May 29, 2006
Agnellini Pasquali e pi�
(Easter Lamb and more)
I know, my posting frequency has been more than poor lately. I still have stuff to post about Tenerife, and now I've been to Sicily as well. You know how it gets when you're backlogged. Overwhelming. In Sicily, I learned or tasted a new dish every day.
Incidentally, Sicily is so exciting for foodies; food is fresh and simple but in no way boring. Each month of the year has a different specialty. When its fig season, you make the fig jam (that you use later to make the "dolcini di fichi" - fig cookies) ... summer is eggplant season and then you make the caponata. When you start seeing farmers selling piles of artichokes everywhere, you know it's around easter-time. Artichoke season. Then you peel, quarter, and sautee them (finish with a little olive oil and lemon j, s&p), or make them into an artichoke risotto.
There, I feel I'm at the heart of sublime food. Cooking comes so naturally to seemingly everyone - they know what to do, with anything. It is usually so simply prepared as well that you want to smack yourself with the butt of your hand and say "why didn't i think of that?". who else would know that sea urchins are up there with oysters? squeeze of lemon, nothing else, mmm.
I spent a lot of time with my aunt, Zia Anna, and she taught me many real Sicilian dishes (and that I should save up for a Bimby ). I went there to celebrate my cousin Chiara's 18th bday and stayed for a week. It was a full week, complete with palm sunday festivals and cooking classes from my aunt that people would pay a fortune for. Cooking by watching her as she explained about the ingredients, intertwined with family history, and tips and directions. I forgot to mention that she is a retired teacher so she's really a natural. The most fun recipe was the traditional Easter lamb, made of marzipan. Look, we made an entire herd:
We used special molds to press the almond dough into lambs. They were made of a porous stone -- maybe soapstone? It took two of us to press the mold down while stamping dough into the bottom opening to make sure the entire mold was filled. Then the moment of truth - lamb unveiled:
After making them, you paint the body and faces a bit with a toothpick and edible coloring -- luckily, no one laughed. I took home a sheep I'd painted that came out pretty well. I feel sorry for my cousins who were stuck with one of my first attempts, whose nostrils were outrageously far apart. To Zia Anna's credit, brushing a bit of nutella over the body gave the guy texture and that "dirty" look that's so in these days. Sadly, I forgot to photograph the painted ones.
No one ever likes to cut into these things. The Easter Lamb notoriously sits there for weeks before the first guilt-ridden slice is made. By then it's dry and a bit hard. I wanted to eat this one fresh ... and I knew the temptation for people to "save" it was strong. While tea was being passed around, I took the lamb into the kitchen, made small slices up the back, and returned. After an "awww your hard work" moment, everyone took a piece. General approving noises, from me included -- it was soft, almondy, spiced by cinnamon. It was excellent with tea.
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See my very unorganized Sicily photos on Flickr...
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I'm headed to Salzburg, Austria for a couple of days. It's supposed to rain straight through the next 72 hours ... of course. It nearly always rains on my birthday, which is tomorrow. Seems fitting that it should rain this year though; I don't really mind. I'm not bursting with sunshine at the prospect of turning 35 anyway, esp turning 35 without my mother.
I'm marking the milestone in Austria but in less than a week, my friend Susan and I will pack ourselves and three dogs into her car and take off for Provence. I'll be working and have my laptop so I will be posting from there, more often than usual I hope. So you'll more than likely hear from me again soon.
Be good! :)
