Easter in Umbria means it’s time for Torta Di Pasqua, a rich holiday cheese bread unique to the region. Visiting chef Jennifer McIlvaine stopped by to bake a scrumptious batch in our laboratorio kitchen, and gave us her recipe. But because every Umbrian family has their own special way of making Torta Di Pasqua, we asked several of our friends for their recipes. Simone, Ernesto, and Marco and Chiara all chimed in, and each of their ways of making Torta Di Pasqua sound amazing. Try them out at home with cheese from our cheese counter and tell us which version you like best!
Ready for the oven, miniature-style!
Ernesto’s Torta Di Pasqua
5 eggs
1T of oil or 1T of pork fat (strutto)
2 cubes (50g) fresh yeast
5 pinches of salt
100g gruyere cut into cubes
100g parmigiano grated
Flour
Mix together eggs, oil, yeast salt and parmigiano. Add flour until you have a soft dough. Add gruyere cubes. Fill a buttered baking tin just under half full. Let rise for one hour. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180c.
Here’s what you’ll need to make you very own Torta di Pasqua!
Marco and Chiara’s Torta Di Pasqua
10 eggs
200 grams wet yeast
800 grams grated cheese (parmigiana, pecorino, swiss) – leave some in larger pieces
250 grams unsalted butter melted
30 grams salt
black pepper
10li grams sugar
Water, oil and flour as needed
Separate the eggs. Whip the egg whites into stiff peaks. Mix the yeast with sugar, warm water and tablespoon of flour and let sit.
Beat the egg yolks until creamy, add the melted butter, salt, pepper and cheese. Fold into the egg whites. Add yeast. Mix in flour, water and oil until you reach desired consistency.
Butter the baking molds. Split the dough into four pieces, roll into balls and place into each mold (filling approximately half full). Cover and let rise (sitting next to a pot of hot water) for 3 hours.
When the dough reaches the top of the mold bake in a 160c oven for 30 minutes. Raise the temperature to 180c and cook for additional 10 minutes. When the top starts to brown cover with aluminum.
It’s not fun unless you get a little messy.
Simone’s Torta Di Pasqua
2.2 lbs pizza dough
10 eggs
1 cup parmigiano
1 cup Romano
1 cup strong pecorino grated
Salt
Pepper
1 tbs yeast
1 cup butter
1 cup pork fat
1 cup olive oil
Work all the ingredients together. Add 00 flour until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Let sit for three hours and then knead it. Fill a buttered pan half full. Let sit again in the oven off with a pot of hot water (to maintain humidity). Wait until doubled. Bake for 2 hours at 325 degrees. Test with a tooth pick . When it’s ready, set upside down until cool.
Let us know how you Torta Di Pasqua turns out and send photos of your bake-a-thon to feedme@viaumbria.com. Best of luck!
Easter in Umbria means it's time for Torta Di Pasqua, a rich holiday cheese bread unique to the region. Visiting chef Jennifer McIlvaine stopped by ...
On Saturday, April 2nd, our sun-filled Galleria will open with an art exhibiti featuring the works of the celebrated Giuseppe Fioroni.
Fioroni lives and works in his native Perugia, the regional capital of Umbria. A self-taught artist, he discovered his lifelong passion for painting as a young man. He has described Umbria as “a land of calm, a beautiful land, a land full of vibrations.” The greennery of the region, he has said, “is especially unforgettable,” and his love for Umbria’s olive trees and vineyards, as well as the oil and wine they produce, are inseparable from the place itself. His art has brought him all over the world, but he continues to live in Umbria, the province where he was born.
As a child in Perugia, Fioroni grew up surrounded by Umbrian folklore, mysticism, and traditional music. These themes lie at the center of his art. His vivid oil and multimedia paintings, Fioroni explores fantasy, fable, and magic through maelstroms of color and emotion. Often, he marries traditional folk narratives with elements of reverie and daydream, demonstrating a fascination with the liminal space where esoteric culture and unbridled imagination intersect.
Giuseppe Fioroni, Il Medicante Orfano, 2003.
When he set out to paint full-time, he was president and CEO of a company with 1,200 employees. Although he had always been a skilled artist, Fioroni did not want to paint professionally until the age of 36. At first, he created small paintings, never with the intention to exhibit them. He simply wished to paint. He first exhibited work in 1978 at the San Severo Gallery in Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia. He has also branched out from painting to add drawing, sculpture, and ceramics to his repertoire, and has achieved international acclaim for his work.
In addition to his pursuit of the visual arts, Fioroni is also an adroit musician of several ancient instruments, including the barrel-organ and the bagpipe. At was 8 years old, he was already a solo accordionist, Across Perugia, his musical skill has earned him the nickname “Maestro.” Music is an integral part of Fioroni’s quest to unearth the deepest spirit of Umbria’s folk traditions, and his love for folk music can be observed in the stunning lyricism of his paintings, drawing, ceramics, and sculpture.
Giuseppe Fioroni, Gli Sposi, 2005.
Fioroni’s work has also been influenced by the mix of musicians who make the yearly pilgrimage from around the world to Perugia to participate and perform in the Umbria Jazz Festival. His gallery in Perugia often hosts artists who visit the city. In 2008, he was commissioned by the festival organizers to create the official Umbria Jazz poster for the celebration. Much of his work reflects the influence of jazz in his life. Often, Fioroni will alternate between painting and playing music. “Painting serves my body,” Fioroni has said, “and music serves my spirit.”
Over the past 30 years, Fioroni’s vivid, original body of work has won him adoration, acclaim, and international renown, and we at Via Umbria are very proud to showcase his work in our Galleria. Over the years, Bill and Suzy have cultivated a special relationship with Giuseppe, and are thrilled to introduce him and his remarkable work to you.
Join us in for celebrating the work of Giuseppe Fioroni at our Gallery Opening on April 2nd from 5:00 – 8:00 pm. The event is free to the public, and light refreshments will be served. We hope to see you there!
On Saturday, April 2nd, our sun-filled Galleria will open with an art exhibiti featuring the works of the celebrated Giuseppe Fioroni.
Fioroni lives and works in ...
Colombe cakes are a celebrated Easter treat throughout Italy, but did you know that Umbria has its own leavened Easter speciality? Today, chef Jennifer McIlvaine joined us to bake the region’s signature Easter bread, Torta Di Pasqua, before she returns home to Cannara. She gave us a little background on this delicious dish, as well as her own recipe. Here’s what she had to say about this beloved Torta.
Chef Jennifer McIlvaine kneading Torta di Pasqua dough.
Easter is the most important holiday in the Catholic church, so for Italians, Easter is the biggest holiday, even bigger than Christmas. In its earliest incarnation, Easter began as a Roman pagan tradition, which the Church turned into a Christian holiday to bring people into the fold.
During Carnevale, we make a lot of fried food because we have to use up all the fats, lard, and sugar in the house before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Easter. During Lent, tradition says you’re supposed to fast from sweets and meat. But then on Easter morning, we eat Torta Di Pasqua.
Easter is the only day of the year that we eat a salty breakfast. We’ve been fasting from heavy things, but Torta Di Pasqua, or Pizza Di Pasqua, has eggs, pork fat, and lots of cheeses. Eggs were considered very expensive, so anything that has a lot of eggs was a sign of richness. In fact, we eat the Torta di Pasqua with a hard boiled egg. Eggs are another old pagan tradition. They have always been a sign of spring, of rebirth and new beginnings. And that is why we have eggs for Easter.
Fresh organic eggs! These hens must have known Easter is right around the corner.
Another traditional dish we eat on Easter morning with Torta Di Pasqua are the first salumi of the year. Today, farmers makes salumi all year long because we have refrigerators. However before refrigerators, farmers would only butcher pigs in November, December, and January, the coldest months of the year. The first salumi–smaller cuts like salami and capocollo–would age for three months and be ready to eat by Easter. So the tradition is that you eat Torta Di Pasqua, a hard boiled egg, and a slice of salumi. We always have lamb at easter, so we also eat Coratella, a lamb innerd stew, for breakfast as well. In Cannara, our town, we drink a sweet wine called Vernaccia with breakfast as well.
As far as buying Torta Di Pasqua versus making your own, in my town the split is about 50/50. In Cannara, the baker opens up his oven to the people of the town, usually on Holy Thursday or Good Friday, and lets them bake their own bread. So many people makes the dough at home and bakes it in his big oven. The best Torta Di Pasqua is made in a wood-fired oven, so you’ll see people light up their ovens a few days before Easter and then everybody brings their dough over. It’s a community thing, so people cook them together. It’s nice.
Here is Jennifer’s recipe for Torta Di Pasqua, which she made fresh for us today. Snag a mini Torta or get your very own full-sized loaf before they’re gone!
Golden mini Tortas, now available at our counter!
Jennifer McIlvaine’s Pizza Di Pasqua
25 g brewer’s yeast
1 tsp sugar
100g warm water
300g ’00’ flour
500g ‘0’ flour + 100g for dusting
5-6 eggs
150g grated pecorino romano
150g grated parmigiano reggiano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
50g lard
5 Tbs e.v. olive oil
150g diced sharp provolone
150g diced swiss cheese
In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water. Slowly add the flours, little by little, alternating with the eggs. Mix well. Add the grated cheeses, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add the lard and olive oil. Knead well for about 10 minutes. Add the diced provolone & swiss cheese and knead until well mixed. Divide the dough into two equal parts and form into balls, folding the dough over itself. Place each ball into a deep baking tin that has been greased (with lard) and floured.
Let rise for about 2 hours or until dough has reached the top of the tin. Bake in the oven at 200°C for 20 minutes, then 180°C for another 40 minutes. The Tortas are ready when a test stick comes out clean.
Every family has its own Torta Di Pasqua recipe. Check back later for more variations!
This week, we hear from Deborah, who has been combing every nook and corner of Italy for fabulous new products to stock the Via Umbria shelves.
For the past 12 days, I’ve been traveling the roads of Italy on a 19-day food buying tour. I’ve seen more of Italy then I ever expected to, and we’ve already traveled from the far northern edges to the very tip of the heel in Puglia. In a few days, we head to Sicily.
My companions on this journey have been quite interesting, and I’ve travelled with friends old and new. Scott, our butcher, joined me for the Northern leg of the journey, and I think he’s tasted more chocolate that he’s eaten in his entire life. Rissa, who has been instrumental in establishing our food program, is here with me in the South.
This hillside view in Montepulciano, Tuscany is enough to make anybody jealous.
I’ve also travelled with the Chef and owner of a restaurant in Traverse City, a restaurant owner in Nashville and his videographer, a Lithuanian with several different food-related businesses in Vilnius, and a woman from Northern Michigan who is earning her sommelier certification and working at a wine shop. Conversations in the van and around the table have covered everything from hiring to “what do you suppose is in this dish?” to “have you tried this wine?” The opportunity to spend time with everyone has been invaluable, and we’ve had a great time getting to know each other. I hope we will stay in touch.
Sampling delicious spreads by Villa Reale.
From the start, Suzy and Bill have always emphasized the importance of the product. What’s in it, who made it, and ultimately, the quality. As a result, Via Umbria has shelves filled with amazing products made by people they’ve met personally, in facilities they have visited. That’s what I am doing on trip, and I’ve found it so humbling. For every producer we meet, this is very serious business. Careful thought and extreme care go into every detail of each visit and tasting. We have been feted in very small communities where restaurants and producers work together to find both creative and traditional ways of pairing their products with local, seasonal foods and wines.
Rissa suits up for a facility tour at Gluti Niente, a gluten-free pasta producer in Salerno.
Almost every company we’ve seen is family-run, from the five generations of nougat and chocolate experts at Barbero to the brother-and sister enterprise Gluti Niente, a high-quality gluten-free pasta business entering its second year. And although it isn’t family-owned, Latteria di Cameri, which makes amazing gorgonzola dolce, is controlled by a consortium of dairy farmers who collectively set the standards for the cheese production. The stories of all of these producers are an integral part of their products, and it’s amazing to see the attention they devote to every step of the process, from the initial idea to the final packaging.
I can’t wait to share photos of the rest of my trip with you! Hopefully when you see them, you’ll feel a bit of what I do every time I step out of the van.
Three o’ clock is a blissful hour at Via Umbria. Late afternoon sun streams through the storefront windows, bathing the shelves in soft, golden light. Since I started writing for Via Umbria last month, this has always been my favorite time to pop downstairs and taste the scrumptious samples scattered throughout the shop: perhaps a morsel of mostaccioili by the register, or a cheddar crumble at the cheese counter. But yesterday, tantalizing aromas of bacon and freshly grated parmesan wafted from the cafe, and I had a hunch that an even greater snack lay in store.
Ernesto Parziani, chef and owner of the celebrated Umbrian restaurant Perbacco, was in the midst of a mouth-watering pasta and sauce cooking demonstration. With his week-long visit drawing to a close, I knew that this was an opportunity not to be missed.
Rolling pin in hand, Ernesto smiled and waved me over to his station, which was scattered with eggs, flour, parmesan wedges, and an array of pasta-making instruments. Water boiled next to a sizzling pan of bacon on a portable stovetop. I trotted over as Ernesto began to press a small, yellow mound of dough into the table.
I thought of the trays of delicate, ribbed tubes of Garganelli pasta that participants fashioned in his cooking class on Sunday, and wondered what was in store for this dough.
“I like to teach fresh pasta,” Ernesto told me as he rolled the mound of dough into a circle the size of a tortilla. “But you must find right consistency. If it’s too hard, it is difficult to roll. If it’s too soft, it sticks to everything.” He began to dust the dough with fine, white flour.
“My favorite dish to make is pasta. For us, in Italy, it’s like bread,” he explained, We eat it all the time, everywhere, with vegetables, with meat sauce, with fish, with eggs.” I gulped, mouth watering at the thought of such a world. Ernesto began pressing the dough into the taut steel strings of a chitarra, a guitar-like cooking instrument that Ernesto used to slice the flat yellow circle of dough into delicate strands of pasta before my eyes.
This dough will become spaghetti a la chitarra.
I hovered over him in awe. “How did you learn to do this?” I asked.
“It was obvious,” he shrugged. Of course. I should have known.
“When you see your mother, your grandmother make pasta three days a week, it is obvious,” Ernesto smiled. I glanced down again at the spread of ingredients, and wondered aloud about the presence of the eggs. Wasn’t pasta just … water and flour?
“In Umbria,” Ernesto explained, “we used to make pasta without eggs. Just flour and water, or perhaps one egg white without the yolk. It’s called Strangozzi.” Ernesto pried a strand of pasta from the chittara and brought it to his neck, feigning strangulation. “We eat it simply, at home, with tomato sauce.”
“You see,” he continued, “in Umbria, we started to add eggs when we began selling eggs to make money. But in the North of Italy, they have always used a lot of eggs. For example, where my wife comes from–Parma, Bologna, places in the region of Emilia-Romagna–they use a lot of yolks … and this.” Ernesto gestured towards a large bowl of white flour.
“But in the South, like Sicily, near North Africa, they make dry pasta, with semolina.” He pointed to a smaller dish of tan, coarse flour. “They make pasta, but they make couscous too. Whereas in the North, they make pasta, but also they use corn flour to make polenta.” Ernesto arranged his raw pasta into a nest on the table.
This pasta-making instrument is called a “chitarra” (Italian for guitar) because of its strings.
“It’s too much for one person,” he sighed.
“I could eat it all!” I exclaimed.
Ernesto shook his head. “No. Too much for one person.”
As he dropped the pasta into the boiling pot, I remembered that in Italy, pasta is just one of many courses in a meal. But before I could finish that thought, Ernesto had tossed the pasta into a pan, where he speedily sautéed it in bacon and carbonara. Suddenly, a masterpiece lay before me. My heart fluttered–even if it was “too much for one person,” no one else was there to eat it with me! But as Ernesto grated a pile of fresh parmesan onto his creation, I heard Bill’s voice ring out from across the cafe.
“We got here just in time!” he called to us, an old friend following just behind him. I sighed as Ernesto divided the spaghetti onto four plates. My glutenous, gluttonous dreams had been dashed, but that ceased to matter as soon as I took the first bite. It was absolute heaven, and once I’d cleaned my plate, I realized that Ernesto had been right. Any more than that would have been too much. I thanked him heartily, and walked back to my desk feeling sated, but not gorged. And for that, I was grateful.
Last month we inaugurated an entertaining evening activity that we call our “Spaghetti (and Meatballs) Western” dinner-and-a-movie series. Held in our café, typically on the third Tuesday of each month, we screen a classic Italian spaghetti western on a big screen and serve a buffet dinner of fresh pasta with homemade meatballs and tomato sauce. Being an Italian festa, wine flows freely. We think it is a great way to escape and disconnect and enjoy yourself for an evening and we invite you to join us.
Last month’s inaugural film was A Fistful of Dollars (“Per un Pugno di Dollari”), Sergio Leone’s classic that is widely credited with launching this unique genre of filmmaking. Seeking to revive the dying American Western, Leone, a fan of American westerns, “borrowed” a story from Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurasawa, fusing elements from Dashiell Hammet’s Red Harvest and Venetian playwright/librettist Carlo Goldoni. The film, which launched the big screen career of Clint Eastwood, is pure Leone, though. Filmed in Spain and Rome’s Cinecitta studio, the incredibly violent, rough and politically incorrect film nonetheless sings. Literally. Many critics see Leone’s work as transforming the American “horse opera,” as Westerns were sometimes called, into Italian opera. Indeed, the soundtrack, written by Ennio Morricone, while sounding like anything but opera, with its whistles, gunshots and other unusual sound effects (one critic at the time described the music as “a rattlesnake in a drum kit”), was written for the most part before filming began, with Leone directing the action to fit to the music, rather than vice versa.
In order to broaden their appeal to the American market, the first spaghetti westerns were released in America in “Americanized” versions. Leone’s name appeared as director Bob Robertson and Morricone as Dan Savio. Later works in the “Dollars Trilogy” (For a Few Dollars More – “Per Qualche Dollar in Piu” and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly –“il buono, il brutto, il cattivo“) were released under the director’s real name, thus bringing out of the shadows the Italian angle of the spaghetti western.
While we will be showing the other films in the “Dollars Trilogy” on future Spaghetti (and Meatballs) Western nights, this month we turn our attention to a later representative of the genre. Released in 1970 (the “Dollars” trilogy premiered in 1964, 1965 and 1966) our next film – They Call Me Trinity (“Lo Chiamavano Trinita”) represents an attempt to refresh the genre, which by the 1970’s was beginning to lose steam. Enter Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer, an Italian acting duo (Hill’s real name is Mario Giroti) who starred in a number of spaghetti westerns and other action films and who became two of the most famous international film stars of their era. Their “Trinity” series (They Call Me Trinity and Trinity is Still My Name) are perhaps the duo’s most famous, and are considered more comedic and lighthearted than the original wave of westerns. Hill also received acclaim in My Name is Nobody, another spaghetti western that he stars in opposite Henry Fonda. Hill is still popular today, playing Don Matteo, a crime fighting Catholic priest in a popular Italian television series of the same name since 2000. That series, set in Umbria afforded Suzy and me the opportunity to meet Terrence Hill, as a scene from Don Matteo was being filmed outside our friend Simone’s restaurant in Bevagna one Saturday afternoon several years ago. Taking a break from the filming, Hill joined us at our table on Simone’s terrace, enjoying a bite to eat as he told us of his love for the Boston Red Sox (he was wearing a Sox cap to protect him from the sun, which looked great in his priest’s robes!).
We invite you to join us this Tuesday for a screening of My Name is Trinity and to enjoy a delicious buffet spaghetti dinner, complete with salad and garlic bread, in our café. Dinner is served at 7:30 and the film will screen at 7:45. The cost is $25 per person and includes wine.
And if you can’t make it this Tuesday (or even if you can), please join us Tuesday, April 19 for a screening of For a Few Dollars More, the second of the “Dollars” trilogy, also starring Clint Eastwood and featuring a brilliant performance by Lee Van Cleef. And be sure to visit our events calendar to view our upcoming Spaghetti (and Meatballs) Westerns. We look forward to seeing you and spending a thoroughly enjoyable evening with you.
Last month we inaugurated an entertaining evening activity that we call our “Spaghetti (and Meatballs) Western” dinner-and-a-movie series. Held in our café, ...
To prepare for tomorrow’s Montefalco Rosso wine tasting class with visiting Italian sommelier Ombretta Uboldi, we met up with Sommelier and Chef Vickie Reh in the Via Umbria enoteca to learn about the Wednesday night wine line up. Here’s what Vickie had to say about what you’ll be tasting:
In the town of Montefalco in Umbria, they produce a Montefalco Rosso and a Sagrantino. One is not a lesser version of the other. Sagrantino is simply 100% Sagrantino, and the Montefalco Rosso is primarily a Sangiovese. Tomorrow, we’re featuring a selection of Montefalco Rosso wines.
2011 Pardi Montefalco Rosso
It’s nice, I think, because the Sagrantino is a super deep, dark, extracted wine, and you can’t have something deep, dark, extracted, and tannic with every food. Sometimes you need a lighter wine, and the Montefalco is a lighter wine. It’s still by no means thin, but it’s something that can go with light pork dishes, chicken, vegetarian dishes, and cheese.
2012 Tabarrini Montefalco Rosso
So that’s where we are tomorrow. Ombretta is going to show you wines from 4 different producers: Pardi, Tabarrini, Plani Arche, and Sololoro. Most of them are 70% Sangiovese, 15% Sagrantino, and then each one has a different combination of the last 15%. The Pardi is probably the lightest, and the Sololoro is probably the deepest and darkest. The Tabarrini and Plani Arche are more in the middle, even though they are on the darker side.
2012 Plani Arche Montefalco Rosso
Two are organic, and two are sustainably farmed but not “certified organic.” To a certain extent, you have the same grapes in all of them, but some are fuller, some are lighter, some have different oak treatments, or different soil types and sites. Some are deeper and some are lighter. You really have to taste them side by side to get it.
2012 Sololoro Montefalco Rosso
This is just the tip of the iceberg, because we think the best way to learn about these unique wines is to taste them for yourself. That’s why we’re offering several unique opportunities to learn about Umbrian wines in March with Umbrian food and wine experts Ombretta and Ernesto: three interactive wine classes and three dinners featuring Umbrian dishes perfectly paired with the wine’s you’ll learn about. Join us for a class, a dinner, or a combination of both for the ultimate Umbrian wine experience!
Acclaimed chef Jennifer McIlvaine has lead a whirlwind of dinners and cooking classes this week at Via Umbria as part of ourTerre Margaritelli Takeover. Today, we sat down to chat about camp grills, eno-gastronomic tours, and her transcontinental culinary journey.
How did you get your start as a chef?
Like most people, I started out working in French-based restaurants. Eventually, I worked at an Italian restaurant in Seattle, and then opened a street food business called Bruschettina. This was way before all of the food trucks. I was one of the first people doing street food in Seattle.
What made you decide to do that?
People would go to these hip, chic farmer’s markets all over Seattle to buy organic produce, but there was nothing to eat at the markets except hotdogs and crepes. So I had this idea to cook at farmer’s markets. I would get vegetables from the farmers, bread from the organic bread guys, and then I’d make toppings. I had camp grills, so I would toast the bread and then list the toppings on a little chalkboard saying where I got all the ingredients. It was huge, actually.
Jennifer working the camp grills.
How did you get from Seattle to Italy?
While I was doing Bruschettina, I won an internship through the women’s chef association to work on an agriturismo in Tuscany. While I was there I would cook private dinners, which is how I met my husband, Federico. Like any good Umbrian, he was like, “No, you can’t be in Tuscany! Come to Umbria!” So on the weekend I would visit him and meet various producers. Then he worked a lot in Seattle after I went back, and eventually we moved to Umbria.
This way to an Umbrian agriturismo !
And that’s when you started working at Il Bacco Felice in Foglino.
Right. I worked for a very well-known chef Salvatore Denaro. It was a crazy learning experience. I had to jump into the Italian way of cooking, which is completely different. Half the time, Salvatore would lay out ingredients and I just had to magically know what to do with them. And I didn’t know! I had no idea. And I didn’t speak the language. But that’s also where I learned how to work a fire grill. We don’t have those in the States unless you’re camping! It was great. After working there on and off for about a year, I opened up my own restaurant, Trattoria Basiliko.
What was that like?
My partner was a woman who had a restaurant around the corner in Foglino. I was in the kitchen and she was in the front of the house. We ran that for about two years. but we both got pregnant at about the same time, so that was the end of that.
How did you get into leading eno-gastronomic tours?
It started very organically. About a year after my daughter was born, somebody was visiting and asked me to to take them to a farm, because when I had my restaurant I was one of the few people who actually went to the farms to buy the meat and produce. Then somebody else asked me to do a cooking class. It started slowly, through word of mouth, and just kind of took off. When people rent villas, especially Bill and Suzy’shouse, I cook for them and teach cooking classes. I also do food and wine tours of the area. Lots of cycling, hiking, horseback riding. It’s active stuff, but there’s always food and wine involved. So maybe after cycling, there’s a picnic lunch in the middle of the valley, or after horseback riding we have lunch at Federico’s winery.
The perfect spot for a late lunch.
How do you like to cook at home?
We live in the center of an old medieval town, so we have a fireplace in the middle of our kitchen. In the winter, it’s going all the time. I do a lot of cooking on the fireplace … meat, fish … I’ve done pasta over the fire. It’s not easy, but it’s great if you have time.
Learn the tricks of the trade from Jennifer before she leaves town at our Hands On Pizza Partythis Sunday! And if you’d like to meet her in Umbria, you’re always welcome to stay at the Via Umbria villa.
Summertime torta al testo stuffed with mozzarella, arugula, garden lettuce, and garden tomatoes
For all of the truffles, wine tours, and olive oil slurping that occurs during a food and wine tour, there is also a simpler side of Umbrian cuisine. While we love the gourmet, there is one Umbrian specialty that stuns with its straightforward deliciousness. Let me introduce you to the torta al testo.
A lightly leavened bread made on a huge flat round stone in a fire, this bread is classically Umbrian, and specifically from Perugia. Like a Christmas cake made once a year, this bread is made even more delicious by the fact that you essentially must be in Umbria to eat it.
Somewhat like a pita, the torta can be stuffed with any number of grilled meats and veggies. Customizing your own is part of the fun, though as Italians are creatures of habit, most people have their favorite combination they stick to. Once you find the best, why change?
When I was taken to one of the more famous torta al testo restaurants by a local winemaker back in August, I was halfway through my piece when I fully registered how simple my torta was. Comprised of only eggplant, mozzarella, and olive oil, it was easily one of the best sandwiches I have ever eaten. Paired with a Birra Perugia golden ale, it was a lunch from heaven.
Umbrian street food at its most essential, Via Umbria just wouldn’t be complete with out it. Which is why we are very excited to announce that when we re-open, we will be offering the official sandwich bread of Umbria in Georgetown.
Correct eating technique
We can’t wait to savor the bites straight out of Umbria with you in the Fall!
Annalisa Torzilli is the reason we are in this business. Well not literally, but the charming owner of il Molino farm just outside the village of Montefiascone is emblematic of all the things we love about being in the business of discovering, savoring and sharing experiences. She’s got a great smile, too.
We have been customers of il Molino products for a number of years, having been introduced to them by our friend and supplier Andrea Tosolini who raved about and vouched for the quality and authenticity of il Molino’s organic olive oils, olive oil-based cosmetics, sauces, condiments, pastas and more. So this year at the Fancy Food Show in New York, Suzy decided to take the opportunity to meet Annalisa, the owner-operator of il Molino and as fate would have it, Andrea happened to wander by as she approached the il Molino stand, to make a proper introduction. It was love at first sight. Suzy returned to the hotel that day, beaming, and carrying on about how we were going to visit il Molino on our Food and Wine Experience tour. Fate often smiles on us like this and we are grateful.
Montefiascone is not exactly close to our farmhouse, but our tour guests seemed as excited as we were when we boarded Simone’s taxi for the nearly two hour drive from Umbria to Lazio. Along the way the scenery changed and transformed from verdant wild hills to rolling, rocky terrain. But the villages that dotted the countryside, perched on impossibly steep craggy hilltops seemed to spring from the same source, each speaking of a long unbroken chain of history and housing cultures and habits as old as the hills themselves. Montefiascone itself is such a walled hilltown, with its enormous duomo squeezed over to one end of town so massive that it feels like the whole place may tip up and slide off the hill. One could say that it is a place of legend, the home of Est! Est! Est! white wine that those legends tell us was the exuberant exclamation of a papal emissary from long ago sent out to find good wine for the Pope on his journey from Rome to Orvieto, signaling his discoveries by posting a note on the doors of taverns with good wine saying ‘est’ (here it is). No offense intended to the emissary, but he should have tried our trebbiano spoletino in Umbria. The Pope would have found the detour completely worthwhile.
Our visit with Annalisa at both il Molino and the nearby Fornovecchino mill lasted the whole day, and started with a visit to the olive mill, where Annalisa was already harvesting and producing new oil. The excitement of seeing fresh, ripe olives being stripped from the tree, the acrid smell of polyphenols that burn your throat as the olives are being crushed into paste, and the glorious stream of almost phosphorescent green oil that trickles out of the stainless steel spigot, bound for a bottle or can, never gets old. And in this setting of over three hundred hectares of beautiful, natural, organic farmland, lovingly maintained by Annalisa and her caring staff it meant even more.
Lunch was served as though we had been friends forever, which after an hour in her company is how we all felt. There we discovered and savored pasta made from the farm’s farro and senatore cappelli grains, both ancient grains that have been rediscovered and popularized (for a reason) of late. There was much discussion over whether farro and spelt were the same thing (it’s complicated) and the difference between and relative advantages and disadvantages of grano duro (the hard wheat family that senatore cappelli belongs to) versus grano tenero. There was no arguing, however, that both pastas are something different than your ordinary pasta, a distinct cut above in flavor, mouthfeel and satisfaction. (My favorite is the senatore cappelli and I am on a mission to spread the word.)
It tastes even better than it looks!
After lunch and a stroll around the beautifully maintained property we were off to Fornovecchino, the nearby organic mill where Annalisa’s (and other local organic farmers’) grain is transformed into flour and then into bread, pasta and other finished products. As we arrived, some local customers were negotiating the purchase of several huge sacks of different flours and after they left Annalisa introduced us to the owners who took us on a tour of the mill, hustling us into the inner sanctum where we were shown how the grains are milled into finer or coarser flour. An exposition of beans and legumes, most of them tracing their roots (literally) to ancient forebears and unique to small, particular areas ensued, with our new Chef in residence, Vickie Reh, soaking up this information more readily than the ceci nero would soak up water that evening.
Saying our goodbyes to Claudio and Romina and to Annalisa, laden with purchases and gifts from both, we boarded Simone’s taxi, for the long drive home. Home to Umbria, having spent the day in Lazio. A day that enabled us not just to understand the connection between man and la terra but to experience and feel it. And that, after all, is the reason we are in this business.
We’re back in Umbria for our annual fall pilgrimage, our fall Food and Wine tour. This year Suzy and I are hosting two small groups over two week long itineraries, which we plan to punctuate with a brief side trip to Piemonte (for the White Truffle Festival) before returning home to DC. We have the small matter of reopening Via Umbria to attend to back home.
Returning to Umbria, particularly during the fall harvest, is always a homecoming of sorts for us, summoning up a host of emotions and memories. It is a special time of year, with the orange and rust hues of the vineyards, each one in a different state of harvest, combined with the early evenfall to create a sense of quiet and peacefulness tinged with just a po’ di malincholia.
We come to Umbria this year as we have for the past eight, on a mission to offer our Food and Wine tour guests an opportunity to discover with us the Umbria we have come to know and love. A land where the earth gives forth an incredibly rich bounty, coaxed lovingly from nature by men and women who respect nature by taking what it has to offer and leaving it better off than they found it.
But we come this year, too, with eyes even wider open than normal, seeking to put our finger on those elusive sights, sounds and smells that when combined together shout out “benvenuto in Italia.” To identify those iconic details that define Italy so we can bottle them up and bring the back home with us, spraying them into the air on Wisconsin Avenue so that our customers, breathing deeply of them will know what it is to experience Italy.
Our Food and Wine tour this year is not just an exercise in loving the here and now, it is a mission to capture and bring home the essence of Italy so we can share it. For nearly two decades we have been bringing back pieces of Italy to share with our customers. This fall we are tasked with bringing back the nature of Italy itself.
How better to understand Italy than by experiencing the bounty of its land and its people. And so we started our trip, a group of eight, by exploring the Etruscan town of Todi and the Umbrian settlement of Gubbio. By delighting in the recounting of the history of these places by a guide with palpable pride in her land. By lingering over meals of local meats and cheeses, regional pastas and wines that come from here and can only come from here. By getting to know Simone, our driver, and each other.
What better way of exploring what makes Italy Italy and what makes Umbria Umbria than to arrive at the farmhouse on our first day and to discover Ernesto Parziani, the chef and owner of our favorite local restaurant Perbacco, in the kitchen of our farmhouse with his daughter, preparing the first night’s dinner. To spend time in the kitchen with Ernesto and Agata rolling balls of baccala, pureeing broccoli for gnocchi alla romana, of discussing the menu, discussing family, discussing nothing at all.
What better way of enjoying our first evening in Italy than by sitting down over this home cooked feast and culinary history lesson with the new friends we have made, our travel companions for this week, along with Ernesto and his wife Simona. To drink wines that our friends the Pardis have labored over just a dozen miles from here. To talk and eat and laugh and relax deep into the night long after most mortals would have succumbed to jet lag.
Suzy and I have long maintained how difficult it is to neatly and cleanly and succinctly define Italy and the Italian experience. There simply is no one thing that says it all, no Tower of Pisa, no fettuccine alfredo, no Madonna col bambino that one can point to and say, “ecco qua, Italia!” Yet we keep coming back, time after time, and millions of visitors keep making the pilgrimage to the boot each year for that something special that speaks to them.
In the end, maybe it is just simply its incredible bounty that defines Italy, that makes Italy Italy. Perhaps that is the magic potion Suzy and I are searching for. Italy itself didn’t even exist a little more than 150 years ago, a crazy quilt of city-states, kingdoms, alliances and fiefdoms then and even now resembles less a well ordered English country garden and more the wild, natural orto that we find when we step out back, behind our farmhouse kitchen.
After our first night back in Umbria, following a day of discovery, of enjoyment, of relaxing and of peace and contentment, perhaps we are inching closer to understanding the secret that is Italy. Perhaps it is not one thing that makes Italy Italy, perhaps it is the sweep, the bounty of this place. But those things – the food, the wine, the landscape, the history, the art, the lyrical language, crazy drivers in tiny cars and museum-like cities – they are not the answer themselves. They are the things that satisfy the cravings that Suzy has. That I have. That our tour guests have. That Ernesto and Simona have. Each craving personal, each craving as deep as the soul and each craving desperately in search of satisfaction. Put simply, Italy feeds what you hunger for.
Italy, with its richness and its willingness to let you live in the here and now, scratches the itch, the longing in our souls for connection and meaning. And as far as we have figured it out, it does it better than any other place on earth.
Perhaps that is the secret of Italy, the ingredient we can bottle up and bring back to Georgetown with us. Suzy and I certainly look forward to testing this hypothesis for the next three weeks.
Elsa Bruno, a Via Umbria employee, recently spent two weeks in Umbria at La Fattoria del Gelso. Here are some of her thoughts from the time spent in Italy.
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Meals in Umbria were always a treat. As anyone who has visited Italy can tell you, eating is a central activity. But some of the most memorable meals were not made in a restaurant, but prepared from the Farmhouse’s very backyard.
Unlike a hotel, or traditional rental, La Fattoria del Gelsohas a working kitchen garden for use by the guests.
The row of tomatoes in the garden
Building a meal around what you have physically growing next to you feels so refreshing. The task of thinking of a dinner is not exhausting when you have a finite amount of fresh materials. After a long day of activity, the question “what will we have for dinner?” is met by a glance out the back door. What do we have?
Many times that question was met with the answer of tomatoes, lettuce, eggplant, and tons of figs. Enter leafy salads topped with local olive oil, fried eggplant tucked into pasta, tomatoes drizzled with oil and tossed with mozzarella, and figs paired with sharp local pecorino cheese. No matter how many times we had a combination of those dishes, we kept coming back for more.
A glass of local wine (from a vineyard visited that afternoon) was always poured as we assembled the ingredients from the garden and set to work on our dinner preparation. Soon we were walking out to the pool with our hand painted ceramics and wine glasses, to eat a simple yet delectable meal as the sun set.
Tomatoes and basil from the garden with mozzarella, lettuce from the garden with artichokes and with beans, fried eggplant from the garden.
Being able to cook and eat like a local is a fun part of any vacation. But claiming to have a huge garden entirely at your disposal while vacationing? Now that’s La Fattoria del Gelso.
The dates for 2016 are now open. I would suggest you book a trip of your own, if not just to see what’s in season in the garden.
