You can grow an apple tree with seeds from an apple, but don’t wait around for any apples from that tree…. because it won’t produce any unless you graft your apple tree.  WHAT? Have you ever wondered why the cherry tree you bought from your local garden center never produces any cherries?  It was probably never grafted.

grafting diagram from tutorvista.com

Grafting a fruit tree or Innestare in Italian is to add a branch of an existing fruiting tree to another tree in order for it to produce fruit.  There are many ways to graft a tree and for a few hours my Zio Gino gave me a crash course in tree grafting.  A walk around his garden with the bounty of various types of trees will soon convince you of his expertise.  He knows more than one way to graft a tree and why one way is better than another depending on the type of tree your grafting.  Many Italians are master tree grafters… there’s a reason why the fruit trees that Italians own actually bear fruit! Do any come to mind?

So the next time you see a fruit tree that doesn’t produces fruit… you’ll know why.

The sweetest Yellow Plums you'll ever taste

Mad Scientist - Half Lemon, Half Mandarin Orange

The half lemon, half manderin orange tree above actually produces lemons on one side and manderin oranges on the other!!

It’s not unusual to see old abandoned homes in southern Italy… so when we took a walk to see my uncle’s childhood home (not far from his own) I asked him who owned it and why it was abandoned.  The answer was that he did, along with his brothers and sisters.  It was left to them by their parents and since they all had either moved away or had homes of their own, they couldn’t decide what to do with it.  They had refused offers from business men, families and countless others because no one could agree.  I’m sure there are many similar stories all over Italy.  So what once was alive with voices and daily chores is now silent and overgrown… but if you look a little deeper, beauty still lives there.

I did a post on Italian doors a while back… but something else caught my eye this time around:  Fountains.  Fountains can be found all over Italy in many different styles and in many different places.  Some Italians find the fountain they think has the best tasting water and go back again and again to fill up bottles and jugs.  I went to a fountain in the mountains this past trip with my cousins that was about 45 minutes from their home… we passed plenty of fountains on the way that obviously didn’t have the quality drinking water they were looking for.

These fountains however, are the ones that dot cities and towns.  Most aren’t used very often anymore but I imagine people would actually come to these fountains for water once.  Even though they aren’t used as they once were, there’s a certain beauty to them. Don’t you think?

Feroleto Antico (CZ), Calabria

Feroleto Antico (CZ), Calabria

Pizzo Calabro (VV), Calabria

San Michele (CZ), Calabria

I remember washing my hands and drinking from the fountain above when I was a kid in my father’s hometown of San Michele.

Last year I posted on “Grispelle” and la Grispellissima festival that is held December 8th in Feroleto Antico, where my family is from in Calabria but I didn’t include a recipe… so here it is.  My family makes a fried potato-dough with and without anchovies every year at Christmas time: We call them grispelle & monacialli but they also have other names depending on where in Calabria you are from.  Grispelle are doughnut shaped without  anchovies and monacialli are small balls with anchovies inside.

Monacialli

Grispelle

What you’ll need:

• 5 pound bag of all-purpose flour
• 4-5 large potatoes (we use Idaho potatoes)
• Fresh yeast (about 2 oz)
• Salt
• Grated Parmigiano or Romano cheese
• Vegetable oil
• Canned anchovies in oil (for monacialli)

What you need to do: Peel your potatoes and boil them until they are soft enough to put through a potato ricer.  Once you have riced your potatoes, place them in a large bowl and add some of the water used to boil the potatoes.  Mix together until you have a thick potato/water mixture with no lumps (run your fingers through the water or strain the water to remove any potato chunks.) Let the potato water cool.   Place the yeast in a bowl of warm water breaking it up with your hands until it is completely dissolved and then add it to your potato water.  Now place your flour, salt and grated cheese in a large bowl and slowly add your potato water as needed to make your dough.  The dough should have a soft and fluffy consistency.

Potato Water

Let the dough rise for 1.5 – 2 hours.  We cover the bowl with a dish cloth and a blanket in order to keep the dough warm and speed up the process.  When the dough is ready it should be soft and airy.

Once your dough is ready, you’ll need to oil down a large area (table, counter top, etc.) with vegetable oil.  This is done so that the uncooked grispelle and monacialli don’t stick to the surface before you cook them as the dough is very sticky.  Also set aside a bowl of oil to dunk your hands in while working the dough.

For monacialli, grab a small piece of dough and stretch it flat in your hands, then add a whole anchovy fillet and wrap the anchovy with the dough (see video below.) Place the monacialli on your oily surface while you make others.  This will allow the dough to rise slightly before frying.

For grispelle, take a small piece of dough and poke a whole through the middle to create a doughnut shape and lay them on your oily surface while you make others.

Heat some vegetable oil in a large sauce or frying pan (use enough oil so that the grispelle and monacialli float while frying.)  Add your monacialli or grispelle and cook on both sides until golden brown.  Let cool and eat!

Grispelle are great on their own but you can also sprinkle sugar on them or dunk them in honey or maple syrup… as you can imagine, the kids love them this way.  I’m a monacialli kind of guy.  Whichever you prefer, enjoy and buon appetito!

PS – BUON ANNO A TUTTI!!

When my parents grew up in Calabria “la Cucina Povera” was in full affect.  La Cucina Povera is simply making use of everything/not wasting anything but at the same time creating dishes that don’t sacrifice in taste or goodness.  La Cucina Povera emerged due to economic circumstances but continues today in many parts of Italy not only because of economic circumstances but also for the deliciousness of the cuisine and traditions that were created.  Some recipes have become mainstream – pizza, polenta, spaghetti cacio e pepe while others are regional or less known.  La Cucina Povera is more than just recipes however… it’s a way of life.  Foraging for greens or mushrooms, eating the stems and roots (when others throw them out.)

Which brings me to frisoli.  In the spring, a lot of families (used to be more) in southern Italy buy piglets and raise them during the year feeding them scraps, acorns, bad castagne (chestnuts), etc. and in the winter months kill the pig to make sopressata, salsiccia, pancetta and much more.  Everything would be used… I mean everything!  The blood would be fried, the lard used for soap, the feet were eaten, skin, ears… and so on.  In order not to make the cured meats too fatty, some of the fat is cut away but there are also small pieces of meat that remain with the fat.  The fat is then boiled down and the result it frisoli!  It’s not for the light hearted, the dieter or you whole grain pasta eaters but take a tablespoon of frisoli and mix them in with scrambled eggs and you get a party in your mouth! Another way to use frisoli is to bake them in bread… out of this world!  Gotta love la Cucina Povera!

When my mother was growing up in Calabria most families made their own bread because they simply couldn’t afford to buy it.  What they also did was share yeast in a very creative way.  After making the dough, they would put a small piece aside (that already included yeast) and they would use it to make the next batch of bread.

They would also share this “yeast dough”  with neighbors and friends that were making bread and retrieve it from whoever last made bread to continue the process.  The small piece of dough was placed in a bowl and covered until someone asked for it.  It often formed a hard outer shell but the inside was soft and could be added to a new batch of dough.

A great way to save money during tough times.

Little shops like the one in the photo Jady sent me below have a romantic feel to them don’t they?  It makes me smile to see all the colors, fresh (probably local) products and down to earth owners that live in the community and care about their business and customers.  There’s also a beauty in the tradition of closing at noon/1pm and reopening again at 4pm after a hearty lunch and well deserved afternoon nap.  The mom & pop shop has long been a part of Italian life and culture.  When I was a child, I also remember the mobile fish salesman and other mobile salesman that would drive from town to town and shout out what they had as they slowly drove to the main piazza.  People would walk out of their homes to buy products that were fresh from the docks or orchards and it was delicious.

On my last visit to Calabria this past April, I was sad to see that a large shopping mall had opened between Lamezia Terme and Catanzaro called “Centro Commerciale Due Mari” and I noticed that many of the small mom & pop shops in the towns near my grandparents’ home had closed.  As always there are pros and cons.  The Centro Commerciale has created jobs and it’s slightly cheaper to buy groceries at the mega grocery store they have there but in my opinion, they have lost so much more!  When you lose the mom & pop shops you also lose people and when there are no shops and no people, you lose “la passeggiata”… which as many of you know is the “walk” usually down the main strip to people watch and see friends and eat a gelato.  So go to your shopping mall and walk around in circles on several levels…  that’s just as fun right? It seems to me that here in the US we are trending away from shopping malls and back towards small and local.  I hope that’s true and if it is, I couldn’t be happier. At the end of the day, we may save a few dollars at the mall or Walmart but look at what we’re giving up? DOWN WITH SHOPPING MALLS!

Photo credit: jonnybaird on flickr

On a clear day as the sun sets into the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west coast of Calabria…. you get a truly beautiful sunset and a great look at the volcano – Stromboli.  Stromboli is still very active and had it’s last major eruption August 2, 2008 (according to wikipedia) but is said to be in a constant state of eruption.  That doesn’t stop people from living on the island or visiting Stromboli (Stromboli is one of the most visited volcanoes on the planet… as apposed to the ones on Mars??)   These photos were taken from the balcony of my Uncle’s house during my last trip in March.

Gotta love the Zoom lens!

One of the most unique and beautiful tourist attractions in Calabria in my opinion is, “la Chiesetta Di Piedigrotta” in Pizzo Calabro. Pizzo Calabro is a picturesque fishing town on the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria and la Chiesetta Di Piedigrotta is actually located on the road into town on the SS 522, about 4km from the “Pizzo Calabro” exit off the Autostrada A3.

Legend has it that in the mid 1600s a ship was sailing off the coast of Pizzo Calabro with a crew of sailors when they encountered a violent storm.  The captain, sure that the ship would not survive the storm gathered his crew and prayed to the Madonna promising that if they survived the ordeal that they would build a church in her honor.  The ship was destroyed on the reef but the captain and crew reached the shore unharmed.  The sailors kept their promise and built an alter in an existing cave on the shore where local stone-cutters mining blocks of tufo (tuff or tufa) would take refuge from the rain.

Over the years, local artists and stone-cutters would continue to carve statues and scenes in the cave.  La Chiesetta Di Piedigrotta is carved entirely of tufo/tuff stone and is situated on the shore… high tides sometimes reach inside la Chiesetta.  It is an amazing site that shouldn’t be missed if you visit Calabria.  Entry to La Chiesetta Di Piedigrotta used to be free but they now charge 3 Euro.  Tickets can be purchased at the bar on the road above la Chiesetta (make sure to buy your tickets before walking down the long trail that leads to it!!)  For more information, visit the website www.chiesettadipiedigrotta.it

For other attractions in Calabria check out Cherrye’s post at My Bella Vita  Five Great Things to See in Calabria.