AMO I'ITALIA

I do love Italy & Italian food!~now is oven time~focaccia, pizza bianca & pizza rossa~a balsamic party~garlic confit~a very good book~a great podcast~three of my Food Heroes are in this issue

Focaccia flower art. Quilted focaccia buns. "Potato Head" focaccia. Courtesy of [instagram.com/vineyardbaker]

FOCACCIA ART

These last few weeks of winter is “Oven Time” for me. It follows other much longer seasons. “Stove Top Time” over the holidays is one. It follows another way-long “Outdoor Cooking Time.”

Taylor Swift loves baking and she’s baking for her beau, if you didn’t know. But, I don’t, having tried my hand at baguettes and croissants in the past, which I luv to eat but definitely not bake. Both require a scrupulous adherence to techniques that force me to be a scientist, not a serendipitous inventor. I do like inventing. So this issue’s topic of focaccia suits me. It’s easy peasy Italian bread that can even be turned into a fun but more complicated piece of art!

Focaccia is made from oil-enriched dough. It tends to be tender and fluffy. While the simplest versions are so rewarding, consider the creative end of the focaccia repertoire where “bread art” lives. It’s a trippy creation for adults. If you’ve got kiddos or grand-kiddos, making focaccia art with them can be a blast. Bread artist Theresa Culletto can show you how to create artful masterpieces. In her cookbook, Beautiful Bread: Create & Bake Artful Masterpieces for Any Occasion, you will learn how to make white, whole wheat, dark multigrain, and sweet focaccia. Plus, you will pick up techniques for decorating it with vegetables, fruits, herbs, seeds and flowers. Base designs are famous artists, nature, and holidays. Maybe y’all can add to that list!

SIMPLE & QUICK FOCACCIA

Simple focaccia is an Italian baked yeast-leavened flatbread that is soft on the inside while crusty on the outside. This dough is very soft and sticky, but it's easy to handle with wet hands. You only need a mixing bowl to make this bread since mixing, proofing, and folding are all done in the same bowl. After combining ingredients and chillin’ it in the refrigerator—for three days—put a generous amount of a nice olive oil on a sheet pan and also brush a generous amount of olive oil on the dough spread out on the sheet pan. Finish the bread with your favorite tangy salt, Maldon, or other flaky salt. Focaccia with salt & rosemary is one of the basics. But it’s versatile . . . a fabulous lunch or dinner bread and makes tasty sandwiches. Split the bread horizontally, fill it with any filling you like, from lunch meats and egg salad to meatballs.

Topping options for focaccia are limitless: black, crushed red, roasted red bell, or Calabrian pepper; fresh or dried herbs; chopped or sliced sun-dried tomatoes; minced garlic or garlic confit; halved grape tomatoes or olives; pesto; Parmesan or Asiago; or even shrimp. It can also be served with balsamic dipping sauce. Refrigerate or freeze what you don’t eat right away.

You won't need 72 hours to make this quick focaccia. You’ll need less than two. After a quick mix of the ingredients, the sticky dough goes into the well-oiled baking pan. Stretch the dough to fit the pan, and then let it rise for an hour. Try studding the dough with halved olives or cherry tomatoes. You can even turn it into a focaccia pizza.

PIZZA BIANCA & PIZZA ROSSA

Pizza Bianca photo thanks to Domenica Marchetti

Pizza Bianca & Pizza Rossa are kissing cousins to focaccia. Pizza bianca is similar focaccia, but not the same. It’s thin, with crunchy edges, a crispy top and a chewy insides, or “crum.'“ There is no oil in the dough, but olive oil is brushed on top before it’s baked and then, once more, when it comes out of the oven.

Pizza Rossa photo thanks to Domenica Marchetti

Pizza rossa is pizza bianca dressed with a thin layer of tomato purée—no cheese. Everyday Italian Cookbook, by the incomparable Domenica Marchetti, is her latest, but she’s the author of eight of them. She is a master of inspired Italian home cooking and baking as well as another of my Food Heroes. Check here for Recipes for Pizza Bianca & Pizza Rosa.

A HOME BALSAMIC TASTING

In 2008 on a trip to Modena, my wife and another couple explored a splendid balsamic bottler: Casa del Balsamico Modenese, which is Giuseppe Cattani’s grandson Roberto’s balsamic shop with “family jewels” in attic. Turns out balsamic 500 years ago was so precious a commodity that the same diminutive bottle was often passed from generation to generation as a wedding gift. While there, while it can be aged up to 150 years, I bought what I could afford: a bottle of 40-year-old balsamic.

The barrels balsamic are typically made from a variety of different woods including oak, acacia, cherry, juniper, and mulberry. By the time the balsamic is ready to sell, it will have spent time in each barrel. Each type of wood contributes a different flavor.

In 2008, these ultra small barrels stored balsamic aging more than 25 years

However, basic balsamic vinegar in the U.S. tends to be very young with lip-puckering acidity or a sweet and syrupy reduced glaze of caramel coloring and apple cider vinegar.

Many thanks to the website of Giadzy, the business address of Giada de Laurentiis. To get to know this condiment, try different balsamic vinegars at your next dinner party. Think of it as a wine tasting! You'll need:

• balsamic vinegars: young Italian (~$15); one 12-year Italian (~$100); Vermont maple; Texas blackberry; Greek fig or dark chocolate; and if you want to splurge, one 25-year (~$275) or one 50-year (~$800).

• Fresh mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano

• Focaccia

• Drizzle each balsamic into bowls, dip the cheeses and focaccia into each one, noticing the differences in texture, flavor, and the way the flavors linger on your palette. Each balsamic will interact differently with both cheeses and the focaccia, making it an interesting flavor tour.

• Where to purchase interesting balsamic: Ritrovo. Chef’s Mandala Gourmet Store. Emelia Food Love. Magnifico: Italy Out Of The Box. Selfridges&Co. Kosternia (Greek). The Little Shop (Vermont). Olive Oil Lovers & Good Eggs (California). Texas Hill Country. Christopher Kimbal’s Milk Street.

GARLIC CONFIT

Many thanks to another of my food heros, Davie Leite at David Leite's Culinaria, for this garlic confit idea. Break apart the garlic heads, remove the thick papery husk from each clove, and put the cloves into a saucepan. Toss in the thyme, rosemary, peppercorns, and salt. Pour in just enough oil to cover the garlic, place the pan over very low heat, and simmer about 45 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool. Transfer the garlic cloves, herbs, and oil to a clean jar. Screw on the lid and keep it tightly closed in the refrigerator. The garlic confit will keep in the fridge for up to several weeks.

ONE GREAT BOOK

French Cooking in Ten Minutes is a beautiful reprint of Edouard de Pomiane's classic collection, first published in 1930, of recipes for simply prepared meals. It offers recipes for quick soups, sauces, egg and noodle dishes, preparing fish and meats, as well as vegetables, salads, and desserts.

ONE GREAT PODCAST

Ruth Reichl is at the very top of my list of Food Heroes. She, Laurie Ochoa, and Nancy Silverton have just launched this enchanting podcast. Some of the most delicious dishes are just three ingredients, its promotional material reads. Hence, the name “Three Ingredients” for the podcast. “Stir three lifelong friends together, add a lot of laughter and you have the perfect recipe for lively conversations about food, travel, chefs, the state of the restaurant industry, everything, in fact, that has to do with great eating.”

Most mornings, when they’re all in Los Angeles, they take a walk and discuss everything under the sun. They have no agenda, no outline. They just set off on their walk and start talking. What do they talk about? You never know: it’s a totally unfiltered conversation. They almost always surprise themselves and they’re pretty sure they’ll surprise us. Here’s a recent podcast: “Would You Eat An Armadillo?”