In Vino Veritas

I recently remembered a small restaurant in Hollywood I used to go to years ago...okay, decades ago...with friends.  I cannot remember its name but I can reproduce the wine list from memory and here it is:

                                                            WINE LIST

                                                      1. Red

                                                      2. White
                                                     
                                                   Please order by number.



If anyone remembers this place too, please let me know.

                                         

ITALY CELEBRATES EASTER

My favorite café in Florence is Gilli, situated in Piazza della Repubblica.  The café was founded in 1733 as a confectionary shop and still sells wonderful pastries.  It’s a great and elegant place for a morning cappuccino and cornetto, a light lunch or people watching later in the day over an aperitivo.  It is not cheap.  But it is so wonderful to sit here and watch humanity stroll by.  Especially on a sunny day.

I love sitting here.  This is a picture of the back of one of the café’s outdoor chairs.

This vintage picture is so evocative, even though this young woman looks distinctly uncomfortable.

It’s the front picture of Gilli’s menu.  Here’s the full menu cover.  And a few lunch items inside.  I ordered the pici sienese.

  

I know it’s a little after-the-fact but I have some pictures of the way the Florentines celebrate Easter.   I took these photos at night through the window of Gilli’s.  My husband and I were charmed by these chocolate eggs.

 

And the baby chic with mom and dad tableau.  Sorry about the photo flash but my photography skills are evolving.

And these other delectable Easter treats.

I'll have to come back when the store is open!

Tuscan Beans and Tuna

Fagioli al Tonno

 

So the simple story goes something like this.  The Italians didn’t know beans about white beans until explorers brought them back from the New World, probably Mexico, in the 1500s.  Prior to that, the ancient Romans had cultivated black-eyed peas and Renaissance Italians enjoyed the broad bean or fava.  But the white fagioli, now know as cannellini beans, were new and considered fairly exotic.  The Italians were probably the first Europeans to eat them.

Clement VII received some of the first seeds because, well, he was the pope.  They were planted in Tuscany.  The story goes that when Clement’s relataive, Catherine de’ Medici (age 14), left for France in 1533 to marry Henry II (also age 14), her brother Alessandro gave her some cannellini beans to take with her as a wedding present.  No silver candelabra for her.  But these beans were very new and special and Catherine was a foodie.  She introduced the white bean to the French.  Question: would there be no cassoulet without Catherine?

Back in Italy, cannellini beans were such a hit they quickly became a staple in Tuscany.  Not just for the royal table, they were perfect as peasant food, la cucina povera. They were easy to cultivate, very nutritious and served simply with olive oil, garlic and sage.  The Tuscans were in love. And to this day the rest of Italy refers to Tuscans as i mangiafagioli, the bean-eaters.

This bean and tuna salad requires few ingredients and little time to prepare.  I made a double batch once for my daughter’s International Day at school and there wasn’t a bean left on the dish.  You can use dried beans and soak them overnight but that wouldn’t be simple and simple is what we’re all about. 

INGREDIENTS

2 1-pound cans of cannellini beans

1 6-ounce can tuna fish, preferably packed in olive oil (but if packed in

           water or vegetable oil then drain the can)

¼ cup slivered red onion

¼ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons parsley, preferably flat-leaf

salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Rinse and drain the beans, then spoon them into a shallow dish.  Fold in the tuna, breaking up the chunks as you fold.  Add the red onion and gently stir.

Mix the olive oil and lemon juice, pour over the bean/tuna mixture and again gently stir.

Salt and pepper to taste.  Sprinkle the parsley over the salad. Served chilled or at room temperature.

Note: If you want to cook dried beans, one pound of dried beans makes about 5 ½ to 6 cups of cooked beans.  Measure accordingly.

We barked up the right tree...

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Al Fresco dining at La Palazzina

Once there was a slab of tree that became a beautiful, well-used outdoor dining table. It now sits under the pergola at our home in Sansepolcro in eastern Tuscany, Italy. We asked master cabinetmaker, Arnaldo Granci, from an Umbrian town down the road Citta di Castello, to make us a table that would seat the whole family. When I first saw the wood, it was resting on two saw horses as an enormous slice from the center of a giant tree, bark still attached to the sides as you can see. Two days later, Arnaldo delivered it to our house complete with 12 chairs and a smile of triumph.  We can actually seat 14. We live around this table in the summer.