Viva Italia

Anna Teresa Callen (nee Vitacolonna) imparts a great recipe to her culinary students that came from her mother. It’s a custard that has three names depending on the relationship that one has with its creator. Here we are simply calling it:



Crema Raffaella
© Anna Teresa Callen 1985

Anna says, “It is a basic custard which works well as a filling for cakes and can be combined with many other flavours and other ingredients.” It is delicious and practical very much like Italians themselves. Anna adds, “The best pot in which to make this crema is a copper zabaglione pot. You can also use an enameled one.”

It makes 2 cups

4 large egg yolks
¾ cups sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
2 strips lemon peel
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In the pot combine the yolks, sugar and flour. Mix with a wire. Whisk until smooth. Slowly add the milk, stirring until the mixture liquefies. Add the lemon peel.
2. Place the pot over low to medium heat and cook the custard stirring constantly until it starts to condense with a few bubbles appearing at the top. Make sure it doesn’t boil, but let it bubble 2 or 3 times.
3. Remove it from the heart, stir in the vanilla and then turn it into a china bowl and let it cool.
4. For chocolate custard, place 2 tablespoons of cocoa in a bowl. Add a few tablespoons of the hot custard and mix until smooth. Add the remaining custard with a pinch of cinnamon. Mix until smooth.

Signora Raffaella always used a vanilla bean which was added with the lemon peel. When finished the bean was removed, rinsed, and dried in a jar full of sugar – to be reused many times.

This recipe is published here not only to sing the praises of Anna Teresa once again, (reach her for her cooking lessons at 212-929-5640) but also to sing the praises of the delicious and practical Italians.

Living in Italy even in the past was a pleasant experience for a gay man, because homosexuality – although in some cases frowned upon – was not victimized there as it can be in some Anglo-Saxon cultures. By and large it was accepted as part of the landscape if not necessarily shouted from the rooftops.



Recently, it has been noted here that the German Papa Ratzinger has been all over the map about homosexuality and the Roman Church. Last week he tried to intervene in Italian secular life regarding rights for gay couples in Italy.

Let it be said that the pragmatic Italians are nominally Catholic, but tend not to be berserk in their religiosity as evidenced by this recent report by the Associated Press:

More than two-thirds of Italian Catholics are in favour of legal recognition for unmarried couples including same sex unions despite Pope Benedict XVI’s clear disapproval, according to a new survey. Some 68.7% of them agree with proposals to introduce so called PACS contracts similar to those that already exist in … other European countries, said the Eurispes Research Institute. PACS are contracts extending financial advantages to cohabiting couples. The survey also showed evidence that many Catholics in Italy reject the official Catholic stance on sexual mores. The survey found that 65.6% of Italian Catholics say they want to keep the right to divorce. It also emerged that 78% oppose the Church’s ban on communion for divorcees and 60% favour abortion if the mother’s life is in danger.



It’s called civilization.