Italian Movie: The Double Hour

I’m a sucker for anything in Italian. When I was living in Italy, I was a sucker for anything in English. (I’m sure there’s a term for folks like me.) I will admit that my husband and I recently saw The Double Hour simply because it was in Italian.

The Double Hour's trailer shows speed dating, intense love with sad overtones, robbery, murder, suicide, illness, and more. I generally shy away from murder mysteries or thrillers, but since it was in Italian, of course I saw it (although we made it an afternoon showing, to mediate the fear factor.)

I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. As the New York Times review of the movie adeptly explains, there were some surprising twists and turns throughout the plot. I am still thinking about the early plot clues and the ending.

If you are learning Italian, watching movies is a great way to practice your skills. Most, if not all, Italian movies shown in the United States have subtitles in English. If you stream or rent Netflix movies, you can usually change the subtitles to Italian. Listening to the language while reading it (even if it isn’t 100% the same), helps you to improve your comprehension of the language.

What Italian movies have you enjoyed? 

Favorite D.C. Area Italian Restaurants?

When you crave true Italian food, where do you go in the D.C. area? So far, these are my two favorite places:

2Amys Neopolitan Pizzeria 

La Strada

2Amys, close to the cathedral, offers a wonderful array of cheeses, cured meats and pizzas that I haven’t seen elsewhere in the area. La Strada, in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, features fresh pastas.

I imagine I’ve been missing out on countless other places. Where do you go out for Italian food?

Practice Italian by Watching Italian Television

A good way to learn a second language is by integrating it into something you already enjoy doing. For example, watching sports, movies or other television programs in Italian. If you are bored while you are watching/reading/listening to something, well, you know how that will turn out.

Mad About Italy offers us links to popular Italian television stations. You can stream them live the way you can many television programs in English.

Divertivi!

Cin Cin!

Italians clink glasses and happily cheer, “cin cin!” On birthdays, they offer their “auguri” and the hope for “Cent’Anni!”

Today, the day after my birthday, I’d like to offer you, my readers, a “cin cin” and a “grazie” for returning weekly to read about Italian and Italian-American food, language and culture.

I’d also like to share a list, in no particular order, of foods that I love. Emphasis on the word “love.”

What are your favorite foods?

Linguine with clams 

Spicy popcorn shrimp

Homemade bread

Dolcezza’s mint ice cream (Washington, D.C.)

Crunchy, spicy tuna sushi 

My husband’s homemade tortilla chips

Nutella

Popeye’s Fried Chicken 

Sweetwater Café’s ginger fizz (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

Pesto made with basil from my mother’s garden

Blue Moon Café Margarita’s (Bronxville, New York)

Biscuits and gravy
Reese’s Pieces

Mighty Good coffee (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

My father’s fettuccine alfredo

Tuscan pecorino cheese (not hard, not soft)

BGR Joint Burgers (Washington, D.C.) 

Ginger Chews 

Sorrento’s fried calamari (Elizabeth, New Jersey)

Chinese steamed pork dumplings

Two Amy’s rice balls (Washington, D.C.) 

Bagel Chateau bagels (Westfield, New Jersey)

Chocolate truffles

Fresh mozzarella

La Pietra Olive Oil (Florence, Italy)

My friend Lisa’s deviled eggs (Florence, Italy)

Aunt Dora’s double-chocolate chip cookies

Crostini Fiorentini

Triscuits, with salt, of course

Shorts Beer (Michigan) 

Double cream brie

Fresh figs (Sala Consilina, Italy)

Casa di Trevi’s ravioli (Roselle Park, New Jersey) 

Garlic bagel chips

Zeppole 

Gala apples

Smoked scamorza cheese

Fish in Greece

Garlic mashed potatoes

Zingerman’s chocolate bread (Ann Arbor, Michigan) 

Ouzo on our honeymoon (Starting in Athens)

Sandpiper’s Black Raspberry Ice Cream (Greenport, Long Island)

Fresh avocado with olive oil, salt and pepper

Large soft pretzels

Caper leaves on Greek islands

Lentil salad with goat cheese

Palak paneer

Almost anything in New Orleans

Limoncello 

Amish market donuts (South Jersey)

Orzo cooked in broth and left to swell overnight

Lardo

Mrs. Field’s recipe for banana bread

My mom’s fried and stuffed zucchini flowers 

Salted matzo with butter

New York City white pizza

Trader Joe’s jalapeno crunchies

Spinach

My grandmother’s egg salad on a bagel

Swing’s coffee (Washington, D.C.) 

Linda's chocolate pudding pie

Pasta with shrimp and lots of garlic & olive oil

Onion rings

D.C. Area Italian Language, Food & Cultural Organizations

I have been gathering websites for D.C. area Italian language, food and cultural organizations. See below for some of the highlights and scroll down through the links on the right for the permanent list.

I’m sure that I am missing some. Perhaps you can help? Have you taken a great language class in the area or attended an Italian language, food or cultural event? Let me know below and I'll add the links into the resources.

Grazie mille!

Casa Italiana Hall & Cultural Center

Italians in D.C. 

Italian Cultural Institute

Italian Embassy

Piazza Italia - Washington, D.C., Italian Language and Culture Group

Washington, D.C., Italian Language Meetup Group

CSA: Cremini Mushroom Pasta

This season we joined a CSA: The Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative. Every Wednesday, we pick up a half-order of fresh vegetables. The trick is to decide what to cook with these surprise treats. Since most of the items are organic and quick to grow soft, they should be eaten quickly. I often default to quick pasta sauces.

Tender golden cremini mushrooms were in the recent batch. While water was boiling for pasta, I sautéed the mushrooms in olive oil, salt and pepper. I added dried thyme and walnut pieces. After mixing the sauce with the cooked pasta, I plated our portions. We each opted to add some freshly grated cheese and a few hot pepper flakes. Ecco! An easy pasta dish fit for a couple of work-worn adults.

The trick to managing the CSA vegetables is to think creatively. Take a look at the vegetables, your pantry and imagine what might taste good together. Once you start experimenting and feel comfortable in the kitchen, you can look through recipes in your cookbook or online and then riff off of them. You never have to follow a recipe exactly. Trust your instinct, what you have on hand and save your budget from adding drips or drops of expensive foods that might not be necessary.

What have you prepared recently with your CSA or Farmer’s Market treats? 

Bread Making

Making bread might sound intimidating, but it really isn’t. The good news is that it seems – and tastes – impressive every time.

If you start with a basic recipe, you can tweak it according to your taste and the ingredients you have on hand. I recently followed this Epicurious recipe for Portuguese Farm Bread.

I brushed the resulting loaf with extra virgin olive oil and then added kitchen-garden-grown (although frozen) rosemary, pepper and large salt on top before baking it on a pizza stone. I always toss down a little corn meal on the pizza stone before I place the unbaked, shaped dough on it in the oven. Like with making pizza or calzone, this makes it easier to remove from the pizza stone after it is baked.

The result? A delicious loaf whose slices went well with a pasta dinner to fare la scarpetta the sauce, then for sandwiches the next day for lunch and later for breakfast toast.

Homemade bread doesn’t last as long as store-bought bread, but you can always cook half the dough and then save the other half in the fridge until you’re ready for it a few days later. If that’s still too much for you and your family, you could freeze the left-over dough for another day.