Category Archives: Foods

Quiet time

January is a quiet time here. Plenty of folks going about their everyday business, but nothing much else is going on. At least here all the restaurants and stores stay open all winter. This town doesn’t shut down because the tourists are gone like so many do. That should always be a consideration if you intend to move here. Some places are shut tight!

The weather, after our two week cold snap, is pretty nice. Highs in the 50s, lows in the 30s and 40s. My lemon tree did get frost bitten, even though I brought it and the persimmon inside. I have trimmed off the dead bits. I’m sure it will recover once it’s back outside. I’m following the big winter storm hitting much of the U.S. right now. Stay warm everyone. Our stufa keeping us warm. 🔥

I’ve been making lots of soups and comfort food. We have a good friend here who had a medical crisis a couple weeks ago. Thankfully he is better and home now. Seems there is a syndrome called acute haemolytic anemia or favism. Apparently a person can develop this G6PD deficiency triggered by components in fava beans. He was in the hospital for a week and had four transfusions. Very sick boy. Now he can’t eat any legumes like beans, chickpeas, lentils, etc. for a couple of months. I was trying to find recipes of mine in my soups and it was a surprise that almost all of mine have one of those forbidden items. I did find two. Anyway, I’m very glad he is on the mend. Get well soon Steve!

I don’t have much else to report. Hang in everyone. Hunker down for the storm. La primavera sta arrivando!

Epifania

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Today is Epifania, a holiday, the day the 3 magi came to visit the Christ child. It marks the official end of the Christmas season. Now we hunker down and try to struggle through the longest, coldest and darkest month.

We are in the very beginning of a frigid week. There is a polar vortex that’s covering most of Europe. France is the coldest since 2012 and I would wager it will be here as well. Predicted to have -5C (23F) tonight and -8C (17F) tomorrow. Coldest in the 11+ years we have been here. So cold that the cover covering he lemon and kumquats will not be adequate protection, so they now are inside upstairs.

I also looked up olive trees and how hardy they are. Seems mature trees can tolerate to -9C but young trees only to -4C. I’m wondering if this will damage these around here. I hope not. They say the cold is good to kill the fly larvae, but this is pushing it.

For a treat, it began snowing here about 1pm. Is is very pretty. Slowed down now (4:30) but with that cold coming it could make for treacherous roads, Video I took, I hope it is visible.

I have been making cold weather food the last couple of days. I made a big pot of potato leek soup for lunches, and a big pot of chili last night. Sticks to the ribs and warms you up.

Stay warm if it’s cold where you are. If it’s warm, enjoy it! Ciao!

Christmas Eve, Christmas day

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Hi everyone! I hope you’re enjoying your holiday. I wandered into town on Christmas Eve to take my biscotti Americani (chocolate chip cookies 🙂) to Angelo and Bar Mary. I also stopped by books for dogs for a drop off of some things I thought they could sell, it was busy. But the market was already breaking down because it was Christmas Eve. I sat and had a glass of vino bianco at Bar Mary. It was nice outside in their enclosed seating area. No one there but me.

On the way home. This is Piazza Carlo Marx, in front of our house.

Luther shared the biscotti I made with all our neighbors in the building and I dropped a bag at the girarrosto downstairs. Nice people, Sarah and Luciano. They work so hard. It is amazing how popular they are. People were waiting in line outside. People come from all around to pickup their orders for Christmas Eve or day lunches or dinners. Super popular but that means they are open on all the holidays. Hard workers those two.

For Christmas Eve dinner I made Cinghiale in Umido. Wild boar stew. Braised in the oven for 4 hours. Turned out very good and tender. You never know with wild boar.

For Christmas dinner I found a small turkey. Only 6.6 pounds, 3 kilos. So I made that with mashed potatoes, broccoli, gravy and cranberry sauce. I like to make a turkey once a year and the stores have started to stock them for the holidays. The turkey was tender and juicy. Now we have left overs for dinner and best of all…turkey sandwiches!

I went out into the hall and saw the offerings from the little girls who live across from us. Their sign says, “welcome and eat well baby Jesus and the donkey”. I thought it was cute. There were bowl and cups with a bit of food left behind. 🥰

We caught up with the families. I spoke to my sister and her husband. I emailed all of the Hamptons on Christmas Eve. I heard back from Luther’s youngest brother, in California. And from my niece in Southern California, who may be paying us a visit in the summer. We had a video call with Luther’s middle brother and some of their family. They have small grandchildren who spent the night and woke at 5:30am so everyone was exhausted. Anyway, everyone is doing pretty good, all things considered.

So, another Christmas has come and gone. I hope you all had a nice holiday. Friday was a holiday here as well, San Stefano. Fino alla prossima volta! 💕

Market day

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The winter market is upon us. I was supposed to work at Books for Dogs on Saturday but it was so slow they sent me home. This gave me time to shop. We were, and still are, in a very cold, damp, dark and foggy time. It has been six, long days with a break on Monday no sun, but no fog. I have been hiding inside. Many friends around here who all live up in the mountains surrounding us are above the clouds that blanket the valley. They report bright sunshine and warmth. Envy, envy, envy.

I lucked out and found turnips with beautiful fresh turnip green tops. Not common here. I’m pretty sure people grow them because Vera once brought me some from her mother-in-law’s garden. Somehow they don’t end up in the market or grocery. Who knows why? 🤷🏻‍♀️ I love the spiciness of the turnip greens and cooked with pancetta, garlic and pepper flakes it is perfect as a pasta sauce, so that’s what we had for dinner!

This is cuisine povera. Poor people’s cooking. The pasta I used was around €1 for the packet and I used 1/3 = 30 cents The pancetta was one quarter of a two pack which was €2.95. = 90 cents. The turnip greens were a throw away so they were essentially free. Then there was a sprinkle of pepper flakes, and two garlic cloves, some olive oil and a sprinkle of pecorino romana cheese at the end. Negligible amount, maybe 50 cents. So we had two bowls of pasta with left over for my lunch for about €1.80 or about $2.10. AND…it was delizioso!

I grew up Southern. All my aunts cooked southern style. Luther’s too. Turnip greens were never wasted but they would never, ever make a pasta. That’s just too Italian. It’s nice to find nearly the same preparation they used to cook the greens here, but used in pasta dishes. Small world. Buon appetito!

Christmas lunch with good friends

UNESCO

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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. – Rome

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.

Mangia, mangia! Buon appetito!

Vineria del Carmine

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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.

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!

Thanksgiving – 2025

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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.

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.

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!

Fave è Cicoria – perfect autumn dish

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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 😁)

Dried fave without the skin. Very easy to use, all the work is done.

Buon autunno! 🍁 🍂 🍁

That certain something…

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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!