“First deserve, then desire.” Tessa Kiros, Italian cookbook author.
I am reading the most lovely book I have ever held in my hands titled Limoncello and Linen Water, by Tessa Kiros.
It is an Italian cookbook for sure, but it is sprinkled and dusted with beautiful photographs, pearls of kitchen wisdom, memories from an Italian mother-in- law and basic housekeeping that has long been forgotten.
So much of the book tells what women of a certain era did in their homes and how they passed things on to their daughters.
I never knew that women taught their daughters how to keep a home using a dollhouse as an example.
The daughter would learn to make sense of it all and keep order through the various rooms.
This is a darling concept but it is not the way I learned how to arrange furniture. You learn by doing.
I watched my mother push a baby grand piano into every space in the den until she got it where she wanted. I do the same thing even when I should not.
Pulled muscles and smashed fingers come from this kind of behavior, but I think it is sort of a stress reliever of sorts.
I do not remember a doll house but I do remember my Barbie case and all of the accessories that went with it. Dressing Barbie is way more fun than pushing pianos I might add.
The book talks a good deal about making the most out of what you have on hand which women of my mother’s and grandmother’s generations had to do everyday.
They did not have a Super Walmart to run to and generally they had to work with very limited funds.
They saved scraps of pretty paper and snippets of ribbon to use in something else that needed to be brightened up down the road.
They were very loving and kind to their china and silver making sure it was kept ready for the daughter’s trousseau, along with treasured recipes and books.
One of the recipes that caught my eye was called “Emily’s Bread.”
The introduction to the recipe reads something like “I just love the idea of this simple bread. I can picture Emily, picking up the breakfast things after everyone has vanished and then tipping all the leftovers into her baking bowl. How wonderfully wild.”
I had to reread this page several times before I think I understood. At first it read like she scraped the breakfast dishes into a bowl and incorporated them into some kind of dough.
Now this did not sit well with me one bit.
I first envisioned tiny scraps of bacon or cheese, that might work, but then I remembered chewing on piece of bacon rind or fat and realizing it was not going anywhere and then returning it to the side of my plate.
Ok, now I am totally grossed out by this woman scraping morsels of pre-chewed on food into bread dough!
You don’t know what people have done to food that is still on their plates! Maybe there is a good reason why they did not eat it in the first place!
After several readings of this recipe I realized that the bread did not actually list breakfast scraps as one of the ingredients, so it is highly possible I missed her point.
I think, (I hope), she was referring to Emily using the milk and coffee, or yogurt maybe that was served at the meal but not used and literally scraping the dishes into the dough bowl.
The book is a feast for the eyes and is quite different from the usual fare in books these days.
Recipes such as Baked Crumbed Chicken with Mozzarella, Anchovies & Capers makes my mouth water as does the Filomena’s Apple Cake and Mascarpone & Lavender Ice Cream with Wild Strawberries.
I am absolutely making this ice cream as soon as it turns a bit warmer.
For now, I will keep swimming in this book of womanly wisdom and deliciousness.
Mascarpone & Lavender Ice Cream With Wild Strawberries
1 cup whole milk
1 heaping tablespoon unsprayed lavender flowers
3 egg yolks
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup mascarpone cheese
4 cups small wild strawberries
Put the milk in a medium saucepan and bring slowly to a boil. Add the lavender flowers just before it gets there and then remove the pan from the heat. Leave for about 10 minutes to infuse, stirring so the lavender can perfume the milk.
Use electric beaters to beat the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl until very thick, pale and creamy. Strain the perfumed milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly to incorporate and so that the eggs do not curdle. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over very low heat until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and let cool, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes. Gently whisk in the mascarpone until the mixture is free from any lumps, then cool completely. Churn in an ice-cream machine following the manufacturer’s instructions. Serve with wild strawberries.
