Treitman Travel Testimonial

I love visitors and I love them even more when they agree to my request of writing a guest blog post! My most recent guests and I hadn't seen each other in over 3 years, but like with all great friendships we picked it up right where we left of...just thousands of more miles traveled! Although they were taken on the Standard Katie O. Tour I was amazed how that "Naples factor" kicked up the surprise factor making the tour even more memorable. Thank you both for heading to southern Italy to see me and getting a feel for my life here in Bella Napoli, I hope you loved it as much as I do.

Hello Readers,

I’m Tyler, and recently my wife Lexie and I stayed at the Oropeza B&B just outside of Naples. Our train from Rome arrived mid morning on Saturday and the Katie, the proprietor of said B&B was gracious enough to provide a shuttle service from the train station in Naples to her establishment in Monte di Procida. I highly recommend this service as navigating the Italian freeway system requires a higher level of understanding than this tourist has.

The B&B was located in a lovely neighborhood that is close to the coast but also on the highest point of the point at Monte di Procida. Accommodations were more spacious than we had imagined and very tidy. The other guests were nice folks as well. They were always quiet and reserved, tip toeing around like cats as to not disturb the serenity that come from time spent enjoying the view. That view alone is worth the visit, rooftop terrace has 360 degree views of Monte di Procida, Naples and the surrounding isles. You could really while away the hours there with a bottle or two of your favorite libation, as you soak in ancient vista, and contemplate the “bigger picture” or what ever that may mean to you.

What followed our tour of the accommodations was what I would call “hands on traveling”. We found ourselves slicing, mashing, roasting and frying. Indeed this was work on our vacation, how perverse! At least it was work till our task master provided us with wine to drink. At that moment perspective shifted as I realized I was in a cooking class that was hosted by a top local chef. We were taught how to shop for the right ingredients to make some delicious local meals. I do not recall how many courses we made as I may have eaten myself into a euphoric state between the 2^rd and 3^rd courses, or maybe I became overwhelmed and slept through a course somewhere…I can’t quite recall. We made a lemon and muscle pasta, eggplant parmesan, and a pear and ricotta tort. Learning can be delicious. 

Day two was a busy one. We started the morning at Vietri Sul Mare which features a beach that is often covered with broken and wave tossed colored ceramics from the local craftsmen. This sounds like it might be an awful form of pollution but it actually makes for a dynamically colorful painted pebble beach. We filled our pockets with potential mosaic components before hitting the road. The spaghetti noodle that is the road linking the cities along the Amalfi coast brought us to our second course of the day. An aromatic dish Sorrento was. Famous for its production of lemoncello, Sorrento is a city that is best understood once you have walked through the lemon orchard in the middle of downtown. Once you see some of the lemons that are the size of [American] footballs you can understand why the shops and restaurants are so proud of their relationship to the acidic fruit.

The last scheduled stop on our journey, was Herculaneum (and I mean “scheduled” as I don’t count the coastal bicycle race that closed the freeway down for about half an hour). Herculaneum was very important to me being that I have a degree in Archaeology.  Herculaneum, if you don’t know, is the other Roman city to be covered/preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Pompeii is the city that everyone knows of as it was discovered many years ago. My last trip to Italy was regretfully lacking due to the fact that Herculaneum was not open to the public at the time.  Herculaneum was by many accounts a more aristocratic community than Pompeii. The tour starts at what is called the ancient beach which is where the shore line used to be prior to the volcanic eruption. The first thing you notice is how many stories down and inland this beach is. I’ve seen many ancient monuments and so far in my travels but Herculaneum has been the most exciting.

 

As you make your way up from the beach you see alcoves built into the dock typically used to store seafaring items and cargo. From there you walk up a long ramp as the city appears to rise up out of the sea for several stories. Once at the top you find your self flanked by rows of multi level buildings on each side. A quick peak into a few of the buildings generally rewards you with clues as to its intended function. To the left there was a building that had a long table with giant amphora pots embedded in it, this was a restaurant. Down the road was a bath house with changing rooms and robe cubbies and hot cold rooms. Around the corner is a lavish house with several rooms and fountain next to a temple, a wealthy priest’s house. A large two story building with several rooms, this was an apartment building. Another large multi roomed building with common areas, this was a hotel. A building with a mill and a giant brick oven, this was a bakery. There was even a building with a large press at floor level, this was a laundromat. Togas apparently needed pressing too. Actually the typical roman laundromat would wash clothes with ammonia derived from human urine. There you have it, next time some one pisses themselves you are equipped with some fun facts which might lift their spirits, no guarantees.

 

 After an hour or so of walking the ancient roads the city will start to transform. At some point it transcends its condition, it ceases to be ruins and becomes a community. Herculaneum is so exciting to me because it is infinitely relatable in the way the Roman Coliseum or medieval castles are not. It takes no effort to imagine the people who lived there, no effort to see the city as they did, and no effort to sympathize with their fate. 

On August 24th 79 AD Mount Vesuvius began to quake and fume intensely. Some may have tried to evacuate through the ash raining down across the Bay of Naples, but several remained in what they through might be a safe place. Remember the alcoves at the docks I spoke about earlier? Some 300 of the inhabitants of the town hid inside these niches built into the rock. Young and old, rich, and poor, baker, blacksmith, and priest were likely praying to their gods for safety. On August 25^th around 1:00 the mountain erupted and Herculaneum would be hit by the pyroclastic flow, a wall of hot gasses burning at 932 degrees blasted the town at 100 mph. Our huddling townsfolk’s blood instantly boiled and their teeth popped like popcorn kernels in their heads. This happened 6 times before the ash settled and entombed the skeletons in the docks. I hesitate to call them “skeletons” because the word is too hollow, at the end of the day they became neighbors with lives and stories to me.

I can’t finish this letter on a somber note, let’s pick it up a bit... 

We got back to the Oropeza B&B and rested our weary feet from our long day. Soon though, our stomachs had a craving that can only be alleviated by pizza. “When in Naples, eat pizza,” I just quoted myself. Katie had a great idea to host a pizza tasting competition, which is a challenge I’ve never turned down. We ordered 4 pizza’s for the 3 of us and started eating like it was August 23, 79 AD (too soon?). There was one margherita pizza, one prosciutto pizza, an eggplant pizza and a weird non traditional one with arugula and corn. We all lost count of how many slices we ate for science.   In the end the margherita pizza from our host’s favorite place was the clear winner. I’d like to think the Herculanean baker would have agreed. 

Flour Woes

Ready for my latest first world problem?

Back in December when my kitchen resembled the Keebler Elf Factory I somehow accumulated so much flour that even after all my holiday baking was done I still had over 20lbs! I think it's the "to get the type of baking ingredients I actually want it's a 40 minute one way drive and I can't recall if I already have some" syndrome.

You may have this syndrome if:

• You can't find space in your cabinet for that 4th box of brown sugar.
• In searching for cinnamon, you find 5 peppermint extracts, 2 ground cumin, and 3 ground gingers. Cinnamon? Nope, that's the one you were out of!
• You open your freezer and have just as many ice packs as bags of frozen peas. I don't even eat the things. I mean, up to this point I haven't.
• You routinely pick up common baking items just in case.

Yep. That's how I ended up with 20+ pounds of flour. You know it's bad when I'm purposely looking at recipes right now to see which ones require the most flour. Of course in the effort to use the flour, I'm having to ask for the ingredients I no longer carry in stock. Why don't I carry them? Um, I'm moving in 3ish months. 

My coworkers are being fabulous guinea pigs and I even had the CDRE stopping by my desk after the Valentine's Day heart and sugar explosion further confirming that I have a solid customer base should I ever open my bakery.

So today's 4 cup of flour adventure? Blueberry scones (goodbye frozen blueberries!) & chocolate chip cookies (bye-bye chocolate chips).  Stay tuned because in another month or so I have a feeling I'll start listing my pantry contents and be looking for creative menu ideas. (Or looking to see where I can donate my canned goods here in Naples!)

Cooking Class: Lasagna Bolognese & Chiacchiere

Chiacchiere, is perhaps the word I struggle with the most when reading a passage out loud in class. My teacher quickly realized this and when she's feel extra sassy I somehow always get stuck reading that portion. When reading though it typically means chatter, small-talk, or gossip. Tonight though, it meant tasty fried batter covered with powder sugar and chocolate sauce. These yummy little treats are typically a carnivale treat and vary from those prepared in the past by being  drizzled with chocolate rather than blood. Why the name? Well, I guess someone thought the crunch when you bite into one sounded a little like chatter. Yeah. That has to be it because once these hit the table, there is no chatter to be heard...just the sounds of yum's and fat cells cheering.

Tonight it was our turn to try to make this seasonal treat. Come to think of it, the lasagna we made was also a seasonal thing. After spending the time rolling out the two different doughs with the pasta press I can now understand why they aren't made year round. Plus, who really wants their oven going for over an hour after various pots are boiling previous in the middle of the hot summer? But right now? It's a completely different story!

It was a very busy night but definitely hands on. We started off with the bolognese sauce (no veggie chopping this week!) and then worked on the second sauce for the lasagna that consisted primarily of flour, milk, and butter. As those simmered away it was time to start the pasta dough. Making the dough was easy, but the rolling out with the hand cranked roller took some time- especially since we had to get them to a small enough size before sending them through again to be the correct thickness. It was an arm workout. The product before being sent into the pot of boiling water wasn't very pretty. Nothing like our store bought frilly edged dry pasta. These were a much thicker and variously shaped wedges.

Once the table was cleared we started again with mounds of flour with a perfect volcano top to fill with things like sugar, eggs, rum, and orange concentrate. This dough was much sticker and smelled so fabulously sweet it was hard to resist especially as the next step took f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Mini wedges being sent through the roller until they were thinner than pie crust. Then they had to be sliced. Chef R, another regular and I took on this process trying to be a good productive line. I think I was the bottleneck but by my 4th attempt to chop the dough rapidly like Chef R, I was sort of catching on. Here's what it should look like:



And no, even if the pictures indicate my level of  concentration,  there is no way my technique looked anything like that. And mine didn't look like nice tortilla strips either, but it didn't matter because when they are fried they don't stay like that anyway. But seriously. Check out that table full of those suckers and we didn't use all the dough. We also noticed while checking out that they had 3 large plates full of them under glass. Yep. Our food productions are works of art! Or you know, we just made enough to get them through the weekend.

Arms tired, apron covered in flour, and hands scaly with dried dough it was time to assemble the lasagna. Sauce, noodles folding outward, sauce x2, cheese x2, noodles. Repeated until to top of pan and fold noodles back over. Bake for an hour and then let it sit for another to let the liquids/juice from the cheese and sauce to get absorbed by the noodles. Luckily he had already made one and we didn't have to wait for the one we really made.

The other perk of this week (other than learning an Italian classic) is I learned where to buy some of the kitchen gadgets that I drool over each week...like the meat pounder, strainer-bowl for items just out of the frier, and even some of the huge pots. I think it's time to start rearranging my kitchen to make room for some of these soon to be mine items. Just getting the kitchen ready for my visitors!

Cooking Class: Tiramisu & Other Stuff

Another Friday night means another cooking class over at La Vigna. Tonight's menu was another that was not to be missed with tiramisu on the menu. Seriously, it was the only one I really saw when the announcement went out and even now after spending 3+ hours cooking and eating I still had to look up the other things we made....tagliatelle alla bolognese and involtini alla messicana. 

With so many things going on in the kitchen tonight and probably more socializing than what is conducive to truly learning new recipes, I'm going to just show you what we made. Sorry. I'll try to at least track down the tiramisu recipe by the week's end. I really was trying to keep track of what we were doing tonight but once I was selected to dice 2 carrots piccoli I sort of lost track of what else was going on. I mean, don't they have food processors for things like this? (Please, take a moment to appriciate just how tiny I had to chop these suckers.)

That was just one part of the bolognese sauce and once it was done I didn't even see our beautifully diced veggies. Crazy! But it did make me feel better about eating every last noodle off my plate knowing that there were veggies. (Just ignore that slab of butter and the fact that olive oil was also added.)

Next up was the involtini alla messicana,  or what we were calling, sausage stuffed veal. In a method very similar to the last involtini  we made, the meat was rolled up before being cooked up and served with a sauce. This week's though was spicy (that's why it's messicana) and with the funghi, also chopped by me, almost took on an Asia flavor. It had my taste buds very happy because I was eating something that did not taste Italian at an Italian restaurant- go figure. 

Finally, we got to the main attraction, tiramisu. With the cream and "pudding" already prepared, assembly was the only thing required. Using store bought ladyfingers, each was dipped into "weak coffee." Weak because it was double the water used typically for one espresso shot. Yeah. It wasn't that weak...but what's the point of weak coffee anyway? A layer of the cream mixture was added, and then another layer of ladyfingers, this time soaked in the coffee was layered on top. Then the topping was piped on before being dusted with "just a little" cocoa powder.

 

Yeah. "Just a little."  

As for me, the full belly I left with is totally winning over the super soaked coffee dessert so it's time for me to head downstairs with my espresso charged kitty and get to sleep. 

Buonanotte!

Cooking Class: Pizza

Friday still seems to be my pizza day (well, one of my pizza days) be it either for lunch with the coworkers or for an easy dinner pick up before I climb my stairs. Here in Italy though, pizza is much more the Saturday night meal of choice. I'm not sure why that is...maybe because it's easy meal before the Sunday feast?

Tonight's cooking class was one that I'd be waiting for- PIZZA!

Well, it was take one for learning how to make pizza. Granted it was more like an episode of Martha Stewart where we mixed everything together and then magically the chef pulled out a huge tray of pizza dough ready for pizza-ing but that's how you have to do it when it takes about 2 hours for the dough to rise in the dead of winter and hail is falling from the sky.

Pizza dough is super easy to make so I recommend giving it a try if you haven't before. Need a recipe? Try this authentic one that I learned tonight.

Pizza Dough (*Winter Recipe)
1kg flour
50g yeast
1cup (or so) warm water
1/2 a huge ladle of olive oil (best guess 2/3 cup)

Mix it all together (with your hands of course) until it all pulls together. Set aside for approximately 2 hours until it's increased in size.

One trick with real pizza is the crust is really thin. It's fabulously crispy with (all) the olive oil once baked so give it a try. You'll need to roll it out (with a rolling pin) and add flour as necessary so it doesn't get all over. Once in the oil (olive) coated pan, prick the dough with a fork all over to ensure no bubbles take over.

*In the summer (or warmer weather) you only use 25g of yeast and you can use cold water. People in Monterey, I think you should stick with the winter version!

We made several types of pizza:

• Marinara: sliced garlic gloves, marinara sauce, drizzle of olive oil
• Margherita: marinara sauce, light coating of shredded Parmesan, a tad of basil (add mozzarella di bufala after pulled from oven)
• Biancaneve: "cooking cream" from a box, corn kernels, cheese and drizzle of olive oil (translates to "Snow White")
• Siciliana: marinara sauce, fried eggplant (sauteed), cubed provolone cheese, and yep, olive oil
• And then that one that seems to be on every menu, except for my pizza place downstairs...the Siciliana with potato wedges 1/2 cooked

Once loaded (well, not really by American pizza standards) bake at 180C for about 20 minutes. Yeah, sorry for all the metric measurements, it's only going to get worse! 

There you have it! Of course if you really want to just make it pepperoni or throw even more veggies on it go for it. I think my favorite pizza still is the Sicilian but once the weather warms back up a tad I'll be switching back to the baby tomatoes, rocket, yummy cheese, and prosciutto crudo because it's like a salad on bread, and it doesn't get much better than that.

Cooking Gnocchi: Round II

Since one of my goals for 2012 is to learn to make 3 authentic Italian meals, worthy of recreating and serving, I figured that it was time to attend another cooking class at La Vigna.

Tonight's menu consisted of the usual yummies prepared by the professionals paired with spinach gnocchi and involtini (meat rolls) prepared with the help of us Americans.

We followed the same basic gnocchi recipe as last time, but with the addition of spinach- lots of it:

Boil 3 large potatoes until soft.
Remove peels and using a potato ricer, rice them.

Boil spinach. (Not sure how much but once boiled, excess water removed, and also processed with the potato ricer there was approx 2 cups.)

In a bowl mix the riced potatoes and spinach with hands and add two eggs.

Once mixed (super sticky!) turn out onto counter or cutting board. Mix in flour (approx 2 cups) or until when poked the dough springs back.

Remove a small section and start rolling "snakies". More flour is probably needed at this point, but try to keep it to a minimum. Once rolled, slice into 1/2 inch sections and lightly dust with flour.

Boil in salted water until they float. Once floating, cool in a cold water bath.

The sauce we created was so simple...little too creamy for my tastes but a great contrast to the spinach delight-fulness. In a pan we combined a scoop (probably 1c) olive oil, 1/2ish cup of sliced proscuiutto crudo, and a container of "cooking milk." I'm sure he added salt too...it's always in there. Near the end shredded Parmesan cheese was tossed in, because we are in Italy after all!

The next task was to slice turkey, pork (shoulder) and veal. (Again, Italian veal...not American.) Once in 2inch rectangles, each piece was pounded flat and lined up in the counter in rows. We weren't sure why, but there was a reason...the next step was to season each with pepper, salt, and then place shredded Parmesan cheese down the middle. Then each little piece was rolled "like a cigarette" and several like meats were skewered together before being lightly coated in flour.

They were thrown into a pan with more melted butter than can possibly be healthy and you guessed it, salt. As they were almost cooked white wine was thrown into the mix (about 1/2 a bottle) before continuing to cook. I think a little water was also added just to keep the gravy/sauce at a very thin consistency. 

And that was it- we were done cooking and it was time to eat! And seriously, it was almost 8pm by this time so eating is probably a much more civilized term for what we did as our faces were stuffed with bruschetta, zeppoline, and wine while our creations were being plated. So yummy and believe me, by the secondo (the meat course) we were all full but somehow we all found room for potatoes (yes we realize the redundancy from our primo) and even the salad. Thinking our meal was done (well, our bellies were) dessert was served: a ricotta and cherry like cake. Sort of like a cheese cake but with a real crust. Sorry for the lack of description, but this time of the evening I was fighting off a food coma.

I think I've got the gnocchi covered...in fact I'm even thinking that I'll start doing a misti gnocchi that will be green, white, and orange...if I can find a squash that won't be too stringy to mix in. I was thinking roasted pepper too? Okay, so maybe not the traditional Italian meal but aren't we Californians always putting our own spin on things?

Cooking Class- Round II

I've said it again and I'll say it again- I'm not a huge fan of Italian food. It's not that I hate it (I rarely meet anything I won't eat) but it's down my list of picks. Pizza is the only Italian food not part of this list- I can eat that every day of the week. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stick to my typically very American diet while I'm here- if I were to not try real Italian food I'd be missing out on a huge part of the culture.

Even before departing Monterey I had made the decision that I wanted to learn how to cook authentic Italian food (and find a pasta I like) so once again I signed up for a cooking class at La Vigna. Yes, the place I took the last one and probably more familiar sounding from the stomping of grapes adventure. So after work Joe and I headed over to La Vigna to learn how to make gnocchi di patate alla sorrentina and pastiera napoletana. Some faces were the same and others were new. I once again met some really fun people that are civilian, close in age AND only got here a few months prior to when I did. Sweet! New travel buddies.

Chef Raffaele lead us through the first steps of making Pastiera Napolentana, a very eggy cake typically eaten for Easter in Naples. Just like the chocolate cake from last time, we started with a ton of butter. I think it was 2kilos? Granted we ended up making 5 of these things but still, nothing says health food like a slab of butter on the metal counter...unless you toss just under a kilo of sugar on top of it and are told to start mashing it up. Hey, it really was a hands on cooking class! While two people mashed the butter, sugar, and a touch of flour together another person "melted" a huge bowl full of ricotta with more sugar until it was a batter like substance. Once the batter/filling was smooth candied fruit, a ton of eggs (28) and perfume were added. With both portions ready, it was time to roll out the crust. After he demonstrated once, someone did one and I had to laugh at the lack of rolling out dough skills. Granted he was a high school student, but seriously? Once he was done I volunteered to roll out the 3rd crust. I'm a pro- chalk one up to all of those sugar cookies I've made in the last few years. My crust was rolled out within a few minutes and pressed into the round pan. Filled added and then more dough rolled out to cut the lattice for the top. Our group pounded it out pretty fast. While the cakes were taken into the kitchen to bake for 100 minutes we turned our attention to our first plate- gnocchi!

By this time little mounds (okay, 2kilo mounds) of riced potato had been placed around on the work spaces. We worked the potatoes with flour until the flakes turned to a dough. Once that happened eggs (yeah, we must have used about 100 all night) were added to the already sticky dough before just a touch more of flour to make it the proper consistency. Dough done, it was then cut into tablespoon-ish sized clumps and rolled out to equal length "snakies." It was pretty fun, I mean who doesn't like play-dough? Once we had all our snakes lined up, we got to chop them into the little pillows that looked like after dinner mints and toss them in boiling water. When they floated to the top, they were scooped up and tossed into cool water to finish cooking. I'm not sure how many pounds we made, but it was about 3 huge trays full. After the last gnocchi was cooked, they were mixed with a tomato sauce and cheese- lots of cheese.

It was so pretty and smelled amazing! But then again, I think anything would have after working a full day at the office and then cooking for 2 hours? We finally were told to go sit down and were served antipasti and the wine appeared. The first wine we were given was sort of a cider? We were calling it a wine beer since the aftertaste was beer-ish. All was forgiven though when the bottles of red hit the table. The gnocchi was simply fabulous. I'm already trying to figure out when I can make it again because this was the second time I've had it and I still liked it. I think I want a little more cheese on it next time around, but the chewiness factor of it is fabulous and it doesn't seem like a pasta.

The second plate was veal (veal is still not my favorite but it's not raised the same as we do in the states so I'm not so opposed to it here). It was served with a pretty tasty gravy but I almost would have preferred more gnocchi instead. Shoot, I made those by hand so I wanted to enjoy them!

Finally, it was dessert time. The cakes turned out beautifully so of course I still had to taste it. My verdict? The crust was fabulous- it's amazing how butter makes everything taste so fabulous. The filling was rather eggy and the candied fruit pieces (tiny ones) caused texture issues for me. Someone at the table suggested removing the candy and perfume and just adding rum...he may be on to something.

Now I just need to track down the recipes so I can try these again, unsupervised.

Bruschetta in a Jar