Insalata - Salad, Italian Style

Panzanella Salad, Osteria Cantine Bernardini, Lucca

Salads in Italy come in many varieties, including simple insalata verde (green salad, just a big bowl of lettuce), insalata mista (mixed salad of lettuce, carrots, tomato, perhaps some fennel), and meal-size insalatone (big salads filled with cheeses, meats, seafood, fruits, nuts). There are also delicious specialty salads such as caprese (tomato, fresh mozzarella with basil), panzanella (tomato, cucumber, red onion, basil and crumbled bread with olive oil and vinegar), and carciofi (fresh shaved artichokes with Parmesan and olive oil). All are delicious, especially when made with local fresh ingredients and eaten somewhere in Italy!

I enjoy each of these types of salads but, secondo me (in my opinion), the absolute best salad in Italy is an insalata di bresaola. Bresaola is not well known in the U.S. (at least not outside of cities with big Italian communities like Boston, New York, and San Francisco), especially compared to the more familiar Italian salumi (cold cut) products like prosciutto, salami, and mortadella. I first tasted bresaola on a trip to Rome many years ago and it's always one of the first things I want to eat when I return to Italy. And, because it is low-fat and low-carb, it is one Italian food that I never feel guilty about eating. 

Thinly sliced bresaola, with just a hint of marbeling.  

Bresaola is a beef cold cut, made from what we in the U.S. would call the top round cut. It is a specialty of the Valtellina, an alpine valley in northern Italy. Like prosciutto, bresaola is produced through a process of salting and drying. But, unlike prosciutto, the beef is trimmed of all visible fat before being rubbed with a salt and spice mixture. Also, the aging process is shorter, usually two to three months. The final product is deep red in color, soft (never leathery), delicate in texture, and fragrant. It's served very thinly sliced and is so very delicious. 

Bresaola is typically served as an antipasto, often as a salad with peppery arugula (but also good on crisp lettuce). It is topped with shaved Parmesan and dressed with olive oil and lemon juice or balsamic vinegar. I can easily make a  meal out of this salad, especially if I have some focaccia on the side. 

Bresaola filled with ricotta and mint ( Lucca Italian School, Speak and Cook Italian class) 

There are other ways to use bresaola as well. In a cooking class (at Lucca Italian School), I learned to fix it as an antipasto in which round slices were topped with a mixture of fresh ricotta mixed with chopped mint, folded over into half moon shapes, and drizzled with thick balsamic glaze. Heavenly!  Bresaola also goes well with a variety of meats and cheeses on an antipasto platter and makes a great panini (sandwich) on salty focaccia with some tomato and a soft cheese. Or just pick up a slice and eat it in your hand as a quick snack. It's hard for me to find at home, so I always eat plenty of it while I'm in Italy.

-post by JMB

Contacts:  

Lucca Italian School     Via dei Bacchettoni 25, 55100 Lucca, Italy.            Lucca Italian School.com

Santa Cristina Enoteca.  Via XX Settembre 10, 55100 Lucca, Italy   Santacristina.enoteca@gmail.com

Osteria Cantine Bernardini Via del Suffragio 7,  55100. Lucca, Italy.  Cantinebernardini.com

Pranzo con Amici (Lunch with Friends)

Today's post is all about pranzo (lunch). Judy and I are still in Lucca and we've invited friends to our apartment for lunch. These are really special friends - Angelo, Daniela and Eva are the trio behind Lucca Italian School, a wonderful language school and a place where I have spent many happy weeks over the past few years. They are, as I tend to think of them, the holy trinity of Italian teachers. Eva is also the school's master cooking teacher, but hey, no pressure!

The table is set for pranzo with amici, Lucca, January 2017.

I love to cook, especially for friends. It's a way of being creative, of welcoming others, of sharing a bit of myself. Conversation and laughter always surface when people share a meal. Often when I've hosted a meal in Lucca it's been for friends visiting from the United States. Today Judy and I are hosting Italian friends, so there is the added bonus of speaking in Italian and catching up on news from Lucca and the Italian School.

On the menu today:

Insalata mista, a simple mixed salad served with olive oil, lemon and a balsamic glaze.  

A simple salad, Lucca, January 2016.

Caprini aromatiche (an herb and olive oil marinated soft cheese). I could write a whole blog post on my love for this cheese and my attempts to recreate it at home; sadly I have not yet gotten it just right. Luckily in Lucca we can walk five minutes down to Il Mercantino on Via San Paolino and buy some.

Focaccia, soft inside with a beautiful salted crust. Fresh from Amadeo Giusti.

Caprini and focaccia.

For the main course, a frittata with onions and zucchini (recipe below, adapted from Marcella Hazan).  

Many of the frittata ingredients.

Wine (this is Italy after all - wine with lunch is "normale"). Our friends arrived with a bottle of Sangiovese from the Lucca hills, which went perfectly with the meal. 

For dessert a fruit crostata (or two) from a nearby pasticceria and a torta (cake) brought by Daniela, Eva and Angelo, filled with cream and raspberries. This came from what must be the most heavenly place on Earth, Pasticerria Sandra, L'angolo Dolce (the sweet corner), which is outside the walls of old Lucca in the Borgo Giannotti neighborhood. At L'angolo Dolce, pastry is art.  

Heavenly pastry from a local pasticceria, Lucca, January 2016.

Coffee brewed stovetop in the Moka to round out the afternoon. Moka brewing is an essential skill and one both Judy and I have been practicing. We've just about perfected our technique. 

A Moka, a coffee-brewing essential in Italy.

Pranzo today was "perfetto." Great company, conversation in a mix of Italian and English across a range of topics, and a chance to welcome friends into my Italian home (even if it's only a rented apartment for a couple of weeks). It's all a piece of my part-time but very real Italian life.                                    -post by JB

The end of a lovely lunch with Daniela, Angelo and Eva, Lucca, January 2017.

Frittata with Zucchini and Onions (serves 5-6) 

2 small or 1 medium zucchini, cut into thin rounds

1/2 of a large onion, diced

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup grated Parmesan  

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

10 large eggs

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a 12-inch sauté pan over low-moderate heat. Add zucchini rounds in a single layer and cook on one side until slightly browned. Turn and cook a couple more minutes on the other side. Remove from pan and place in a large bowl.  

Sauté onion in the oil remaining in the pan until golden and soft. Remove from pan and add to zucchini. Cool to room temperature. (Can be done several hours ahead of time.)

Add to cooled veggies: chopped parsley, grated Parmesan, salt and pepper, eggs. Mix well to combine.  

Preheat oven broiler.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a 12-inch non-stick skillet and pour egg/vegetable mixture into pan. Cook over low heat, pulling up the edges as they set to allow liquid to flow underneath. When nearly cooked through and just wet on top, place under broiler for a couple of minutes to set top and lightly brown.    

Slide from pan onto a plate and serve hot.

A finished frittata.

Note: This is not a fussy recipe, It can easily be cut in half (just cook in a smaller pan). Try swapping out the zucchini for small rounds of parboiled red potato, or add roasted red pepper and use soft goat cheese instead of Parmesan. Experiment!