a good little recipe and a very bad back

I am laid up, laid out, down for the count with a really bad back spasm. So... needless to say I have not been cooking much, or doing much of anything really, and that has been the hardest part. But these things happen and when you're used to a very active lifestyle, it's hard to lay flat on your back for days.

On the other hand, I have been getting a lot of reading done. I am reading Heat, by Bill Buford; Michael Ruhlman's The Soul of a Chef; In Defense of Food by M. Pollan; The Best of the Barefoot Farmer; and trying to learn how to knit with Stitch and Bitch by Debbie Stoller. All of them are keeping me entertained.

But here is a little something that I made before I got sick. Nothing great, but I now think it's very easy to make your own salsa rather than buying the kind in a jar, which is never that good anyway. I love it when I make little discoveries like that. And to go along with it and the tortilla chips, our new summer favorite, up there with Campari-soda: The Gordon's cup.

For the tomatillo salsa I used a recipe found in A. Waters' The Art of Simple Food (seems to be my go-to cookbook these days). It was easy.



Peel a lb of tomatillos and cook them in boiling, salted water for 5-6 minutes until soft. In a processor or blender throw in 3 cloves of garlic, some other kinds of hot peppers like serrano or jalapeno, some salt, a cup of cilantro, and a bit of the cooking liquid from the tomatillos. Pulse that, then add the tomatillos and pulse again. It should be chunky and loose at the same time. The flavors meld and get better (and hotter) once it cools or after being refrigerated.



Gordon's Cup (this recipe is from bon appetit a while back and the inspiration to make it was from a recent Orangette post).



Take some limes, a few slices of peeled cucumber, 2 T simple syrup and muddle in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Then add about 1/2 c of your favorite gin (I've been using Juniper Organic Gin --really nice and clean tasting), some ice cubes and shake well. Strain over ice cubes and serve with fresh mint or a slice of lime. So good with chips and tomatillo salsa on a summer afternoon.

Hope to be back on track soon!

Aperitivo hour

It is nearing that time of year when the days get longer and the weather warmer, and the time between work and dinner seems to stretch out, offering up an array of fun things to do that we don't do in winter. Like hanging out on the porch sipping a cocktail with our neighbors, or just the two of us in the backyard, for our little "aperitivo."

I picked up the habit in Italy about the same time I picked up my coffee addiction. No other culture understands the importance of the 'before dinner hour' quite like the Italians do (except for maybe the French, but since I think Italians do everything better, I am going to be partial here). And for Italians, the 'aperitivo' it is a ritual they will not be denied --as ingrained in their social consciousness as the morning 'cappuccino al bar.' Both rituals involve something inherently social, and something to look forward to each day as if that day was the last one you could enjoy it. But then you get to wake up the next day and have your coffee standing at your favorite bar with your favorite barista, and on the way home from work, stop by another favorite bar for your aperitivo before going home to dinner.

Of course, now that I think of it, it's kind of a male ritual, since someone has to be home preparing dinner between 7-8pm, as all Italians eat their dinner at the same time each day, and we all know who that 'someone' is. But of course that is changing too, as fewer people are living traditional lifestyles with strictly codified gender roles anymore. Most aren't even marrying at all, and Italy has the lowest birthrate in all of Europe. So more and more women are taking up the aperitivo habit and drinking one or two right alongside their male counterparts.

Sometimes the drink of choice is a glass of wine, or a beer, and every city has their own unique 'aperitivo' too, but often they drink these fun little brightly colored, distinctively Italian "bitters" like my personal favorite, Campari. It is bright red and has a spicy flavor with an underlying trace of bitter orange.



As I read in a fantastic little book called simply 'aperitif', by Georgeanne Brennan:

"It is created by macerating herbs in water and alcohol to create an infusion that is then blended with more alcohol and sugar to create the final drink."

Created in Milan in the 1860s by a bartender named Gaspare Campari, it is now sold worldwide and figures in many, many drinks such as the Negroni or the Americano (with gin, vermouth and bitters) but mostly it's served over ice, with a splash of soda and a silce of orange. This is how I like it.



Together with a pre-dinner drink whose purpose is to stimulate the appetite, Italians also would never drink alcohol without nibbling on somthing, so a bar will have little "stuzzichini" set out: little plates of nuts or fried things, olives, cheese or salumi. Just a little something to whet the appetite even more and make the drink go down smoothly.

Everyone who has lived with me or near me has gotten into the 'aperitivo' hour. It's addictive. Even my man, who doesn't even like to drink that much, is hooked on Campari in the summer. In fact, "aperitivo' is one of the only Italian words he knows. And really, it's about the most important one to know anyway. That, and "motorino," my other little fixation.

Campari and soda

3 or 4 ice cubes
2 ounces Campari
2 ounces of soda water, chilled
thin slices of orange or orange peel

Put the ice cubes in a chilled glass and pour the Campari over them. Pour in the soda water and stir. Add the orange garnish if desired. Serve--and enjoy-- at once!