Tag: art

Bombay Sapphire: art and gin in the Canvas Bar – Italian Cuisine

A neon sign strictly in blue that read Stir Creativity. Stir it means to shake and the stirrer is one of the tools of the bartender, creativity it goes without saying that creativity, which gives principle to art, as an old saying would say. Stir creativity is the guiding philosophy Bombay Sapphire in his search for beauty, which is expressed through initiatives such as the Canvas Bar, the temporary that has just passed through Rome, October 9th and 10th, in the spaces of Palazzo Velli, in Trastevere. As stated by Francesca Ratti, brand manager of the label, "Bombay Sapphire is a sort of contemporary patron and Stir Creativity is a philosophy that recalls the importance of following one's own creative instinct".

For the occasion, Bombay Sapphire gave life to what he called a "fluid collective exhibition" of more or less known artists, which passed through different expressions of creativity. Fulcrum of the initiative, the installation Stir Perspectives by the duo of artists Carnovsky, made with the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) technique: an alternation of landscapes that varied according to the lights. On the walls, in fact, a special wallpaper changed according to the light that struck it, passing from a rural setting to a sailing race, to then arrive in the dreamlike suggestions of an Indian landscape, complete with an elephant, to celebrate its origins of Bombay Sapphire and the exotic botanicals that this London Dry contains.

From one room to the other, however, the guests themselves were asked to exercise their creativity in different sectors, deciding for example the combination best suited to their tastes to mix their drink Stir the Fizz, a "modular" twist on the Gin Fizz designed by the ambassador brand Bombay, Marco Gheza. And, again, you could have fun mixing botanicals and then sprinkling them on your own gin and tonic, enriching the already large Bombay Sapphire bouquet.

The ingredients of this modular twist

The base is 5cl of Bombay Sapphire gin, 3 cl of citrus juice, 2cl of syrup, top of soda. The game is the possibility to choose between three different types of citrus fruits (lemon, pink grapefruit and bergamot), three types of syrup (classic, ginger or hibiscus) and as many types of soda (classic, bergamot or cedar). And a wide selection of garnish, or trimmings to close the drink, from citrus peel to mint, from maraschino cherry to rosemary, thyme and sage, from chili to lemongrass. To prepare, pour the gin, citrus juice and syrup into the shaker, mix lightly with a bar spoon, fill the shaker with ice and shake vigorously. The mixture is then poured into the baloon glass previously cooled and filled with ice, using a double strainer (the strainers that use the bartenders). Complete the drink with the selected soda and garnish.

Anti-waste recipes: the art of recycling – Italian Cuisine

We need the Earth, but the Earth also needs us. Great policies are not enough to safeguard our planet from exploitation. Each of us must commit to reducing consumption. Starting with food. Here are our recycling recipes, for a daily anti-waste battle

We are facing obvious climate change. Increasingly longer summers interspersed with violent storms, capable of discharging the amount of rain that falls in a month in just a few hours. The so-called flash floods. Real storms with devastating tornadoes. And this also in a country like Italy, where the rhythm of the four seasons has always characterized the mild climate of the boot. At the same time, the glaciers of the Alps are shrinking at a worrying rate, while at global level the situation is certainly not better. The ice of the Poles shrinks, producing in the long (but not too long) period an elevation of the sea with millions of square kilometers of coastline that could end up under water; Siberia is on fire, Alaska is on fire, Amazonia burns incessantly. And to make matters worse, Donald Trump wants to take away the Tongass National Forest of Alaska, the largest forest in the United States, from the restrictions imposed 20 years ago on cutting and transporting timber; the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has exceeded the threshold of three soccer fields per minute under the Bolsonaro presidency; Putin looks away while Siberia goes to ashes; Japan has declared that having no way to store Fukushima radioactive water, it will be discharged into the Pacific with incalculable damage to the ecosystem that could involve all the Earth's seas.
Already, our seas, proven by fishing activities that, although prohibited, are often practiced, illegally, the same; our seas, where immense islands of plastic waste float adrift; our seas, where rivers are discharged, often reduced to open-air sewers, saturated with poisonous substances.
And then there is the bad air we breathe, especially in large metropolitan areas, despite many efforts to contain pollution.

Human activities have such a strong impact on the Earth that this year the Overshoot Day (the day when we consumed all the resources that the Earth offers us in 2019) we reached on July 29th: then we started to consume in deficit , to consume the resources of 2020!

Special Earth: recycling and anti-waste are the recipes of the future.

Is it man's fault?

The question that many politicians, scientists and ordinary people ask is: is all this human activity, often also reckless, responsible for climate change? There are two currents of thought, both supported by scientific studies. There are those who say that yes, it is the fault of man and his exaggerated exploitation of the planet. Then there are those who claim that there have always been climate changes, even devastating ones, because they are cyclical and occur beyond human activity. In support of this theory they show us the climatic history of the Earth, the great changes of the past, when man was not even there. But also the minor ones, in any case important, intervened before the industrial era, of pollution and of the massive exploitation of the planet's resources, such as the Small glacial age (Pet), which occurred between the mid-fourteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. An icy cold that was preceded by a long period of relatively high temperatures called Medieval hot period. After the Pet, which ended around 1850, temperatures started to rise again, causing a new reduction in the mass of ice, a phase that is still ongoing, compounded, perhaps, by human factors that produce the greenhouse effect on the atmosphere: the in short, global warming.

One thing is certain: that climate changes are natural or the consequence (total or partial) of human activity, pollution is (obviously) wrong because then the "jewels" of the Earth we must eat, drink, breathe us all. It is therefore necessary to reduce, without ifs and buts, our "weight" on the planet paying particular attention to the waste, in order not to burn unnecessarily the energies, not infinite, of our great Earth house. And this is not the task only of governments and states, with far-sighted policies, when unpopular in the short term, but a commitment, indeed an obligation, which concerns us all individually, daily, meticulously.

Anti-waste recipes: because recycling is good, it's good, but above all it's right!

Let's start from here: on 29 January 2019 it was calculated that 1.3 billion tons of food are thrown away before reaching our table; then there is what we waste at the table. A quarter of that same food would be enough to feed the more than 815 million hungry people.
It makes you shiver, right?
And yet, in our own small way, in our daily lives, each of us participates in this waste. And then, always in our own small way, in our daily life, we learn to correct our bad habits. For example, optimizing spending, thus lowering our non-essential consumption and consequently reducing the production of industrial foodstuffs, the waste we produce, the monetary outflows of our portfolios.
And then there is one thing that you must never forget: in the kitchen nothing is thrown away, because everything (or almost) can be recycled, transforming what is about to become garbage into a new dish, good, creative and nutritious. Fantasy in the kitchen, then!

Our advice

Tomato, salt and sun: the art of Sicilian concentrate – Italian Cuisine

It is the Sicilian preserve par excellence, still made with the ancient processing. It is a ritual that involves all the families of Aspra, a small fishing village on the outskirts of Palermo, and, on 8 and 9 September, also all those who want to participate in the Ciauru ri astrattu event. Here are the details

The wind throws open the windows of the houses overlooking the sea and the festive voices of the children echo from the courtyard in the courtyard to cover the screech of seagulls. The men are busy carrying heavy wooden boards under the scorching sun of Sicily while their agile and quick hands, of their women, spin in the air like a magical dance, engaged in the preparation of tomato concentrate. A collective rite that every summer involves the entire community of Aspra, a small fishing village on the outskirts of Palermo.

The ancient workmanship

"Making tomato extract makes us happy and keeps bad thoughts away" Pina and Nina Balistreri – two elegant and volcanic sisters, both resident in Aspra – shine and are moved to recall childhood memories of a family tradition that, with strength and tenacity, tries to survive in an increasingly industrialized world.

Tomato extract (u'strattu in Sicilian) is the Sicilian preserve par excellence, always present in the iconic dishes of the Palermo cuisine such as pasta with sardines, tuna in sauce (tunnina ammuttunata) and meatballs d'anciova (anchovy). To make it happen you need three basic ingredients: tomato, salt and sun. To these are then added the expert movements of the expert hands of the ladies of Aspra who have been dealing with this preparation for generations: the tomatoes are cleaned, washed and left to dry overnight. The next morning we proceed with the squeezing. The sauce obtained is arranged, with slow and always the same gestures, on large wooden tables (the maidde) perfectly clean and dry so that the sun – with its warm and persistent rays – can dry the tomato. A process that lasts an entire morning. Afterwards, the concentrate to which Sicilian sea salt is added is collected at the center of each table (80g per 10kg), to then be leveled again with your hands. In the afternoon we finally proceed to the collection of the extract, arranged in smaller tables and left to rest in the shade for two days. "Processing in the past took place in the courtyards because it required a lot of space," says Pina, "and from time to time the shift family involved in the preparation was helped. They were days of celebration because whole families gathered. But they also required so much effort, in fact I remember that no one cooked for fatigue and ate only bread with oil and tomato . The last phase is the bottling of the concentrate: with well greased hands of oil it is placed inside large glass jars covered with a white cloth surmounted by a little mound of salt to absorb the moisture of the extract. The ladies of Aspra still practice this custom: "I remember that Dad," adds his sister Nina, "wanted to always have at home a" badduzza "(ball, note) of extract at hand, to give even more flavor to the dishes prepared by mother .

Appointment for all in September

For those wishing to experience the magic of this ancient rite, on 8 and 9 September the Cultural Association Altura organizes the event in Aspra Ciauru ri astrattu (extract fragrance). "The ritual of preparing tomato concentrate," he says Rosellina Mantini, president of the association, "accompanied our summers when we were children, as well as the smell of tomato lying in the sun. We cannot risk that this heritage should be lost and our commitment is to celebrate and highlight an all-female knowledge that is handed down between generations and that can be saved from oblivion only by recalling it .

Two whole days to discover stories, legends and anecdotes about the preparation of tomato concentrate, its link with the salt extraction activities and with the catch. Instead, it will be up to local chefs to show the public its use in the kitchen. Original the idea of Antonio Sciortino, owner of the restaurant Colapisci, to create a pizza with a mixture of 5 Sicilian grains and a topping that reproduces the seasoning of the typical pasta with sardines (the concentrate is a fundamental ingredient of the recipe), today proposed as a welcome to the guests of his beautiful restaurant on the seafront of Aspra .

The event will also feature some of the most talented Sicilian chefs: Martina Caruso, 1 Michelin star chef of Signum of Salina, Marco Baglieri of the restaurant Crucified in Noto, Giacomo Caravello of Balice in Milazzo, inaugurated this summer, e Bonetta Dell’Oglio, the chef champion of the protection of Sicilian biodiversity.

Incoming search terms:

https://gordon-ramsay-recipe com/recipes-of-italian-cuisine/tomato-salt-and-sun-the-art-of-sicilian-concentrate-italian-cuisine html