Dinner and a book is supported by the Rex and Alice, A. Martin Foundation of Elkhart, celebrating the spirit of Alice Martin and her love of good food and good friends.

Meet Nives, Widow.

Tuscan through and throug and a survivor.

She has recently lost her husband of 50 years and loneliness has set in.

Today let's explore the book.

Nives by Italian writer Sasha Naspini.

And let's meet my guest, Laura Horst, to see what's next.

Welcome.

Thank you.

I'm so glad you're here.

Oh, me too.

This is great.

And where did you find this charming little book?

Well, we heard a review on Fresh Air on National Public Radio, and it just sounded like a really great book and got it from the library and really have enjoyed it.

Well, I really thought it was amazing and lots of fun.

And I just wanted to say, too, that we have some Tuscan food today.

Tell us what you're going to be doing.

Well, I'm making creamy chicken Florentine, and I'm going to start out by dusting my chicken and putting it in the pan and letting it cook for about 4 minutes altogether or.

Yeah.

All right.

You're going to start out with that and it ends up with some onions and spinach, mushrooms, etc.. And then I'm also going to make some deviled eggs a little bit later.

Well, in honor of a chicken, we have in this book a chicken that become sort of the early star of the show.

And what let's talk about how we get into this.

I mean, how we arrive at a chicken in this story.

As I said, Nieves has lost her husband of 50 years.

And she doesn't cry.

She doesn't cry at the funeral?

No, she's sort of.

42 00:02:23,543 --> 00:02:25,979 and she just doesn't show any emotion at the beginning.

Right.

Her daughter is there and things seem to be fine.

And then her daughter leaves.

Yes.

And it's very quiet.

So being on a farm, she decides she needs a an emotional support animal creature.

So she brings the chicken in the house and she can't.

It's called Giacomina.

So what we have here in front of you, in front of me and Laura, a special chicken today, and we're calling it Giacomina.

And this is such an interesting concept.

It's not a poodle.

It's not a rabbit.

It's a chicken.

And it sits with her when she watches television and the chickens sleeps next to her.

And she feels so much better.

Right?

I think she got the idea, if I remember right.

She got this idea.

She had all this insomnia when she got the idea because she remembered her mother had when she was waiting for, I think, a brother that was at work brought in a cricket.

So, I mean, any kind of animal could be a support animal, really.

Something to make you feel better.

Or it has a certain.

Right, right.

Chirping or fluttering.

Something like that.

But yeah, we do call Giacomina in a very important part of this story.

And, you know, Nives has found her husband dead from a heart attack in the pigpen.

And it's there's just so much going on.

And then all of a sudden, her life is so quiet.

Right.

And then she is watching.

Oh I better get started here.

I'm making.

Yeah.

What are you making?

A special salad.

It's a panzanella.

And it's from that region.

And it's actually if you have a kitchen garden and you have some four or five day old bread and mine is all dried out.

I'm going to tear it into pieces.

That's great.

Then I'm going to chopped tomatoes and cucumber and red onion, and I've got some black olives and I have to find them.

And then we will put olive oil on it, cover it, and let it just sort of season anywhere up to 4 hours.

Just on the counter?

Yeah.

Wow, that sounds great.

nothing's going to spoil perfect And so I'm going to get started on that.

And you're doing.

Yeah.

Well.

Yeah.

The first step is Browning the chicken.

And then after the chicken is browned, I will do Browning on both sides.

We put it in a little flour with salt and pepper, and then then we will take the chicken out and put in some vegetables.

So mushrooms and some garlic, a little bit of onion.

So I'm going to get those other things going.

Sounds good.

And NIves has brung all of this food and you know, it's the life of a farm person in Tuscany.

These are this is a typical dish.

And, you know, yours is chicken Florentine, right?

Well, all right.

Florence is not far from where this farm is.

Yeah, and I have to chop up some tomatoes We just making chunks, and that's why it's so fun to do this salad.

And what I did and it was a bit of a mistake the first time I made it.

I just did first the bread, then I did the tomato.

And then when it came time to stir it, the bowl was too small.

Oh, dear.

So I'm making layers of this and then we'll stir it.

And so of course you've got a kitchen garden just right outside to give the food.

Now I got one side nicely browned already, so we'll flip it over and it'll just going to take a couple of minutes for that second side.

And you are chopping up the vegetables.

Right?

I got to get going on these mushrooms.

So I just wanted to mention they're supposed to take some of the juice out, but then have a little juice so it is absorbed and wet.

The the dry bread, the four day old.

Right.

So what's up now?

Well, I was just thinking about the book I point she brings with the chicken in.

It really is a good accompaniment to her.

She feels comfortable.

She's much more relaxed.

Yeah, there's a lot of mixing in the house.

Right.

But then lo and behold, she says, Is that what my husband was to me?

I can replace him by chicken.

Right.

And she is this perplexes her.

Right.

Right.

One of the first little notices in the book and I kind of interrupted you.

But was that what you were?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, and she's just kind of mad about it, you know, what kind of marriage did I have that I can now be comfortable with the chicken.

So anyway, so, you know, internal thinking and talking.

So she's watching TV one night and there is a. Oh, the Tide commercial.

Tide commercial The chicken sitting on the chair with her on the arm, the chair.

And what happened?

Well, she watches the chicken is watching the tide commercial and the spinning around and gets sort of hypnotized.

And then you think what the her chicken is hypnotized and she sort of well, she sort of gets upset, kind of a little bit, freaks out, right?

Yeah.

And she doesn't know what to do, shakes it, tries to wake it up and nothing's happening.

And by this time you're saying, what kind of a book is this?

Well, it goes on to a phone call, but then becomes a novel.

Right.

So what does she do?

Well, I'm going to just say I browned this chicken, so I'm removing it then from the pan.

Oh, right.

So I'll just leave it right here.

Oops.

And I'm taking a lot of these seeds out, but I'm leaving some of the seeds in for.

Right.

So, so then she calls the vet.

Well you know you're on a farm.

Are on a farm.

Wouldn't you call the vet?

Of course.

So she calls the vet and this vet is not just sort of a regular person.

It's in a small town, you know, everybody for your whole life.

So this person, his name is Lourds... Loriano.

Loriano and he has known her for for a really long time, their whole lives.

They all.

They all group together.

Everybody.

Right.

Everybody knows everybody.

So they start this conversation.

And of course, he's saying, what do I do with my chicken?

It's it's stuck here.

It's not moving.

And he suggests a few things, including smell ing salts of all things.

And she says, well, should I really use smelling salts?

But then then eventually they just the conversation moves on from there to their sort of their childhood or their teen years growing up.

And they were we kind of find out that she she was friends as part of a group of girls with his wife, Donatella.

And and they did various things as as young teenagers and young people would.

And one of the things that happened to that group was a one of their members ended up jumping from a bell tower because of, well, I guess we shouldn't give away everything but.

A pink.

Nightgown.

Yeah a pink nightgown, Yeah.

Even just spray.

Right.

And and so then then they were.

Well, she means she says that maybe that the ghost of this woman is haunting them, you know, because she kind of goes into a whole thing about that.

Anyway, it's the story just keeps unfolding.

And the thing about this book is you start reading and there aren't really chapters, but it just keeps drawing you into the story.

And all of a sudden you realize you're hooked into this drama and this life of these people that lived in a small Tuscan village and have.

Probably sweet on each other, as my dad would say, sweet on each other, you know, when they were younger.

And there might have been more to it.

And I think.

They might.

Have.

And I think.

Donatello, the wife of.

Loriano Loriano, I she snores a lot.

And they know what she's snoring that she doesn't hear what's going on.

But I think she's heard some of this conversation.

Right is right.

And anyway, all of this is dredged up from their youth.

And people don't talk about these things.

And if you stay in town with people, what do you do if if you were in a situation where you'd kind of like to forget about stuff and how it comes out?

Well, so that's the story here.

And it is a phone call that really becomes the whole story.

And we're going to take a little break here and finish chopping, cutting and set up for our next part.

And we're going to have a wonderful dessert drink.

And you're going to work with the eggs from chocolate.

All right.

We'll be right back.

I'm back to my Panzanella Tuscan salad and what are you going to do next?

Well, I've been cooking the vegetables in some chicken broth with a little bit of lemon juice.

You could also use wine if you'd like.

I'm going to add in some cream.

Oh, well, and then top it with.

I decided to go with some just frozen spinach.

So it's really an easy thing to have everything ready.

And we're just going to put that spinach in there and it's going to cook.

That's the Florentine part.

Spinach, right?

Right near Tuscany.

Right.

And then the next thing to do is to just put our chicken breasts kind of nestled them back in there and let them cook for a little bit.

And that's wonderful.

And this is a beautiful dish.

It's how would you serve it in the pan or would.

You you could or you could put it and scoop some of the sauce and put it over the chicken.

I'm going to add just a little bit of parmesan on the top and we'll save some for for when we're serving it as well.

So.

Excellent.

Okay.

So there's additional one.

I'm still working on my panzanella and I've torn up some more bread and I'm chopping the tomatoes, cucumber, red onion.

Then I'll add some salt and pepper and black collins and then I will pour olive oil on top, cover it for at least a half an hour, and the bread will absorb all these juices from the vegetables with the olive oil.

And this keeps you busy here doing all this chunking.

So it's great.

And my second dish you're doing in the.

Yeah, I'm going to do some deviled.

Eggs.

Deviled eggs and hold them up.

And now the yolks are ready and I'm just going to smash them with a, with a part of a fork here to get this beautiful yolks.

All right.

This is a great meal.

And it's very it's I don't want to say simple.

There's always work to do, but it's not like you have to.

It's quick.

Yes, it is a quick dish.

This is a very quick dish.

You can serve it with just bread or you could serve it with like a pasta.

If you'd like to have a little pasta with it and a salad, obviously a salad.

And for the drink, I'm adding some prosecco and another nice touch.

Oh, really does complete this drink is to add a couple of drops of vodka.

But we don't have vodka here today for some unusual reason.

And then you top it with some sherbet.

And I have chosen a mango sherbet and I think I'll let this settle down, pour some more.

And then you serve this as dessert.

Nice.

And it has a funny name.

It's scrappy.

No.

And somebody told me you pronounce it like a horse that's kind of whinnying and you're making a noise, and I can't do that very well.

So anyway, it is so easy and it's really a lovely, fascinating dessert.

So I think I'll just take some ice cream.

I added.

Yeah, I added mayonnaise to my to my egg yolks and then the only thing that this is different than maybe your regular mom or grandmas deviled eggs is I'm putting in some green olives with pimentos, so I'm just going to add those in.

This is sort of the that Tuscan kind of Yeah.

Thing with olives and then that's going to be our filling a little salt and pepper.

That's the first I've put in other things like capers.

This looks like a nice idea.

I like that.

It's colorful.

Yeah, it is.

And I think what I will do is get the mango sorbet back in the freezer.

And Giacomina is still sitting there waiting.

Hypnotize, but still have.

We talk about this second part?

We find out what happens to Giacomina Mina.

Mm hmm.

Well, eventually she snaps out of it, so even though we are worried about her and she is worried continually throughout this really long conversation, she's worried about what's going to happen to her.

Her support animal.

You know, she's this is something that's made life better for her and less stress.

And but at the same time, you know, she doesn't know what to do with a hypnotized chicken and the vet doesn't really know it doesn't offer many suggestions of.

You in there talking and talking all through the night.

Right.

And it's all about their lives and things that maybe she had wanted to share with him years.

Ago and never did.

And never did.

I mean, as a young woman in a rural Tuscan village, her, you know, her life was limited.

It had a lot of limits.

And so he's finding out things that as a man, he did not ever know was happening or didn't have that perspective from a woman.

So this is an interesting and then I want to tell you more and you remember and digital all about your wife.

Right.

Did you and they're very intrigued with this kind of a conversation.

As I said, a nighttime conversation turns into a book and you think, well, this this is really strange.

But when you think about it, it truly is a fascinating concept.

This Italian writer, Sasha, has come up with.

And it does hold your attention, doesn't it?

It does.

It does.

And and I found it was kind of a page turner.

You're like, well, I'll I'll keep reading till the next sort of stop.

And there really wasn't this.

No, look, it's a very small book, so you can sit and read it right.

And then, of course, we find out that Jacoby snaps out of her trance and a life is happy again.

Would she even gets up and reasoning?

I mean, yeah.

So content and so you think what a book but it is so well written isn't translated right right.

And twists and turns and surprises.

You sort of feel like you're the fly on the wall listening to this conversation as the evening goes along.

Like you said, you know, it started out at 9:00 and two in the morning.

They were still talking.

And I would like to see a little bit more of Giacomini.

I mean, she she serves as a launching point for this story, but I kind of I'd like to see her, you know, moving on.

She and she and her mistress and and how they come along.

But of course, that would probably wear itself out, you know.

Well, probably.

But it also is you know, I'm wondering at the end, does she after she's had this long conversation, does she even need Giacomini anymore in her life?

Has she kind of gone through and processed a number of the things that she she had in her life by having this long conversation get refreshed?

You wonder.

But, you know, we don't want to ask what happened to this Giacomini in that case.

Oh, well through.

But it I read reviews.

People just thought it was fabulous except one person said, oh, boring.

You know, I have no imagination.

They can't see the the interesting human nature of this story.

So I just used two spoons to fill up the eggs, kind of take a scoop and put another scoop.

Sometimes people use a piping tool, but because of the olives, that makes it a little tricky.

Yeah.

So and then I'm just going to get and just decorate these with one little olive piece for each one.

I just think it makes them look really pretty.

Um.

I saw you put the olives in.

Did you add anything else?

No, just the olives.

Some salt and pepper and.

And the mayonnaise.

And, you know, you can.

You can kind of do it to your own taste, whatever suits suits you.

Um, the olives because of the, um, vinegar and that kind of thing in them already they add a lot of flavor to, to the eggs.

So and I'm adding now I'm tearing up a basil.

You can leave it whole for small leaves.

I've added salt and pepper.

The first time I made it, it really needed more layering and it needed more salt.

But you can always add that it's very easy and I'm these last few slices, chunks they called cucumber chunks, tomato chunks, chunks of bread.

So it's a chunky salad.

Yeah.

That's what it's.

All.

Well and it's really pretty looking.

Yeah.

I mean, it just is a really beautiful salad.

And if I had had a clear bowl, that would look nice too.

And this was it's a very typical salad, as I was saying.

I haven't put on any oil or vinegar.

My drink dessert is kind of simmering here.

Not simmering.

What is it doing?

It's just sitting there.

Yeah, yeah.

Sort of.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Getting together.

And actually, this is ready for us.

Whenever we're ready.

Whenever we're ready, the chicken is ready.

So at this point, I would just have it ready to serve.

You take one big scoop of it and put it maybe on a on a plate for people and.

You could even cut it in parts, too.

I mean.

You could if you wanted smaller pieces, you could definitely put smaller pieces in there.

One of the tricks is to take the chicken breast and cut it horizontally so it makes it more the same, the same thickness.

And then they cook nice and fast like they did this morning.

Okay, I'm finishing up my salad.

You're ready.

You have your.

We have an order.

We have the right dish, we have a salad, we have a dessert.

So we're setting our table.

The chicken will come with us.

Yeah, right.

Absolutely she will.

She's great.

And we want you to join us, too.

So right now, I want you to take a look at the menu and we'll be right back.

Well, today my guest is Laura Horst, and the book is Nieves.

And I've been calling it Knives, of course, the Italian.

You got that straight on that one.

And we've made a Tuscan meal.

What makes it a Tuscan meal other than it's produced in Tuscany?

Right.

I think the salads, this salad is very simple to do and it's chunks of everything that you want to put in there.

But basically, you know, I got olives, black olives and red onion.

It's colorful tomatoes, cucumber chunks and then stale bread.

I don't mean moldy bread.

I mean just the couple of days they all are a couple days old.

So.

And then just olive oil on top.

And then I do the dessert drink that I cannot really pronounce correctly, but it ends in p i and then no shopping, no, that's it.

And tell us what you did.

I made the chicken creamy, chicken Florentine, which is chicken round.

And then with spinach and some onions and garlic and mushrooms and a little cream and some the sauce and ice cream and either wine or I used chicken broth today.

I also made some deviled eggs with some green olives.

It just sort of thinking that tie into Italy and all.

This very so we go yes.

And I just love this meal.

I mean, it's colorful.

It basically is simple and easy to do.

Easy to do.

And I think a dessert drink is often fun.

It brings a little bit of excitement at the end of a meal.

And of course, we've got our good friend the chicken out here, Giacomina She's here with us.

What a story.

Oh, my gosh.

I'm glad she was so satisfied when she came out of her.

Her funk.

Yeah.

Hypnosis, delay egg.

Right.

She's back in business, so.

Gosh, this has gone by very fast.

And I think we can find families like this all over the world.

That's right.

That's right.

Small towns and tightknit relationships and just that interaction with people.

Interaction right close to relationships even with their animals.

So we're glad you joined us.

Thank you for suggesting the book and coming on again.

Absolutely.

You have.

My pleasure.

And thank you for watching.

And remember, good food, good friends, good books make for a very good life.

We'll see you next time.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Dinner and a book is supported by the Rex and the Alice, A. Martin Foundation of Elkhart, celebrating the spirit of Alice.

Martin and her love of good food and good friends.