Too many to say.

Help yourself!

Because this website needs to be made more user-friendly and because this webmaster, Mary Melfi, cannot do it as it requires a computer programmer's know-how, I will make an earnest attempt to update WHAT'S NEW THIS MONTH at www.italyrevisited in this category. The format needs revision but I will make the best of it.... Well, it's Easter Sunday, and I should be feasting on traditional Italian Easter dishes, and I might have if my all my cooking attempts had proven successful but they didn't. Luckily, what takes place in the kitchen, even a disastrous cooking experiment, can never be classified as tragic, though it sure can be funny. I had wanted to prepare as my mother had done for years and years, "Lasagna in Brodo," for my children, but being a rather lazy cook and unwilling to make the dough myself, I bought store-bought pre-cooked lasagna noodles and imagined how simple it would be to come up with this wonderful dish. The lasagna noodles stuck to each other, making the dish rather unsavory. Thankfully, the Molisani sweet "fiadone" I made were edible; unfortunately, I liked them so much I greedily gulped them down and failed to offer them to anyone else. Happily, my cousin was a lot more generous, she made Molise's famous "Pane di Pasqua" for all her friends and family, and boy oh boy was I grateful! As this delicacy is too difficult for me to do, I appreciated the godly, truly godly, traditional Easter substance.... But the question was: "What's New This Month at www.italyrevisited.org????" Well, for starters, this category has been added to highlight new recipes and photos included in the archive. Over the past three years that www.italyrevisited.org has been up and running, I added hundreds and hundreds of recipes, so many that even I have trouble finding where they are (One day the search engine will be improved, and visitors' comments will be made visible, but that's neither here or there). For anyone who might be curious as to know what new recipes and old photos have been recently added, this is the category to check out.... Being an obsessive virtual collector of traditional recipes and photos this month proved to be very, very exciting. Firstly, I discovered an incredible collection of photos depicting the Italian countryside in early part of the 20th century at www.archive.org. The photos are contained in a tiny book edited by Charles Holme entitled, "Peasant Art in Italy." I assumed because of its title the the book focused on art, but in actual fact, it focuses on crafts, including lace-making. To my delight the book contains 6 color photos of "peasant costumes" from the Molise region. To think that back in 1913 when Molise was not yet a region, and when no one but no one gave a damn about this small place on the planet, an editor would have the foresight to include color photos of traditional clothing worn in this area (taken in the Trombetta Studio in Campobasso) shows a genius at work. The book, "Peasant Art in Italy," also includes essays on lace-making and carpet making and other crafts practiced in Italy's backwaters. A real treasure trove of information! For the NEW PHOTOS POSTED on this website as of March 31st 2013 see Italy Revisited/Traditional Clothing........ Secondly, this relentless virtual collector of old photos and recipes (I have no desire to personally own them, I just love the look of them) was happy to learn this month that www.archive.org (The best website in the world for book lovers and history buffs!) not only has books in English but it also has books in French, Italian and German. I typed in the word, "cucina," and found to my delight a few Italian cookbooks. The cookbook that interested me the most was "CUCINA TEORICO-PRATICA" by Ippolito Cavalcanti, published in Naples in 1839. It's an amazing book. It features recipes from Naples, a portion of the book is even written in dialect! The author was ahead of his time and should be better known in the English-speaking world. A translation is not yet available which is quite sad. For lovers of Italian food like myself whose munching skills are superior to their translation skills an English edition would prove useful. Translating the recipes is a big challenge as quite a few of the words used cannot be found in modern Italian-English dictionaries. For example, many of the dessert recipes ask for "cedro." According to English-Italian dictionaries "cedro" means "cedar." I googled images for "cedro" and I got pictures of cedar trees but I also got a few images of lemons and limes. I looked up the words "lemon" and "lime" in the Italian-English dictionaries and the word, "cedro," did not pop up. I mistakenly assumed that back in the 19th century Italian cooks used edible cedar bark to flavor their cakes and cookies. That could be candied cedar, or maybe not. Candied cedar might be available in Italy, but it doesn't seem to be available in North America. There are few images for it can be found by googling "candied cedar" but one store that did sell it no longer has it in stock. It's hard to know whether "cedro" means candied cedar, it means "citrus" fruit. Some of the recipes ask for the peel of the "cedro" so it's unlikely this could refer to "cedar." Luckily, I came across the word, "cedro," in an old Italian-American cookbook and the word was translated to mean "citrus" rather than "cedar." Oddly enough, English-Italian dictionaries do translate "citrus" as "cedro," but Italian-English dictionaries don't translate "cedro" as "citrus" but rather as "cedar." Apparently, the word, "citrus," is often used as a synonym for lemon and lime, but in fact it is a fruit all on its own. It's pulp is used to make marmalade, and its peel is used to flavor dishes. FRESH CITRUS FRUIT ("CEDRO") is hard to find in North America. "Candied citron" can be found and citron is made from a "fragrant" citrus fruit, but whether or not this is the right ingredient to use in the recipes that call for "cedro" is hard to say. Possibly lemon can be substituted for "cedro" (Cavalcanti suggests one can use either/or in the "ginetti/tarallini" recipe). Despite all the translation problems I had getting through Cavalcanti's cookbook, I would still recommend it. For those interested in "traditional" Neapolitan recipes, this is the author to study. Possibly, Cavalcanti is the first individual on the planet earth to include recipes for Southern Italy's most famous desserts. They include "pizza dolce," "zeppole," "tarallini" and "mostaccioletti" to name just a few. In actual fact, I tried the recipe for "mostaccioletti" (a vegan-style variant of "mostaccioli") and loved this recipe. Most Italian home cooks can make their diamond-shaped "mostaccioli" "by eye" but then there are those that cannot (Take me!). I have been looking for diamond-shaped cookie cutters for years and was unable to find any. Maybe the reason they are not available is because fewer and fewer home cooks are making their own "mostaccioli" cookies and so there is no demand for them. Nowadays, this style of spice cookie can be found in some Italian pastry shops ("ITALIA, LA CASA DELLA PIZZA" at 5540 Jean-Talon East Montreal carries these cookies, and they're absolutely heavenly). In any case, I recently found a set of DIAMOND-SHAPED COOKIE-CUTTERS at a shop in Westmount Square called, "Pot Pourri Gourmet." The company that manufactures the diamonds is called "FOX RUN CRAFTSMEN." These diamond-shaped cookie cutters are a big help in making mostoccioli/mostaccioletti cookies...... As previously noted over the past few years that www.italyrevisited.org has been on line new recipes have been consistently added, unfortunately "What's new" has not been highlighted. From this month forward new recipes that are included will be posted. Here is the list of recipes that have been added this month: 1. GINETTI, a sweet tarallini made without yeast, topped with icing (for the recipe see Italy Revisited/ Taralli Dolci). 2. MOSTACCIOLETTI, a spice cookie flavored with almonds, cinnamon and pepper (for therecipe see Italy Revisited/ Cookies with Nuts). 3. MOSTO COTTO, VIN COTTO ROSSO (for the recipe see Italy Revisited/Jams and Marmalades). 4. BISCOTTINI LA SAINT CLOUD, cookies made with rice flour, flavored with citrus (for the recipe see Italy Revisited/Cookies without Nuts). 5. BISCOTTINI ORDINARI, cookies made with starch, sugar and eggs (for the recipe see Italy Revisited/Cookies without Nuts). 6. RAFFIOLETTI, diamond-shaped sponge-cake-like cookies, made with eggs, sugar and starch (For the recipe see Italy Revisited/Cookies without Nuts). 7. CAUZUNCIELLI, fried savory calzone-style envelops, stuffed with eggs and mozzarella (for the recipe see Italy Revisited/Calcioni). 8. CAUZUNCIELLI DOCE, fried sweet calzone-style envelops, stuffed with ricotta, sugar and egg yolks (for the recipe see Italy Revisited/Calcioni). 9. CAUSUNCIELLI DE SCAMMARO, fried savory calzone-style stuffed envelops, with Swiss chard, anchovies and onions (for the recipe see Italy Revisited/Calcioni).

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