Sunday lunch with good friends. We have a group of friends – all Americans. They all live south of us. Two live in Spello. One between Spello and Assisi on Monte Subasio. And one in Foligno. These places are all very near to each other. We are about 45 minutes north of them. I wish we were closer. We get together every month or two for a meal at one of our homes or an outing to a good restaurant.
i wanted us all to be together for a time during the Christmas season. I decided to host. Normally I plan and make the meal but this time I thought a potluck would be fun. I provided the two entrees and the panettone dessert. They brought munchies to start and two sides. Although one turned out to be a yummy soup. A little shuffling ensued so we had a first course of soup, then a salad and the mains. It was a very fun afternoon. The fog lifted for a time and the sun shone but then it rolled back in just in time to make their drives home difficult. Here are photos. Some of them mine, some by Roselyne and Steve.
Centerpiece from local floristI made baskets and filled them with chocolate as giftsThe set tableCounter where I was going to put the food.Clementines which I forgot to put outOne main, poached salmon with a cucumber dill sauce.Roast beef sliced thin with shaved Parmesan and horseradish mustard sauce.Doug finishing up his saladThe finished product.The panettone. We ordered a week ago at our local bakery and picked up this week. It is pistacchio and a boozy berry or grape. So fresh and delicious. A world apart from a store bought panettone.All of us except Steve.
We have no other official plans for the season so this was our big celebration. We do have friends who we may have lunch with after Christmas. And I may ask some others over. We are planning to move house from upstairs to downstairs for a couple months to use the stufa to supplement the heat. But first the Christmas tree needs to undecorated and returned to the terrace. Ciao for now!
This week Italian food was designated a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, becoming the first national culinary tradition in the world to receive such recognition in its entirety. Exciting news.
Here are some fun statistics I read. Italian consumers eat 30 billion plates of pasta annually, drink 56 billion cups of coffee, and consume almost 1 billion kilos of baked goods and sweets. Pasta remains an identity symbol, consumed at 23.3 kg per capita—the highest figure worldwide.
Here are some food pictures from my collection from different regions. Hope you enjoy seeing them.
Caccio e pepe made the traditional way. – RomeCaccio e pepe – RomeFave e chicoria – Puglia SalentoSpaghetti con vongole – Amalfi coastRisotto con piselli- MilanPizza – Naples
Orecchiette rapini – Bari
A few pictures to whet your appetite. All “Italian food” is regional. You won’t get any one of these dishes in any other region. It is important to know the foods of where you are and also the seasonal aspect. For instance, you can’t make Orecchiette rapini in the summer. It is a fall/winter dish.
Today was a very unusual Tuesday. My good friend Elizabeth, who is very well connected around these parts, invited me to join her at a tasting and luncheon at Vineria Del Carmine. Elizabeth is partner in a business called Altabella an Italian Villa vacation rental and Umbrian experience. She has lived here more than twenty years.
The event today was for restauranteurs and people who work in tourism in the Upper Tiber valley. Elizabeth was going and found she could invite someone else. We have been friends for a number of years and she appreciates this blog as promoting this area and tourism around here. So she asked me to join her! I happily accepted.
The tasting room had two long tables set for the event. There would be three separate lunches/tastings. At 12:00, 2:00 and 4:00. The table filled with many people. We were at one end of the table so only were near a few people. They brought three wines to taste during the lunch. A Trebbiano Spoletino (white), a rosato (rosè) made from Merlot and a big red called il Campanile made from Sangiovese and Merlot. All were very nice. We had a small lunch. They make their own very thin bread sticks and two dipping sauces with which we began. They also had delicious bread and their own olive oil. Then we had a nice small main from which we could choose — a polenta with a delicious cheese sauce or pork belly. We had the polenta. Finally a nice dessert which had a LOT going on. From crumbled chocolate cookies, dots of caramel, a panna cotta ring, passion fruit and blackberries. Very nice. Here are pictures with captions. The first two are the tables.
The polenta with the cheese sauce.The dolce.Across from the winery is an an abandoned church..
I really had a nice time. It was great to spend time with Elizabeth. Thanks Elizabeth for the invite!
Hey everyone. We had a great day with eight of our good friends. We all went to Calagrana for our Thanksgiving feast as always. This has become a tradition for this group. The story is kind of fun. Gary and Susan treat the meal, Luther and I treat the wine. Here is the story…
Once upon a time, twelve years ago, Susan wanted to have a Thanksgiving feast for her Italian friends. But her oven was small and she had no cooking skills. So she contacted Eli of Calagrana fame. She was happy to cook her turkey. But wait…she was British and had no idea how to cook a whole turkey. Seems only Americans cook whole turkeys. As luck would have it, Eli’s sister lived in Philadelphia and they consulted through the night to cook this (enormous) turkey.
At this time Susan and Gary hosted the feast in their home so they picked up the turkey and some appetizers and served them at home. They did this for a couple of years. Then Susan and Eli conspired to do the meal in Eli and Albi’s house. We were guests there and the turkey was roasted. By now, Eli was a pro at cooking an entire turkey, and because it was popular, even with the others around here, it morphed into a yearly feast in the restaurant with them taking reservations. They always have a full house. It is popular. So that is how our tradition began.
First turkey. 2014.Second turkey. 2015.
Our group is about 50/50 Italian/American. All of the Italians are “all in” for the feast. They have embraced it. It’s so nice to share traditions with our Italian friends. I will say, some really couldn’t embrace the concept of having all the food on one plate…you know…actually touching 😳. And gasp! There were no individual courses like they do here. But this group, have embraced it and all are just fine…especially our most enthusiastic Italian friend, Fabio 🙂 He exclaimed the first year he came, “why do you only do this once a year!?!?”
Here is the 2025 feast in pictures. Captions have descriptions.
Our table.Antipasto. Well, we are in Italy so needs be multiple courses. These bites were delicious.Primi. Amazing dish. There was a flaky crust. Inside was melty cheese and pumpkin bits. Underneath, melted Gorgonzola sauce. On top prosciutto. Yum!The star of the show. A 16 kilogram turkey (35.25 pounds)Turkey and…wait…Yorkshire pudding 🤔 ?! The chef is British, what can I say 🤷🏻♀️Dolce. Vanilla panna cotta with apple compote and cinnamon biscotti. So scrumptious you had to eat it even when you were full!
Hopefully we can continue this tradition for a bunch more years. I hope you all had a lovely day too! Happy Thanksgiving!
Hi everyone! We are in the midst of amazing autumnal weather. At least two perfect weeks. In the U.S. it is called Second Summer (formerly Indian Summer which is no longer used), in Germany it is called Goldener Oktober, and in Italy it is called estate di San Martino, which translates to “St. Martin’s Summer”. This term refers to a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that usually occurs around St. Martin’s Day on November 11th.
Umbertide is full of autumn color. I was out and about today and got a couple of photos of the trees and flowers.
After our trip to Puglia I was inspired to make one of the lunch dishes we had while in Lecce. The entire south of Italy, called the Mezzogiorno, always has been very poor. Most of the Italians who immigrated to other countries came from these regions to find a better life. The food that evolved there is called cucina povera, literally poor cuisine. Fave è cicoria is a traditional dish made from only four ingredients. Dried fava beans, chicory, which is available everywhere here now in supermarkets, (but would have been foraged in the wild back in the day), garlic and pepper flakes. Finally it is served with a drizzle of olive oil. Gnam, gnam. (Italian for yum yum 😁)
Raw cicoria.Dried fave without the skin. Very easy to use, all the work is done.Cooking the cicoriaCooking the fave Final dish. Gnom, gnom.
What is it about the sunlight in Autumn? Like suddenly the shadows are longer, darker, different. The mountains have a clarity that they didn’t have in July. Today was a perfect Autumn day. The sun was doing that certain something it does in September and October. I can’t get enough. We went to Calagrana for the first time in I don’t know how long. It was delicious as usual. The pictures are along the way or from their terrace. Just LOOK at that sky!
TobaccoCalagranaTobacco.
This is the picture I grabbed outside Calagrana. The view is always lovely. Ely’s flowers are always beautiful.
Lunch with friends today. I tried the winter salad with anchovies and the venison stew with a pastry top. Both were yummy and autumnal.
Overall, it was an outstanding day. We had delicious food with old friends on a glorious fall day. What’s not to like?!
This week we were invited to join our Italian famiglia for a Thai dinner. Vera’s birthday was last Sunday and for a present her family gave her the gift of a Thai chef who came to her house and cooked a meal for us all. She invited friends and her two daughters (who chose the menu) were there as well as Graziano, her husband. The other guests were Nicolai and Annette, from Denmark whom we have met many times, and Nik and Henrietta who I had heard of but never met. Nik is a pretty famous artist. He is British and has an estate here in Umbria. They were super nice. If you wish to look him up his name is Nic Fiddian Green. He does primarily sculpture and his subject is horses. In fact he is exhibiting in a town named Middleburg in Virginia near where I used to live next year.
Anyway, the chef was a diminutive Thai woman and her caucasian husband helper. The menu was three antipasti, one primi, and two secondi. I took pictures of my favourites.
I accidentally ate a sliver of red pepper and it was HOT! once I had stuffed a bunch of rice in my mouth and recovered I told Desiree not to eat that! But she was curious. I picked up a piece and said just taste a tiny piece. Well it turned out it was a sweet pepper. So she went to the plate and picked up another piece. She must have thought I was crazy, and she popped it into her mouth. it is funny, the lag from first taste to when the heat hits, but it did.
It was a fun meal. I like that Vera is super adventurous when it comes to food, She is adventurous in most ways. She loves to travel and see new countries. As do her two daughters. She is inhibited by Graziano who is by no means adventurous. But he did like the dumplings filled with sausage. The meal had a nice amount of spice. Thanks Vera, for the invite! And buon compeanno! ~~~~~~~~ Then Luther and I decided to have a sushi lunch at the place we went to in the summer, Shiso. It is relatively new in town and is finding its footing. The menu was completely different this time. It tells us it is learning its audience and what they will eat. The last time the menu was more complicated. It has been simplified and streamlined. We decided to get the 16 piece chef selection. I was also intrigued by the Poke bowls. They had three sizes which allowed you to pick the protein, the sauce, and the extras. I may try that next time.
I leave you with a picture of our Simba. He had to see the vet this week. He is 16 and that comes with problems of old age. And don’t I know it! He is a sweety.
Montefalco is the capital of the Sagrantino DOC wine producing area of Umbria and this weekend it was the epicenter of the completed grape harvest. Every year they have tastings and events culminating in a fun, hokey parade (of sorts). We just happened to have made reservations for our group of friends who enjoy lunches together. Then, yesterday I heard the ”parade” was starting at 3pm. I knew what it was about because I had attended this festival once before.
We all arrived and had a great table in the Piazza del comune. The main public space in the small hill-town. It was a gorgeous autumn day. As we sat there choosing our food and getting wine the other tables filled with groups and families. The hum of conversation and laughter filled the air. We asked ourselves more than once what it is about going out for a meal in beautiful weather surrounded by Italians that was different from every other place on earth. You can dine outside in nice weather in most cities, but you’ll never get the happy vibe you will in Italy. We love living here.
Here are some photos of the food, the piazza and the Harvest Festa. It is pretty clear the participants have been sampling the harvest wine! and having fun, of course.
The Piazza before.
The Lunch.
Our table.Appetiser of roasted peppers and parboiled onions on a bed of tonno sauce. mmmmTagliatelle with Funghi. Not my favorite.My dessert. Inside my dessert.TiramisuAmazing dessert of three things.
The Harvest Festival. It consisted primarily of tractors of all shapes and sizes pulling wagons full of celebrating people usually with a grape press and plates of food which was shared with the crowd. Very loud music accompanied each float.
Ciao ragazzi! I know, I know and I feel really bad about being Missing-In-Action. But I have some pretty good excuses 😉. First off, I have had, and still am having issues with the website. It is down intermittently and this makes it hard to make updates. I am still working with my ISP. They are pretty inept.
Then, I got a mean virus that was going around. Not COVID. But that is going around here too. I ran a high fever, 102F or 38.9C. That is higher than most fevers I have had. I had a headache and intestinal upset. I took ibuprofen and checked in with my medico who said it was going around and she had many patients with the same symptoms. After 3 days the fever and headache subsided but the intestinal upset lasted a week. The worst was that, unlike most weekends, we had a lot of plans for this one. I, sadly, missed our entire Otto Cento festa. I had, planned to meet new residents and friends to show them around. Luther had to be my stand-in. But they got me some pretty sunflowers to cheer me up. 🙂. Then, Sunday, we had plans for lunch with our lunch bunch, the gang o six in Montefalco at our favorite restaurant, L’Alchemista. That, too had to be canceled.
Anyway, all that is past and since then we had our annual street fair which is non-stop vendors from the train station past our house. Probably 10 blocks. I watched from our aerie. And once I got over my malady I began to cook again. I had had no appetite during the illness. I grilled a few times outside on the wood fired BBQ. A whole grilled fish one night and I got very adventurous and made a Lebanese dinner. I made home made pitas which cannot be found here. They were good enough for my first try. And with them we had tzatziki and fresh tomatoes with sliced new onions and a kebab of spiced ground beef and pork. It should’ve been lamb but well, that’s not easy to find. I grilled the kebabs and it was a yummy dinner, and different!
I worked a shift at Books for dogs and someone donated some art which I really liked, so I bought two. I love them.
I always grow a pepper plant or two. This year I tried Tabasco. Tiny little heat bombs. I’ve been tossing them into stews etc and they really perk it up. The photo is after I harvested most of the ripe red ones, which were many. My tomato plants are still producing but have slowed down. The Sicilian one gives lots of small tomatoes. The beefsteak gave a lot of big juicy tomatoes but now it has stopped. There are a number of still growing green ones that I hope will mature. Our weather is the terrific autumn weather we always get here. Our fall season is long and perfect.
Last week we attended the annual silent auction that is held by Books for Dogs every year. They get donations all year and save the best ones for the auction. It was combined with a wine tasting. I had not been to one before. They published a catalog so I had picked out a couple things I was interested in and I was successful. I bought a pretty agate and glass vintage necklace, and a contemporary carved stone rhinoceros. It weighs 3 kilos. I have another soapstone collection of Inuit soapstone carvings and this reminded me of them, but much larger.
We have a few things planned for the future. We rescheduled our lunch with the Gang for the 21st. And we will finally get to Calagrana with other friends we haven’t seen in a while. Tomorrow we are trying a restaurant nearby we have not ever been to. We will enjoy this gorgeous fall weather. I hope you do too, wherever you are! Ciao amici!
Umbertide, previously known as La Fratta, is gearing up for our big festa— Otto Cento. 28-29-30-31 August. It’s a great festival which reenacts the creation of Italy in 1862 called the Risorgimento. Entertainment, competitions, music, food all in keeping with that era. Stilt walkers, street grinders, dancing, cannons! Garibaldi, the briganti and the ladies of the night! Our town produced an excellent video of the festa. Here is a link. Hopefully it will work for you.
Now that I am back home with all my cooking things and spices I have been trying some new recipes. I’m sorry to say I didn’t take photos. One night I made my own tostada bowls out of flour tortillas. In the oven. It was a bit finicky but it came out nice. Brown and crispy. I used them as bowls. I made a mix of tomatoes, thinly sliced onions, avocado and a can of tuna. The sauce was made of lime juice from a whole lime, garlic, spicy peppers, mayonnaise. I tried out our peppers that I grew this year. Tabascos. Wow, they are hot. When I minced and mixed the two I had harvested into the mayo, lime garlic it was perfect. Spicy, but not too spicy. I tossed the other ingredients with this mix. It was really tasty, and pretty too. I wish I had taken photos! I also made ceviche which was nice.
August is winding down. The days are noticeably shorter 😔. Enjoy what is left of summer!
