The Great Italian Adventure: Summertime Diversions

We are into the seriously hot weather in July. I think we have only had two rains since May, so it is dry as well. There are thunderstorms in the forecast for next week which is nice for the garden to get some moisture but, if it is like last time, it simply raises the humidity to a steam bath when it clears off!

Summertime clothes
I totally understand the reason lightweight, all cotton clothing is the thing here; no synthetics cause they don't breathe. Men continue to wear suits at work with jackets, ties and long sleeve shirts although they are lighter summer fabrics.

Hot Weather Meals
The Italians eat very seasonally so as you might expect, the summer diet is lots of fruits and vegetables. Very little meat is eaten in the summertime but a fair amount of fish. Grilling is popular, and always pasta!

One of my favorite beverages is limonata (lemonade). It can be carbonated or not, depending on where you get it. I mix iced tea (made a lot stronger than the Italians typically drink it) with chilled limonata, add ice and I am a happy girl! Lemons are grown all over Italy and used for about everything. So when you get limonata here, the good stuff is fresh lemons (no additives or coloring and just slightly sweet). Yum!

Fresh lemonade

Another favorite is lemon granita in my iced tea. I am making my own granita these days since we have our own lemon trees.

Lemon granita

Zucchine, Melanzane and Pomodori

These are staple vegetables in the Italian diet and plentiful in July but certainly in other months as well. Ours have produced in July because we were late getting them in the ground. All of these love the hot, sunny weather of Southern Italy.

There are several zucchini types in Italy I don't see in the US but as far as I can tell, they all taste about the same. Italians favor small zucchini -- about 6 inches long. The ones in my garden are too big, so my Italian friends have told me. Actually, I thought so too and would have picked them sooner but I couldn't get in the garden to get them before they got too big. I would let them get bigger than the Italians do though. Italians also use the zucchini flowers in several dishes as well.

Zucchini flowers are sometimes fried alone, sometimes put into small fritter type appetizers

I got an impromptu cooking lesson from my friend Sabina yesterday. Both of these recipes she called salads.

Fried Zucchini
She sliced one of the smaller zucchini about 1/4 inch thick and fried the slices in a small saucepan with about 3/4 inches of hot olive oil for about 10 minutes on a medium sizzle. As they finished she put them into a dish. They were golden brown and not greasy. Then when they were all fried, she added salt generously, a little of my garlic powder and vinegar. All I had was regular white vinegar and she said I should have balsamic vinegar. It was surprisingly good. Also, I should have fresh mint leaves and fresh garlic, instead of the powdered. I took a little teasing about that as Italians want everything very fresh.

Fried Melanzane with Tomatoes
Next she cut a small melanzane (eggplant) into a small 1/2 inch pieces. (The ones I am growing are more similar to the Japanese eggplant but a little bigger around and shorter). She had them soaking in salted water for a while as she cooked the zucchini first. When ready to cook the eggplant, she took handfuls out of the water, squeezed out the moisture and then put it right into the hot olive oil.

Italian eggplant - melanzane

As the eggplant fried, she chopped up some onion and added that, some garlic powder (again I should have fresh), and a little water as she said the eggplant is hard and needs the extra water. I was expecting a lot of splattering by adding water to the sizzling oil, but it was fine. Toward the last, she added a couple heaping tablespoons of canned chopped tomatoes, and a few fresh basil leaves. Then she turned off the heat and let it all sit for about 10 min. It was quite delicious.

It sounds like a lot of oil, but since she used a small saucepan and cooked a little bit at the time, it really probably wasn't that much. By the time we were done, there was no oil left.

City Park of Mercogliano
On my Saturday morning walks, I always go up to the little park and enjoy it for a bit. It sits on a triangular corner on a hillside, so the park is really on two levels. It is a pretty shaded spot where I always see the nonni (grandparents) with their nipote (grandchildren).