Becoming Italian Word by Word

Happy 10th Birthday to LA BELLA LINGUA!

Whether you're a parent or an author, your first born always remains close to your heart.

This month marks a landmark birthday for my first book on Italy and its culture: LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language. My publisher is celebrating with a not-to-be-missed offer: a digital copy for just $1.99 — less than the price of, well, almost everything —downloadable here or at other online book retailers until May 5.

A book that keeps selling long after publication is said to “have legs." I like to think that LA BELLA LINGUA sprouted wings that continue to carry it to new readers and to bring wonderful new people into my life. In its eventful first decade, LA BELLA LINGUA became a best-seller in the United States, Canada and Australia, the subject of an acrostic (as well as a best-seller) in the New York Times, and the topic of several dissertations by Italian graduate students. In 2011 the President of Italy awarded me the highest recognition the government can bestow on a foreigner: a knighthood, with the title of Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity) for the contributions LA BELLA LINGUA has made in promoting the Italian language. It is currently being translated into Italian—and Chinese!

Most gratifying to me has been the response of readers--from Vancouver to Paris to Sydney to Singapore. An artist who lives on a remote ranch in South Africa wrote that LA BELLA LINGUA  inspired her  lush paintings of Italian fountains and gardens.  A humanities professor in New York confessed that for two months he kept LA BELLA LINGUA in his  car, “bringing it out when I stopped at a wine bar for a drink or a bite to eat. And now that I have finished--what am I to do?”

A college student recalled choosing LA BELLA LINGUA from all the titles in a bookstore as a middle-schooler, reading it every year since, and learning Italian—first on her own, then in class. She based her college admissions essay on LA BELLA LINGUA’s being her favorite book and won a full scholarship to Northwestern. Still “wildly in love with languages," she wrote to say, “You changed my life irrevocably," and signed her note, "A grateful student."

LA BELLA LINGUA changed my life too. Through Italians I met while researching it, I discovered the largely unknown story of the real woman in Leonardo’s famous painting and wrote MONA LISA: A Life Discovered. This immersion in Renaissance Florence led to my most recent adventure: a quest for the secrets and sources of the fierce creative Italian  drive that has produced so many master works of art, music, crafts, food, wine, literature, cinema, fashion, and design. Just released, LA PASSIONE: How Italy Seduced the World  has been hailed as an " effervescent love letter to all things Italian” and a “delightful excursion into the heart of Italian culture.”

Whether you are Italian by birth or affinity, have visited or plan to visit Italy, are an armchair adventurer, or simply love pizza, pasta, or Prosecco, I invite you to get to know my literary “children.” But be forewarned: Like me and many of my readers, you might be swept away by la passione Italiana!

 

Secrets in Translation

Secrets of Limoncello
A guest post by Margo Sorenson

For my newest young adult/crossover adult novel, SECRETS IN TRANSLATION, set in la bella Italia, I had to do a lot of research, even though I spent my early childhood there and have visited often.

"Well!" you may be thinking, "Italy! Why not?  Of course, you'd want to research that!"

But besides researching the beautiful, drop-dead gorgeous location of the town of Positano on the Amalfi Coast, I had to find out a lot more about limoncello, the lemony liqueur with the piquant tang and a powerful punch. In Secrets, seventeen-year-old Alessandra's new boyfriend, Carlo, is the son of a renowned limoncello-producing family.  Carlo and Alessandra drink it (there is no legal drinking age in Italy, and a chapter takes place in the factory (fabbrica).

Ah, what a great research project! You're probably  imagining my downing multiple glasses of limoncello. Well, if I'd done that, the book would never have been finished! But I was surprised to find there are many unusual aspects about limoncello.

Limoncello is an inextricable part of life on the Amalfi Coast (Costiera amalfitana). Complimentary chilled glasses of the golden liqueur, "con i nostri complimenti," are served in many restaurants after your delicious meal. Often it is the restaurant's own recipe, made in the kitchen. The perfect answer to such an offer: Why not? (Perché no?)

Commercial limoncello production is carefully controlled by the Italian government. Its quality is based on the very specific lemon varieties known as IGP (similar to DOCG in wine) that are licensed to produce it, such as Sfusato Amalfitano and Massa Lubrense lemons. Limoncello producers closely guard their secret recipes, but if you have Italian friends, they may be willing to share their family recipe with you, often passed down from a grandmother (una nonna). The forty days of steeping are worth the wait!

“In this area we used to make limoncello at home,” my friend Carmela tells me, “so it is natural and savory, prepared with natural ingredients.” Here is her old family recipe:

*Marinate lemon peels (you need about 13 lemons) in about 4 ¼ cups of alcohol (95% alcohol, 190 proof) for 48 hours in a tightly closed jar. In the meantime, prepare a syrup by boiling about 3 ¾ cups of sugar in a quart of water. Let the peels sit for 48 hours.

*Let the syrup cool before adding it to the lemon peel mixture after its 48-hour rest.

*Strain and bottle, discarding the lemon zest.

*Let it steep in the well-closed bottle for 40 days—yes, 40!

Commercial limoncello factories have to respect specific rules about the ingredients, which must be local “IGP" (Indicazione Geografica Protetta) lemons, as naturally grown as possible, to meet strict hygiene regulations during production. There are also rules regarding shipping outside the country.

The only danger from drinking limoncello? Getting drunk. My advice: Sip slowly.

Cin-cin, everyone!

Words and Expressions

Limoni – lemons

Un ottimo digestivo – an excellent digestive

Ricetta—recipe

Limoncello è il popolarissimo liquore -- Limoncello is the most popular liqueur.

Author of twenty-eight books, Margo Sorenson spent the first seven years of her life in Spain and Italy, devouring books and Italian food. A former middle and high school teacher, Margo has won national recognition and awards for her writing. Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and her publisher.

Dianne Hales is the author of MONA LISA: A Life Discovered. \ LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language and  LA PASSIONE: How Italy Seduced the World (coming in April). 
 

The Art of Pizza in the Italian Language

Pizzaiuolo

Neapolitan for Pizza Maker

Just about everyone just about everywhere loves pizza. But of all its variations—thin crust, deep dish, folded, frozen, boxed, topped with everything from pepperoni to pineapple—there is only one true Neapolitan pizza (vera pizza napoletana), recently recognized by UNESCO as part of the “intangible cultural heritage of humanity.”

Culinary historians trace pizza back to a focaccia bread called picea baked in ovens in ancient Rome. The first Neapolitan pizzas were white, topped with garlic, lard and anchovies. In the 1600s the cooks of Naples began growing pomodori (“golden apples” or tomatoes) from seeds imported from the New World and “married” them with hand-worked dough. Hungry fishermen just back from the sea eagerly devoured flatbread topped with tomato and garlic—the original pizza marinara (sailors’ pizza).

Although initially a poor man’s food, pizza attracted fans from all classes. The Bourbon King Ferdinand I, ruler of Naples in the nineteenth century, would dress in shabby clothes to sneak into a local pizzeria. His successor Ferdinand II invited a pizzaiolo (Italian for pizza-maker) named Don Domenico Testa to come to his palace and bake pizzas for the ladies of the court. As a tribute he bequeathed to Testa the title Monsieur, usually reserved for the chefs de cuisine of royal households. Monsu, as the Neapolitans pronounced the honorific, became a nickname for the city’s pizza bakers.

One monsu created a classic in 1889, on the occasion of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita’s visit to the city. When the Queen requested a pizza, the pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito festooned it with green basil, white mozzarella and red tomatoes, the official colors of Italy’s new flag, to create the first pizza Margherita.

Emigrants carried their love of pizza to the United States, where it morphed into dozens of variations that bore little resemblance to true Neapolitan pizza. Neither the ingredients nor recipe for the original have changed over the centuries. The dough must be made only from flour, yeast, salt and water and kneaded by fist for at least fifteen minutes before it rests. In a process called staglio pizza-makers form panetti (balls of dough), which they extend with a skillful motion termed schiaffo (literally slap or smack) and may twirl in the air. Working from the center, they then add toppings with a clockwise, spiraling motion.

Each pizza is baked in a stone-lined, wood-fired oven, heated to a temperature of at least 750 degrees Fahrenheit. The cornicione (border) must be high and soft; the entire crust not overly crisp or at all soggy, with the ingredients melting together in two minutes or less.

I tasted my first true  Neapolitan pizza—several, in fact—at the bayside terrace of the Hotel Transatlantico in Naples, baked by master pizzaiolo Luciano Forte (above). Each was a work of culinary art, blending the flavors of well-baked bread, slightly acidic tomatoes, melt-in-your-mouth local mozzarella  and tangy oregano, garlic or basil.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay area, you can taste Neapolitan pizza without a passport. Beginning April 10, the Consulate General of Italy, the Italian Cultural Institute and the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (Association of True Neapolitan Pizza) are sponsoring a series of tastings and events. Click here for a complete calendar. Buon Appetito!

Words and Expressions

UNESCO recognized two varieties—marinara and Margherita—as cultural treasures, but other types include:

Napoletana – tomato, mozzarella, anchovies, oregano, capers

Capricciosa – mozzarella, mushrooms, small artichokes, prosciutto cotto, olives, olive oil

Romana – tomato, mozzarella, anchovies, oregano, olive oil

Diavola – tomato, mozzarella, spicy salami, oregano, olive oil

Quattro formaggi -- four cheeses: provolone, Parmesan, Gruyere, pecorino

Quattro stagioni – four seasons: same ingredients as capricciosa but arranged in separate sections rather than mixed •

Dianne Hales is the author of MONA LISA: A Life Discovered and LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language.