American Academy in Rome | The Roving Locavore

Posts Tagged ‘American Academy in Rome’

delicious day

Posted in Shopping, Sweet Things, Vegetables, tagged American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, Dolci Desideri, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, locavore Rome, Rome locavore, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on October 18, 2009| 1 Comment »

What a Saturday! Jack and I started the day with Harry and Ramie at Dolci Desideri: cappucini and cornetti (one with marmalata, one whole wheat with bitter honey) for the moms, frutti di bosca (wild berry) muffins for the boys. Then, in the 39-degree-Fahrenheit chill, we walked around the block to the outdoor market on Via Nicolini. First, we went to one of the small organic farmers’ stands. What’s in season at this farm near the airport? Dandelion greens, chicories, peppers, eggplants, potatoes, various hard-skinned squashes. I bought some of almost everything, and she stuffed some fresh herbs in my bag for free. At the next stand, we bought apples, plums, pears, and broad beans.

Back at the Academy, we stopped in at the bar, and Alessandro made Jack some hot cocoa. He doesn’t know how lucky he is. The ingredients were whole unpasteurized organic milk, house-made chocolate ganache, and house-made marshmallows. While he worked, Alessandro told Jack, in Italian, about his pet turtle.

Lunch at the Academy, served at one, was phenomenal as usual. The dessert was an incredible taste sensations. “Outrageous,” according to one diner. There was a sweet crumbly shortbread style tart crust, in which was a warm custard flavored with—or really just subtly evoking the flavors of—honey, lemon, pinenuts, a few raisins, and something else more evanescent. What was it?

Unbelievably, we did more eating as the day went on. Some of our next door neighbors with young kids came over for dinner. I roasted a bunch of the veggies I’d bought, and tossed them with pasta, rosemary, olive oil, and grated pecorino romano.

Nick and Rena brought dessert: a Dolci Desideri cherry-infused chocolate cake that seemed to be half crumb, half ganache. Jack and Lulu licked all of the plates clean:

licking1

I’m not sure what the goggles were for.

licking

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random sightings and a bad meal

Posted in Restaurants, Shopping, tagged agricultural biodiversity, American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, Diversity for Life, eat locally, eating locally, Galleria Borghese Caravaggio show, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, locavore Rome, Rome locavore, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on October 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Everyone says it’s impossible to get a bad meal in Italy. That’s not true.

After spending a wonderful morning in the galleries of the Museo Borghese, feasting our eyes on the Caravaggios, like his “Self Portrait as Bacchus,” and on the sculptures Bernini carved—improbably rendering marble as smooth and pliant as flesh—we took the bus back to Trastevere in search of a good lunch. You can’t tell by the facade of authenticity, or by the menu, or the prices, or the aromas coming out of the kitchen. But some meals are disappointing. The pasta was greasy, the porcini were soggy, the stew was bland, the antipasti boring.

But we did see some other interesting sights. An ivy covered house:

ivied house

Marcus Aurelius’s copycat version of Trajan’s triumphal column:

marcus aurelius

and some black laundry items hanging out:

laundry

Today is Saturday. We have big plans. We’ll start at Dolci Desideri with Ramie and Harry, and then go to the market around the corner to buy some veggies for tonight’s dinner. Then, I’m getting together with my new friend Ruth, who works for the non-profit Diversity for Life, an organization that promotes education in agricultural biodiversity (mainly in the U.S. and Africa, where it’s most needed). After that, Jack and I will meet up with his friend Dylan for some play date fun. Then dinner… what will I cook?

The day started off with a beautiful sunrise:

sunrise

we went

wewe

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pignoli

Posted in Nuts, tagged American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, locavore Rome, pignoli, Rome locavore, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on October 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The other day, Jack and I went to a corner of the Bass Garden far away from the windows of the library. We sat down beneath the olive trees and umbrella pines, and started to pick through the grass for pine nuts. They kept falling from the trees as we foraged. There were so many, but they were tricky to find by sight alone, because their black striations make them blend in with the shadows of the grass blades. We found more by feel than by sight.

Jack decided to plant one, excited about the (far off) possibility of growing a tree.

planting a tree

We gathered a big bowlful, but they’re not easy to eat. The shell is so hard, and the nut so small and soft, that we often end up crushing the whole thing with out nut cracker. Oh well. The novelty of it is fun. And when we do get a whole nut, the taste is so nutty, with no bitterness. There’s a touch of astringency at the end, but mainly the taste is of a toasty oil. That’s not something you notice in a handful of frozen pine nuts thrown into a Cuisinart for pesto.

pignoli

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hunkering down with a bowl of soup

Posted in Grain, Vegetables, 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 October 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Maybe it’s the weather. (This morning, when Jack and I walked to the bus stop next to the Aurelian Wall, it was 41 degrees (F).)

It’s also the food. The (nice) problem is that the food at the Academy is too good. Sometimes, I just want to hole up in the apartment and eat a humble dinner that a kid can like. I’m lucky enough to have a kid who likes some interesting foods, though he also loves pasta with olive oil, parmesan, and nothing else.

soup

One thing I’ve learned from Mona is that the traditional Italian diet is a peasant diet, and is based on the lowly triumvirate of greens, grains, and beans. My soup takes two of those categories, in the form of farro, red lentils, and split peas, and swaps the greens for carrots and onions. I also threw in some chunks of fatty pork belly (i.e. bacon) for flavor. This is the easiest comfort food to make, and is good for locavores in the winter (I’m jumping the gun, here) because it involves dry and long-lived root ingredients.

Start by sauteing bacon, carrots, shallots or onions, and garlic. Bring broth to a simmer, and pour in a cup of farro combined with split peas and red lentils. Dump in the veggies, after they caramelize, and simmer until it’s all tooth-tender. You can add more water or broth if it gets too low. And you can season to your pleasure. Tonight, because it was mainly for Jack, I just used a parmesan rind, salt, and pepper. Other nights, I might have used a combination of lemon and marjoram or thyme; or cumin, cayenne, and coriander. In any case, it will benefit from a drizzle of flavorful olive oil (my bottle says “gusto forte”) and a sprinkling of grated cheese. Yum.

A chunk of bread and a glass of hearty red helps too.

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Fall and Rainbows in Rome

Posted in Baking, Cheese, Dairy, Shopping, Sweet Things, Whimsical, tagged American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, Antica Caciari Rome, Antico Forno Roscioli Rome, Canestro Rome, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, locavore Rome, Rome locavore, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on October 13, 2009| 2 Comments »

Fall fell in a swirl of branches, leaves, and whole trees. Yesterday afternoon, we watched the pines and bamboo swaying in circles as the wind picked up. Rain fell hard, and stopped quickly. And then, the most magnificent double rainbow I’ve ever seen arched across the Rome skyline, and the mountains, free from the haze after a long hot summer, seemed etched into the sky. This morning, the air was crisp, about 15 degrees cooler than yesterday’s, and smoke from burning piles of brush signaled the arrival of autumn. We rode the bus to our usual stop, just past Piazza Ottavilla, where we saw a huge pile of downed trees and branches. Later, I ran through the park at Villa Pamphili, and saw huge old pines and palms lying broken on the grass.

I had spent the morning on a long market circuit in Trastevere, stopping at my favorite shops: Antica Caciari for fresh ricotta, Canestro for organic cereals, grains, lentils, and peanut butter, and Antico Forno Roscioli for delicious bread and un cornetto integrale–a whole wheat croissant with bitter honey inside. I knew I’d found an amazing baker when I saw the impossible combination of whole wheat flecks and buttery thin flaky pastry. How do they do it?

I love walking around Trastevere because of its spider web of narrow off-angle streets that open onto beautiful architectural surprises.

Trast. arch

Rena sent me on a hunt for this place, which carries organic milk in a little fridge near the door.

checco

nut tart

Wow! It looks pretty, but what would it be like actually to eat this nutty tart?

The Fontana d’Acqua Paolo, seen from the pedestrian bridge, Ponte Sisto, jutting up at the top of the hill, marked the line I’d need to walk to find the steep set of stairs that would lead me up the hill back home.

Ponte sisto

And now, the pictures we’ve all been waiting for…

Il Arcobaleno!

I’d been cooking dinner, when Jack, sitting at the high counter in the kitchen, said, “there’s a huge rainbow in the sky.” Uh huh. I was busy. But then, I decided to look, and couldn’t believe it. We ran down the stairs, but not before Jack resourcefully thought to pull on his puddle boots. We buzzed Lulu and Jesse’s apartment, and ran outside with them to stand in the street. The rainbow made a full half-circle. And then we realized it was doubled by a fainter, inverted rainbow above:

double bow

Peter called down from the terrace, where everyone else was watching it.

Peter on terrace

The view from up there was even more amazing.

arc from terrace

arc terr 2

Jack

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back to the garden

Posted in Fruit, Vegetables, 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 September 25, 2009| 1 Comment »

So, yes, there are bananas from Ecuador at all of the markets here, and much of the beef comes from Brazil. But this is also the land of plenty when it comes to local foods. When my new friend Anna and I were walking with our little ones around the Bass Garden here at the American Academy the other day, we just kept saying, “wow, isn’t this paradise?” Here’s a sampling of what we saw—in this over-the-top edible yard (and this is after much of the summer vegetable garden has been tilled under).

One last lonely cherry tomato:

a little tomato

Plum trees so heavy with clusters, the fruit is dropping to the ground:

plum cluster

Olive trees dripping with thousands of olives:

olives

Fig trees, not with fruit this late, but still with a beautiful canopy:

fig canopy

Grapes:

grapes

Also growing in plentiful patches here are hot peppers, sage, and persimmons.

Anna and I, along with Lulu and Jack (4) and Jesse (2), took a leisurely tour of the garden, stopping to admire and sample all of the fruit, and to take a drink from the gurgling fountain:

water fountain

Jack and Lulu also floated things down the irrigation canal—something of a mini Roman aqueduct for their world of miniature boats and barges:

waiting for boats

The water flows into a basin with a drain and a spigot. To turn on the water at this end, you twist the little quail pictured above.

Our tour concluded when we saw a thunderhead approaching, above the umbrella pines:

thunderhead

This post is just an appreciation of beauty…. Soon, though, I’d like to address some questions—hinted at above—that I’ve been looking into about what local eating means in Rome, about pesticides and organics in Italy, and about farm sizes and types. Stay tuned.

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Essentials

Posted in Dairy, Eggs, Shopping, tagged American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, Canestra Rome, Castroni Rome, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, Rome locavore, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on September 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

There are certain food items my family would be unhappy to do without: eggs, milk, peanut butter, and basil. Only one of these items is not a regular part of the Italian diet.

I had heard that the big, fancy gourmet food store near the Vatican, Castroni, was the place to find peanut butter. This store is amazing for its glittering array of precious victuals. The pleasure is in gazing at the novelties, and not in purchasing. There is one high shelf in particular that had me staring in dumbstruck awe. Call it a shrine to American cravings.

Castroni

For the sorry traveler who feels deprived and disappointed by what Rome has to offer in the edible realm, here is his Skippy, her Betty Crocker. See the size of the Skippy jar? See the price tag, in euros, above it (3.90)? The cravings must be strong, indeed. This was not the place for me to buy peanut butter.

I asked my friend Jeannie where to get it. She told me about Canestra, a health food store in Trastevere, not far from the cheese shop where I got the ricotta. This is what I’ve been looking for:

peanut butter

It’s organic (biologico) but not local; it’s made in Germany.

The other items on my list of essentials are very local. The milk and eggs are from the immediate region of Rome. We buy them from the Rome Sustainable Food Project. The milk is whole, unpasteurized, and delicious—especially frothed up in the form of a cappuccino made by Alessandro at the Academy bar.

milk & capp