Category Archives: RSFP

Mona’s Birthday Weekend Part I – Ninfa

Mona’s birthday weekend, which coincides with Easter, began with a wonderful picnic trip to Ninfa Gardens.  We had delicious chicken sammies, pasta, desserts, cheeses, salamis, and all the other makings of a grand picnic feast.  The other Italian visitors were very impressed if not a bit appalled at our preparedness (and giant lexan use).

The garden itself is incredibly beautiful and is home to ancient ruins that are overgrown with beautiful flowering vines and trees.  To visit the orange grove we had to purchase an extra ticket for 2 euro.  It is definitely worth it.  My favorite room in the world is in the back of the grove.  It’s hard to describe, you’ll just have to go and see it for yourself.

On the way back we stopped in Monti for some drinks on a very nice terrazzo.  Perfect way to end the day!

 

Bologna and AMERIGO

Recently I was fortunate enough to go to Bologna and eat at Amerigo with the RSFP.  It was a great weekend and we had one of the best meals I’ve ever had in Italy.

The weekend began in Bologna, where we quickly parked and walked through the old center of town.  We first found Cafe Terzi where I had one of the most interesting cups of coffee I’ve ever had: Papua New Guinea Espresso.  Also the most expensive: 3 euro!

Next, we made our way over to Tamburini and had the biggest meat and cheese platter I’ve ever seen, and a bottle of wine.  The meat platter included mortadella, head cheese, prosciutto, three kinds of salami, bresola, pancetta, grana, some kind of goat cheese……  it was overwhelming and perfect.

We walked off our lunch and explored a bit.  We walked through a huge antique fair and into a few old churches.  Almost every main street in Bologna is lined with amazing, beautiful porticoes.  I’ve never seen anything like it… and I do like it a lot.

We picked up the rest of the gang and headed to Amerigo, where we were also booked to stay the night.  The meal was amazing.  I split all my dishes with Miles so as to have the opportunity to sample as many different dishes as possible.  It turned out to be a great idea because he chose way better dishes than I chose.  Here we go:

Our Antipasti included duck and incredible sweet breads.  They tasted almost rendered, fried slowly.  They were heavenly.

For our Primi we ordered Risotto con Fave e Tartufo and Tagliatelle al Ragu.  Again, both were pretty darn tasty.  We also tried the Caramelle, which should have been both of our choices.

For Secondi we had the Venicen and Beef Cheeks.  We also tried some of the Egg, two ways with tartuffo which was a wild dish and tasted pretty ridiculous.  Definitely never had anything like it before.

Next we had a little palette cleanser: wine granita.  Also, wow.

And then finally, dessert: Crema Gelato, Gelato con Balsamico, Pistachio Semifredo, and pear with some other stuff which, by the time I got to was deliriously full and content.

We finished with Fernet, Nocino, and China.  All house made, all very low in sugar, all perfect.

The next morning we wandered through the antique fair in the city where Amerigo is located, Monteveglio.  We also had some delicious chestnut flour cookies.

We returned to Bologna for lunch and ate a great college style beer bar called Trattoria del Orso.  Loud, fun, picnic tables…. beer on tap.

 

We finished off our trip with some gelato on a stick, dipped in chocolate and pistachios.  Mine was just plain mango.  Yummy.

Giovedi GNOCCHI

In Rome, Giovedi e gnocchi.  It’s not a joke.  We decided to see what all the fuss was about…. except we’re broke and haven’t had a good gnocchi outside the AAR gates yet — so we just busted it out.  This is gnocchi a la Miles Grande.

First we roasted about 12 of Giovanni Bernabei’s floury (dry and flaky — so you can use less flour) potatoes in a static 180°C oven for about 35 minutes until they were cooked through.  Stick a knife in, if it goes in easily they’re ready.  We roasted the potatoes on little beds of rock salt so they aren’t touching the metal pan directly.  No pics for this, imagine it.

While the taters are roasting get your eggs and flour ready.  We used two whole eggs and 00 flour.  Use what you’ve got.  Finer flour has more gluten and just affects the length of the gluten.  Using other types of flour can affect the texture of the gnocchi.  Semolina is a nice choice as well, according to Miles.

When the potatoes are done, peel them immediately into a ricer and rice them onto a tray.  Rice means pass them through a thing that looks kind of like a garlic crusher but bigger and with larger holes.

When you’ve got them all riced, grab some egg and sprinkle it over the potatoes.  For 12 potatoes we used about one and half eggs.  We did not beat them first, just grabbed the yolks and whatever white came along for the ride.

Next, add flour little by little.  The goal is to add as little as possible.  As soon as it starts feeling like a dough, STOP adding.  Knead it a little until you can press your finger into the dough ball and see a little rebound.  That’s the gluten from the flour working its magic.

Cut off small chunks of dough and roll them out into half-inch rolls.  Grab the roll on the eft and cut off 3/4 to 1 inch pieces.  Throw them onto a flour-sprinkled tray.

Miles made a great sauce with some leftover pork chunks, carrot, onion, celery, parsley and chicken stock.  He kept adding stock and reducing until it was a bit thick and super concentrated.  And delicious.

Cook the little gnocci until they float in salted water.  They should be toothy but shouldn’t taste like uncooked flour.