Green or Red?……….. the pesto decision …… on this night

Now if I am honest there is no choice.

The Italian side of the family are very dismissive of red pesto, in much the same way as that discussion about pizza toppings, which consigns pineapple and other fruits to the bin without even a second thought.

But Tina was in Italy and so I  engaged in making both red and green pesto.

Each takes only minutes to make, can be stored for a while and are perfect with pasta, although Tina and her mum shudder at the use of pesto on pretty much anything else, and rail against the fashion in adding it to all sorts of dishes.

And here is the really big confession I prefer red pesto.

So tonight  I have made my favourite pesto, accompanied by some Neapolitan songs.

And then I shall sit down with the DVD of Benvenuti al Sud, eat the pasta with red pesto and be happy.

Well as happy as you can be.

Location; our kitchen

Pictures; Esselunga shopping bag, courtesy of Esselunga*, and the produce from our near by shop, 2019 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Esselunga, https://www.esselunga.it/cms/homepage.html/

A fish finger, a pizza and a certain day in April

Now if you are serious about pizza, there are certain toppings which are beyond the pale. 

Of these I class pineapple, beetroot and chocolate as abominations, and while at the end of the day it is anyone’s choice what to place on their pizza, I stick to that simple rule that tomato, cheese and basil are best.

To which I can add fried pizza, but for me it has to be the simplicity of the traditional Neapolitan pizza that wins out.

So, I was intrigued when a friend of a friend posted a picture of “Pizza Bastoncini di pesce”, which if my google translate is correct is Pizza Fish sticks.  The accompanying caption reads “Here comes the pizza with fish sticks”, suggested it was following a request and would be available on April 1st.

And here of course alarm bells should have rung, but when pineapple can find its way onto a pizza why not fish fingers?  

At which point I have to say that before I became a vegetarian, I would happily eat fish finger sandwiches.

But maybe not so, because back in February La Repubblica carried the story “From joke to reality: pizza (frozen) with fried fish sticks”.*

Going on to explain, that the German food company Dr. Oetker, had bowed to customer requests on Twitter to introduce the new pizza line after it had announced two years ago on April Fool's Day that “the pizza with fish sticks” would be on the shelves of German supermarkets from 1 April.

The new pizza that raises more than an eyebrow , and which has already sparked not exactly benevolent comments from the Italian community in Germany, will be produced by Dr. Oetker in collaboration with Capitan Iglo (Findus) regarding the six fish sticks. which will rest on a base 'topped with tomato sauce, a mixture of mozzarella and Edam and spinach', as explained in a note which adds that 'the spices complete the Mediterranean-maritime recipe'*

So, a slow burn silly story or a reality?

I shall have to ask the Italian side of the family to go and check out the new range in the local Esselunga supermarket, and in the meantime trawl the net for more information on Dr. Oetker's new product.

We shall see.

Picture; Neapolitan pizza, 2017, from the collection of Saul Simpson, and Fish sticks, 2022, courtesy of Alessandra Natali

* From joke to reality: pizza (frozen) with fried fish sticks by Jeanne Perego, La Repubblica, February 18, 2022, https://www.repubblica.it/il-gusto/2022/02/18/news/pizza_con_bastoncini_di_pesce_fritti-338265785/#:~:text=%22This%20is%20no,world%20of%20distribution.

The taste of Italy ………

So, when you have gone through all the great pasta dishes and the puddings there is always Ciobar.

Enough said.

Location; Italy and our kitchen.

Picture; Ciobar wrapper, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Pandoro ……… just one of the great sweet things to eat

Now I came late to Pandoro, which is a traditional Italian sweet bread, particularly popular at Christmas and New Year.

And with that in the frame |I can date my first one to around 2000, when the Italian side of the family came over for Christmas bringing the plain version.

Today they come with all sorts of fillings, and last week we picked up one with an orange filling.

Now what ever the filling, I like to serve a pandoro with icing sugar.  These come in a small sachet and having opened the polythene bag containing the bread, you administer the sugar, shaking the bag, so that the it covers the pandora.

At which point I could get technical and say that the pandoro is shaped like a frustum with an eight-pointed star section, but even I had to look up the word frustum, which is really a pyramid shape with the top lopped off.

And so for the romantic, the addition of the sugar, gives the appearance of the snowy peaks of the Italian Alps at Christmas.*

All of which is true, but rarely is commented on as such in our family.
Nor do they bother over much with its history, the first reference to which comes in the 18th century or to its modern version developed in 1894, by Domenico Melegatti who began producing it industrially.

And a good job too.

Picture; from the cover of the one we had last week

* Pandoro, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandoro

Painting Italy .......... the Tasty Corner Sorrento

Now it is one of those little streets which you only find by accident.

We were following the line of shops along Via San Cesareo and cut through an arch in a building which opened up on the even narrower Via degli Archi.

There will be the sniffy travellers who see only an alley but in the short distance it took us to walk its length there was a tiny sweet shop specialising in a range of bagged sweets including the sugar coated nuts which always go down well with the family and this tiny restaurant with a handful of tables inside and offering these two out on the street.

It was called L’Angolo Del Gusto or the Tasty Corner and its one review described it as  a family run “café and bakery [with] good food that is very reasonably priced."

They are very accommodating and it has just a few tables so you can eat there or take out. We enjoyed the service and the good food.”

Now given that we had paid €75 for a meal the Tasty Corner had an appeal but I couldn't fault where we had eaten and our position commanded a fine spot to watch as people went by so I was content.

I suppose I should have slid across and asked the couple if they were local but it isn’t the done thing.

So I shall just leave you at the Tasty Corner on hot day in Sorrento in late July with that observation that when in a new place never be afraid to wander off the beaten track.

Painting;   L’Angolo Del Gusto © 2015 Peter Topping from a photograph by Andrew Simpson 2014

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures, https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

Painting Italy ........... Trattoria al Camoscio D’Abruzzo, Rome

After another of those long conversations about favourite eating places I set Peter the challenge of painting some of the places Tina and I regularly visit.

Tratoria al Comoscio D' Abeuzzio

This is the Trattoria al Camoscio D’Abruzzo and it's on Via Castelfidardo which is a long narrow street in the San Giovanni neighbourhood of central Rome.

We found it quite by chance which in a sense says little for our observational skills. It is directly opposite the hotel we were staying at and after trying a number of expensive, and some indifferent places we ended up here.

It was what I imagined a typical family run restaurant in the centre of Rome would be like. There were just two small rooms with the inner one a few steps higher than the outer. The tables were close together and on the nights we ate there full of locals. Now I know this reads like a tourist book but that was how it was.

It specialized in the food of Abruzzo which is a region on the eastern side of Italy, and it was here that I had first had aglio, olio, and peperoncino, which is pasta with olive oil garlic and chillies. It is one of our favourites and is eaten all over Italy although I have to confess that Rosa’s version is magnificent.*

Spagehetti aglio, olio e peperconcino

Usually served with spaghetti, the sauce is made by lightly cooking crushed garlic with olive oil and chopped fresh chili's. I have written about this wonderfully simple dish to which I often add a slight amount of tomato sauce, which according to Tina and Rosa turns it into something very different.

Rosa is from Naples and from her I learnt that you do not drain the pasta but just scoop it from the pan and drop it on to the oil, garlic and chillies which give a little moisture to the dish.

We have returned to the Trattoria from time to time and were last there while on holiday in Silvi. Now the weather had gone indifferent and we decided to head off across the middle of Italy for a few days in Rome.

Our younger two have never been and Saul at least was excited at the prospect of the Coliseum and the Circus Maximus.

What I hadn’t realised was that the two hour coach trip would take us through the region of Abruzzo. I can think of no finer way to see a country than by travelling by coach or train. You get to see things which are lost if you fly. But then I am sounding like the tourist guide again.

Suffice to say on that first day back in Rome we took the boys to the Trattoria and this time sat outside. The meal was a leisurely casual affair and in between courses we watched as the city went about it business.

And despite the fact that we had not been for some years, the food was as good as I remembered it.

*Spaghetti aglio,olio e peperconcino or pasta with garlic and olive oi, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/spaghetti-aglioolio-e-peperconcino-or.html from the series Rosa's cooking, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Rosa%27s%20cooking

Painting; Trattoria al Camoscio D’Abuzzo  © 2015 Peter Topping from a photograph by Andrew Simpson 2012

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures