Everyday it seems there is a mysterious bag, basket or pile of zucchini (zucchine in Italian) by my door. These things must multiply like….. Wait – you already heard this! Remember recipe 1!
Thank you subscriber Karen T. for reminding me about the vegetarian lasagna of my earlier life. Le zucchine, grilled, becomes the best lasagna noodle. I don’t have a griddle – only a big frying pan. First step slice the zucchine long ways – of course I ignore all the safety cutting rules I learned in 4-H and to make the thin slice pull that knife right towards my chest – don’t do that.
Tossed some of our heavenly local EVOO in the frying pan and after what felt like I had been standing on my feet for hours – enough were done.
Since the oil was still hot I sliced up due melanzane – egg plant – and did those too. Note that I did them after I did the zucchine. Jack lumps eggplant with tofu as the two things that give him the food creeps. God forbid una melanzana touch the zucchine!
For filling I dumped 500 grams of ricotta in a bowl, tossed in a egg, a bunch of grated parmesan, splash of pepper, fresh basil and oregano. Stirred it up and called it art.
Stupidly, I had oiled my baking dish, then looked at the zucchine which had been essentially slathered in oil, grabbed a paper towel and wiped out the dish. Next, I laid down a layer of zucchine and with panache glopped and spread the ricotta mixture.
My burnt fingers reminded me that I had just roasted red peppers and had an ah ha moment.
I added a layer of red pepper for color. OK, time for a layer of mozzarella – shit we don’t have any. Some days you win and some days you just have fun.
Creative a pinch of this and dash of that cooks use what they have. I had great local cheese – cows milk integrated with hot peppers.
Remembering that it melted well on a panino, I grated it up. Tossed it on top of the red peppers and then added a second layer of zucchine slices.
Followed that with the requisite ricotta mixture and thought – I need another red layer to artistically balance the red peppers. Hey, we bought super Spanish salame at the salumeria – I don’t think it was from Spain but they call it Spanish. The salame is crusted in black pepper. OK, so this isn’t a vegetarian dish – but you don’t have to use salame.
A layer of that, more ricotta, grated cheese and then – shit – I don’t have enough zucchine for a complete top layer. How could that be, I have bushels of zucchine? Oh, yeah, I got tired of standing by the frying pan.
Thinking quickly, I eyed the eggplant, if I put some in the middle and cut Jack’s slice from the edge would he know that his precious zucchine might have egg plant kooties? I just won’t mention it and use tons of grated cheese on top to disguise the critters.
There I was, rifling through my tiny little notebook, looking for a clue as to what happened on day five of the festa. The seven day event filled party had addled my brain. Movie? 9:30 – what the hell did that mean. I pulled up the Festa poster to read the list. Cripes! There are 8 – I counted – 8 days of late night events, drinks, etc. No wonder I can’t remember. Whack – it hit me – what did movie mean – just the biggest event to happen here – Comicron. A two day film festival that drew entries from all over the world. Note it was a TWO day even – so I only have to write one blog. The web site is slick – http://www.comicronfilmfestival.it – and states:
Il Comicron international short film festival nasce da un’idea di Ugo Gregoretti di creare un’inedita manifestazione dedicata esclusivamente ai cortometraggi comici. Un’esperienza in grado di scoprire nuovi talenti…
The Comicron international short film festival grew from the idea of Ugo Gregoretti to create an unprecedented event dedicated exclusively to comedy shorts. An experience that allows us to discover new talent …
This festival and the drawing power of Artistic Director Maestro Ugo Gregoretti, attracted a huge well heeled audience – including the red carpet crowd. They made the mistake of setting up the red carpet during the day – so that any old riff-raff could strut their stuff – like me!
Red Carpet? It must be out for me!
Slick, slick, slick. The roadies and volunteers were all dressed in red t-shirts, had communication equipment and moved about with purpose. High end ear buds could be seen on crew chiefs scurrying about with clip boards. Banners from the highway led you to the piazza. The banners were a nice touch and perked up the streets.
We got there in plenty of time, sat on the red chairs and made sure I wasn’t sitting behind a tall person. The show was slated to start at 9:30 and being run by professionals so we knew curtain would be at 9:30. Sitting there, I discovered that being on time was actually late. The cutting of the ribbon and parade down the faux red carpet had started earlier – rats!!!
Maestro Gregoretti cuts the opening ribbon. DEZPHOTO
Having the attention span of a gnat, I promptly started looking around – whoa flowers on the down stage edge. That’s a nice touch and the screen is huge. It was obvious that the A-team had done the setup, the stage was nicely dressed and lit. Suddenly, I noticed that everyone was pointing to the front – must be someone famous – it is! Sarah Maestri was here – she is an incredibly famous Italian film, television and radio star!!!! She also just recently released a novel that has become a best seller. Of course, I was here on time and didn’t get to meet her – ugggg.
Sarah Maestri and her daughter walking down the red carpet. DEZPHOTO
Scared you – thought you wouldn’t see her face! Don’t worry in the next photo we have Giorgio Arlorio, Sarah Maestri, Ugo Gregoretti and our own Sindaco Rinaldi. H’mmmm I bet you are wondering who Giorgio Arlorio is – just an incredibly successful screenwriter with tons of film and television credits.
DEZPHOTO
On the big screen, the asino – donkey of yesterday’s Pontelandolfo came to life and licked the screen revealing Comicron! The wait for the show to start was broken by counting how many times they would repeat the mule action accompanied by some killer swing music. Then the graphic changed. The music changed. The lights changed. I raced home and changed.
DEZPHOTO
The producers of Comicron are in the film business so the film work and the digitized graphics was top shelf. Media held our attention and signaled what was going on. You didn’t need a program because the art infused graphics let you know who was on stage and why. The hosts, Laura Abbaleo and Rino Genovese were real pros and a welcome change from the creepy guy of the night before. Unfortunately, they had to read an incredibly long list of sponsors but moved it rapidly. Now those names should have been on an opening graphic and we could have read it while we were waiting. I got just a tad antsy. The duo really impressed me when I realized they were verbally synching with images that were flashing behind them!
Two real pros! DEZPHOTO
They opened the show with a home town favorite, Ri Ualanegli Juonior, performing Gioca Dei Bambini. Sadly, many in the audience left their seats after the little dancers performed.
Young Pontelandolfesi. DEZPHOTO
Don’t you leave your seat – check out the dance. I shot their concert in June and you’ll see Gioca Dei Bambini, the traditional dance that everyone loves. The opening is kids playing games – the dancing is a few seconds past that.
The folks that scurried out of their seats didn’t go far because the kids also performed at the very end of the night. I was gone by then and really couldn’t grasp why you would have little kids stay up until 12:30 to be the finale of a film festival. Oh, I get it – audience numbers. I don’t think the programmers needed to do that. The audience – like me – was there to see this international slate of short comic films. The red carpet notables were another big draw.
Speaking of unnecessary fill – the night also featured additional live entertainment of of the well known professional variety. Next up, after the spirited young dancers was comic Antonio Riscetti. I appreciated his political humor and the fact that he spoke slowly and beautifully enough for me to understand.
Comic at a Comic Film Festival makes sense! DEZPHOTO
Finally, we got to see the first set of three films. Then a singer came on who had starred in Notre Dame de Paris – It was already 11:00 ish we didn’t need another famous person we wanted to see the next set of films. I was a bad girl and got up and walked around to get a drink.
Let’s talk about the movies. The professionalism of cinema, writing and editing varied. All were well done but some reminded me of silly student films – you know slap stick and stupid sophomoric ideas. I mean “Mafia University” – come on. I loved the well scripted and thought out Fulgenzia – Until A Name You Do Part.
The next night an additional six films were shown – sans a lot of the extra entertainment.
Young actress Giusy Mancini with famous comic Max Cavallari. See – famous folks both nights! DEZPHOTO
They flowed on to the grand denouement – the announcement of the winners!
August 2nd was Day Two of Contest Musica Live and day three of the Festa. At 9:00 PM – dressed to the nines and with my party attitude on – I left Jack snoring on the couch and forcing myself to put one tired foot in front of the other drove down to the piazza. Gulp, I was going to a concert alone. Who would I talk to, where would I sit, would I know anyone there? The questions I just typed may have floated through my insecure 16 year old brain but the 65 year old knew that I would talk to everyone, sit where I wanted and – hey this is Pontelandolfo – I would know folks.
The first hint that less folks might be coming to this amateur event was the lack of vendors. Many of the previous nights venders were somewhere else. No one was selling shoes and there were fewer food trucks. H’mm I got a parking space really close too. This didn’t bode well for lots of people coming
Look – a pre-lit stage!
Wow, somebody noticed that the stage didn’t look so professional for the first day of the talent contest or else they hired a different company for Day Two. The set up was much more professional looking. There were blacks up stage – black curtains across the back of the stage and a different light set up. Jack said how do I know these things – I just know OK. You’ll see on the video.
The pre show started at 9:50 – a lot earlier than the day before and almost on time! (The show was scheduled to start at 9:30 PM.) The MC – who over the week I began to loathe more and more – did his usual warmup. When the first group came on stage, folks started pouring into the piazza – not thousands but a healthy crowd. The opening act was a fabulous singer and band from Pontelandofo! That explained the enthusiastic crowd. I also discovered that the day before many of our talented young folks were performing out of town with our dance company, hence, could not be bopping and rocking in the piazza. They made sure to be back for our home town singer, Eleonora Di Marzo! She was terrific and so was the lighting. From smoke spurts to strobes it was much better rock lighting than the night before.
Bar Mixed Fantasy had tables set up that gave a great view of the stage – I bought my Campari soda, grabbed a table and started dancing in my seat. As more folks came, I chatted, rocked and rolled and throughly enjoyed the music, booze, friends and summer night. I am not a music critic but can easily say that the bands the second night were a hell of a lot better than the bands we heard the first night. They excuse Jack had given for not wanting to come – before he drifted to dreamland – was the bands were beh the first night, why should we go and listen to mediocre music. Because it is FESTA WEEK and it is our responsibility to go and support the festa. OK, I want to go because it is always one hell of a party.
Unfortunately, my videos of the later bands had lousy sound quality. So you will only hear our local favorite BUT note the clips of the accordion player – his group was amazing doing Neapolitan classics – too bad my camera recorded the conversation of the folks next to me. UGGGG
Sometimes we run into people who change our lives. Rocco is one of those people. I met him last year in Bar Elimar. I was typing away on my computer and he was staring at me. I said buon giorno. He slid over to my table stared right into my eyes and said, Come ti chiama?Midge I answered. Come ti chiama he repeated. I figured Midge didn’t sound very Italian and he couldn’t get it. Midge I repeated. He smiled, put his fingers on my computer keyboard and said, Come ti chiama. That was when I realized just how special Rocco was.
Feeling like a trickster I looked at him and said, Io sono Midge ma come ti chiama?Rocco he said and smiled. From that moment we became fast friends.
He was about eight years old that summer and sometimes I thought his mom planned their excursions to Bar Elimar when I might be there. Rocco’s family is part of the Bar Elimar family. His mom is bar owner Elio’s sister.
I set some games up on my computer and iPad and loved sipping my cafe and watching the joyful expressions on Rocco’s face as he drew a picture on my iPad or played scopa – laughing as the cards were swept away by the computer.
He still said, come ti chiama every time he saw me until I realized that it was his own little game. Lots of folks got swept away in it repeating their names until they wanted to scream. The minute I flipped it back on him he knew I understood him. When I responded, my name is Rocco – he giggled and knew I really got him.
This spring, I kept waiting for Rocco to show up. Forgetting that school was in session, I couldn’t understand why I didn’t see him in the morning. Finally, in June my mornings with Rocco started again – just not as often as I would have liked. He told me he had his own tablet that had games on it. He stopped saying come ti chiamo because I always answered Rocco. One day he said, ciao Midge and I was smitten.
They don’t have special education programs here and Rocco has been getting better and better in school and socially because of his parents and family. They get him help, but treat him just like everyone else. Rocco challenged me to find ways to communicate with him and that has helped me communicate with not only the kids of Ponteladolfo but their elders too.
Today, I heard that Rocco inadvertently swallowed acid and is in a medically induced coma in a Naples’ hospital. Rocco thought he was slugggin back juice. His aunt said he never cried. Not once. He is incredibly strong. His throat burned and swollen, he was rushed to the hospital in Benevento where they did nothing for hours. His frantic parents had him rushed to Naples. Lesson here is avoid the hospital in Benevento.
At the Naples Hospital they put him in a medically induced coma with a breathing tube. Because there is so much damage to his throat they can’t send a scope down to see what else is wrong. I don’t pray much but today I pray for Rocco.
Pontelandolfo’s major festa is TOMORROW! The Festa di San Donato is the cornerstone of our little town’s tourism drive. July 31 is the kick off and we will all be exhausted when the festa is over on August 7th. The finale is a concert with a headliner act and fireworks. The week long event has historically brought tourists and an infusion of cash into the town. I’m told that years past, buses of American tourists searching for their roots would roll in. The oldest church would be open – not with vendors but with artisans and purveyors of local wines and food products. This year, no one that I’ve asked as been able to tell me if that is happening. I’ve only been in the ancient church once, many years ago and would love to see the inside again.
This is a religious festival but I can’t find a thing on any poster or web-site about when there is a mass or the procession. As a matter of fact, the town web-site doesn’t even list the churches. How could that be?
I’m thinking that as much as I love this town, it is hard to attract tourists looking to “see something” – you know to check it off their list. Like the millions do that race through the museums in Florence and take a selfie with David. Due to lack of funds – everyone blames “i crisi” – the small local museum is closed. The library is closed. And listen to this travesty – years ago, one mayor sold the commune’s one major historic attraction – La Torre – for hardly any money to some out of towner. Now that is closed to tourists and it’s secret garden – well no one knows because you can’t get to it – but I’m betting weeds. The tower is the iconic image of the town. Good old Prince Landolfi probably lived there. Now, no one sees it. Uggg
Our famous tower – a vacation home for some out of towner who is never here. Want to see if we can buy it?
This year, it looks like the town is prettying itself up for the week. I noticed men chopping down the weeds along the side of roads, the cement ditches are being cleaned.
Thank you to all who are working so hard!
Normally every morning men clean the streets and the piazzas but this week I sensed a new bounce in their steps.
Every cobblestone is solid thanks to this man. No tripping in our town!
There was a crew in front of Bar Mix Fantasy sculpting shrubs. I noticed new plants set up around the out door tables at Nonsolo Pizza. The portable tables and chairs are stacked by all the bars. The sun is shining and all hope it will shine from July 31 through August 7.
Tomorrow, happy revelers will be sitting at tables!
The other night we drove to Circello – a village about 30 minutes away and saw posters for the headlining acts plastered on walls. Every night of the celebration of San Donato there is something. (Could any of you good Catholics out there tell me what he is the special saint for? I spent an hour searching and couldn’t find anything related to this part of the world. One of the elders said that he was instrumental in stopping the plague here but that is all I got.) Here is this year’s line up. Tourists are already trickling in. Yesterday, I was standing at a bar having a caffè when a woman speaking the ancient dialect of the village – the first clue that it is an out of towner who had elders from here – picked up a candy and asked me if it had sugar. She couldn’t read the Italian. I asked her in English if she was American. She said, oh you don’t speak Italian. I responded in Italian that one candy didn’t have sugar and could I read the other. Are you proud of me? She and her husband were from Buenos Aires, Argentina. A good number of Pontelandolfesi immigrated to Argentina.
Today is Wednesday – market day – and I noticed a good number of folks I hadn’t seen before. One visitor, who was driving and staring at the vendors ran smack into a parked truck. Ooops! I’m told that many people come during festa time to visit their relatives. Not a bad idea! I tried to convince mine to come but didn’t have any takers.
With help from the producers and production companies that are providing the shows, Pontelandolfo is really trying to promote the events. Last Monday, July 28th, as part of the television program “UNOMATTINA Summer” on Raiuno the hosts interviewed the artistic director of the Award program “Hugh Gregory – Landulf d’Oro” (scheduled for July 31) and “Comicron”, the first international festival of short comedic films scheduled on August 4 and 5. That my friends, brings this year’s festa national attention. I’m hoping tons of people come and all of the businesses make a little extra money.
In this time of economic struggling, I kept asking folks who the hell was paying for all this. Everyone said, we are! I didn’t quite get it until two business owners explained it to me. A committee went door to door asking every citizen for a donation. Hey, as I used to tell my Arts Management students, it doesn’t hurt to ask. Folks are so proud of the festa that the majority gave what they could and were rewarded with a flier that listed the events. To be a sponsor and hang a banner cost about €200 per business. In other years, I’m told, it cost €500. Bottom line, everyone contributed to the best of their ability.
Putting the finishing touches on the huge stage.
I’m excited to see and hear everything that will be going on. Of course nothing starts before 9:30 PM so a nap is important. Keep your eyes peeled because everyday, unless the late night partying is just too much for me, I’ll write a post about the event of the day. Please, please send me energy so I can send you stories!
If you can’t make it to Pontelandolfo, but can get to Connecticut, why not check out the next best thing San Donato Festival in the USA – Waterbury Connecticut http://www.ponteclub.com/festa-di-san-donato-2013/
My woo woo pals will not even blink when I say that at 7:00 AM the other morning I bumped onto my grandma. She died when I was 16 but I remember her vividly – it was her.
Wearing the same kind of caftan I had on when I first saw Ruth St Denis, whoops that’s the mom of modern dance and she has nothing to do with this story. It’s just the magic of the caftan. So wearing this old tied died caftan, I was walking in The field across the street from my house carrying a plate of apricot peels. As I started to toss the peels into the field – there she was. Smiling because I hadn’t been lazy and walked way out onto the field just like she taught me.
Whew, where did that memory come from – why was she here now? When I was a wee thing we had pasta at grandmas house every Sunday. After the locusts in my family had managed to eat everything but the mopeen – dish rag we all used to wipe our saucy fingers on – it was often my job to take the pile of bones and other table scraps out to the field. The instruction was walk far and toss. Sometimes a lazy kid would just dump the plate at the edge of the lawn. ( Jack screams at me now because I’ve turned into a lazy kid and dump on our Flagtown lawn line.)
This was a no no and would draw rats close to the house. We didn’t have a fancy compost pile or Eco box. We had the field. Foxes loved the bones and they were soon gone. The egg shells and the veggie scraps were great for revitalizing the earth. Now 60 years later, here I am in the place where my nonna learned that doing a field dump wasn’t a trailer trash thing. It was simply keeping the cycle of growth happening.
That morning I was doing something I know she had done. The field was a recently shorn hayfield. The feral cats and foxes still eat any meat stuff and the rest just rots back into the soil. Maybe next year this field would be a potato patch – enriched by or simple veggie scraps.
What struck me was how the simple action of tossing apricots peels brought my nonna back to me. She was there making sure I walked out far enough and did the job right. This had a colossal impact on me. After a year long painful inner dialogue about selling our house in NJ, it was this moment in a field that nonna made me realize that I could. The farmhouse was my grandma’s and is the place where I feel the presence of my elders everyday. Nonna let me know that wherever I am they are and all is OK.
I had been coughing for three days – you know that deep you can’t sleep barely move kind of coughing. The ever wonderful Carmela Fusco insisted I visit the doctor. Last Wednesday morning she pushed me up the stairs to the doctor’s office. After the visit and a trip to the farmacia to pick up antibiotics etc, we sat down at Bar Mix Fantasy for a cappuccino and a cornetto – I needed food in my stomach in order to take the pill. I looked like hell, red nose, dirty hair, don’t touch me I’ll kill you look on my haggard face. OK, you got the back story?
As I sat staring, my head so congested I can barely hear, breaking through the clogged head barrier comes “Sei tu Midge?.” I glance over my right shoulder to spy a tall distinguished gentleman looking down at me. “Si” I reply, “Sono Midge.” Carmella smiled at him and said “Ciao Renato”, so I knew we were OK.
Prof. Renato Rinaldi had wanted to meet me and recognized me sitting there – I’m not sure how – and introduced himself to me. “Buon Giorno,” I say – delighted to meet the esteemed gentleman but also embarrassed at how I looked and felt. You see, I had contacted him a while back to let him know about this blog. http://www.nonnasmulberrytree.com and wanted to meet him. Prof. Rinaldi is the creator and editor of Pontelandolfo’s local on-line news magazine – Pontelandolfo News. He is a Pontelandolfo activist and advocate. Check out his web-site at http://www.pontelandolfonews.com/
I often read the Pontelandolfo News to find out what is going on locally – from politics to real estate. It contains link to news articles on other sites, info on local businesses, reports on government and well, lots of material on Pontelandolfo.
After chatting for a while, Prof. Rinaldi made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, he said that I had his permission to use content from his website for this blog! Grazie mille! I will absolutely take him up on his generous offer. But more than that, he said he had a gift for me and popped back to his car to get this –
By Prof Renato Rinaldi
I was incredibly flattered and touched to receive this huge book. It represents years of research and editing. As the editor, Prof. Rinaldi has created the ultimate compilation of documents that recount the heinous burning and mass murder of Pontelandolfesi on August 14, 1861. Last year the young theater folks of Pontelandolfo staged a venue specific theater piece and frankly, that was the first time I truly understood the story of Il Brigante.
Poster from last year’s show. The work included more than just the massacre story.
Not all parts of Italy welcomed the idea of “risorgimento” – unification as one country. Frankly, the south wasn’t all that interested and it was only the heavy handed military actions that induced their cooperation. One such incident occurred on August 14, 1861. Pontelandolfo and the neighboring Casalduni were attacked – some bad folks had killed a few members of the army and the army took its revenge. The citizens of Casalduni had a little warning and fled. The attack on Pontelandolfo occurred in the dead of night. Gun bursts and fires waking up the town. It is said that about 3,000 men, women and children were mutilated, raped and murdered. The entire town was burned to the ground. We will do a full story on this when I’ve had a chance to read Rinaldi’s thorough collection of essays and historic documents.
Prof. Rinaldi was sharing his insight into this history with me, but I was having a difficult time understanding. My head still spinning with the bronchitis. He gave me his card and offered to meet with me again. He also said he would share some historic photos with me. I can’t wait to sit down with him.
Prof. Rinaldi took my miserable morning and turned it into a wonderful Pontelandolfo experience. I thank him for that and his generosity.
Shout out to subscriber Kathy H. who said “I feel a blog about being silenced is in your future.” Now, Kathy knows I love to chat. We Facetime, Viber or Magic Jack call each other a lot. What do we talk about? I haven’t a clue, but for about a week the chatting stopped.
Run Dorothy Run!
On those chatless days we were plagued with thunder, lighting, whooshing rain and turn your umbrella inside out wind. The internet went kaput. No Internet no chatting.
What? No Magic Jack or Viber?
Suddenly I was silenced!
Yeah, yeah I know – I could still e-mail from my smart phone but it ain’t the same as voice to voice chatting. For one whole week I couldn’t verbally reach out to family and friends in the USA. WHAT!
It was a great opportunity to read books, sit in the caffè and gossip and maybe even play at writing something. It also made me realize that my blabbing about our great cheap ways to communicate with folks in other parts of the globe needed a revision. Here in the hills we have one communication tragic flaw – storms knock out the internet.
Our internet is provided through an antennae on our house and a signal sent from an even bigger antennae somewhere in the hills. When the wind is whoooooooooossssshhhhhhhing the signal starts swirling and may be providing internet to Saturn.
How does one overcome this dilemma? First, make sure you have a good cellular telephone provider. We use WIND and pay ten Euro a month for 200 minutes of calls, 200 texts and UNLIMITED data. Second, make sure you have a phone that can become a wi-fi hotspot. I have an iPhone 4s that works well as a hotspot.
I will caution you, there were times when the storms also limited our ability to use our cell phones but not often.
To make quick calls to the USA – really quick because the more you use the unlimited data the slower it becomes – I would turn the cell phone into a hot spot and call through my iPad or Macbook Air. Apple doesn’t send me dime for saying what I’m about to say (though I would gladly accept the latest iPhone.) Apple products all work incredibly well together.
I’ve installed Viber and Skype on my iPad. Facetime comes with the iPad and Macbook. Magic Jack also now has an application for smart phones a well as your computer. Our New Jersey phone number is our Magic Jack number so folks can easily call us and/or leave a message. (Though I wish telemarkerters would stop calling at 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time which is MIDNIGHT here.)
Bottom line – I may not be able to sip Campari Soda and talk about nothing with pals in America for an hour but thanks to a good cellular provider and the hotspot on my iPhone we can still get our words out.
