Here are the food pictures from Sunday's lunch. My goodness, it's difficult to take photos of whole dishes of food when Italians are involved, as they pounce on them as soon as they appear at the table! - There is no sedate waiting for everyone to be served, as in Britain:
1 - 3: Antipasti of ricotta, sun-dried tomatoes, olives , local hard cheese, salciccia, toasted local bread with cheese; scacce [focacce] and pasticcio; a dish of tripe for those who wanted it - I just can't!
4. Soup of mixed pulses. [I so want a serving dish like this!]
5. I've made chilli oil in Britain but had never put this many chillis in it! I'm going to try doing it this way. A dollop of this in your pulse soup is guaranteed to more than warm the cockles of your heart!
6. Primo [first course]: Fresh, homemade ravioli and cavatieddi pasta filled with ricotta and served with a sweet tomato sauce, a local speciality.
7 - 8: Main course: Involtini of pancetta and aubergine, filled with breadcrumbs, cheese and herbs; bollito of mixed meats.
9. Little chocolate puddings for dessert.
Later the limoncello and amaro came out, followed by coffee and we were there until 6 pm! What better way to greet a change of season?
1 - 3: Antipasti of ricotta, sun-dried tomatoes, olives , local hard cheese, salciccia, toasted local bread with cheese; scacce [focacce] and pasticcio; a dish of tripe for those who wanted it - I just can't!
4. Soup of mixed pulses. [I so want a serving dish like this!]
5. I've made chilli oil in Britain but had never put this many chillis in it! I'm going to try doing it this way. A dollop of this in your pulse soup is guaranteed to more than warm the cockles of your heart!
6. Primo [first course]: Fresh, homemade ravioli and cavatieddi pasta filled with ricotta and served with a sweet tomato sauce, a local speciality.
7 - 8: Main course: Involtini of pancetta and aubergine, filled with breadcrumbs, cheese and herbs; bollito of mixed meats.
9. Little chocolate puddings for dessert.
Later the limoncello and amaro came out, followed by coffee and we were there until 6 pm! What better way to greet a change of season?
N3 in particular for me - yummy scrummy. Now I'm going to have to go off and make some pyelmyeni.
ReplyDeleteHi, James. Do tell us about pyelmyeni. Are they a kind of pasta?
ReplyDeleteThe primo looks nice.
ReplyDeleteI'm begining to think I should spend more time on meals.
yummy except for tripe. No thank you.
ReplyDeleteCiao, Crushed. Well, I find cooking satisfying. It nearly always lifts my mood. Ciao, Liz. I'm with you there!
ReplyDeleteWell I'd be very happy to celebrate the arrival of winter with that lunch and in that place!
ReplyDeleteSo if lunch ended at 6pm when was dinner. Midnight? Actually I did go to dinner in Sicily at 11pm once.
No tripe for me either. Sometimes it just time to retire a tradition.
My mum used to cook tripe and we all left the house. She loved it. We hated it. It was the combination of the look, the taste, the smell and texture. A ghastly event, usually once a year. Yuck.
ReplyDeleteI'm filled up just looking at this. And what is pulse soup?
ReplyDeleteHow delicious, all those wonderful flavours, textures and colours. Involtini made like this totally new to me - they sound excellent, oh yum, yum and it's only 9.30 and hours till lunch let alone dinner!
ReplyDeleteDelicious! My friend Claudia made pumpkin soup last night with parmesan which was jolly good. Happy Halloween!
ReplyDeleteWhat time should I come round?!
ReplyDeleteHi, jmb. Yes, I think I had dinner at midnight - but I often do. 11 pm is not unusual here. Hi, CC. My Dad used to eat the stuff but I couldn't stand the colour, smell or thought of it. Hi, Sharon. A soup containing chickpeas, lentils, dried beans. A soup of ceci on their own is more common. Ciao, Sally. There is a similar recipe in Delia's "Winter Collection". they were good. Hi, WW. I love pumpkin soup! Ciao, Steven. Any time you like!
ReplyDeleteI think I would love those aubergines. I've just had Covent Garden mushroom soup as my winter warming lunch. I wouldn't fancy tripe either.
ReplyDeleteNo tripe for me Thank You...I just don;t know how anyone can eat it.
ReplyDeleteAll the other food, looks delicious...just my type of food!!!
Glad Sharon asked about pulse soup, I read that and said to myself, "Huh?"
ReplyDeleteAnd I never knew what aubergines were until I read your blog ! In fact, I have one I need to cook today, I usually saute it with onion and red bell pepper, yum.
Ciao, Ellee. Those Covent Garden soups are good, aren't they? Hi, anne. The thought of tripe makes me shudder! Ciao, Pink. That sounds a lovely way of cooking aubergine. Auguri.
ReplyDeletethe chilli oil looks lush ~ what's the procedure for making chilli oil with fresh chillies? All the recipes I can find use dried ones ~ do you blanch fresh ones first, or heat the oil to smoking stage, or what?
ReplyDeleteHi, HH. If you are using fresh chillis, you can deseed them first if you wish. If you do, wear gloves to cut them or you will get "chilli burn" - most unpleasant. You can see from the pic that in this case the chillis have been halved but not seeded. Now, some recipes tell you to heat the oil very gently. I don't think it's necessary. Just put the oil and chillis in a jar and leave them on a windowsill that gets the sun for a few weeks, shaking every day. [Or you could put them near a radiator.] Then you can strain the oil if you wish, and just put one or two chillis in for decoration, or leave them all in like this, in which case the oil will blow your head off! - That's what I'm going to do. [You can also add garlic to chilli oil.]
ReplyDeleteSuperb ~ thanks for that. I now have a use for the glut of chillies I have when my plants 'fruit', as it were. Although that assumes the b*stard slugs don't get them again this year.
ReplyDeleteGarlic as well, eh? Sounds like a plan....
Hi, HH. Have fun making it!
ReplyDeleteYum pics, Welscakes, I'm looking forward to getting back to Italy this Sunday and trying some out!
ReplyDeleteThanks, TT. As it's nearly the weekend, welcome back!
ReplyDelete