From My Italian Kitchen, Roasted Pumpkin Soup

Fall in Italy is pumpkin season. Pumpkin shows up in many dishes - in creamy risottos, as the filling for tortelli, and as the base for a warming soup. Each fall I look forward to the appearance of all of these dishes on the menus of local trattorie, a sure sign of fall’s arrival.

This fall I have been experimenting with recipes for two of these dishes, a risotto and a zuppa di zucca (pumpkin soup). While it is always a treat to have these dishes in a restaurant, there is something very satisfying about making them at home.

For the pumpkin soup, I have tried to recreate the one I enjoyed last fall at Cibrèo Trattoria in Florence. It was a vellutata (a smooth, velvety soup) topped off with a drizzle of olive oil and a bit of sweetness from crushed amaretti. Unfortunately, their recipe was nowhere to be found, so I had to experiment to come up with something close. My version is not an exact replica of their’s, but it is pretty tasty!

The key to this soup is starting with chunks of roasted pumpkin and some roasted garlic. Canned pumpkin just won’t do - it doesn’t have the right flavor or texture. Roasting both the pumpkin and the garlic are essential for creating a complex flavor. Turmeric, cinnamon, and maple syrup pair perfectly with pumpkin. And, for a bit of tang, feta cheese. Lastly, crisp Italian Amaretti cookies add just the right touch of sweetness on top of the finished soup.

 Ingredients:

6 cups cubed pumpkin

1 head of garlic

3 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) + more to garnish finished soup

1 medium potato (~ 150 grams), cooked until soft

¼ cup onion, finely diced

2 tablespoons finely diced carrot

The sweetness in the amaretti adds a perfect touch to this soup.  Be sure to use the crisp ones.

10 ounces feta, crumbled

800 ml (~ 3 1/3 cups) chicken broth

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon coarse black pepper

1 teaspoon turmeric (or more to taste)

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons maple syrup

¼ cup half and half (or whole milk)

1 package crisp Italian Amaretti cookies.  2 cookies, crumbled, per bowl of soup

 Directions:

Peel and cube the pumpkin (even easier if you can find it already peeled and cubed in the market). Toss with 2 tablespoons of EVOO and place on a rimmed baking sheet. 

Pumpkin chunks and garlic ready to roast

Cut the top third off a head of garlic, remove the loose skins, and place the intact head in the pan with the pumpkin.  Pour 1 tablespoon of EVOO directly on top of the garlic and then flip it over so that the cut side is down.  Drizzle 2 tablespoons of EVOO over the pumpkin cubes.

Roast at 400 degrees for 45 – 75 minutes until pumpkin is soft and garlic soft and fragrant.   The more the pumpkin is spread out on a large pan, and the smaller the pieces, the quicker it will cook.  60 minutes is about average.

 While the pumpkin is roasting, boil the potato, mash, and set aside.   Sautè the onion and carrots in a little bit of EVOO until softened.  Set aside.

Roasting the garlic keeps the flavor mellow, start with half the head of garlic and add more to taste

Place the roasted pumpkin, along with any accumulated juices, into a large soup pot.  Add the feta, mashed potato, and carrot / onion mixture to the warm pumpkin.  Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves into the mixture (depending on how much garlic flavor you like, start with half the head of garlic and then add more to suit your taste).  Mash all with a potato masher.

Add the chicken broth (substitute vegetable broth for a vegetarian version), spices, and maple syrup.  Heat soup over low heat and simmer x 15 minutes. 

Blend with an immersion blender, then add the half and half

To serve:  drizzle a small amount of EVOO over each bowl of soup.  Top with 2 crushed amaretti cookies.  The slight sweetness of the cookies makes the soup sing!  For a bit more tang, crumble a tablespoon of feta on top.

This soup tastes even better gently reheated the next day.  It also freezes well, just defrost in the fridge overnight before reheating.

My version - I may have used a bit more amaretti than Cibrèo did.  I like the sweetness.

Lucca Comics and Games 2024

I must admit that I have a bit of a “bah humbug” attitude about the huge Comic Con held each fall in Lucca. I think this is mostly due to not liking big crowds.  And Lucca is definitely crowded during Comics. Just imagine 80,000 people flowing into this small walled city each day of the 5 day event!   The streets are packed and going about normal business is pretty much impossible for those who live here.   

To escape the madness that is Comics, I usually plan an out of the city escape.  Last year, Florence.  The year before, Pontremoli. The year before that, PIenza. 

My one and only experience with Comics was in 2019, my first year living in Lucca.  But this year, I found myself in Lucca for the big event.

Perhaps my general feelings are better expressed in Italian - after all, doesn’t everything sound better in Italian?   So I will simply say that my usual attitude is Bah, che sciocchezza! (Oh, what nonsense). And yet, circumstances having conspired to keep me in Lucca this year, I decided to get out for a bit each day and experience Comics.  I found the “nonsense” to be a lot of fun!

 Even though the crowds were a bit overwhelming, I found several things to enjoy about Comics. Top of my list were the costumes.  For 5 days the streets of Lucca were filled with an amazing assortment of characters – superheroes, cartoon characters, pirates, medieval maidens, clowns, historical figures (both Dante and Jesus roamed the streets), monsters, sprites, and animals. 

 Another thing to appreciate were the children.  Comics is a family affair and a safe space to bring the kids.  The evening of Halloween was especially enjoyable due to all the costumed little ones roaming about. What’s more adorable then costumed kids, happy and smiling?

Even pets became part of the action!

The crowds, while large, were also very well behaved.  Costumed participants gladly posed for photos, there were a lot of oohs and aahs at the remarkable get ups, and everyone just seemed to want to have a good time.  Another plus - no worries about bad behavior and no safety concerns despite the huge number of people.

 A lot of the activity related to gaming, comic books, and movies took place in large tents erected throughout Lucca.  These were mostly ticketed events with lines to enter.  Definitely not my thing, but clearly a big draw to participants in the Comics and Games event.

 The pictures posted here are from the first 2 ½ days of the event.  More photos and can found on the Two Parts Italy Facebook page and IG.

Photos from the last couple of days to come next week.

The Language of Rain

A hint of blue sky and a break in the rain. Still best to bring your ombrello!

The last few weeks in northern Italy have been unusually rainy. Some days have brought intermittent light showers or drizzle.  Other have kept us mostly indoors due to rain and gloomy, dark skies.  It feels as though overnight we packed away our summer clothes in favor of raincoats, scarves, and boots.

Last week an overnight storm brought a good deal of drama.  It started with a sudden heavy rain, followed by flashes of lightning and big claps of thunder – all of which lasted for hours. As I watched the lightening outside my windows, I began to think of all the Italian words that can be used to describe a storm.

 In Italian, rain is la pioggia. There are two ways to say that it is raining: the simple piove or sta piovendo.  The first is what is most commonly heard. When it has been raining day after day you might hear someone say, with a big sigh, ancora, piove (it is still raining) or oggi è piovoso di novo (today it is rainy again).  When there is just a light sprinkle of rain, piove quattro gocce means literally that it is just raining “four drops”.

When there is a break in the rain, everything looks fresh and clean. The greens are greener and the flowers brighter. Here, a glimpse into Lucca’s “hidden park” the day after the recent rainstorm.

Colorful umbrellas brightened up my street in Lucca on a dreary day.

 A storm is una tempesta and a thunderstorm un temporale. A temporale is accompanied by tuono (thunder) and fulmine (lightning).  The storm we had here in Lucca last week was preceded by un allerta’meteo, a weather alert. The alert, which came by phone and also on-line, was warranted as this storm was huge! It might have been called an acquazzone (a downpour) or a nubifragio (a cloudburst).  There were floods (alluvioni) in some parts of Tuscany.

There is no Italian equivalent to the American expression “raining cats and dogs”, a direct translation would be meaningless to most Italians.  Rather, sta piovendo a secchiate (it is raining buckets) comes close. 

Quando piove (when it rains) out come the ombrelli (umbrellas) which fill the otherwise dreary streets with lots of color. Without an ombrelli one might have to declare sono bagnata! (I’m wet; or sono bagnato if you are male). 

Little boys and puddles - an irresistible combination. His mamma just laughed as he jumped in.

After the storm passes, the streets are full of – and this is my new favorite word in Italian – pozzanghere (puddles).  

For many years I simply called these laghetti (little lakes) because I didn’t know the correct Italian word.   But now that I’ve looked it up – pozzanghere – it’s just a fun word to say.   

And like children everywhere, there is always one who will sguazzare nella pozzanghera (splash in the puddle). This little guy certainly did!

Since I am not a little one who needs to jump into puddles, the best thing about the pozzanghere to me is how they reflect the architecture of the city. Bell towers, lamp posts, clock towers, and centuries old buildings make for great puddle art.

And sometimes, if you’re lucky, there is also an arcobaleno (rainbow) in the aftermath of the storm. 

 As I write this I am enjoying skies that are cloudy with bits of blue and not a raindrop in sight.  But I did step over a lot of leftover pozzanghere this morning.  And I had my ombrello with me just in case the rain started again.

The Flavors of an Italian Autumn

Fall color along Lucca’s historic wall.

 Is there a better time to be in Italy than Autumn?  The crowds have dispersed, the temperatures are perfect, the leaves are changing, and – even better – it is harvest season.   When I think of this time of year in Italy, my thoughts often involve the unique colors, scents, and flavors of the local foods. For anyone interested in food (and who isn’t?), the flavors of an Italian fall are a revelation.

 I think first of the scent of chestnuts roasting outdoors over an open flame.  Smells just like fall to me.  Chestnuts at this time of year are also ground and used in cooking.  There is castagnaccio, a dense cake made with farina di castagna (chestnut flour), olive oil, raisins and pinenuts.  Necci (my personal favorite fall chestnut food), are thick chestnut flour crepes, cooked on a hot iron paddle, and wrapped around a fresh ricotta filling. Add a drizzle of honey to the ricotta and you have a barely sweet, nutty flavored snack. Yum.

 Next I think of white truffles with their earthy aroma.  They may be shaved over pasta, eggs, or risotto.  Last fall I had some truffle shaved over a delicate pecorino flan.  The presentation was part of the experience. First the found-just-that-day white truffle was brought to the table under a glass dome. Then it was slowly shaved over the flan. The scent and the delicate taste of white truffle atop that silky flan was wonderful.

 The deep green color of freshly pressed olive oil, and that delicious aroma, is another fall treat.  To stand in a local frantoio (the mill where olives are pressed) as the new oil flows out of the press is the very definition of fall in Italy. And nothing beats the flavor of fresh-pressed local extra virgin olive oil.

For me, fall truly starts with my first taste of zucca.  Zucca is an Italian word that can refer to any one of the Cucurbita genus of plants – ones that grow on vines. 

This includes gourds, cucumbers, and squash.  Most often the word zucca is used to mean pumpkin.  And it is the foods made with pumpkin that mark the beginning of fall for me.

 Several pumpkin based dishes can be found in Tuscany.   First, there are tortelli di zucca, a pumpkin filled pasta. They are often served in a simple brown butter and sage sauce, sometimes with a few nuts on top. 

It may be a simple preparation, but there is nothing simple about the flavor.  Just a touch of sweetness in the pumpkin, wrapped inside a homemade pasta envelope, with the nutty flavor of the browned butter and a hint of sage.   It is a dish worth the wait for fall to come around again.

Then there is risotto zucca e salsiccia, risotto with pumpkin and sausage.  This is hands-down my favorite fall pumpkin dish. 

I especially love the one served at Trattoria Gigi, my go-to local trattoria here in Lucca.  The pumpkin flavor is subtle, never overwhelming, with bits of flavorful sausage in a creamy, perfectly cooked risotto. 

The ultimate fall comfort food!

A couple of weeks ago I was introduced to another pumpkin dish, vellutata di zucca, at Trattoria Cibrèo in Florence.  The velvety soup was topped with an artistic drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of crushed amaretti. 

Not only was the soup visually pleasing, but the taste was wonderful and the slightly sweet and crunchy bits of amaretti were an unexpected, but perfect, flavor enhancement.

 Just writing this post makes me hungry.  I might have to try my hand at making that zuppa!

Wandering in Florence

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the city of Florence. The art. The architecture. The history. The crowds !

Even though I live most of the year a short hour and twenty minute train ride away, I’ve only spent short periods of time in Florence since moving to Italy. Most visits have been day trips or at best one night stays for a specific purpose - a birthday lunch for a friend, the dramatic Florentine Easter celebration, the annual Christmas market. I once spent a day in the city shoe shopping, which felt (and still does) rather decadent.

It had been a long time since I visited for a longer stay or did the things Florence is famous for - museums, churches, markets, exhibits.

But that changed this past week with a 5 day stay that gave me lots of time to catch up with Florence.

November is a great time to visit Florence. There are still crowds, but they are much smaller than in high season. The cool, but not cold, weather is perfect, even with on and off rain. It was fortunate that the heavy rains that caused so many problems in Tuscany last week happened mostly later in the evenings and overnight in Florence and that there was no flooding. Watching the umbrellas go up and down filled the streets with changing colors.

I arrived with a list of things I wanted to see and do, many of them favorites from long ago trips or classic Florentine sights. And yet, with the luxury of a longer stay, what I found myself doing first was just wandering.

I wandered through main piazzas and down tiny side streets. Past small markets and interesting shops. I even came across a brass band who filled a piazza with sound. I found a small sandwich stand that I first discovered 20+ years ago on a food tour and had been unable to find since. I got turned around and a little bit lost and found surprises around every corner. Perhaps best of all is just to people watch and observe Florentine daily life with camera in hand.

I crossed the Ponte Santa Trinità for views of the Ponte Vecchio. The dark and cloudy skies changed the character of the Arno, creating shadows and reflections in the water.

I spent some time looking up. There are lots of interesting things to be seen far above eye level.

Wandering through Florence presents so many small details to discover - pretty doors, carved stone decorations, street side shrines, and the outsides of famous churches. Wandering provides the luxury to sip a coffee in a pretty cafe with a view to a piazza and just daydream.

I did make time to visit some more well known places - including 2 museums, some churches, a market, the Piazza del Duomo, and a fabulous art nouveau exhibit. All were wonderful. I’ll write more about them in the next weeks.

But simply wandering the city, without a specific goal, was one of the best parts of my visit and those are the rather random photos i’m sharing this week.