Friday, October 3rd

6:30 Food - - 7pm movie

Mafioso
Alberto Lattuada - 1962

In Alberto Lattuada's brilliant dark comedy Mafioso, auto-factory foreman Nino (Alberto Sordi) takes his proper, modern wife (Norma Bengell) and two blonde daughters from industrial Milan to antiquated, rural Sicily to visit his family and get back in touch with his roots. But Antonio gets more than he bargained for when he discovers some harsh truths about his ancestors—and himself. One of the first Italian films to look frankly at the Mafia, Lattuada's devastatingly funny character study is equal parts culture-clash farce and existential nightmare.

Run time: 105 minutes

Light refreshments and wine available for purchase.
R.S.V.P. via email: viva@studyabroaditaly.com or
phone: 707-824-9913

Canning Your Garden Bounty

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND

Thursday, October 9th

11:30am - 2:30pm

Award Winning Canner, Keith Borglum

$55

The process of preserving food in an airtight container was first developed as a French military discovery when in 1795 Napoleon offered 12,000 francs to anyone who could devise a way to preserve food for his army and navy.  In 1809 Nicolas Appert of France won the prize.

Home canning was originally done not so much to save money, but to ensure access to certain types of foods which, due to seasonality or scarcity (due to things like wars), might not be available at other times of year. Today, the best reason I know to can your own produce (or anything) is because it's a) fun and b) tastes like nothing you could ever buy.

As home gardening becomes one of our nation’s favorite pastimes, and as organic gardening is on the rise, perhaps there is still a future for homemade tomato and chili sauces, gleaming on a pantry shelf, waiting for winter.

Participants are encouraged to bring in some of their harvest.  All will leave with at least one jar of sauce and one of relish.

Sauces

Marinara

(Basic Tomato Sauce)

with discussion & demonstration of variables of tomato preparation

Marinara Con Verdure

(Basic Marinara Sauce)

including whatever the attendees bring to highlight the flexibility of adding end-of-season produce

Relishes

Caponata Di Melanzane

(Sweet & Sour Eggplant Tomato Relish)

with discussion of how its as flexible as marinara

Pickled Salsa

(Pickled Tomato & Pepper Relish)

demonstrating how you can pickle lots of things

Italian Movie Night  - Free

Friday, November 7th

6:30 Food - - 7pm movie

Nuovomondo (The Golden Door)

Emanuele Crialese  2007

Set in 1913, GOLDEN DOOR begins in a treacherous, barren, and rocky area of the Sicilian countryside. On advice from a stranger, a widowed father named Salvatore Mancuso decides to make the difficult voyage to America with his two sons (one of whom is deaf and mute) and his stubborn, highly superstitious mother, Fortunata. Just before boarding the boat, they meet Lucy, a mysterious and refined British woman who pretends to be with the Mancuso family while their pictures are being taken. During their journey, Lucy tells Salvatore she needs to find a man to marry before arriving in New York. The reasons are never fully explained, but Salvatore is attracted to her, and so he agrees. After arriving at Ellis Island, the family must endure the long battery of tests that are part of the standard entrance procedure. The plot of GOLDEN DOOR is simple, but the film is not, thanks to interesting stylistic choices. What differentiates GOLDEN DOOR from other films of its genre are the surrealist, imaginative avenues it takes most unexpectedly. Amid a sea of authentic costumes and realistic sets, director Emanuele Crialese places playful scenes of stunning beauty. This gives the film an open feel and an optimism one would never expect from the opening sequence, which is bleak, to say the least. As the characters travel to America, their minds open up to a new way of seeing. The experience of the journey is presented as difficult, but never horrific, and the strength of the characters is in their ability to remain dignified, even under potentially humiliating scenarios.

Run time: 1hr 58minutes

Light refreshments and wine available for purchase.
R.S.V.P. via email: viva@studyabroaditaly.com or
phone: 707-824-9913