Italy del Giorno

We are aware that this site is afflicted with a bad case of SBN — “severe blog neglect” and are now trying to make it all right.  Just because we haven’t been posting does not mean that we haven’t been traveling, snapping pictures and most importantly collecting experiences.  We have now begun to post again (there will be new posts dating as far back as our trip to Venezia in early February) so please have a look.  All is well in Umbria right now — hot, but not too humid with a nice breeze that blows in the evenings to cool things down.  In fact, last night we had a spectacular dinner at one of our absolute favorite hang-outs in Perugia, Da Cesarino.  We told our Palmiero, the owner and factotum, that we wanted steak and he told us that he would take care of the rest.  At the end of May, Umbria recieved a fair amount of rain on a daily basis and as a result there are excellent fresh porcini mushrooms to be had.  We were served an antipasto of thin slices of raw porcini and parmesan shavings dressed simply with a splash of lemon juice and olive oil.  Perfect.  Next came tagliatelle with porcini followed by a tender Chianina beef porterhouse doused with rosemary infused olive oil.  Cesarino, also has the finest homemade potato chips around and you can finish your meal with their own gelato.  They only make one flavor — vanilla with a splash of lemon.  We washed it all down with a bottle from the Bolgheri region of Tuscany.  Very elegant.  Sorry no pictures of this meal — we forgot the camera at home.

Finally, a charming story from last night’s “spettacolo” of people watching — one of Perugia’s well dressed businessmen was dining alone.  After he had ordered a friend showed up and then another.  His table for two was far too small for all three so they decided to abandon it and wait for a larger one.  Just as they stood, a waiter appeared from the restaurant with the original client’s plate of pasta.  With no place to sit, he told the waiter that he would wait and sent it back to the kitchen.  Two seconds later, the cook — Palmiero’s mother, comes charging out of the kitchen with the plate of pasta to see who sent it back.  After lengthy discussions and many apologies on all sides, she returned to the kitchen with food in hand.

We recently hosted a family of five in Umbria (2 adults and 3 daughters).  We spent a day at cooking class.  The girls all learned how to make gnocchi like a pro — and the adults tried their hand at pan roasted chicken.

The class takes place on an organic farm and many of the ingredients come from just outside the kitchen door.  We skipped the trip to the chicken coop since lunch was walking around in there not too long ago.  The chef told us that she doesn’t have it in her to “do the deed” so she has an elderly neighbor take care of it.  She has no idea what she’ll do when the neighbor can’t come around anymore but assured us the chicken will never come from the supermarket!