Amalfi Coast

Here we are on The Amalfi Coast, the lemon centre of the world. You can buy anything to do with lemons here, edible and otherwise. The views are spectacular. We have a lovely little room with a balcony overlooking the sea. It reminds me a little of Oban in Scotland. 

This is me writing yesterday's blog.

We have managed to be here on a long weekend so it is extra busy. It is impossible not to keep taking photos of all of the buildings stacked on top of each other. You wouldn't want to be the bottom floor when they add on one too many.

Some of the buildings appear to rise out of the natural stone cliff faces:

The Italians like to use every piece of land. On this coastline there are many terraced gardens of olives, grapes and lemons.

We have explored Amalfi by foot today, up and down steps all afternoon. My hip joints are squealing. 

Whilst the ocean looks really good, there is hardly any beach and most are private. They are more than a little stony. Have a look at the photo below and spot the two beach fronts. As you can see they are more about sunbathing and not so much about swimming. Both of these beaches are private but you can pay to lie on their sun beds. 

We managed to have the closest thing to an Australian cappuccino this morning. One has to be grateful for it being close enough to the real thing, even though it wasn't quite hot enough, the tide was a long way out, there was too much froth and it cost a fortune. Nonetheless it was the best since leaving Scotland. It was probably a 5/10, ouch!

After our big food tour we kept dinner very simple last night, dining on rustic pizza and delicious gelato. The hotel has a lovely garden balcony for breakfast. Not sure this photo does it justice.

Part of our plan here was to take a boat trip to The Isle of Capri but the sea is quite choppy and it is a long distance by boat so given my constitution we will have to stick to land activities. Positano and Sorrento can be visited by bus so this might be more my style. It will still be a challenge travelling these roads by coach, round and round and round. 

Did I mention our journey from Naples? At first I thought we had a terrible driver as he barged his way through traffic in the city centre but on reflection If you are not assertive you'd never get here. There were times I thought about shutting my eyes but being so prone to travel sickness I had to look. Once we got going on the motorways we really got going, reaching some amazing speeds. The Austalian police would have a field day over here. Then we had to go up and over a mountain so I was very glad to get here.

I would hate to be driving around here and parking is a nightmare. Cars are parallel parked millimetres from each other. So many cars have bumps and scrapes. The best way to get around is on scooter or motorbike. 

Can you see all the motorbikes lining the street in the above photo?

Tony is having another afternoon siesta as I write this. Too many steps for him as well. We need to work off a fair bit of prosciutto before the next food tour.

Signing off from beautiful Amalfi x

Calabrian Table Tour , Day 7 farewell dinner and cooking class

Here we are on the train from Lamezia to Naples enjoying the lovely coastal view. I guess there aren't too many flat options in Italy to put a train line. Had a very light and early breakfast this morning so my stomach is already complaining about a lack of food. I guess I'll have to start retraining it to want less. 

This morning we had to farewell our wonderful American friends, Barbara and Chrissy. They were so much fun and helped make the tour even more special. We will miss their sense of humour and their 'Aussie' 'have a go' attitude. I will be looking for your comments on this blog girls. Have fun in Cantanzarro and a safe flight home. I will never be able to look at an Idaho potato the same way again without remembering you.

Happy birthday Barbara for the 4th June.

Farewell also to Andrea our tour guide and translator extraordinaire. Thought you might like this photo of all the mussels you ate. No wonder you love these tours.

Arrivideci Tanya, our kind and considerate host.

Last night was our final night in Tropea and we were treated to a cooking class by Chef Peppi, followed by an amazing farewell dinner. Of course there was music, dancing and even singing; thanks Herb!

Gnocchi

I was not disappointed by the Gnocchi lesson and will attempt to share some tips.

Mix together 1kg of potatoes (pushed through a ricer) with one egg. Use your hands.

Gradually incorporate flour whilst constantly kneading with your hands.

This dough will take up approximately 1/2kg flour, maybe more, depending on the type of potatoes used.

Ideally use red skinned potatoes and boil with the skin on to reduce the amount of moisture they take up. Cool and skin them.

I was surprised by the amount of kneading. You basically knead the dough until it is elastic and smooth (a lot like any other pasta dough). Rest it if time.

Cut off sections and roll into snakes, finger width. Cut off two cm sections and roll the gnocchi shape on a piece of decking board with ridges or on the back of a fork. Place gnocchi pieces on a tray covered with a T towel and let dry for a little while, maybe 1/2 hour.

Use a large pot of boiling, salted water to cook and add a generous amount of olive oil to prevent the gnocchi sticking together. Normally you wouldn't do this when cooking pasta as it can stop the sauce sticking. The pot will now be off the boil so put the lid back on. When ALL of the gnocchi has floated to the surface, remove and stir through with the sauce simmering in a pan. Taste the gnocchi first as it may be necessary for the pot to come back to the boil before removing the gnocchi.

Bon appetito!

There were other lovel dishes too. Another that I want to remember was the 

Eggplant Parmigiana 

Thinly slice eggplant, sprinkle with salt, stand for a while, rinse, then pat dry. 

Lightly coat in flour then lightly fry and blot on absorbent paper.

Prepare for the layers: crumble or slice some mozzarella, collect a bowl of dry breadcrumbs, make tomato passata(sauce) or open a commercial one, tear pieces of your favourite ham.and collect some Parmesan cheese.

Just like a lasagne, place layers in a deep ovenproof dish, eg, start with tomato sauce at the bottom, add a layer of eggplant, add ham if using, then mozzarella, tomato sauce, Parmesan, breadcrumbs and contine until all used up. Top layer is meant to be breadcrumbs but I would rather fancy more cheese and lots of it! Yum.

We also enjoyed marinated swordfish. This was prepared earlier. The fish was cut into single portions and left to stand in the fridge with the following ingredients: parsley finely chopped, olive oil of course, salt, pepper and oops I've gone blank. There could have been some white wine and garlic. Not sure. Best to go with your own yummy concoction anyway. Lemon zest was grated over towards the end of the standing time. Cherry tomatoes were sliced on top and zucchini (mostly the skin) was zested over the top. This was quickly baked in the oven for about 15 mins and was tasty and juicy.

And as you can see from the above photo, red Tropea onions made an appearance too.

Speaking of onions, small red Trpea onions were baked in the oven until they were soft and caramelised . Many were added to a baking pan with white wine vinegar and some olive oil. I'd guess that it was 2 parts vinegar to one part oil but it may even have been 3:1. Anyway the bottom of the pan was covered. Salt and sugar were added, maybe a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar.

There was a second fish dish and this was very simple to prepare. Just place fish fillets skin down in a baking pan and add your favourite Italian breadcrumb mixture to the top, drizzle olive oil and bake. The trick of course is to make yummy crumbs. The Italians use their old bread, being sure to waste nothing. They turn it into crumbs (use a gadget if you wish) and add delicious flavours, eg, salt, pepper, herbs (I think Peppi just used parsley), Parmesan cheese and olive oil. I think I would use lemon zest as well. I'm pretty sure there was garlic in there too. The trick is to allow the crumbs to take up the flavour over a few days.

Then there was Chicken and capsicums. Peppi used chicken wings cut into 3; the pointy end bit though was nowhere to be seen. He coated the chicken in a tasty flour mixture. It looked like he added heaps of paprika but apparently it is a red pepper powder (not chilli), plus dried chilli, and probably salt and pepper. He then fried off the chicken, caramelising it well, popped it in a baking dish with large chunks of red and green capsicums. He probably drizzled this with olive oil, baked it until cooked through and tasty.

Peppi also made saltimbocca. He used thin pork , added some fresh sage leaf, popped speck on top (could use prosciutto ), threaded this with a wooden toothpick to hold, dipped one side in flour and fried. He added whiskey to the pan, although he would have preferred brandy and flamed the pan. He placed the pork on a serving dish, quickly reduced the pan juices, added fresh parsley and drizzled over the pork. 

I haven't mentioned the other pasta because I wasn't fussed about trying it as they used Barilla pasta. Now I'm far from a food snob, but when there is fresh gnocchi on offer, Barilla will never hit the spot. Anyway, Peppi made an interesting sauce where he combined homemade tomato sauce with nduja (if you've been following you'll know that this is spreadable sausage full of chillies). It made a great sauce. He cooked Scampi in there and added other stuff but I'm sorry I missed the details of this one.

Oh and then there is my favourite Tropea potato and green pepper dish. At least it was my favourite until I saw how much oclive oil is used. You simple cut potatoes into ' hot chip shape', add chunks of green capsicum and fry in lots of olive oil until browned, tasty and to die for. I limited myself this time. They basically cook themselves with just a bit of tossing around from time to time.

Just a few last memories of the evening:

Hope you're reading this Chrissy and Barbara. Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi! 

Keep practising your Australian lingo and Jackieisms! xo

With our long awaited table tour over, it is off to Amalfi. Stay tuned.

Day 7 Calabrian Table Tour in Tropea

 After another lovely slow start ( we never go anywhere before 10 as the town of Tropea is still fast asleep) we enjoyed a guided historical tour of Tropea. Thank you Francesco for sharing your local knowledge and showing us your artwork. We would love to take some of your ceramic work home, especially your hand painted roof tiles but we are afraid they will be damaged by over zealous baggage handlers.

 The plan was to enjoy lunch alfresco style overlooking the sea but Tropea had other ideas and sent down the rain. Plan B was indoors. Many restaurants are sunken, a floor below road level. Apparently in some old buildings there are many floors below road level. Just while I am mentioning roads, they are more narrow than you can imagine, especially in the heart of the town. Imagine the smallest car and add 2 cm either side and you have the width. The cobblestone roads are picture postcard variety.

I am getting off the track here but I missed mentioning the beach. I had an amazing exfoliation of the soles of my feet! It started off feeling quite nice but by the time the small stones turned into pebbles, I was yelping. When we climbed back up the million steps from the beach there was a roadside trader selling beach shoes!

Back to lunch. This was a light one apparently because tonight is our proper farewell and Peppi will be giving us a cooking lesson and  then we will be feasting. Here is the evidence of our light lunch. Apologies for having missed a photo of our first course.

This was smoked swordfish with lime pieces plus marmalade.

These were little cheesy biscuits wrapped with smoked wild salmon and roasted red capsicum.

Delicious prawns on bread with 'nduja.

A tropical dish with octopus, tomatoes and red onions.

An eggplant parmigiana (I think) sitting in a purple cabbage leaf, yum.

And of course there is always pasta. This is when the word 'light' is stretched a little too far. Delicious tagliatelle with prawns and preserved lemon.

This is Barb trying desperately to keep her lunch light!

I've missed chocolate so had to have some of this gooey chocolate pudding with orange marmalade. There is a great deal of citrus around here and it is used quite extensively in savoury dishes and with cheese. The fresh oranges are so sweet and juicy. There is also a great deal of onion jam/ marmalade.

And then there is Chrissy!

And the Italian coffees just keep getting stronger. I couldn't drink this one but I could tell it was a good one just by the aroma! Please give me more boiling water! ...... And maybe even some milk (not UHT).  And maybe even some froth! Never mind the skim milk(I could never find the words to ask for that!)

Just in case I have left you salivating, here is the restaurant:

With that I am finally up to date. Tonight is the big grand cooking affair and I can't wait. I have asked to learn how to make gnocchi so I won't disappoint anyone when I get home.

Wish me luck!

Day 6 Calabria Table Tour at Tropea

We asked for an authentic experience and that's what we got. Visiting a 'nduja farm/factory showed us the manufacturing process of this famous spreadable salami from the trotters to the table.

If you are vegetarian it is time to look away. This farm, di Gabriella Bellantone in Spilinga, is all about pork and chillies. This famous spreadable sausage is 70% pork and 30% chilli/peppers by weight. This makes it quite picante! I can't believe they served wine with our tastings. Wine is almost the same as water to Italians. 

Above is prosciutto being made and below is all the preserved meats curing. The mould that you see is important as it is a sign of the moisture coming out of the meat. This is washed off before sale.

After our tasting and purchases (that we hope to get through customs!!!!!!) it was off to a lovely picnic in a forest in Spilinga, specially made for us by a lovely local. 

The picnic was all freshly made from scratch, including lasagne, a pork and beans speciality, a caramelised onion frittata, a potato frittata, salad, lovely fresh Tropea red onions (these are so sweet), etc. from here we went sightseeing along the coastline.

After shopping it was time to meet on the rooftop for apperitivo time. Lovely Roberto from our accommodation, il Barone's prepared some delicious savoury treats for us. Tanya arrived later with some delicious pastries. We had previously asked for directions to the best cake shop. Instead of directions she just brought the cakes along. 

They were too good to just stop at one. 

Just when we thought we were all full up we ambled into town for the best gelato: pistachio and chocolate Nero. Yummy!

The village at night is gorgeous but the following photo doesn't do it justice as the flash won't carry far enough but I will include it anyway.

Complete with our ice-cream headaches and after many belly laughs about our travels so far, including the 'lost' battery charger that I promised not to mention on this blog, it was time for bed.