Lisa
Lieberman writes the Cara Walden series of historical noir mysteries about
blacklisted Hollywood people in exotic European locales. She lives in Amherst,
Massachusetts and blogs about old movies at
deathlessprose.com
An Italian Thanksgiving
You might have
thought life as a college professor was challenging enough, teaching history
while trying to finish a book, with three small children at home, but my
husband and I could never resist an adventure. We’d spent the first year of our
married life in England and France, researching our doctoral dissertations in
fusty libraries and taking advantage of student travel discounts to see as much
of those two countries as we could, but jobs were scarce for academic couples
and we ended up stuck in small towns with little hope of escape.
So when I was
offered the opportunity to direct a study abroad program in Bologna, Italy, we
didn’t hesitate. Who cared that we didn’t know Italian? We had a year to learn
the language (and Italians turned out to be very forgiving of mistakes. . .)
Somehow we managed to find a babysitter for our infant, a nursery school for
our four-year-old, and a public school for our second grader — all within
walking distance of our apartment.
That year in
Italy changed us in so many ways. For one thing, we started eating pasta pretty
much every day, sometimes twice a day! My Italian administrative assistant
taught me how to make a proper ragu, Bologna-style. Turkeys being hard to come
by in Italy, we made it for Thanksgiving and have kept up the tradition ever
since. The recipe below makes enough sauce for two pounds of pasta, so you can
freeze half if you’re not feeding an army.
All the Wrong
Places, the first
book in my Hollywood-themed mystery series, is set partially in Italy. Writing
it allowed me to travel back there in my imagination. We’d taken our kids to
Sicily for Easter, and stayed at a pensione in Taormina that had a swimming
pool set in a terraced garden, complete with lemon trees. For breakfast, they
served us juice made from blood oranges. “I couldn’t get over the ruby red pulp,” Cara
says. “That was Sicily, always surprising you with its vibrancy.”
I invite you to
come along with Cara and have an adventure of your own. The ebook of All the
Wrong Places will be on sale for .99 from Thanksgiving week through the end
of November. Buon viaggio!
Bolognese Ragu
2 T. olive oil
1 small onion
1 small carrot
1 small piece of celery
1 lb. ground beef (can use ground turkey)
1 cup milk
grating of fresh nutmeg
1 cup dry white wine
28 oz can Italian plum tomatoes
12 sage leaves (or 1 tsp. dried sage)
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb. pasta
Cook onion, carrot, and celery in olive oil until soft (not
brown).
Add beef, crumbling it into small pieces as it cooks.
Add milk and simmer until the liquid is absorbed. Grate in a
little fresh nutmeg. Add wine and simmer until the liquid is absorbed.
Add tomatoes and their juice, along with sage, salt and
pepper. Simmer, uncovered, two hours or more. You want the fat to separate from
the meat. If it starts to dry out, add a little water. The tomatoes will start
to break down as well (you can help them along by smashing them with your
wooden spoon).
Cook pasta al dente, according to package directions, and
combine with half of the sauce. Serve with freshly grated parmesan.
All the Wrong Places
Seventeen-year-old Cara
Walden arrives in 1950s London with her half brother Gray‚ a blacklisted
Hollywood screenwriter and closeted homosexual. Gray has looked after Cara ever
since her mother‚ glamorous actress Vivien Grant‚ was found drowned in the pool
at their estate. As Cara embarks on a film shoot in Sicily and begins a love
affair with a temperamental actor‚ she cannot help pondering the mystery
surrounding her mother’s death‚ but the questions she asks soon put Cara’s own
life in danger.
Fans of old movies will get a
kick out of All the Wrong Places, a historical mystery set in England,
Italy, and the French Riviera that pays tribute to the films of the forties and
fifties, capped off with a thrilling finale straight out of Hitchcock.
Buy
Links
2 comments:
Hmmm. I collect recipes for Bolognese Ragu. I've not done well adding milk - it tends to sour. I wonder if I'm adding it at the wrong time.
Try adding it after you've browned the meat and be sure to let it simmer down until all the liquid is absorbed before adding the wine. This is how Marcella Hazan (the goddess of Italian cooking) says to do it. Enjoy!
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