Food glorious food…part two

Whilst travelling around Europe last year I took thousands of photos, some of these focused on the delightful array of food available from markets and the meals we consumed. Many of the photos are merely happy snaps, badly lit and slightly blurred photographs of the food we ate and often I was so absorbed in the eating of a tasty dish that I completely forgot to take a photo. Anyway, the first part of our journey and the food we ate is covered in Food glorious food…part one and I had meant to continue the story but never got around to it…until now.

The food in Italy can be bad, good or fantastic, we were lucky in that we chose good to fantastic food for the majority of the time and the two bad meals we ate were due to laziness and convenience, not bad for four weeks of eating in Italy. Italians don’t really do breakfast, at least not the way we do so we settled for the in-house breakfasts most of the time, although not great, we enjoyed trying Cruesli (Muesli with choc chips) and the array of home baked cakes and tarts at the B&B Villa degli Ulivi were scrumptious. Occasionally cold cuts of meat and boiled eggs were also available in addition to the pastries, jam and bread rolls, the coffee was usually very ordinary so we took to visiting the local bars for an espresso.

Wherever possible we tried local wines and local specialties, guided by the waiters in the restaurants and in Rome we asked the ‘host’ of the Cantina Cantarini to help us choose our meals, selecting fresh, seasonal produce and simple flavours so good that we returned the following night. In Florence we ate picnics outside the Boboli Gardens, pasta in the San Lorenzo Markets and spent an evening with our travellers at a inTavola cooking class, the class was so much fun and at the end of the evening we sat down to enjoy the fruits of our labour accompanied by a couple of glasses of wine.

Wherever we went I managed to track down a gelateria (even in Germany), I was on a mission to try as many flavours as possible and am proud to say that I tried 25 different flavours, some of them twice (pistachio, zabaglione and pannacotta) and some of which I don’t remember. I have to admit that there are just some flavours that I’ve never been really fond of such as melon or licorice so I stayed clear of them and there are possibly hundreds more flavours I could have tried however there was still a budget to stick to and having gelato for every meal was not the objective. Some of the more unusual (for me) flavours were: Coconut, Riesling, Fior di Latte (Milk), Torrone and Cherries and cream.

Here is just a taste of what we enjoyed in Italy, starting with local specialties in Vernazza to wild boar in Umbria, panettone in Siena and seafood in Sorrento, it really was a food tour of Italy and the extra kilos in weight that I gained were well and truly worth it 🙂

Buon appetito!

Pesto al trofie, Vernazza

Fried seafood, Vernazza

Sicilian Cannoli, Il Pirata Vernazza

Learning to cook in Florence

The first course ready to go in the oven, layers of eggplant, mashed potato with zucchini and pancetta, and fontina cheese.

The first course, made by us in Florence

Steak, Florence

Fried Zucchini, Florence

Sweets on display, Florence

Wild boar ragu and pappardelle pasta, Siena

Spaghetti with clams, Siena

Roast pork sandwich and Panettone picnic, Siena

Fresh fruit for sale, Siena

Tortelloni, Siena

Coffee to end the meal, Siena

Sausage pizza in Volterra

Salami and pecorino sandwiches in Pienza

A glass of wine to celebrate the day, Orvieto

Breakfast in Orvieto

A little food with our wine, Orvieto

Wild boar stew, Orvieto

Roast pork medallions, Orvieto

Cooking over an open flame, Civita di Bagnoreggio

Grilled vegetables at a cantina, Civita di Bagnoreggio

Pastries for sale, Assisi

Pasta and assorted food products for sale in Sorrento

Mixed seafood and pasta, Sorrento

Prawns and pasta, Sorrento

Fresh lemons, Sorrento

Eating gelato in Rome

Mmmmm…gelato, Rome

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