Case Vecchie Challenge: Cross Fit Style

Staying fit in Sicily. The ultimate countryside workout

The Case Vecchie Challenge! 

Staying fit in Sicily hasn't been easy. We eat ALL of the time. And while I'm a foodie at heart and love to eat (I'm a big eater), the possibly 5,000 + calories I was taking in daily was beginning to weigh me down. Not so much in actual weight, I have a really high metabolism (even at 30!) and I always find that the more meals I have in a day, the faster my engines burn. At any rate, I've always been active, going to the gym, running, cycling, playing sports etc..and after the first few weeks in Sicily, I started to feel like something was missing. 

Taking advantage of the massive inclines around Case Vecchie (where I live) and the copious construction material laying around (I live on a vineyard) I set off to design a course, a workout that would rival any cross-fit battleground. Thus out of the darkness, The Case Vecchie Challenge was born! It takes roughly 45 minutes, but I go by Sicilian rules which means, there are no rules. Unlike cross-fit circuits which are usually for reps and for time...The Case Vecchie Challenge... takes as long as it takes and combines interval training, weights using objects found on the estate and of course nutrition. I try and work every muscle group.

Friends and family kept seeing photos of me on Facebook and wondered how, amidst all this delicious food, I was managing to stay in such good shape. Well, this is how I do it!

 Challenge1: Interval Training

Interval training is probably one of the best training methods out there. It combines low and high intensity workout exercises that target fast twitch muscle fibers. It's also a great cardiovascular movement. 

I start my workout with a short, 10 minute jog to warm my legs and then go immediately into my first sprint interval. I tackle of one Case Vecchies longest and steepest hills. I don't stop until I get to the top! Although I don't count the number of sets, I can usually only manage three interval rounds. If I can squeeze in four...I will, but with only a 2 minute break in between intervals, by the time I'm finished with the third round my legs are shaking. The views at the top are spectacular! Another bonus of sprinting hills.

Challenge 2: Fence Post Lunges

I keep the intensity going, by jogging in between stations and usually go from sprinting into a leg work out to really blast the muscle fibers.

 I take a 6' concrete post used for staking grape vines and perform alternating lunges across roughly 50 yards of dirt. I make sure to do the lunges slowly to maximize the burn and maintain good form.

I intersperse the lunges with military shoulder presses using the same post. 

Challenge 3: Overhead Military Press

Every set is until failure. Their are usually five sets total. The shoulder press targets both the front and topsides of the muscle group. After these two exercises are carried out I super set with free standing squats. 

Challenge 4: Standing Squats

These Squats are mean!! At this point ever rep is difficult, but the concrete posts weigh approximately 20 kilos, so the weight isn't too bad. I give myself 2-3 minute breaks since the rep numbers for this exercise are so high. 

Challenge 5: Bicep Busters

Standing bicep curls. 4-5 sets until failure making sure to squeeze at the top.  Range of motion is key. Reps are very slow. I mix this exercise with what are known to gym rats as Skull Crushers! Or tricep blasters.

 

Challenge 6: Skull Crushers

Skull Crushers are one of my favorite exercises, but finding an accessible weight is really important because of the torque it can put on the elbow joints. I superset these as well. One set heavy, followed by one set light to really exhaust the three tricep muscles in each arm. 

Challenge 7:Watering Can Rear Deltoid Pulls

The watering can is the perfect tool for shoulder workouts! I actually use it for two different exercises, rear delt pulls and oblique bends. Sorry no picture for these. 

Challenge 8:More Sprints!!

Following the rear deltoid exercises a sprint another hill to the top where there is one last shoulder exercise waiting for me. 

Challenge 9: Lateral Raises

Using broken concrete posts I alternate front and side shoulder lateral raises. 3-4 sets until failure. And with that, we've got ONE last station. Pull ups! Pull ups are mixed with leg raises to hit the core.

Challenge 10: Pull ups

Using an Ibeam I found in one of the barns, I do pull ups until failure. Usually 4-5 sets mixing the grips to target different parts of the back.

And of course it wouldn't be a proper workout if I didn't carry my hard work all the way through with a Sicilian nutritional plan!

 Challenge 11: Nutrition!

The first part of my post work out meal is something sugary to replace all of the glycogen I've spent while working my muscles. I grab an orange from the garden because it's quick and they're delicious. 

In general, I tend to eat what I want here at Case Vecchie, which consists of a lot of pasta, so the carbs are more or less covered, but I also eat a lot of wild greens and vegetables as well as lentils and ahem...an egg or two from time to time to make sure I'm getting enough protein. Oh and we grow a number of almond trees in the garden so a handful of nuts is always good to replenish energy and give the body a few extra beneficial fats. 

 

That's pretty much it! I take on The Case Vecchie Challenge 4 days per week. What about you!? Do you have a workout challenge you designed to stay healthy? I'd love to hear about it. 

Cassata! The most famous sweet in all of Sicily

What likely originated as a simple cake recipe made from egg, sugar, almond flour and ricotta creme is now one of Sicily's most coveted desserts - the Cassata! Cassata is a springtime cake traditionally made as an Easter specialty.

Crafting the Cassata from scratch is what Sicily is all about. You can't buy it anywhere and if you could find it, chances are the gorgeous pastry would be a much smaller version, a Cassatine, perhaps. Many attempts have been made to commercialize the Cassata, but it's just one of those traditional pastry recipes that due to the quality of the ingredients and delicacy of it's architecture, is impossible. If you think you have had a true Cassata outside of Sicily...you haven't. Which is why I feel so lucky to be part of the Cassata's genesis at Case Vecchie! Every time it comes to life, I learn something new from its assemblage. While their are a number of variations in the design of the Cassata, we typically make ours with a simple arrangement of sliced and whole candied fruit (as shown above). The design can be as complex or as understated as you want it to be, so long as that first bite slingshots you into another dimension.

There are 5-key ingredients to a well-balanced Cassata.

Sponge Cake

• Soft, delicate, fluffy...sponge cake. It speaks to you. When you back it and it's perfect, it should give a little squeaky sound, a kind of sponge cake melody if you will.  

Ricotta Cheese

• Fresh, FRESH ricotta cheese (filling). We source our ricotta cheese from Primavera, a local farm who produces the BEST ricotta cheese. For any vegans reading this post, I understand the concern for the well-being of the sheep. I assure you that they are treated very well. The shepherd loves his flock and makes sure enough milk is saved for the lambs.

 Marzipan

• The third mandatory ingredient that should be of the highest quality is the marzipan (almond flour/paste) which forms the outside crust of the pastry. The Regaleali estate supports a number of almond trees so fresh almonds always around. In fact, once per week I take a wood chopping board and mallet and spend 20-30 minutes crushing the nuts from their shells. 

Lemon Glaze

• Lemon juice and powdered sugar

Candied Fruit

• Crowning the Cassata is an orchestra of candied fruit. The process of making candied fruit is difficult. Many try and fail to make it properly. The process of candying whole fruit is something of a lost art. There aren't many people today that do it. Most pastry shops in the U.S that make Cassata or claim to make it, outsource their candied fruit from abroad. Even then it's not that good.

Everything in between -  the creation - the "doing" is what brings this masterpiece to life. Fabrizia is indeed a master. 

Happy Easter, everyone!

Seeing The Trees Through the Forest and Pruning Roses

Seeing Between The Forest & Trees

 

Have you ever used the phrase 'can't see the forest for the trees'? Most of us have heard it and probably used the quip at some point in conversation. I know I have. It means that people lose themselves in the details (trees) neglecting or forgetting the larger picture or vision (forest). This phrase is commonly used in business, but can be found in almost any industry. The environmental sustainability industry (which I fall into) loves to use this line given its symbolism. We often get so stuck in the details that those details become the overwhelming focus with the original vision (forest) becoming distorted.

As a designer I've been taught to see or slide between both at various stages of understanding a challenge or design problem. We take a 10,000 foot view to visualize and comprehend the big picture and then zoom in at a micro level to see the patterns and interconnections. We then pull out to assess the information gathered and then dive back in again to synthesize and problem solve. This oscillation occurs repeatedly with each cycle revealing something new and informative about the subject being analyzed. It's called the design process and it works - if you give it enough time to mature and evolve. Which brings me back to the trees (the details).

I've never been a stickler for detail (there are exceptions). I find things like setting the table or arranging the silverware, i.e the dinner fork, the salad fork, soup spoon, dessert spoon, dinner knife, water glass, wine glass and their respective positions, uniquely boring. I can do it and when I do, the ensemble is always very nice to look at, but I don't find it deeply satisfying. And yet, having a table neatly arranged, adds to the totality of the food experience. When I stop for half a second and think through why the art of table setting is important, I start to see the trees. The folding of the napkin comes into view, the patterns of color, texture, composition, are like a painting. Ultimately, they provide the infrastructure for what my attention is generally focused on - food and food stories. When I pull myself out of this functionally fixed box, the trees AND the forest suddenly become clear. Why? Because changing the context in which I find something boring gives me the opportunity to discover something new, leading to a better understanding of the subject and a greater sense of gratitude for the environment in which I'm working. The bigger forest question is, how did this happen? How did the feeling of being bored creep into daily life?

Midcentury existentialist, Jean-Paul Sartre, understood boredom as a fundamental philosophical crisis, what fellow philosopher, Schopenhauer once termed “the feeling of the emptiness of life”.  Saying it feels heavy! After a little research, I found that the sensation of boredom (albeit complex) can be boiled down to our inability to concentrate our attention. To fix this problem, we write schedules to organize the attention so details aren't missed. We make lists, as I wrote about in previous blogs, that we love scratching through as the day progresses. You know, to concentrate our attention.... It feels good, creates meaningful engagement resulting in progress. I am one of these people. I make lists not because I love making lists, but because it helps me maintain a certain cadence in my day.

However, what I've noticed is that these long lists have created a situation where I'm either scanning the surface for bite sized pieces of digestible information or I'm busy diving in and out of the micro world at a speed that's slow enough to extract data, but fast enough to return to 10,000 feet so that I don't lose site of the forest. Everything in between....is a cosmic blur and the details (the trees) I think I'm experiencing are but glimpses of worlds I've yet to explore. If one isn't vigilant about their levels of attention, collecting bite sized pieces of information as we email, take phone calls, tweet, instagram, update, chat, mult-task, re-check emails etc...can gum up the process, making it sticky and sloppy. We're bored, because we're over-stimulated.

Analyzing and piecing together the data points collected is important and often vital, but it can also come at a cost. By never fully understanding or appreciating how something has developed (its history, the context), we fill in the blank spaces with assumptions, often poor ones, that completely change the nature of what's being observed. Decision making becomes more difficult and flawed, because corners have been cut in the design thinking process to save time and probably money. We're never fully satisfied. There's always three mores boxes to tick. It's like going to a fancy restaurant, absorbing the delicious food porn (in very small, delicate portions) and then accepting, that part of the experience or reality, is going home hungry. My point is this: Being "bored" at work or wherever we might call 'the office' is symptomatic of a society where it's more important to get things done then it is to really understand why or what we're doing.  Even in Sicily, where the pace of life is slower, this overwhelming need to 'get as much done as possible' persists. That is until last week, I decided I was not going to participate in that kind of thinking anymore.

One morning, after I had finished my egregious cup of Italian coffee and my list of things to do (Weed flower beds, spread out mulch, empty compost, water plants, talk to seedlings, plant new seedlings, prune 100 yard prickly rose hedge, design plant walk) I let out a huge sigh. Two feelings hit me. Boredom (more weeding and pruning) and this nagging feeling that not only was I being ungrateful, but I was missing something vitally important by ensuring all these boxes would be ticked off by the end of the day. That vitally important element was quality, specifically, an appreciation and clarity of the details. Parts of the whole that formed the whole. Parts that I was missing. Not just the plant, but the components of the plant that allow the plant to be a plant! I could see the forest (I knew what I had to accomplish that day in the garden) It's that the details weren't as exciting. They didn't give back enough intellectual support to keep my attention. Meaning, I wasn't being instantly gratified in the same way I am used to by working in the digital space at break neck speeds. The payback (gorgeous roses) are a long-term investment. Which meant I would have to wait to see the fruits of my labor. Surrounded by the sublime, my gears had become taffy. So I took my list and scratched off everything, leaving the rose hedge free and clear. On that day, nothing else was going to matter. I wasn't going to allow all the other noisy tasks to take me away from this one thing.

Rose Hedge on right

It took three full days to finish pruning the hedge. I was determined to focus and do the best job I possible could.

The first day was difficult. Really difficult. The thorns were sharp and out for blood, my forearm and hands were riddled with holes. The urge to move on to something else and come back to the hedge later on in the day was steady. It pains me to say this, but I was bored.

On the second day, that changed. And it changed largely because I changed my attitude and refocused my attention on the details which had slowly began to appear. For example, pruning the dead branches out of a rose hedge is important because it prevents a variety of fungal diseases from developing or entering the plant. Plus it frees up space inside the plant which is important for air circulation. And pruning a healthy branch at a 45 degree angle just above a node, but away from the inside of the plant, allows for new growth to occur, plus the position of the angle prevents water from entering the branch, that again, might cause fungal growth. I began to remember all of these details and suddenly, this boring, tedious job became more meaningful. Questions popped up that I didn't have answers to, such as why aphids love roses so much? How many species are their? Where do they come from? And what I discovered was that this devilish little insect that draws life from the bud of a rose is interconnected to about a dozen other interesting insects like hover flies, ladybirds and lacewings. Aphids are a vital piece in the complex natural jigsaw that is your garden, and to know them is to tolerate them, if not to love them.

To my amazement, after the third day, my ability to concentrate without being interrupted by outside influences increased ten fold. My attention was back and I could see parts of the system that I had forgotten existed. Sometimes focusing our attention on just one thing for a sustained period of time is exactly what we need in order to respect and fully appreciate the trees living as one organism in a forest of possibilities. And while it's important to be able to see and appreciate both the trees and the forest, we cannot forget that the greatest lessons are often between the two.

For the last week I've carved out one hour to concentrate on one thing. Painting. This is what I've produced. I'm not sure if any of it is good, but it feels good to get lost in the details again.

Opuntia (Prickly Pear)

Italian Cypress

Arroyo

Slow is Good...

Part of the Case Vecchie Garden. It's big. We have Cyprus trees

 Slowing Down in The Garden

At the bottom of the estate lies the Case Vecchie garden, where I spend most of my time pruning, digging, planting, forking, foraging, hauling, cultivating and maintaining the peace. It's a slow process. Weedy terrorist cells like Oxalis officinalis ( family of Wood Sorrels, often confused with clover. Most kids know it as sour grass - small trumpeted yellow flower? you know the one...) keep me occupied.

Garden bed with thyme, lemon and mint

Any gardening guru or plant bible will tell you NOT to rip out Oxalis. Its seed pods are not only designed by nature to explode, but their root systems snap at the slightest provocation. They are the IED's (Improvised Explosive Device) of the plant world. In fact, their physiological structures even looks like tethered explosive devices! As for not ripping it out of the ground? Well, if I carefully separated all of the Oxalis, removing its many fuses by the root, I'd be in Sicily for the next 20 years, in the same garden, disarming the same plant. It's a meditation that requires a slower approach than what I'm used to. It's a good thing. "Weeds" can teach us a lot if we listen. 

Oxalis articulata - Pink Wood Sorrel

 Like all things, gardening is about the cultivation of relationships. And for all its bad press, Oxalis actually has many redeeming qualities. For example, Native Americans used to eat varieties of Wood Sorrel or Oxalis on long journeys as a way to suppress thirst. And sailors would eat the stems during extended voyages as a source of much needed vitamin C. It also belongs to a plant family that contains hundreds of now hybridized cultivars grown as well-behaved, very beautiful, ornamental's. Oxalis articulata or pink wood sorrel, is one of my favorites. It's amazing what we can learn by going beyond surface value judgements. Could be a Oxalis or any other "weed" in the garden, but a small amount of research yields some really interesting facts!
 

Green House Lovin

When I'm not negotiating with the Oxalis, I can be found in our very tiny green house where I've been busy propagating Salvia's from cuttings and planting seeds. It's been so long since I planted anything, I've had to re-learn some of the techniques. I can hardly remember the last time I planted a seed and expected it to grow haha. Common questions like "How deep should the seed be planted?" "How many seeds per hole?" and then I start to panic. What if they don't germinate!? What if they protest and refuse to sprout? The packages say to plant 2-3 seeds per hole.

My creations! Cilantro, Chives & Companion Plants

I plant 6 just in case... And every day for the last two weeks I've carefully inspected my creations, hoping at hints of growth, hints of life.

Finally, yesterday after 10 days (as predicted by the packages) cotyledons have nosed their way through the surface of the potting soil!! Which is more exciting and more stressful then the initial planting! I am now responsible for the life and death of around 50 seedlings....I feel like I'm the lead surgeon in a medical drama where every day I whisper with a furrowed brow, pointing at each sprout " Don't you little f*ckers die on me!" "We can do this....we can do this together! "We have the power, we have the energy!". I don't actually act this out...but the drama inside my head....is real - part zen, part Tony Robbins and part Paul Giamatti (because he brings the kind of intensity I'm conjuring up and I think it's funny). So far so good. Hopefully my little plant buddies will make it to the field this spring. What will be come of these seedlings? Food. Mostly herbs. Mostly delicious. I'm not a huge fan of dill...

Compost bin!

One of my other responsibilities here at Case Vecchie is to help maintain the compost bins. A delicate balancing act, composting requires good sources of nitrogen and carbon. Not too much green material, not too much food waste. Rotation is very important. Once the pile starts cooking and the organisms do the Harlem Shake, the last thing you want is an anaerobic (smelly) pile of rotting waste. Again, this is a process is slow. it takes time for the food and beneficial organisms to mingle, to dance and to cooperate. The result (in theory) is a gorgeous soil mixture that is reused in the garden, adding the nutrients back into the soil. And it's this endless cycle that makes gardening, farming and cultivating so important a concept to grasp. Nothing, not even the Oxalis works in isolation. It's all connected. Mutually inclusive. This begs the question, what lessons could we learn from sustainable relationships in our gardens that could be transplanted to the creation of more sustainable businesses? Cultivating sustainable business solutions, slowly.... A topic for another blog.

Fabrizia on the left, Patrizia in center and Linda Lou on the right

 The Ultimate Remedy to Anti-Aging

Last week the Case Vecchie team had the distinct pleasure of hosting Dr. Patrizia d'Alessio at the school. Patrizia is a long-time friend of Fabrizia and for the last two decade has been busy innovating in the field of molecular therapeutics. After years of research studying steroids and synthetic, anti-inflammatory drugs, she finally decided that it was time to find a new, natural anti-inflammatory molecule.

It took her five, slow, years and a lot of science that I wont get into here, but she found one! It's so top secret, I can't even tell you where this molecule can be found. If the science is correct and the clinical trials on cancer, inflammation and aging are positive, it could be a game changer for people who want a natural way to prevent and treat anti-inflammatory related illnesses. At the Case Vecchie food lab, we brainstormed on ways this molecule could be infused with different types of food, delivering long-term health benefits to people. Dr. d'Alessio is an awesome lady who's committed to helping people live healthier, stronger lives. 

Gelato taking form!

                   Homemade Gelato
 My Italian experience wouldn't be complete if I didn't learn how to make gelato! One evening while we were again, in the food lab (we spend most of our free time there) sou chef, Linda Lou threw together a delicious vanilla gelato using REAL extract (Vanilla pods soaked in alcohol). I was mesmerized by the process. I'd always wanted to learn how to make gelato, so I quickly took note of the ingredients and began fantasizing about what my first batch of gelato would be. How it would taste.

Vanilla with Toasted Wild Fennel Seeds

With vanilla already being my favorite ingredient, that was definitely going to be in the recipe. Finding the second ingredient could have been easy as most flavors go well with vanilla, but I wanted something a little different, something unusual and unexpected. Would wild fennel seeds work? Would the vanilla compliment the fennel? Playing with the flavors in my mind, I had to find out.

Three hours later, I had my first batch of gelato. And it was surprisingly good! Of course I would say that having made it, but seriously, for my first attempt, the combination seemed to work. Even Fabrizia approved. Add a drizzle of vino cotto (delicious cooked wine sauce = divine) and you've got yourself a direct line to God himself.

I was so excited about my creation that the next day I made a new batch, this time using vanilla and madarino jam! Yes, that's right, jam made from mandarins grown in Sicily. I was going for the 50/50 orange creamsicle flavor I had loved so much as a kid. Now, it goes without saying that I'll pretty much eat any ice-cream I produce, but pshh, despite it being a little icy....I think I nailed it. Are they really any good? Who knows...but I feel like all those years of eating weird food combinations, that most of my friends made fun of me for, is finally - slowly - revealing itself in my ice-cream concoctions. For better or for worse! Next on the list is Bergamot extract and Rosemary! 

Whether I am in the garden or I am playing around in the kitchen, the idea of "slow" is slowly re-teaching me how to focus and concentrate. There are no real shortcuts to planting seeds or tilling a plot of land. It's one seed and one step at a time. For a person like myself who's mind happily ebbs and flows, distracted by the tiniest of stimuli, having the grace to be a beginner and move slowly through this experience is teaching me that those small steps add up. For now, I'm perfectly content with slow.

Herbariums, Unexpected Friendships and Busted Guts

Cassata Infornato

 Busting a Gut!

My gut is busted. I set out with the intention of telling you all about the herbarium project I'm working on, the plant press we designed and built (with the help of a blacksmith from Veneto) and our first wild plant victims, but I can't go down that road yet. I am trying to live more presently and at the present moment, my stomach is stretched to its outer limits. Lunch, which is always a marathon was again delicious - Left overs from lasts nights rare and unexpected encounter with a forgiving Ragusana (to be continued). The culprit, I'll be honest, is gluttony. The pastry being crafted in this great Italian kitchen by both Fabrizia and her protege, Cheeky Chef, Linda, are too provocative!Too tasty! Desserts are normally outliers for me. I seldom eat anything sugary, unless it's dark chocolate. I have strength, you know will power! But these two gorgeous chefs have seduced me to the dark side of pastry! I can't say no! 

The Audrey Hepburn of desserts busting my gut this evening is none other then the Cassata Infornato. Say it slowly...listen to how it rolls of your lips. The Cassata Infornato, is a classically beautiful, elegant, lemon sponge cake filled with satiny Ricotta creme and candied citron - spanked, ahem... with powdered sugar. It's very naughty! 

Umberto - Food Paparazzo

And like any femme fatale, the dessert came with its very own food paparazzo - Umberto Agnello, a talented photographer hired by Fabrizia to capture recipes for a new cookbook coming out in October. Which is one of the main reasons why so many desserts were flying out of the oven this weekend.

Heeding the warnings would have been too easy, knowing full well that situations like this always come with that nagging feeling, the little cricket on the shoulder that says "Don't be enchanted! There's lactose in that creme my dear boy...LACTOSE!" and a reply from that other inner voice saying "Ah Jiminy, lighten up...what the hell do you know, anyway, you ended up in the belly of a whale?!" Well Jiminy, here I am reeling from the pleasure and pain of it all. Ensnared by an irresistable charm. They say you can't know one without knowing the other. It's true. What is life if not a journey across the entire spectrum? No regrets. It was worth every nibble! The sad reality is knowing that this won't be the last debutant to cross my path. Will I have the strength to resist next time? Probably not.

The Herbarium

Ahem...so herbariums! Who's excited?! Plant geeks out there say whaaaat! Ok, calm down. Part of my job here other then being the official kitchen taster is developing a wild edible plant herbarium. The estate is literally bustling with native, wild herbs and other plants. For those non-plant geeks, a herbarium, or "herbar" if you want to sound cool, is pretty simple, really. It's a collection of preserved plant specimens. We find em, dry em and mount em! Using a very sophisticated handmade plant-press, the plants are placed between two sheets of newspaper, layered on top of one another and sandwiched between two heavy pieces of wood. Two logs and a large Sicilian garden stone are recommended for added weight. Not really...but damn, look at that symmetry ay!?

Plant Press

For the last week or so I've been out milling around the garden hunting for edible wild plants like Sinapis arvensis, Raphanus Raphanistrum and Calendula officianalis to test in our horticultural apparatus. Wild Calendula loves nutrient rich clay soils, which the surrounding vineyard feasts on. They're everywhere.

Wild Calendula!

One doesn't have to look far from the front door to find a patch of Calendula, but I like to hike to the top of the vineyard for my specimens because that's where the wild irises and orchids grow and if you're lucky, wild fennel!

In March, everyone on the estate embarks on a crusade to find and harvest wild fennel from the hills. Salvatore, one of the sage ground-keepers at Case Vecchie is infamous for loading the back of his Vespa with bundle upon bundle of wild fennel during the harvest season. Fabrizia makes a gorgeous fennel dish called polpettinie di finnochietto which is a small eliptical shaped, fennel patty with red onion and pecorino. Food grenades for the soul. Boom.

Ragusana

A few years ago, Fabrizia posted a thoughtful video to Youtube demonstrating a recipe passed down by her mother for Scaccia Ragusana, a traditional pizza from the Sicilian province of Ragusa. The short video was met with comment after insult after comment about how blasphemous her recipe was. Unaware of the mistake, the dish Fabrizia had made, was not, according to locals from Ragusa, a real Scaccia Ragusana. One brave soul, Giovanna Scaccia (Not her real last name) chimed in with a forgiving voice among many angry naysayers and offered to teach Fabrizia how to make a true, unadulterated Scaccia Ragusana. After some planning, Giovanna finally made it out to Case Vecchie yesterday afternoon for a lesson! How incredible!? After such negativity and harassment, it was an absolute pleasure to have someone in the kitchen, a complete stranger no less, with a love of food and culture share her wisdom. That's what food is all about, sharing! She even brought her own rolling pin, which if you look closely, is actually the leg of a table. Legend. 

Giovanna Scaccia demonstrates while Fabrizia takes note

The evening was a huge success and a fantastic example of how people, food and new unexpected friendships can come together over hearth and home, even in the face of begrudged critics. Well played ladies. Well played.

A revised Youtube video is in the works to quell those distance grumblings...

Tasca Lanza International Cooking School: Take 1!

Case Vecchie

Case Vecchie

Case Vecchie or "old house" as it's translated, is my new home for the next four months! Located in Vallelunga, Case Vecchie is the heart and home of the Anna Tasca Lanza International cooking school where nearly two hundred years of food, culture and Sicilian family tradition coalesce. Fabrizia Lanza, the daughter of Anna Tasca Lanza (And my boss!) has been running the international cooking school for a number of years. Trained as a curator for the arts, she now uses the art of food as a medium to interpret her rich family history and connect people from all over the world by bringing the "old ways" back to life - with a little modern day flare.

Panoramic view of the teaching kitchen

When I first arrived, I asked Fabrizia how long she had been a chef and her answer was both surprising and revealing. She replied poignantly "I'm not really a chef, cooking has always been a part of my family, a part of Sicilian culture. It's not a profession one chooses, it's a lifestyle that becomes part of who you are as a person. These new food trends on "eating local" has been a way of life in Sicily for hundreds of years". And the longer I live in Sicily, the more I realize this truth. It's a part of a world where families still eat together on a regular basis. Food is prepared by hand from sources that are almost always local and seasonal. Every recipe that Fabrizia teaches to her students contains ingredients that have either been grown in the garden (I know, because I help maintain it) or sourced locally from small family owned businesses in Vallelunga.

There are some exceptions. For instance, Himalayan salt. That's not source locally. Also Fabrizia might use fish in a recipe. We obviously don't live on the Agrigento or Trapani coastline, but fish mongers local to Vallelunga or a neighboring village make several fishing trips per week. In other words, the supply chains are about as short as it gets. Fabrizia knows exactly where her ingredients come from. Her heart is in Sicily. Teaching students with ingredients sourced from outside the region, would go against everything she stands for. This is what makes her Sicilian cooking school so special. You can't grow the same quality of tomatoes, lemons or oranges that are specific to this region anywhere else in the world. Not to mention that the estate sits within the Tasca D'Almerita winery, a legacy passed down by Fabrizia's grandfather, Giuseppe, where every glass poured is literally a glass of Sicily. Wines like Amarone, and Valpolicella from northern Italy are fantastic, I love them, but a glass of wine made from grapes from the Regaleali Vineyard is like tasting the sun. 

The Winery which is located just a few kilometers up the road from where we are, produces just over 3.2 million bottles per year and has made a stunning video that describes "The Sound Of Wine", a symphony of melodic notes generated through the strumming, sliding, drumming, bowing and blowing of bottles and wine glasses. The video's production is as magical as the winery itself (I'll tell you about the wine tasting later!).

Needless to say, I've died and gone to heaven being a part of all this. Gratitude is an understatement. Everyday I wake up to the song of a thousand swallows outside my window (punctuated by a roosters long morning call) and think "I don't know what I did in a previous life to deserve this, but thank you!" 

Assortment of vegetables from the garden

 So what do I do here? Well, I work with Giovanni, the head grounds-keeper in maintaining the estates giant kitchen garden! We grow a variety of heirloom fruit trees and vegetables, many of which are wild such as Calendula and Fennel. It feels strange (in a good way) being back in the garden. I've had shake the dust off of my horticulture hat and reacquaint myself with a few Latin names and techniques like plant propagation. The weather has been dramatic lately with rain and hail cutting through the sunny skies at odd hours of the day so when I'm not in the garden, I'm either learning new Sicilian dishes with the cooking students or developing a sustainability framework for the business. 

But I'm not the only non-Italian resident here! I work a girl named Linda, a hip Brooklynite with Greek heritage who is Fabrizia's sous chef. She is a wonderful chef and has a cool blog called The Cheeky Chef  Check it out! She's worked on a lot of different food projects in New York and frequently rubs cutting boards with some of the best chefs in the city. Both Linda and Fabrizia are helping me quit my egregious egg eating habit, which when I left London, was nearing two dozen per week....eek...but gosh they're so good! Anyway, while my American sensibilities tell me that this is perfectly normal, I am reminded that in Sicily, where food is coveted, eggs belong in pastries. I had my first egg-ervention tonight just as dinner was coming to a close. Linda, who I had confided in and purged my deepest darkest egg secrets too, had ratted me out! I thought Greeks were loyal? Then again...she's a Greek from Brooklyn.... I jest....and I protest! They don't understand! I can't possibly eat a traditional Italian breakfast consisting of bread and marmalade (albeit freshly baked bread and best marmalade I've ever tasted) every day? I'm a man in the garden and a man OF the garden needs his eggs! Sigh.... Thus begins a new twelve step program at Case Vecchie where for the first time in a long time...eggs are off the menu - for now...

Alla Matriciana

Anyway, the mouth watering pasta dishes more then make up for the egg drought that I am about to go through. On my second day at Case Vecchie we made a pasta dish for lunch called alla matriciana, a traditional Italian tomato sauce originating from Amatrice, a small town in the mountainous province of Rieti. In in, fresh tomato sauce, pecorino cheese, chilli pepper and guanciale. Sooo good! You wouldn't expect it, but the chili pepper gives it a nice spicy kick!

We complimented our peppery pasta dish with a bottle of Lemuri 2010, one of Tasca D'Almerita's best red wines. The boldness of the grapes brought out the sharp pecorino undertones and blended perfectly with the aromatic of flavors the tomato sauce - Meraviglioso! If you see this bottle at a shop near you, buy it! You won't be disappointed. Actually, if you see any wine produced by the Tasca D'Almerita winery, treat yourself!

On a rainy Tuesday afternoon with the garden over-saturated, I was invited to join one of Fabrizia's cooking classes! Before our first lesson (my first cooking lesson!) we took a short tour of a local farm where the owners are in the business of making Ricotta Cheese! The owner, Filippo, is a fourth generation cheese man.

Filippo removing the Ricotta in the last stage

 

Filippo works long twelve hour days, often seven days per week. You can tell he takes great pride in what he does. Every movement is calculated. He explains (In Italian) which is translated back to the group, that before Ricotta can be called Ricotta, it goes through a series of stages where the goats milk is strained and skimmed several times. The word "Ricotta" means "re-cooked" because the whey which is separated from the tuma curds in the first stage are brought back to a boil and skimmed in the last. When asked how Filipe knows when the Ricotta is done cooking, he answers in typical Sicilian fashion "It's done when it's done...". He's a master. By sight and feel alone he knows when the Ricotta is ready to be lifted from the boiling cauldron.

And because we were there AS Filippo was finishing a fresh batch. We all shared in the warmth of freshly brewed ricotta cheese! Yum!

Fabrizia shows us how to make Arancini

Returning to Case Vecchie with our stomachs full and half asleep, we prepared for our afternoon cooking lesson with Fabrizia. On the menu - Arancini! Fabrizia taught us a new method for making risotto, a key ingredient in forming the arancini ball, which I described in a previous blog posting. We filled our little arancini balls with ragu, lightly battered and fried in olive oil from olives grown on the estate.  Lunch and dinner is always enjoyed at the schools family sized dinning table. Eating together and relishing in the fruits of our labor is paramount to Italian cooking.

For dinner Fabrizia showed us a dish I've always wanted to learn how to make - ravioli!

Using the fresh Ricotta from the farm, we forged two dozen handmade ravioli's. When you have the right equipment, they're not that difficult to make! Having access to a pasta press makes a huge difference. Rolling and stretching out long pieces of ravioli dough by hand without tearing it sounds impossible. Though, I suppose that's how it was done for centuries before modern day kitchen accessories were born. Ching, ching for technology!

This past week we've had Pasta with Cauliflower, Currants and Pine Nuts, Biscotti Regina, Biancomangiare / Blancmange and Pesce Spada Impanato to name just a few. Hats off to chef, Fabrizia and Linda! You two are mavericks.

Well that just about brings you up to speed on my first week at Case Vecchie. The food, people and experiences have been amazing! I feel so very fortunate to have been given this opportunity. I can't wait to see what next week brings. 

Unfortunately, I've come down with a mild case of the manflu, so I'm going to sign off. Buonanotte!

Anecdotes from Palermo

Palermo Special - GT Giunca!

* I am about four days behind on my blog! A lot has happened and I was just about to update and fill you in when my blog froze and roughly 40% of what I had written was not saved...I cannot possibly re-write it, but I will give you an abridged less witty, less thoughtful version.

Cruising the Streets

Thursday February 7th

What a relic?! Of what, I'm not exactly sure...Palermo is full of hidden treasures. Each narrow street has a story to tell, the anecdotes written on the faces of fifth generation shop owners struggling through a waning economy. On one particularly occasion while Cassandra and I were on route through the city we stumbled upon a road crowded with bicycles and retired Vespas - pieced together like soldier's in the battle field. Scarred, but not defeated! The photo on the left is of a Vespa with surgical dressings from a what looks like a motorcycle graveyard and car boot sale! (Garage sale to the Americans and venditori ambulanti if you're Italian) haha are those bike handle bars? I love it! Why not? It works...Most Vespa's on the road aren't as makeshift as this harley, but many of them are carefully crafted together with various parts and pieces. This makes a lot of sense. The Vespa is a life line for people, here and for many, buying a new one if theirs breaks down is not an option. They get creative! They figure out a way to make things work. Anything. I'm not sure people from Southern Italy get enough credit for their ingenuity. Some praise is definitely over due. 

Now, if I'd been told I was going to be given a tour on hog with dirt bike suspension, mag wheels and a pair of handle bars (with basket) from a Schwinn cruiser, I would have gladly said hell yes! but I wasn't. Instead, I was offered a joyride through the city on the next best thing, a forest green, 1974 TS 125 Vespa Piaggio. Original paint. Original windscreen. Original high pitched horn that tapers off the longer you hold it down. Original EVERYTHING! Sadly, I don't have a picture, because its owner, Manlio keeps it garaged and rightly so. This particular model, in such good condition is rare. As Manlio revs the two stroke engine he proudly recants a story about the time he was at a traffic light and a guy in the car next to him offered to buy it for €5,000 cash! Manlio explains that his Vespa is worth more then money. He's never had to service it. It's never broken down. They simply aren't made this way anymore. Like an old pair of shoes, it fits him perfectly. He'll never sell it. And before I can respond to his heartfelt memory, he revs the engine one last time, kicks his baby into first gear and we're off, taring down the Via Schuiti, instantly joining the Vespa brotherhood and the swarm at large! 

The only words that come to mind as Manlio navigates through hairpin corners and afternoon traffic is "Wahoo!". Now I get it! Now I understand. Yes the Vespa is practical, but it's also damn good fun!  And being a committed plants-man, and a good host, Manlio kindly gives me the guided tour of Palermo's most important fauna, half in Italian and half in Italian English. Manlio doesn't realize, but I only have one eye open, because  I'm half terrified and half pumped up on adrenaline! At one point, Manlio passionately identifies a 40 foot Palm Trachycarpus fortunei (The one thing that unites us in a common language we both understand are the Latin names of plants!) he saved and recently transplanted in-front of a historic palace, with one hand on the gas, one eye on the traffic. He's a multi-tasker. A man waiting for a bus whistles frantically, waiving his hands at us "Ciao, Manlio!!". This happens a lot to Manlio. He's seems to know everyone. Many "Ciao's!" are exchanged. And feeling like this might be a good opportunity to practice my Italiano, I reply too, "ciao bella!!". Ok, enough about vespas! On to the food.

Friday, February 8th (This unfortunately is where the blog failed to save....)

Friday was my last day in Palermo. To celebrate or mark the occasion, Cassandra and I decided it would be a day of eating and boy was it. We stuffed our faces with Arancini's "little oranges" in Italian. They're risotto balls filled with ragu. Divine...

 I had no idea that this is what an Arancini was supposed to look and taste like. Unbelievably delicious. The soft crunchy texture mixed with a savory ragu sauce. Evidence of heaven if I've ever seen and tasted it.

Heaven....

Crisscrossing the city, we saw the Palazzo dei Normanni a famous food market called Ballaro where you can find almost ANY Mediterranean ingredient. And it's fresh! I snapped a photo of some broccoli I stumbled upon. They were the size of small planets! Italy's valley's are so fertile. They can grow anything.

From Ballaro we cruised down a number of narrow roads, through a bit of construction and ended up at a small Pasticcerie called Pasticcerie Cappello where they make some of the best pastry in Sicily.

Because we were on a mission and needed to be mobile, I bought a bag of freshly made cookies. Cassandra and I were supposed to split them, but she had an English lesson to teach later on in the day so was very kind in letting me eat ALL of them! Which I happily did.

Dinner was definitely the crecendo of our day. Manlio insisted I try a traditional Sicilian fish recipe before leaving Palermo, so he made his world famous squid-ink pasta! It was one of the best pasta dishes I've ever had. It was also the messiest!

The photo above shows a few of the steps taken in preparing the ink-pasta. Palermo is such a wonderful city and precursor to what's evolved here at Case Veccie, where I will be a permanent resident for the next four months! 

Case Vecchie

 I've been at Case Vecchie for the last five days and I can't wait to tell you about what it is that I do here, share stories about the food (So much food!) the history, the wonderful people that help make the cooking school possible and the wine...my goodness, the Tasca D'Almerita wine...words don't do justice. It's euphoria in a bottle. I promise to have a full update ready by Saturday evening - ish!

Ciao for now!