Thursday, March 22, 2012

An Easter Recipe

I've been back in Italy now for about a week and a half, and my Italian has just recovered from its winter hibernation. Right now, I'm at a farm in a valley about halfway between the Alps and the sea, southwest of Milan. At the beginning of April, I'll be moving on to my last WWOOFing stop this side of the Atlantic, a small dairy farm and cheesemaker at the foot of the alps northwest of Milan. Should be a great way to end this part of my adventure.




Meanwhile, between planting potatoes, pulling up last year's dead vegetable plants, pruning, shelling hazelnuts and putting together an Ikea kitchen, I've been hard at work on my book! At the rate I'm going, I'll just have to format all of this material into something resembling a book when I get home.




I want to share a recipe I found in a cookbook I've been lugging around since my December visit to Florence. It's a small cookbook that follows the lore of tradition Florentine cooking through the seasons, month by month. April includes some traditional Easter recipes, including this one:

Panettone di Pasqua / Easter Bread

500g di farina bianca / 17.6 oz white flour
200g di uvetta / 7 oz raisins
2 uova / 2 eggs
30g di lievito di birra / 1 oz yeast
un bicchierino di marsala / a small glass of Marsala
una tazza di latte / a cup of milk
75g di zucchero / 2.6 oz sugar
Scorza grattugiata di limone / grated lemon zest

-Impastare tutti gli ingredienti, a parte l'uvetta, e lasciare riposare una notte coprendo con un canovaccio.
- Make a dough with all of the ingredients except the raisins and let sit overnight covered by a cloth.
-La mattina impastare di nuovo e aggiungere l'uvetta precedentemente messa a mollo in acqua tiepida.
-In the morning, knead again and add the raisins, previously softened in tepid water.
-Impastare un'ultima volta, e infornare a 160 gradi per mezz'ora.
-Knead one last time, and bake in the oven at 320* F for half an hour.

Enjoy! Happy Spring!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Morsasco, Alessandria, Piemonte, Italia

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