Monica Donnelly's writings....about Italy

On my website, one of the People featured is Monica Donnelly, along with Mon's famous pavlova recipe. Monica has already written one book, an autobiography about her younger years, and is currently in the process of writing her second. She has sent me 2 preview chapters from her new book, which will hopefully be published and available round the end of this year.

Being extremely interested in food and wine, her writings, I have found, generally have leanings in this direction - which we love! So here, below, is one of the chapters she has given me permission to publish on my blog, so you can have a sneak peek at the book. I can promise you the other chapter I have read is equally interesting, being about the history of our much-beloved Hill St Grocers.

NB - the 'Peter' Monica refers to is her son Peter, with whom she lives.


CUCINA ITALIANO

A home cooked Italian meal with a glass of wine tops the menu for Tasmanian households according to a recent survey. The survey also says that beer is no longer the most favoured drink for men. Women were the wine drinkers, now the men are joining them in quaffing wine, and not only with meals! Italian migrants are a big influence here.

Years ago an Italian neighbour would pick our elderberries and make a wine which my late husband would try, and describe as horrible. Our ideas about wine have changed a lot since then. Our current good neighbour, Roberto Carnevale, who has a small vineyard at Brighton, presented Peter last week with a bottle of his latest pinot noir which he is looking forward to enjoying with friends. He is holding onto a couple of bottles of a lovely riesling from good friend Anne Tucceri’s vineyard “Antipodes” at Cambridge. He is feeling sentimental about this wine as it will be the last, Anne having recently sold her property. Like many Hobartians, we were acquainted with Anne’s late husband Bertie. Peter will keep one bottle in memory of him.

Back to Italian cuisine! We were very fortunate on our last visit to Italy to undertake a cooking course in beautiful Tuscany. Italian cooking is much more than “spaghetti bolognaise” and “pizza”. It varies so much, with, for example, polenta and rice dishes favoured in the north and pasta in the south of the country. In Tuscany, local produce includes beans (fagioli), wild boar, huge T-bone steaks, and their famous sweet Chianti wine, vinsanto (holy wine). We avoided the beef at the time of our visit because of the”mad cow” disease scare.

We spent four wonderful days at the Villa Pitiana, south east of Florence. At the cooking class, we learnt how to prepare some of the local specialties – wild boar ragout, home made pasta, spelt (bean) and vegetable soup, and almond biscotti. There were other meat dishes and a beautiful gelati flavoured with vinsanto. Back home, Peter bought a pasta machine and has made fresh pasta for the family on several occasions, most recently on Good Friday this year.

There is no comparison between fresh home made pasta and the dry packet variety. At Christmas a couple of years ago, he prepared one of the more exotic dishes from our cooking class- terrine of rabbit with crayfish and vinsanto sauce. The recipe called for 12 crayfish! We were relieved to find that due to a slightly inaccurate translation, they had meant what we call prawns!
Monica Donnelly
30/4/06