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| From Blog Photos |
O Scarpia, avanti a DIO!!!! Brrrrr it’s cold . . . . Floria Tosca
For the first time in 24 years, Roma awoke to a measurable snowfall (3 cm or a little over an inch). It closed the Colosseo and briefly shut down the airports. It is being reported that Berlusconi’s government ordered the snowfall as a sign of solidarity with Washington and the rest of the Eastern United States. 
Article in Italian can be found here.
The McItaly burger has arrived. The BBC has video from a McDonalds in Rome (here). It is a 100% Italian beef patty with Asiago cheese and artichoke spread. While I don’t think that I’ll be rushing to Assisi (the nearest McDonalds to us in Italy) to buy one, I can’t help being slightly amused by all the fuss. After all — some of the worst fast food I’ve experienced has originated from the “panino” counters of certain rest stops along the highways of Italy. After having choked down salty, dried-out prosciutto and wilted arugula on stale bread, I’m not sure that McDonalds would have been a worse choice. The best of Italy is never fast, unless you’re talking about cars!
For great food check out our Great Plates series of posts (here). There’s even a post about American style burgers on the 4th of July.
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| From Italia! |
Photo of the week: olive trees and vineyards in Umbria.
The New York Times ran an article on skiing and most importantly eating in Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Dolomites. http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/travel/24cortina.html
It echoed many of our observations from a few years ago on our first visit. We ate very well both on and off the mountain.
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| From Food |
Pork shank with roast potatoes and spinach made for a hearty informal lunch
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| From Food |
Homemade Farfalle with Wild Boar Ragout
Cortina is easily accessable from the US with flights to Venice followed by a 2 hour transfer to Cortina. After skiing for a week, you can easily incorporate a few days in Venice with minimal crowds before your return to the US.
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| From Italia! |
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| From Food |
Ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach and topped with a generous shaving of black truffles.
This plate comes from a great trattoria in the town of Pitigliano in southern Tuscany. It was as good as it looks.
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| From Italia! |
At the Condé Nast Traveler Reader’s Choice Awards in New York City last night, the great Italian cities once again dominated the Best European City category. The three finalists were Florence, Venice and Rome, with Florence repeating this year as the winner. Danilo Gallinari of the New York Knicks accepted the award for Florence – although he is from Milan! Over 25,000 Condé Nast Traveler readers participated in this year’s poll and it was a wonderful evening, honoring the best in the airline, hotel and travel destinations. In addition to Gallinari’s supersized contribution, luminaries of the big and small screen (Lorraine Bracco, Stanley Tucci & Mary Louise Parker), runway (former supermodel Rachel Hunter), boardroom (Richard Branson) and kitchen (Daniel Boulud, Danny Meyer) were on hand to present the winners. Maria Gabriella was in attendance as Concierge in Umbria was awarded Top Travel Specialist honors for the 4th consecutive year!
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| From Italia! |
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| From Girasole |
Brian has been named to the Bon Appetit Travel Board. The Travel Board is a selection of Travel Specialists dedicated to finding the best in gastronomic adventures. A former New York restaurant cook, Brian advises on cooking classes, wine tastings, and other epicurean experiences. Click here to view his listing on the Bon Appetit Now website.
Visit Concierge in Umbria online: www.conciergeinumbria.net
There is a small enoteca/restaurant on the main square in Montefalco. We ate there for the first time in 2003, a couple of months after they opened, and it has become without a doubt one of our favorite places to eat — in the world. The food is always unpretentious, full flavored and most important interesting. The owners, who have since become friends, take a vacation each year in February. This year they ended up on the Yucatan penninsula in Mexico. The trip inspired this plate of maltagliata (literally poorly cut pasta) made with Roveja flour and dressed with a tomato sauce spiked with some dried ancho chiles they brought home. Roveja flour is ground from a type of pea (”piselli selvatico” or wild pea) that is cultivated in the Valnerina region of Umbria.
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| From Great Plates |
Maltagliata made from Roveja flour and spicy tomato sauce
Michelin 3* chef, Alain Ducasse, has, in recent years, created an empire of restaurants and hotels throughout the world. His Tuscan “duchy” is located in the plains outside Grosseto near the fishing village turned beach resort of Castiglione della Pescaia. The hotel is everything you would expect from a 5* country resort with immaculate grounds, spacious rooms, and a well appointed spa. I, however, wasn’t there for the hotel, although I did find it extremely comfortable – the design and furnishings are for the most part new, styled to look old. But I was there for the food and to learn something in the process.
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| From Blog Photos |
The entrance to L’Andana
In addition to our reservation at the hotel’s restaurant, Trattoria Toscana, they offer a two hour cooking demonstration/class for guests of the hotel. Maria signed me up and I went as both interested observer and foodie (I haven’t cooked professionally in 10 years but still know my way around a kitchen). The class was led by Annalisa Martini, a L’Andana veteran and native of one of the great food cities of Italy – Bologna. She told us that she started cooking at a very young age in her grandmother’s now closed restaurant in Bologna. This was perfect, who better to teach the fine points of roll out pasta dough than a Bolognese with a restaurant pedigree?
The course consisted of making our pasta dish for the dinner and dessert – ravioli stuffed with swiss chard, fresh ricotta, and pecorino in butter and thyme and a simple chocolate soufflé to be served with vanilla ice cream. We started with the pasta dough, working it with our hands to the right consistency and then letting it rest. We then moved onto the filling for the ravioli and finally the mix for the soufflé. All went smoothly and at an amiable pace, aided by the L’Andana’s own white and rosé wines offered as accompaniment to the learning experience. Annalisa proved to be an excellent teacher as well as good source of information about the philosophy of the restaurant. Ducasse is trying to create dishes that can be as faithful to the concept of 0 KM cooking as possible. As a result, the L’Andana property produces most of the vegetables used in the kitchen and everything except the dried pasta from Naples and salted butter from France is sourced from within 20 KM of the resort. This was especially evident the next morning when the “Nutella” appeared to be a homemade variety of the Italian classic.
At the end of the class we were called by the maître d’ and brought downstairs to our table where Maria and I enjoyed dinner, partially prepared by me, in Trattoria Toscana. How was the food I didn’t cook? To be continued . .
N.B. the class is not private and is only open to guests of the hotel. I was joined by a family of 4, parents with two young boys and although everyone was well behaved and the hotel had informed me beforehand, it is still something to consider when booking. Also, the best test of any class such as this is does it improve your skills at home? Well, I got my ingredients together and grabbed the rolling pin and made pasta at home for the first time a few days later. I still need some work but I’ve got the basic concept down and will soon be getting it right with a bit of practice.
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| From Food |
This slightly aged goat cheese comes from the area around Cascia in the Valnerina. It was a perfect slice of creamy, piquant heaven. We ate it after dinner dressed with a little olive oil and few turns of the pepper mill. Cascia is the hometown of Santa Rita and welcomes thousands of pilgrims each year to its basilica. I’m going to make the trip on Tuesday just to buy some of this “heavenly” cheese.
