The Sunny Kitchen - An Italian cook in Amsterdam

Food, wine and the city: sommelier course and eating at Segugio

As I already said, I'm very glad to be back in Amsterdam and at the same time I would have loved to stay a few more days in Tuscany. They're both two of my favourite places on earth so most of the times it's very difficult to make a choice of where to be and for how long but, hey, I see it more as a privilege than a burden. :)
 
In a sense I HAD to come back immediately after my cooking holiday at Tuscan agriturismo Il cantastorie because last Monday we started the second level of the sommelier course organized by AIS (the Italian Sommelier Association) at the Amsterdam Hilton and if there's one thing I definitely want to avoid is missing some of the lessons. I just LOVE this course.

Our teacher during these first two days was Andrea Gori, a young sommelier from Florence who's already reached great levels of fame and professionality in the relatively short period that he's been working in the wine business. Andrea is an enthousiastic teacher and has a very interesting wine blog called Vino da Burde plus a restaurant in Florence called Trattoria da Burde that I hope to be visiting soon.

When he told me that he blogs what he's been doing, seeing and tasting mostly on the very night he's been to an event or has visited a new restaurant I felt a bit ashamed of my extremely slow "blogging pattern" and at the same time very inspired to - at least try and - do the same. So thank you Andrea for getting me here in front of my laptop so late at night sorting pictures and writing stuff I'll need to re-read in the morning 'cause I'm too sleepy to make some sense. ;)

After the first day of the course, dinner at Segugio with some of my fellow students followed.
Segugio is one of the best (and best known) Italian restaurants in Amsterdam, situated in the Utrechsestraat, one of my favourite Amsterdam streets for its many restaurants and original shops. The menu had been chosen for us by Emanuele Birtolo, studying to become AIS sommelier and working at Segugio.

The great kitchen staff guided by chef Fabio Ardu spoiled us with a crostino of self-made focaccia with buffalo mozzarella and a quite interesting bell pepper sauce, red mullet fillet on a bed of sea aster with baby fennel a butter-lemon sauce, a great - and very, very, VERY al dente - risotto with saffron and testùn (the lovely cheese from the Piedmont region), some temptingly sweet ravioli filled with home made sausage and served with a fresh tomato sauce, a wonderfully tender and juicy veal fillet with steamed vegetables in Parmigiano sauce and, dulcis in fundo, a GREAT dessert with a creamy, surprising and nicely spiced homemade clove ice-cream served with a very sexy and luscious little chocolate fondant. Even the raspberry that came with it was absolutely perfect: plump, moist and sweeter than sweet. A fantastic combination with the rich chocolate of the fondant...

Everything was accompanied by the wines chosen in "joint-venture" by Andrea and Emanuele. We've had some very good stuff like a Vernaccia di San Gimignano Montenidoli Carato 2005, a Teroldego Rotaliano Foradori 2005, a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo S. Martino Rosso Marina Cvetic (don't remember the year) and a nice and smooth Recioto della Valpolicella classico Venturini 2005 that came with the dessert.

It's been a great evening made of good food, good wines, nice conversation and a very cheerful, intelligent and inspiring company. Thanks to Andrea for explaining us so many things about the wines without making it feel like a "serious" lesson but ore like a breathtaking adventure - something he manages to do every time he's teaching.

An evening to be repeated soon, I hope. Seeing the enthousiasm and the eagerness to learn, to share and to be together of my fellow students and myself I have no doubt we'll have many more evenings like this one. Can't wait for the next occasion!

 

Segugio also means private eye in Italian...






 

 

 

 

Back to my beloved Amsterdam

Yesterday evening I took the usual flight from Pisa to Amsterdam with my dog Mirtilla a.k.a. Blondie, Biondina, Sweet Stinky Winky and Little Miss Sunshine. Everything went fine except for the usual pantomime that I have to assist to every time we arrive from Italy with her big travel bench: the taxi drivers at Schiphol Airport refuse to take us to our destination because they're afraid the bench is going to scratch the leather chairs of their luxurious Mercedeses, that Mirtilla is going to do something inappropriate in the car, that their religious beliefs do not allow carrying dogs etc. etc. Shortly, just a load of bull dung, to put it mildly. Or should I say dog dung?

The funny thing (actually it's not funny at all, but anyway) is that several of them first ignore me or just shake their heads in disdaining denial when I ask them if I can step in the taxi, but after a few seconds they usually lower the car window and ask me "where are you going?", which in Amsterdam taxi jargon usually means: "if you're going far enough and I can squeeze you like a lemon I'm gonna take you there", and which also means "if you're not going at least to Arnhem or Groningen you can friggin' forget it".
At that point I refuse to say where I want to go and to continue the discussion any further, which sometimes makes them mad (wait a second bro, WHO should be mad here???) because "they just wanted to help" and "I'm an ungrateful bitch".
Well, fuck them, excusez mon Français. I refuse to play this unfair blackmailing game.
And I wish I wouldn't have to say this because I'm a firm believer in the multicultural society - hell, I'm living in a foreign country myself, how could I think differently! - yet I'm saying it from experience: it's usually a Dutch native taxi driver that takes us home and never ever someone from another culture. :(

I've seen the same thing happen several times at the Central Station in Amsterdam with foreign tourists arriving late at night, with no idea of where their hotels are and how to get there in any way different than by taxi, being refused a ride because they aren't going far enough.
Well, I think the city council should do something about it.

Anyway, enough complaining for today, I'm glad to be home and I've already gone back to the usual, busy food and wine freak life I'm used to. :)
I just LOVE Amsterdam, cab drivers or no cab drivers (by the way, my heartfelt thanks to the very nice gentleman who took us home yesterday).

 Music: Herman Emmink, "Tulpen uit Amsterdam" :)

A happy Miss M. :)

 

Mirtilla on Tuscan grass :)



Meanwhile I listen to this wonderful woman, another Miss M... (click)

Culinary holiday - how to make panzanella (Tuscan bread salad)

Panzanella is the famous bread salad belonging to the rich Tuscan culinary tradition.
It's usually made with stale bread and fresh vegetables from the garden (in the rural areas of Tuscany like the one in which I'm now it seems like everybody's got an "orto", a vegetable garden full of tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers...), good extra vergine olive oil and a few more ingredients.
The reason why we use preferably old bread is because 1) it does not get all soggy and soft when sprinkled with the vinegar/tomato juice mixture and 2) you usually have some at home. :) The Toscani are masters at cooking with only what's available in the pantry and in the fridge.

We've been eating it during the lesson on the Tuscan cuisine. Lovely and fresh with its vinegary pungency, it is perfect for a warm summer day lunch. It fills you without making you feel heavy . :)
Here's my recipe. Buon appetito!

Panzanella del Valdarno

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:   

                                   600 gr ripe tomatoes

                                   3 garlic cloves

                                   fresh basil

                                   ½ Tuscan bread, diced (preferably stale bread)

                                   ½ a big cucumber or 1 small one

                                   1 red bell pepper

                                   1 yellow bell pepper

                                   50 gr. capers

                                   80 gr. black olives, pitted

                                   4 anchovy fillets in oil

                                   olive oil extra vergine

                                   1 dl wine vinegar

                                   salt

                                   black pepper

 

Cut a little cross (X) on the bottom of the tomatoes  bring some water to the boil and dip the tomatoes in it for about 30 seconds. Take them out of the water and leave them to cool off a bit. Remove their skins, halve them and remove the seeds. Keep their juice, possibily without seeds, in a big bowl for the dressing. Cut the tomatoes in big chunks (about four parts per tomato). Here some very good step-to-step information on how to skin tomatoes.

 

Add the peeled and finely chopped garlic, half of the basil, the vinegar and 2 dl. of olive oil to the tomato juice. Season with salt and pepper.

 

Cut the bread in chunks (not too big ones, about 1,5- 2  cm. each), put bread and tomatoes in the bowl, add the dressing, mix everything well and leave to rest for at least 15 minutes. If the bread is really stale it could need more juice to get softer. In this case add more olive oil and vinegar (but pay attention not to use too much vinegar or the salad will be too sour). Keep on tasting just to make sure.

Wash and peel the cucumber. Cut it in half, remove the seeds with a spoon and cut in thin slices. Add it to the tomatoes and bread.

Wash the peppers, cut them in halves and remove the green top and the seeds. Cut the peppers in thin strips and add them to the salad.

Halve the anchovies and the olives and add them to the salad together with the capers. Mix everything well and season with salt if necessary.

Leave the salad in the fridge to marinate for at least a couple of hours.

Serve cold during summer or at room temperature the rest of the year after garnishing with basil leaves.

 

Culinary holiday - the Tuscan cuisine

Photos of yesterday's cooking lesson over the Tuscan cuisine.

For the cantuccini recipe click on the link

 

 

Relax on the terrace before the lesson begins...

 

 

Making panzanella

 

Panzanella (Tuscan bread salad)

 

 

 Home made cantuccini

 

 

Dipping in vin santo... :)

Culinary holiday - Pistoia, Tuscany

Photos of the cooking holiday in Tuscany, May 2009

  

 The market

 

Lunch at Enoteca Baldo Vino