Grinzane, etc.

Ciao, Amici! Sorry I haven’t posted in so long! Lots going on here! Allora….the last time we spoke I was doing a stage at Grinzane Cavour, the castle in this picture. That was the week that Jay and Denise were in Verona at VinItaly, so I was walking two hours to Grinzane and two hours back every day (though some friends gave me rides a couple of times). I loved the walk (especially when it wasn’t raining) and learned a lot about the area by having to navigate on foot! (That second-to-last picture is of the rain jars I told you about earlier…).

Anyways, I learned quite a bit at the restaurant in Grinzane…how to make homemade pasta and sugo for tagliarine, a basic meat sauce with mirepoix and not too many tomatoes, bonet, a chocolate custard sort of like flan with amaretti cookies baked in, brasata–beef cheeks braised in dolcetto, grisini–thin bread sticks that are very popular here, plin–a typical ravioli that you pinch with your fingers (that’s why they’re called plin, which means “pinch” in Italian), and lots more!

My Italian friends complain because I only write about them and never about my own family, so I’m going to try and incorporate both from now own. To this end, here’s a half way decent picture of me and Phoebe, mia sorella. Taking a good picture of us is no small feat, and this is the first good one in about twenty years!