―Patience Gray

Here is the brownsweet of the abstract where her four small furrows

say the one word over.

She will take the ruler & push it down till it’s all the way in.

She will slide its razor edge along through colonies, tunnels,

through powdered rock & powdered leaf,

& everything on its way to the one right destination

like a cloak coming off, shoulders rising,

(after one has abandoned the idea of x;

after one has accorded to the reader y)―

her hole in the loam like a saying in the midst of the field of patience,

fattening the air above it with detail,

an embellishment on the April air,

the rendezvous of hands & earth―

Neither Gray nor Graham would, I think, identify herself as a ‘feminist.’ But each of them deals, in a very different way, with the inflections of a particularly female-bodied experience on language, history (myth) & the physical world. Both women feel deeply that the earth is at very great risk. & each go bare, bravely, startlingly, in their respective enterprises―which are ultimately spiritual enterprises, born of multiple migrations.

I love them both.

salt cod

p147

Baccalà Stufato Con Latte

salt cod cooked in milk

Salt cod is excellent cooked in milk. For 4 people you need:

1 kilo (21/4 lb) salt cod               3/4 litre (27 fl oz) milk

1 or 2 bay leaves                           grated nutmeg

5 or 6 large potatoes                    a little oil from a jar of preserved chillis

1 large onion                                 garlic, finely chopped

origano (wild marjoram)         parsley, finely chopped

ground black pepper                   2 hard-boiled eggs

12 black olives

Cut the fish across into two or three pieces, put these in water in an earthenware pot, skin side up, & soak for 24 hours. Change the water once or twice.

Cook the pieces of fish in an earthenware vessel with plenty of water, starting from cold, with 1 or 2 bay leaves. Do not let the water boil, as boiling would toughen the fish. Once it is steaming, simmer for 5 minutes, then take the pot off the fire & leave to stand for half an hour. Drain, remove the grey skin & the bones, & flake the fish.

Peel the potatoes & onion, & slice them to the thickness of a coin. Put some olive oil in the bottom of a pan (the sole pan is good for this), put in a layer of potatoes & onion, then a layer of flaked fish, & repeat. Sprinkle with origano & black pepper, barely cover with milk, & simmer until potatoes are cooked; by this time a good deal of milk will have been absorbed or will have evaporated , & what remains will have acquired a creamy consistency. Add a little grated nutmeg & a few drops of oil from the chilli jar (see peperoncini sott’olio, p317) at this point, & some finely chopped garlic & parsley at the end of the cooking . Sliced hardboiled eggs & black olives, unstoned, can be added. (Stoned olives stain the pale cream colour of the dish.)

Christine's sprigs of fresh rosemary

p262

Pollo Alla Cacciatora Con Olive Nere

chicken, the hunter’s way, with black olives

The chicken, tender & weighing about 1 kilo (21/4 lb), is jointed, then chopped into pieces of the same size-on the small size. These are fried in a heavy pan in olive oil in which 3 crushed but unpeeled cloves of garlic & 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary & some leaves of mountain sage (Salvia sclarea) have first been simmered.

When the pieces are golden, 2 peeled tomatoes are crushed in the pan, salt & a glass of white wine are added, & in this very scarce sauce the chicken cooks more slowly, covered, until most of the liquor is absorbed & the pieces are tender (10 minutes for frying, & 15 minutes once the wine is put in.) During the last few minutes a dozen luscious black olives, unstoned, are put into the pan.

Served on a white oval dish with the olives & the scarce sauce, which is passed through a strainer, or should be, to eliminate the aromatics, In fact, in the Osteria da Rizieri, both the rosemary & the thyme, indeed also the garlic, put in an appearance in the dish.

pasta dough

p99

Ribbon Pasta with Fungi Sauce

 Use Boletus edulis (porcini) or Amanita caesura (ovoli), these fungi being the undisputed best. Ovoli  when immature look like orange eggs; see Fungi & Michelangelo (p208).

• 400g (14 oz) ribbon pasta
• 400g (14 oz) fresh fungi
• 1 small onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• fresh parsley
• fresh mountain savory
• olive oil
• 1 dessertspoon salsa secca (p321) or tomato concentrate
• a small glass of red wine
• 1 cup reduced veal or chicken stock
• butter

Trim the stems of the fungi at the base, & clean them by wiping with a damp cloth. Chop them finely on a wooden board with a stainless steel knife. Then peel & chop the onion & garlic clove, chop the parsley & savory, & simmer all these aromatics in olive oil in a little earthenware pot. Add the tomato conserve, & after a few minutes put in the chopped fungi, shake them about in the oil, & add the wine & stock. Cook uncovered for 20 minutes, when it should achieve the consistency of a sauce. Towards the end add a knob of butter.

Boil the ribbon pasta in salted water, strain & serve on heated plates, with the sauce poured into the centre of each plate.

The Book:

“Honey from a Weed: Fasting & Feasting in Tuscany, Catalonia, the Cyclades & Apulia. ” First edition, 1986. Patience Gray.

Food has become so complicated in our society. & these days we think we live in a world Alice Waters & Michael Pollan made. But behind Waters & Pollan is Patience Gray, the high priestess of cooking. & no one can touch her.

The Contender:

Two girls. Two kitchens. One weedy cookery book.

The Project:

To make *everything* in the book.