upon further investigation...

I found some awesome videos on youtube when I was researching the elusive cucuzza/googootz.

Like this one:


Also this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXB6aZuK6pM

Both of them mention Brooklyn! In the first one, he dedicates the song to Brooklyn. In the latter, he sings "Ma tu sei nato a Brooklyn, l'italiano poco sai" ("But you were born in Brooklyn, you know very little Italian"). What's that all about? Maybe as a Brooklynite, I'm destined to love cucuzza...

The Mystery of the "Googootz"

About a week ago, my Dad came home asking me if I had ever eaten a googootz. I replied that I didn't even understand what he was saying to me, and thus began the mystery of the googotz, aka una cucuzza, aka a squash that looks more like an over-sized string bean than anything that exists in real life.

The word googootz is the Italian-American version of the word cucuzza, which is the Sicilian word for said vegetable. I didn't understand this word for three reasons. Firstly, it's gotten muddled up and turned around by generations of Italian-Americans (the same culture that brought you the gabbagool, also known as cappacola). Italian-Americans speak their own dialect of Italian, and I'm just not familiar with it. Secondly, a lot of the Italian-American dialect has sprung from the Sicilian dialect, since most of the Italians immigrating to North America were Sicilian. So we have layers upon layers of dialects, neither of which I speak. And thirdly - I honestly have never seen this vegetable before in my entire life.



Of course we got right to work trying to figure out what the heck a googootz really is. First, we had to nail down the spelling (gagootz? gaggotz?), and then it took a while to figure out the actual Italian word. Apparently googootz is also used to mean dummy, in an endearing way (see here). And after finding this gem of a website, we learned that the Italian cucuzza has quite the following (and even a song!).

So now I have a new summer goal to preoccupy me in my unemployment: find the elusive cucuzza, photograph it, and cook it!

leftovers

This just keeps getting better.:

left over cappocola

scrambled eggs



leftover pappa al pomodoro

the best breakfast I've had in a while.

pappa al pomodoro

Here's what I love about Italian cuisine: take fresh, simple ingredients, combine them in any number of ways, and you get something incredibly delicious. A great number of Italian dishes have the same basic ingredients - garlic, extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes, basil, etc.

But let's not get confused. Italian cuisine is in no way effortless. There is a certain amount of inherent knowledge required to take your dish from being bread with tomato sauce and cheese to pizza. I've learned a few tricks along the way. First, make sure you ingredients are fresh - and I mean fresh. Secondly, don't try to replace things for healthier options. And lastly, accept the fact that your dish will not taste the same as it did in your favorite trattoria toscana or in any way rival what your host-mother made you.

Yes, I am speaking from experience. Most of this I have learned from trying to re-create one of my favorite all time piatti toscani: pappa al pomodoro. The ingredients are simple: bread, olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, basil. You combine them all, stew them together, and in the end you have this delicious bread and tomato soup that tastes like heaven and is the only thing that could possibly warm you up on an impossibly wet, bone-chilling Florentine winter.


My beautiful friend Katie eating some pappa al pomodoro at my favorite restaurant in Florence, Osteria Santo Spirito.

Since leaving Firenze, I have not succeeded in re-creating this Tuscan classic. Until now, with this recipe. Like I said, it is not exactly the kind you would have in a trattoria in Florence, but it is pretty darn close. The reason this particular dish is so hard to make in the States is because of the bread. Tuscans notoriously do not salt their bread, which is why all those recipes using day-old bread (like pappa al pomodoro and ribollita) work so well; the bread doesn't get too mushy and dissolve completely. With this recipe, the salt in the bread is counteracted by baking it in the oven. The whole thing sets, and with an extra drizzle of EVOO and a quick stir, I was back in my own little paradiso italiano.

purples and yellows at the farmer's market

Joanna Newsom, "Peach, Plum, Pear":

birthday cake!

My mom's birthday was last week, and she requested that I bake her a cake because no on has ever baked her a cake before. This might seem unbelievable, or impossible, but you have not met my family. My mom grew up in Brooklyn with a family that adhered to the 1950s kitchen ideology of only using pre-packaged or prepared foods. My grandma never baked. She made a lot of pot roast. My mom had never seen fresh vegetables until she visited my Dad at home during a summer break in college, and asked, "What's wrong with the asparagus? It's so green!"

Now in our family, we have never been big bakers, and certainly not ones to keep sweets or baked goods in the house. This was another image of American life that I tried to dispel. My students had this idea that all American mothers are constantly baking chocolate-chip cookies, then arranging them on a plate for when their children run through the door after getting off the school bus. Well, I never took a school bus. And I live in an apartment building, so I couldn't exactly burst through my front door and into my kitchen. And when I finally did make it into my kitchen, there was no plate of cookies waiting for me on the table.



Sometimes, my Mom would meet me at school with a mug of hot cocoa on particularly freezing days. Those were great. And every Friday was what we called "Candy Day" - my Dad would bring me home a candy bar in his brief case, and I got to go to the candy store and choose something else. On birthdays, my Mom would bake me a cake, but other than that, she has never been one to commit herself to the oven purely for the effect of having something fattening on hand.

So for her birthday, I made her the birthday cake of her choice: basic white cake with a raspberry center and chocolate buttercream. And to let it be the cake of all the birthday cakes that never were, I topped it with a "5" candle - no second digit necessary!


I like this photo because my Mom looks like a shark.


Enjoying her delicious cake ...


... and sharing with the rest of the famiglia!

I wish I had known about this when I was teaching.

I came across a movie today that I really wish I had known about when I was teaching. The movie is called "Homie Spumoni", and tells the story of a young black man who grew up in an Italian-American family, but then discovers his true heritage and has to "learn how to be black" (the movie's words, not mine).

Now, beyond raising all kinds of questions (i.e., someone actually approved this script and backed this movie?), this would have been the PERFECT example to launch a discussion on cultural identity. My students always asked me what Americans thought of Italians. I explained the basic stereotypes (spaghetti, lasagna, la grande famiglia), but also explained that these stereotypes are based off of Italian-Americans, not Italians. Huge difference.

A few times, I tried to extend the discussion to the broader topic of cultural stereotypes in general, but it got dangerous fast. I had a hard time holding back when my students (and the other profs) made blatantly racist statements.

This movie could have been our point of reference. Instead of our stereotypes, we could have discussed what stereotypes the movie promotes. The inclusion of a third party (the movie) displaces the sensitivity of the subject. Our own opinions about cultural stereotypes wouldn't have even had to be brought into the discussion.

Furthermore, the protagonist of the movie is Donald Faison of Clueless and Scrubs. My students love Scrubs (it must have gained something in translation). This lesson totally would have been a hit. Or at least in my top five (along with my Ebonics lesson and the time I mimed an entire lesson because no one studied their vocabulary).

You know it's 103 degrees outside when...

the quarto gelato

Happy Birthday to Elle and America! A weekend full of good friends and good food in Boston. Click on "full screen" to view the slideshow!