When life is off the rails, we need to find a source of light to help us find our way forward. In this episode, we draw inspiration from the island of Stromboli—a volcanic island off the coast of Sicily. And together we prepare a beautiful flower-like pinwheel that reminds us of what can bloom when the speed of life is erupting.
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Feed Your Fire Podcast Episode Transcript:
Hello and welcome to Feed Your Fire. I'm your host, Kim Baker. Today, we're going to be talking about the speed of change. Change could be hard no matter what, but when it comes barreling down, it's overwhelming. And so today we're gonna talk about how to catch our breath amid that velocity with a little help from the island of Stromboli. Yes, that's an actual place, a tiny island off the coast of Sicily that's gonna serve as a lighthouse as we navigate this idea.
A few hours from Sicily is the island of Stromboli. It's an active volcanic island that has been spewing lava for almost 2,500 years. Yet people live on this island, they go to visit it. And at any moment, an eruption can happen. The island is nicknamed the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean. It's illuminated by its natural glow of constant activity.
In learning about the island of Stromboli (which I kind of can't say with a straight face), it got me thinking about these dramatic shifts that can happen, where the speed of life can be explosive. And maybe there was something that we could learn from the people who live on this island, how they navigate the unpredictability of their circumstance and the dramatic shifts that can happen in an instant. One of the things that I learned about the people that live there is that they've replaced fear with awe.
They understand the island's precariousness. But in that sputtering glare of lava, they see a powerful force of life. And this idea really moved me, because we've all had moments where the speed of life feels insurmountable, like we've just gone off the rails, and we can't quite get our footing. Maybe it was initially a slow build, but then there's a wild acceleration that brings us towards the unknown. And if the people of this island can make a volcano their home, maybe there's a place for us to find an inhabitable space when our world feels like chaos.
I learned a couple key concepts about the people that live on this island. They refer to the volcano as Iddu, which is a Sicilian word for he or him. And that personification conveys respect rather than a desire for control. And throughout the millennia, the people that live there have learned that reinvention is a necessity.
And so today, we're going to embrace the Strombolani spirit, preparing these delectable pinwheels, an Italian-American food that was born from a movie in the 1950s by Italian director Rossellini that shed light on the island and brought the people that lived there out of isolation.
Now, you could make Stromboli with nearly any filling. For our recipe, we're going to sweat down a couple pounds of onions. Combine it with arugula and gruyere cheese and bake them in the oven. So grab a large sauté pan and melt in a couple tablespoons of butter. Then add in about a pound and a half of sliced onions. We're going to slowly sweat these down, letting them cook for maybe 30 minutes. Add in a pinch of salt just so that they don't really caramelize and stir them up occasionally. Then add the leaves of a couple sprigs of thyme.
Let that all come together. And then add about two to three cups of arugula, letting it wilt. Add in a splash of sherry and then take it off the heat. While that's cooling, you could preheat your oven. I like to cook these at about 425 degrees on convection. In order for all the inner layers of dough to cook through, you don't want the oven to be blazing hot like you would with a pizza.
Once the oven's hot and your topping is cool, you're going to stretch out some pizza dough. I made some the other day, but as you know, I'm a nerd. You can feel free to use store-bought.
You want to stretch it into sort of a rectangle shape on a slightly floured surface. Then spread your onion mixture across that dough, leaving about an inch on the left and right edge bare. Add to that about 4 ounces of shredded Gruyere cheese. And then starting from one edge on either the left or the right, start rolling up the dough, being somewhat gentle.
Now, Stromboli is typically baked like this, but I decided to cut the pinwheels first, rather than after it was cooked through, because I wanted them to be crispy. Now, before I cut them, I brushed the Stromboli with olive oil. And then using a sharp knife, I cut about one and a half inch slices, placing them on a baking sheet coated with olive oil, cut side up. Spread them out so that they don't grow into each other. Place them in the oven and bake them for about 20-25 minutes. When they come out, the bottom will be sort of golden and crispy, and each piece will have cooked into this beautiful pinwheel, almost resembling a flower in bloom.
One of the things that I found interesting about this whole storyline was this idea of an organic nature-made lighthouse. Lighthouses are typically built structures, powered by electricity, and manmade, and they exist as a beacon, helping those traveling the waters to navigate the terrain. And yet, this volcanic island is a geological phenomenon, creating that very same effect.
In Greek mythology, the island of Stromboli is the home of Aeolus, the god of winds. As their keeper, he can wreak devastation or create calm, all within an instant. And that, too, is the speed of life, requiring us to use our own innate light, to create a cast of illumination, to make the road a little less treacherous for each other, not by changing the terrain, but by being a supportive structure.
And as I was thinking about this idea of wind versus light, I was brought to one of the Aesop's fables. You may remember them from grade school, a collection of hundreds of allegories that teach us some type of moral lesson.
And there's one called the North Wind and the Sun. Now, I can't say I remember learning about it when I was a kid, but I stumbled upon it and thought it could serve as an interesting compass. As the story goes, there's a challenge between the wind and the sun to see who's stronger.
And so the wind blows, trying to force the jacket off of a traveler. But the person only clings more tightly. And then the sun comes in, offering just a touch of warmth, and the person removes their coat willingly. And though the story is intended to be about force versus persuasion, the idea that the winds are no match for the sun is an idea that transcends, and one that could help take us through those moments in life that are moving so fast, where the winds have kicked in, and we need to find a bit of light.
On the island of Stromboli, the volcano is what creates the distress and disturbance, and it's also what creates the luminosity They're not opposing forces- they're actually one and the same. And even though the environment is harsh, there's these unique flowers that grow there, even some that bloom at night. And if the people of this island can live here for thousands of years, and flowers can bloom even in the most harsh of circumstance, then it must be true that we could sustain ourselves through the speed of life. And we have these beautiful, delicious Stromboli to remind us of that.
Until our next episode, I say so long.
Feed Your Fire, where food nourishes growth.