Friday, September 5th

6:30 Food - - 7pm movie

Io speriamo che me la cavo (Me, I Hope I Make It)

(Ciao Professore)
Lina Wertmuller  1994

Ciao Professore! is the story of Marco Sperelli, a northern Italian teacher who gets dumped in the southern Italian town of Corzano because of a bureaucratic screw- up (he was supposed to get an assignment in Corsano). At the De Amicis school, he has been assigned to teach third grade, but when he arrives, he finds the place run by the janitor. Only three of his fifteen students are in class -- the rest are out working on the streets, hustling black market goods and helping their families make ends meet. So, taking matters into his own hands, Sperelli makes a trip through the village to collect his delinquent pupils personally.

This film is rich in humor, much of which is grounded in the raw language used by the children. Even in the most serious circumstances, Wertmuller never allows this motion picture to become maudlin or melodramatic. A relentlessly upbeat, occasionally-playful atmosphere pervades the film, as typified by the repeated use of the song "What a Wonderful World."

Run time: 100 minutes

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

Canning Your Garden Bounty

Thursday, September 25th

11:30am - 2:30pm

Chef: Award Winning Canner, Keith Borglum

$55

Canning is a method of preserving food in which the food is processed and sealed in an airtight container. The process 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 devised a way to preserve food in bottles and 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 jar of relish.

2  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

2 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

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 served.
R.S.V.P. via email: viva@studyabroaditaly.com or
phone: 707-824-9913