Orvieto & Roma: Best Food Moments and Lasagne di Radicchio

Let’s get back to Italy.  After Florence and Cinque Terre, Kristy and I still had almost a week’s worth of traveling to go.  Before heading to Rome for five days, we made a pit-stop in the quaint town of Orvieto.

While it was full of beautiful architecture, art, and spectacular gelato, Florence was loud and swarming with more tourists than I have ever seen in one place in my life.  We were exhausted.

Orvieto, a labyrinthine town, perched atop a hill surrounded by rolling hills and vibrant farmland, was a peaceful retreat from the nonstop week from which we had come.  Orvieto wowed us with it’s breathtaking Duomo, opulent gelato (I tried pine nut!), pasta all carbonara made with wild boar (the local speciality), serene Umbrian countryside, and getting lectured by a quintessential Italian guy on how every word can be traced back to the Italian language, what makes a good teacher, to how microwaves travel around the Earth (?), the significance of the paintings on the Duomo (At least I think that is what he was talking about…) was the icing on the cake.

After less than 24 hours of peace, we were off to Rome.  To be honest, I had never been dying to visit Rome and after landing in it’s busy train station on a gloomy afternoon, I wasn’t overly impressed.  But, over the next five days, I fell in love.  I have been taking so long to write about Rome, because I am still very much caught up in what I experienced there and I think I love it more and more every day remembering the food, culture, and atmosphere of this great city.

So, while I continue to collect my thoughts and whip up some inspired recipes, here are some of my favorite food moments in Rome:

- Until we reached Rome, we had not experienced a meal that blew us away; it’s not that the food wasn’t good, but something was missing.  We were perplexed.  Where was all this phenomenal food we were supposed to be eating?  Rome began to make a case for itself on our first night when we randomly stumbled upon a small restaurant in a discreet ally.  First good sign – the menu was only in Italian, second – the patrons were only speaking Italian. From the pasta alla carbonara to the veal saltimbocca, everything was delightful, but the star of the show was the contorni (vegetable).  That night I was reminded just how good a simple plate of sauteed spinach can be, especially when it finished with butter…lots of butter, and my faith in Italian cooking was restored.

- Our second night in Rome, we were hoping to luck into a great restaurant again.  Based on our exuberance and lovestruck expressions by the end of the night, we were successful.  This was by far the best meal of the whole trip.  Since I plan to share more about this wonderful night in the future, I will just share the menu:  Antipasti – shaved zucchini and mozzarella salad.  Primi (my dish) – fresh fettucine pasta with a simple sauce of sauteed porcini mushrooms (each mushroom hand selected from the gorgeous window box display as the dish was ordered).  Segundi (Kristy’s dish) – roasted chicken in pan sauce (best chicken I have ever had; so simple, so good).  Contorni – sauteed chicory. Dolci – torta de miel and a flourless chocolate tort.  I wish I could eat this everyday.  For real.

-Tasting wild strawberries for the first time.  It wasn’t even my dessert, but the one bite of these floral, thimble sized, berries was truly memorable.  I wish I could get my hands on some over here.

-Sitting in a small square, people watching, reading, and eating a bag of Italian cookies for three hours was the most relaxing and uniquely entertaining afternoons of the whole trip.

- On one of our last days in Rome we rambled through the streets of Rome desperately trying to find souvenirs when we stumbled upon a cluster of small street vendors selling art, books, jewelry, and one man selling old postcards.  After debating for about thirty minutes, we each walked away with a pile of vintage postcards filled with old words dating all the way back to 1912.  Right off the square with the postcards, we found a wonderful trattoria.  After a wonderful caprese salad, I was wooed by a plate full of spaghetti in sugo rosso with radicchio.  Yet another example of simplicity at it’s best (which is what Italians do best).

Radicchio is an underutilized vegetable and unfortunately, is usually the last man standing in a salad.  Bitter, yes, but I would argue that we should all give radicchio a second chance.  In Italy, I had the pleasure of enjoying radicchio grilled and in pastas and not once did I have the urge to sneak it to the other side of my plate.  Give this lasagna, inspired by that little trattoria, a try and find out for yourself how radicchio can transform into a vegetable worthy of applause.

Lasagna di Radicchio

Serves 8 or so

Adapted from several recipes in The Silver Spoon cookbook

Note:  This isn’t the prettiest of dishes, but the flavor is great.  Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.  Also, I recommend using fresh lasagna noodles that can be found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.  If you can’t find them, use no-boil noodles instead.

For bechamel sauce:

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/4 cup milk

pinch of nutmeg

salt and pepper

For radicchio filling:

3 tablespoons milk

3 1/2 cups radicchio, cut into strips

2 tablespoons butter

1 clove garlic, minced

14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

2 tablespoons chopped parsely

1/4 cup grated Parmesan plus additional for dusting

15 fresh lasagna noodles

Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.  Whisk in the flour and cook for 30 seconds.  Pour in all the milk, whisking constantly until it starts to boil.  Season with salt, lower the heat, cover and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.  Remove pan from heat.  Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.

In a small pan, heat the milk over low heat.  Add the radicchio and butter and cook until the radicchio is soft.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds.  Stir in diced tomatoes with juice and parsley.

Combine bechamel sauce and radicchio mixture.  Stir in 1/4 cup grated Parmesan.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish.  Cook lasagna, a few at a time, in a large pan of salted, boiling water for 6-7 minutes until al dente, drain and place in a damp towel to cool.  Place a layer of 5 noodles on the base of the pan and top with a layer of radicchio sauce.  Continue making alternate layers until all the ingredients are used, ending with a layer of radicchio sauce.  Bake for 30 minutes, then serve with additional Parmesan.

Cinque Terre: Seafood Linguine

The next stop on our Italian journey:  breathtaking Cinque Terre, a cluster of five, small, oceanside, villages hugging the rugged cliffs along the Ligurian coast.

A steep and very narrow trail connects all five villages weaving in and out of small vineyards and farms, offering stunning views of the picture perfect turquoise ocean below.

From Florence, we took a day trip to this picturesque pocket of Italy.  Our day began in the northernmost village of Monterosso.  From there, we hiked along the precipitous slopes (and got very sweaty, tired, and hungry along the way) until the trail met Vernazza, comfortably tucked away against the cliffs and hugged by a peaceful cove.

The main square of Vernazza is right off the cove and is dotted with colorful umbrellas and bustling restaurants and we took no time in finding a cozy cafe to enjoy a well-deserved lunch.

This was one of the best meals of the trip.  A crisp beer cooled us down and we sufficiently filled our grumbly bellies with the local specialty pesto trenette (pasta, pesto, potato, and green beans), a simple spaghetti overflowing with fresh seafood (squid, shrimp, mussels, and clams) swimming in an explode-in-your-mouth white wine and tomato sauce, bread crumb and herb stuffed mussels, and panna cotta with strawberries.

Refreshed and on cloud nine from an exceptional meal, we spent the rest of the afternoon basking in the sun on the boulders jutting from the cove.  Perfect.

The seafood spaghetti is the dish that stands out in my mind.  I love how this pasta is simultaneously simple yet layered with different flavors.  To me, a bite of mussels tastes like the ocean and transports me to the beach every time I eat them.  Tonight, I was back in Vernazza.

Seafood Linguine

Serves 4-5

1 lb dried linguine pasta

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 small onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

3/4 cup dry, white wine

1/2 cup clam juice

1 cup canned crushed tomatoes

2 lbs mussels, scrubbed and debearded (have your fishmonger debeard them for you)

1 lbs little neck clams

1/2 lb medium sized shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Cook linguine in a large pot of salted water per package instructions.  Reserve 1/2 cup of cooking water.

Meanwhile, heat butter and oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion and garlic and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add red pepper flakes and cook for one minute more.  Add wine and let reduce for about 1 minute then add clam juice and continue to reduce, 1 minute more.  Add crushed tomatoes.  Once mixture is simmering, add clams and mussels, cover skillet and let cook until shellfish has opened, about 5 minutes.  Add shrimp and cook just until shrimp has turned pink, 1-2 minutes more.  Season with salt and pepper to taste (I did not find I needed any black pepper since I used red pepper flakes, but everyone is different).

Combine linguine and shellfish mixture in a large serving bowl and toss to combined.  Garnish with parsley and serve.

Florence: Pistachio and Cherry Semifreddo

Ready to keep traveling? Our first major stop in Italy was Florence, where we spent five days.  What a city!  While not all that big, Florence is busting at the seams with museums, gorgeous architecture, Renaissance history, art, swarms of tourists, and gelato…a lot of gelato.

We did everything you “should” do while visiting Florence.  We saw the David, the Uffizi Gallery, climbed to the top of the Duomo, and watched the sunset from the Piazzale Michealangelo.

Of course, one of my favorite moments in Florence was visiting the outstanding food market near the center of the city. I was in heaven!  Salame, Prosciutto, dozens of varieties of Pecorino cheese, vibrant fruits and vegetables, wine, olive oils, artisans making huge batches of fresh pasta, and every cut of meat you could imagine.  We bought some soft Pecorino cheese (by far the best and most unusual Pecorino I have ever had), robust Salame, crusty bread, and perfectly ripe strawberries.  We lugged our treasures to the Piazza della Signoria and ate in the shadow of the Palazzo Vecchio.

Overall, we found the food in Florence mediocre.  Granted, we could have just made poor decisions in restaurants, but we were never blown away by anything we ate.  The one exception to that would be the gelato.  Florence definitely boasted more gelaterias than any other city during our visit and they have it right.  The most memorable of all the gelato we ate was from a fancy cafe just of the Ponte Vecchio.  Besides gelato, this shop was stocked with all sorts of pastries and a lovely espresso bar, but we were immediately drawn to the gelato case.  Before I knew it, after shelling out more money that I ever have/will for frozen milk, I was the proud owner of a heaping cup of the most flavorful black cherry and pistachio gelato.  Quite possibly the best 8.50€ ever spent.

In memory of our favorite afternoon snack, I have adapted a semifreddo (semi frozen) recipe from the latest Bon Appetit.  No ice cream maker or euros required.

Pistachio and Cherry Semifreddo

Serves 10

Adapted from Bon Appetit June 2011

1 1/2 cups shelled unsalted pistachios

4 tablespoons sugar divided, plus 1/2 cup

3/4 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon almond extract, divided

1 1/2 cups frozen cherries, thawed (about 6 oz)

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream

Line a metal loaf pan (approximately 9x5x3″) with 2 layers of plastic wrap, leaving generous overhang on all sides.

Grind pistachios and 2 tablespoons sugar in a food processor until very finely chopped.  Transfer pistachio mixture to a small saucepan.  Add 3/4 cups milk; bring to a boil.  Remove from heat, cover, and let steep for 20 minutes.  Set a fine-mesh strainer over a medium bowl; strain, discarding solids.  Stir in 1/4 teaspoons almond extract; set pistachio mixture aside.

Puree cherries and 2 tablespoons of sugar in a food processor until smooth.  Set a fine-mesh strainer over another medium bowl; strain, pressing on solids to extract as much juice as possible.  Discard solids.  Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon almond extract and set mixture aside.

Whisk eggs, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a medium metal bowl.  Set bowl over a medium saucepan of simmering water (do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch water).  Beat egg mixture at high speed until it triples in volume and an instant-read thermometer reads 170°, about 3 minutes.  Remove bowl from double boiler and continue beating until thick and cool, about 3 minutes.  Add one-half of egg mixture to both the pistachio and cherry mixtures; fold each just to blend.

Beat cream in a large bowl until soft peaks form.  Add one-half of cram to each of the pistachio and cherry mixtures; fold each just to blend.  Cover cherry mixture and chill in refrigerator.  Pour pistachio mixture into prepared pan; smooth top.  Cover; freeze until firm, about 45 minutes.  Gently pour cherry mixture over pistachio layer; smooth top.  Freeze until firm, about 4 hours.

To serve, uncover semifreddo, lift from pan and invert onto a chilled platter; peel off plastic.  Slice crosswise.