Italian Cooking Lesson

Italian Cooking Lesson
Italy

My first, best, Italian chicken was cooked in a clay pot by the fire in a small country inn outside Assisi.

Winter had set her hands gently around the hill town in the center of Italy. I had fled the cold rains of Paris in January to find sanctuary in Assisi.

Free of the Parisian icy-cold, I found warm sun during the day and time in the short winter daylight hours to wander slowly through the deserted Basilica of St Francis, to stroll through the market on Saturday eating dried figs, admiring tablecloths. Little did I know that my first Italian cooking class was coming toward me, changing my life forever.

After days on the road I was weary of cold road food, weary of bread and cheese eaten on midnight trains where I slept in the luggage rack.

Bush in Assisi

So when I found the small inn just outside the north gate road of Assisi, I crawled into the shower, slept an hour, then followed my nose to the basement where the cooks were working on dinner.

Since a light rain was falling, Mama the Cook assumed I and the rest of the guests would be staying in for dinner.

She was right, why would I walk back to Assisi in the rain and dark when there was a medieval great hearth bellowed warming flames on my slippered feet and dinner was simmering right in front of me?

I was early for dinner, being starved both for food and company. Dinner was not until 8 p.m. But Mama poured me a glass of wine and let me watch dinner preparations, while the staff ate dinner.

Chicken is expensive in Italy, its not uncommon to see $5 for a piece of cooked leg in a Tavola Calda, a small restaurant.

Chicken

Here the chicken was split and laid before the flames on the great hearth right in front of me to cook…and entice the guest’s appetites with its incredible smell.

We dined late that night, staff and guests. I recall drinking house wine and dancing around singing my version of “Bella Italia” with one of the waiters, him in his apron, me in my house slippers, both a bit in love for a dance or so.

---

Mama had noticed my intense interest in the food and gave me directions in Italian for the following dish, which my family adores.

Clay Pot

The secret is the clay pot, soaked in water beforehand. I could not bring a clay baker home, but I found one here in Oregon.

Stab lemons with a knife several times, stuff clean chicken with garlic and handful of kosher salt.
Coat outside of chicken with kosher salt, slash the skin and press stalks of rosemary under the skin.
Pepper generously.
Cut one end off of the onion and place in the pot (may use more than one).
Bake at 400 degrees.
Cook in clay pot for one-and-a-half hours, then watch your family devour it!