Culinary Adventures with Camilla

As the part of my  Food52  potluck fennel pollen trifecta, I stuck fairly close to the recipe that was posted by  Cara Frank :  Carrot Top Farro Soup , but swapped out the farro for barley, added some sambuca, and left out the garlic. I still hear Maria's voice in my head in my head: Non cucinare con la cipolla e l'aglio insieme. (Don't cook with onions and garlic together.) Maria is the Italian woman who taught me to cook in Rome. I almost never break her rule. 1 bunch carrots, with tops 2 C barley 12 C organic chicken broth 1 parmesan rind 5 ribs celery, chopped 1 onion, thinly sliced olive oil 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and diced 1cup   1 T   fennel pollen* 1/2 C fennel fronds, roughly chopped 3 T sambuca *Cara's original recipe called for 1 C of fennel pollen. That's almost $50 worth of fennel pollen. I suspect that she meant 1 C fennel fronds; I only had about 1/2 C, so I added in sambuca for more licorice-y goodness. ...

Grissini are pencil-sized breadsticks that originated in the Turin-area of Italy. I decided that I needed to serve a bouquet of grissini with my pumpkin soup for Thanksgiving. Of course I could have picked up a package for less than $5, but where's the culinary adventure in that?!? So, here's my first attempt; I used this recipe from the L.A. Times as a jumping off point. I used whole wheat flour and added ground almonds; I seasoned mine with porcini salt and freshly ground pepper. Success! I can't wait to serve these at our feast. 1/2 C warm water 1 T active dry yeast 1 t organic raw sugar 1 1/4 C white whole wheat flour 1/2 C ground almonds 2 T olive oil porcini salt and freshly ground pepper 1. In a large bowl, combine the warm water with the yeast, sugar and 1 C of the white whole wheat flour. Let bloom for 10 minutes. 2. Stir in the remaining flour, ground almonds, olive oil and salt and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 min...