Tag Archives: Bologna

A vintage image of an Italian vintage long forgotten

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Above: Grape transport early 1900s (?), Bologna, signed “Greetings from Umberto.” It makes me wonder if fermentation has already begun in those casks. Click the image to see a hi-res version.

So much junk mail appears in my inbox these days, most of it from publicists who haven’t really taken the time to see what my blog is really about (BrooklynGuy gets his share, too, and he wrote this funny post about the phenomenon).

But every once in a while, I find myself on the user-end of a mass mailing that catches my eye.

Today, I received an email from a man I’ve never met, nor heard of, Carlo Cassinis, who writes:

    We have started a collection of postcards having the theme “agriculture and enology.”

    Please find attached the last postcard we have received. We are asking you to look in your attics and cellars to unearth postcards like this.

    We are sending this message to all of our friends with the hope that they will read it and pass it on to all of their friends and everyone in their address books.

    As soon as we have enough interesting material, we will mount an exhibit in the cellars of the Vicara winery.

    If you have any material like this, please send it to Carlo Cassinis V.lo S. Sebastiano 13 15020 Ponzano Monferrato (Al)

    Thank you and looking forward to hearing from you.

    Carlo Cassinis

Carlo didn’t include a link to his winery’s website but it wasn’t hard to find.

I like the postcard and the image made me think about how much the Italian wine industry has changed over the last century. I’m still reeling from the news of yet another adulteration scandal in Tuscany. As the Italian Wine Guy said to me today, we’ve been working so hard for so many years to promote Italian wine in this country because we love it so much. And then something like this happens and it seems as if we have to start all over again, sharing the true greatness of the wines of Italy.

The weather is cold here in Austin and it’s a melancholy Friday “deep in December” sitting at my desk…

Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh, so mellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain was yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender and callow fellow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

Try to remember when life was so tender
That no one wept except the willow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That dreams were kept beside your pillow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That love was an ember about to billow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,
Although you know the snow will follow.
Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,
Without a hurt the heart is hollow.
Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,
The fire of September that made us mellow.
Deep in December, our hearts should remember
And follow.

I hold these tagliatelle to be self-evident

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Dear Tracie B: after you, Mrs. Judy P, and Mrs. Martha Jane B, there is another woman whose food I love. Yes, it’s true. And as much as I relish your fried chicken and your southern ragù (and the huevos rancheros you made me on Valentine’s), and as much as I love my mom’s Caesar salad and her meatloaf (and her Yorkshire puddin’), and as much as I love your mom’s chili dogs and breakfast loaf (and her tuna fish salad with hard-boiled eggs), and as much as I miss the Jaynes Burger back in sunny San Diego, there is another lady who holds a top spot in my heart. Her name is Signora Corrado and she lives in Bologna. And every week she makes fresh pasta for her husband and her son (one of my dearest and oldest friends, Corradino “Dindo” Corrado). Yes, it’s true: I fell in love with a Southern Belle and guagliona named Tracie B but my Yankee heart still hankers for the tagliatelle of my university days when I would hop a train from Padua and head to Bologna to play music at the legendary Casalone, and hang out with my buds Puddu and Dindo.

Here’s a step-by-step “how to make fresh pasta” by Mrs. Corrado herself. I hold these tagliatelle to be self-evident!

Make a well with flour and break the eggs into the well. (A lot of folks might add salt here, but Signora Corrado says to season the pasta only with the generous salt added to the cooking water; see Tracie B’s post on seasoning the cooking water.)

Mix the eggs into the flour using two forks.

Work the dough well with your hands (this is the most labor intensive part but it’s the most important). Most people say that you know its ready when its surface feels like a baby’s bottom.

Cover and let the pasta rest in a cool, dry place for at least 30 minutes.

Work the dough again with your hands, adding a little more flour.

Roll the dough out to the desired thickness.

Note above the length of her rolling pin. The length is important to achieve even consistency.

Fold the pasta over itself, making a “book” about 3 inches in widgth

Slice the tagliatelle with the desired width. The name taglatelle comes from the Italian tagliare, to cut.

Gently separate the tagliatelle.

Gather them into little bunches and let them dry all morning or afternoon on a floured pasta board.

Serve with your favorite sauce. Those are garganelli to the left, but you’ll have to check out my guest post at My Life Italian for those.

Thanks, Dindo, for sending these photos!