Bombardino is an egg nog based drink that is very popular in the cold climates, especially for those enjoying a ski holiday in Northeastern Italy. This is a perfect drink for sipping apres ski in Val Gardena, or to warm you up after shopping in the Christmas markets of Bolzano. I say apres ski, as I can’t imagine hitting the slopes after one of these. It is made by combine 1 part advocaat (called Vov in Italy) or egg nog, and 1 part brandy. Advocaat is a creamy, rich liquor made from eggs, sugar, and brandy, very similar to our egg nog. In Europe, however, it usually has a slightly higher alcohol content – no surprise there. For a Bombardino, you add MORE alcohol, heat it up, and serve it topped with whipped cream. The name is derived from this potent combination of heat and high alcohol content, “the bomb”.
Val Gardena, Italy
There are several variations, using rum rather than brandy, or including espresso in the mix. The coffee version is sometimes called a calimero. I prefer the addition of the espresso. And nowadays, the younger set will add Red Bull instead.
Ingredients – brandy, rum, eggs
I’ve adapted a traditional egg nog recipe here to make your own. I did find some recipes on line for Advocaat, but all seemed to be variations of the same recipe, which called for an unbelievable amount of sugar – 29 ounces, which is over 3 cups. This version, with approximately 3 ounces, was plenty sweet. Some recommend letting the mixture ‘age’ for a week in your refrigerator, but who plans that far in advance? It is traditionally served in a clear cup or glass.
Advocaat/Egg Nog/ Vov
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
6 ounces brandy
4 egg whites
Using a mixer, beat the egg yolks until they are light in color. Gradually add the 1/3 cup sugar and continue to beat until it is completely dissolved. Add the milk, cream, and brandy. Transfer to another bowl.
Folding in egg whites
Place the egg whites in the bowl of the mixer and beat to soft peaks. With the mixer still running gradually add the 1 tablespoon of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. This can be stored for up to a week in your refrigerator.
Bombardino
1 part rum or brandy
1 part homemade Advocaat/Egg Nog/Vov
Sweetened whipped cream
Heat the advocaat and rum or brandy in a small saucepan. If you have a cappuccino machine, you can use the steamer to heat. Top with sweetened whipped cream. Serve.
Calimero (left) and Bombardino
Calimero
1 part rum or brandy
1 part homemade Advocaat/Egg Nog/Vov
1 part espresso
Sweetened whipped cream
Heat the advocaat, rum or brandy, and espresso in a small saucepan. Again, you can also heat using your cappuccino machine. Top with sweetened whipped cream. Serve.
One example of traditional Christmas holiday food with deep-seated cultural roots in a specific region is the Gubana. A cake of sweet leavened dough, heavy with a filling of dried fruits and nuts. Depending upon the source, Gubana originated in either the Valli del Natisone or nearby Cividale, in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Friuli-Venezia is a fascinating region in the northeast corner of Italy, at the cross-roads of eastern and western Europe. It is a region we are exploring on one of our Italiaoutdoors bicycle tours in 2012. The original settlers in the area were from Slavic stock, and the name Gubana is derived from the Slavic word guba, meaning fold. As far back as 1409, Gubana was one of the 72 courses served during a dinner held by the city of Cividale in honor of visiting Pope Gregory XII.
Local legend has it that Gubana was created by a poor woman who had nothing with which to sweeten Christmas meals. She prepared for her family a cake made with what she had a hand; flour, eggs, walnuts and honey. A less picturesque explanation is that Gubana sprang from the Slovian dumplings called struklji, known today as strucchi, which were fritters filled with a similar stuffing of dried fruits and nuts.
There are a couple of versions of Gubana dough, and numerous variations in the filling. Waverley Root, in The Food of Italy, describes Gubana as a ciambella, a ring-shaped cake of puff pastry, stuffed with crushed walnuts, pine nuts, almonds and spices. He mentions that you can dress it up with raisins, dried figs, prunes, candied citron, orange peel and chocolate. It is then doused in liquor, typically rum or grappa. In her cookbook, Flavors of Friuli, Elisabeth Antoine Crawford supplies two recipes, both using the same stuffing, one a sweetened leavened dough, the other a puff-pastry version. Gubana is a bit labor intensive, and many bakeries in the region produce wonderful versions, so they are rarely made at home.
Filling on dough
I based this recipe quite closely on Crawford’s Gubana delle Valli del Natisone. I’ve tried it numerous times, and while it does take a bit of time, it consistently comes out well. I’ve simply made a few additions to the filling, and added a tablespoon of grappa to the dough.
Gubana Filling
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried fruit – prunes, apricots
1/2 cup grappa
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds
3/4 cup finely chopped amaretti cookies
1/4 cup diced candied orange peel
1/4 cup diced crystalized ginger
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate, shaved
1 egg
Place the raisins in a large bowl. Add the grappa and let soak for 30 minutes.
Finely grind the walnuts and almonds in a food processor; add to the bowl of raisins and dried fruit. Stir in the crushed amaretti, candied orange peel, ginger, pine nuts, melted butter, honey, cinnamon, grated chocolate, and egg.
Gubana
3 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast, divided into 2 teaspoons and 1 1/2 teaspoons
1/3 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup warm water, divided into 1/4 cup and 1/4 cup
2 2/3 cup flour, divided into 1/2 cup, 1 cup, and remaining 1 1/6 cups
1 egg
1 egg yolk
4 tablespoons butter, diced and softened
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon grappa
For the dough:
In a small bowl, dissolve 2 teaspoons yeast and a pinch of sugar in 1/4 cup warm (110°) water. If you haven’t used the yeast in a while, let it rest until foamy, about 10 minutes, to make sure it is still active. Stir in 1/4 cup flour. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
Transfer the mixture in a large bowl. Stir in 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, the egg and egg yolk. Cover and let rise for 1 hour.
In a small bowl, dissolve the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast and a pinch of sugar in the remaining 1/4 cup warm water. Add to the bowl of risen dough, along with the remaining flour and sugar, butter, salt, vanilla extract and grappa; mix well. Using a mixer with a dough hook attachment, knead for 10 minutes, adding a bit more flour if the dough begins to stick to the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead briefly by hand; the dough should be smooth and elastic. Form the dough into a ball; cover loosely with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let rise in warm place for 1 1/2 hours.
To prepare the Gubana:
Preheat the oven to 350°. Place a pan filled with warm water on the bottom rack to create steam. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 14- by 20-inch rectangle. Spread the filling over the dough, covering the dough as evenly as possible. Starting with one long side, roll up the Gubana jelly roll style. Place the roll seam-side down on a sheet of parchment paper. Form the roll into a spiral. Transfer the spiral, along with the parchment paper, to a baking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let rise for 30 minutes.
Sprinkle the top of the spiral with 1 teaspoon sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 45 minutes. Serve with grappa for dunking.
The Christmas season is upon us, and once again, Italian foodies here in the US are planning their Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve. Italian restaurants are announcing their version of it for their December menu special, Saveur magazine features it in it’s December issue. Food bloggers cover it; I devoted two posts to it myself last year, here’s a link to Part I and Part II. It’s easy to find here in the US, but once place it’s hard to find it — Italy.
According to Wikipedia:
“is believed to have originated in Southern Italy and is not a known tradition in many parts of Italy”
According to Saveur:
“Started in America and sometimes called La Vigilia”
Waverley Root, in his classic tome “The Food of Italy” mentions over 30 different traditional regional Christmas dishes, and does not mention this Feast at all.
My Italiaoutdoors partner, Vernon, has been living in Vicenza, Italy for 20 years, and has never heard of it.
So I thought this season I’d research and make a few of the truly authentic regional Christmas dishes of Northern Italy.
Tortellini
In my search through Waverley Root’s “The Food of Italy”, I found this great quote, which he attributes to the Gazzetta di Bologna, about 100 years ago: “Christmas should be celebrated in Christian fashion, that is to say by eating until you burst, drinking until your head spins, and in general loading down the human machine with choice wines and edible of all sorts, varieties and origins. But precede everything with a great dish of tortellini. Without tortellini there can be no Christmas in Bologna.” So tortellini makes my list of traditional Italian Christmas foods.
To the Bolognese, the shape of tortellini was inspired by the female navel. One story, hailing from the 17th century, claims that tortellini was created by a cook who molded the pasta in the navel of a Bolognese woman. In 1925, the play “The Man Who Invented Tortellini” was shown at Teatro del Corso in Bologna, in which a cook who is smitten with the young wife of his employer, makes a pasta dish inspired by the shape of her navel, and manages to have them served to her at a banquet.
I made my own tortellini, without the use of a navel, or even a pasta machine. Root mentions observing women making tortellini in a pasta shop, and that they produced about 6,000 tortellini an hour. I didn’t quite get up to that speed.
Stuffing on pasta circles
I referred to Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s book, “The Splendid Table”, a wonderful reference on the cuisine of Emilia-Romagna. Both Kasper and Root relate that the most traditional tortellini dish of the region are those that have been stuffed with a mixture of meats and parmigiano-reggiano cheese, and served simply in a beef broth. I based this recipe on the Pasta all’Uovo and Tortellini in Broth from “The Splendid Table.”
I only had duck eggs to use in this pasta, which made for a particularly luxurious end product. As duck eggs are significantly larger than chicken eggs, I assumed I would use less duck eggs than chicken, so I started with the amount of flour that Kasper
Duck Eggs
specifies, and used 3 duck eggs rather than the 4 chicken eggs. I was very surprised when I only used about 1/2 of the flour. The duck eggs are higher in protein and fat, and contain much less water than chicken eggs. The resulting pasta was very elastic, and easy to work with. This was very helpful, as I discovered when I went to roll out my pasta into sheets that both my mixer pasta attachment as well as my manual machine are back in Massachusetts. So I was forced to be truly traditional, and resort to a rolling pin.
Pasta all’Uovo d’Anatra
2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
3 duck egg
1 beaten egg (of any type) for egg wash
Place the flour on your counter in a mound. Make a well in the middle. Add the eggs. Using a fork, lightly beat the eggs. Gradually start incorporating the flour from the sides of the well. Eventually the sides of the well will collapse, at this point use a pastry scraper to work the rest of the flour into the dough.
Eggs in well of flour
Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, working a bit more flour into it when it gets a bit sticky. The dough should be very smooth, silky, and very elastic. Take a sharp knife and cut the dough in half; if any air bubbles are visible in the dough, continue to knead it for another minute or so.
If using a rolling pin, divide the dough into quarters, and roll out one quarter at a time, keeping the remainder covered with plastic wrap so it does not dry out. The goal is to stretch the dough, rather than flatten it. When you are finished rolling, the sheet should be so thin that you can see through it. Taking a 1 3/4 inch cutter, or a small glass, cut the sheet into circles. Place approximately 1/2 teaspoon of filling in the center of each circle, and brush a little of the beaten egg around the outer edge of half of the circle. Fold the circle in half, and pinch the edges closed. Then take the corners on the bottom of the semi-circle, and pinch them together. Place the tortellini on a floured sheet pan when completed.
Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the pork, turkey and bacon, and saute until cooked through, breaking up the meat with a fork or a potato masher.
Pinching corners to form tortellini
Transfer the meat to a food processor, and add the salami. Pulse until finely ground, but not pureed. Transfer to a bowl and add the cheese, nutmeg and egg. Season with salt and pepper.
To serve:
1 quart meat or chicken stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Grated Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese
Heat the meat stock in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper. Drop in the tortellini and cook a minute or two. Check one for doneness by tasting. They should be tender, but still have some ‘bite’, al dente. When done, ladle into small bowls and serve with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese on the side.
Ricotta cheese is originally from Italy, and you will find it in just about every region you visit. Ricotta, which comes from the Latin recoctus, meaning ‘recooked’ is made from the milk whey that is leftover from the production of other cheeses. Therefore, most cheese producers will make some form of ricotta from the whey that is leftover from the production of their other cheeses.
Fresh Crooked Face Ricotta
You can make ricotta cheese from whole milk, not just the whey, and we’ve have done that on all of our Italy bike tours with guest chefs. With Jody Adams, we made our own ricotta using a simple recipe that requires only whole milk and lemon juice. We stuffed some wonderful squash blossoms with it, and grilled them. Here’s a link to my blog post, Who’s Crazy Enough to Make Their Own Ricotta Cheese. Susan Regis used a bit more complicated recipe when she joined us on our Chefs on Bikes tour this past summer; we stuffed some wonderful homemade raviolis with it, and just snacked on it as part of our antipasti.
Calves at Crooked Face
I recently discovered a wonderful cheese producer here in Maine, as I searched for guests to feature on my cooking show for WSKI-TV here at Sugarloaf, ME. Amy Clark and her husband Josh are third generation farmers, and first generation cheese makers. They craft unique farmstead cheeses under the name Crooked Face Creamery, with their herd of registered Jerseys. Jersey milk is naturally high in butterfat and protein. The cows enjoy a diet of organic forages and an environmentally-friendly rotational grazing program, giving their cheeses an authentic rich flavor. In addition to a wonderful gouda-style cheese, Amy makes a fresh ricotta from whole jersey milk, rather than just the whey. It has a wonderful flavor, rather than the usual store-bought ricotta that often tastes of nothing at all. Amy’s ricotta reflects the character of the high-quality milk that it comes from, and is perfect for both savory dishes, like lasagna, as well as sweeter dishes like cannoli.
Kathy (me) and Amy Clark
Here, I’ve used Amy’s cheese in a simple Italian ricotta cake. Amy joined me on my TV cooking show on one episode where I made this, and talks about her transformation into a cheese maker. She tried many recipes and taste tested cheeses for over a year before settling on the two styles she currently produces. You can learn more about Amy, and find out where to purchase her cheeses through her web site, www.crookedfacecreamery.com.
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I often top this with fruit and Grappa Mascarpone Cream. A very easy, elegant dessert topping, made unique with the favorite liquor from Northeastern Italy – grappa. I add seasonal fruit; fresh berries in the spring, roasted figs in late summer, and this fall, roasted pears.
During my visits to Italy on our Italiaoutdoors bike tours and ski holidays, I seek out any opportunity to enjoy a new wine; be it a tiny producer that we pass by on our bikes, or a glass of a totally unfamiliar wine after a fun ski day. I recently identified my “Top 10 Undiscovered Wines of Northeastern Italy”, and now I am already rethinking that list. My new favorite is a varietal called Schioppettino.
Schioppettino, also known as Ribolla Nera, is a varietal from Friuli-Venezia Giulia, between the commune of Prepotto, near Udine and Slovenia. Like many of the indigenous grapes in this region, it was almost lost to us after the phylloxera epidemic devastated most of the vineyards in this region. When the vineyards were eventually replanted, growers favored the popular French varietals, turning their nose up toward the old local stalwarts. In fact, at one point the planting of Schioppettino was actually illegal, as it was classified as an undesirable varietal, Winemaker Paolo Rapuzzi searched out the few remaining vines, and through his efforts an EU decree was created to encourage the planting of Schioppettino, saving it from extinction.
Lorena Tosetto of Petrussa
The origin of the name is Schioppettino is unclear, but often attributed to the fact when bottled young and fermented in the bottle, Schioppettino became slightly sparkling, with “popping” (“scoppiettare” in Italian) on the tongue because of the carbon dioxide. This young bottling produces a medium bodied wine with a fairly low alcohol content. More recently, Schioppettino is vinified in oak barriques, creating a more full-bodied and intense wine that is suitable for aging.
In the US I had never come across this wine, until in June when I participated in the Italian Life Expo in Portland, ME. Lorena Tosetto, from Azienda Agricola Petrussa in Prepotto was there, pouring several of her families’ wonderful wines. I very much enjoyed her Schioppettino, a wine that is now becoming one of the rising stars in this relatively unknown, but highly respected wine zone.
Following local tradition, in July the grapes are pruned, and then close to harvesting the leaves closest to the fruit are removed to maximize sun exposure. The harvested grapes are collected in wooden crates, and left to dry until late autumn. Aging first occurs in wooden barrels and French barriques, followed by refining period in the bottle.
The Petrussa 2008 Schioppettino is a deep ruby red, decidedly cherry and berry on the nose. Its’ fruity palate is followed with a peppery spice, another “popping” on the tongue. As the flavors develop after opening, everything blends, and it presents a persistent pleasant smokiness. It pairs well with game, other full-flavored red meats, and hard cheeses.
