We Are In A Very Heavy Moment Of Crisis Once More

 

So with the prep work done in the kitchen and as its only 6.30 it's back up the hill to the tree house to give the staff some time alone to get ready for tonights service.

It's is a quiet night for them in the Osteria Nel Castagneto which they tell us is becoming the new norm. Only about 12 people are booked in so once they are feed we all sit down and eat. 

The verdict, we loved the mouth feel " velvet finish " of the filled tortellini and tortelloni.

The larger cheese one the tortellini is boiled off in a large pot of salted water and then dropped into a fry pan with butter and sage then served. This is the first time we have seen butter being used and traditionally the further north the more will will start to see butter in cooking as they have cows and no olive trees.

The cut pasta texture was not so good for us it was a bit harder than others we have had, perhaps the extra drying time and the extra semolina. Most pasta are made and then straight into the pot to cook in a home kitchen or some of the bigger kitchen where they have a " Pasta Chef " but in the real world of some smaller osteria time is needed in the prep of the rest of the meal so the pasta process is done earlier. Not wanting to sound like a " pasta expert " but to make and have it fresh straight from the pot is just BLISS. 

The sauces were both great and we loved them both. We also tried  " nettle " flat pasta the pasta name has escaped me and yes it is the stinging nettle that we find in Aussie around the old sheep sheering shed. So your question as was mine is so how do you pick, clean and prepare stinging nettle let alone put them into your mouth hmmmm. 

Step 1 very carefully and with gloves, (yep get that Christine..... but the stingers )?

So step 2 is wash, again very carefully with gloves, yep get that but the stingers things still my big concern ?

So step 3 drop into boiling salty water, again very carefully with gloves, yep still getting that but without sounding like a cracked record ....the stingers ?

Well thats the magic bit the stingers just melt once cooked... Nhooooo ...really.

Now you drain and squeeze out by hand all the excess water. Now that's  difficult to do as it is done with  "no gloves " so that you know all the stingers are gone.....  Christine laughs have faith, hmmmmm but as a kid playing at my grandfather Daddy Frank's farm I came into contact with many a stinging nettle and the thought of now putting that in my hands let alone into my mouth, well Christine all I can say, being such a gentleman, it's ladies first !!!

But frankly for all the stress and preparation of a stinging nettle it can be made with English spinach that we grow in our garden and this would work just as well and taste the same actually a bit better.

Christine said that we have to remember that Italy has had a very poor past and fresh veggies were just too expensive for the average family and that the the tables have turned back again after the  prosperous 1980's and now the country is reverting to the poor time of the past once more.   The separation between the rich and the poor is getting even wider. 

Christine further said "we are in a very heavy moment of crisis once more "and now it is in it,s 2nd year and, as yet, no light at the end of the tunnel. We have heard that a lot from locals we chat with or more like me interrogating ! 

Unemployment is at 39% and is especially bad for the young under 25 and the 50 to 55 year old bracket. 

If you can get a loan you need 1/2 deposit at least as the banks are concerned for further house price drops so the economy is slow and interest rates is at 

2 to 3 %

As with many a small businesses in hospitality, customers now only come out once a month if that, before the crises at least once a week was the italian normal so effectively now they only have a 1/4 of  turnover / income . 

But in saying that on our travell we have seen lots of restaurants very busy, perhaps tourist and not so many locals, bit its hard to tell as they are all speaking a  foreign tongue. 

So times are real tough here, a 52 year old guy we meet with his own construction company also said that it was hard now and 5 years ago he was in full swing with 40 employees and today he has a couple that he keeps busy and has sold factories to support is family and pay his bills. Now he has put his money into an old 16 room inn way out in the middle of the country that his father bought some 30 years ago for the farm land and will wait it out!!!! 

Perhaps he is a lucky one that he can wait it. I know it sounds like "oh poor him" he has put his Ferrari into storage as it cost 6,000 € a year alone as a "rich tax" if you want to drive it on to of insurances ect, and frankly he tell me it is worth nothing to sell as the average people cant buy them and the rich only want to pick them up as a bargain.

So he will just have to keep it on ice as he can't even afford that tax any more. 

His company taxs totalled 70% of turnover and he said that he was just working for the government. It is hard to get an exact picture as we don't understand their politics but he also mentioned that in Roma area alone they have 960 politicians all on huge wages so the country is in major decline and that the last election has taken so long to finalise that the peoples confidence in their politicians and their country's stability is just gone....