Taverna La Staffa

We have Dan’s lovely Aunt Alba staying with us (after whom we named the house).  We only see her once a year; what better excuse to eat at one of the very best local restaurants: Taverna La Staffa.  There is always a warm welcome and the food never, ever disappoints.

La Staffa has a wide menu which includes traditional dishes, local specialities and pizzas, but this was a special occasion so we chose the fish menu. 

Deep breath, because here we go…

Antipasto freddo di mare:
(salmone, molluschi, insalata di mare, carpaccio di spigola)

 

Primo piatto:
(maltagliati con vongole, zucchine, ceci e burro)

 

 

Cozze:

 

 

Fritto misto di mare dell’Adriatico:
(gamberoni, moscardini, seppie, polipo, calamari e pescetti)

 

Lumache di mare:

(I separated this fellow from his friends.)

  

Arrosto misto di pesce dell’Adriatico:
(pesce spada, sogliola, gamberoni, triglie)

Those little breaded balls on the left of the picture are the Olive Ascolane.  We also had the house wine from the owner’s vineyards and the ‘insalata mista fina, quattro colori’.

This dish was exceptional: giant prawns whose tails had been shelled and dipped into sesame seeds.

 

You might be wondering about dessert.  We were all too full!  Just a coffee and digestive on the front porch. 

We had eaten so well that we asked for a doggy bag.  So that’s lunch sorted too, because it’ll go with the Panzanella I made in the afternoon.  (It’s always better the day after.  All the juices from the tomatoes are soaked up by the bread and the flavours are more intense.)

 

Notes:

Distance from Casalba: 2 kms. 

Closed: Tuesdays.

Price: Slightly above the local average, but worth every single penny.

Fish Menu: I’d certainly have this again, but would order less.   Every single dish was delicious, but the true stars were the antipasti and the prawns dipped in sesame seeds.

XXX Festival Internazionale Del Folklore, Staffolo

Last night we went to the 30th International Folklore Festival in Staffolo.

Staffolo is a charming medieval hilltop town only about 5kms from us.

This event is organised by the folklore group Colle del Verdicchio .

It is held every year on the first Sunday of August (plus the preceding Friday and Saturday evenings).   

As you can see from the leaflet, there were dancers from all over the world and those we saw were really spectacular.  

 

 

My favourites, however, were the youngsters from Staffolo itself who were all decked out in their costumes and taking their responsibility very seriously.  

Just look at that little chap go!

 

Time for a rest, but not for him.

There was also something to eat, of course.  This was the menu:

• Gnocchi all’anatra
• Tortellini alla boscaiola
• Salsicce alla brace
• Coniglio in porchetta
• Bistecche
• Maialino in porchetta
• Verdure Gratinate
• Patate Fritte
• Trippa
• Cresciole

I had Coniglio in Porchetta which is a speciality of Le Marche.   It was delicious.

I’ve got a few recipes for Porchetta with rabbit, pork, chicken and even fish.  They seem fairly straightforward.  When I try one of them, I’ll post the results here.

We ate at long tressle tables under the old lime trees which line the boulevards/vialle, passed every now and then by a dancer strolling by in national costume. 

 

It was a lovely evening.  I’d go again.

The Fig Tree

We have an old fig tree in the garden.  I’m not sure how old, but compared with the one we planted two years ago, he must be more of a great great grandad than a cousin.

I’ve never done anything particularly special with the fruit.  Just picked them straight off the tree and eaten them.  (Well that’s special enough, isn’t it?)  This year I roasted some in the oven.  They were good; they weren’t great.

I turned to one of my favourite cookery books: Honey From A Weed, by Patience Gray (1986, The Lyons Press).  If you haven’t come across it yet, do have a look because it’s a jewel. 

Gray states that this is one of the trees that survived the ice age.  (I don’t think ours is that old.)  The others listed are: carob, myrtle, vine, oleander, plane, olive, lentisk and Judas tree.  She goes on to say:

The milky juice the fig exudes was used as rennet to curdle milk in cheese-making.  This explains the ever repeated advice not to drink wine after eating figs. 

Has anyone ever given you that piece of advice before?  It’s a first for me.

 

Then, a click on one of my new favourite sites gave a recipe for grilling figs wrapped in prosciutto with a few drops of Balsamic vinegar.  

I love it when that happens: great timing, great recipe. 

I’ve never tried these before.  They were delicious and very easy. 

 

This recipe is from The Feast Within.  Thank you for the inspiration.

 

I also made some Marmellata di Fichi: 

• 2   1/2 lbs fresh figs (halved, but not peeled)
• 1   1/2 lbs sugar
• 1 lemon
• 2 bay leaves

1. Add the sugar to the figs, cover and stand overnight in a cool place.
2. Add bay leaves and the zest and juice of the lemon.
3. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove bay leaves before bottling.

Notes: Leaving the figs in the sugar overnight draws the juice from the figs so there is no need to add water.  I used ordinary granulated sugar without pectin and just kept it on the heat until it came to setting point. 

 

So it is jam today and it went really well with a very mature Asiago.

 

Great great grandad tree gave us a great, great crop this year, so I also decided to look a little further afield.  I found this post by Napa Farmhouse 1885.  The author gives some simple yet delicious ideas on what to do with your crop, or if you find a good bargain at the market.

Frasassi Caves

When the temperature starts to rise, a visit to the spectacular caves at Frasassi is a refreshing and beautiful alternative to crowded beaches; the temperature is a constant 14 degrees C. of cool bliss.

They are an amazing natural wonder which were only discovered in 1975.  (I find that particularly striking because we were still learning about our own planet when we’d already sent men to the moon.)

It’s not that these are some small insignificant caves.  Not a bit of it.  They stretch over 30km and the cathedral of Milan can fit comfortably into the largest chamber.

The entrance price is rather high: 15 euros for adults!  In their defense, all visits are guided and the tours last over an hour.  They also give reductions for pensioners, students and children.  (Free entry for peeps under 6.)

If you can make it, take a cardigan and wear some comfy shoes.  If you can’t, you could take this ‘virtual tour’.

 

The surrounding cliffs indicate that something geologically unusual is going on:

 

This is even reflected in the local houses.

June Vineyards

You might have wondered, how on earth can you get disorientated in a vineyard?  Well, they now look like this:

Moreover, they aren’t all planted in straight up and down lines; every now and then you come across a section which is layed out at a different angle.   

Question: Have I been down here before? 

Answer: Not sure, one line of vines looks very much like another.

BBB

We had a BBQ in the Summer Kitchen and I chose yellow fruit for both the antipasti and the dessert to support the click campaign I was made aware of over at Finding La Dolce Vita.

For the antipasti I made lemons with brie and lemon leaves with mozzarella.

Limoni Bri:

• 2 lemons cut in half (for 4 people)
• Brie cheese (I used the Italian Camoscio d’Oro.)
• 4 lemon leaves (you can use bay leaves as an alternative)  

1. Cut the lemons in half and scoop out the flesh.
2. Cut off the bases so that they can stand upright.
3. Place a lemon leaf inside to prevent the melted cheese escaping from the base.
4. Put the brie inside the lemon.  (Don’t over-fill.) 
5. Place on BBQ and cook until the cheese has melted.  

The inspiration for this recipe came from The Passionate Cook who used mozzarella.

 

The picture on the left is of the lemons ready for filling with brie/Camoscio d’Oro, or mozzarella, of course.

 

 

 

 

 Mozzarella grigliata tra foglie di limone:

• Mozzarella
• Lemon leaves

1. Slice the mozzarella. 
2. Put it between two lemon leaves to make a sandwich.
3. Secure with a pre-soaked tooth pick.
4. Place on griddle pan and cook over barbecue. 

  

Note: I filled three of the lemon halves with Camoscio d’Oro and one with mozzarella - we all agreed that the C. d’O was better.  

I also put some C. d’Oro between some of the lemon leaves- again, we preferred them.  Somehow, the lemon hint was more discernible.  

I found the lemon leaf recipe at The Food Section.

 

So, in the future (and I shall make these again) I’ll use brie, or the Italian equivalent, for both recipes. 

 

For dessert we had:  Ananas alla brace

Take a pineapple and cut it in 4 lengthways. 

Take out the core.

Glaze and grill.   

 

For the glaze, I used the lemon juice saved from the Limoni Bri and combined this with honey and Marsarla.

 

 

 

  

 

 

This was our BarBeBri. 

Stay well Little One.

 

Summer Kitchen

I was asked what was at the end of the path pictured in my last post. 

Well, it leads to my favourite place on earth.  It leads to the Summer Kitchen which is pure bliss (and which deserves capital letters).

There is no telephone and no internet connection, just a few cookery books and a few of my favourite objects.  It has a table and four chairs.  It has a stone sink which we found abandoned on the site and a barbecue we built from scratch.  There is also an old gas stove that runs off a ‘bombola’. 

It is a place to sit and think.  It’s a place to cook lots of lovely smelly things and enjoy doing so.  

 

 Mr B does look a little dodgy in this picture. 

Actually, he’s only giving me that sideways glance because he can’t figure out why I’m sitting down on the path (in the rain) pointing some digital aparatus in his general direction. 

 

Olive Flowers

May was a month of contrasts in Le Marche, weatherwise.  It started off very warm, but this was quickly followed by rain. A lot of rain. Then, after a couple of quite terrifying thunder storms, the air cleared for the lovely weather we had at the end of the month.

The olive flowers came into full bloom this month and by the look of ours it’s going to be a bumper year. 

I am beginning to understand the cycle of this beautiful tree.  One year she will give you her fruit, but the next year she prefers to save her energy.  Happily, the trees don’t all agree on which year is going to be fruitful and which year barren, so the crop remains more or less the same.

Verdicchio

We are surrounded by acre upon acre of vineyards at Casalba.  I used to get lost in them: think of the maze at Hampton Court and then cross that with a small county. 

 

There are some very fine local red wines, but this area is most famous for its crisp white Verdicchio.  We buy our wine direct from the local producers.  We just pitch up with empty demi-johns and get them filled ‘petrol-pump’ style.  

Our favourite is ‘Vignamato’ not only for the quality, but also because it is run by Maurizio and Serenella, a lovely couple who are passionate about tending their vines and making their wine.   They are, rightly, very proud of their product and we often visit their ‘cantina’ with guests when Maurizio is happy to share his somelier knowledge. 

The local producers hold ‘Cantine Aperte’  every year on the last weekend in May when you can visit the vineyards and taste their wines.  It’s a sort of free pub crawl and great fun, but best to nominate a driver first. 

Grey

This is Grey.  He was our first dog here at Casalba and he was only with us for a very short, but beautiful eight months.

He chose us from the rescue home we visited.  I know everyone says that, but it’s true.  It was the way he looked at us as we visited the kennels. All three of us knew immediately: he knew, I knew and Dan knew.

I thought he was a cross between a Setter and a Spaniel, but later learnt that he was a pedigree English Setter.  This breed is smaller than the Gordon or Irish Setters and is widely used in Le Marche for hunting. 

Grey eventually died from the injuries his previous owner had inflicted on him.  We still miss him because he was so very special.

Why was he special?  Well, firstly, he was so very sensitive.  There was no need to raise your voice when he did something wrong.  A simple ‘no’ in a disapproving voice stopped him from whatever it was he was doing and he never did it again. 

Secondly, he didn’t bark unless it was absolutely necessary. Indeed, he didn’t bark at all for the first three weeks and we thought he couldn’t.  The first time he did, Dan turned to me and said, “He’s got a nice voice, hasn’t he?” 

Then there was the fact that, even though he was bigger than a Spaniel, he’d climb onto my lap when I settled down for the evening film.

I could carry on (and on), but I’m welling up…  So, can we just leave it at that?