PANZANELLA PIGGY

When we were in Italy Mom was eager to try panzanella, an Italian tomato and bread salad. It was pretty good, and seemed like a great way to use up my copiously abundant Terra Firma tomatoes, so I gave it a whirl. Basically just toast some stale bread rubbed with garlic, soak it in the juice of the tomatoes, chop up the tomatoes and toss them with the bread (and maybe some dressing and basil). I threw in some completely awesome ham that I picked up at this Russian deli in the Richmond for good measure. Tasty stuff.

Let me tell you a little more about this ham. You know how most ham in America is sort of rubbery? If you’ve ever had real ham, you know that it has a grain, that you can pull it apart like good pork or beef. Well, after many months of walking by it, I finally dropped in on this Russian deli near Em’s old apartment. Since all the strange Russian meats had bewildering Russian names, I just asked form some of hock labeled “old fashioned ham.” This stuff is real ham. It looks and tastes more like farm -> pig -> dead pig -> me, rather than factory farm -> many pigs -> blender -> trash-compactor -> me. The deli itself is also fairly amusing. Everyone there is Russian. Even the Chinese people are apparently Russian, because they speak Russian. Tiny old Russian babushkas bicker and negotiate with the solid and stolid white-aproned figures behind the counter. There are also big silver platters of samples that the white-aprons hack off of their wares with monumental lack of ceremony. The babushkas will literally take platters for themselves and chow down until they find something that suits them. Russians.