Pizza Party

  Sometimes we stumble into opportunities. 

  We weren't out looking to make pizza, but ran into Anna, a great woman who has lived here for years, but was at one point from California. She owns and rents a wonderful villa nearby, and often sets up fun adventures for her clients and others.

  She mentioned that she was getting a small group together to go to another Anna's house to learn how to make pizza. Would we be interested?

  Pizza Party? Sure, why not??

  A week or so later, we find ourselves in italian Anna's garage, which has an awesome wood burning pizza oven, as well as a washing machine and other typical garage stuff. 

  After we were all introduced, I knew this would be a most enjoyable evening. It was a very fun group of people.

  Earlier in the day, because they needed to 'rise', Anna had made several pizza balls, ready to be baked...

  Even though there was a whole batch ready, we were still shown how to mix, knead and roll out a whole new batch…We enjoyed watching! 

Giullia & I ready to Roll!

A special flour for pizza, ready for it's wet component...

A combo of water, yeast & milk.

  Naturally, there is video evidence from the evening…..

  That would be CA Anna from the villa translating. Her language skills are impressive, and make me want to study even more. 

  After making our balls, they were set to rise, and we were given the already risen dough to work with. It was a blast, and everyone was having fun.

That's Italian Anna, the teacher, and Stefano.
"Fa questo primo…"  -you do this first...

I rolled real good.
Real, real good.

Ready for toppings!

  Ok, can I just take a moment to pat myself on the back?

  Though I struggle mightily, I try to use my italian language as much as I possibly can. This year, I feel I have made a huge jump forward, and in situations like this, below, it's a joy to be able to communicate. I can even joke around some, and they understand. The laughing and kidding are such a huge part of the 'getting to know each other'.

  Anyway, this is me, chatting away here, learning what can AND CAN'T…be put together on a pizza.

  Who knew there were topping rules? Well, let me just say…there are.

  Also we are talking about cooking in general, where my grandparents came from, where we are from and staying, etc, etc, etc.

  I love speaking italian!! And at the end, there is smoke coming out my ears from working my pea-brain so hard.

  But I'm really proud of myself for sticking with it.

Also, the whole vegetarian thing…yeesh. She understood.
The two thumbs up are for having capers as an add on.

My masterpiece.
Onion, mushroom, capers, zucchini, tomato & the best mozzarella ever.
This pizza…no red sauce allowed. Thems the rules!

  Then Johnny had a go at it…..

  Johnny did cheese, lots of cheese…yum.

  Next, into the wicked-hot oven they go!

Ooooohhhhh…that's my pizza!

  Because it's a zillion degrees in there, my pizza was ready in about three minutes.

  No joking.

Cue the singing pizza angels……
Aaaaaahhhhhhh!

  We all made pizzas, some of us made two, and we shared them all amongst the group.

  Wine was passed around, of course, and lots of eating, talking, laughing…

I love that they put up sheets to hide the garage stuff.
Sweet.

Damage being done…
The pizzas just kept coming.

  Though I was stuffed, I made another.

  OH! I almost forgot to mention this important part..Stefano cut all the pizzas with scissors. No pizza roller things, or knives…just good scissors. Basta.

Onion, shrooms & mozzarella.
My favorite.

  The neighbors began showing up, and it was a good thing. No way could our group eat all these pizzas being made. 

  All those balls needed to be used, so…

  We had to have dessert pizza, too.

Nutella, of course.
They put bananas on, too, sometimes.

  And last, but not least, the home made pomegranate grappa came out.

  Good lord.

This is how it's done here.

  A big thanks to Anna from CA for including us, as well as Anna from Casamaggiore for being such a fun host/teacher/pizza maker.
 And all her helpers…what a dynamite night!

Dinner At Villa Gioianna

  Funny how you meet people when you are traveling. At a dinner party on Friday evening, at our friends Katia & Massimo's house, we were introduced to several people, including Anna, from California. She bought a fantastic property here, near Panicale, about 20 years ago. She is a wealth of information, and her place is available to stay at, too. She takes guests around the area to visit local food producers as well as small wineries, and does cooking lessons and stuff like that. Really cool woman. And funny, to boot. Plus, she seems to know everyone, and has great stories to tell. We were smitten, for sure.

  Katia arranged to get us in touch with Anna, to enjoy a dinner at the villa, cooked by a "Nonna".We would be joining a few other people. The price per person was sweet, and we didn't want to miss a chance like this. We had already met Terry & Charlie, from New York, who were staying in Panicale. We offered to do the driving, and the four of us headed over to find Villa Gioianna.

  We were a little early, so we enjoyed walking around the property to kill time, each one of us trying to devise a way we could pull this lifestyle off.....

The outstanding Villa Gioianna.
Please, can I have just one? I will be very,very good....

  We were met by Anna, all smiles and kisses... inside the place was like out of a movie we have all loved. The entry hall is filled, just enough, with antiques from here and there. The main rooms for guests staying at the Villa are upstairs, but we stayed down at the ground level. Living rooms and kitchen, dining, etc.

Looking at the front door, from the entry hall.

  I'm glad we were early, as it gave us time to check out the kitchen, and the chef, Rosanna. Just back from a cooking tour with Anna in the U.S., Rosanna is a woman not to be messed with. 

I mean this in a very good way. Tiny, tiny lady, and full of energy. I just wish my language skills were better...though she was in a working mode, so I'm not certain there was room for chit-chat. But she was ok with us hanging out for a little while, watching and trying to pick up some mad skills.....

Gorgeous dining table and kitchen...The big silver container is Anna's own olive oil.

The work table, with a big old fireplace behind.
Just like at my house, in my dreamy dreams.

Helps keep the kitchen warm and cozy.

  I started nosing around, of course, and spotted the oven... full of potatoes roasting. Oh, yes.

Happy oven with a big mouth full of "patate arosto"

  I stood back, descreetly taking pictures as Rosanna did her thing. It's ok, I asked first. Just didn't want to get in the way, and end up with a hot pan somewhere it shouldn't be. She had rabbit with olives going in one pan, and a pot of olive oil getting ready for fried artichokes.
  Being the vegetarians in the group, we were still fascinated to watch it all coming along, even the rabbit.

Getting ready to make "carciofi friiti", fried artichokes. Rabbit and green olives in the big pan.

  I watched while she prepared several ingredients for a "pasta puttanesca", though Anna had let us know that here, they don't put in anchovies. I believe I did see garlic, olives, tomatoes, capers and a bunch of just picked herbs...the smells in the kitchen were getting pretty damn good. Just saying.

Rosanna doing a better job than a cuisinart.

The condiment for "Pasta Puttanesca",  just add pasta...

Adding olive oil to the finished pasta. Lots of olive oil.

  We met the other diners, Karen from Scotland, who has a home nearby, and Stan and his lovely wife, from Finland. They also have a place just outside of Panicale. We were all around the same age, and it was easy to get conversations going. We all have that thing in common, that Italy thing. Everyone has a story, the buying of the house, the going back and forth, the spending as much time as possible here...all wanting to eventually be here most of the time. It was a friendly, well read and interesting group. We were smitten, again.
  We enjoyed a little more time watching Rosanna do her job....

Carciofi ready to fry up crispy.

Rabbity rabbit simmering, and I must admit, smelling really good...

Eggplant with mozzarella, tomato, and parmesan, cooked nice and long.

  We wandered out to the main living room, and shared stories, drinking wine that Anna had poured. She knows a wonderful group of local wine and food producers, and is always looking for new cheese or wine makers, local small farms, etc. to bring her guests to, who stay at the Villa. 

  Anna had us all laughing with stories of local mayhem. Fun to see another side, and hear all about the area and it's various characters.

The living room, with a big fireplace and very comfy furniture.
I felt like I was on a movie set.

Stairs leading to the guest rooms.

  We were happy to be called to the table, now dressed in lovely soft blue and white. Rosanna was still getting it all ready to go, and we could watch her as she put finishing touches on everything.

Simple beauty.

  We started with the fried artichokes, followed by yummy pasta puttanesca, then the rabbit came out and the roasted potatoes. For us, the eggplant parmesan-but not like any I have ever had. I ate it all up, without a picture. So good, such an intense concentration of flavor, because it was cooked long and slow. It wasn't all thick and gooey, but thin with almost a crust from the slightly charred cheese and tomato sauce. It was sooooo good. 

  Then we had a very refreshing fennel salad, dressed with orange juice and olive oil. Nice and clean.

We had a creamy custardy dessert, which I really liked. 

Carciofi Fritti. Crunchy, salty and hot. Creamy and nutty on the inside. Yum.

Pasta Puttanesca. We all had seconds.....

Rosanna was upset that the potatoes were overcooked, but everyone at the table loved them.
We all said the same thing: "I could eat that entire platter".

Rabbit with olives. They all liked it.

  We sat and talked, learning more about each other and the area in general. I heard plans being made to visit a guy that makes awesome Vin Santo..." just over there!" Anna is a great woman, doing an amazing thing here, and I hope to see her again. Sometime I would like to fix a dinner for her, and especially for the hard working Rosanna, but that might be asking too much.

The clean kitchen, ready for the next dinner party.........