Something very exciting is happening this month. A brand-new food magazine – In Search of Taste – is due out in Britain. Forget any stereotypes of British food that you’re hauling around in your mind.
International in scope, In Search of Taste promises stunning imagery, artistic nuances, and a sense of beauty in a world fraught with terror and suffering and pain, reminding us of the very things that makes us so human: cooking and cuisine and culture.
The following interview with In Search of Taste’s editor, Keith Reeves, offers us a taste of what we can expect. As Reeves so rightly says, “Eating and drinking are the most important things anyone must do, and selecting what to eat and drink is the most important decision we all undertake.”
What prompted you to start In Search of Taste? Tell us a little about the background. Was there an epiphany moment or did the idea come slowly?
Epiphany carries far too many connotations of urgency and divine inspiration. Intermittent revelations better describe the magazine’s journey, with gathering flickers rather than one blinding light. But we’re still en route!
I initially felt that there were more than enough column inches written on the subject of food and wine and to attempt further comment was perhaps foolhardy. But when I looked closer, simple and direct dialogue seemed scarce. There appeared to be something of a drift towards entertainment and a move away from straightforward and helpful information.
I grew up with “cheater” knepfle. I learned from my Oma, who had a Southern German background, but was Romanian-born. She made all kinds of noodles and pasta dishes — spatzle, real egg noodles that were dried and stored, but for everyday use. Knepfle were child’s play. In our own home, we made them for lunch and threw them into Lipton chicken noodle soup (which was not something we’d ever find in Oma’s kitchen!). God. That woman could cook…
Anyway. The way we did it was to beat an egg or two (depending on how greedy we felt at the time), add a pinch of salt and some dried parsley if we thought of it or wanted to impress schoolmates, then beat in all-purpose flour until it was so stiff it wouldn’t take any more and/or became too difficult to stir. Then we’d drop pieces in a pot of boiling water with a fork and a teaspoon, dipping both implements into the simmering soup in between to help the stiff dough drop. Once they were all in, we put the lid on, turned down the heat, and kept it covered for a few minutes.
When we finally lifted the lid, we found gorgeous, fluffy-looking, but very chewy little dumplings, all floating together on top of the soup. We loved these so much that as kids we used to scorn dumplings as being “too soft”. To our minds, dumplings, or anything that remotely resembled knepfle, ought to be quite al dente.
I still make these for chicken soup (and I try not to rely on Lipton but make my own as often as possible!).
Recipe: Trofie alle Castagne: Chestnut Pasta with Pesto, Potatoes and Green Beans
Serves 4 people
Ingredients
2 jars of Genoese pesto for 500 g of chestnut Trofie pasta
3 potatoes, peeled and cut into thin Julienne strips
75 g of French-style green beans, ends cut off and cut in half
Fresh Parmesan cheese to taste
Jonell Eats her Way through Provence: A Photo Essay
by Jonell Galloway
Tourettes-sur-Loup in France is the world capital of violets, and yes, you can eat violets. Candied, as you’ll see on my dessert in the photos; syrup; as jam (the stacked tins); and they even make violet pasta.
Food Art: Taglioni Violi, food photography by Alessandro Boscolo Agostini
Bio of Alessandro Boscolo Agostini
Bilingual English/Italiano
My first love for photography started with a little theft: as a little boy I stole my father’s Vöiglander and I started taking pictures on my own, just using my instinct. At that time my father’s camera seemed to me the best camera possible in the whole world, until I reached junior high school and I gave it up for a Bencini all my own. But my little theft came all back to me; my girlfriend to whom I had lent my camera never gave it back to me: that can be considered petty theft, no?
Growing up, I robbed again: in high school I stole time I might have devoted to photography and dedicated myself to my other passion, music. I studied drums and played jazz music. But it was just an infatuation, because I went back to my first love and never left it again. And as a pledge of love, I gave up my history studies in college, causing great distress to many people, but not to myself.
Today, I rob with no qualms, and I confess it with no shame. My spoils are my sensations, emotions, lines, colours, compositions: I catch everything that stops in front of my camera, I catch it with a click to close it in a graphic cage. It doesn’t matter if its a catalogue or a magazine. What I’m really interested in is the look, my view of the world. In the millions of images that pass in front of my eyes every day, that go on around me, that chase me in my silence. For this reason I photograph subjects of any kind and still do it every day without specializing in anything in particular. From a luxury hotel suite, to the sexy transparencies of Murano glass. From art exhibitions to a ballet. From a golf course to actors on a stage. The list can go on and on, while this bio must finish here. I hope that I haven’t once more been a thief, that I haven’t taken up to much of your time. If this was the case, please don’t report me to the police, because I will give myself immediately up: I’m Alessandro Boscolo Agostini!
Il mio amore per la fotografia ha inizio con un furto: da piccolo rubai la Vöiglander di mio padre e cominciai a scattare così, d’istinto. All’epoca quella mi sembrava la macchina fotografica più bella del mondo, almeno fino a quando, in prima media, non la tradii per una Bencini tutta mia. Ma il contrappasso per il piccolo delinquente che ero arrivò molto presto, perché una fidanzatina a cui la prestai, non me la restituì mai: di fatto, anche quello fu un piccolo furto! Crescendo, ho rubato ancora: ai tempi del Liceo ho sottratto tempo alla passione per la fotografia dedicandomi per alcuni anni al jazz e allo studio della batteria, altro mio grande amore. Ma è stata solo una gran bella bionda di passaggio, perché alla fine sono tornato dalla mia “vecchia” per non lasciarla più. Anzi, come pegno d’amore, per lei ho mandato a quel paese gli studi storici con sommo dolore di parecchie persone, ma non certo il mio. Oggi, lo confesso, rubo senza più sensi di colpa. Il mio bottino sono sensazioni, emozioni, linee, colori, composizioni: ciò che si ferma davanti al mio obiettivo lo faccio mio, lo catturo con un click, magari per rinchiuderlo in una gabbia grafica. Non importa se è la gabbia di un catalogo oppure quella di una rivista. A me interessa lo sguardo, il mio sguardo sul mondo. Sui miliardi di immagini che ogni giorno attraversano la mia vita, le scorrono intorno, mi seguono in silenzio. Per questo ho fotografato di tutto e continuo a farlo, senza scegliere di dedicarmi a un settore soltanto. Perché tutto può essere immagine, una buona immagine. Da una suite di un hotel di lusso, alle trasparenze seducenti di un vetro di Murano. Da una mostra d’arte a uno spettacolo di danza. Da un campo da golf, agli attori su un set di un film. L’elenco potrebbe continuare, mentre questo scritto si chiude qui. Spero di non aver compiuto l’ultimo furto di questa storia, ossia di avervi rubato troppo tempo. Se fosse così, non denunciatemi, perché mi costituisco subito: sono Alessandro Boscolo Agostini!
I have discovered an entire, legally downloadable Encyclopedia of Pasta by Oretta Zanini de Vita, translated by Maureen B. Fant, with hand-drawn sketches of over 300 traditional types of pasta. A description and production method, origins and with what recipe each kind is used are included for every pasta shape. Plus, there’s a lovely introduction about pasta.
Lasagne doesn’t have to be fattening. Here are five easy steps to make your lasagne healthy while keeping it delicious!
Opt for organic lasagne sheets instead of the traditional ones we find at local markets.
Don’t butter the plate you are cooking the lasagne in. Add just a drizzle of olive oil and spread it with a paper towel.
Substitute a traditional Béchamel Sauce for light double cream (there are several versions available such as fat free, low-fat, etc.).
While cooking the meat for a Bolognese, for example, add tomato paste as well as smaller chunks of tomato. Make an even more vitamin-infused version of this by making a ragout of celery, carrot, and other veggies, and add it to the meat while cooking
The lasagne is taking shape and you’re ready to top it with mozzarella, cheddar and Parmesan. Great, well not really! Opt for the fat-free version of the above cheeses, and be careful to sprinkle it on as lightly as possible.
I don’t know if you have the same uncomfortable feeling as I, but I have the impression this year is flying by, and that we are more than ever racing against time, without being able to get a grip on the present moment or connect with the now. It is insane and quite confusing…
As incredible and shocking as it might seem, September has already arrived and so has autumn (and by the way, just in case you have already got the creeps, we are dangerously approaching Christmas – only 3 1/2 months to go before the ludicrous craze!). Even if you try “lying” to yourself, you cannot do anything other than confirm that the hot season is over and the slow decline of nature is taking its toll. As sad as it might sound, we have no other choice than to bid goodbye to the joys of summer and to the delightful sensation of lightness as well as worry-free days, it is a harbinger for the cold, dark, gloomy days that gently weasel their way into our lives. All those changes are real, visible and can be perceived very clearly.
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