The Food of Love (38 page)

Mmmmmm.That was nice. Sleep well.

To: Bruno

From: Laura

Re:re:re:re:re:re:re: Well, here I am.

Wasn’t it? & I will.

What’s for breakfast?

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To: Laura

From: Bruno

Re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re.-re: Well, here I am.

Saltimbocca

Now this is a proper Roman dish.

For 2, you need four slices of veal. Wrap them in greaseproof paper and beat them very thin with a rolling pin. Place a slice of prosciutto on top of each one, then a couple of fresh sage leaves. Traditionally you should hold this together with a cocktail stick, but I find it’s

easier to just fold the veal over and bang it all into place with that same rolling pin. Dip them in a mixture of flour, salt, pepper and maybe a few chilli flakes.Then you just fry them for a minute or so each side. Remove & keep warm. Pour a glass of white wine or

marsala into the juices and reduce quickly. Add some butter and a squeeze of lemon before pouring over the meat.

To: Bruno

From: Laura

Re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re: Well, here I am.

I can now make Bechamel sauce! Martha says I have a knack

Shall we have dinner together tomorrow?

To: Laura

From: Bruno

Re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re: Well, here I am.

Let’s. Same time, different continents, same meal.

This next one takes a little longer but believe me, it’s well worth it.

Coda alia vaccinara

You’ll need an oxtail, about 1.8kg, washed and chopped across the joints. Boil for ten minutes and remove any scum. Add one carrot, one leek, one celery stalk & some parsley or thyme. Simmer for about three hours. If you can get ox or pork cheek, put that in too. Keep the liquid.

Next, in a different saucepan heat some lard or oil and gently fry a chopped onion, chopped carrot, the chopped pork cheek (or some

bacon if you couldn’t get pork cheek) and a chopped garlic clove. Add some chopped parsley, and the oxtail. Pour in half a bottle of dry white wine and allow some to evaporate. Then add half a dozen

chopped tomatoes (i.e. about a tin and a half) and a big spoon of tomato paste. Nutmeg and cinnamon could also make an appearance.

Simmer for two hours, adding a little of the stock from the other pan whenever it gets dry.

You could also add some boiled, sliced celery hearts, raisins, pine nuts, or even some bitter cocoa powder. If so, add at the end and cook for ten minutes extra.

B

To: Bruno

From: Laura

Re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re: Well, here I am.

vRemove any scum’, eh? Story of my life. I managed to track down some oxtail - it took forever, and the butcher I eventually got it from asked me if it was for my dog! However, it’s cooking now. I’ll go and check it for moistness in a minute.

Here’s a milestone: at class we were told to buy our first Italian cookery book, a massive tome written I’m sure by a real nonnina for example, this is what she says about making pasta:

‘Do not be tempted by one of those awful devices that masticate eggs and flour at one end and extrude a choice of pasta shapes

through another end. What emerges is a mucilaginous and totally

contemptible product and, moreover, the contraption is an

infuriating nuisance to clean.’

I thought at first ‘mucilaginous’ must be an Italian word, but

according to my dictionary it means ‘having the properties of a thick, viscous animal secretion’. The lady certainly has a way with words.

!l”

!li

11

Did I tell you that I am determined to learn to make you pasta by hand? Then I’ll be a real Italian housewife.

Call tonight when supper’s ready. I’ll be eating it in bed.

L

To: Laura

From: Bruno

Re: last night

I know I’ve said this before, but I thought you might like to have it in writing: I love you.

To: Bruno

From: Laura

Re:re: last night

Me too. In fact, I keep getting all mucilaginous at the most

inappropriate moments.

Lx

To: Bruno

From: Laura

Re:re:re: last night

.. . like today when we were doing vegetables and I found a zucchini that looked just like you. I gave it a little kiss when no one was looking.

To: Laura

From: Bruno

Re:re:re:re: last night

Lucky zucchini.

This is a nice recipe for an antipasto:

Fried zucchini flowers

Make sure you get the male flowers (from the stem) and not the

female ones (from the fruit) - the males stay crisper. They must be fresh and firm. In Rome they sometimes stuff the flowers with a little mozzarella and anchovy before frying.

Make a batter from 135g flour, salt, pepper, nutmeg, two tablespoons of oil and two egg yolks (keep the whites). Gradually beat in 6

tablespoons white wine and 6 tablespoons water, maybe a little

more - just enough to make the batter creamy. Rest for 30 minutes.

Then beat the egg whites until stiff and fold in. Remove the stamens, dip the flowers in batter, then deep-fry quickly in a pan of very hot oil.

Toss on to kitchen paper, season, and serve at once. Goes well with: Peppers stuffed with rabbit

- a recipe from the countryside.

Cut the tops off four peppers and keep. Scrape out the insides. Bake at Gas mark 4 (350°C) for 20 minutes, no more. Meanwhile, fry your rabbit, cut into small pieces, in some butter. Add a double handful of sliced mushrooms and a glass of dry white wine; allow to evaporate slowly. Add the same amount of chicken stock and a little tomato paste. Cook gently for another 10 minutes, then spoon into the

peppers. Replace the lids and bake for 15 minutes.

To: Bruno

From: Laura

Re:re:re:re:re: last night

Now this is just getting fancy. How about some simple ones?

Desserts, for example?

(From my cookery class textbook: ‘The juices of those two

quintessential^ Mediterranean fruits, the olive and the lemon, have a beguilingly fragrant effect on poached brains …’ - now I

understand what happened to me in Italy. My brain got poached in the heat and then I was beguiled. Not to mention fragranced. And it’s all your fault.)

To: Laura

From: Bruno

Re:re:re:re:re:re: last night

Two desserts coming up. Make these and take them and the phone to bed with you. I’ll call about eleven your time …

Tiramisu

Beat 5 egg yolks with 180g (about 3/4 of a cup) sugar until the latter has dissolved and the mixture is light and fluffy. (It should leave a ribbon trail when it drops from the whisk.) Add 250g mascarpone

and beat until smooth. Whisk the egg whites in a separate glass bowl until peaks form. Fold into the mascarpone mixture.

Pour 250ml of very strong ristretto and 3 tablespoons of

brandy/Marsala into a wide dish. Soak about 40 sponge fingers in this mixture, but don’t let them fall apart. Pack about half of them into the base of a serving dish. Then add a layer of the mascarpone mixture, then a layer of biscuits, then more mascarpone. Refrigerate for at least two hours. Dust with grated chocolate before serving.

There’s a favourite Roman dessert that’s even easier Peaches

in red wine.

Just pour boiling water over the peaches to help you skin them, slice them into bowls, sprinkle them with sugar and pour red wine over them. They’re ready to eat after about 1 hour in the fridge.

Talk to you later in bed. Oh - you won’t need a spoon.

B.

To: Bruno

From: Laura

Re.re.re.re.re.re.re: last night

Messy …!

love L xxx :)

PS What are you going to cook me the first night I come back to

Rome?

To: Laura

From: Bruno

Re: coming back?

Now that is a tricky one.

Perhaps we could cook it together?

i

To: Bruno

From: Laura

Re:re: coming back?

Oh no, maestro - don’t forget, I’ve only been doing this stuff for about two minutes. And I know what you chefs are like. You’ll shout at me if I get it wrong, won’t you? You’ll probably make me cry.

L

To: Laura

From: Bruno

Re:re:re: coming back?

Shout at you? I’d rather cut out my own heart and fry it. And

sharing a kitchen with you would be just the most wonderful thing I could imagine … which reminds me, there was something someone - before we got together that I probably need to tell you

about. Call me later - but not before you’ve closed your eyes and thought about:

Abbacchio alia cacciatiore

Remember this?

A dish that’s best left until the first suckling lambs are available.

You need about a kilo or more of shoulder and loin, cut with a meat cleaver into bite-sized pieces. Brown it thoroughly, preferably in lard.

Add salt, pepper, chopped garlic, a big handful of torn-up sage and some rosemary. Cook for 1 minute, stirring, then dust the lamb with flour through a fine sieve. Turn the pieces once, then add 8

tablespoons of good wine-vinegar. After half a minute reduce the heat to a simmer and put in a few splashes of water. Cover the pot, with the lid slightly askew, adding more water if it dries out. It’s done when the lamb starts to fall off the bone - maybe an hour or so.

Just before serving, mash 4 anchovies with some of the lamb juices and a little water. Add this to the lamb and stir.

Or.

Porchetta

You can get suckling pig any time of year. (Well, maybe not where you are.)

There are so many ways of doing this. I had some once that was

stuffed with sage and wild fennel, which was amazing. But I prefer this recipe, which is more Roman:

Take the pig’s offal - heart, lungs, liver etc - slice finely and saute in lard or oil. Add a large amount of rosemary, garlic and sage. Bone the pig and stuff with the mixture before sewing it together again, scoring the skin, and roasting for five hours over a wood fire. If no wood fire is available, a wood-fired pizza oven would do.

Let’s talk later,

B

To: Bruno

From: Laura

Re: that conversation last night

Well, I suppose I should thank her. She obviously taught you a lot.

(I’m talking about cooking here, of course.)

To: Laura

From: Bruno

Re:re:that conversation last night

Of course.

Winter’s almost here now. I only noticed it at first because there were chestnuts in the market, and in the restaurants they’ve put Monte Bianco on the menu …

Monte Bianco

A seasonal dessert from the north. Before you start, put a mixing bowl in the freezer.

Soak 500g fresh chestnuts in water, then cut around the shells to loosen them - your cookery book will show you how to do this. Boil for 25 minutes and peel while warm.

Put in a pan and cover with milk. Simmer. After about 15 minutes the milk will have been absorbed. Reduce to a puree with a food

processor. Add 200g chocolate, melted in a double boiler, and a little rum. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for one hour. Use a food mill or a pierced piping bag to turn the mixture into little worm-sized pieces, like mince. Pile up on a plate. Mix 300ml cold whipping

cream with a teaspoon of caster sugar, whisk until it stiffens and pour it over the dessert so that it looks like Mont Blanc - which we call Monte Bianco - covered in snow.

Now that it’s getting cold my bed seems very empty.

B

To: Bruno

From: Laura

Re: cold

Cold? In Rome? You must be joking. It’s -10 degrees here.

How’s the new season’s oil? According to my Italian lady’s cookbook: ‘On those brisk days that bridge the passage from autumn to winter and signal the release of this year’s freshly pressed olive oil, toasting bread over a smoky fire and soaking it with spicy, laser-green newly minted oil is a practice probably as old as Rome itself…’

To: Laura

From: Bruno

Re:re:cold

Yes - she’s describing bruschetta. Just grill some good Italian bread, preferably on a flame (a naked gas flame would do). Rub it with a mashed garlic clove and pour on a thin stream of the new season’s olive oil your faraway lover has just sent you by FedEx. Sprinkle with salt. For a more filling antipasto, top with diced tomatoes and fresh basil.

love you,

To: Bruno

From: Laura

Re: that recipe for bruschetta

Thing is, I just don’t seem to be able to get that one right. It’s simple but difficult, as Tommaso would probably have said. Every time I try to do it, something goes wrong. Tell you what - I think I need

someone to show me how to do it…

From: Bruno

To: Laura

Re:re:that recipe for bruschetta

?????????

I’m not with you.

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To: Bruno

From: Laura