Yogurt Pound Cake

I’ve gotten used to substituting whole plain yogurt for any other form of cultured milk, like buttermilk or sour cream, which are not available here in Florence. I use Fage Greek yogurt, but any good yogurt should work fine, as would sour cream. The cultured dairy makes the result incredibly moist. This cake came out so well that we ate it before I had a chance to photograph it . I had some caramel sauce leftover from Thanksgiving that has been delicious with the cake.

 Yogurt Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter (125 g), at room temp
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup whole plain yogurt (or sour cream)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 (175). Butter and flour a 9 ” x 5 ” loaf pan. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. In a large bowl, beat the butter with the sugar until light and creamy. Add the yogurt, eggs, and vanilla and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a knife comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Easy!

 

Mashed Potatoes alla Emmy

It’s Thanksgiving, even here in Tuscany. I am very happy not to be hosting this year; it’s fun to do the whole shebang, but also exhausting, especially when you are five months pregnant. I’ve done Thanksgiving several times now in Florence and it is always a lot of fun. I reserve my turkey from the polleria, roast chestnuts for stuffing, make cippoline in agrodolce, and my favorite chocolate cake. But this year I am thankful to be making only mashed potatoes and said cake.

I’ve made mashed potatoes so many times in so many different permutations that I feel qualified to offer my own recipe/expertise. I used to subscribe to the Marcella Hazan philosophy of boiling the potatoes unpeeled and then peeling and ricing them after, but handling those hot potatoes is a big pain. In my cooking school here in Florence we quartered the potatoes and then boiled them in water with a little milk. I have finally ended up going back to basics, and I find the results very creamy and delicious.

A lot depends on the potatoes you use. This year I bought potatoes directly from my lady farmer – organic, covered in dirt, straight from the source – and I might be committing sacrilege by saying that I think the potatoes I get from my regular produce retailer up the street are more flavorful and better texture. Hmmm. The most important instrument for this dish is the potato ricer - it’s easy to use and creates a creamy consitency.

Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes with Mascarpone
Serves 6 or so

8 large potatoes, either russet, large yellow waxy, or Yukon gold
2 tablespoons kosher salt
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup (250 g) mascarpone or sour cream (not lowfat)
1 cup (250 ml) half and half or heavy cream
1/2 cup (125 g) freshly grated parmesan cheese, or more to taste
More kosher salt to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley (optional)

Peel the potatoes and either halve or quarter them, depending on how big. Place in a large pot and add cold water to about 1 inch above the potatoes. plus 2 tablespoons kosher salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, lower the heat to medium, and boil for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Drain in a colander. Keep the hot pot on the stove and add the 4 T butter. Process the potatoes through the ricer back into the hot pot. Mix the potatoes with a wooden spoon; add the mascarpone, half the cream, the parmesan cheese, and salt to taste and continue stirring until the flavor is as you want it. If needed, add the rest of the cream and stir to combine. Add the parsley, if using, and stir to combine. Serve warm.

 

The Mysterious Quince

I decided it’s time to start making my own jam, so why not start with quince, the original jammy fruit. I bought a kilo of late-season quince from my lady of the farm (at a steep price, I must say, especially considering that I had to throw out several which were wormy inside).

Quince is almost a cultlike fruit because it only makes short and rare appearances in winter, and it’s comestability is a bit of a mytery. I finally ate some of the raw fruit, and actually I kind of liked it, but I am also the person who eats lemons straight. Quince is extremely aromatic, but also sour and intensely fibrous. This is probably why it was first used to make jam: its fiber acts as a natural pectin, and the tart-sweet flavor and acidity is perfect for jam.

Here is what it looked like after it had been cooking for a while. First I cored (but didn’t peel) and cut up the quince, then cooked them with about two cups water for about 25 minutes. Then I ran them through the food mill, and put them back in the pan with about 2 T lemon juice and 1 cup sugar, and cooked it down for another 30 minutes or so, adding water as needed to prevent burning. At the end, it’s very tasty, but perhaps not something I would pay money for in a jar.

 

Food Markets as Vital Cultural and Culinary Experiences

As I tell people every week in my tours of the Florence’s Central Market, there is nothing frivolous or embarassing about checking out a city’s gastronomic offerings, in addition to the roster of world-class museums and churches that Florence boasts. In fact, a city’s markets – whether bustling outdoor affairs or even supermarkets – offer a unique inside view of the people and the culture, not to mention the chance to see what’s local and in season, and to taste some regional specialties. I was reminded of all this by an article in today’s NY Times by Mimi Sheraton.

Right now in the Central Market, you can see the winter crop of leafy greens such as chicory and cavolo nero; you can taste the first of the green and peppery olio nuovo at my favorite stand, Baroni; or you can gather wild mushrooms such as ovuli or, soon, galinelle for a feast at home. Florence’s Central Market is at a crossroads: many locals still shop there for the best quality and prices in meat, fish, and produce, but more stands selling such basics are closing to make way for tourist-oriented booths shilling neon-colored pastas and dried porcini (easily portable on the airplane, even if not part of the Tuscan cuisine). But I still love the market and enjoy taking people here; it lacks pretty much all of the glitz and glamour of, say, San Francisco’s Ferry Building, but on the other hand, it is still a much more “real” and authentic market, where you can find chicken livers, whole sea bass, and fruit and vegetables at incredibly reasonable prices, all in a pretty bare-bones – but still fun and lively – environment.

 

Pasta e Fagioli Perfected

I’ve made this dish so many times, and I finally think I’ve really gotten it exactly right. I know the photo is weak, but very bloglike – what can you do when you have a mitt on and the kitchen is a mess … This is my recipe:

Pasta e Fagioli
Serves about 4

1/4 cup olive oil plus more for serving
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 branch rosemary
1/2 teaspoon red chile flakes
600 grams (about a pound) cooked cannelini beans with liquid (either homemade or canned)
1 14 oz can crushed tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 lb small-shape pasta
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Freshly grated parmesan cheese for serving

In a soup pot over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic, rosemary, and chile flakes, and saute until the oil is aromatic (do not let the garlic brown). Remove the rosemary. Add the beans – be careful because they may splatter in the oil. Stir to combine. Add the tomatoes and their juice. Cook for 2 minutes to warm and combine. Set up another pot on the stove and place a manual food mill over it. Process the whole mixture through the food mill. Return to the original pot over medium-low heat and continue cooking and occacionally stirring, tasting for salt and pepper.

In the meantime, boil water, salt it with a handful of salt, and boil the pasta. When the pasta is almost done, transfer it to the soup pot using a strainer (do not drain the soup water). Continue cooking the pasta in the soup for another 10 minutes or so, adding pasta water as necessary if the soup is too thick (it will be thick, but shouldn’t stick to the bottom of the pot). Taste again for salt and pepper, and stir in the parsley. Serve in wide shallow bowls with a “c” of good olive oil and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

 

Getting Really into Baking

As it gets colder here in Florence and everyone is out in their big puffy coats, I am more motivated than ever to hang out in my toasty kitchen. I’ve never been the world’s best baker (I am usually more into the savory stuff), but I’ve started to get more into it. For one thing, I crave American sweets, so the only answer is to make them.

I finally took the camera into the kitchen! I made two very successful cookies recently: Chocolate Crinkle Cookies from the Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking, and Almond-Chocolate Sandwich Cookies from The Baker’s Dozen cookbook.

 

I Finally Mastered the Beef Cheeks

A few weeks ago I tried braising beef cheeks for the first time to mixed results. The flavor was good, but the meat was pretty tough and not melt-in-your-mouth tender as I was hoping – after three hours of cooking! I did a little research, including re-reading parts of Molly Stevens’ excellent cookbook All About Braising. I then redid the experiment, this time marinating the cheeks overnight in wine and herbs, and then cooking it slowly in the oven instead of on the stovetop., and it was tender-licious, you might say. I suspect the oven is what made the most difference, because my stove is pretty hot, even when turned to the lowest flame. I need to get one of those stone disks that you put between the flame and the pot … but in the meantime, the oven is an excellent way to braise. I wish I had a photo of the final meat, but I am always forgetting to bring my camera into the kitchen. As a nascent blogger, I need to get over that! Fra poco I will post the recipe.

 

Cake Missing Ingredient?

It’s hard to know what is a recipe flaw and what is human error in my baking. Because I live in Italy but prefer to use American baking recipes, I have to constantly adjust the ingredient amounts: the butter here is more buttery, the flour less potent … everything is a little bit different. So I would be curious to know if anyone else out there made the recipe for CARAMELIZED PEAR UPSIDE DOWN CAKE that was pub’d in the NY Times by Melissa Clark on October 17.

I was in the middle of making this big dinner, with guests (okay guest) coming over that night. I had gone to the farmer lady in Piazza Santo Spirito and bought special tiny pears straight from her tree (called pere delle spine, she told me; I would imagine they have thorns on the branches, but I am getting side-tracked).

Here is a photo of the little pears in the foreground; the smaller fruits in the back are nespole (loquats).

Anyway, here I was in the middle of making this cake, when I realized it seemed to be missing an ingredient, namely baking powder, or any kind of leavening. I’m not the most experienced baker, so I wasn’t sure whether to trust the recipe or my instincts. I did a little bit of looking around, and it really looked like all upside-down cakes of this type use either baking powder or baking soda, so at the last minute I added a teaspoon plus of baking powder to the dough.

My cake came out tasty, but not quite right. For one thing, it would not come smoothly out of the pan. I would imagine that if I had my cast-iron pans (in a friend’s basement in Berkeley), this would have worked better. But I would love to know what experience other people have had with the recipe, and if it is in fact missing the powder, or if it’s supposed to be that way.

I don’t have any photos to include because it came out pretty fugly. Delicious caramelized pears, however!

 

A Far-Flung Pizza Adventure

Last night I decided to go check out a pizzeria that had been recommended to me by several people. I had put it off for a long time because 1) it’s not close to the center, and 2) the name of the place is Pizza Man. Pizza Man, he delivers? I decided to overlook the unpromising name and venture out to this place – or as it turned out, places.

Pizza Man has three sit-down locations, as well as a take-out only place on Viale dei Amicis. I checked their fancy web site, which comes with music and user-unfriendly flash, and even called ahead, but somehow was confused enough to first go to the (popular!) take-out place by mistake. One taxi ride later and we were at the restaurant on Via Tedalda, way out in Rovezzano, where we waited, on our feet, in the cold, for about an hour. (Granted, this was mostly my fault because of the confusion, but I’ll complain anyway.) The place was packed – packed! It seemed like the entire neighborhood of Rovezzano was there waiting for a pizza, or at least those between the ages of 25 and 40. We were by any measure the only foreigners there, and in fact our English conversation kept drawing stares – a rarity in Florence. The building itself is all windows, and feels a little like a modern temporary structures; it looks like the windows open in the summer, which would make for a fun and lively atmosphere.

The staff is very professional, and evidently used to being mobbed by hungry Florentines every night, because they kept offering hot fried dough balls and little glasses of wine to keep the crowd subdued; it worked. And after all of this, how was the pizza? Quite delicious, I am happy to report. The pizzas are 100% Naples style, with a thick, high ring of crust surrounding a circle of delicious sauce and little puddles of mozzarella di bufala (or fior di latte). They only offer about five kinds of pizza, all without meat, all variations on the Marinara, Margherita, or Napolitano (with anchovies and capers). To drink, there are big glasses of Moretti beer. The rest of the menu includes a few nondescript antipasti and primi, but literally everyone in the place was there for the pizza. They do have nice desserts: a nonna, a cioccolate cake, a lemon sorbet, and a refreshing ananas.

The final verdict: I would say this is one of the best pizzas to be had in the Florence area, especially if you like Naples-style. If you have a car and like exploring the further reaches of Florence’s residential suburbs in search of the perfect pie, this place (and its sister restaurants) is for you. Otherwise, it’s probably easier to get take-out from the Viale Amicis, or else go to one of the better places in the center (like Vico del Carmine).

Pizza Man
www.pizzaman.it
Viale de Amicis 47 r , 055-666-681 (take-out)
Via Tedalda 411, 055-691-756
Via del Prete 10r, 055-433-849
Via Baracca 148 A/B, 055-437-9931

 

Jeffrey Steingarten in Florence?

Food celebrity sighting: I think I saw Jeffrey Steingarten, one of my favorite food writers, walking in central Florence yesterday.

Jeffrey, call me! I’ll take you out for the best pizza in Florence.