Does your Pizza bend?

In true Neapolitan style, the crust is very chewy and flexible.
 Step 1: order your pizza, most come with 2-3 ingredients.
 Step 2: cut into 4 slices (pretty big)
 Step 3: fold a slice in half and eat from the inside out

Yum!  most pizzas like this cost ~5 euros ($6.50)!

Stinging Nettles anyone? Yum!

These noodles are made from the nettle plant. The stinging part goes away when they are processed and the noodle come out to have a very nice taste.  Coupled with a little tuna and olive oil, this makes a great snack in less than 10 minutes with 2 steps (boil noodles, then add oil and tuna). 

Cook Time: 10 Minutes
Steps: 2

Pick your Own Mushrooms?

How many times do people tell you not to eat unknown mushrooms?  Well, what do you know, we were out and about in Parrano's countryside and sure enough, there were lots of beautiful mushrooms similar to a portabella.  One person says they are edible, another says only eat them if they aren't unfolded yet.  These were yummy.  Our host cooked them up with some oil and put them over toast.  Simple and easy for an antipasta ( pre meal ).

Buon appetito!

Canned Goods in Italy

At the Festa di Dolce in Parrano, we found this amazing display of canned goods. It was in the ground floor of the owners' home, and they had a marvelous and tasty display of bruschetta with samples. Of these, the best were an artichoke paste, pickled zucchini, pickled pepper, and a rich tomato sauce/paste.






They also had a ton of other things: jams (marmellate), homemade limoncello and a number of other fabulous things. The huge variety was amazing to us, as we know how much work canned goods are to make. We bought two jars of the pomodori rosso (red tomato) sauce/paste to make with our own bruschetta.

Sausage & Grapes

What a cool dish this was - a really intriguing combination of fruit and meat. To make it:

1. Warm a little garlic in olive oil, then add raw sausage chunks. Cook sausage completely. Meanwhile, cut grapes in half - make sure to get seedless green grapes (these weren't seedless, and the seeds had to be removed by hand).
2. Add the grapes, and let the mixture simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the flavors have combined. 
3. Buon appetito! Eat. :)

Chickpeas - an Italian favorite

We had a chickpea soup for lunch one day in Parrano. Chickpeas appear to be a standard favorite in Italian cuisine - they are easily found in the grocery stores here. To cook this, Giovanna soaked and then pressure-cooked dry chickpeas. The pasta was cooked in the chickpea water (the water has added flavor from the chickpeas) and then added salt. A very neat dish!

Also in the background is a red cabbage salad and to the right a bottle of balsamic vinegar, in squeeze bottle form! Balsamic vinegar is commonly sold here as a liquid but also thick syrup to put on salads, desserts, cheese, etc.

Umbria Pizza from scratch

This was a great night with Giovanna.  The round one was sausage and cabbage.  The cabbage was cooked for a long time and brought out the sweetness flavor.  It was my favorite.  The rectangle one with cheese and pomorino (tomato sauce) with a little pesto  Yum!

Padova - Pollo Mista

This was interesting. We went out with a couch surfer in Padova and had some local specials. A mix of chicken, carrot, potato, zucchini, and mayonnaise.  Nice and light with a tang!

Hotel Breakfast Germany

This was quite good.  I really liked the bologna and cheese for the morning.  The tomato and cucumber was nice, but a little strange.  I really liked the coffee machine. :)

Taste of Bavaria

This dish was wonderful.  It was bread balls, potatoe chunks, and two kinds of ham/pork on the bottom with gravy.  There was a wonderful horse radish side dish.  Coupled with some sprit mixed beer, it was delish.

Ricetta per i Biscotti

For all our friends who are cooks/bakers back home, here is a recipe you must try! We arrived yesterday afternoon in Parrano, a small Italian town perched on a hill. Giovanna, our wonderful WWOOFing host for the next three weeks, made this fabulous and tasy (tasty = "molto buono" in Italian) Biscotti recipe for us.

Last winter was very unusual in Parrano - the snow was a meter and a half thick! Almost 4'! Giovanna ran out of eggs, and as she lives outside of Parrano (20 minutes walking), she wasn't able to get to the village for supplies. A nearby friend taught her this minimal biscuit recipe (recipe = "ricetta" in Italian), which requires only a few ingredients: flour, white wine, olive oil, and sugar.

Biscotti con olio et vino Ricetta
"Biscotti with olive oil and wine Recipe"

1. Use equal proportions of flour, olive oil, white wine, and sugar. For this recipe, use about 1/2 cup of each, and mix together. 
2. Add flour to the wet mix until saturated - the dough should not feel sticky, and you should be able to roll a small piece into a ball without pieces sticking to your hand.
3. Take a ping-pong ball sized piece, roll it into a short snake, roughly 4" long
4. Shape the piece as desired - we shaped them into little ribbons, and pressed the tail of one end over the other. Then place on a plate dusted in white sugar.
5. Bake at roughly 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Please note that I don't know the correct oven temperature - this is my best guess. :) 

Optional ingredients & changes:

• Use brown sugar instead of white in the main recipe
• Substitute whole wheat flours or other flours, in equal proportions with the white
• Giovanna added chopped ginger (pretty large-sized cubes of ginger) to the recipe, which added a fantastic flavor.
• Use other spices as desired - cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, etc

Risotto alla CS

We stayed one night with a fabulous couchsurfer named Julia, in Padua, Italy. She cooked us a great risotto with zucchini. Parmesan for grating on top.

Cheese!

Going back in time a bit on our trip - here is a shot of some gigantic wheels of cheese, at a supermarket in Padua, Italy! Feel like carrying one of these massive wheels home?...