Finalmente..La Notte della Pizza e´del Pane!

I'll tell you what, it's an exciting time in the Roncaglia household these days.
Finally, pizza night arrived, much to my and my in laws delight, and, Fabrizio's relief. At last he can have some peace, that is until we start pestering him for when the next pizza party is slated to take place.
It all started about two years ago in the spring when my father in law decided that we needed a wood burning oven on the premises for me to ply my bread baking trade to a different means of bringing the bread to the table and kicking up my baking skills a notch or two.  Papa also wanted to have a decent pizza as our attempts in our regular and convection oven, weren't too bad, but just not quite pizzeria style quality and he had faith in me. I think it didn't hurt that when my in laws had their friends over for one of their famous big dinners, one or two of them always brought some of their home baked, oven fired bread along for the sampling. Again, my in laws have never failed to praise my bread and secretly hope that I will make a loaf or two of my black olive bread for any of those big dinners, so they had bragging rights expanded as well. It almost goes without saying that the rest of the feast is always memorable, thanks to their tireless effort to "put on the dog" as my parents use to quaintly state, and the fact that they had all those years to perfect the art of entertaining with good food and drink from their "La Baita" restaurant days. Their commercial gelato maker is always prominently featured as well in these feasts as my father in law has perfected the art of a banana gelato, that is rich tasting without all those cholesterol inducing ingredients. He won't say exactly what is in it either, but, I can tell you that it is a very brief list.
 Enough said.

After much discussion about which oven to purchase and and why, naturally, with some disagreements over the details, the day arrived, just before Italians go on holiday for the month of August, when we became the proud owners of a wood fired oven and it was actually in our possession. You can read about it's arrival here. 

Now, if you think that it would be a straight forward proposition to install it, test, tinker around with it, adjust and go into full blown use of it, like I did, then, you would be wrong. Like so many things that seem straightforward  in Italy, it is a long serpentine route to the destination and even a bump or two along the way, a bit of back draft, too much snow on the roof,  too little dry wood of the particular kind you need, or just too hot, just too, too, tooooo long in coming.  But, what do you know, the time arrived last night. Arrived indeed and enjoyed by all it was. 

The second most asked question of me from acquaintances, right after how Fabrizio and I met is, "Do you miss America?"  I always reply, that aside from easy access to my family and friends, other than virtually, I miss the direct and often expedient way that things get done in America, the directness, the convenience, the immediateness, that is, at least for me, quintessentially American. Yes, I do sometimes miss that very much indeed and occasionally a movie in English at the movie theater.

Fabrizio's parents digging in at last 

on Davide's naturally leaven pizza pies

Definitely worth the wait!

Luckily for us, Fabrizio's old friend Davide, a former colleague and one of the local kids that hung around the Villar Perosa Hotel in the days when Fabrizio worked for the Agnelli family, and currently the maestro of the pizza department in our Pinerolo Eataly, came over to help us get off on a positive start to our wood fired pizza and bread adventure. You can see Davide hand tossing pizza dough here, as I got a much better photo of him in action over at Eataly than I did last night. I was too busy trying to ask questions and absorb his techniques to get too many decent photos.  Big thank you Davide!

These are our leftover pizzas ready to warm up and top fresh today in the oven that is still warm enough to heat them through..mmm, mmm good!

If you're looking for a pizza dough that performs well, a good one to try is from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Peter's book is a great resource of accessible yeasted dough information and will have you making great pizza, foccacia and artisan breads in no time. It has a lot of instruction, but I think you will find the info invaluable. You can find a copy of the recipe here in it's entirety, but I do recommend buying the book as it is well worth every penny if you love to make great bread.

We all ate ourselves silly and there seemed to be as much enthusiasm for my pizza dough as there was for  Davide's. That bodes well for my future of making pizzas for my in laws! 

It was a fab evening with the fab folks that work over at Eataly.  When you're in Pinerolo, you just have to stop in and try Davide's pizza as well as Chef Roberto's delicious cuisine. If you're lucky their wives, Michelle and Monica just might be taking your order and serving you some of Eataly's high quality food. Naturally, a meal isn't complete without a digestivo from our friend Enrico's line of Genepy and Barathier. Those of you familiar with it will savor the flavor and those of you unfamiliar will just have to come and try some whilst you're here, as you won't find Genepy outside the Italian and French alps.

I must say though the biggest thrill came this morning at 6 am when we came back to the oven upon Davide's instruction and loaded it up with my naturally leavened loaves of bread that had been languishing in the refrigerator waiting for the oven to cool down enough. We returned in an hour and some later, to discover these bronzed beauties awaiting our return.

It was so exciting to see them puffed up and browned to a hue sometimes difficult to accomplish.

Naturally, there is some tweaking to do and I look forward to it, but when we pulled open the door and found all these lovelies inside, my heart skipped a beat. I love cooking and baking has always fed my soul, making fruit and chocolate desserts rich in cream and butter is always a thrill, but baking bread speaks to me in a way that seems to satisfy a very basic instinct of mine, making our daily bread. Firing up the wood oven stirred my connection to the  weekly town bake that used to be so common over a good portion of Europe and the wood stoves I cooked on in the states many moons back as well.  Then I think of the Egyptians who are credited with being the first bread bakers, burying their terra cotta pots in a fire pit and when I feasted my eyes on these, I  felt transported back and then some.

 Be still my beating heart.

Naturally,....

 Fabrizio steals the show and my heart as well!

 I love that even though my bread is still the same recipe that I have make hundreds of times over the years, it seems to now have a new personality and that, is so very exciting. I look forward to this next phase of the journey. I think we will be looking toward offering some special weekends perhaps dedicated to the wood fired oven classes, coming up in the near future. Stay tuned.

"Eataly" rocking in Pinerolo

It was with great surprise and anticipation when I heard this summer that we were going to be getting an Eataly in little ole Pinerolo. As we watched the progress of the transformation of an old farmhouse that had already been transformed a time or two, emerge with Eataly's signature trademark  outside, I knew we were really and truly going to be blessed with this "Slow Food" store. For those of you unfamiliar with Eataly,  it is a store which originated in Torino and showcases the vast array of "Slow Food" products  and other high quality products made in Italy, with a heavy sampling from here in Piedmont because Bra, Italy, is the birthplace of Slow Food and it needs the massive old factory that has everything beautifully laid out with eating kiosks throughout the store to encourage you to sample whats on offer. The stores are starting to spread with one now in Milano, Bologna, and even Tokyo, so we are very happy to be in such good company.  For those of you visiting our area, it is a must do on your list of things to do and most of all experience.

 

The store is gorgeous and well laid out to entice and delight. There are so many different nooks and crannies. They have a well stocked wine cellar, beer emporium, fresh and unusual veggies,  and a gelato kiosk at the front so it can be your first and last stop of your visit. There are facilities for meeting rooms  or intimate tastings and an expansive patio with a sall pond for eating al fresco when the weather agrees. Eating is encouraged there and at home, so you really can experience the many facets of Italian  foods made with the utmost care. We have been a few times and it seems to have already established itself as favorite stop for having a bite to eat whether you're shopping or not.  Although I do recommend the shopping and this time of year, it's a marvelous place to discover all sorts of unique treats in addition to the best rice, pasta and loaves of hearty bread browned to perfection in their wood fired oven.  Yes, I know that you won't be able to walk out without a few purchases, if you're anything like me. We couldn't resist trying one of their hand tossed pizzas the last time we stopped in.

In true Fabrizio fashion, he knew their pizzaiolo maestro, with whom he had worked with many years before in the valley.  Davide, whose recommendation was to sample their simplest variety so we could truly taste the pizza dough and judge for ourselves if it was good or not, was spot on.

  

Classic Margherita, named in honor of our Savoy Queen Margherita, in 1889,  is a light tomato sauce, fresh basil and regular and buffalo mozzarella pizza, that just happens to be Fabrizio's favorite. We had no problem submitting to his suggestion, and I must say, the dough was divine. It had just a hint of tang and their wood fired oven imparts it's own flavor whilst producing that wonderful blend of a slightly crisp crust with just the right amount of chewiness. Topped with a light hand for sauce and cheese with fresh basil, which elevates pizza to a food group all it's own. Savoring it with an equally tasty micro brewed beer reinforced my love of simplicity with emphasis on quality, which Italian food relies on time and again.

  

It's reassuring to know too that if I'm stumped for a gift be it Christmas or any other time, that I can peruse the shelves of Eataly and not go empty handed.  Everyone loves to eat.

 

You will find plenty of foods that are a good value and great for every day eating in addition to ones on the "treat" list and in this day of watching our wallets empty out faster than filling up, it's good to know you can trust the quality offered here and find some great bargains in addition to a few things "just for fun" too.

and in the words of this poster on your way out of the store.

"Life is too brief, to eat and drink badly"

Trek to Torino to Eataly

Spring is a fickled season, and today, has been no exception with a few snow flurries with a warming trend this evening. So I thought a stroll back to this autumn and a visit to Torino's latest food sensation, "Eataly" seemed like as good a time as any other. I couldn't quite keep up with all of the events and festivals last autumn, so now it is between times, so I think I'll revisit it.

Torino's Eataly, opened last April in an old Carpano aperitif factory, just across the street from the original Fiat factory that has been refurbished as the Lingotto shopping mecca and convention center. Carpano was an apple liqueur that was made for many years in Torino. They kept a corner of this massive old factory building as a small museum to preserve a piece of Torino's history. There is a long tradition of cordials, liqueurs, digestivos, amaro, and grappa made in Torino and surrounding Piedmont by many small producers of these specialty drinks that Italians are so fond of. Everyone makes them at home as well, but that is another story.

I hadn't really heard anything about Eataly until some of our guests last summer mentioned it and got me intrigued to discover what it was all about. What a discovery. Walking into this supermercato of all things remotely plant, animal, vegetable, drink and more rolled up into a mega Italian cuisine extravaganza, well that would be Eataly. To say I was mildly bowled over would be an understatement. Having been in Europe for awhile I have gotten use to smaller specialized stores and going to all the small specialized shops and markets to pick up the different elements of the food adventure, that wen I walked into an American sized and styled food store, it was completely absorbing. Fabrizio had a conference next door at the Lingotto and I had a good four hours to fully explore the place. It wasn't enough time. I kid you not.

The concept seems to be "Slow Food" of Piemonte meets "Whole Foods" of America. Slow food has been consultants and they say they aren't partnered in, but it is definitely a showcase for all things Italian, and specifically all things Slow food and Piedmont. it's rather nice to see Piedmont featured so prominently. It's well laid out with just about the whole gamut covered. There are places to sample a bit of the goods dotted around the place and they have cooking courses going on with celebrity chefs and featuring the foods of this region and seasonally offered.

Wandering around all the different nooks and crannies kept me engrossed in all the different treasures to be discovered. I almost did make it round the the first part when I discovered the free use of the Internet on the 8 full sized Macintosh computers they had by the front door. As we were having computer and Internet challenges once again, I was thrilled to have a spin around their Macintosh world first thing, but opted to stroll around a little before letting the Internet dictate to me once again.

I'm so glad I did. Right around the corner was the fresh pasta station with the wall- o- pasta

A wood fired bread oven that stole my heart

And apparently caught everyone else's attention.

Top of the line local Piemonte white and black truffles. The smell was intoxicating

Cellars with Grana Padano and Proscuitto crudo

All manner of fish and somewhere to sample the wares. Wash it all down with beer from Val Chisone or wine of Piedmont.

Just one more reason, for when you're in the neighborhood to check out Torino's Eataly
for one stop shopping on all the highest of quality foods that you can afford.
Fortunately, looking is free.

Just a couple more truffle pictures

Well it does seem as if I am obsessed with truffles this year, but perhaps it's a bit more of interest to me this yer, as I have been in closer proximity to them than in years past. Usually I have have just been reading about them or watching them being featured on different programs on the TV, where as this year we actually went to one truffle festival in Montiglio.

When we were in Torino for the Salon del Vino and another Regional presentation, I found myself finally able to explore the very enticing "Eataly". " Eataly " is a large super mercato style store in an old Torino Carpano liqueur factory just across the street from the old Lingotto Fiat factory. It features a vast array of Italy's finest gastronomy, food, drink, books and places to sample them all. I'll be writing a blog on my adventure there shortly but just wanted to share some of the fabulous truffles they had in their truffle corner when I wandered through the other day. The aroma was strong and intoxicating. Wish I could convey that on this blog. Guess we're still not quite on to scratch and sniff blogging yet.

Do note the price difference in the pictures. The one above features the white one for 800 euro per kilo and the black ones directly above here to the right are 80 euro per kilo. Quite a difference eh? Now we know why you usually find the black ones in the bottom of the bottle of truffle oil(or not at all). And if you need a little something to wash them down with there's always some nice sparkling wines from Asti to go along with. Buon apettito!