As I mentioned in my last post, I’m not particularly good at getting away on holiday, however, I can confirm that I managed to escape and truly relax for 5 whole days on a recent trip to Citta della Pieve in Italy with my Plate Lickers Supper Club co-host Ivana (Miss Igs). As you may expect when two food obsessives are let loose in such a gastronomically plentiful country, we did a LOT of eating! And here’s a (not so) little summary of our adventures in Tuscany and Umbria.
We flew into Pisa and drove via a gorgeous little hill top town called Volterra, straight into a huuuge thunder storm. The weather went completely mental on us but Ivana did a sterling effort at keeping our little car on the road and as we arrived in the town of Citta della Pieve, the sun came out to greet us…
We had arranged our accomodation through AirBnB and were staying in a beautiful little cottage on an agriturismo called Cimbolello, a short drive out of town…
We couldn’t believe our eyes…we thought we’d arrived in heaven…
After we’d unpacked and settled in we headed into Citta della Pieve to find our first meal. Francesco and Luisa had drawn us a map and highly recommended that we head for Trattoria Pizzeria Serenella. We located it easily and as we entered the full restaurant, all eyes were on us! It wasn’t a tourist haunt (definitely a good thing) but our obvious foreignness and lack of command of the Italian language made us stick out like a sore thumb! (which is why I didn’t take any photos) 🙂 We persevered and were found a seat and read the menu at lightning speed. Ivana had heard about Pici, a local hand rolled pasta that looks like fat spaghetti but is 100% better, which we had with a simple but amazingly meaty ragu and a lasagna bianco…the stuff cheese dreams are made of! Serenella is a no frills establishment with paper table cloths and abrupt but swift service, the food was delicious and 2 main courses + 2 beers came to 15 Euro!
Back at the ranch the next morning, we woke up to bright sunshine. Our hosts had gifted us with a basket of freshly laid eggs & after a successful trip to the supermarket for a few more supplies, our breakfast was well and truly sorted…
Fresh tomatoes, of the variety that taste sooooo much better than we will EVER get hold of in our own country :), smoked speck, pecorino, creamy butter and our home-layed eggs, whipped up into a delicious omelette…
with a strong espresso of course!
With our bellies full, we decided to head to Montepulciano, across this beautiful countryside…
We meandered the streets…
and stumbled on the Talosa wine cellar…
We were directed to a stairwell, which felt like it went down forever but eventually ended up in the most amazing cellar full of the biggest oak barrels I have ever seen (see Ivana for scale)…
After sampling some of their wines we found our favourite and bought a few bottles of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The very helpful guy in the shop directed us to his favourite restaurant for lunch and although we were still quite full from breakfast, I’m sooo glad we followed his advice. We found ourselves on the terrace at Osteria del Borgo with this awesome view…
Eating a selection of Cinta Senese (an ancient Tuscan breed of pig) cold cuts…
The most amazingly fresh Pappa al pomodoro (stale bread and ripe tomatoes, flavored with garlic, onions, and basil)…
and the all round winner…cheese with honey and walnuts that had been grilled in an earthenware dish giving it amazingly crispy, golden edges…
After lunch we strolled around and picked up a few more goodies including our first taste of panforte packed full of juicy fruits and nuts, homemade seeded flatbread, aged pecorino, our wine from Talosa and…2 gorgeous black truffles, bought from a little man on the street market in Citta della Pieve! We were both so chuffed with our truffle purchase and haven’t stopped planning what we’re going to do with them! So far I’ve shaved it on top of my scrambled eggs and made truffle honey…I also have plans for a classic truffle topped risotto…
That evening, we continued our eat-fest and headed for dinner at Saltapiccio in Citta della Pieve, which had a beautiful roof terrace…
The menu was pretty impressive, making it very tricky to make a decision on what to have…
The waitress was very helpful even though I did go against her recommendation of tartare.
We were brought a selection of simple crostini…
For mains, we’d decided on ‘Lo Stinco d’agnello al forno con polenta e raddichio brasato al vino e miele’ lamb shank with polenta and radicchio cooked in wine and honey…
and ‘La bresaola di chianina con ricotta affumicate’ bresaola (air-dried, salted Chianina beef) with smoked ricotta…
We headed home to drink some of our Talosa wine and plan the next day’s trip to Florence, a destination that we were both very excited about.
Now, you may think that eating a big breakfast before heading on a food tour of Florence is a bit of a silly idea but hey, we were here to eat, so eat we did. Breakfast #2 was a quesadilla…2 olive oil tortillas filled with fresh tomato, pecorino and speck with a special sprinkling of truffle salt, fried in butter (natch)…
Ivana had found us a food tour online (link here) that we used as a base to explore Florence and after a 2 hour drive on the alarmingly fast Autostrada we arrived at Sant’Ambrogio market, where believe it or not, I had my first taste of fresh figs…
Before we started our exploration of the indoor market and our Florence adventure we fulfilled an item on my ‘must do’ tick list and drank a strong, black espresso, whilst standing up at a counter in the middle of the market with the locals and traders…
The indoor market was packed full with a plethora of stalls selling meat, fish and pasta amongst other delicacies…
Next we moved on to a little street side cafe for a bit of refreshment and couldn’t resist a cannoli and pistachio eclair…
There was so much to look at everwhere we turned. I loved this ice lolly shop, although I didn’t get to sample any of the goods…
We momentarily battled with the hoards of tourists to get our holiday shot at The Ponte Vecchio…
before hastily retreating into the back alleys and our next gourmet pit stop at Venchi for a gelato. We tried the caramelised fig and mascarpone and an Aztec chocolate…they were both delicious and a great combo!…
Next stop was Cantinetta dei Verrazzano, an amazing little place…
Just check out their coffee machine!…
We were already getting full but we couldn’t walk past this slice of foccacia topped with mozzarella cheese, courgette flowers and a liberal sprinkling of salt…
We’d been saving space for a very special delicacy of Florence…Lampredotto, the fourth stomach of a cow served in a roll! When Ivana first told me about it I point blank refused to try it but by the time we located the Lampredotto street food van on the Corner Via Dante Alighieri & Via dei Cerchi and having had a few days to psych myself up, I was well and truly ready for it!
I loved the van and the father and son team who ran it…they had a lot of banter with their customers, mostly local workers on their lunch breaks…
Look away now if you’re squeamish! When we were in the food market we located Lampredotto in its uncooked state, I’m not sure I should have looked at it but I’m stubborn so there was no backing out now…
And here is what a panino lampredotto looks like once cooked…
The stomach is boiled in a vegetable broth. When you place your order, they take a piece of lampredotto from the broth and chop it up. Then dip a crusty roll in the broth before filling it with the lampredotto and topping it with salsa verde and chilli sauce. We perched ourselves on stools at the edge of the van and got stuck in! I have to say, I nearly backed out when I caught a whiff of it but I was actually very pleasantly surprised by the taste, which I would liken to hot pate. I was ok as long as long as I didn’t look at it 🙂 I’m not sure I would be in a rush to recreate it at home (Plate Lickers Supper Club guests can breathe a sigh of relief) but I was glad we got to try such a local delicacy.
At this point we were full to bursting point but on the way back to the car we stumbled on this little gem…
and had to buy a creme brulee for later 🙂
We got pretty good at locating public outdoor swimming pools during our trip and with our swimming gear always at the ready in the boot we managed to fit in a quick refreshing dip before hitting the Autostrada again!
Once home and still somehow thinking of our stomachs, we bought some fig mustard from Francesco and Luisa’s homemade stash…
and rustled up a simple but delicious dinner of pici with gorgonzola and a tomato salad…
followed by the guiltiest of pleasures…classy! 😉
We decided that the next day would be used for some much needed rest and relaxation without any huge car journeys. And in the evening we were very lucky to benefit from the pearls of Luisa’s wisdom and to work alongside her making fettuccine. It was the first time I’d ever made pasta…I’d imagined it to be a lot harder, but then we had a great teacher!
Here’s a little video we made of our fettuccine making https://vine.co/v/hmzbhebeIJX and here’s the finished product…
Then, what was my perfect lastnight of holiday ensued…Luisa cooked up the pasta we’d made and served it with her homemade basil pesto and ricotta, which was divine!…
Francesco filled our glasses with his homemade red wine and later his homemade cognac and walnut liqueur and we tucked into huge wedges of their homemade pecorino, pizza, sourdough & chutney…
We all chatted into the evening in a mismatch of languages and with the help of plenty of hand gestures until the fireflies came out and it was time for sleep. Before we all went our separate ways we made arrangements to help milk the sheep at 8am the next morning, as you do!
So at 8am on the dot we all headed over to meet the sheep. Now, I have to make an admission…I didn’t attempt the milking myself as I’m not a great animal lover and there were a few too many inquisitive sheep sharing the pen…
I was in charge of general encouragement and picture taking. But here’s proof that Ivana got stuck in…
Even though it was so hot, their small flock produced about 8 litres between them…
Luisa showed us how she makes pecorino by heating the milk and adding a vegetarian rennet type liquid made from artichokes, which separates the curds (solids) from the whey (liquids). The curds are scooped into moulds that have perforations up the sides so that the liquid escapes and the cheese compresses over time…
Here you can see the cheeses varying in age, the older ones are the darker ones at the bottom…
which is what we had sampled the night before…
I love the fact that in Francesco and Luisa’s house nothing goes to waste. The whey that was left over after making the pecorino was boiled up and became ricotta…
Oh to be so self sufficient!
The time had come for us to leave our Umbrian paradise but not before picking some figs for our journey…
and saying goodbye to our wonderful hosts…
On the way back to Pisa we stopped in at San Grimignano in the hope of sourcing some wild boar salami with pistachio’s that my father had requested. We searched high and low but to no avail, there was plenty of wild boar salami (salame di cinghiale) available but apparently pistachios are not a regional addition, so I had to back down on my mission :(. The little town was very pretty but chockablock full of tourists and overpriced cafes.
We managed to find a little cafe slightly off the beaten track for a quick espresso and slice of marzipan topped panforte…
before continuing our journey. We were both sad to be leaving and found Livorno to be a bit disappointing. It didn’t help that we arrived in the afternoon when all shops and restaurants were closed until the evening, which included ALL of the places on our to do list 😦 However, we enjoyed the last rays of sun by the coast before heading home.
What an epic blog post! Congratulations to those of you who made it to the end. I hope my enthusiasm and new found love for Italy came though in my words and pictures. I highly recommend a trip to Umbria…we only touched the tip of the iceberg in 5 days! I have a feeling I’ll make an excuse to go back as soon as possible!
A presto Italia!
x
