Home Again Home Again Jiggety Jig...

A view of Lake Como.

Unfortunately I was unable to bring back a fat pig (as transportation of meat products from Europe is frowned upon), but I did bring back plenty of pictures and stories. As I am sorting through these photos, I would like to share them with you here, as I was supposed to do while in Italy and Ireland. While I cannot promise regular installments, I will try to get through them all before the end of summer and will thus relate to you all stories of my 2 months in Europe within the next 3 or 4. Please have patience. Above all, however, I promise to do my best to entertain (and possible enthrall), and hope to never bore; I hope that through these photos and my words I can adequately narrate not only what I saw and where I went, but also some thoughts and impressions that I had while there.

A super night with good friends, good wine and good food!

 The rest of this blog-post is dedicated to Pizzoccheri. This is a dish I ate while at Bagaggera (the farm I worked at) and is particular to that small region around Lago di Como and Lecco. Cassie, the British girl living on the farm, made it for my parting supper and told me more or less how to make it. Fortunately, the cookbook my Mother gifted me a few years ago, and which I highly recommend, Cooking with Italian Grandmothers, by Jessica Theroux, also offered a recipe. Although not exactly the same, I used it to guide me in making the buckwheat noodles, topped with lots of cheese, butter, cabbage, leeks, potatoes, a hint of sage, salt and pepper. The below are pictures from here in Minnesota.

Eggs and flour.

Kneading it all together.

The finished dough.

Silly me! I forgot to take a picture of the finished product! Nonetheless, it was delicious. If anyone would like the recipe, feel free to ask!