A recent article in The New Yorker about the Italian bookstore SF Vanni was a reminder of this odd little place. To call it a book shop is perhaps somewhat grandiose – in fact they called themselves booksellers. The store had seemingly existed forever and through the 1980s, 90s and very early 2000s this was one of the few places in New York that had (some) Italian books available. It was an anonymous storefront on W 12th St; if you didn’t know it was there it was easy to miss. The store window was not inviting, my memories are of a beige background with a few dusty tomes sitting in it. My interactions were almost always with a civil but not friendly older gentleman. A few times I saw the rumored owner, an old woman who was extremely grumpy and seemed to want to rush you out. In this way it was very reminiscent of a type of smaller store one finds in Italy. It was not a place to go and browse. If you knew what you wanted, had phoned and checked if they had the book in stock, everything went well. With the advent of the internet and the ease and availability of buying books online my visits to Vanni eventually stopped but the article brought back some nostalgia for a different time when you could shrug and shake your head about this peculiar piece of Italy in New York.
Category: News (page 6 of 24)
The Open Roads series of contemporary Italian movies is back at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. This year’s films include the usual interesting mix of works by well-known directors and others by newer names on the scene. Of note is Ermanno Olmi’s Torneranno i prati, a reflection on war, based on the director’s father’s stories of World War I. Among the other selections are shorts, documentaries, comedies and dramas – representing a good range of new Italian cinema.
Glassblowing as a technical breakthrough in the making of glass occurred in the first century BC. Glass vessels could thus be made more easily and new shapes and decorations were produced. Inflating glass in molds that were carved with designs created vessels of varying shapes with complex decorations in relief on their surfaces. Ennion, probably from Sidon in today’s Lebanon, was a master craftsman in one of the earliest glass workshops in the first century AD. He was among the first glassmakers to incorporate his name into the inscription in the mold’s design and his pieces were well-known and popular. His vessels have been found all over the ancient Roman world leading to the conclusion that they were traded throughout the Mediterranean. Today there are just over 50 known pieces by Ennion in collections. A small exhibition at the Metropolitan museum gathers 24 of them, many still intact, and highlights their delicacy, sophistication and timelessness. The show includes pieces by other makers of the period and is all together informative and beautiful.
Bucatini all’amatriciana (or, more commonly in Rome, alla matriciana) are considered a staple of Roman cuisine. In fact the sauce’s name probably derives from Amatrice, a town near Rieti in the mountains of Lazio. Its original form was “in bianco” – pasta alla gricia, dressed just with guanciale (pork jowl) and pecorino cheese. Eventually as tomato became more common in pasta dishes it was added to the sauce. In Amatrice the typical ingredients used are guanciale, pecorino, white wine, tomato, hot pepper and pepper. The Roman version adds onion. Note that anyone from central Italy will tell you that pancetta is NOT the same thing as guanciale! The pastas traditionally used are bucatini, spaghetti and sometimes rigatoni. This dish has been in the news recently because Carlo Cracco, a well-known chef, said that he used a clove of garlic in the sauce. Scandal! All sorts of protests ensued, especially from Amatrice, insisting that it is heresy to put garlic in this sauce. And if you’re used to the Roman version, it does sound odd. Here‘s the classic recipe. An aside: spaghetti are far easier to eat than bucatini.
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