

Go for a nighttime stroll after and get lost as usual. But this can be found. Go for the pistachio:

For dinners, Mrs. BD and I typically order one antipasto, one primo, and one secondo, and share them. That way, many tastes but no gluttony. Sometimes we skip one of the courses. The primi are usually small and tasty (one or two pasta dishes are usually among the primi, never a Secondi - meaning meat course).

Typically a nice dinner for both of us will run around 50-55 Euros, not including a glass or two of wine. Tip? In Euroland, 10% is more than enough.

I plan to do an Italian food post one of these days, but for starters here's a pic of a restaurant's offerings in Volterra. If your Italian is terrible, Pasta al Nero is squid with a squid ink sauce. We will try a pasta as a primo on rare occasions, and only if it seems unique:

Desserts in Italy are not worth it. If you need a sweet, grab a gelato on the street. Or a lemon ice, which the Italians learned from the Arabs who, remarkably, imported the snow and ice from the Alps.

Tiramisu seems to be a popular Italian dessert. I think it's ok, but I rarely eat dessert anywhere.  I had one gelato (coffee) in Italy, and it was disappointing.

The guy who invented Tiramisu in the 1970s has died. 

Yes, you can make it at home but it's always better in a diner.

Many things taste better in a diner, especially breakfast after church.