New this year at the late December Umbria Jazz Winter festival in Orvieto: spaghetti whipped up on stage for the public as the five young musicians of Spaghetti Swing – a Cooking Concert brought alive the music and 1950’s life style of Italy, land of la dolce vita. And why not this connubium of spaghetti…
Near Montepulciano in the small southern Tuscan town of Acquaviva, don’t miss lunch at Ristorante/Pizzeria L’Angolo. Before lunch, the butcher shop around the corner is worth a stop. Pino had been there before for salami varieties you can’t find here in Umbria. Beneath dangling prosciutti topped with evergreens in red bows and ornaments and red-ribbon-bound…
Pino and I knew that garlic (“aglio”) highlighted the tangy tomato sauce for a favorite southern Tuscan pasta favorite, pici all’aglione, but now we know that not just any garlic will do. The garlic for this dish must be the ivory-colored aglione della Valdichiana, indigenous to the southern Tuscan area, now recognized officially as an…
On these biting December days, our wood stove warms our Assisi farmhouse and the hot wood stove oven often tempts me into trying new dishes. Here’s one we enjoyed yesterday: Lemon Zest Winter Squash Ingredients (for 4- 6 persons) winter squash, about 1 – 1/2 lbs extra-virgin olive oil, q.b. (“quanto basta” or “as much…
Nothing like experiencing that “dual magic” of Italy: artistic treasures and good eating. A morning in Deruta offers us that pairing. A rural feast at Giuseppa’s farm awaits after a visit to see the magical art of maiolica in all its phases: …..and after seeing the art of maiolica-in-the-making, feast with Giuseppa……who’ll serve up the…
An icy December day for a visit with the Segal family to Deruta – but mamma mia, that open-armed welcome of Giuseppa warmed us up. As did her homemade pasta topped with tomato sauce highlighted with the veal and pork raised by Giuseppa and husband Paolo. [lcaption]Giuseppa serves Lior and his sister Tayla her homemade…
Painter, architect and art historian, Giorgio Vasari was born in Arezzo in the early 16th-century. His name lives on – and nowadays, in good eating, too, at Ristorante Logge Vasari. Tucked under the porticoes of Arezzo’s imposing Piazza Grande, you might have to wait for a table if you’re there on the first Sunday of…
In early December, Pino and I headed off to a favorite “week-end-away” spot, Casa Volpe in Arezzo. [lcaption]Casa Volpe, Arezzo[/lcaption] A surprise on arrival: smiling, welcoming Signora Alessia was not at the reception. Young Alessandro was there: Signora Alessia and her family retired last year and Alessandro and his family now run Casa Volpe. [lcaption]Alessandro…
Pinenuts and currants star often in Sicilian cuisine, so richly influenced by Middle Eastern culinary heritage. They enhance la pasta al cavolfiore (“pasta with cauliflower), a filling, tasty Sicilian winter dish Pino’s wonderful mother, Signora Vincenza, taught me years ago. [lcaption]Signora Vincenza[/lcaption] It’s always been a favorite winter pasta dish in our house. Here’s how…
Don’t miss wandering the medieval backstreets of Spello, floral profusion in springtime: Roman arches span a few of them… Near the top of the town, you’ll come to the Roman Arch of Augustus: …..and adjacent to it, feast your eyes on a beautifully-restored medieval tower. Called, “la Torre di San Severino” as it flanks the…