Category Archives: foto

banking

We have a bank account here at Banca Toscana where our utility bills are paid automatically every month. Convenient, but expensive! They charge about 30 euro in fees every month. We asked, is there a no fee account? They said, yes — keep a minimum deposit of 1000 euro in the account. Ok… well, that […]

pranzo a lucca

Inviato dal mio telefono Very nice restaurant near Mercato. Gelateria Santini — the very best chocolate gelato… Across the piazza from the Lucca chapter of the Italian Communist Party.

Granita di melone

Bella made this very delicious dessert for us tonight! She did all the work: scooped out the cantaloupe, mashed it up and mixed in a little water with miele di girasole. Then put it in the freezer, examining it every hour. The pizzas also turned out fabulous.

pizza!

Tonight we are making pizza… yay!!! I think we’ll make three kinds: 1. Quattroformaggio: we have local pecorino, gorgonzola, fresh mozzarella, and parmesan. 2. “Gourmet Garlic Chicken”: David’s favorite! I have one more chicken breast that needs to be eaten, and lots of garlic & rosemary, along with a bit of chopped red onion and […]

Farro…

is an ancient grain… This NY Times article gives a good background to it. Most of Italy’s farro is grown in Garfagnana, where we are now! But I’d hardly call this a ‘relatively poor’ region… Just walking down to our village you pass through amazing villas and plantations of olive trees and vineyards. This area […]

pomodori secchi

It worked! My friend Mike from work, who’s also a chef, suggested I make sun dried tomatoes with the half-kilo I had left from Bagni di Lucca… First I put them in the sun today, then finished them in the oven after baking the torta…

la torta

Last week, I bought a kilo of peaches in Bagni di Lucca. Last night I still had over half of them and I thought.. mmmm pie. And then I said, ugh… I hate making pie crust. And my pie crust maker friends aren’t here… What to do with all these peaches? David Lebovitz saves the […]

Biscotti Stracciatella, e Pollo, ancora

Bella loved the other night’s chicken so much we did it again. This time I wanted to keep it simpler: we took one breast, pounded it out a little, and filled it with mozzarella di bufala, garlic and fresh basil. Rolled it in beaten egg, then bread crumbs from Bella’s focaccia, mixed with a little […]

Ravioli

Pasta: 100 g white flour 1 egg olive oil, water Bella’s filling: Pecorino Mascarpone Pepper Garlic Basil Mine: Garlic Beets Sage Apple Red Onion Parmesan Pecorino Mascarpone Pepper Salsiccia Toscana Pomodori Vino rosso nostrale Green salad with beets, almonds, sage, peaches, tomatoes Granita di cocomero

insetti da tutte le parti

I finally broke down and got some bug spray, a citronella candle, and a thing that plugs into the wall with a bottle of some sort of liquid. The store also had the big blue tablet things that go into a plug-in device, but they didn’t have the device for them. That’s what we always […]