Pane di Pasqua

Easter is right around the corner. One of the traditions in my family is the making of Italian Easter bread. I don’t know if this is a straight-from-the-old-country recipe or more of an Italian-American invention but Carmella, an Italian friend of my parents, brought us a loaf every year when I was growing up. She would arrive with a freshly baked loaf that was as beautiful as it was tasty – slightly sweet, eggy, braided, and studded with colored Easter eggs. It was one of my favorite Easter treats, far outshining any chocolate bunny.  How I missed this bread when I moved away from home. Luckily, Carmella shared her recipe and I began making it myself many years ago. Today, it’s still one of my favorites, as well as a favorite of my children and grandchildren.

There are many variations of this bread, some flavored with anise, some with citrus, some glazed and topped with sugars or fruit, but Carmella’s recipe remains my favorite. Her original recipe made four big loaves. I've cut it in half to make two nice size loaves. 

The bread is braided and can be left straight or twisted into a ring. Brightly colored eggs are traditionally tucked into the braids; when I want something a little more special I use a natural onion skin dye and create a leaf design on the eggs. Since I will be spending Easter in Italy this year, away from my family, I decided to make an early batch of Easter bread for a Sunday brunch before I headed off to Italy. Doesn't it make a pretty centerpiece for my table?

Below is the recipe for the bread and the instructions for the onion skin dyed eggs. If you enjoy this recipe, please say grazie mille (thanks a lot) to Carmella!                                          post by JMB

Carmella’s Italian Easter Bread (Pane di Pasqua)

• ½ cup whole milk, scalded
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, room temperature
• ¾ cup warm water
• 2 packages dry yeast
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 6 cups sifted flour, divided
• 4-6 dyed eggs

Directions:

• Add sugar, salt, and butter to scalded mix; mix to dissolve sugar and melt butter. Cool to room temperature.
• Put the water into a large, warmed bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top and mix to dissolve.
• Add cooled milk mixture to water and yeast.
• Add the beaten eggs, mixing to combine well.
• Add 2 cups of flour; beat until smooth. Add remaining flour or enough to make a soft dough.
• Turn dough onto floured board and knead until smooth and elastic; add more flour if dough is too sticky.
• Put dough in an oiled bowl, turn over so that both sides are lightly oiled. Cover with a towel; let rise in a warm, draft-free spot for 1½ hours (until doubled in size).
• Turn onto board and knead again until smooth and elastic.
• Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Shape each into a 1-inch thick rope (should be about 13 inches long).
• Working on a greased baking sheet, braid 2 strands, making 2 or 3 twists and pinching ends to seal.
• Tuck a dyed egg into each twist of the braid. Repeat with remaining strands to make a second loaf. Use a separate baking sheet for each loaf or a sheet large enough for both loaves to rise during baking without touching.
• Brush shaped loaves with melted butter.
• Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot for 1 hour (until doubled in size).
• Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, turning pan once in the middle. Tops should be golden brown when done.
• Cool on wire rack. May make one day ahead of serving, wrap well in plastic wrap once completely cooled.

strands ready to braid

shaped loaves

Finished loaves

Natural Onion Skin Dyed Eggs

ready to dye eggs

• Fill a medium size pot with the dried outer skins of yellow onions (these can be scavenged from the onion bin at the grocery store; may combine 2/3 yellow with 1/3 red skins if you like). The amount isn’t critical - the more skins used, the darker the color. I generally fill one of the plastic bags meant for vegetables, loosely packed to color a dozen or so eggs.
• Cover onion skins with water. Add 1-2 tablespoons of white vinegar.
• Add eggs to the cold water / onion skin mix.   Bring to boil and simmer 15- 20 minutes.
• For even fancier eggs (pictured): take a piece of stocking, lay a leaf from a carrot top on the stocking and then place a raw egg on top. Pull the stocking tightly around the egg, making sure the carrot leaf is spread out nicely. Tie the stocking with kitchen string.  
• Put the wrapped eggs into the cold water, onion skin mix, bring to a boil, simmer 15 – 20 minutes until desired color is achieved.
• Set aside until cool.

wrapped egg

wrapped eggs in onion skin dye

beautiful dyed eggs

Italy on the Big Screen

When I can’t escape to Italy, I like to escape for a couple of hours into an Italian film. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s an America-made film set in Italy (“Roman Holiday,” anyone?) or an Italian-made movie set during World War II (“Life is Beautiful,” perhaps?). It’s the ability to escape into my favorite other world of Italy that does the trick. (An added bonus with Italian-made films is that I can practice my language skills – if I don’t peek too often at the subtitles.)

The colors of the Italian flag shine on the stage during this week's Italian Film Festival in Albuquerque.

In Albuquerque, we are extremely fortunate because every year we have the Italian Film Festival, put on by the Italian Festivals of New Mexico. The festival is a weeklong celebration of Italian film, but also includes music, food and friendship. Even better is the fact that the festival raises money for a local nonprofit organization.

"Noi e la "Giulia" had people in stitches.

The first film I took in during this year’s festival was “Noi e la Giulia,” a film written, directed and acted by Edoardo Leo. This comedy in which three hapless strangers decide to buy a dilapidated property in the Italian countryside and open an agriturismo had theater-goers roaring with laughter. Few aspects of Italian culture are left unskewered in “Noi e la Gulia” Everything from organized crime and inefficient bureaucracy, to family and politics are part of the absurdly funny plot that also includes heartwarming moments as the three protagonists try to build new lives. And the “Guilia” in the title? That character is also typically Italian – an Alfa Romeo Giulia.

A couple of the film festival’s screenings include preludes of food, wine and music performed by Italians who now make their home in New Mexico, including an Italian Elvis, who leaves his audience “all shook up.” The week’s finale is a post-film dinner at a superb local restaurant accompanied by live opera. This annual festival is a fun way to stay connected to the Italian community here in Albuquerque and is also great preparation for my upcoming trip to Italy.  Ci vediamo al cinema!                                               -post by JG

Coming Home to Lucca

It's a short 35-minute drive to Lucca from the airport in Pisa. Driving in I catch my first glimpse of le mura, the walls surrounding the old city, I take a deep breath, break out in an enormous grin, and know that I've come home to Lucca.  

The trees along the wall are just leafing out - the weather is mild and it's spring in Lucca.

This trip I've brought my friend Martha with me and will enjoy introducing her to "my" Lucca over the next week or so. After that she is off to Florence and I will stay here through April and into the first week of May. I'm looking forward to watching spring unfold, taking several weeks of language classes at Lucca Italian School, celebrating Easter here with friends, spending a few days in Bologna, and greeting Judy when she arrives in a few weeks. I have a great apartment with a perfect little study for writing and a well-equipped kitchen. I will enjoy every minute of shopping for and preparing meals here.

My cute little kitchen.  

Above all I'm happy just to be here, to walk this beautiful city, to visit my favorite fruttivendolo and salumeria  (green grocer and deli), and have a morning cappuccino al bar  (in a bar/cafe).

Prima colazione (breakfast) al bar  

As an added bonus, I found an artisanal chocolate festival on my first day here. Fortunata! Here are a few pictures from the chocolate festival. 

Chocolate hearts at the festival welcomed me back to Lucca.

Chocolate-dipped fruit

The chocolates came in many interesting shapes. Even these shoes were chocolate. 

Chocolate "salami" 

Balloon creations at the chocolate festival. The local kids loved these! 

Life can't be all about chocolate. I had to introduce my friend Martha to local food and wine. Cin Cin! 

My time here is off to a great start. I'll post lots more from beautiful Lucca and the surrounding areas over the next few weeks. And I promise all the photos won't be of chocolate!

-post by JB

For Want of the Perfect Risotto

I have been craving a certain dish – risotto alla faraona - for exactly one year, ever since I returned from Italy last spring. Not just any risotto will do; it is the one from Gigi Trattoria in Lucca that I long for. It’s a straightforward dish with captivating flavor; tender short-grain rice cooked in a fragrant stock with little bits of guinea fowl throughout, served piping hot. Unlike so many risottos served in the United States it is not gummed up with cheese or overloaded with added ingredients. Forgive the oxymoron when I say it has a simple complexity of flavor. It is the perfect comfort food and there is nothing better on a cool or rainy spring day.

There are, however, two problems here. The first is distance - I live 5,702 miles from Lucca so I can’t exactly run out for dinner at Gigi Trattoria to indulge my craving. Second, Italian cooking is seasonal, which is only a problem in this case (otherwise it's one of the great strengths of food in Italy). Even though I’ve returned to Lucca twice since last spring, I have not found this dish on the menu. Imagine me, returning to my much-loved Gigi Trattoria in September after months away, all set to order my favorite risotto, only to find that it was simply not considered a fall dish and so not on the menu. Same story when I returned again in December – guinea fowl is an early spring food the trattoria owner told me; in winter one eats dark meats and heavier foods. Come back in spring!

A great pasta dish at Gigi Trattoria - but not my risotto!

The Torre Guinigi, topped with trees, as seen from the patio of Gigi Trattoria,

 

A craving that goes unfulfilled for so long grows and grows and becomes a monster. Is risotto addictive? I need this risotto, I dream about this risotto. I dare not try to recreate it as I know my attempts will simply not satisfy. I want the real deal, ideally eaten while dining fuori (outside) on the patio at Gigi Trattoria with a great view of the Torre Guinigi in Lucca. 

I have just arrived back in Lucca - will my craving finally be fulfilled?  Not yet as it turns out.  But I was told that come the first of April risotto alla faraona will be back on the menu.  Stay tuned.

-post by JB

Villa del Balbianello

My first glimpses of Italy were in the movies. Mostly I watched American or British films - "A Room with a View," "Stealing Beauty," "Roman Holiday," "Enchanted April." It was the quirky British film "A Month by the Lake" that really captured me. I don’t know if it was the unconventional romance, the pre-war time period, or the charms and accents of the Italian actors that first drew me in but it was definitely the unforgettable setting of Villa del Balbianello on Lake Como that most grabbed my imagination. Could such a place be real or was this just movie magic?

Vanessa Redgrave skipped down this staircase in the movie "A Month by the Lake" (1995). The villa has also been used in filming other movies, including "Casino Royale" and "Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones."

I saw the villa in person for the first time in 1996 from the deck of one of the boats that crisscross Lake Como. I wasn’t able to visit the villa on that trip, but I vowed to return someday. Someday came last fall when I had the chance to tour the villa and its spectacular gardens. No movie magic needed – the reality was even better than what was captured  on film.

Villa Balbianello as seen when approached by motorboat.  Note the boat landing, lower left.

The villa sits high on a spit of land jutting into Lake Como, just outside the town of Lenno. It is surrounded on three sides by water and on the fourth by dense woods. Could there be a more beautiful landscape? The villa dates to the 18th century, even earlier if you count the monastery that predates it, part of which was incorporated into the villa’s structure.

The villa incorporates a tower from an earlier Franciscan monastery, seen here through the trees above a beautiful carved balustrade that winds its way through the terraced gardens.

It is thanks to the most recent owner, Count Guido Monzino, that this stunning property is open to the public. It remains much as it was at his death in 1988, giving visitors a peek into the home of the larger-than-life Monzino, an adventurer and explorer. He loved the villa so much that he chose never to leave – he is entombed on the grounds. I like to believe that he continues to enjoy the pleasure his home gives to all who visit.

A view toward the lake from the path that winds up to the gardens and loggia.

There are two ways to arrive at the villa. The first is by land, over a somewhat steep path. The second is by motorboat from the village of Lenno and this is what I recommend.  The drama of disembarking at the private boat landing and climbing the steps to the garden transports the visitor to an earlier age and a different, glamorous lifestyle.

The private boat landing at the villa.

The house is a marvel, complete with secret passageways, dramatic views, art, artifacts, and beautiful furnishings. I was most envious of the apartment within the villa, commanding one of the best views of the lake, which the Count designed as the private quarters of his mother (if my children are reading this, settling one’s mother in an apartment within a villa on Lake Como is a splendid idea).

Map room, loggia

Sitting room inside the villa

Rooms in the villa have quite a view

Without doubt the most stunning aspects of the property are the loggia, perched on a rise above the house with glorious views up and down the lake, and the terraced gardens with winding walkways lined with flower-filled urns, greenery, manicured trees, and beautiful statues, all with dramatic lake views.

Villa del Balbianello as seen from the lake. The three arches of the loggia, which are flanked by the map room and the library, lie at the top right of the photo. Both loggia rooms, as well as the interior of the villa, can be seen on a guided tour of the property.

One of many beautiful flower-filled urns which line the garden paths.

 The drama, beauty, and history of Villa del Balbianello make it a must-see on any visit to Lake Como. The villa, a Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI) property, is open from mid-March through mid-November (closed Mondays, Wednesdays, and some holidays). Please visit the official website for current hours and guided tour prices. And don't miss the gift shop!                                                                                -post by JB

Statues line the path up to the loggia.

Contact information:  http://eng.fondoambiente.it/beni/villa-del-balbianello-fai-properties.asp