Pasta Con Rapini

  We woke up to half sun, half rain this morning. Luckily, we were able to take a nice long morning walk in between the showers. Headed out early, got the job done.

  Back at The Nut, we decided we would head to Chiusi for the weekly market, despite the intermittent showers.

  I've been looking for another pair of simple black boots. Chiusi market has lots of clothing and shoe vendors...I didn't find the boots of my dreams, alas.

  What I did find was a really great zip up sweater for one euro (!), and rapini.

  We love rapini, which is sort of like a very wild broccolini, only bitter and, well, wild.

  We did more shopping, headed home and later in the day found ourselves at Bar Gallo.

 It was super quiet, with just a couple of regular locals, Aldo, and us. Nice.

  Johnny wanted to work on some drawings, and I dozed as I tried to read my book. Perfection.

  I mentioned to Aldo at one point that I had bought some rapini. Before I knew it, he and his sweet daughter-in-law, Lorena, were giving me the low down on how to make a traditional Sicilian pasta dish with it. Lorena comes from Sicily, so I was all ears.

  Here is what you do, my dear readers, for an amazingly simple and tasty dinner-

Wash your rapini well to get any grit out.

Chop off the hollow/woody ends.

Chop the rapini coarsely.

Boil in well salted water for five minutes. Five minutes was perfect
to soften all the stems, etc.

   At this point, Aldo made it very clear that I should rinse the rapini in very cold water and squeeze the heck out of it. Really squeeze it well, get that water out of it.

Squeeze it, baby!

Squeeze it good!

  I ended up with a small amount, but enough for two people. I only used half a package of penne pasta, so it worked out fine.

  If you were serving four, you would need two bunches of rapini for a whole package of pasta.

  In the meantime, I was toasting some garlic (four good cloves) in olive oil with a touch of hot pepper oil that Lorena made and Aldo gave to us, just for this recipe.

  A little goes a long way! It is hot!

I chopped the rapini into smaller pieces.

Add rapini to the warm oil to heat through.

Give it a good stir...

  In the meantime, cook your pasta. I used penne, because that's what I had in the pantry. Traditionally this dish calls for orecchiette. Also, I used the already hot water from cooking the rapini. It adds extra flavor, and was already well salted.

Have some good parmesan ready.

Add your cooked pasta to the pan with rapini.

Toss well.

Serve it up with a good dose of parmesan and really good olive oil from Umbria.

A little pepper won't hurt...

Serve in front of a warm fire with wine of your choice.
Red for him, white for me. Enjoy!

That was one of the best pasta dishes I ever made.
Thanks Aldo! Thanks, Lorena!

 

A Chilly Return, Umbria 2018

  Back home at The Nut! Seems like a lot longer than three months have gone by, but that's when we were last here...and we thought it was cold then! 

  Hehehehe...ehhhhhhhh. It be very cold here now. BUT...that's ok. We are always happy to be back, come rain, wind , crippling heat...it's all part of this wacky adventure we've gleefully chosen to embark on.

  So, a couple of firsts:

  1) Norwegian Airlines non-stop from Oakland to Rome. Loved it. No four hour layover in Frankfurt! But, our flight was about two hours late taking off , because of weather on the Rome end.

  Still, the flight was nice...admittedly, we bumped ourselves up to premium, since I have a boat load of miles saved up. Sweet. Another first, to be able to practically lay down. I actually slept most of the way.

  2) Ummm. SNOW! Yes, snow. We knew it would be here, we just didn't know how different it makes everything.

  It's cold! It's wet! It's dangerously icy on really steep steps! 

  But it sure is pretty....

  Being a couple of krazy kids from the central coast of California, we don't see a whole lotta snow in our day to day life. So forgive us for being sort of spellbound by the experience.

  (Snow...jeez, it's just so, so... snowy..!)

  For instance, this morning we had to walk down our road to the main paved road to catch a taxi to take us to pick up rental car. We were too late from the flight delay to get it yesterday.

  Anyway, our 'morning walk' was quite interesting. We took each step down the stairs as though our lives depended on it, because they did. One slip and it would be all over. Once on the dirt road, we still were faced with slippery bits of ice along the way down.

  Big Fun!

Watch it, kiddo.

Looks chilly, and it was.

I hope the olive trees are ok.

  We went to pick up the car, and it was being 'de-snowed' by this fellow.

Snow on the door handle...hehehe.
We are such neophytes.

  Driving back from getting the car, we took it nice and slow, like everybody else. Almost. How can people drive so freaking fast in the snow? Are they coo-coo?

  We drove like the old people we sort of are.

  Giggling.

  Some quick shots out of the car window...

About ten minutes after I took this,
Panicle disappeared behind low clouds.

It's pretty...

  We needed food & cash, and cappuccini, so we did head into town.

The view from the window at Bar Gallo.

  It was a ghost town...so quiet. Also, it was scary to try to walk around. The streets were really icy and we had to be super careful with every step. I wonder how the local older folks get around on these rare snowy days...

  We stopped into the bank, Bar Gallo, Linda's and Yolanda's. Good to go.

  The safest way around took us past favorite views...only snowier.

  That was it for driving anywhere. Usually on our first full day, we take a long drive all around the area, visiting our favorite spots.

  Today, we just wanted to get back to The Nut to hunker down.

Up through the front garden.

We're cold, but happy!

Lots of trees covered in ice.

It will soon be warm, I promise...
Poor Nemo & Tiger Lily, the resident kitties.
They do sleep inside at night, but roam around in the day.

All the tilled fields look like this.

  After getting some wood chopped, and having a little lunch, my seriously insane hubby decided he needed to paint these rare moments of snow before it warms up. I thought he was nuts, but the painting turned out really nice, and he enjoyed it completely.
  There will be a post soon about this painting on his blog really soon.

Capturing the winter scene.

  While Mr. J painted, I fixed a big pot of soup. This is what you do when it's cold outside. I read it somewhere...
  I also kept the fire burning, because we wanted to grill some bread for simple bruschetta, which I must say, came out stupendously well.
  Is it the bread? The olive oil? The parmesan..? It's everything...Being back, being happy, being hungry and just being here.

The char was so damn perfect on these.

Johnny went for tomatoes on his...

...I just wanted olive oil, garlic rub salt & pepper, and the best parmesan in the world.

First bites, baby.

The soup was a tasty delight, too.
Plus, there's a bunch left over. Yum.

  Now, it's about 9pm, and we have both hit the jet lag wall, so we'll let the fire die down, put on our long johns and say Buona Notte, dear readers.

Dreaming Of Meals To Come...Soon!

  In just a few days, we'll be packing our bags and heading to Umbria. As usual, Mr. J and I have been  doing our pre-Italy dieting, getting ourselves ready to chow down with gusto after we arrive.

  I'm looking forward to the simple fare I'll fix at home...

Tomatoes with beans and pecorino.
Wonderful in front of the fire.

Typical lunch on the terrace.

Yolanda's market has the best little tomatoes!

Grilled veg for a potluck with our landlord, Carlo.

We eat lots, lots, lots of tomatoes with pecorino.
Here, paired with onion and sage 'pizza' from the town bakery.

Another tasty salad on the terrace.

I'm not kidding...it never gets old!

I can whip out a pretty damn good risotto, too.

Charred shishito peppers were great with parmesan in the summer.
And a surprise to find at the Chiusi weekly market!

  As nice as it is to fix meals at home, we always look for somewhere new to try at lunch time. In July, we heard about this place that we didn't get to until November. It's another of the 'working man' lunch spots that are often only open on weekdays, and are outstanding.
  Again, except for the staff, I was the only woman in the place. That's how these rough and ready places are. See lots of cars and working vehicles parked outside? That's a good sign.
  Fine with me...I can't wait to go back.

  I knew we were in for a treat when I took a peek at a side dining room, and saw tables covered in fresh pasta set out to dry a bit before cutting.

No kidding.

It was beautiful sight to behold, my friends.

Wine and water, of course...

  

The fellow who told us about this place said we had to try the 'pici alla briciole', a speciality of the house. Hand made pasta with breadcrumbs...wow. Not for the light eater, I'll tell you that. 

  But, damn...it was good.

Yes, those breadcrumbs were toasted in lots...LOTS..of olive oil and garlic.
Fantastic.

Really good grilled veg.

Perfectly fine ceci beans, but not for this meal.
We couldn't finish them. They would be great with grilled meat.

  Don't even try to ask me where this place is. It goes in our little black book of places we want to keep hidden away. 

  There are lots of tasty treats I'm dying to get back to....

Piadini at Bar Gallo....

Suppli at Supplizio in Rome....

Fried porcini at Dardano in Cortona....

Tagliatelle with truffles...here at Da Suaro on Isola Maggiore...

More truffles with ravioli... somewhere?
I can't remember, honest.

Pappa al pomodoro...a summer treat at Masolino's.
Tomato and bread soup. Yummy.

My favorite salad of buffalo mozzarella and zucchini.
Bar Gallo.

  Lastly, because you just can't get it like this anywhere else...
  Pizza at Remo, in Rome. We will actually stay over night, at any cost, to delight in this 4.50 euro pizza.

Yep, it's that good.

  Counting the days/hours.....