We met Cesare in a square near a market, and along with 5 other tourists (two from New Jersey, two from Seattle, one from Copenhagen) were taken through a market stand as Cesare showed us the vegetables we would be using in the cooking class. He also had us try some sort of bean in a thick squishy stalk, olives that were as fresh as anyone wants to eat them (soaked in salt water for a couple months), and some strawberries. Then we walked to an apartment to learn real Italian and Jewish-Italian cooking!
The dishes we made (or, learned to make, we pretend nothing) were
1. Artichoke the Italian way, most of the leaves cut/peeled off, with the stem on, stuffed with garlic, salt, pepper, and mint, lightly fried in oil, then steamed.
2. Zucchini flowers, stuffed with mozzarella cheese mixed with anchovy paste (for the saltiness), then deep-fried. He also deep-fried sage leaves, which needed no preparation (these were delicious!).
3. Handmade pasta variety 1 I can't remember the name, dough rolled, cut, then molded on a 'riga gnocchi' (and he presented each of us with one of the tools at the end of the class, yay!). This was in a Roman broccoli + goat cheese sauce.
4. Handmade pasta variety 2 can't remember either, this was made with egg, and all our piles of dough combined and put through a blender attachment to flatten it out. Then we cut, folded, and cut to end up with thin flappy noodles. The sauce for this was oil + garlic touch + lots of tomatoes sweated in a pot then put through a strainer to take out all the skin and seeds. Served with some caramelized cherry tomatoes. Yum.
5. Tiramisu. This means literally 'bring me up' (or 'pick me up'), and we have learned a magical recipe we will need to recreate as soon as possible so we do not forget. Delicioso.
Once everything was made (or, mostly) we sat down to a like 4 course meal with nice wine and plenty of water (LUXERY!) in good company.
A rather diverse set we had plenty to talk about, and when Cesare joined us after dessert at some point we talked about business and taxes and this was very interesting. On the walk over we had talked about the mafia, having passed one of many sets of military-looking men you can see all over the city, whom Cesare referred to as anti-mafia. He explained how the mafia work here in Italy and they are certainly prevalent. They are a big business, controlling drugs etc. and in many parts of Rome (he said 'in the south') you have to pay fees so they don't come destroy your shop, and here in Rome if he saw someone peddling drugs on the corner he could not call the police because the mafia have of course paid them first. Etc.
He told us about the 58% tax here that he does not want to pay because who would (and that's why so much is done in cash!), and about how once he lost his passport, went to the passport office, and was told it would be a month to get a new one... when he was upset, the person behind him said 'psst, 200 euro...' and he gave the passport person 200 euro and got his passport the next day. What a life. Cesare is married to a Texas woman and has spent a lot of time in Texas, so he has the perspective of a Roman Jew born and raised here who has also experienced the niceties of the USA.
He talked a little of the Jewish quarter, and one of us asked if his family was caught up in what happened around WWll, and he didn't want to talk of it much because it's depressing, but he said about 70% were; his grandparents were wealthy so they had someone change their last name on their passports, they moved to a different area, and some were able to keep out of it. This is not the usual story of course. He said one of the reasons wealthier Jews might have survived is they had radios and heard that the Jews were being taken from Rome—but most didn't believe it because it was that ridiculous. Anything can happen.
Obviously Rome is not like that now. ...But it would still be a difficult place to live!
Last note, on the blog title. Today there was a strike, for the metro and buses and trams. From something like 8:20 in the morning until 5:30 in the evening the union workers were making life difficult for everyone else. So while we were able to take a bus in the morning, for whatever providence granted us, trying to get home we waited with groceries 20 min. for a bus that never came and eventually decided to walk. After some time walking we were passing by a busy bus stop and decided to wait and catch the next bus to almost-wherever. One arrived, we hopped aboard, and soon were squished into the center of a hot bus for about 15 uncomfortable minutes. We assume it was so full because of the unreliability of the buses today. When we finally decided to just walk we tried to leave the bus and could not. The next stop a woman asked us if we were getting off (in Italian), I said yes, so she yelled at the men blocking the door so they moved aside and off the bus so we could get off. Finally. Grazie. We walked to the metro and rode to our stop.
As we exited the metro, hot and tired and wondering why it took more than an hour to get back, a man about to head down stopped suddenly at the top of the stairs. He turned to us. "Does it work?"
For a moment we didn't understand the question. Then we laughed—"Yes, it works!"
And he continued, and we continued, and we thought that it was a very good question!
You never know when it just might not, in Italy.
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