Last year, our Leaning Tower of Pisa gingerbread project got an honorable mention from our local county competition. We knew we'd have to ratchet it up for this year, so we decided to build a the Roman Colosseum in gingerbread. The first thing to decide is how to create the curves for the oval shape of the Colosseum's walls. Last year, we developed a technique to mold sections of gingerbread as soon as they come out of the oven a bit under-done... we formed the curved walls of the Pisa tower like this. But in this case, the Colosseum is oval with each section of wall at a different radius. I would have had to build large multi-sectioned forms to create the curved parts. Instead, considering the scale we were working in (on a 24" square base) we thought we would make the walls in sections and then cut them apart and mortar them back together with colored royal icing. OK, so we had a basic plan to approach the overall shape, but how about the details? After some exhaustive research, I found architectural drawings of both the floor plan and the wall elevations and used Photoshop to scale them to fit our 24" square board onto which our Colosseum would be built. I had to make adjustments to the scale of certain elements of the plans first. Instead of 80 arches I cut it in half to 40, afraid that if I cut arches to scale out of the gingerbread, the narrow arches (they would have been less than 1/2" wide) might have closed up as the gingerbread baked. I also wanted larger arches so I could install something to represent the statues in each arch as it appeared in ancient times. We were going to use gummy bears for the statues. It took some doing, scaling things up and down, taking lots of measurements and Photoshop work, then porting the resulting plans over to MS Publisher so I could print the plans out life size as tiled prints, which I taped back together. There were sets of prints that I used to make templates for walls and other elements, and other prints that I used to assemble a three dimensional paper model so I could figure out where specific elements needed to go or where I might have to tweak the scale a bit more (for instance, we shortened the inner wall a bit so our audience could more easily look into the arena to see the "Battle of the Colossus" we were planning to install. After we had our templates cut out, we started to roll out gingerbread from a special recipe we use for construction--it's harder and spreads less than standard recipes. We used two batches: one with light corn syrup and one with dark corn syrup so we would have two slightly different colors of walls or elements to work with. (The real Colosseum has many different colors of earth tones on its facade). Both my son Lucas and I worked on making the elements... cutting out arches, hand cutting special shapes, texturing the walls to look like brick and stone, and sawing apart wall sections to make the appearance of curved walls. As you can see in the photos above, we even developed a technique to pipe the gingerbread dough. We took balls of dough and wet them briefly under the faucet, then worked water into the dough until it got very slushy without being too wet--just slippery enough to be pumped out of a piping bag and pastry tip. It worked fantastically. After about a week of research and another 3 days of baking and prepping wall sections and other elements, we filled three pizza boxes with all the gingerbread parts for our Colosseum and got to work assembling with only two days left before we had to present our creation...
Although we were entered into the "Authentic Reproduction of a Significant Structure" category, we wanted to add a bit of humorous element for the kids that would be viewing our Colosseum for 6 weeks during the holiday season. We decided to place two gladiator combatant Gingerbread Men in the arena styled after the "Gingy" character from the Shrek film franchise. We would have one tripping the other using a candy cane, and the other bopping a lollipop sucker over his head. I wanted these to look animated, so I used foil to prop up parts of the arms, legs and heads during baking. A long bamboo skewer for support was baked into each gingerbread gladiator and would be hot glued into the plywood base of the arena.
I was originally going to sculpt a human form for our Sun God-Colossus statue, but thought it would be funnier to make him into a gingerbread man--except instead of bronze (I didn't have any bronze Luster Dust) I used modeling chocolate to sculpt a marble statue. In the end, we were very satisfied with the results and won Second Place (with a decent cash prize and ribbon) for our efforts. I will admit to being frustrated and confused about not taking First Place over the poorly executed and not architecturally correct "Rockefeller Center Ice Skating Rink" that won the grand prize. We had put so many different techniques into ours and had built a nearly architecturally correct Colosseum, while the First Place winner had only flat panels of gingerbread and no architectural details at all (no gold statue of Prometheus?) No matter, we're still proud of our effort this year! What do you think? --Jerry Finzi The fruits of the Prickly Pear in Italy are known as Fichi d'India (India Pears), marketed in America with the friendlier, less dangerous name of Cactus Pears. The plant was first introduced into Europe after the discovery of the Americas by Columbus. The fruits were named fichio d’India (Indian fig) because when Christopher Columbus arrived in the new continent and saw prickly pears he thought he was in India. These colorful fruits make a sweet snack or a margarita mixer. Unlike Mexico and other countries, Italy doesn't use the cactus paddles, but simply loves this pear shaped fruit. Intensive plantations across Sicily and the southern mainland make it only second to Mexico in cactus fruit production. In reality, the word “prickly” lessons the dangerous aspect of the spines of this fruit. But it's not the obvious large spines of this cactus that are the problem, the real danger is from the tiny, nearly invisible hair-like spines that completely cover the skin of the fruit that you have to watch out for. If you touch them with your bare hands, you won't be able to wash them off... microscopic hooks dig into your skin causing burning pain. What do they taste like? Many say that Fichi d'India are sweet but not too sweet. Some describe the flavor like a fig crossed with a plum. They are also very seedy, with big, hard seeds. Some like to feel the crunch of the seeds between their teeth, while others eat them as they do pomegranates, swallowing seeds along with the gelatinous flesh (think, "fiber"). In southern Italy (especially Sicily) people love eating them fresh. You will often find them pre-skinned and ready to eat in market displays. The taste varies with the color--white, orange and red. Some say that the red ones have more flavor than the other colors. One interesting tradition is winery owners giving the fruit to their grape-pickers for breakfast to prevent them from eating grapes during the harvesting. This tradition is still kept today. You'll find the best ones during its harvest time in Sicily, from October to December. There is also a Sagra del FicoIndia in the town of Roccapalumba in Palermo Province held usually in the second week of October. During the feast, the town’s streets will be alive with workshops about how to peel and eat the tuna (Sicilian word for the fruit) of the cactus, how to prepare it for consumption, and there will be opportunities to taste products and dishes made from the plant–everything from honey to liquor to a recipe called scuzzulata. More than 30,000 people attend. Culinary Use Besides being eaten fresh, Fichi d'India can be used in salads, vinaigrette and made into granita, jams or honey. They are also used in Sicilian cakes, such as Buccellato, which is very common at Christmas time. You can drink juice from the fichi d'India, but it really needs some lemon added for additional acid. In fact, it is often used in commercial drinks as a flavoring. Many make a home brew--Liquore al fico d’india--from the fruit in a similar manner as one would make limoncello, placing the cut up fruit in jars of alcohol with a sugar-syrup and fermenting in a dark place. The resulting liquor is best served very cold. The fruit is high in vitamin C, antioxidants. calcium and phosphorus. --Jerry Finzi This video shows how to skin and harvest a Fichi d'India fresh from the cactus plant--without getting hurt. Here are two Nonnas showing the sensible method of skinning the Fichi d'India by soaking them first in a bucket of water.
Black wormy spaghetti, green monster eyeballs with bloody roadkill sauce... Yummy. Perfect for the little ghouls in your family. Ingredients 1/2 tsp black paste type food coloring (they come in small jars). 1 16 oz box of thick spaghetti or bucatini (if it's too thin, it won't have that wormy look) 4 quarts of water 3 tablespoons sea salt or Kosher salt Large green olives stuffed with pimentos (Buy the fresh large ones, not bottled), or as an alternative, use buccatini (mozzarella balls) for use as eyeballs. Spaghetti sauce, preferably a textured, meaty sauce, like a Bolognese.
You might even try using meatballs topped with halves of buccatini with sliced, pitted olives as the eyeballs on a bloody plate of spaghetti. Enjoy... and keep an EYE OUT for monsters! --Jerry Finzi Each year, we create a gingerbread house with last year being our first time in a local competition. (We received an Honorable Mention for our Gingerbread Leaning Tower of Pisa). But Lucas, Lisa and I have a real challenge ahead of us this year... a project we've wanted to do for the last three years: The Roman Colosseum! This past week we started planning it, and are coming to the realization that this will be one of the most challenging creations to date. As an inspiration, we've been looking all over Google, Pinterest and You Tube for other Colosseum gingerbread and cake creations. It's going to be a tough project for sure. Here's two of the better cakes we found that blew us away, even though they are partial scenes of the Colosseum. We love the amazing details done in modeling chocolate... Now, the Candy Corn Pizza shown below, I would recommend for a kid's party. The kids will get one giant "candy corn" slice each. It's actually a real pizza crust made with Alfredo sauce or ricotta (for the white) and cheddar cheese (for the yellow). You can brush the edges of the crust with a light tomato sauce to make the edges more red-orange if you'd like. In essence, this does qualify as a genuine pizza. The others? Not so much. Recipe
My pizza crust recipe (use half to make smaller pizzas) 1/2 jar of white sauce (Alfredo or garlic parmesan, etc.) or ricotta cheese 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 1/2 cup tomato sauce
--Jerry Finzi photo by Fabio Cremonesi Have a party to plan for? How about making a bunch of Pizzette--tiny pizzas? They are simple to prepare. Just use any pizza dough recipe, use a round cookie cutter (or a glass) to cut out the small rounds, top with sauce and other favorite toppings (make a lot plain and pepperoni for the kids) and pop them in the oven on large, dark colored sheet pans oiled with light olive oil. Keep a little space between each one. Bake in a preheated 475F oven for 5-7 minutes, or until both the top and bottoms are done.
These little pizzas holdover well. You can make quite a large batch (for a school or church event, for example) and they can even be served Italian style, at room temperature. --Jerry Finzi Since the arrival of Jews in Italy in 2nd century BC, the tradition of celebrating Pesach (Passover) festival has been assimilated into culture of Italian Jews. Italian Jews have developed their own unique style... with Passover being referred to as Pasqua Ebraica (Jewish Easter) and enjoying the tradition of Pesach all'Italiana dishes. The basic tradition of serving the Seder meal remains the same, presenting the Seder table with great happiness, joy and accompanied by singing traditional songs.
The Pesach festival is celebrated to commemorate the freedom of the Jews from oppression and slavery under the Egyptians over 3000 years ago. This year it is celebrated from the 10th to the 18th of April. Jewish communities are all over Italy... Rome, Florence, Ferarra, Venice, Pitigliano, Bologna, Genoa, Trieste, Ancona, Naples Padua, Pisa, Modena, Siena, Parma, Verona and also in Puglia, Campania, Sicily, and Calabria.
My family name has its ancient history in Jewish roots, although my small branch of the Finzi's have been Catholic in modern history. As my family celebrates Easter this year, I would like to offer my best wishes and... Felice Festa Pesach! --Jerry Finzi There's nothing like making a Pane di Pasqua for Easter. This is a traditional holiday egg bread that usually contains hard boiled eggs--baked right into the bread. It can be eaten as a snack with honey or jam, served with a meal or given as gifts when visiting family. Variations of Easter celebration breads are made throughout Italy. To celebrate Easter in Sicily, they make "baby-doll" breads for girls, and breads shaped like ducks, lambs and horses for boys. In most areas of Italy, there are Easter breads and mostly are sweet and contain whole, brightly dyed eggs which are braided into the bread, with the eggs cooking during the baking. In Lombardy there is the Colomba Pasquale (literally "Easter dove"), which has become popular throughout Italy. In Sardinia, the celebration breads get even more intricate, with scissor work on the dough adding amazing details in Easter egg baskets. The eggs can be brightly colored or natural. In the Greek tradition, the same sort of bread is made with eggs dyed red by using onion skins. The eggs represent birth, or rather, at Easter the re-birth. This recipe can make one round bread or two smaller straight braided breads, or 6 individual breads. Boiling and Dying the eggs: For perfect eggs:
You can dye 4-6 eggs, only after hard-boiling them. In the past, I've tried to use raw eggs placed directly in the dough, but they often are a bit under-cooked--not soft boiled, but a bit under. If you want to make real looking like partridge eggs, dye them a pale blue and then use a tooth brush with brown dye to put blotches and spots all over each egg. Proofing the Yeast: 1 tablespoon instant or active dry yeast. 1/3 cup milk (at 115 F) 1 tablespoon sugar
For the dough: 2 1/2 - 3 cups all-purpose flour (depends on humidity... don't put in all the flour if it doesn't need it, but if it's a rainy day or you're using jumbo eggs, you might need 4 cups). 1/2 cup warm milk (115 F) 1/4 cup orange juice (room temperature) 1/2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 8 tablespoons butter (softened & cut into small pieces) 3 eggs well beaten (You can substitute Egg Beaters if you like). 1 teaspoon vanilla (or almond flavoring for a more Italian flavor) For egg wash and topping: 2 eggs beaten (egg wash for brushing) 2 tablespoons sliced almonds 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar colored sprinkles (optional) Directions
Forming the Bread
Here are some other variations on Pane di Pasqua... --Jerry Finzi
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