La Cucina

Italy is known for its beautiful scenery, amazing artwork, friendly locals, and good food. I don’t think that “good” is the correct adjective to describe the food here. When I think about it, words cannot come close to describing the taste, texture, and smell of everything I eat. The closest thing I have is pictures that accentuate the description. So here is a blog post fully devoted to some of the food I have eaten so far!

Lunch in the plazzo is at least an hour ordeal that involves three to four anti-pastas, at least one pasta, a soup, two or three vegetables, meat course, salad, and desert. When I arrive in the dinning room around 12:30 on weekdays the table is laid out and the anti-pastas are waiting to be devoured. Suddenly breakfast seems much longer than four hours ago. The anti-pastas range from caprice salad (fresh tomato, basil, and mozzarella), Parmesan cheese drizzled with thick balsamic vinegar, bean salad, phyllo dough filled with cream sauce, tomato tarts, crackers with a tuna spread, tiny sandwiches, and fresh beets with corn and chives. Then pasta comes out steaming hot, ragu meat sauce, pesto, cream sauce, tortalinis, ravioli just to name a few. While eating the pasta, some days a soup or puree is served, so far I have had pea puree, a few types of vegetable soup, and the Italian version of chicken noodle. The meat course is served next. Chicken and pork are the usual meats but have been served on kabobs, topped with apples, and seasoned to perfection. Although desert is not served everyday when it is, the only word to use is exquisite. Tiramisu, panna cotta, chocolate cake, and seasoned fruit are just a few of the sweets that finish off the meal.

The amazing part about everything I have eaten is that it is homemade. Margarita, the cook here at the plazzo, cooks everything from scratch and you can tell just by how fresh everything tastes. It is all so healthy that I have put my mind at ease just a little about gaining weight. But again when in Italy.... Enjoy the food!