Call Me By Your Name
Ahhh Call Me By Your Name, what a gorgeous film. Set in 1983, “somewhere in Northern Italy”, the plot revolves around a six-week summer romance between Oliver (a dopey, beautiful American with an insatiable lust for life and the song “Love My Way”) and Elio, Elio, Elio (a young and sensitive prodigy just discovering himself and his queerness). The pacing is perfect for this fairy tale love story, allowing time for tentative testing and awkwardness before an all-in yet authentic rush of love and passion. Call Me By Your Name breaks me every time I watch it– all the way through to the final, long shot that lasts for the entirety of the credits and Suftjan Stevens’s “Visions of Gideon”. Timothee Chalamet, what a performance.
And then there’s Mr. Perlman’s revelatory speech. I don’t want to linger on it too long here, both to avoid spoilers and excessive weeping on my end, but I will say it is one of those cinematic moments that will stay with me for a long, long time.
But also the food! Yes, of course, who can forget the peach scene. But the way the characters select and consume food and drink is employed comprehensively and strategically by director Luca Guadagnino, who had already proven himself adept with delicious tie-ins in 2010’s I Am Love. There are moments of culinary excess, erotic exploration, and connectivity that relate not only to the identities of Oliver and Elio, but also to the relationships between the main characters and the Perlman parents, the servants, and friends of the family.
Most of the dishes in the below menu were taken directly from Call Me By Your Name, with the exception of the last (though, I tried to get the IDEA across). So get ready to swoon, to cry, to laugh in some places, and to eat: buon appetito.
The Movie
The Menu
While a bellini is normally sweetened with peach juice, watching Oliver guzzle down apricot nectar made me curious-- and the end result is a glass of liquid summer sunshine Very few words needed here-- just mix all ingredients and serve chilled, preferably from a pitcher outside. In addition to his Adonis-like beauty and casual self-confidence, Oliver's open pride in his Jewish heritage immediately intrigues Elio (a self-described "Jew by discretion" in 1983's heavily Catholic Italy). As the film progresses, Elio's embrace of Judaism is paralelled by his acceptance of himself and his queerness-- both are important contributors to the sense of otherness that bonds him to Oliver. It's telling that the final scene of Call Me By Your Name takes place during Hannakuh, the Perlman family cooking latkes in the background, celebrating their culture (Elio included)... but no more insight or I'll spoil the ending for those of you who haven't seen it. First, preheat your oven to 200. Grate your potatoes and onions-- be careful not to let the potatoes sit for too long or they will brown. Squeeze both the potatoes and onions in layers of paper towels, squeezing out as much liquid as possible. Mix your grated potatoes and onions with egg, breadcrumbs, kosher salt, flour and pepper-- stir to combine fully. Form into balls and flatten into the shape of disks about the size of your palm and at 1/2 inch thick. Combine your oils in a wide skillet and heat till popping. Add latkes and fry, in batches if need be, until they are golden brown (2-3 minutes per side). Adjust heat as you go to prevent burning. Allow latkes to drain on paper towels. Place on a baking sheet and keep warm in preheated oven until ready to serve, topped with flaky salt and chives and with a side of sour cream. Schmaltz is a rendered chicken fat often used to cook latkes. If you can't find any,, you can use canola oil-- but I highly recommend the schmaltz. It has a wonderful salty/chickeny flavor. Oliver's lust for life in Call Me By Your Name is exemplified by the way he downs his apricot juice in one slug, and smashes his soft-boiled eggs to gooey bits when he tries to crack them. But there's a subtle art to making and eating a perfect soft-boiled egg, however simple it may seem. A perfect soft-boiled egg is all about timing. Bring a salted pot of water to a boil, and add the eggs gently. Boil for 6 minutes and 30 seconds--. 30 seconds less will leave you with a hint of clear liquid egg white, and 30 seconds more will cause your yolk to firm up. 6 minutes, 30 seconds, no more and no less. Once your timer goes off, immediately run your eggs under cold water to prevent the inside from continuing to cook. You can then leave the eggs in a bowl of warm (NOT HOT) water as you serve them. To eat, place an egg in an egg holder/cup, and tap the top of the shell gently to crack. Peel away the top half of the egg shell, sprinkle the white with salt and pepper to taste, and literally dig in with a spoon to reach the liquid center (trying not to get yolk everywhere). If you don't have an egg cup, you can fully peel your soft boiled egg and cut it in half over your latkes-- delicious. Inspired by a traditional Ligurian dessert recipe, these peaches are stuffed with homemade amaretti cookies. And then I added nuts to the stuffing and drizzled it all with Zabaglione cream. Yep I went there. Now I wish everyone was as sick as me. In a small bowl, combine almond flour, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, lemon zest and salt. In a bigger bowl, combine egg whites and almond extract. Using a hand beater, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Then, add your flour mixture to your egg whites. Stir gently until dough comes together. Form dough into a disk, wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour. Place each cookie dough ball on the parchment lined baking sheet, pressing gently down on each to flatten slightly. You should end up with 8 cookies. Preheat your oven to 375 and butter a baking dish. Next assemble your ingredients-- your cookies, peaches, butter, white wine, almonds and sugar. Next, pit your peaches-- just like pitting an avocado! Run your knife top to bottom in a circle around the pit, and then twist the two halves around the pit in opposite directions to separate them. The pit should lift out of the peach half it remained it relatively easily, but if it doesn't, use a small knife to pry it away, being careful not to bruise the peach. Once pitted, scoop out the innards of your peach halves to make a bit more room for the filling, reserving the innards to add to the filling. Now it's time to make your peach filling! Chop your almonds roughly and combine them with your amaretti cookies, crumbled. Chop your peach innards and add those to the bowl, together with sugar and 1 tbsp of butter. Stir to fully combine. Fill your peach halves with the cookie nut mixture, and top with the remaining tbsp of butter. Pour white wine over your peaches and sprinkle with sugar. Bake peaches for roughly 30 minutes until softened and the top of the filling browns. Once your peaches are done, keep them warm while you make your Zabaglione. Add your egg yolks and sugar to a small glass bowl and, using a hand mixer, beat at a high speed until very pale yellow (about 4-5 minutes). Next, create a double boiler-- add about 1/2 inch of water to a small saucepan and bring to a light boil. Place the glass bowl over the water but do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the boiling water. Add the marsala and salt to your glass bowl and continue to beat the mixture on medium, switching to a whisk if a hand beater becomes to difficult to wield. The sauce is ready to serve once it becomes a pale cream-- you'll need to serve immediately or it will separate. Pour over warm, nut stuffed peaches and make sure you have a few extra napkins handy-- you don't want to get sticky. Now I think it's time for a nap... If you don't feel like making cookies from scratch, feel free to buy them at the grocery store-- and if you can't find them, traditional sugar cookes with a bit of almond extract added to the peach stuffing is a fair substitute.
Apricot Bellini
Ingredients
Instructions
Latkes
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Can't Have Just One Soft Boiled Egg
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Amaretti and Nut Stuffed Peaches with Zabaglione Cream
Ingredients
Instructions
Amaretti Cookies
Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 325, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Next, prep your rolling sugars—sprinkle powdered sugar on one plate and remaining 1/8 cup granulated sugar on the other.
Remove your cookie dough from the fridge and scoop out 1-inch dough balls. As you go, coat each ball first in granulated sugar, then in powdered sugar. 
Bake for 20 minutes, until cookies begin to crack but are still slightly soft. Remove from your oven and allow to cool in the pan.
Peaches
Zabaglione
Notes
Epilogue
***2021 update: I have yet to read the novel on which Call Me By Your Name is based, which extends beyond the ending of the film, but since the sequel is now unlikely to happen (with, sadly, good reason), I’ll be over here appreciating the soundtrack and feeling blissful and wistful and melancholy all at once– if you’d like to join, here it is.
For more menus, check out my movie directory here!