Carnevale Window Peeping

Friday, I had a chance to go into Torino for the afternoon and like a kid I found myself drawn to the window displays, in particular, the pastry shops. I don't know if its because the window displays here in Europe are so classy and elaborate and because I was and still am a small town kid that big city window displays still hold a huge fascination for me. Anyway, I enjoyed wandering around Torino, taking them all in, with the pastry shops putting on their best Carnevale face. I hope to make some carnival pastries later this week, but until then. Have a look at the local fare in the big city window displays of Torino.

Marzipan hats and masks

Sweets masquerading as savory foods.

Festive cakes from Pinerolo

Little indulgent dreams

Minestrone Soup Remixed (Hot M entry)

When you think soup and healthy, minestrone comes immediately to my mind. It's always a versatile comforting standby for all of it's endless possibilities. In the summer you can use all the booty of your garden and winter it can be an almost completely different soup. Actually, I guess it is every time you make it. My mother in law and I were discussing soup one time and she always says she's making minestra, and I asked about minestrone, and she said that the main difference is that minestra, means small diced ingredients or smooth or broth type soup, where as minestrone meant larger, chunky style of soup. Hummm that is interesting.

I thought that this is a good reminder of small changes one can make in old favorites to increase healthfulness by subtle changes, small steps repeated consistently. I need to remind myself as well. So I offer this post for this months Heart of the Matter, Eating for Life, soup event, co-hosted by Joanna of Joanna's Food, a delightfully helpful ongoing blog about life enhancing cuisine and other aspects of living, and Ilva of Lucullian Delights, whose photography and imaginative cooking is always an indulgent delight.

One doesn't need much direction for making Minestrone Soup
other than a couple of essentials and maybe one secret ingredient.
Can you spot it in the photo?

Round up the usual suspects,
gusti: onion, carrot, celery( the holy trinity),
Add garlic and saute in a dash of olive oil
Add seasonal variables, zucchinis, potatoes, green and wax beans and some type of leafy greens, like beet root
*Winter variation add regular or roman cauliflower, sunchoke (jerusalem), pictured below, or turnips, in place of the beans and zukes
and some favorite herbs, bay leaf and mixed Italian herbs, (oregano, basil, sage, marjoram, thyme, rosemary).
Add some fresh or tinned tomatoes and enough water or low sodium chicken or vegetable broth

Normally minestrone has a few beans and pasta tubes.
To keep with a healthier version, you might consider adding some of the gluten free varieties of pasta which are made without eggs in the pasta. I find the rice penne holds up nicely in the soup and makes a tasty change.

I added fresh borlotti beans that I had stashed in the freezer from the autumn.

So now for the secret ingredient, which may of course be deemed optional...

A small piece of a parmigiana heel (or some type of hard cheese, our local variety is Grana Padano) added to the soup for that little intangible additional complexity of flavor.

Those of us lucky enough to be able to purchase fresh chunks out of the wheel usually have part of the dried outer crust left after grating as closely as you dare and end up with a super dry heel. Added to the soup when cooking it is sometimes referred to as the cooks reward.
So if you can allow yourself a little treat it's a delicious surprise at the bottom of your bowl or can be discarded or not used at all depending on your preference, especially if you're avoiding dairy altogether. Anyway you try it Minestrone is a welcome offering.

Fritelle di Mele for Festa di Sant'Antonio

Yesterday was Festa di Sant'Antonio. For Fabrizio it meant childhood memories of going to mass where the local priest gave his homily on blessing the beasts of burden. It seems to have now evolved into a general day of bleesing of all of the family animals or pets as well. At the end of this annual mass there was always a slice of some sort of sweet bread for everyone. That was and still is Fabrizio's favorite part of the mass. His parents went over to Grandubbione, which is the hamlet at the end of our road, for this special mass in our charming little church. They stayed afterwards and enjoyed their annual leisurely luncheon at our friends "baita". When they arrived back home late in the afternoon, Egle arrived with a chunk of the blessed sweet bread that she had tucked away for us, as she does every year.

Looking around the web, I found all sorts of Sant"Antonio festivals with a variety of customs and variations. It seems with many ancient feast and holy days there tends to be a blending and bending of the original festival. There seemed to be a fair amount of mixing it up with carnival as well, so I thought a finale of apple fritters would make a fitting dessert for the day. Fabrizio found that was his favorite part of the day too, the Fritelle di Mele.

The traditional local recipe for this treat is simple and tasty, if perhaps on the plain side, so I tried Mario Batali's recipe.
I found it traditional, light and not greasy when cooked. My batter only covered 4 apples. I did a little tweaking as I wanted just a bit more zip than how they are made here. I reccomend adding vanilla or orange or lemon zest to make the flavors pop out more.

Fritelle di Mele
Ingredients:

6 green apples, peeled and cored
oil for frying

2 large eggs
4 tablespoons milk
1 cup flour
4 tablespoons sugar
Orange or Lemon zest from 1/2-1 whole fruit.
2- 4 tablespoons orange liqeuer, amaretto, vanilla or a combination
Powdered sugar to dust

Directions

Slice apples into slightly less than 1/2-inch thick rounds and set aside.
Heat oil to 375 F. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Slowly
add flour to the mixture, 3 tablespoons at a time, until all is incorporated. Stir
in sugar and kirsch. Allow to stand 10 minutes. Dip each slice into batter and
toss into hot oil, 3 or 4 at a time. Cook until golden brown, remove to plate
lined with paper towels and drain. Continue until all are done.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar if you like and serve warm.
Here they are eaten plain, but they would go well with ice cream or a drizzle of maple syrup

Italian Alps, a fabulous choice this winter

Bella Baita's View

If you haven't already made all of your winter getaway plans, let me suggest the beautiful Italian alps, or more specifically our Cottian Alps. Where, you may ask, is that? Why, where I live, of course, off the beaten path in the Chisone valley. You might think this is a post for drumming up business for our B&B, but you would only be partially right. Frankly, winter is our off season. We live just far enough away from the slopes that most folks want to be right there at the base of the area and not worry about driving. I don't blame them. Plus when Fabrizio's family ran the restaurant, this was their down time as well, so it's hard to buck a long established pattern. So we have some solutions coming up with the remodel that Fabrizio is so hard at work on, ripping and shredding his parents previous hard work, but that's for another day or two's post.

The conditions in the Italian alps this winter are excellent and would make for a nice break for those of you inclined to ski or snowboard in Europe or even just a winter holiday with a bit of snow shoeing or tobogganing. We found that we had a white Christmas at our house this year. Sestrierė our sentinel ski resort at the top of our valley is snow sure and this year has not been an exception. World famous as a world cup and the site of the down hill competition for the 2006, Winter Olympic games, it is also one of 7 interconnected ski resorts, making up the "Via Lattea" or "Milky Way" ski area, boasting to be the largest in Europe. Sauze d'Oulx, another of the resorts connected in, is just up and over the way where a fair amount of British holiday makers find their way every year. It's big alright and plenty of terrain to keep you entertained.

I particularly enjoy the Borgata side of Sestriere which has the long Olympic down hill run that will make your legs burn burn burn! Sestriere has a nice selection of mountain oasis to stop in for food and libations scattered on top of both peaks, mid mountain and at the base. If you fancy a special stay on the mountain and I highly recommend it, La Tana della Volpe (The Fox Den)is the ticket. A Pragelato local skier took over the building after it was scraped in 1984 from being the main cable car for the area and breathed new life into this huge on mountain building that still houses the bull wheel from the cable car. He and his family have done extensive renovations over the years and created 9 modern rooms for the hotel part where one can enjoy one of the most breath taking alpine panoramas of the confluence of the French and Italian borders. Have a look at their gallery of views or web camera here.

But can you keep a secret?

If you looking for an area far from the maddening crowds, with spectacular views and decent skiing to boot, then the place for you is "Nova 13 Laghi" (The New 13 Lakes) ski area. Fondly called Prali ski area by those of us from here, it has been taken over by again a local organization who are trying to put it back on the map after languishing up in one of the most beautiful and unspoiled valleys known as one of the Valdasian valleys, or Val Germansca. It's the ridge line view of the Germansca valley that we look out to every day that gives us our Bella Baita View. Tredieci Laghi (13 Lakes) is tucked up around to the left of our view and not only is it one of my favorite ski areas, it also is a wonderful summertime hiking area as well. Prali keeps the lifts open in the summer (€8 round trip tickets), making it an easy way to get up to the top and do some high level walking with the 13 lakes an easy destination. I really can't say enough nice adjectives about what a fun and reasonably priced ski area it is. They replaced their one person chair lift at the base, 2 years ago, thanks to the Olympics, with a high speed 3 person lift and it makes a big difference. The run from top to bottom is another thigh burner and more enticing with this lift to wish you back to the top. Weekend tickets are modestly priced at €20 and €14 during the week. You really can't go wrong especially if you stop in the mountain house and partake of something warming with a view like this now can you.

Monte Bianco visible in the distance

Cappuccino Break at Cafe Stazione

I just can't seem to get the post that I've been working on done, so I'll just settle for a nice cappuccino break. We enjoyed this charming cup at Cafe Stazione in Pinerolo. This historical cafe greets you when you step out of the Pinerolo train station and walk across the street. We stopped in yesterday after shopping in the market for a warming break in a friendly atmosphere. I purchased some Alessandro's fresh roasted Ethiopian coffee for enjoying at home. I'm going to do a full on review of his little cafe one of these days when the civic park surrounding him is green again, as his place is well worth dropping in.