EAT, DRINK & EXPLORE
East Oregonian
Page 4C
Saturday, October 6, 2018
On tiny Linosa, it’s easy to adopt island’s
RELAXED RHYTHMS
By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press
L
INOSA ISLAND, Italy — There are no hotels, but
islanders open up their simple, gaily painted homes
to those seeking relaxed rhythms.
No banks either, but there’s not a lot money can buy
here. The sole souvenir shop has a few knickknacks.
Costs are modest for meals made from local ingredients
— lentils, eggplant, peppers perhaps, plus the catch of
the day from the emerald-hued, pristine waters surround-
ing tiny Linosa island.
But stunning natural beauty is free and abundant
on this verdant paradise that rises up in the form of an
extinct volcano from the Mediterranean seabed.
Of the many splendid small Italian islands that dot
the Mediterranean waters near Sicily, only Linosa had
eluded me, vacation after vacation, perhaps because
it takes some determination to get here. Unlike some
other islands, like Pantelleria, where Italian VIPs keep
summer homes, or Lampedusa, known for lively night-
life, there are no flights from the Italian peninsula, no
airport.
To enjoy Linosa’s charms, either you take a long ride
by ferry, or, if waters are calm, an infrequent hydrofoil
from the nondescript Sicilian port town of Porto Empe-
docle. Or you make a shorter sea journey from Lampe-
dusa, the only other inhabited island in the Pelagie Archi-
pelago, closer to northern Africa than to Sicily.
This year, in the waning weeks of summer, I came,
accounting by my mere presence for about 5 percent of
sojourners those days on Linosa. We swam or snorkeled
in coves cradled by dramatically dark, jagged lava rocks,
climbed volcanic craters and watched sunsets near the
black-sand beach where caretta caretta loggerhead tur-
tles waddle ashore each year to lay their eggs.
On any given day during “high” season in July and
August, there are at most about 50 holiday-goers who
spend a few days or so. In September, there were some
20 of us, several of us solitary travelers. With the
exception of a French couple and myself,
all were Italians.
Those numbers compare
to a year-round resident
population of about
AP Photo/Frances D’Emilio
A cat sits on a flower pot, bottom right, along
painted steps in the town of Linosa.
300 Linosani, as the locals call themselves. In the sole
town, tidy streets are lined with houses in hues of fiery
ochre trimmed with orange, robin-blue highlight by
white, or sea green with doors framed in red.
In early morning — afternoon temperatures in one of
Italy’s hottest places can climb into the 90s in Fahren-
heit (in the low to mid 30s in Celsius) and feel like 115
or higher — Linosani come out to sweep the tiled side-
walks and water potted plants, including hibiscus that
grow as tall as trees.
With the cool of the evening, Linosani emerge again,
parking kitchen chairs outside homes to chat with neigh-
bors. After a couple of strolls in the few streets, visitors
can befriend much of Linosa’s population.
“After a few days, you become islanders, too,”
said Alberto Ramirez, who runs one of the two B&Bs
on the island and whose family has lived here for six
generations.
Linosa’s only “night spot” is a wine bar, which, on
a late summer Saturday night, closed up shop before
midnight.
Ramirez recalled a couple who lodged by him recently
telling him, “Linosa’s not for us, it’s too tranquil.”
“Here you come to relax, go to the sea, maybe have
an ‘aperitivo’ in the evening,” Ramirez said. “There’s no
disco.”
On maps, Linosa resembles a roundish speck in
the sea. One can stroll around the entire island, whose
coastal perimeter measures under 7 miles, in a few hours.
Only residents can bring cars on the island during
summer, but motor scooters and motorized bikes can
be rented by the day. The electric “bici” are a big hit as
well with Linosani, whose cars are easily recognizable
because the salty sea air corrodes the paint.
Come nightfall in late summer or early fall, on the
northerly side of the island you can hear the cries of
thousands in a fascinating feathered colony of greater
shearwater birds. The bird is known as berta maggiore in
Italian. A large group of them fly up and over the Med-
iterranean from Libya and Algeria, their cheek pouches
full of fish for young chicks which have hatched in cran-
nies left by lava rocks near the seaside.
After Linosa’s first modern settlement was estab-
lished, in 1845, with 30 hardy souls, the islanders would
eat the birds’ eggs, rich in protein.
Now the birds’ evening rituals help feed the island’s
economic mainstay, tourism.
Giovanni Grana passionately shares with a handful of
tourists on his plain wooden motorboat the details he’s
learned about shearwater flocks habits from his nightly
observations. He makes the facts of bird life sound like
poetry.
“My aim is to make the tourists fall in love with the
island,” said Grana.
For a reasonable fee (about $29), he takes visitors out
to sea just before sunset to witness an amazing spectacle.
Like commuters crowding their route home, the
shearwaters skim the sea in ever increasing numbers to
form “clans” that then link together in what the Linosani
call “rafts,” creating a sort of a highway of birds stretch-
ing to what seems to be the horizon to await darkness
before making landfall to check on their chicks.
This fascinating nightly ritual is missed by day-trip-
pers who come for a quick-look-tour, a dip in the sea and
lunch at port before catching the late afternoon hydrofoil
back to their hotels on Lampedusa, some 31 miles away.
On my last morning, as I climbed 600 feet to the top
of the Mount Volcano crater, church bells clanged to gain
islanders’ attention. Then a booming voice informed
them by loudspeaker that with the mid-morning hydro-
foil an internist would arrive, for anyone needing a
doctor.
A woman
swims in a cove
of pristine wa-
ter surrounded
by volcanic rock
formations on
the island of Li-
nosa, some 104
miles south of
Sicily, southern
Italy.
AP Photo/Frances D’Emilio
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds can be plain or spicy
By SARA MOULTON
Associated Press
When life gives you lemons,
make lemonade, right? In the
same vein, I propose that when
fall gives us pumpkins, we should
make toasted pumpkin seeds. We
have to scoop them out anyway
when we cook the squash, so why
not turn them into something deli-
cious instead of tossing them into
the garbage?
I’ll admit that separating
the seeds from the vegetable’s
stringy membrane can be messy.
The seeds are sticky, the mem-
brane in which they are embed-
ded is sticky, and your hands will
get sticky as you do the work.
The solution? Pull the seeds out
of the pumpkin’s cavity, put them
in a large bowl of water, then
swish them around. The strands
of membrane are much easier to
pull off in water. Remove any of
the seeds’ residual stickiness by
rinsing them once or twice. Now
they’re good to go.
Anyone who has ever roasted
winter squash seeds knows they
don’t cook evenly. The skin
remains kind of chewy even as
the seeds’ innards become ten-
der. Here’s how to ensure even
cooking: Start by simmering the
seeds in boiling salted water. This
step not only tenderizes the seeds’
hard skin, it also deeply seasons
it.
Once the seeds have been
boiled and drained, they need to
be dried. I used to do it by plop-
ping them onto a towel and pat-
ting them dry. Predictably, and
annoyingly, all the seeds then
stuck to the towel. It was during
the testing of this recipe that I
finally figured out a way around
this problem. Given that we’re
going to bake the seeds anyway,
why not start by drying them out
first in the oven? Then add your
fat of choice — oil or butter —
and continue to bake them, stir-
ring occasionally, until they’re
almost crispy and golden, which
takes a while. I say “almost
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
(Plain or Spicy)
Sara Moulton via AP
Toasted pumpkin seeds.
crispy” because the baked seeds
don’t achieve complete crispiness
until they cool off completely.
Be sure to season the seeds
while they’re still hot out of the
oven, using either a tad more salt
or the spice blend of your choice,
such as creole seasoning. (Don’t
season the seeds before putting
them into the oven. The spices
will burn as the seeds bake.)
Those folks who decline to spice
up the seeds will still have their
deeply nutty flavor to enjoy.
So there you go. Eat these
toasted seeds straight up, like
nuts, or add them to soups or
salads.
Start to finish: 1 hour, 30 minutes
(20 active)
Servings: 8
Kosher salt
1 cup cleaned fresh pumpkin
seeds (from a fresh pumpkin)
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
or melted unsalted butter
1 teaspoon Creole spice season-
ing (such as Zatarains) or more to
taste, for the spicy version
Preheat the oven to 300 F.
In a pot of boiling salted water,
boil the seeds for 10 minutes.
Drain well. On a rimmed sheet pan
lined with aluminum foil, spread
out the seeds so they don’t over-
lap. Bake them on the middle shelf
of the oven for 5 minutes. Remove
and stir well. Bake for another 4
to 5 minutes or until most of the
seeds appear white.
Remove the seeds from the oven,
drizzle with the oil or butter and
bake for 50 minutes, stirring
several times. Sprinkle the seeds
with salt or Creole spice seasoning
while still hot. Let cool completely
(they will continue to crisp as they
cool) before using.