FRIKADELLER: DANISH MEATBALLS

Frikadeller (Danish pork meatballs) are one of those quintessential foods that almost every Dane, young or old, knows how to make; children are even taught how to make them in school. Anne's frikadeller, however, are particularly special; she uses an handheld electric mixer to beat the ingredients together, producing an exceptionally fluffy meatball.


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RØDGRØD MED FLØDE: DANISH COOKED RED BERRIES AND CREAM

Ask any Dane what they think of when you say summer, and they will almost certainly respond with strawberries. Ask them about Danish summer desserts, and it will be Rødgrød med Fløde, a beloved, slightly thickened berry soup, served with a decadent amount of loose heavy cream.


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CARLUCCIA

Whenever Carluccia made beans in pignata, she couldn’t help but to go foraging for wild edible greens. She was hardwired in this way; shelling beans meant autumn, and autumn meant wild greens.


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ANNE AMMITZBØLL

Anne is an Danish adventuress who has spent much of her life exploring the world in search of arts and crafts, new experiences, and foreign cookbooks. Classically trained in cooking at Le Cordon Bleu, from Anne I learned that Danish home cooking is all about pork, potatoes, and cabbage. And in the summer, berries, ærter (shelling peas), and fjordrejer (tiny pink fjord shrimp).


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GALLINA RIPIENA (CHICKEN STUFFED WITH BREAD, BORAGE, AND PARMESAN)

Armida only stuffed and boiled a chicken for Christmas and Ferragosto (August 15, the assumption of the Virgin Mary). We ate the simple chicken together on Ferragosto. To this day Armida's chickens are her most prized possession; she has many, and the hens all produce dozens of orange-yolked eggs. She said that although she has no money and was not able to marry well, at least now she can feed everyone very well. Armida used foraged borage leaves as the greens for her stuffing; if you do not have access to them, spinach, chard, and stinging nettles all make good substitutes.


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USHA

Usha was tender and methodical with her baking. Each day the wooden dough board came out, as did a big knife for cutting butter, and small bowlfuls of ingredients—apples, nuts, plums, and on a rare occasion even chocolate.


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AMBROGINA CAIONE

In 1962 my grandmother began stealing, every other day, from the cash register in my grandfather’s pharmacy.


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MAMMA MARIA

Mamma Maria learnt to cook by her mother’s side. “You just watch and spend time. You lend a hand. Maybe the first time you make a mistake, then the second time you do it right. It’s not that you are “taught.””


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ARMIDA

Armida cooked for an army’s worth of people on Sundays. Thirty or forty locals would come for lunch, bringing goods to exchange with one another, and lingering for hours over her food on long tables set under the olive trees.


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