A Thousand Days in Tuscany (eBook)

A Bittersweet Adventure

Marlena de Blasi (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2004
325 Seiten
Algonquin Books (Verlag)
978-1-56512-590-2 (ISBN)

Infos

American chef Marlena de Blasi and her Venetian husband, Fernando, married rather late in life. In search of the rhythms of country living, the couple moves to a barely renovated former stable in Tuscany with no phone, no central heating, and something resembling a playhouse kitchen. They dwell among two hundred villagers, ancient olive groves, and hot Etruscan springs. In this patch of earth where Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio collide, there is much to feed de Blasi's two passions--food and love. We accompany the couple as they harvest grapes, gather chestnuts, forage for wild mushrooms, and climb trees in the cold of December to pick olives, one by one. Their routines are not that different from those of villagers centuries earlier.They are befriended by the mesmeric Barlozzo, a self-styled village chieftain. His fascinating stories lead de Blasi more deeply inside the soul of Tuscany. Together they visit sacred festivals and taste just-pressed olive oil, drizzled over roasted country bread, and squash blossoms, battered and deep-fried and sprayed with sea-salted water. In a cauldron set over a wood fire, they braise beans in red wine, and a stew of wild boar simmers overnight in the ashes of their hearth. Barlozzo shares his knowledge of Italian farming traditions, ancient health potions, and artisanal food makers, but he has secrets he doesn't share, and one of them concerns the beautiful Floriana, whose illness teaches Marlena that happiness is truly a choice.Like the pleasurable tastes and textures of a fine meal, A Thousand Days in Tuscany is as satisfying as it is enticing. The author's own recipes are included.

Inhalt

Contents PROLOGUE1 Summer 1The Gorgeous Things They're Cooking AreZucchini Blossoms7 2Figs and Apples Threaded on Strings30 3The Valley Is Safe, and We Will Bake Bread64 4Are You Making a Mattress Stuffed with Rosemary?81 5Sit the Chicken in a Roasting Pan on a Pretty Bed of Turnips and Onions, Leeks and Carrots 90 Fall 6Vendemmiamo--Let's Pick Those Grapes105 7Dolce e Salata, Sweet and Salty--Because That's How Life Tastes to Me124 8Now These Are Chestnut Trees150 9 Do Tuscans Drink Wine at Every Meal?170 Winter 10Perhaps as a Genus, Olives Know Too Much 195 11December Has Come to Live in the Stable 218 12Supper Made from Almost Nothing 248 13Fasting Was How We Were Living Anyway264 Spring 14Virtuous Drenches293 15Florì and I Are Shelling Peas303 16The First of the Zucchini Blossoms Are Up314 Recipes Deep-Fried Flowers, Vegetables, and Herbs28 The Holy Ghost's Cherries62Schiacciata Toscana, Tuscan Flatbread (or "Squashed" Breads)79 Winemaker's Sausages Roasted with Grapes120Fagioli al Fiasco sotto le Cenere, Beans Braised in a Bottle under the Cinders122 Braised Pork to Taste Like Wild Boar147 Castagnaccio192 The One and Only True Bruschetta (brew-sket'-ah)What It Is and How to Pronounce It247 A Tasting of Pecorino Cheeses with Chestnut Honey301

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.11.2004
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• ISBN-10: 1-56512-590-8 / 1565125908
• ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-590-2 / 9781565125902