La Cucina

Yesterday was another day spending time in the kitchen. We started the day with a bread making class for 5 young girls (5-8) from Abu Dabi. They were fluent in English, Arabic and French and three also spoke Italian. I started the morning by mixing, kneading and proofing 21 kilos of bread - if you have never made bread before, that is a lot of muscle work. We lit the pizza oven to make the bread, served breakfast for the guests and by 10am were ready for our students. The girls were absolutely delightful and very creative in their bread making - many cute pictures to come when I have the ability to post. With bread made, it was time to make lunch - simple pasta pomodoro along with various vegetables from the previous night.

We had 15 guests for dinner, plus us - making it a nice sized meal for 24. I finally got a chance to get creative and made a beautiful chilled minted, cantaloupe soup - what a beautiful site served in champagne flutes with a melon ball and mint sprig floating on the top. It was an absolutely perfect start to the meal. We grilled eggplant for a simple dish topped with olive oil, garlic and lemon juice; a tomato salad with feta cheese; simple sauteed peppers, roasted potatoes, black chickpeas with rosemary, I made a zucchini risotto and chicken roasted in the pizza oven. Of course the meal had to end with a cheese plate, espresso a simple semolina cake and grappa.

Meals are a beautiful occasion here - there is no hurry to finish, much laughter and happiness to be had and every meal feels as though a celebration. This is the reason I am here!