Hosts Sara, Michelle, & Jessica talk about the recent building collapse at Pompeii, Berlusconi’s latest comments that are drawing attention, and a new charge against Amanda Knox. Later, we’re joined by author Rosetta Costantino, author of the new cookbook My Calabria, who will share her love of Calabrian cooking with us.
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Eye on Italy News Stories:
- Building Collapses at Pompeii; Pompeii’s building collapse calls for privatisation of city; Pompeii’s ‘House of the Gladiators’ Collapses; Italian Government Accused of Neglecting World Heritage Site
- Premier: “Meglio passione per le donne che gay”; Berlusconi: Better to Love Women than Gays
- Knox indicted for slander commentbegins hearing for slander comment (and Colin Firth starring in UK Knox movie!) & Italian judge oks slander trial for Knox
- Italian museums protest cuts with closures on 12 November 2010
Special Guest:
Rosetta Costantino (@RosettaCalabria on Twitter) is the author of the new cookbook, My Calabria: Rustic Family Cooking from Italy’s Undiscovered South. She was born and raised in Verbicaro, Calabria until her family moved to California when she was fourteen. In 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle did a story on her family called “Calabria from Scratch — Foods of Calabria,” which showed Rosetta just how much interest there is in Calabrian cuisine . . . and so My Calabria, the cookbook, was born. Rosetta also now does culinary tours to Calabria, which include cooking classes.
- Website: Cooking with Rosetta
- Blog: Calabria from Scratch
- Facebook: My Calabria
GIVEAWAY: As promised, we are giving away a copy of Rosetta’s My Calabria to one lucky listener. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to listen to the podcast and then comment here with an answer to this question:
Based on Rosetta’s interview, what aspect of Calabria or Calabrian cuisine are you most interested in exploring further?
Note the contest will run until November 22nd, and is open only to those with North American shipping addresses by the publisher’s restrictions.
Eye on Italy Angolo d’Italiano:
- appassionato/a
- to be passionate about something
Eye on Italy Picks of the Week:
- Sara: Free (unregistered) wifi in Italy in 2011 (more on Blog from Italy)
- Michelle: Don’t Get Caught with Dirty Drawers…and 64 Other Tips for Traveling in Calabria by Cherrye Moore, My Bella Vita (Eye on Italy guest on Episode 3: Doggie Bags? Over My Dead Body); Giveaway of three copies of Rosetta’s book at Bleeding Espresso.
- Jessica: Herculaneum, another city preserved by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius; personally, I prefer it to Pompeii.
- Deal of the Week:
- 9-night trip in Rome, Florence, Tuscany with airfare, hotel/villa, rail transfers, car rental, wine tasting (plus hotel taxes & airline fuel surcharges) from $1299 – dates in November-March
- See the WhyGo Italy travel deals page for the latest travel deals
Video of the week:
- Nichy Vendola, (gay) governor of Puglia responds to Berlusconi on YouTube
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I visited Rome, Panzano and Florence recently and fell in love with the different cuisines of the areas. I have tried to reproduce some of the dishes that I experienced in Italy and have had some successes. Having a first taste of Italy, I would love to experience more of the varied local traditional dishes prior to my eventual return to Italy. Calabria would be a perfect place to learn about the cuisine of southern Italy and how the local produce there influences the local cooking.
Living in Louisiana, we eat things that most people are not familiar with such as crawfish, boudin, gumbo, jambalaya, couche-couche just to name a few. Therefore I feel that I can appreciate the variety of foods that Calabrians are noted for.
Leslie Vincent
Great podcast. It hits close to home as part of my family is from Calabria. A very underestimated region, but maybe we can keep that one for ourselves. 😉
Right on Rosetta. Your idea for a cooking show has me thinking…
My next trip to Italy will be to Calabria so I can’t wait to discover what’s in store for me. Where should I go, what should I look for when I’m there? I’m very curious to know what are those ingredients that every Calabrian cook should have in her/his pantry. As a fan of salumi, this aspect of the regional cuisine intrigues me. As a lover of eggplant, I would love to learn more about the ubiquitous preserved eggplant.
My interest is in understanding the regional differences of Italian cuisine. Calabrian cooking seems to be very unique and, as in many other regions, dictated by local ingredients. It is great that there are authors who are willing to focus and deal in depth with regional specialties rather than try to cover more recipe geography just to appeal to a broader base of readers/cooking enthusiasts. We need more books like Rosetta’s!
I really loved the link to the Google street view for Pompeii, thanks for that!
I love the idea of recipes with simple ingredients and easy to make. I love cooking and want to keep learning different regional dishes of Italy besides what I learned from my own Italian family. I have some dried peperoncini from my garden and I just don’t know what to do with it! Help!!! I need this cookbook!
I always enjoy these pod-casts! I listened tonight while I made pie doughs for Thanksgiving. As the wife of a Calabrian I am always looking for authentic recipes. My mother-in-law taught me many by the “watch and learn” method, which Rosetta spoke about, but sadly she passed away many years ago. I am always looking for the elusive baby eggplants stuffed with a potato bread mixture that my husband’s town in Reggio Calabria makes. It seems they are very specific to his town, and a few nearby, like Siderno. I try many combinations but nothing tastes as good as what my mother-in-law made. They also make a semolina flour and potato yeast dough bread which they twist around an anchovy and fry. It was a savory holiday treat, and so good! I’d love to win Rosetta’s cookbook as I’d love to learn more about preserving foods. It’s definitely on my amazon.com wish list for Christmas!
Having spent most of my time in Italy in Tuscany, it’s exciting to hear about some southern cooking. Those pictures are absolutely stunning, and how great would it be to have a little piece of Italy back in my kitchen!
Ann, you were selected for the My Calabria! Send us your mailing address! 🙂
My favorite Italian food comes from southern Italy where my grandparents emigrated from. Would love My Calabria cookbook