Monday, January 11, 2010

JUST WHEN I THOUGHT THE FEASTING WAS OVER...

Just when I thought the feasting was over my friends Marco and Giovanna invited me to join them and their family of "little gentlemen" for pizza at a rather special restaurant in Frigintini [a village near Modica which is famous for its olive oil]. So off we all went on Saturday night to Il Valentino, which is in a converted masseria [farmhouse]:

Original features have been carefully preserved outside







and used to clever effect inside:









Now to the food. I had this pizza with fried pumpkin, sausage and ricotta



while Marco's sons each enjoyed a capricciosa



and Marco had a pizza with prawns and tomatoes:



For dessert there was semifreddo of almonds, which was to die for



or of ricotta, which the boys had:



At one point Marco looked around and remarked that, at 9pm, the room was full of families with their children and his own eight-year-old was enjoying a half-glass of beer, whereas in Britain the children would probably be in the care of a babysitter. He was right, of course, and I much prefer the Italian way of eating out.

I must also share with you a funny tale that Marco told me of an old, Sicilian countryside New Year's Eve tradition: he said that, at midnight, people celebrated by throwing all the old objects they didn't want out of the windows and if you happened to be in the street and got hit by one, well, that was your fault for being there!

Both food and service were excellent so we all had a lovely evening in a very pleasant atmosphere.

13 comments:

Betty said...

I love pumpkin, but have never had it on pizza! In fact, it's never even occured to me to have it on pizza. Everything looked delicious.

Whispering Walls said...

Was that your first pizza of the decade?

arlene k said...

Che bello! I love the way it's so natural for Italians to eat 'en famille' and treat children (almost) like little adults!

sally in norfolk said...

wow it all looks wonderful :-)

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

What a fab night out...I love the restaurant, love the little cut outs in the walls for the wine bottles.

I love it when children go out, but one thing is behaviour... the italian children and other european children get taken out from a young age and behave.

yes here they are either at home with a babysitter or running riot in the restaurant or screaming....!!

Lucia said...

Yummy! That sounds like the ideal evening! Families and all!

Rosaria Williams said...

Hi. I came in from Carmen's blog RNSANE. Great to meet you.

CherryPie said...

Oh Wow! the semifreddo of almonds looks absolutely delicious. The evening sounds wonderful.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, Betty. It wouldn't have occurred to me, either, but it worked. Hi, WW. Now that I come to think of it, yes! Hi, amethyst. Yes, I think it's so much better for everyone. Hi, Sally. Yes, it was. Hi, Anne. I totally agree. Ciao, Lucia. Yes, it was great. Hi, lakeviewer and welcome. Nice to meet you, too. Hi, Cherie. It was out of this world!

Weekend Yachtsman said...

My goodness those pizzas look gorgeous!

As for throwing stuff out of the window at New Year, it is a celebrated scene in the wonderful film "Cinema Paradiso", so although I've never been to Sicily (yet!) I knew all about this.

Happy New Year to you, Welshcakes.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hello, WY. Thanks for that - I forgot all about that scene. Happy New Year to you.

Liz Hinds said...

How delicious that all sounds and looks!

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

It was, Liz.

Counters


View My Stats