wet kisses e buon viaggio.

Christina, SF Calabria president, Alessandra, our tutor & translator extraordinaire, and Angelo Musolino, pastry chef

our last day in calabria. a grey day as a farewell.  because monday 

was taken up entirely by the length of italy in a bus, we missed our planned lunch based on typical mushrooms of the area at the Trattoria Villa Rosa but instead we went to Villaggio del Pino, where we where supposed to go on Monday, and had a lecture by pastry chef Angelo Musolino about the use of gergamot in pastry production. he has a pasty shop in reggio di calabria called "la mimosa." he talked about the necessity to preserve the area's particular specialities, especially bergamot which, for most places is considered only in the use of perfumes, but all parts of it (rind, essential oils) can be used in all parts of cooking - from anti-pasta to fish, to regional foods like mushrooms, and of course sweet desserts and pastries. apparently in july of 2010, there will be a new law in italy that says all food colouring must be natural for all fresh and industrial products. after july, you will not be able to buy or produce chemical colours, but can use up the stock you have until it runs out but there will be no new supplies produces. if you do use chemical colouring, companies will have to write that they are inclued in the product and dangerous for small children - like cigarette labels.

no artificial colours. no, really.

Recipe Pan de Espagna
bisquit (like the cake we had for nanae and kate's bday)
800g whole eggs
500g sugar
whip for 15 minutes until the mix is 4X's bigger and fluffy

500g flour (finest quality)
fold in carefully and bake at 170C for 20-25 minutes.

Creme d'pattisery:
1L milk
350g sugar
8 yolks
boil (duh) together at 81degrees Celcius

120g cornstarch
add cornstarch into the mixer.
layer creme and cake.
can add any flavor to the cream, can add a vanilla stick to the milk, but don't mix with citrus.

to make bergamot creme: mix 30g bergamot paste with 1 kilo cream to make the flavor lighter and softer whereas 1 drop of bergamot essence will make the flavor way too strong.

for lunch we had a ginormous buffet of food - each one with some bergamot or regional food inclusion. two types of cheese with bergamot marmalade, melon balls with herbs, fried anchovies and other vegs in batter, shrimp risotto with bergamot rind, rosemary foccaccia, different types of eggplant roles - one with ham, one with stuffing, one with mozzarella, tomato and basil layer, calabrese macaroni with wild mushrooms and bergamot, foccaccia sandwich with sage and spicy 'nduja spread, fresh salad, rolled dough with spicy 'nduja, pan de espagna cake, and profiteroles with bergamot cream. i think that was everything.

 

bergamot tastes a little soapy. a little too perfumey. but i wonder if our tastes/smells are accustomed to that cosmetic familiarity rather than the natural gastronomic pleasure of eating it.