At Warwick’s in La Jolla. Photographer Steven Rothfeld on right.

At Genentech:

At Left Bank in Larkspur CA:

Above is the reunion of the crew that made the film Under the Tuscan Sun. On either side of me are Audrey Wells, screenwriter and director, and Diane Lane, our star. Magic evening at photographer Greg Gorman’s house. He’s beside Audrey.

Many places I went were restaurants in corporations and museums. They’re owned by Bon Appetit Management–all green, organic, super good and staffed by terrific chefs, all of whom cooked from our book. The lunch at Terzo Piano, Art Institute of Chicago, lived up to its dazzling setting in the Renzo Piano wing. Umm, long braised quail with junier berries, delicate sformato, vegetables. Dessert was my favorite Wine Cake.

The Williams Sonoma events were everywhere fun and so well organized.  Great staffs–must be a good company to work for. (And imagine the discount!)

Below, with the chef and restaurant manager at Yahoo. Those who work in those tech giant places are pampered. They have dry cleaning, oil change, teeth cleaning, even free cappuccino all day!  Clever name.

Above, at Book Passage in the San Francisco fabulous market Ferry Building. We’re with a friend from Twitter, @tutti_dolci. She brought us pecan oatmeal icebox cookies and we ate them in the car en route to Meadowood Resort:

Last stop was Barnes & Noble in Cary NC. B & N did a grand job with displays in their stores. Still odd to me to walk in a bookstore and see my books like this.  Not like the old days when I wrote poetry.

Now The Tuscan Sun Cookbook is launched in the world and is on its own legs. I hope they’re sturdy, as mine were during such a long and varied and exciting tour.

We are back in Tuscany, savoring the glorious artichokes and asparagus and agretti and myriad lettuces in the market. Last night Gilda, who is a butcher by craft and one of the world’s most amazingly innovative cooks, brought over a cut of beef called “tasca,” (pocket.) It comes from near the stomach. She stuffed it with ground veal, garlic, breadcrumbs and artichoke hearts. She braised it for about forty minutes and we could cut it with a fork.  ”For your next cookbook,” she said, “something almost lost. Only my oldest customers remember this.”

Next cookbook?  I’ll have to think on that. Right now, I’m happily home at Bramasole, reading, walking, gardening, thinking of a new project.  A summer to invent.

]]> http://www.francesmayesbooks.com/2012/05/15/wish-i-had-taken-more-photos/feed/ 4 http://www.francesmayesbooks.com/2012/04/17/semi-demi-finale-plus-news/ http://www.francesmayesbooks.com/2012/04/17/semi-demi-finale-plus-news/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:53:42 +0000 Frances Mayes http://www.francesmayesbooks.com/?p=1455 Buona sera,

The initial tour for The Tuscan Sun Cookbook will come to a grand finale at Antonia’s, a neighborhood restaurant in Hillsborough NC this Thursday, 19 April,  at 6:30. We will be happy to see many friends who have begun to forget us because we’ve been busy or gone for so long!  Claudia is setting up long tables, and Bramasole Olive Oil will grace each one.

Here’s her favoloso menu for the evening:

Hors d’oeuvres

Roasted Olives, Salami and Prosciutto

Bruschetta: Roasted Tomato, Roasted Garlic, Pea and Shallots,

Red Pepper with Balsamic Vinegar, Cannellini Beans and Sage

Prosecco, Luna Argenta

Antipasti

Caprese

Fried Zucchini Flowers

Fried Artichokes

Bresaola rolled with Robiola and Rughetta

Primi

Orecchiette with Shrimp

Pear Agnolotti with Gorgonzola and Walnuts

Risotto Primavera

Entrees

Ed’s Pork Roast

Chicken with Artichokes, Sundried Tomatoes and ChickPeas

Grilled Vegetables

Contorni

Domenica’s Rosemary Potatoes

Zucchini with Lemon Pesto

Dogajolo Rosso, Carpineto, Tuscany

Dogajolo Bianco, Carpineto, Tuscany

Dolci

Torta della Nonna

Ricotta Tart

Ed’s Cantucci

Sangue di Giuda, Casteggio

–

Antoniashillsborough.com
Antonia’s Restaurant
101 N.Churton Street
Hillsborough

The event sold out quickly but there are always last minute cancellations, no? Call Claudia if you’re interested. All the above photos are by Steven Rothfeld, taken for the book, except for the Torta della Nonna. (Can’t you tell who took that one!)  Steven was with us for the California part of the tour so he got to hear directly how gorgeous his photos are. All were taken in natural light, most in our gardens, at Bramasole, and at our mountain house. All the photography is natural–nothing sprayed or gelled or oiled. We ate every bite after the shots. What luck! To work with someone whose vision matches your own. I wanted the book to show the ease, spontaneity, and beauty of Tuscan food. He did too. We did all our own styling, with a visit from my friend Kim Sunée, who joined in the fun of cooking and styling.  What a pleasure all this was. And a lot of very hard work as well. Same with the tour. I loved meeting readers of the blog along the way! The trip was glorious and long and exhilarating and exhausting. Kiss the ground. We’re home!

In the first sentence, I said “initial” tour. We’ll be going back to Napa Valley, California for a few events still shaping up. But one is certain–a big, splashy, glamorous evening at Signorello Vineyards  signorellovineyards.com on 22 July–a vineyard feast! We’re pairing with The Festival del Sole festivaldelsole.org for a grand feast and a concert with violinist Joshua Bell. The dinner is also a Tweet Fest, developed by Chef Robin White. See her website for details, www.chefrobinwhite.com .  This concept involves parallel dinners happening around the world at the same time and everyone Tweeting about it as it progresses. So, groups of friends cook the same menu, drink the same wines, and form an invisible but palpable bond during the dinner.  It sounds new and fun. Tickets to the dinner at the vineyard and the concert with Joshua Bell are available now. There also will be a pizza party and book signing from 11-2 on 21 July. Check the Signorello website above for more details.  More on all this will be appearing here and on Robin’s website.

Finally, and so marvelous—Fodors, with American Express and Alitalia, are honoring the cookbook by sponsoring a trip for two to Tuscany during the olive oil harvest this fall. Look at their website for details and DO enter! www.fodors.com/sweepstakes/under-the-tuscan-sun See you at Bramasole?

Here we are with Susan, who, with her sister Frances and her mother, founded Vietri ( www.vietri.com ):

While waiting in line, you could sip prosecco, Vermentino, or a red from the Maremma, all poured by wine guru Dean Coglaiti. The staff passed crostini from our book, and over in the food section, they served Tuscan Ribs, Garlic Soup, and Pears with Mascarpone.  Great scents drifted around the store! A Southern Season, if you don’t know it, is a vast food and wine emporium–you want an ingredient, a certain pasta or risotto, a special hot pepper jelly, or cheese straws? Here it is in the solid South. Of course they ship.  ( www.southernseason.com ) This is their new display kitchen with butcher block counters–such a warm look–and a red Viking stove that makes the room sing.

Since I’m thinking of remodeling a kitchen next year, I was taking in all the details and mix of textures. Loved the detail on the open shelves and this big shiny sink.

Thanks, Jay and Jennifer, everyone who made the event happen.  Especially Susan.  I wonder who won the Vietri platter?

We met so many people. The big thing about the tour is just that for me–so many potential friends, if only I lived in that place. It’s an affirming experience.

]]> http://www.francesmayesbooks.com/2012/03/25/a-stop-at-a-southern-season/feed/ 41 http://www.francesmayesbooks.com/2012/03/18/this-week-on-tour-for-the-tuscan-sun-cookbook/ http://www.francesmayesbooks.com/2012/03/18/this-week-on-tour-for-the-tuscan-sun-cookbook/#comments Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:20:29 +0000 Frances Mayes http://www.francesmayesbooks.com/?p=1428 Ed and I hope to meet real-life Facebook friends this week.

All the photographs in the book were taken in natural light, on our plates, at our tables. We’ll never get back the time we spent waiting for the lazy Tuscan clouds to move away from the sun. We did our own styling–nothing is faked or glazed or sprayed!!! We agreed that we wanted the photographs to match the spirit of the food–tempting, colorful, spontaneous. Steven did a fabulous job with the photography. After each shoot, we ate everything!

The book comes out 13 March and I start my wandering minstrel journeys, visiting this week Smart Talk Lecture Series in Wilmington DL on Wednesday 14 March; Williams Sonoma in Washington, DC on 15 March; and the Williams Sonoma in  Annapolis MD on 16 March. Then I’m back in NC for an event at  Williams Sonoma in Raleigh on 17 March. The next week, Art Institute of Chicago, Atlanta History Center, then two events with the great Rainy Day Books in Kansas City. Click on TOUR for details. I hope to meet some of you along the way. Please say hello!

The Tuscan Sun Cookbook video

http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/20813-the-tuscan-sun-cookbook-recipes-from-our-italian-kitchen

With Ed’s jars on hand, quick dinners appear with a wave of a wand. We’ve learned from our Tuscan neighbors the ease and wisdom of the concept on hand. They have their stashes of dried mushroom, wild cherries, and various vegetables they’ve put up. And of course, tomatoes–shelves and shelves of big jars of peak-season tomatoes. What luxury!

Ed’s other prep that just let’s us sail through busy writing weeks–his Vegetable Frenzy. He hauls every vegetable out of the fridge and decides its fate. He lines up his herbs. Soon the music is blaring. He steams, roasts, sautés.

He litters the floor with carrot peels and beet skins. By the time I go downstairs for my second cappuccino, this is on the counter.

About two hours at the chopping board and stove, that’s all it takes to make the week easy. Besides just side dishes of parsnips, potatoes zucchini, for a few days we have on hand beets for salad, butternut squash for ravioli, asparagus for risotto, onions for a pasta sauce, on and on. And what a healthy little lunch:

We’re not always this organized but when we are, opening the fridge and seeing all those glass containers full of  delicious vegetables gives you pride!  Right now, he’s calling me. Soup’s on the table. Is there anything better than a partner who cooks???

Please click on TOUR to check out my stops. My thanks to those who have invited me and planned such fantastic, fun, varied events.

I would love to meet blog friends!  Ed and I hope you like the book and find recipes that you make your own in it.

First we sat by the fire and opened a prosecco–Rustico, what we often drink in Cortona. With some crackers and olives, we devoured–and practically shouted over–a three-milk, grassy, chalky cheese from Piemonte: La Tur.  Such a creamy, pillowy delight!

At the table, we began with When in Rome Artichokes. We talked about a poetry / art project for Ed and Alberto based on architectural fragments around Italy–the Etruscan stairs at Tarquinia, the Jovis ruins at Capri, the disappeared villa of Pliny near Città di Castello. The talk paired easily with the ancient thistle stuffed with black olives, croutons, basil, parsley, drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice. I’m only half-kidding–shouldn’t the music and talk complement the food as much as the wine?

We decided to skip the crab and lemon pasta we’d planned.  Too much cheese before dinner, which quickly satiates you. I normally serve cheese only at the end of dinner. I was just in love with La Tur–that melting goodness–and wanted to share it immediately.

So, we moved on to Tuscan Short Ribs with Rich Polenta–from The Tuscan Sun Cookbook–and grilled asparagus.  This is such a hearty, wintery recipe that to feast on it, you feel you should have been out in the woods chopping logs or hiking snow-covered Roman roads. The ribs are browned, then slow-roasted with soffrito, sautéed carrots, garlic, onions, and celery, and some chopped tomatoes. Low and slow–that’s the secret. Like ossobuco, the ribs’ meat just slips off –it’s that tender–leaving the primitive bones clanking on your plate. Talk was heady: the Danteum of Terragni, a Fascist-era architect’s memorial to Dante, the only building we know of that was based on a book–other than Tara, as one of the comments below insisted!  The Danteum was never built but the plans linger with power.  (Terragni’s Danteum by Thomas L. Schumacher).  Perhaps a bit too ethereal a conversation for such an earthy dish. With such a savory sauce, and this is one of the best things you can put in your chops, we pass the bruschette smeared with roasted garlic.

Oh, my.  This tastes so deeply of Tuscany.  (That’s Ed, pressing out the pulp from the roasted garlic.)

So, we skipped the salad, too. The chopped, crisp romaine with roasted beets and walnuts and crumbled gorgonzola.  Maybe, by then, it was the Brunello talking. We were onto plans for designing tableware for a restaurant, and the ideal seasonal menu, and the name of this restaurant.

By this time, the camera was forgotten. Please imagine the intense, roasty ribs on a bed of golden polenta!  We moved on to Wallace Stevens, Cortona news, Caravaggio, and a sweet panna cotta with raspberries and blueberries. Why is this dessert so popular in Tuscany? Because it is the easiest dessert imaginable. You make it in ten minutes and can embellish it with a purée of strawberries, a slather of chocolate sauce, a spoon of  lemon marmalade, or simply seasonal berries.  We lingered long at the table, though we did not, as we would have in Tuscany, haul out the grappa.  Just espresso.  After midnight, we said buona notte, already a bit sad that the trip to the airport would start shortly after breakfast, and that we would be texting and calling and e-mailing until we can meet again this spring on our beloved hillside overlooking the valley where Hannibal defeated the Romans in 217 B.C.

Marshmallows are not a staple of my pantry, but this weekend we are encountering them twice. After the movie and dinner for Willie’s friends, we’re building a bonfire in the meadow for the making of S’mores.

The cake is dense, similar to brownies, even though egg whites are beaten stiff, then folded into the batter. Ed likes to demonstrate when the whites are ready by holding the copper bowl upside down over his head. Recently he did that twice. The sides had slicked enough by the second time that the whites slid out all over him and the floor.  Much appreciated by his audience of three!

Marshmallows are studded over the cake.

Then the icing is poured over. It doesn’t have to cover the sides because that’s just too much of a good thing.

Last year, several third- grade classmates asked my daughter for the recipe! Now that is success in the kitchen!

Here’s the recipe. I doubled it this time. Be sure to sift the powdered sugar into a snowy mountain.

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 cup boiling water

½ cup unsweetened cocoa

2 cups flour, sifted

1 teaspoon each baking powder and baking soda

½ cup butter, softened

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs, separated

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ cup milk

Make a paste of the hot water and cocoa. Slightly cool. Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the two yolks. Beat the whites in a copper or metal bowl until stiff.  Combine the cocoa mixture and the eggs / sugar and blend well. Add the vanilla.  Beat the flour and milk alternately into the batter, then, when well incorporated, fold in the whites.

Pour into a buttered, parchment-lined 9 x 13 (or slightly larger) pan and bake for 15 minutes if you have a convection oven, or 20 minutes in a normal oven. Don’t overbake it! The instant it’s firm, take it out. My mother lined her pans with waxed paper.

The original recipe calls for sour milk. I don’t ever have that on hand, though I could add a little lemon juice to regular milk—that passes for sour milk. I just use whole milk.

Let the cake cool before turning it out.  When totally cool, stud the top with marshmallows. I use the fancy kind from Whole Foods but never met anything but the regular ones until recently.

Make the icing and pour it over the marshmallows. Let it cool and harden before covering with plastic wrap.

Icing:

½ cup unsweetened cocoa

½ stick butter, melted

Pinch of salt

½ cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Stir the cocoa into the warm butter until all the little lumps are gone. Add the salt, milk, and vanilla. Add a scoop of powered sugar and blend before adding more scoops. The icing should not be too thick to pour. Add a bit more milk if you need to for the proper consistency.

There it is–Frankye’s immortality, though she’d prefer, I imagine, that I praise her Lane Cake, Caramel Cake, or Coconut Cake instead. But this is chocolate southern decadence!

If there’s an almost ten-year old around to lick the spoon–even better!