Katie Caldesi's Diary of Italian Living, Food & Culture.

We live in a flat with no garden and have two boisterous, energetic boys so I am constantly thinking of ways to amuse them - and me too. Since I spend so much time cooking and I love it I try to involve them wherever possible. I also find it helps them become more adventurous with what they eat if they have seen it being made and shared a part of that process. This is one of the quick suppers we enjoy making at home…

Roman Jump-in-the-Mouths (Saltimbocca alla Romana)
Whilst watching the chefs in our restaurant kitchens make this on a regular basis it occurred to me that children would love to do this – all that bashing and banging! Traditionally Roman cooks would use veal but chicken or turkey works equally well. “Saltimbocca” means “Jump-in-the Mouth” , we think it’s because it is so delicious you wish they would jump straight from the frying pan into your mouth.
Serves 4:

• 8 escalopes (approx 400g) veal, chicken or turkey
• 120g Prosciutto, cured ham, thinly sliced
• 16 sage leaves
• Salt and pepper
• 8 toothpicks
• Flour for dusting
• Olive oil for frying
• 50ml white wine, optional (add a little more meat stock if you are not using it)
• 100ml chicken or meat stock
• Knob of butter

Bash out the escalopes between two sheets of cling film using a meat tenderiser, pestle or rolling pin. Take care not to tear the meat. It should end up as ½ cm thick. Peel off the cling film and season each side of the escalopes with salt and pepper.
Cover each one with a sage leaf (leave it out of some if children aren’t keen) and then a slice of Prosciutto. Using a toothpick pierce through the ham, leaf and escalope and out again the other side. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Meanwhile dust the escalopes with a little flour each side and when the oil is hot fry them ham side down for about 30 seconds. Then turn them over and cook for about 4-5 minutes or until the meat is cooked through. To check this press the escalope with a fork and make sure the juices run clear.
Remove the escalopes from the pan set aside, pour the oil away from the pan. Add the white wine and a little meat stock to the pan and reduce for a couple of minutes to let the alcohol burn off. Then add the knob of butter and stir well.
Pour the hot buttery sauce over the saltimbocca and serve with mashed potatoes mixed with some Parmesan.
WHat the kids can do:

• bash the meat between the sheets of cling film, with guidance so that the meat isn’t too thin and becomes torn
• season the meat
• pierce the meat and leaves with the toothpicks
• add the wine, butter and stir the sauce
• put the leaves and slices of ham on the escalopes

If you are serving mash, let them grate the Parmesan and mash it in with the potatoes, adding lots of butter, salt and pepper.

Truffles seem to take over whatever they come into contact with. However my mind has now turned to pumpkins and how to use them in different ways. Unlike the truffle, apart from being sweet they seem to marry well with whatever you put with them. Last night I took a couple of dark orange small pumpkins that we picked up at Marylebone Farmer’s market. From some of the segments that had been roasted with whole garlic cloves in their skins, extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper I made a warm salad. I cut up the flesh and mixed it with Tallegio - a lovely strong blue cheese from Italy - some freshly cracked walnuts and some salad leaves. Then I gently tossed the whole lot with French walnut oil, salt and pepper. I put some shavings of Parmesan on the top for a little extra saltiness and enjoyed it with a glass of Villa Antinori’s Toscana 2005.

With the rest of the pumpkin I made a sformato. This is something that really doesn’t translate but is somewhere between a mousse, souffle and a baked puree. The recipe for Carrot Sformato is in our book and you can adapt the recipe to make courgette, spinach, almost any kind of vegetable sformato.

I mixed the pumpkin flesh, mashed, with bechamel - a well flavoured one with lots of nutmeg, salt and pepper and the the milk was infused with onion and a bay leaf - and a handful of grated Parmesan, followed by two lightly whipped egg whites.? The mixture is then poured into a small lasagna dish and topped with small flecks of butter and some more grated Parmesan.? It is then baked at around 180oC for about 20-25 minutes. The result is a creamy light sformato that I would say goes really well with meat stews, chicken or even some baked fish. It is quite sweet however so next time I might mix half carrot and half pumpkin. Giancarlo suggested I do half a courgette sformato in one layer and then top it with the pumpkin so the result would be stunning.

Today I am making roast pumpkin soup and into it I will crumble some truffle cheese, it’ll melt and release the flavour of truffle into the sweet warm pumpkin, umm, I’m hungry already and it not even 7am!

If you have children like mine who wont keep out of the kitchen when you are trying to cook, involve them. Mine scraped the seeds out of the pumpkins, cracked and whipped the egg whites, drizzle over the oil and are always happy to break up the garlic cloves. They’ll do most things now and fascinated in what I am cooking and what everything is. Giorgio came back from school yesterday saying he made a jam sandwich, not sure what that was all about but I wish it had been a bit more interesting than a jam sandwich. I could have given them hundreds of ideas for cooking with kids. He did say they are growing some broad beans so that’s a start. Now he thinks we are going to have broad bean sandwiches in a week’s time!

Now I’m addicted to white truffles and what an expensive thing to be addicted to. I thought Alba was great, its such a typical old Italian small town. The main street was brimming with great shops both for clothing, shoes and food so I was in heaven, only didn’t have enough time to shop. Had to be very focussed and try not to get distracted by gorgeous bargains. Luckily I was chaperoned by two Italian men who took me to Mora, a shop started by a families about 80 years ago. Signor Mora had the foresight to realise there was a massive potential market in white truffles and so began Alba’s truffle fair which is in November. He also gave away huge white truffles to famous people such as President Truman and other stars of stage and screen. This is really what gave the white truffle its luxury feel, plus of course, its rarity and weird scent.

To me the truffles smell of the woods, of wet trees, spring onions and a hint of strong cheese. It is said that they give off pheramones and that is why we find them sexy or at least find our co-diners sexy. I love Elizabeth Luards description, in her book Truffles, of how she looked at a bearded botantist who was showing her a white truffle in a different light after he let her inhale the scent.

Apparently truffles smell like a male pig to the female pig and this is why the females were used to hunt them. The only problem was that they kept eating them and prizing a truffle from the salivating mouth of a pig on heat was tricky. That is why dogs were used, who obey orders better and are easier to train. They still want to eat them but can be bribed with doggy snacks.

We went truffle hunting in the early hours of last Wednesday morning. We went to the hills just outside Alba, it was a beautiful morning, crisp and quiet. We had no luck with the whites, we met a hunter with two dogs who had been in our patch before, but then went on to find about five black truffles which I proudly brought home. I bought a couple of whites for our Truffle Evening last Friday at the school and we enjoyed them shaved onto Giancarlo’s fresh egg pasta. The blacks we used to give flavour to chicken breast by stuffing them under the skin. Delicious!

As for the dining part of the trip I ate at Le Clivie, a michellin starred restaurant in Tenuta Carretta which is in Alba. Poalo, owner of the Tenuta produces wonderful local wines. I liked the Cayega from the Arneis grape and the Bric Quercia, a mainly Barbera red so much we are going to have them at Caffe Caldesi for a limited period. I had Cayega with an rich creamy fonduta made with local Fontina cheese and egg yolk with shavings of white truffle. The red perfectly matched the meat course again served scattered of white truffle. Oh how I love to eat and drink Italian. So if you can, go to Alba, the flights are inexpensive, we went BA to Turin, the accommodation plenty and of good quality. Then there is a great choice of restaurants and of course fantastic local wines to be savoured with the finest white truffles. What more could you want?

Yes its that time of year when Bruno, The Truffle Man, keeps popping into Cucina Caldesi to tempt us his precious earthy nuggets of white truffle. Although I find the smell intoxicating and mouthwatering, I still cannot bring myself to part with hundreds of pounds for a muddy morsel. Maybe now I wont have to as next week I am going to Alba in Northern Italy, the home of the white truffle. As I have to write an article on white truffles and their worth I am going to spend time with a truffle hunter and his dogs to see what exactly goes into finding these rare specimens. Apparently his dogs are worth £15,000 each so that’s a start to finding out where the end consumer’s money goes. I have to be up at 4am to meet him at 5am in the forest so I’d better not forget my alarm clock. Perhaps if I pack him a nice english bacon butty and a vacuum flask of tea he’ll let me bring a truffle back for nothing! Well I can hope. I don’t actually like dogs, they terrify me and I’m allergic to them too, so between fearing from my life and sneezing I really hope we find some flipping truffles or it will be one of the worst early mornings of my life.

I’ll be filming part of my trip and showing the results at our Truffle Evening with Bruno on Friday 27th October so if you are equally mad on truffles come and join us, details on the website www.caldesi.com.

Worse than not writing your blog which you promised to yourself that you would do faithfully everyday is that when you do finally get around to doing it - technology stops you. Or rather my memory stopped me as I forgot my username and then technology is not friendly enough to nurse me through my senior moment.

However, here I am. Now I am even more determined to write something more regularly in case I am thwarted again by my failing memory.

I meant to write about our part in Viva Italia at Olympia two weekends ago. It was really good, very foodie and a great excuse to taste Italian products. We ran the restaurant there, a smaller version of Caldesi restaurant serving Tuscan food. We also ran a scaled-down version of our cookery school and did demonstrations along side Ursula Ferrigno and Valentina Harris. Definately going to be there again next year. It was like walking in to a part of Italy in central London.

Will sign off now as about to watch Return to Tuscany on BBC2. Its about us running the cookery school for the first time in 2005. Its ten episodes every monday night at 7.30pm. Strange to see yourself on TV particularly at what was such a stressful time in our lives, opening the school and also about to get married - its great to re-live some of the memories though.

Yesterday we went on our weekly trip from the cookery school here in Torrita di Siena to the market at Sinalunga. It a medium sized bustling little square packed with market stalls selling everything from wierd shaped tomatoes to imported Chinese toys. Fascinating however, to walk around and the guests and I always manage to pick up clothing bargains as well as a range of odd shaped tomaotes, beans in different sizes and locally grown fruits.

At the moment, there are sweet-smelling peaches in abundance, little hard but tasty pears, frierelli (probably not spelt right) sweet green peppers and Coche della Monica, the local variety of plum supposed to be so smooth and luscious they are like Nun’s thighs. Apricots too are everywhere, it seems the more ugly the tastier. I have been making apricot jam, then making Crostata di Albicocche (Jam Tart) out of the jam and topping it with fresh apricots.

However, the thing I need help with is fennel. The Italians talk about male and female plants producing thin weedy tough bulbs or heavier chunky bulbs. The larger type being sweeter and the thinner better for cooking. In the market you see the Tuscans picking out only the fatter ones. From my reading on the web, I see that male and female fennel doesn’t actually exist, merely different gene strands making a different shaped plant but I can only find one reference to this, any other ideas anyone??

Today we are off to our friends’ Livia and Nello’s house near Gracciano in Tuscany. They are 80% self-sufficient and it’s amazing to see how they live. They still live in the way that people have done for years around here. Today we are making peach jam. We’ll be baking it in the wood burning oven and then storing it in jars for winter (if we can wait that long)! I always wonder what people will make out of it, it is not “roses round the door” touristy although it has its pretty parts. We’ll be working in the garage in the shade as it is too hot outside already and its only 10.30am.

Our guests this week are from Israel, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Holland, USA and England so we are a real eclectic bunch but its fun to see all the nationalities gathered together with a joint passion for food and learning.

More later

Katie

Today we said goodbye to our first week’s guests from our cookery school in Tuscany. We establised good relationships with them and will certainly miss them. You get very close to people in a short space of time when you are all cooking, eating and living together. Our children have loved showing all ten of them their collection of weird and wonderful insects that they have collected over the last ten days here. Flavio has two amazing (dead but still amazing!) stag beetles and the top half of a rhino beetle!

We have certainly eaten loads of delicious food and consumed a fair amount of Tuscan wine too. Now we are waiting for the last four guests to show up, two from Greece and two from USA. We already have the English and two Dutch.

The Greeks have just arrived so I must show them around. Tonight we are having roast pork with rosemary and Amaretti semifreddo and this afternoon I have to collect more flowers for the table.

At last arrived in Tuscany at the end of last week after long but good journey here. Drove through hailstones the size of golf balls and had to stop, so scary, like the car was being pelted with stones. Stayed in the lovely Hotel Majestic in Lago Maggiore, what a beautiful place, it took my breath away looking over the little private beach and the lake. Our children, Giorgio and Flavio collected clams from the lake. We had to throw them back but if we had had a stove Giancarlo would have whipped up Spaghetti Vongole.

We put a tomato, basil and garlic salsa on top of ours, it goes so well and means I cant stop eating it.

Today we had the fifth day of our cookery course with some really nice guests. We have ten people and we took them to our friends house Livia and Nello to learn to make apricot jam the local way. They bake it rather than spend hours over a hot stove stirring it.

One of our guests wanted to see how to skin a rabbit so we watched Nello kill one and skin it. It brought tears to our eyes but we reckoned if we were going to eat it we should be prepared to partake it all parts of getting it to the table. I must admit however gruesome it is we are looking forward to rabbit ragu with rosemary and local white wine on homemade tagliatelle tonight. And I used to be vegetarian. I think I would eat less if I had to do that each time I felt like meat.

Well the cool glass of Prosecco calls and the sun is setting over the Tuscan hills so I must go and serve supper. The guests have arrived downstairs looking smart and smelling sweet. Instead my fingers smell of onions and I still have my pinny on.

Until tommorow

Katie

You will need a plastic tray, if you dont have them you can buy them easily at pound shops - that way you don’t care what happens to them!Some sticks, moss, pine cones, stones, shells etc

A couple of little dishes

Plasticine

Food colouring, not essential

Optional plastic miniature animals

First go on a hunting/gathering trip to the park or garden. Collect anything small that looks interesting from the list above and preferably get quite a bit of moss.

When home make a miniature garden on your tray using the sticks as bridges and trees supported by a blob of plasticine stuck onto the tray.

Fill the dishes, cover with silver foil if they are patterned, and fill with water. This is even better if you splash a few drops of food colouring in the water so you can have blue and green pools. The moss can then be arranged around the edge of the pools and animals can be placed on the moss having a drink at the pool.

Pine cones stood up on a little plasticine make a great wooded area. If you find any empty snail shells bring them back to life by making the snail out of plasticine and sticking the shell on top.

Walnut shells also make great parts of an animal.

My children do an enchanted garden about once a week now and spend ages putting them together. I love the look of the trays and seeing what they come up with to make out of what they have collected.

Our most recent attempt contains nativity figures to follow the Christmas theme. Giancarlo says when he was young he used to help the local priest in the church make their Presepio - the Nativity brought to life through moss, waterfalls, donkeys and little figures. I have seen some of these in churches at Christmas time and couldn’t believe how intricate and beautiful they are. It must be wonderful to see when you are a child.

Good luck with the trays, do have a go - the results are worth it.