Rural friend Peppa is like a part of our family and we’ve savored countless rural feasts in her farmhouse. Every lunch or dinner is a buonissimo rural banquet, although she’ll always say “oggi ho…
I toured many Umbria hill town gems with Joanne and Stuart, each toured highlighted by a memorable experience. Certainly a rural lunch in the Deruta countyrside with Giuseppa was an unforgettable moment…
I decided to title this blog note with a phrase from tour guest, Sharon. After our Perugia/Deruta tour with Sharon, her husband Jerry and friends (Linda and Glenn), she wrote me this…
While rural neighbor Chiarina was making her homemade pasta recently,…… ….her husband Marino took me over to their improvised “cantina” (wine cellar) in a converted garage near their farmhouse: Inside, guanciali (pork…
Farm neighbor Chiarina was dicing the carrot for her pasta sauce when I dropped in one recent morning, her husband Marino nearby and how he beamed when I asked him about his…
If you read my recent note on Giuseppa making her homemade fettuccine, you’ll already know that the best in the rural cuisine of Umbria reigns in the farmhouse kitchen of Giuseppa, in…
In the Deruta countryside, Giuseppa opens home and heart to all. When you arrive, Giuseppa comes out of her house, perhaps with her two beloved Jack Russells and that welcoming smile says…
Years ago, when Pino and I worked the land here in the hills outside Assisi, our rural neighbors taught us how to prune our vineyard, harvest our olives, scythe field greens for…
Prosciutto, pancetta, salami, salsicce, coppa, barbozza. The names unite in an enticing rhythm, so appealing to your ear. Even if you’re a vegetarian. When I dropped in recently at the house of…
When we first harvested olives here in the Umbrian countryside in an icy December, 1976, the picking was all done by hand. Basket around the waist, you’d reach up the olive branch…