Food: didn't know Italians were so picky about their carbonara!

[JP]

My mom was born in Trieste.

 

[pseudoid]

My mom was born in Trieste.

Yeah! They seem to take their cooking way too seriously and keep their recipes secret w/i their families and kitchens.

 

[Multicore]

Authenticity is such a slippery concept. Who gets to say what's authentic is a matter of authority, which is cognate. I think that's what keeps the arguments going for ever. It's a power struggle.

 

[Keith_W]

Here's another pasta dish. I have no idea if such a dish exists in Italy, so if there are Italians here you can shoot me now. It is basically a pasta pomodoro with a burrata on top. I know the Italians make pasta pomodoro, but I have no idea if they add burrata or not.

The basic pomodoro sauce was simple - fry up a soffrito for 10 minutes, then add 1 can of whole peeled tomatoes. Mash it with a potato masher and add some basil to infuse. Boil up the spaghetti and toss in the sauce. Remove from the heat and add some grated pecorino, adjust with salt and pepper. Add the burrata on top with some basil and serve.

FWIW I am Chinese, and I thought that Chinese cooking was simple. It turns out Italian cooking is even simpler.

 

[pseudoid]

Authenticity is such a slippery concept. Who gets to say what's authentic is a matter of authority,

You mean like this:

The inventor of pizza is a highly debated topic amongst foodies and historians alike. Many people credit baker Raffaele Esposito from the Naples region of Italy for first creating the dish.
Others believe that the history of pizza dates far further back than Esposito's era of the late 1800s.
Much of the debate comes down to what you consider a "real pizza" and the evolution of food over the centuries.Some historians even note that Israelites and the ancient Babylonians probably consumed versions of the pizza dish we know and love today.
Flatbreads with toppings have been a favorite food throughout much of civilization.

Fights continue about Roquefort/Blue cheese and many others; such as both Greeks and Turks wanting 'credit' for yogurt (Mesopotamia ~5000 BC).

 

[computer-audiophile]

My mom was born in Trieste.

We went on holiday in the Triest area the year before last and ate very well. For example, here in an excellent fish restaurant in the countryside.

 

[JP]

I hope to visit sometime. She moved to the states when she was ~5 IIRC, and has only got back once several decades ago.

 

[Multicore]

FWIW I am Chinese, and I thought that Chinese cooking was simple. It turns out Italian cooking is even simpler.

After a lifetime of failing at both I am quite convinced that neither are simple.

 

[computer-audiophile]

They have very charming pop up restaurants called Osmize, in the Triest aera which I can recommend.
What elsewhere is called Besenwirtschaft, Straußenwirtschaft or Heuriger is called around Trieste Osmiza (Italian plural: Osmize).

From the sound of the word you can already tell that it is an original Slovenian name that has been adopted into Italian. The farmers and winegrowers of the Trieste Karst offer as a Osmize for a few weeks a year offer their wine and some small items such as cheese, ham and bread. In the province of Trieste there are approximately 50 Osmize, whose opening hours are spread throughout the year.

 

[Multicore]

They have very charming pop up restaurants called Osmize, in the Triest aera which I can recommend.
What elsewhere is called Besenwirtschaft, Straußenwirtschaft or Heuriger is called around Trieste Osmiza (Italian plural: Osmize).

From the sound of the word you can already tell that it is an original Slovenian name that has been adopted into Italian. The farmers and winegrowers of the Trieste Karst offer as a Osmize for a few weeks a year offer their wine and some small items such as cheese, ham and bread. In the province of Trieste there are approximately 50 Osmize, whose opening hours are spread throughout the year.

Alright. That did it. I have to get a snack now and pop a cork.

 

[pablolie]

This morning's breakfast...

 

[computer-audiophile]

This morning's breakfast...
View attachment 335255

Very appetising. Incidentally, I have the same double-walled espresso cups made of glass, I see in the background of your photo.

 

[Tremolo]

I should have added more pasta water to the grated cheese, you can see it didn't melt properly to form the cream and made ugly clumps. These mistakes wouldn't pass muster in an Italian restaurant, but for home cooking, and a first attempt, it was great.

Not bad at all, bravo. To avoid clumps the starch helps but you have to avoid great differences in the temperature when adding the pecorino cream, better if you prepare the cream just before adding it to the pasta. You can follow exactly the procedure in this guide https://www.giallozafferano.com/rec...Pepe-Pecorino-and-black-pepper-spaghetti.html

 

[theREALdotnet]

One of my weekday dishes is pressure cooker cacio y pepe, they'd be horrified but it works pretty well.

I can’t imagine that, isn’t a pressure cooker’s trick its higher cooking temperature? The Pecorino will go stretchy when you heat it over about 80 degrees C, so preventing overheating is the main concern when making Cacio e Pepe.

 

[computer-audiophile]

I will likely delve more into the realm of fine cuisine next year rather than engaging in discussions about audio device measurements. Cooking is a subject that one never truly masters. Some even speak of the allure of age in this context, attributing a certain eroticism to the culinary journey through life.

 

[pseudoid]

This is a delicacy I could never resist:

This one, on the other hand, makes me salivate, as I am doing right now:

 

[GaryY]

A friend of mine from Rome said adding parmesan cheese to Penne all’Arrabbiata is criminal.

 

[computer-audiophile]

A friend of mine from Rome said adding parmesan cheese to Penne all’Arrabbiata is criminal.

I'm afraid I'll have to be labelled a criminal then. Because I'll do it.

 

[Axo1989]

Very appetising. Incidentally, I have the same double-walled espresso cups made of glass, I see in the background of your photo.

Ha, so do I. They turn out to be not as fragile as they might look, and quite practical.

@pablolie's breakfast looks sublime.

 

[BlackTalon]

A friend of mine from Rome said adding parmesan cheese to Penne all’Arrabbiata is criminal.

Romans have a thing for pecorino Romano