We Lunch Again: Osteria del Gallo nel Pozzo

   Undoubtably, we will always find ourselves enjoying lunch or dinner, or both at Simone and Lorena Gallo's lovely Osteria Il Gallo nel Pozzo, located in the main piazza in Panicale.

  We have enjoyed several meals here over the years, and it's always a pleasure to be in the capable hands of this wonderful couple.

  This week, we opted for lunch. We had been told there was a new chef on staff, along with Lorena, so we needed to check it out. 

  As always, Simone, who is the son of Aldo and Daniele, from Bar Gallo, across the piazza, took care of the front of the house. He is a perfect host, and is always ready to answer questions about the day's menu, or the extensive wine list. 

    Having asked for a simple half carafe (mezzo litre) of the house grechetto, our favorite white wine of the region, and a bottle of water, we settled in to have a look at the menu.

  Simone brought us our beverages, along with a small plate of house made breadsticks, sage biscuits and mayonnaise. Wow…we dove right in!

The breadsticks are so good!
The sage biscuits are tasty, and very crunchy. 

The beautiful color of the home made mayo was incredible.
Tasty, too.

  We arrived rather hungry, having had a long morning walk and just a bit of fruit for breakfast, so this was a nice way to start our meal. 

  We had each ordered the wild asparagus with eggs for our antipasti. It took just long enough for us to get a chance to enjoy the biscuits, etc.

  Normally, we would not order the same dish, but it sounded so good to both of us, and the wild asparagus is only available for a short time, so….

  We were both very happy we ordered this. It was pretty, with the vibrant green and perfectly cooked asparagus…again, the eggs with orange, orange, orange yolks. I never get over this color!

  In comparison with American tastes, or trends, perhaps, these eggs would be too well done. For us, they were the way we like them. I'm just not into a really runny yolk. I like it soft, but set, and this is how they were served.

What we didn't know, and were told afterwards by Lorena, was that she and Simone had foraged for the asparagus
the day before, just down the hill. Nice!

  As you can see, we liked this dish very much.

This is what the tasteless, saltless regional bread is for.
Wiping up the sauces...

  For our "primi", or pasta course, I chose a dish that I can never resist on any Umbrian menu. 

  That is, any pasta served with a ceci (chickpea) and rosemary cream sauce. The sauce here wasn't too creamy, which meant it was a nice, light version. The tastes of the ceci and rosemary just came through so well. It was served with house made, and of course very fresh, tagliatelli cooked "al dente".

  Oh, heavenly plate of goodness.

I'm pretty certain that I have yet to meet the pasta dish
I don't love, here in Umbria. I'll let you know, if I do.

  There were a couple of other vegetarian friendly pastas on the menu, as well as a special, but Johnny was into trying the red onion soup. These red onions (cipolla di Cannara) are a specialty from the area around nearby Cannara. They are often served "wood fire" roasted in their skins, but here they really shined in this soup.

  The onions were sliced and just short of melting. The soup was thick, from the broth-soaked bread slices at the bottom of the bowl. There was a layer of toasted pecorino, I think, on the top. Much like a French onion soup, but the bread is on the bottom. 

  My Mom makes something sort of like this, with layers of onion and cabbage, cheese, old bread and broth…baked until all bubbly and succulent.

  These sweet red onions are just made for a soup like this. The broth was amazing.

  If I had a complaint, it would be about the vessel it was served in…it was hard to get the last melty, baked on bits of cheesy, oniony bread. 

  Somehow we did it. If we were at home, we would have stuck our fingers in there, real good. Flavor sensation. We talked about going back just to enjoy this soup again. 

Rich and oozy.

  We could totally have stopped there, and probably should have, but we were really hungry when we ordered. Good thing Simone stopped us from ordering two of this last dish, below. We shared one, which was a good call on Simone's part.

  Roasted artichoke served in a creamy parmesan sauce. 

  Another rather rich dish, but shared between us, it was a good last plate.

We'd dug in before I took this shot.
It was all toasted on top...

I was happy that the artichoke had been roasted, as it added a nice depth of flavor
that worked off the richness of the sauce.

  Sitting back, finishing the last sips of wine, we were very happy, indeed. We had seen some pals in the piazza at Bar Gallo, so decided against dessert. We wanted to go chat for a bit. 

  In retrospect, there was no way I could have eaten any "dolci" after this perfect lunch, anyway…

  But, I must admit, when we were brought these tiny bits of delightfulness, below, I was pretty stoked.

  Palate cleansing slices of strawberry in a blood orange gelatin. Wow. Super light, not too sweet, and just tart enough to do the job. This is a fantastic combination, and in the diminutive jars, a very nice end of meal presentation.

  

  

  

  I only wish I had gotten the name of the new chef…he came out to chat briefly a couple of times, so I certainly had the chance. Ah, well…next time. Because there will be a next time-

  Grazie a tutti!

  Bravissimi, Amici!

  If you have not yet tried Osteria del Gallo nel Pozzo, or it's been a while, I recommend you stop by soon.
 

A Shock At Chiesa San Niccolo

  This may be an odd thing to write about here, but it was just such a sad scene…

  We had come to Cortona for art supplies, as well as a visit to the charming Church of San Niccolo.   We both wanted to see the dual sided Signorelli painting inside the little church, and just enjoy the loveliness of this special place on a nice day.

  Having hiked up, up, up, to get there, we came across a disastrous scene...

Wow…this was serious.

  We were aware there had been major winds that tore through Central Italy a few weeks ago, but hadn't actually seen any of the damage.

  We saw some here.

  There were several very old, very large Italian Cypress trees down…some just snapped off.

  It was pretty disturbing to see…a real disaster.

  We made certain it was safe, and climbed under the massive trunks to see the sign on the fence. It just gave the normal hours of operation, though…nothing about the destructive scene all around us.

We scooted under these huge trunks...

  There were even more trees down inside the fence, though we couldn't go in. I took some shots through the fence posts. These are such old trees…

The church, from what we could see, was undamaged, thankfully.

More damage from the upper terraced garden.

Looking back to the street from the front gate.
So sad!

  We decided to walk up above, just to see if there was any damage to the church we could see from there.
No, it seems, but we really don't know what all happened here...

Trees just snapped in half.
Can you imagine? We heard there were 80 mile an hour winds…
No thanks.

Just amazing.

  I hope all goes well, and the church can repair the damages and replant the trees, but it will be years, I'm afraid.

  Just goes to show us all…the weather is going through some major changes. And it's not all sunshine and rainbows in Bella Italia...

A Little Cooking…At Home

  We've been busy setting the apartment up "just so", the way we like it…which includes getting the refrigerator stocked with all the things we love to eat here.

  I am very passionate about cooking, though I'll be the first to admit that my repertoire is lacking, to say the least. I do a few things well, and am inclined to fall back on these few things.

  What can I say? These are good things! Things I love to eat, as well as prepare.

  I hope to branch out this trip (like every year) and try some new dishes, but for the first week here, I'm relying on old standards.

  Like frittata. Simple, easy, soul-satisfying.

  This particular evening, it was zucchini and onion, with some wonderful eggs gathered just down the hill, and good parmesan cheese.

Onions and garlic cooking in olive oil,
what's better?

Add zucchini….

…sauté until just starting to brown a bit.

  I loved being gifted some of our friend Katia's Grandma's eggs. Nonna still tends her chickens every day, at the ripe young age of 96. Good Italian stock, she is.

  You know the drill. Scramble the eggs up, and pour over the veggies. I don't add milk or cream, too rich for me…but I will add some salt and pepper, and even some parmesan at this point.

Cook on the stove top until edges just start to brown.

Some top notch parmesan to sprinkle on top...

Into the oven she will now go.
I just put the broiler on, and keep a very close eye on it.

  In the meantime, and while still keeping an eye on the oven action, I make a quick tomato and fresh sheep milk ricotta salad. 

  We were treated to this amazing ricotta by our pals at Fontemanna, the best little cheese/yogurt shop ever. 

  Thanks, Gesuita and Antonio! Ci vediamo a presto!!

Unbelievably tasty.

Beautiful tomatoes from Sicily...

Drizzle with olive oil, a dash of balsamic,
and a little salt & pepper.

Serve tomatoes with ricotta…
Dig in!

  Ok, frittata is smelling too good, so we get dinner on the table...

Enough for dinner and lunch tomorrow, too.

Dinner is served, fireside, of course.

  On another night, because I needed to use those eggs up, I made this frittata. It's with left over pasta with kale and cannellini beans. I love, love…LOVE using left over pasta in my frittata.

Just add some cheese, and toss in the oven.

  Since we were having a couple of rainy days, I wanted to make a hearty soup. So I headed to the shop that sells veggies to see what Yolanda had that day.

  Also, I wanted to try out this little mini-food processor I bought for the apartment. I like the option of "whizzing" things up sometimes, to put on crostini, or add to soups.

  I picked up the trifecta of onion, carrot and celery…along with garlic, to start my soup. With my little chopper good to go, I was able to chop it all up fine for a wonderful "soffritto", the base of all great soups.

  I added some thinly sliced leeks, and a small bit of fresh herbs. Once this all sort of melted together, I added water, with a splash of white wine in it. Enough to loosen things up.

  While this pot of goodness was doing it's thing, I had cut up half a head of cauliflower into small bits. I tossed these in olive oil with salt & pepper, and some small cloves of garlic.

  This was spread out onto a parchment paper covered pan and put into the oven to roast until nicely caramelized.

This is good as is, and I had to slap Mr. J's hand several times,
to keep him from chowing it all down.

  I then pureed the cauliflower in small batches, added to the soffritto, a little more water to thin it out some….

Just needs more water, or broth…which I didn't have,
but also didn't really need.

Presto! A perfectly divine zuppa.
I love my new little choppy thing!

Three Morning Walks

  My regular readers know that Johnny and I go out together on (very) early morning walks. We walk several mornings a week here in Umbria, and at home in California. It's how we keep our girlish figures, while eating (and dare I say drinking…) like a couple of teenage boys. 

  I must say, though, it's getting harder, as we grow older, to "get it up"to just get up, especially really early on cold mornings. But we do, and when we are finally out there, it's pretty sweet. 

  We get most of our serious talking done on these walks. Early in the walk. Then we can be goofy for the remainder of the day. It totally works for me. You'll have to ask Johnny what he thinks about these walks yourself. I'm too scared.

  Five days in, we are now trying to get into a semi-routine of walking. The jet-lag is pretty well over, so we no longer have that excuse. 

  And like I keep saying, we enjoy it, we enjoy it, we enjoy it….I'm trying to convince my bad old self! I'm half kidding. The landscape we walk in here and back in California, is beyond lovely, and it does start the day off with a bang.

  It's still winter-chilly here, but the first couple of days have been sunny and clear. We chose to take the walk to Missiano on day one, as the sun comes up and hits that side of the hill first.

A good start, I'd say!

Art installation/bench along the way.

We will walk to that little town way off around several turns….
It's a beautiful walk.

It was a nice clear day, with sun all day long.
We Californians always bring a few days of sun with us, it seems.

It becomes so easy when the views are like this.

  This is a good long walk, up and back to this little village. Johnny likes to paint here. He's painted the little chapel with the turquoise blue door several times. 

  This year, we noticed someone added a new hand made bench. It's sitting next to the regular bus stop bench. 

  Changes, always with the changes….sigh.

I'm trying out the new bench.
Yeah, it works.

I love seeing the early morning shadows
from the olive trees across the small valley.

Johnny stopped to sketch…
plus I like this suped-up red "ape"(ahh-pay).

More sketching, different spot.
Me? I'm sitting in the sun, making a new friend.

My newest pal.
I think he was just wicked cold. I was...

And I will name you
"Theodore"….
(but I will call you Mr. Wimpy)

  After bidding the wimpy one "arrivederci", we hoofed it back to Panicale, job well done.

  Time for breakfast.

As always, cue the Angels singing…..

  Next day, we tried what we now refer to as the "Big Walk". It takes a good chunk of time, so we know that we need to start early, and not have much planned for the morning. 

  I'm glad we did it, too. It's really helped kick the jet lag out the door. These walks just make it easier to sleep all night too.

I am so ready for the Big Walk!
Let's go, already!!

I like to take a photo here every year, because
it blows my little pea-brain to see all these trees bare,
and then full of leaves.

Another beautiful, chilly day.
Just strolling past a big old tower...

See? Frost on the ground, even.

  Ok. Here's the thing. I have walked past this gorgeous sink now for five years in a row. Why, oh why does it not come home with me? I will love it, use it in the garden, give it a charming name…."Sinky- Sink", let's say.

  I see myself serving drinks out of the ice it will hold, during our garden parties that never happen. I will fill it with succulents, perhaps…or I make a very small, but nonetheless amazing pond, complete with little goldfish and mini waterlilies, out of it. 

  It will be the one thing I have always needed to make me truly happy….

  It just taunts the living hell out of me. Damn you, Sinky-Sink! 

  I hate you.

  No, I love you.

Oh, what will it take.

  Back to walking.

  After passing through the nearby village, Paciano, we head down and all the way around to come up the opposite side of the hills. It's really a good walk.

  I just enjoy watching the fields change, and these views are to die for. To me, anyway.

It's farming country.

  With lunch on our minds, we keep on trucking' up the way, because we still have a good hike ahead of us...

Almost, but not quite back to Panicale…
And lunch.

  We skipped walking a day, because we walked all over just visiting a town nearby. It was as good as a nice morning walk. 

  Today, though we thought it might rain, we went for it. 

  BTW, it is now raining, and we have been in all day, since our walk. I made a big pot of soup. Johnny read art magazines he brought. We will head down to Bar Gallo for a glass of wine before dinner, but we will need umbrellas.

  We were lucky to get this walk in, just in time.

  This walk is up to the old cemetery/church on the hill. It's on a dirt path through the forests, but also goes by some gorgeous stone farmhouses along the way.

  Not too long, not too short, some good climbs. And great views.

They must have trimmed out or removed lots of trees.
We could never see the church so clearly before.
It' s up there, with an Italian Cypress next to it. See the path we'll be on?

We are amazed at how much has been cleared away.
We will ask someone how often this happens.
It's cool to be able to see it, though.

Just perfect for walking.
Sans snakes and wild boar, thank you.

  I have written about the old church here, on this blog, before. It's a favorite walk for many folks who stay or live in Panicale. Sometimes we just go up and back, sometimes we make it a part of a longer walk. It's a place Johnny paints from, too, as the view from the top is incredible.

  This morning, we went past the church, and back down the other side, then back. A very fine walk, indeed.

  Along the way down, I spotted these fragrant and darkly beautiful... wild irises, I think?

Irises? Orchids? 

  On closer look, they really remind me of Japanese iris, or even Dutch iris, so I'm going with wild iris. They certainly had a nice perfume.

Aren't they fantastic?

Another stellar view…but the rain clouds are coming in fast.

A favorite house and garden, along the way.
I like the blue rosemary blooms with the orange/yellow farmhouse.
I'll take it.

  We will walk and walk and walk. Watch as the seasons change, see people along the way, maybe even a wild boar, like last year.
  I have to always remember my little camera.
  I hope I never get tired of this.

The path back home.