So Many Wines, So Little Time- Post #6

Unlike many of my fellow students, I can legally drink back home in the states, so the excitement over  being able to drink in this country is considerably less so for me. However, this has not diminished my excitement over the wine. Italy is as rich in history and culture as it is in wine varieties. For someone like me who prefers a good glass of wine over pretty much any other form of alcohol, Italy is a dream come true. Trust me when I say that I have had some of the best glasses of wine I've ever had while I've been in Italy. I've had quality wine in the US, but nothing has compared to what I've had here, the wine is just better here no questions asked.

A glass of wine I had during the Mass of the Holy Spirit dinner. 

Not only are there a wide variety of whites and reds, but they differ from region to region and even within regions. It wasn't surprised to find out that Italians drink more wine than anywhere else in the world. Although I know wine has changed considerably since ancient times it fascinating to think about how important wine has been for centuries in Italy and how important it is for both cooking and drinking today. It was also very interesting to read that although Italy makes some of the most regional, hard to find wines in the world, it also is one of the largest producers of bulk wine.
On our trip to Umbria we were lucky enough to visit a farm that had also had a small vineyard. The whole farm was picturesque and scenic but the vineyard was simply breathtaking, it was what I had been imagining in my head.

We were given the opportunity to taste the grapes straight off the vine, they were simply delicious. They were so fresh and not overly sweet, while still being full of flavor.

We were then given the opportunity to make wine the old fashioned way, by stomping on grapes!

At first, I didn't like the feeling. Trust me when I say it's a unique experience that can not be described, it's just one of those things you have to experience. 

Once I had gotten used to the feeling I really enjoyed myself! Although I know this isn't how they make wine anymore it was still an amazing, once in a lifetime experience. 

Since there were so many of use the grapes were getting mashed up pretty quickly and the owners kept adding more grapes for us to mush. 

After I had gotten out of the tub and washed my feet off I got to sample the grape juice (Juice they already had made, not any we had mushed up I swear). It was so fresh and better than any grape juice I have ever had (sadly it was just grape juice, not wine yet). This beautiful vineyard provided us with a small insight into the history of wine making in Italy and I am forever grateful for that, even if it was a slightly touristy experience. 

Ciao for now!

Veni. Vidi. Mangia

A Bread By Any Other Name -Post #5

Bread is something I simply couldn't live my life without. There are so many types with an incredible variety of flavors and textures, bread comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors, it is one of the few food people of every class and nearly every country enjoy. It is truly a food of the people. I found both our discussion in class and the reading's discussion on how bread, though for everyone, was divided by class interesting. It is fascinating that white breads were for the upper class where whole wheat breads were for the poor, especially considering that this has seemingly flipped on its head. In modern times whole wheat/grain breads have become highly desired and tend to be more expensive than their white bread counterparts. I wonder when and why this trend flipped on its head? Was it the wish for a healthier option or was it a wish for a return to a more artisanal product? Whatever the case, I'm glad it has flipped because I personally enjoy whole grain/wheat breads much more than the  processed white breads found in the US, not only are they healthier but I think the flavor tends to be better. I haven't eaten as much whole grain/wheat bread here in Italy as I usually do at home, in fact, I don't think I've had any. I've had excellent crusty bread when I've been out to eat, but it has always been a white bread.
Then there is the bread at mensa. For those of you who are non-JFRC readers, mensa is where we can eat lunch and dinner. Now I'm not one to complain  about the food at mensa, for cafeteria food it has been beyond excellent. There are tons of fresh, delicious options including pizzas, pastas and a seemingly endless stream of freshly cooked vegetables. However, the bread can leave something to be desired. It isn't horrible, especially when it's a fresher batch. But in all honesty it's a bread bubble, it's got a bread crust but is mostly air.

It does the job of getting that last bit of delicious pasta sauce and it's really good as a late night snack with some Nutella on it, but compared to the bread I've had out it falls a little short. (Seriously though mensa has been pretty great and the people that work there are so kind and have been super helpful in regards to helping me learn Italian!)
Bread in Italy is used in far less traditional ways here in Italy. Sure it can be used for paninis,

A caprese panino.

 to get that pasta bowl clean, to hold whatever delicious ingredients are in the bruschetta you are enjoying

A delicious bruschetta with fresh tomatoes, a bread filled with vegetables and cheese and mixed aperitivi.

but it can also be used in Panzanella salad or put in soups to make them thicker and more filling or even as a desert.

Ciabatta with Nutella

 Bread is not merely a carrier here, its an ingredient and an essential part of te Italian diet. In ancient times grain, which was often made into some kind of bread, was part of the Mediterranean triad. Bread has been important to Italians since ancient times and for a long time to come.

200 College Students Walk Into A Church- Post #4

Trimalchio's Feast is everything one imagines an ancient feast to be; it is beyond lavish, with exotic and expensive foods, plenty of pampering, and just a touch of drama. However the feast is much more than just the food, it's an experience. As mentioned the guests a pampered, Petronius' saying that they were attended to by slaves who 'removed our hangnails.' I've never been to a dinner party where we were served food and also received manicures, although I think it's a trend that should start again. In Fellini's adaptation of Trimalchio's Feast one gets a similar sense of the lavish experience. You didn't go to the feast just to eat, you went to talk and connect and revel in the splendor your rich host could provide. The relationship between Trimalchio and his guests is very interesting, in the reading and in Fellini's adaptation one gets the sense that Trimalchio is doing all of this to show off just how much money he has and not because he genuinely enjoys his guest's company. In modern times our dinner parties tend to be smaller and more intimate compared to Trimalchio's feast which seems to be for a much larger crowd of people. Although much of the food served at Trimalchio's feast sounds interesting, like all the sausages and fruits served, I don't know if I could stomach eating dormice (which yes is actually mouse). Though lavish and exciting to think about, Trimalchio's feast wasn't a reality for many ancient Romans, especially for the poor. The poor ate a very basic diet consisting mostly of grain (mostly wheat which they turned into flat cakes or gruel), grapes (which they turned into wine, though not the delicious wine we drink now a days, their wine had all honey and spices in it....it sounds fairly grotesque when you're given the full list of what they put in their wine) and olives (which they turned into, drum roll please, olive oil). These three make up what is called the Mediterranean triad, which as mentioned made up the base of many Italian's diets.

Although fascinating, ancient Roman foods leave something to be desired. They ate simply because that's what they could afford or what was available to them, as modernity spread through Italy cooking became more complex and more interesting. My experience with modern Italian food thus far has never left me wanting more. This is especially true with my recent experience at Osteria dell'Anima. JFRC officially wrapped up orientation this week with our Mass of the Holy Spirit, a tradition of Jesuit institutions where we ask God for wisdom and guidance for the coming semester. We went to one of the most beautiful churches (Basilica of Sant'Ignazio) I've ever seen in my life. 

After mass we headed to Osteria dell'Anima and my life will never be the same, it sounds dramatic but if you had eaten what I ate, you would understand. Friends, professors, deans and our student life assistants all raved about the food so much, that I came in with extremely high expectations, and I was not disappointed. The antipasti was incredibly simple, but one of the most delicious things I've had in my life. It was half of a tomato filled with the lightest (both in flavor and texture) goat cheese I've ever tasted, all resting on a pesto sauce with a drizzle of balsamic (for anyone who would like to know for future ordering pleasure, it was called Pomodoro in camicia con caprino in salsa di pesto). 

Though the antipasti was delicious, the primi is really what stole the show. Fiocchetti di formaggio e pera su crema di carote, those are some magical words. It was a dish that had small, stuffed pasta pouches that had cheese and pear in them, this created a flavor that was salty on the front and then slightly sweet at the end. The pear and cheese worked well, balancing each other out and the carrot sauce was absolutely divine, it also had a nice balance of savory and sweet to it. It was rich, buttery, and a nice contrast to the freshness of the pear.

It was a dining experience I will never forget and a restaurant I plan to return to during my time here in Roma. Modern food in Roma is delicious and fresh, a reflection of the ancient mindset of 'use what you have available.' Thankfully many more ingredients, as well as cooking styles, are available to Italians nowadays and it has allowed them to create some amazing dishes.

Ciao for now!

Veni.Vidi. Mangia.

Pasta, Pasta, and Pasta. Oh my! - Post #3

Ciao! This weekend the JFRC contingency went on our orientation trip to Umbria. It was absolutely gorgeous there and I fell in love with the town of Spoleto, it was also a weekend of amazing food experiences! I found it amusing that the weekend before the pasta practicum in class, we got to make 'pasta' and see how to make various kinds of cuts. Our first stop during the Umbria trip was to a beautiful farm in the countryside. We got to make 'pasta' without the egg (they didn't want to waste over 200 eggs on fake dough), they gave us each a little bag of flour and a cup of water and set us to work. I've made fresh pasta before, but it had been awhile! It was fun to relearn the technique and watch other try and figure out how to keep the water in the wells they had made. It was also interesting to think that this was the first time most people had made homemade pasta, whereas in Italy making pasta from scratch or getting fresh pasta at a market or store is just a regular occurrence. 

We also were able to see how to make various cuts of pasta and how to make ravioli and tortellini. It was amazing to watch how by simply folding the rolled dough the right way and changing the way you cut the dough just slightly could produce completely different shapes of pasta. First the dough was rolled incredibly thin and then folded into layers.

Then the sheet of dough was cut various ways, creating different shapes and sizes of pasta.

With what was left of the dough, we were then shown how ravioli and tortellini are made.

Although it looks simple enough, the technique is quite difficult to master and if the dough isn't right you have a hard time getting the dough to stick together so that the filling won't come out during the cooking process. The woman who demonstrated the pasta making was lightning fast at making perfect tortellini, but when our tour guide tried to make them he found it quite difficult.

It was interesting in the readings from last week and also seeing pasta making in person. Because of the readings, I was better able to understand not only the process of making pasta but also the different types of pasta she was making and what categories they fell into. Although I knew there were many types of pasta, I didn't realize that pasta usually falls into four basic categories (Gnocchi, Lasagne, Tortellini, and Tagliatelle). Nor did I realize that pasta's origin is very much so up in the air, I had always assumed that pasta came from Italy, plain and simple. Who knew that pasta potentially had Arabic roots? In addition, the Corbier reading provided an interesting insight into the way ancient Romans ate that was I found reflected my experience on the farm. Corbier talked about how people ate what they produced and at the farm, we had dishes that included olive oil and legumes, both of which they had produced. Italians both ancient and modern use what is available and local to them, creating dishes that are delicious and also practical. 

Ciao for now!

Veni. Vidi. Mangia.

A Rainbow of Bruschetta- Post #2

In class Thursday we talked about the regionality of food in Italy. Although this isn't an entirely foreign concept, in the US food in the south is very different from food in the north-east because of availability of ingredients and cultural differences, regionality takes on almost a new meaning in Italy. Not only are there vast differences in north and south, even within provinces and areas quite close to each other flavor profiles can be incredibly different. Maybe it was because regionality was on my mind, but when JFRC went to Umbria this weekend I noticed how different bruschetta was at all the various places we ate at and the differences between bruschetta in Rome and Umbria. Our first stop during the weekend trip was to a farm where we were instantly greeted with bruschetta, a piece of bread with olive oil from the farm we visited. It was delicious but very different from my notions of what bruschetta is, I've always thought that it was bread with either a paste or mixture on it. Later at the farm when we sat down to lunch our antipasto was an assortment of bruschetta. One had chopped hard boiled egg on it, another had Fagioli beans (fresh from the farm we were at), and the final two had a bell pepper spread and a tomato spread on them.

Again my idea of bruschetta evolved after this meal, two had a paste-like spread on them but I hadn't realized that just egg or Fagioli beans on bread could be considered bruschetta. All of them were absolutely delicious and I loved how simple they were. None of them were heavily seasoned or 'messed' with, they were all very straight forward which allowed the natural flavor of the ingredients to shine through. The Fagioli bean bruschetta was incredibly fresh and I enjoyed the earthy flavor the beans brought, it contrasted nicely with the acidity of the pepper and tomato bruschetta. I found it interesting what constituted as bruschetta even in one place from just olive oil on bread to the four provided to us at lunch.
The next day we were given free time in Spoleto for dinner, a group of my friends and I explored and found a small restaurant to stop in. Truffles and mushrooms are considered a specialty in Spoleto so for my antipasto I decided to have their truffle and mushroom bruschetta which was served with a few slices of  prosciutto.

I personally love the flavor of both mushrooms and truffles, I am a huge fan of earthy flavors in food, but I had never had the two combined. I absolutely loved the combination, the two flavors played off each other very well and combined nicely, one not overpowering the other. The saltiness of the prosciutto worked wonderfully with the bruschetta, cutting through the earthiness of the mushroom and truffle mixture. 

On the final day of our weekend, we stopped at a small restaurant near Todi. Here our antipasto was crostini instead of bruschetta. We were served crostini con crema di funghi e di ruccola, which they had translated as bread with mushroom cream and rocket cream. One was indeed mushroom and the other was the rocket cream which was pureed arugula. I thought the word for arugula was ruccola, so perhaps a translation error occurred or that could what the restaurant calls purred arugula. 

 Here again, Italian food had me slightly confused. These 'crostini' were nearly identical to what we had been served at the farm on the first day just with different toppings. They were small slices of bread with toppings if anything the bruschetta I had eaten in Spoleto was the odd one out because of its size. Perhaps Spoleto and Todi differ in what they consider bruschetta or crostini because of regional differences.

Honestly, the readings were ever present in my mind this weekend while we were in Umbria, because what I had read was coming to life through the food. Especially the' Delizia' reading about Palermo and the discussion of how 'Italian food does not exist.' I enjoyed how the author explained that that statement was an overgeneralization because lots of areas share food. You can get bruschetta in almost every region of Italy however, there will be differences in preparation and toppings based on where you are. In addition, the ground rules laid out in the 'Sauces & Shapes' reading  were incredibly insightful into Italian cuisine. The rules about the use of the best ingredients and not obsessing over the quality of ingredients came to the forefront this weekend. All of the dishes I was served this weekend were simple but delicious, it wasn't about using the highest quality but about using what was available and local. At the farm, no part of our meal was incredibly intricate or fancy, but it was delicious all the same because of the fresh, farm to table method of the food. Since everything was so fresh, the food simply tasted better. This fresh, 'use what you have available' mindset was also reflected in the 'Sauces & Shapes' reading when the author talked about how Italian housewives took inspiration from anything and everything they had available to them. In the US where we use lots of imported and processed foods in our meals, here in Italy markets seem farm more abundent and making food from scratch seems more common. The food here is left far less untouched than in the US where we tend to season and manipulate everything. To me it creates simple food that is just, if not more delicious than what I'm used to in the US.

Ciao for now!

Veni. Vidi. Mangia

Impressions, Expectations, and Biographies - Post #1

    Ciao and welcome to my blog for my Italian Cultural History: Food & Wine course while I'm abroad in Rome! My name is Alexandra Horton and I am originally from a small town in Illinois named Mokena. I'm currently a Senior at Loyola University Chicago spending a semester abroad at the John Felice Rome Center. I'm a Psychology major with a History minor and I'm incredibly excited to be studying abroad, especially in a city like Rome that has so many layers of history to it. I'm interested in anything to do with my major and minor, especially military and cultural history. I'm taking this class because I love food and wine, to me food is a universal language that brings people together and starts conversations. This love of food combined with my History minor and the fact that I almost went to culinary school made taking this class a no brainer. I've never visited Italy before so i'm excited to explore, learn, and experience the city, people, and culture. I have no allergies or food sensitivities and I'm ready to explore all the food this city and country (and the rest of Europe) have to offer.

Food in Italy has already been quite the experience. I came to Italy expecting the food to be fresh, filling, and delicious. I had heard stories from friends of the many courses just one meal can have in Italy. I've noticed that eating out in Italy is far different from eating out in the US, here it is much more leisurely because of cultural differences but also because the wait-staff are all salaried. To me, this creates an even better culinary experience where I can truly savor my meal instead of rushing through it. I've also noticed that food here is far fresher than what we tend to eat in the US. My family and I eat fresh as much as possible, we grow what we can and love going to the local farmers markets for what we can't. So coming to Italy has been a treat because I get the same sense of freshness here as I do at home!

One of my favorite parts of orientation week was wandering the city with a group of friends after a day at the Colosseum and Roman Forum, ending the day with the best meal of my life thus far. We knew the place (La Villeta dal 1940) because of a suggestion made by a previous JFRC student, but when we got there we were told they were closed until later that evening. So in true Italian fashion, we went next door and had aperitivo! I got a Cosmo which was less sweet than the Cosmos I've had in the US, something I personally enjoyed. The buffet that came along with our drinks was delicious and full of fresh vegetables, enough food to satisfy but not enough to fill me up.

Once we got to the restaurant we ordered a litre of their house white and red for the table to share, I'm normally a white wine drinker but this red wine was some of the best I have ever had. We also ordered some starters including suppli, a plate of fresh cheeses and meats and some house made porketta.

For our main meal, we ordered a large bowl of both carbonara and amatriciana, both were delicious and it was great to be able to try two truly 'Roman' dishes.

Just when I thought I couldn't possibly eat anymore, we had dessert. I got a panna cotta with a strawberry drizzle on top, it was thicker and creamier than any panna cotta I've ever had and the creaminess of the panna cotta played well off the freshness of the fruit. 

I personally ended my meal with an espresso, while others ended with limoncello. It is fascinating to me how concerned with digestion the Italians are, you have to end your meal with some sort of after dinner drink to help your body digest properly. I don't know why they are as concerned with digestion as they are, but that is something I hope to learn (in class or by talking to locals) this semester.

Ciao for now!

Veni. Vidi. Mangia.