Home Now

Blackbird at the Villa:


I am home now, but I will catch you up on those last few weeks where I was too busy to post.

The Villa:


Road to the Villa:


After my last post we went to an enoteca and did some wine and olive oil tasting, which was a fun experience. Afterwards as we were going over the little river in Greve we saw a Water Vole swimming through the water and eating grass. On the way back from Greve we stopped at a little winery, that was also a saffron farm which was very cool.

Water Vole:


Saffron Flower:




Monday for dinner we made a mixed grill of these delicious italian sausages, chicken and pork with a Pearl Barley, pea and lettuce broth (naked chef recipe), which is much yummier then it sounds.

On Tuesday, Julie and Declan arrived, it was so wonderful to see Julie again and to finally meet Declan. We went on a tour of the castello de Verrazzano's wine making/cellar and had a wonderful tasting afterwards and it was very fun. Prior to all this occurring Matt went to the markets in Florence and he bought fresh quails, a fresh white truffle and a variety of other goods. That night for dinner we had delicious fresh quails grilled over coals with roasted fresh beetroot and potato and asparagus. Followed by this we had some poached peaches with a splash on vin santo. With Julie and Declan there, it was quite the celebration, and some of us stayed up drinking and talking until quite late......

Still I got up out of bed Wednesday looking forward to our planned trip to Sienna, and eventually Declan was dragged out of bed by Julie and off we set. Sienna was a lovely little town, and I would love to be there for their famous horse race and see the whole town come to life with excitement. That night Matthew made a beautiful truffle and porcini mushroom cream sauce with a spinach and ricotta ravioli. It was so divine. The smell of that fresh truffle was amazing.

Truffle:



The next day Matt, mum, dad and I set of for Florence. Me to shop, them to see stuff. So we sort of did a mixture of the two. I saw the statue of David (the real one, not the replicate), and to think how long ago it was done, and out of a single piece of marble, it truly is amazing. I also looked in lots of shops..

Neptune's Fountain, Florence:


Florence:


Friday was Matthew's mother's birthday, and we had a late lunch. We made a mixed antipasto of fresh bread; grilled bread; proscuitto; cooked italian sausages; tomato with basil and olive oil and balsalmic vinegar; cheeses. Matthew made a pork ragu with papardelle pasta for second course. For third course we made a beef stroganof with roasted potatoes and roasted beets and green beans. For dessert we made a caramel panna cotta (Stephanie Alexander) - which I think was the real hit.

The next day we packed and went to Rome. In Rome Matt and I basically walked everywhere, roaming the shops, stumbling on fountains and famous landmarks. We went to the Zoo and had a fun time there. We did a tour of the collosseum and some other old places. We did a tour of the vatican, saw the Sistene Chapel, Caught sight of the Pope as he blessed people in the square, walked to the top of St Peter's Basilica, got a great view of the city and the Pope's Gardens.

Zoo:


Zoo Starfish:


Zoo Rhea:


Zoo Peacock:


Zoo Octopus


Trevi Fountain:


Doctors and Nurses:


Colloseum:


Grim Reaper:


At the vatican, we climbed the dome of St Peter's, after we saw the Pope blessing people in the square.

Inside St Peter's:


Mosaic in the dome:


Pope:


View of the Pope's Gardens from the top of the dome:



View of St Peter's Square from the dome:



Cranium is wrong, the sun doesn't have to be at your back to see a rainbow, here is my proof (you may need to enlarge it to see the rainbow, but it's there!:

Tuscany Continues

I'm glad people are jealous, but happily, this is sure to be a trip I repeat, so you can all come next time - how fun would that be? The Villa has five very large bedrooms which each have beds for two people (some singles some doubles). Three bathrooms, four toilets, a large kitchen (gas stove)/eating area with fireplace, big foyer, another living space with lounges, tv and another dining table, an outdoor area with another large table, a bbq, an out of ground pool, a view over vineyards, it's own olive grove (currently with people in it picking olives) and today I walked back from the local town which is not too far at all.

The second night we cooked we did your classical minestrone (as per Stephanie Alexander), this was good because as I said it was with home made stock.

After our long journey to Pisa, we came home to find Wendy had made some lovely spaghetti bolognese.

After a shorter day of journeying the next day we did some proper cooking
Entree was Pappa al Pomodoro - a soup from the Stephanie Alexander book. This was simple and delicious - a tomato, bread and basil soup. Here is a photo of the book taken with the computer's inbuilt webcam:


Main course was Slow Roasted Loin of Pork with Fennel, Rosemary and Garlic, also from Stephanie Alexander (all the stephanie Alexander ones are from her Tuscan Cookbook):


Next was Stone Fruit in sweet wine. They had particulary recommended Vin Santo, which is expensive in Australia, and easy to get here. You basically take any stone fruit, pour some sugar on it, pour some sweet wine on it, and let it sit there for an hour or so until the fruit is macerated. The fruit should not be swimming in the wine, it should soak in.

The night after we made our regular herb and mushroom risotto as we didn't have as much time to prepare. Entree was just some fresh asparagus grilled with some olive oil and topped with pepper and parmesan - we popped it in the middle of the table and people could just pick it up like finger food so you could just have as much as you wanted.

All the food has been good so far, today after a humongous lunch there are no plans to eat dinner. There will perhaps be some cheese and bread. This brings me to updating you on the two journeys I haven't mentioned so far. The day we went to Pitigliano, the via cava guiseppe and the abbey Sant Antimo. And today - the day we ate *lunch*.

It was an early start to the day to get to Pitigliano, as it is a fair way South of us. And it was worth it. I had no idea how amazing the town of Pitigliano itself was, as I was going there simply to find out how to get to the etruscan pathways.

Pitigliano is built on the edge of a cliff above a ravine. I can barely explain it, and the photos don't do it justice.





Pitigliano was really a stepping stone to my goal. The Via Cava, or the etruscan walkways. Before Christ, an ancient civilisation lived in the area and built pathways through the forest. By built I mean they carved out pathways. So the Via Cavas are essentially caves with no roof beneath a forest, so you walk through with big stone walls either side, and a forest above you. A nice open air, Italy experience. The city seen in these photos is Pitigliano as seen from one of the openings of the via cavas. The via cavas cross the country side between a few of the local cities as they are the old pathways. Fantastic, a must do, even if it's 2-3 hours from where you're staying...







It was a rush to get from there to the Abbey of Sant Antimo, in time to hear the monks do Gregorian Chant. This abbey was originally built in about 800, and after some destruction rebuilt perhaps 1200. It still has monks there, and we heard them at the 245pm session. The acoustics in the church was brilliant, the surrounds simple and lovely. The olive trees appeared as old as the church.





On the way home from the abbey we stopped for "lunch" at about 4pm at Montalcino. Here is the view from the window of the cafe.



That was the end of that day.

Onto telling you about "lunch". In the book he talks a lot about lunch with Gina, an italian old lady where you get what's being served and you eat from 1-4pm and just chill out looking at the fantastic view. After much googling, I found the restaurant. La Bottega, Volpaia. Despite their lack of English, and my lack of Italian, I managed, over the phone, to book us a table for lunch on Saturday. The papa makes the cured meats, the mamma makes the pastas, and the daughter Carla Barucci is the chef. I have never been so full in my life. There were 7 of us and we were determined to have the full experience. So we ordered first, second and third course - almost one of everything - with a few exceptions - shared all the meals between us - and then some dessert and coffee. (there was naturally chianti classico from the volpaia region with lunch). We did not manage to eat everything, but I at least had a bite of everything. We were there from 12-3, and pretty much rolled home (me with the window open feeling car sick from the rich far too much food and the windy hills). We got to taste some yummy, authentic italian food.
Looking out from the restaurant

View of the restaurant

Update on Tuscany

Here in Tuscany, I am having a fantastic time. There are two distinct parts to our trip here. One is the "tourist" part, one is the cooking part. I am using my mum's computer, because I can't seem to do the iphone blogging with photos, so the photos are just from my digital camera, which is sort of working.

For the touring part, I came totally unprepared. But there is a book I read called "too much tuscan sun" which is by a local tour guide. So when I had jetlag (in other words from 3am-6am one morning) I started researching some of the places he mentioned in the book to see if I could find them. Thus began my "list". Some of the things I have done are from the book, some are just must sees I couldn't resist, and some just happened along the journey.
From the book:
Brolio Castle - belonging to one of the oldest families of the region - has been in their family for thousands of years
Vertine: classic unspoilt village
Lunch at La Bottega, Volpaia - for classical old style italian cooking
etruscan tombs (couldn't find the local ones, became obsessed with the etruscan pathways near Pitigliano instead and that all comes later)
abbey of sant'antimo at castelnuovo dell'abate - to hear the monks do gregorian chant
Wineries


I came armed with cookbooks, photocopies of recipes and distinct ideas in my head. Some of these have come to be, some of them have not. Unfortunately the wood fired oven in the villa is caved in, and does not work. However there is still a fire place and the kitchen is nice and big and with a gas stove top. Venison has also been particularly hard to find (esp with the language barrier - but even now that we know the word for it, not that easy to find). However we have still had some enjoyable meals.

The first night that we cooked, I started with some "crostini di fegatini" (warm chicken liver croutons). Being not entirely content with either recipes available to me, I did a combination of them both, which worked quite well. I never used to be a pate or liver person, refusing to touch it, until I had a degustation menu themed around duck liver at Siggy's, and I was converted. So below is a cross between how Stephanie Alexander does them and how Elizabeth David does them.
________________
ingredients:
chicken liver - cleaned and chopped - 200g -300g
proscuitto - a couple of slices
butter - kind of a chunk
flour a couple of table spoons
limoncello (was supposed to be lemon juice which I didn't have)
a few tablespoons of stock
sage leaves 8
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of tiny capers
2 tablespoons of parsley
a breadstick sliced

dredge the flour through the liver, cut the proscuitto fry it in butter add the liver, cook gently, add everything else except perhaps the parley, put the lid on and let them cook for ten minutes. Then add the parsley (but honestly I kind of made it up as I went along and I can't remember what order I added things in)
in the meanwhile fry or bake the slices of breadstick with a bit of olive oil
put the liver mixture on the top and serve warm
_______________

For second course we did a game ragu with pappardelle (naked chef recipe) This was a lovely pasta dish with rabbit and beef (because I couldn't get venison which was supposed to be with it rather then beef). For the sake of brevity, recipe not included. But it was delicious. Matthew had made some home made stock almost immediately on us arriving at the villa, and the trick to any good recipe is good quality stock. All the other dishes that required stock were also made with this home made stock. After we made it we realised we didn't have anything to put it in, luckily however we had drunk enough wine to wash up some empty wine bottles (6) and put the stock in these.

All meals obviously served with much chianti classico, the wine of the region.

For now I will leave the food talk at that. A picture tells a thousand words so let me show you what we've been doing.

Castello di Brolio, the view:

More Brolio:


Where I want to live - VERTINE (a tiny tiny village with a beautiful view, all old buildings, quiet, out of the way, still inhabited):




I was determined to see the sea, and on the way to Pisa took a detour to Livorno, it was well worth the storm we went through to get there.



Pisa was lovely, and I expect my photos of the tower are much like everyone else's, but boy does it lean, you can really feel it when climbing up. My photo is from the church there. Plus a safety warning from the tower.



We are staying in a villa near a town 20 odd km from Florence, the town is called San Casciano. Matt and I went to town quite early in the morning, and this dog came up to us wanting to be patted. Naturally I am overly paranoid about rabies (because it doesn't exist in Australia) and am refusing to pat any animals. The dog unperturbed, ran up to the door of the church, and stopped dead with it's feet on the entrance way, obviously well aware it wasn't to go in, but it put it's head inside and cried. I figure it's owner may have been inside.