Provolone cheese facts:

• Provolone originated in southern Italy, and has been made there since Roman times. However, it is currently mainly produced in northern Italy.
• Provolone cheese has two distinct types. Provolone Dolce is aged for 2-3 months and has a pale yellowish white color and sweet taste. Provolone Piccante is aged for more than four months and has a sharper taste. In America, most Provolone is Provolone Dolce.
• Provolone is high in calcium and protein but  is also high in sodium.
• It is a full fat cow’s milk cheese, but also can be made from buffalo milk.
• Provolone is semi-hard and smooth to the touch, and has a mild, smoky flavor because it is aged in a room next to an open fire.
• Due to its mild, buttery flavor, provolone cheese is versatile and is often sliced and used for sandwiches, grated onto soups, pizza or salads, or melted…

Whenever we talk to students about their study abroad experience after coming home, there is a recurring theme that each and every student will talk about for hours.

Food.

Whether it’s Italy’s  pasta, Spain’s churros, or Asia’s curry, the tastes of our destinations stick with us. Like an old song, we seek out those forgotten flavors in hopes of recreating our experiences abroad. But no matter how great the corner bakery may be,  it’s just never the same as snagging a market baguette in Paris, is it? Not.Even.Close.

Instead of paying oodles to try (and fail) to recapture what you ate while abroad at an American restaurant, I suggest making it yourself.

When I was in Rome, I had the unique opportunity to take a weekend cooking class with a few other students through my host institution, the Lorenzo de Medici. Our chef/teacher/guru was Giordano Franci, a professor at LdM…

Let’s go get them… 

At springtime Puglia’s outback is at its best, the usual very dry landscape becomes all intense green. What better way to enjoy all this beauty  hunting wild asparagus?

My experienced, 80-yaers old friend told me to look near the muretti in secco, they hide overthere because they love rocky land.

Surprised as I was I found a whole lot of them, eventough others came before me, found a lot without top, Italians don’t waist any nature’s gift…

Recipe

__________________________________

Let’s honour them in a very simple risotto

(You can easily use the normal, green asparagus)

Ingredients:

• Asparagus
• 1/4 dry white wine
• Parmigiano
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped shallots
• About 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock (you can use a knorr square melted in water)
• salt
• some parsley
• rice for risotto (carnarolo is the best ricetype to make risotto)

Method:

1. Fry the shopped shallots  in some olive…

VENICE DAY 3

After a day of chilly off and on rain, we were thrilled to wake to sun. We scampered onto our shuttle intending to make our way to Rialto bridge via Frari Church and Scuola San Rocco. With the better weather, we made a last minute decision to make a trip to neighboring islands instead.

Unfortunately, confusion about the public boat schedules combined with pushy crowds left us stuck under cover on a boat stop during the only sun of the day. By the time we finally muscled our way onto a vaporetto packed to standing room only, the weather had turned raw. It’s a 45-minute ride to Murano, which would be more than tolerable if you have a seat, but smushed against the steel wall of a hull made me feel less like a tourist on vacation and more like cattle.

On the way to Murano, you…