Tag: umbria
Day Four:Cooking Class in Umbria
Paula showed up at Cafe Tullia (a neighborhood joint) about half an hour late. Part of me was expecting her at Italian Standard Time (which means, she took her time to get to me) and I was right.
Paula cooks for a fancy catering place and had agreed to teach me a few local Umbrian dishes. We were going to shop for ingredients and then come back to the apartment to cook dinner. It was all very exciting but there was just one problem- Paula didn’t speak a word of English and I am not conversant in Italian. “How bad could it be, I thought”.
She took me to 5 different stores to shop for two kinds of pasta, salad, a meat dish and dessert. It was great to be able to accompany a local person and watch how things happen in a different country. Everyone had a smile on their faces and were in absolutely no hurry to get anywhere. Living in the Eastcoast, I am so used to rushing everywhere- this was a pleasant change. We went to two different grocery stores to buy flour, vegetables, etc. She also took me to a special cheese shop to buy the milk, cream, mascarpone cheese and parmesan cheese. We then stopped at a huge meat store to purchase a huge leg of lamb. The whole time she was talking to me in Italian and I was nodding pretending to understand her- I probably understood 50% of what she said to me. It was quite an experience for me- she seemed like a very sweet lady who works extremely hard to make a living.
We came home with all the ingredients a few hours later and deposited everything in the fridge. Paula was to come back at 4:30 PM to start cooking. She walked in with her husband carrying a few bags of equipment including her pasta maker. She also brought us a huge tray of green figs from her garden- they were delicious!
We started cooking around 5 and didn’t begin eating till about 9 or 9:30.
We feasted on panzenella salad, tortellini stuffed with a combination of chicken, pork and veal- it was served in a vegetable broth. A tomato pasta came after that topped with parmesan cheese. The last course was the huge tray of the most aromatic lamb and roast potatoes. It was the most delicious lamb preparation I had ever had!
While we were eating, Paula made extra tortellini and pasta for us to eat the next day. We cleaned up, thanked her and proceeded to the garden to enjoy our dessert!
It was a wonderful day full of learning new techniques and enjoying some great local foods. I will give more details on the recipes in the coming weeks including lots of pictures. Stay tuned.
Arrived In Spello!
I am up at 8 AM local time- that makes it about 2 AM New Jersey time! I can hear a dog barking and an elderly gentlemen watering the plants outside. Speaking of plants, this little town is full of flowers and planters everywhere. It is gorgeous- a tiny medieval town named Spello. It has tiny, curved, cobblestoned streets.
We drove about 2 hours from Rome airport yesterday morning to get to this charming Umbrian town. It was very difficult to find our destination even with the gps- but eventually we got there.
We are staying in an old buiding that is divided into small apartments. Ours, has a great view of the hills.
We walked around in the evening, completely jet lagged, as no one had slept on the flight over- not even my daughter, Sia. We stopped at a gelato place and satisfied our cravings. We saw many small charming restaurants but at the end decided to do a picnic in our garden instead. We went to a tiny store and bought proscuitto, wild boar salami and a sheep milk cheese. The shopkeeper had some fresh olives marinated in a spicy mixture- delicious! We had red wine in the apartment and all we needed was some bread.
We sat in the garden and ate the yummy cold cuts and drank the delicious wine just in time to enjoy the beautiful sunset- can life get any better than that??
The charming garden is full of rosemary, sage, basil. It also has lots of fruit trees including grapes. We enjoyed lovely green grapes after dinner. When we came inside, while cleaning up, I discovered a jar of homemade apricot jam from the garden- I will be experimenting it for breakfast this morning!
Off To Umbria Next Week
I have been planning our trip to Umbria for 6 months now- it’s coming up- we leave on Friday, August 28th. It took me a while to convince my husband to go back to Italy. He wanted to go somewhere new- but I feel a special connection to Italy. Not sure if it’s the food, wine or the good looking, well dressed people. Oh- yes the gelato helps as well- and the cappuccino- the best I have ever had! We were there almost ten years ago- and I have been wanting to go back for ever. Now that it is almost here, I am excited and sad at the same time. I love booking a vacation months in advance so I can think and anticipate the trip-that is my favorite part. The trip itself goes so fast and the anticipation is much sweeter.
I am very excited about learning how to cook a few local umbrian dishes from an Italian woman who does not speak any English- and I don’t speak any Italian- this should be very interesting. We will go to the market to buy the ingredients and then come back to the apartment and cook a complete dinner. Did I mention we will be staying in an apartment in a small medieval town, Spello. Spello has tiny cobblestone streets and is known for it’s olive oil, truffles and pottery- I am in heaven!
My plan is to blog from Spello documenting my eating and drinking adventures- I will not be emailing my usual recipes next week. I am looking forward to learning lots of new techniques and recipes to share with all of you while I am there and once I get back.
Enjoy the rest of the summer!