November | 2009 | The Roving Locavore

Archive for November, 2009

picnic in the park

Posted in Restaurants, Shopping, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat locally, eating locally, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, Rome locavore, roving locavore, Villa Pamphili, Vivi Bistrot on November 7, 2009| 1 Comment »

Today was beautiful. Daylong full sun, a few big cumulous clouds drifting by, sandwiched between rainy days. This morning I went on an epic shopping run, stopping at two open-air markets for fruit and vegetables, the GS supermarket, and a toy store (for the birthday party tomorrow), pulling my heavy cart behind me.

When I finally got home, it was time to go out again—to refuel with coffee before Jack’s playdate in the park. I walked and Jack scootered over to the Academy bar, and while I sipped my esspresso, he scooted into the kitchen to say ciao to all of his friends there.

Then, we swapped the scooter for the bike and continued on to the sprawling Villa Pamphili park, where there were lots of huge tempting mud puddles for Jack and his friend Felix not to ride through, please! Felix’s family arrived here this summer from Norway, for his father’s fellowship at the Norwegian Institute. Jack and Felix are classmates, and both are learning bits of Italian at school. They rode along shouting strings of nonsense punctuated with words like “basta” and “guarda!”

At the top of a broad hill, after climbing up and down through open gardens and umbrella pine groves, a new playground has been installed. The boys had fun climbing and swinging.

The other great thing about this park, besides the playground, the running paths, the beauty, the pond, and the people-watching, is the cafe at the top of the hill, Vivi Bistrot. We went there with the hope of sitting at a table and having a warm lunch, but all of the tables were booked. This must be a good spot! All—or most—of the food they serve is organic, and they do their own baking. They couldn’t seat us today, but we assembled a nice picnic out of pesto pasta with tomatoes, organic chicken wings, pizzeti (sandwiches made with pizza bianca), and some interesting juices. The oddest item was a strange twist on American imports: a wrap containing “crudo & Philadelphia”—prosciutto and cream cheese. Jack ate it, but I thought “yuck.”

Here’s the bucolic setting for this spot, which would be a nice place to have an aperitivo in the middle of an evening walk, or a quick jolt of cappuccino during a leisurely jog:

Tonight, for a change, we’re going out for Chinese.

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marjoram

Posted in Herbs, Meat, Nuts, Pasta, Salads, Wine, tagged American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, marjoram, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on November 5, 2009| Leave a Comment »

My mind and time have been taken up with other writing projects during the past week—my dissertation, about which I won’t talk here, and my story/pamphlet for Bioversity, about which I will talk, at some later date. But I have to steal a few moments from eighteenth-century literature to do some musing on marjoram.

2034-tb-marjoram

Every Wednesday night at the Academy, the RSFP kitchen cooks an entirely vegetarian meal with local, seasonal ingredients. Last night, the highlights of the meal were hazelnuts (chopped on a bitter green salad with beets) and marjoram.

Marjoram is often thought of as a meat herb because it can hold its own alongside the most flavorful lamb or venison. But last night’s main course was potato gnocchi with marjoram and chopped walnuts, pecorino and some wilted green (something chicoryish but not too bitter… plain old spinach?). It was a risky dish, because the piny astringency and almost medicinal zest of the marjoram could easily have overpowered the humble little gnocchi. That’s why I’d like to praise, along with the herb so evocative of wildness, the kitchen staff here. Not only did they create delicate gnocchi for almost fifty people, but they seasoned it delicately with one of the strongest herbs. The dish had to have been prepared with gentle fingers—to keep the gnocchi fluffy and to crush the leaves of marjoram without mincing out the flavor. The wine pairing was exquisite, too: a slightly effervescent, green-grassy crisp white from Lazio. Like a vinho verde, but even greener.

Thanks, guys!

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cookies, costumes, and crumble

Posted in Baking, Sweet Things, tagged American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, locavore Rome, Rome locavore, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on November 1, 2009| 2 Comments »

This was one of our most fun Halloweens, because of the bustling community of kids who live here in 5B, the family ghetto, the building adjacent to the main American Academy building, (where the best unkept secret is that we have the best apartments). Halloween really started on Friday, before dinner. The kitchen staff had prepared trays of bat- and ghost-shaped sugar cookies, icing, chocolate cupcakes, and frosting for a big decorating party. (Knowing the kitchen-witches here, the ingredients were as local as could be.)

The cupcakes were so crumbly that they required adult hands, so the Roving Locavore got to work:

Cheers, Aurelia & Lisa!

Mid-day on Saturday, Halloween proper, Jack and Lulu got to work on the papier-mache components of their costumes. Lulu’s parrot head paint was drying, so she helped Jack paint his fireman’s helmet:

After we returned from Halloween party #1, at Nico’s house at 4:00 (boy, was it a heavy candy-eating day!), the Academy kids paraded and trick-or-treated around the apartments and studios of the Academy building, where the fellows were dressed as witches, death in various forms, Bacchus, a princess, John the Baptist, devil & angel, and a fortune teller.

the tube is for the milk-bottle O2 tank on Jack's back

who knew that Dante had hooked up with a gondoliera?

Later, when the kids were spinning and running and staggering from their sugar overdoses, we had a potluck dinner. Everyone loved the meatballs, sangria, and the zucca lasagna. I made a pear-apple-almond crumble with mostly local or at least organic ingredients.