10 things to take when driving to Italy

[HelenMW]

You can buy good baked beans at Lidl- one in Porto Sant'Elpidio & they're only 43cents a can (or something like that!) but if you really want to make baked beans I can post a recipe on saturday when I get home

[Angie and Robert]

Thanks Helen, plse post recipe.
A

[Adrian Brown]

I have not been able to find caffiene free diet coke in Italy. Does anyone know if it is available. Have seen caffiene free full strength but not the diet variety.

[daniel.wyckoff]

Why bother moving if you have to take it all with you from the Home Land? Moving to Italy should be an adventure.
Ciao, Dan

[daniel.wyckoff]

This recipe is from Emeril Lagasse, enjoy!
4 slices bacon, diced
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 pound navy beans, rinsed and picked over
1 cup brewed coffee
1/2 cup Emeril's Kicked Up Bam BQ Barbecue Sauce, or your favorite barbecue sauce
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Creole mustard, or other whole-grain brown mustard
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon red hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 cups water
2 teaspoons salt


Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
In a heavy ovenproof cast iron Dutch oven, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until rendered and crispy, 4 to 6 minutes. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened and lightly caramelized, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for 1 minute. Add the beans, coffee, barbecue sauce, brown sugar, mustard, molasses, hot sauce, and pepper and stir to combine well. Add the water and salt and increase heat to bring liquid to a boil. Cover the pot and place the pot in the oven and cook for 2 hours, undisturbed. Remove the pot from the oven, uncover and stir the beans. Recover the pot and continue to bake until the beans are tender, about 1 hour longer.

When the beans are tender, remove the cover and continue cooking, uncovered, until the cooking liquid has reduced to a thick, sauce-like consistency and beans are thick and flavorful, 1 to 1 1/4 hours longer. Remove from the oven and discard the thyme stems. Adjust seasoning, if necessary, and serve the beans either hot or warm.

[Adrian Brown]

Originally Posted by daniel.wyckoff

Why bother moving if you have to take it all with you from the Home Land? Moving to Italy should be an adventure.
Ciao, Dan

Presumably linen is linen and if the quality and cost is better in the UK why not take them with you if you have room in the car!

[elliven]

Garden impliments - well I can't get on with the Italian straight-handled ones so I would advise a "ladies " fork and spade of good quality but nothing ridiculous. The "ladies" bit sounds a bit nancy but they are smaller than standard ones and in my opinion easier to use. As for the great baked bean saga - well the recipe sounds fabulous but a bit long-winded, no pun intended and the Lidl ones are pretty good and cheap.
I haven't seen weedol in Italy and if you use it (with care!) bring some.

[Charles Phillips]

Originally Posted by elliven

I haven't seen weedol in Italy and if you use it (with care!) bring some.

Well, don't quote me on this, but I think Weedol is a granular form of Paraquat (aka Gramoxone?). Unfortunately, this incredibly useful gardening product is seriously toxic to mammalian life, and even more unfortunately it is the poison of choice for madmen who choose to distribute poisoned 'food' for foxes and (one hopes inadvertently) pet dogs...so it is vigorously banned in Italy. I have no idea how seriously it is controlled at border posts, but I wouldn't (myself) risk trying to import it.

[Torchiarolan]

Originally Posted by lupo

Ah spades... If you take an English, or the superior, long handled, Irish ditching spade to Italy, you will at least never have to insure it against theft. I've never yet used mine over there and neither have any of my Italian friends and collaborators. OTOH i've used my italian spade for shovelling, cutting, slicing, digging, lifting and shifting antique coppi and mattone, undoing screws ... and I reckon it would easily double up for getting the Pizza in and out of the oven.

The Italian spades would be best for taking pizza out of the oven, after bending the blades ( yes... blades) before even the handles broke on two of them whilst using them for just normal digging, I brought over the Irish long handled spades with decent metal blades and thick well fitted handles.
Using it to do a job with a local Italian gardener, I was filling 2 barrows with stone for every one of his. Every time I put it down, he started using it and he has asked me to bring him one from Ireland as he says he never saw one as good... he had the same reaction to the garden hoe that we brought over, and my Irish mattock just bowled him over... so my advise is ... bring your own garden tools anyway. Italian spades with their broom stcik type handles and in-line flat weak blades, are as Lupo says good for pizza baking, because I suspect they come from the same factory.
Metro sells Marmite, salad cream, mustards, curries and much else that people seem to have cravings for... yes it probably costs a bit more as it has to be shipped in by them, but how much marmite does one use in a year, and is it worth the stress of wondering whether the more cheaply purchased, specially imported stuff lasts out until the next food parcel from home arrives ?
Spending £15 on marmite in a 12 month period rather than £7 at home will hardly force most budgets under, particularly if it is balanced against all else that is much cheaper in Italy.

[Torchiarolan]

Charles Phillips;91114]Well, don't quote me on this, but I think Weedol is a granular form of Paraquat (aka Gramoxone?). Unfortunately, this incredibly useful gardening product is seriously toxic to mammalian life,

Its OK to quote you Charles as you are spot on.
As it contains Paraquat once ingested by human or animal in a lethal dose there is no antidote.

Weedol is fast acting but only burns off the green top growth, leaving roots on more persistent weeds alive to re-grow.
Round Up, is slower acting but systemic, it is absorbed through the leaves, carried down to the roots and starts killing the weed from the root tips upwards. Very good on weed grasses, though thick rooted weeds like docks may need a second dose if they look like recovering, and also maybe rhizome rooted plants like nettles. Brilliant stuff though, and relatively safe... though still dont lick your fingers when using it !