Agenda: 7/7 to 7/13

1. Chocolate, Coffee, Tea, a special exhibition of the utensils developed to serve these products when they were introduced through trade in the 17th century, continues through Sunday, July 11, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street (212.535.7710).
2. The Proust Society Marathon Birthday Reading, a day-long reading of the "Combray" sections of Marcel Proust's Swann's Way, featuring madeleines from Payard Pâtisserie, Saturday, July 10, 10:00 a.m. to approximately 11:00 p.m., at the Mercantile Library of New York, 17 East 47th Street. General admission is $5.00, reservations required (212.755.6710). [via New York Times]

Coming Up -- Bastille Day:
1. Les Halles Liberty Festival, a day-long street party on John Street, featuring "Bastille Races" between waitstaff and other festivities, Wednesday, July 14, 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., at Brasserie Les Halles Downtown, 15 John Street at Broadway (212.285.8585).
2. Bastille Day at Gavroche, a three-course prix-fixe menu including champagne and accordian music, Wednesday, July 14, 7:00 p.m., at Gavroche, 212 West 14th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues. $25/person, reservations recommended (212.647.8553).

Ongoing Events:
1. Cookin': A Sizzling Entertainment, "a fast-paced kitchen percussion show combining comedy, rhythm, and non-verbal performance," at the Minetta Lane Theatre, 18 Minetta Lane (212.420.8000).
2. Beer Garden at the Brooklyn Historical Society, every Friday, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., through August 27, at the Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn. The Beer Garden is part of "100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall," an exhibition on the history of brewing in Brooklyn, on view through October 16 (718.222.4111).

Thank You

Thank you so much, Samin, for guest editing The Food Section last week and taking us on a fantastic virtual vacation to Florence, Italy.

Here's a second look at the entire Moveable Feast, Italian style:

» Destination: Florence, Italy.
» La Guida del Mercato. Plus: Mercato Centrale in Pictures.
» Firenze + Summer = Tourists + Gelato.
» Tuscan Take-out.
» A Drum With the Best Things in the World Inside.
» A Timballo How-To.
» Grazie Mille.

Thanks again, and best wishes at Eccolo!

Grazie Mille

I just wanted to thank Josh for having me, and everyone else for reading and commenting. It's been a great week, and I hope everyone enjoyed this as much as I have. I'm back at work in Berkeley now, at a wonderful new restaurant, Eccolo -- it's so Italian, I almost don't miss Italy.

Anyway, I love to give tips on where to eat in Tuscany (and the Bay Area), so don't hesitate to contact me at anytime through my blog.

Buon appetito, e ci sentiamo presto!

A Timballo How-To

This is Benedetta Vitali's recipe for timballo, which borrows heavily from the recipe in Jeanne Carola Francesconi's La Cucina Napoletana, one of my favorite cookbooks of all time. We are going to include it in the cookbook we're working on now, but the measurements haven't been converted from the metric system yet. So use the metric converter, along with some good judgment, and your timballo should come out beautifully.

A Drum With the Best Things in the World Inside

Ever since seeing Big Night, my dreams had been filled with visions of the timpano. I tried to convince the chefs at Chez Panisse to put timballo on the menu, saying that though it might be a lot of work to prepare, it would be easy on the line, but they never went for it. I decided that I'd make a timballo for myself at my own goodbye party, with pesto, trenette pasta, minty meatballs and hardboiled eggs, but things got really crazy before I left, and I never got around to it. So when I got to Italy and Benedetta asked me to come help her with a cooking demonstration and dinner that the Marchesa di Frescobaldi was holding at her Castello di Nipozzano for the European press, I was thrilled to find out that timballo would be on the menu.

Timpano, which means "drum" in Italian, and timballo are two different names for the same thing. As they put it in Big Night, "A timpano is a drum with the best things in the world inside!" Traditionally from the south of Italy, there are different versions wherever you go -- some with rice, some with pasta, some with both -- the timballo is a slightly sweetened pastry crust filled with all sorts of savory treats, ranging from hardboiled eggs and meatballs to chicken livers and mozzarella cheese. It's a party dish, brought whole to the table and sliced with theatrical flare before the guests, accompanied, of course, with plenty of oohs and ahhs and in Italy, usually applause.