Gubbio

On yet another day trip from Preci, we headed two hours away to Gubbio, a fantastic medieval town that is actually the best preserved one in Italy.  We arrived just in time for lunch and to find out that there was a festival going on.  We eventually found a place to park and headed into the town center.  After walking for a bit, we headed for the nearest restaurant.  That happened to be Taverna del Lupo.

The wine was fantastic.  I opted for the four cheese ravioli as my starter.  It was good.  It wasn't the best, but it was good and filling.  For my main, I had the beef with balsamic vinegar.  It was good as well.  This time the beef was served warm.  It was a little chewy, but otherwise good.

I think what made it a nice meal was the atmosphere.  We were able to sit outside in the shade.  There were large groups of friends and family that were out having lunch and enjoying the festival.  They were laughing, talking, singing and just in general enjoying life.    

The festival is called the Corso dei Ceri.  Three different groups get together and, for all intents and purposes, run around the town with statues of Saints.  It starts at 6 am and ends with a huge feast in the early evening.  Thankfully we missed the 6 am start up and were going to miss the large feast at the end.  However, every group has their different colors and everyone in town was wearing one of the three variations- yellow and red, blue and red and black and red.  Everyone wears white pants or skirts with it.  I could have blended in had I known.  I was wearing a blue dress and my legs are white enough to look like white pants.  All I needed was a red bandanna.  

After lunch, we took the cable car up to the top of the hill and had a fantastic view and then made our way back down.  We walked through the city, ate some gelato and decided it was time to head.  We made this decision since it seemed that they were gearing back up to start the festival again after taking a break for lunch.

All in all, I really enjoyed the day in Gubbio.  The sun was out and people were out just enjoying life.  I like that about a town.

  

Spoleto- Ristorante Apollinare

On a day trip from Preci, we headed out to Spoleto.  Spoleto was a 45 minute drive and worth it.  It's a beautiful town.  We decided to eat at Ristorante Apollinare which is right across the street from the archaeology museum in town.  At the restaurant, we started with a bottle of wine and a salad with fresh strawberries and a fondue.  The fondue was really a piece of cheese that was wrapped in phyllo dough and fried.

The salad was fantastic- hazelnuts, an apple vinaigrette and fresh fruit- strawberries and peaches.  So fresh and tasty.  The wine of course was local and very good.  The cheese was very tasty (of course), but I forgot the get a picture of it.  For our main courses, I got pork with wine poached pears and Lynn had lamb.

The pork had crispy little bits from the fat.  It was moist and so good.  The pear and it's sauce were a great pairing with the pork.  Lynn's lamb was very good as well, although I never tried it (I was informed that it was very good).

It was a good restaurant, but it was expensive.  There weren't that many people there (we were one of two tables).  Our waiter reminded me of Gary Oldman.  I wish I had gotten a picture of him.    

  

What I've Been Drinking Wednesday

So, I know that I may have been remiss in posting about the wines that we have been drinking here.  The following photos were not taken in one night and instead show several nights worth.  All the wines have been local wines and very tasty.

In case you can't tell...this is the aftermath.

Preci- Hotel Agli Scacchi

Our closest restaurant in Preci was the Agli Scacchi located at the Hotel Agli Scacchi.  It's a nice little place with space outside and inside as well.  However, if the weather is nice, most people are going to sit outside.  We have eaten there three times, which is the most we have eaten at one place since being in Italy.  Maybe it's out of convenience or maybe it's because it's home cooking at it's simplest.

The first meal we ate there was lunch on a beautiful Sunday.  The outdoor seating has views of the surrounding hills and the hotel, which is from the 1500s.  The hotel was the villa for the famous surgeons of Preci.  The surgeons were well known for their removal of cataracts and gall stones.  They traveled all over the world and worked on Queen Elizabeth I, among others.

Anyway, they have a large selection of dishes that have truffles.  Like I have stated before, there are truffles everywhere in Umbria.  You can't go somewhere without having options with truffles.  They also have an interesting fish here, salmon trout.  Salmon trout is pink in color (like salmon), but does taste like trout.  Lynn really enjoys the salmon trout.  When Bill and Jan were in town, after a day of sightseeing, we headed there for dinner.  We had an extra dinning companion that evening as we sat out on the terrace.

He is only four months old.  And as you can see, adorable.  But I digress, back to the food and wine.

We started off with a bottle of rose wine.

For starters, I got the orichette with a four cheese sauce and truffles.  So very tasty.  The truffles didn't overpower the dish.  They did add a nice earthy flavor to it.  Jan got the artichoke lasagna.  It had a good flavor, but it wasn't as good as the asparagus lasagna that I had earlier in Orvieto.  They served local Preci cheese to top off the pasta dish as needed.  The cheese, while strong in scent, adds a great flavor to the pasta.

For the main courses, Bill and Lynn got the salmon trout (of course).  I think Lynn was going to get something different, but then at the last minute changed her mind and stuck with her usual.  Jan opted for the veal with a truffle sauce since Lynn and Bill got the last of the salmon trout.  I decided for the vegetarian platter.  Sometimes, you just have to eat your veggies.

All of the food was very well prepared and very tasty.  Well seasoned and the setting is what adds to it.  The owner/operator knew us by the end of our stay and I think that says something.  

  

Antonelli Vineyards

Thursday dawned and off we set for the Antonelli Vineyards.  The vineyards are located in Montefalco and provide a beautiful look down into the valleys surrounding it.

We were guided around on our tour by Wendy, who was very knowledgeable and friendly, not only about the winery, but the surrounding area.  After seeing where they age the wine and bottle it, we were treated to a lunch with wine tastings.  First up was the Grechetto, which was paired with antipasto.  The Grechetto is made from 100% Grechetto grapes.  It is aged in stainless steel vats and then aged in bottles for 3 months.  It is meant to be drunk as soon as possible.  This isn't a wine you age in your cellar for years.  It has a good fruit smell to it and pairs well with starters, fish and grain dishes.

We ate it with some salami, prosciutto, local cheese, roasted eggplant, toast with olive oil, onion omlette and a local pizza that was made with bread and prosciutto.  Next up was the Montefalco Rosso.  It was paired with a pasta dish made with local spelt flour.  Something interesting that I learned about spelt is that it is not a hybrid grain.  It is the same now as it was 500 years ago.  Because of this, some think that it doesn't cause allergies like some grains can now.  Anyway, back to the wine.  The Montefalco Rosso is made of 65% Sangiovese grapes, 15% Sagrantino grapes, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot.  It is aged first for 9 months in oak casks, cement casks for 3 months and finally in the bottle for 6 months.  Each different part is aged in the oak casks individually before being blended in the cement casks.  The final product again has a fruit nose and is not overpowering.  Our wine was paired with a local pasta mixed with zucchini and cheese.

The pasta has a nice, nutty texture that pairs very well with the wine.  The cheese was somewhat strong, but not overpowering and also worked well with the wine and pasta.  Next up was the Sagrantino di Montefalco, which is made from 100% Sagrantino grapes.  It is aged for 6 months in French oak barrels, then a further 9 months in a different type of Oak cask.  It is then aged for three months in the cement vats and bottle aged for 12 months.  This wine is suitable for further aging.  It is a rich wine that is very complex.  It is a wine that needs to be drunk with food.  It's not one that you sit down to after a hard day at work and some triscuts.  It needs meat paired with it.  If you take a sip of it before you eat a piece of meat, then after, you can really taste the difference.  Up last was the Sagrantino di Montefalco Passito, a dessert wine.  It was paired with wine cookies and a wine cake.  Both were fantastic when paired with the wine.  The Passito is also made with 100% Sagrantino grapes.  It is aged in Oak casks for 15 months, then cement casks for 3 months and then bottle aged for 12 months.  It is a very delicate wine.

After our fantastic tasting, we headed over to Bevagna.  It is a medieval town where they still hold a festival every year where everyone comes out in medieval dress.  There is still a gentleman there that makes paper the old fashioned way.  The very old fashioned way.  It was neat to see how they made it and the time that it took.  You take for granted that all you have to do now is head on down to the store and get a pack of paper.  Then, it took several days to make just half that amount.  We headed back to Preci for dinner since we were all somewhat tired.

Siena/Orvieto

While Jan and Bill were here, we decided on a little overnight trip to Siena.  We all climbed into the the car and set off.  We got checked into our hotel and decided that we wanted to grab some lunch.  We ended up eating in the square there where they run the Palio every year.  Needless to say, it was a tourist trap and overpriced for what it was.  For example, we have been paying around 10-15 Euros for a bottle of wine.  The cheapest on their menu?  30 Euros.  Rip off.  Jan and I split spaghetti carbonara.  I do remember that it was good.  It wasn't great.  I even forget what I had as my main course.  That's how unmemorable it was.  Jan and I then decided to climb the tower.  It seemed like a great idea at the time.  It wasn't a great idea halfway up.

Jan and I, naturally, assumed that we burned off enough calories for a bottle of wine.  That being said, the view from the top was incredible.

After climbing down, we met up with Bill and Lynn and headed off to see the sights of Siena.  One of my favorites was this:

Only kidding.  I didn't get gelato from here.  In fact, I really haven't eat all that much of it.  I know there are some out there that won't want to hear that.  But it's the truth.  My real favorite was the Duomo there.

After sight-seeing, we made our way back to the piazza to have drinks and a light dinner.  It truly was a nice day in Siena.  The next morning, we were up and on our way to Orvieto.  After sight-seeing in Orvieto, we made our way to lunch.  The place we choose was actually not on our list of places, but seeing as every place we tried was closed or couldn't be found, we ended up here.  I am sure glad that we did.

For my starter, I opted for the asparagus lasagna.

It was fantastic!  The pasta was tender, the asparagus was done perfectly and the amount of cheese on it was fantastic.  It was well seasoned and so darn good.  I wish that I had opted to get it as my main course too.  Jan ordered some raviolo stuffed with walnuts and cheese.

I tried a bit of hers, and while I liked it, it could in no way compare to the lasagna.  For my main course, I got chicken in a cream sauce with more asparagus.  It wasn't as good, but then nothing could compare to the lasagna.  It was that good.  With the meal, we ordered a bottle of local wine.  Hey, there were four of us.

We thought that after lunch we would take a quick trip to the winery.  We called ahead and found out that we could get a tour and a tasting, so off we set.  Well, we never did find it.  The directions were poor to begin with and the address we had took us nowhere.  Thankfully, we did find another vineyard, Cantina Altarocca.  There, we tried their 6 wines that they produced.  They made three whites and three reds.  It was nice to sit outside and see the countryside and watch a storm roll in.

After our wine tasting, we headed back to Preci for a light dinner and relaxation.

Cooking class in Norcia

On Monday, we set off for Norcia, where Jan, Bill and I were taking a cooking class.  Our teacher for the day was Flavio.  Flavio is the executive chef at Palazzo Senica, the hotel/restaurant where we took our class.  On the menu for the day: oil poached local trout, gnocchi, tagliatelle and a poached egg appetizer.  The class consisted of myself, Jan, Bill and a lovely couple from Canada.  Flavio had to go back and forth between English and French, and thankfully, he did both very well.

We started out with the trout.  Please be aware that I am going to alternate between Celsius and Fahrenheit since I missed some of the differences in temperature.  The same goes for weights of things for the pasta/gnocchi.  Heat olive oil up to 55 C and add chives, lemon thyme, sage, marjoram and oregano.  All fresh if you please.  Keep the oil at 55 C for an hour with everything in it.  Then remove from the heat.  If you are in somewhat of a hurry, you can then add your fish that you have cut into bite sized pieces.  If you are not in a hurry, let the oil sit overnight to get all the flavors that you can out of the herbs.  Once you are ready to poach the fish, let the oil come back to 55 C and add the fish slowly.  Make sure the fish is on the thin side (in terms of thickness).  Our fish was max 1/4 inch thick.  We also added fresh crayfish tails, still in their shell, to the oil.  Those poached for 8 minutes.  It was served with a balsamic reduction, trout eggs, salt flake and green ground pepper.

Always make sure that you garnish with something edible, and that matches the flavors in the dish.  You can also keep and reuse the oil, but only to poach the same fish.  Make sure you strain it before you store it.  You can always try other flavor combinations- duck with some orange flavored olive oil, smoked salt oil, chocolate flavored oil.  The end result is tender fish that looks raw, but isn't.  It is so tender and so full of flavor.  It worked really well with the salt flakes and the green pepper. There was also the bite from the balsamic.

Next up was an egg appetizer that may have changed the way I look at poached/soft boiled eggs.  The eggs seem poached, but they really are soft boiled.  Cook your eggs in water that is 55 C for one hour.  Make sure they are still in their shells!  You can do this a day or two ahead of time.  Once you are ready to eat them, line an oval shaped silicon mold with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.  Then sprinkle on some breadcrumbs that are flavored with fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil (achieved by mixing in a food processor).  Then carefully crack the eggs (one per mold).  Then top with more breadcrumbs and a bit more extra virgin olive oil.  Bake at 400 F for 5 minutes (or longer if you don't like runny yolks).  While that is baking, grate some fresh Parmesan into little square silicon molds and microwave for 1 minute (no more!!).  This gives you little Parmesan crisps for garnish.  Also, if you are really lucky, you have made some ricotta spuma (blend up until smooth some ricotta salata, olive oil and salt to taste, then transfer into an aerator can- voila!).  Put a squirt of spuma on/in the serving dish, top with the egg that you have carefully removed from the mold and top with the crisp and some basil as garnish.  Drizzle with olive oil if so desired.

I have to admit that before, I had an aversion to eating soft boiled eggs and poached eggs.  Maybe it was because I always got them when they were lukewarm and so the texture was off.  But these eggs...it was so rich, but then lightened by the time that you got a spoonful of the spuma.  You could taste the fresh basil in the breadcrumbs, which added a nice little crunch, along with with crisp.  Just writing about them makes me want them and my mouth water.

Finally, we finished off the day, with what else, pasta and gnocchi!!  Two of my favorite foods, especially when I want carbs.  And there is cheese involved.  Or butter.  Or both.  Preferably both.  To make the pasta that they make here, I can assure you that you need special ingredients.  They are: flour, eggs, salt and olive oil.  Flavio told us that in the north, they use egg yolks only, so you need 2.2 kilos of flour, 35 egg yolks, salt and oil to taste.  In the south/central, they use 2.2 kilos of flour to 10 eggs, salt and oil to taste.    I know this makes a lot, but you can go ahead and make it all or half or whatever.  Then, after it has been cut into the desired shapes, frozen and then cooked from frozen.  We only made a small portion per person, so it was one egg and 100 grams of flour, salt and oil.

Make a well in the center of your flour and add the egg, salt and oil.  Using a fork (or your fingers) break the yolk and slowly start to move around the flour well, incorporating a bit of the the flour at a time.  After the flour has been incorporated, kneed until the dough is firm and smooth.  No flour bits here!  Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.  After ten minutes, roll out using either your hands and a rolling pin, or a pasta machine.  Start at one of the thicker settings and slowly work through the machine until you can read a newspaper through it.  Let rest for a bit while you work out the rest of the dough in a similar manner.  Once done, you can roll it and cut into various shapes for various purposes.  If you do decided to roll it out, do it on a wooden table.  That way, it gets some of the roughness from the wood and holds the sauce better.

For gnocchi, bake potatoes at 400 F for an hour on a bed of rock salt.  This will help absorb the moisture in the potatoes.  Let cool so that you can handle them and then peel them.  You will need 2.2 kilos of mashed potatoes plus 300 grams of flour.  Work softly until it comes together.  Make sure that you use high starch potatoes for this.  You can season with salt and nutmeg if you so desire.  Mix well, divide into sections, then roll out into little logs.  Then, cut the gnocchi into pieces about 1/4 inch wide.  Using a fork and your thumb, place the gnocchi on the fork and roll off gently with your thumb so that you get an indentation.  

Our finished gnocchi.  For the sauce for the pasta, take tomato puree, olive oil, basil and salt.  Heat over low heat until just heated through.  Do not stir!  I know it goes against every instinct.  Put the spoon down!!  Just swirl around in the pot.  Be careful that it doesn't boil.  My eye knows what hot tomato sauce feels like.  Cook the pasta for 2 minutes in boiling, salted water.  Toss with the tomato sauce, top with some homemade ragu that you have had simmering for three hours and top with Parmesan cheese.  For the gnocchi, just melt butter.  Don't let it foam, or really heat up and start to pop.  Add some fresh sage.  Don't fry the sage!  Remember, the butter shouldn't be to hot.  Cook the gnocchi in boiling, salted water until they float.  Then, toss in the sauce.  Serve.  You can always add cheese if you feel like it.

What's that?  You don't have a fresh made ragu that has been simmering for hours on the stove?  What is wrong with you?!?  Ok, fine.  Sweet some minced carrot, celery and onion (one of each, please) in some olive oil.  Then, using some top quality beef with fat in it (80/20), add the ground beef, then some peeled and rough chopped tomatoes (seeds removed of course).  You can add garlic, but keep it whole so that you can remove it.  The same goes for the sage and rosemary that you can toss in as well.  It really comes down to the quality of the ingredients in something like this, so keep that in mind.  Finish off the meal with a great glass of local white wine.