Duck Ragout

OMG this was soooooo yum

Chop rather than mince very finely the legs of duck.  

Fry onion, carrot and celery chopped in very small cubes till cooked. 

Add the duck and a little vege stock pop lid on to retain the juices don't over cook and serve on a tagaletelli ribbon pasta 

Very simple but so Devine... 

Doriano My New Bestie

The next afternoon after we had meet Doriano we were again in his Calla, this time on foot, I may have learned a lesson yesterday, but this trip is still young. So after a visit to the 6th century Castle that sits on the top side of his stone house. His house was once for the workers of the castle, so all interconnected with small calla and loads of stairs. It was a wet afternoon and our look around the castle was with a Italian guide which was interesting to say the least after all it is not a tourist area so an English speaking guide was not ever going to happen. So our little man all 4 foot 2 and  was a real comedian and I'm sure he must have been related to Danny Dorito, he took on the task with great excitement to take us around. So the front gate is closed, "so your not expecting any more tourist this afternoon than" ? So with a smile and him with his huge set of oversized keys. So again I ask more questions like "so their was no master keys in the 6th century then" ? Again more smiles and we are directed to follow him and we are escorted around for the first 20 min and given further direction in sign language and are shown the importance of the castle, oh and the toilets, well not the new ones, the ones the king would have sat on,  he thought it was real funny as we laughed so he than took  it apron himself to show us more of the toilets that the king would have used. So after several I said to Sandy stop entertaining him or else all we are going to see this afternoon will be the toilets. He left us in the final demonstration area with how to get out and get back to the car park, the main hall with all the information in Italian written on big boards describing the past and the future restoration and as it was bigger he thought we may be able to read it!  I'm not blind I say to him, I can't read Italian, and with a smile again he is off so a bit more of a look around and we are off also!!!! An amazing place and I will google it to fined out a bit more information later.

We leave the castle and as we are in Doriano's neighbourhood I wanted to drop in a white linen Aussie hanky with a kangaroo logo in one corner as a small thank you for yesterday kind help. We always travel with some little Aussie things you never know when they may come in handy. We find his cantina and he is not there,  his wife Carla is there with 3 of their friends and are waiting for him to come back from his afternoon run. I gesture that I want to leave this for him but she gesture that we will wait. Hmmmm a bit uncomfortable to start but the friends understand a little English so between us we work out a bit of conversation. A frantic phone call to Doriano is made and to tell him to perhaps, pull your finger out as the Australians are here again so with a smile back she says Pleasea...  Waita... O....Ka...? Doriano is bringing some cheese.

So some more glasses appear from inside the cave and wine is poured and Carla is probably hoping this will keep us quiet till Doriano get back. But no not even the lack of a language will ever stop me from talking and with 20 questions, lots of sign language and the help of our learn Italian in 12 weeks picture book we are all laughing and all trying to understand each other.

Doriano's mate told me that Doriano had rung him yesterday to say how happy he was to have met us and how sad that we came into his life in his calla and that he would never see us again, so you must stay he wanted to see me again.

So poor Carla who has the least english of them all start to bring out some bread maybe if wine won't shut them up the food may stop the interrogation.

Beside Italians don't drink unless they are eating and as they seam to be alway eating I suppose they are always drinking.

Well it would have but as it tasted so good I asked " Posso averse questa ricetta vorrei avere" and with a hmmmmm from them all!!! What did he say?

It is established that we would like the recipe. Yep my few words of Italian are crap and as I didn't pronounce it correct I could have been speaking Hindu.

So with our pad and pen out it is decided that Lucia who made the bread will write us the recipe.

Farina 250 g

Vova 4

3 Cucchiai di olio

Mezzo bicchiere di vino bianco

Pancetia

Olive nere

Formaggio ( Parmigiano )

1 bustina di lievito

Cuocere per 40 minuti a 180 deg

Great I will whip one up tomorrow once I get it translated.....

But if you think a bit it's flour, eggs, oil, white wine 1/2 glass, pancetta, black olive,  Parmesan, baking powder, mix and cook 180 deg 40 mins and serve to people that just seam to keep dropping in and asking to many questions!!!

So at last Doriano arrives back in his running gear with his beanie on and a Kg wheel of pecorino cheese, he is fit looking and is 52, yep when communication is a bit challenge you, start to ask question that are simple and swap personal information that doesn't take a uni degree to answer. 

He is soooo happy to see us so that's a relief, his english is the best of them all and he translates as we go, soon the friends start to communicate more and it is surprising how well all keep chatting. Over a nother drink the 2 guys between them they try to explain to me that Doriano was running today with a sad heart thinking about us and when Carla rang him his dream came true to see me again. He said It's amazing how quick you bond with someone when you have to concentrate so deeply to talk and thats sure is true.....

So the afternoon disappears and feeling like we don't want to over stay our welcome we try to make may attempts to leave but all unsuccessful . Finally we must be off, but no you have to stay for dinner so them all begging I say to Sandy I don't think we are getting out of here soon!!! With in seconds the fire is lit, the large lounges are moved to the back corner and from in the cave a huge heavy table top appears with the prefab solid legs from another corner and with me on one end and the mate on the other Doriano quickly clicks together the legs. Carla, Lucia reappear with all the table dressings for dinner, the girls then take Sandy back into the kitchen for some last minute whip together and it on the table. We have some pasta with a tuna ragu, tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant, zucchini and onion that were cut in 1/2 a bit of olive oil and bread crumbs and baked in the oven, this seam to be a typical antipasto dish, a capese salad ( fresh tomatoes in slices with mozzarella and basil ) .

A steak, 3 local pork sausage and 2 chicken kebabs, more bread and cheese so a simple family dinner with old and new friends oh and their 20 year old son and his girlfriend as soon as the meat hit the flames in it's wire rack they appeared. So it's the same the world over as soon as they smell the food they are at the table. I was a bit concerned seeing the little amount of meat thinking that we were taking away from them but all was cut into thin slices and the table was feed very well indeed. So getting on for 10 pm and another failed attempt was made to move, again more pleading so we linger yet longer this time trying some of his own cherries that his father had grown they were small but so tasty and in a large bag placed onto the table still with their fresh leave attached, but you can't have them without some of my home made wild cherry  leave or my walnut liquor. 

So by 11 pm,  7 hours after we turned up to say thank you with the Aussie hankie we head back up the small calla on foot with 3 litre of his home made fabulous red wine that we were not allowed to leave without and through the narrow tunnel that bought us all together just yesterday, wow what a experience that I will treasure forever. Doriano escorted us to our car and chatted all the way and said it was a shame that we didn't arrive in his Calla a week ago. Alora he said we were alway going to meet as I truly believes in karma and destiny and that we were a small part of the story in his life.

He looked to the far hills and tells me he will be going truffle hunting with his dogs in October if I would like to come back. I just love truffle I reply but I can't see me being back in October as it is my 50th, that OK I will send you some. I take off some stone beads from Aussie that I,m wearing and put them over his head. So with several double double double cheeks he turns around back down his calla and we all have a tear or 2 in our eyes...... We will see you again someday ,somewhere.....we just have to......

A Man and His Cantina

So its a day off from cooking lets explore or perhaps as good sticky beak.

It was as if I was drawn to him, we were meant to meet. 

A man and his Cantina! In Australia it would be like a man and his shed, a man cave.

But an Italian a mans cantina is so much better, sure there is the tools hanging on the walls, but a bit more rusty and from the Dark Ages and not power tools these are hand tools for heavy construction and stone mason and he had tools to make your own wine, Rossa ( red ) & Bianca ( white ) and to top that all of it is actually in a cave down the side and under your 700 year old house. 

With its brick walls and domed brick ceiling and yet more little stairs to the even lower levels of the cave, but it was getting a bit damp down there with 50mm water on the floor, so some handyman work is under construction to do some drainage. This guy also has it own veggie patch several hundred more meters down this side of the hill, a flowing stream as the back drop with a sheer mountain on the other side shooting up a 70 degs so the whole veggie patch seamed fortified. What? have I died and gone to heaven! 

So back into the cantina the front section about as big as a L shaped double garage wrapped around the cave entrance to the back left with it old timber armed and padded lounge seats arranged around a stone fire place that you could easy fit a small pig on a spit, so food, wine and tools now thats what I call a mans shed.

So you may ask Pete just how did you find this place? Well it found me, true, I was drawn to it like a moth to a light I just seemed to be drawn more and more as I drove, so we were destine to meet. He lived at the far far end of the small calla, I was driving down this one way calla the wrong way! Woops, so as it turns out it doesn't always end up the wrong thing to do, but do it with conviction, a lot of sorry sorry,  I'm a dumb touristico in your little village that is so far off the tourist roads that the locals are wondering why you would want to be in their neck of the woods.

Cause it look amazing, interesting, old, ruined, mystical you know the usual!!!

Yes sure it did look at first to me as if it was a two way calla,  I thought I saw a faint hint of a white line on the centre of the entrance to the calla, but nope I must have been mistaken! 

Driving on the right hand side is getting a little easier and less stressed now as I have now clocked up 647 km and I'm nooooo expert and as long as I drive and think what I'm doing and I've got to tell you that has been hard to do. No watching the scenery, no perving on the locals, just driving and focusing on the road ( and not always on All the road signs ) 

I figure that if I'm sticking to the right, driving slow, I'm OK, but I do get myself in some tight spaces some times. These back calla were designed for foot traffic and some a bit bigger for a donkey and a small cart, well me and my large cart!

I have driven through some lovely little brick tunnels and today I got to find and experience one such great feat of 6th century construction right in front of me as I come around yet another little bend doing top speed 5km an hour. This calla had got so narrow and as they say I could see light at the end of the tunnel, well I could,  it may have only been only another 8m ahead, but it seamed like a long way. You may ask why not just reverse, and I can answer, you now as a little kid when you do the wrong thing you sometime just keep going until Woops I perhaps have just gone that little bit too far to turn back now! 

Mum help I,m stuck, what do I do, we'll you got yourself into the situation perhaps you just need to work something out for yourself. It is amazing how your childhood rushes back to mind. Sandy looked at me with a hmmmm and a bit of her usual grin and body language that showed either she loved me and she wanted to sit closer to me or she didn't want to be that close to the tunnel wall on her side. So with that, and a well,  go on, you can't stop now I move forward hoping that it will open up on the other side so we can do a 50 point turn and get out alive. O Pete you do love drama and you do create it and bring it on yourself.

I do remember seeing one little sign on the way it that could have meant, well it did mean, no through road, but now was not the time to let out that little bit of information to the one I loved in the passenger seat, but I'm sure she saw it!!! Thanks for the mirrors on either side of the car as they were to be my guides, my side markers. As long as the Romans made the tunnel to the mm at both ends we would be fine, we had at least 20 mm either side of the mirrors, loads of space, so as I move slowly forward with my window down I get to see exactly how each one of these hand made bricks are made, so later that afternoon when we emerged for the 8 m tunnel I'm pleased with the perfect to the mm measurement, thank you Mr Romans.

So out the other side and in front of me I can see that I may be able to turnaround if I can get a small opening off to the side, there are a very small cars parked in front on me and I won't be able to get past them. Now I'm screwed and it was just at that time my new best friend Doriano comes out to see who it is in such a big car in his little calla. He knows that I won't be able to turn around and with a smile and a wait he gets his keys and reverses his little car up, out of his driveway so I can turn around in it.  I did say he had a little car and it was housed in his small 1 car off calla parking area oh and did I mention it was on the side of a hill, the lower side!!!! Oh and it was in loose gravel! 

So with some precision driving, Sandy one side and Dorian the other we managed to true around. With a wave goodby from him, we were meant to just leave!  I just can't leave without a proper thank you, so I jump out of the car and head down his steep driveway to shake his hand and beg forgiveness for my sins. So with that, its a come on into my cantina and have a drink, we'll that was what I think he said as it was a mix of mostly Italian and hand gestures so before we know it we are all glass in hand and with his little english and our even littler italian we sit and chat the afternoon away.

Back To The Kitchen In The Morning

No meats are served at the Jason's cooking school for breakfast.
Like most of this style of Agrotourismo accommodation in Italy a sweeter breakfast is more traditional so coffee and cake.

      THE CAKE is a simple butter cake "Crosta" Desert Tart, but you also have it for breakfast quantity is for 2 tarts about 22 cm shallow tart trays. 
250 grams butter ( all in Italy is unsalted and so white ).
250 grams sugar.
So cream the butter & sugar together with a electric hand blender till a creamy texture,
than blend in 2 eggs + 3 yokes, about 5 mins.
Add 1 coffee spoon ( smaller than a teaspoon ) of vanilla & Grappa, rocket fuel.
Sift 500 grams 00 flour and a pinch or salt + 2 coffee spoons of baking power into a big bowl and stir by hand in the wet mixture.
Set aside in the fridge for 15 mins.
Cut the mix in 1/2 ( but leave a little bit for a basket weave for the top )
Get some baking paper, bigger than the tart tray, form dough into a round pad roll till dough is bigger than the tart trays by about 30mm lift the paper and the dough into the tray and turn in the excess dough edge to form a rustic and thicker edge.
The dough should roll to be about 6mm thick or so.
On the raw dough tarts gets some jam and spread a 2 mm thick we used a strawberry on one and a orange and ginger on the other.
Get the left over dough and roll out to a 6 mm long piece and place on the top of the jam from edge to edge to make a basket weave leaving about 40 mm between the stripe so that the jam is very clear to be seen once it is cooked.
In a pre heated oven of about 220 for about 30 to 40 mins or until golden.

Dinner Class with Jason

Dinner will be at 8pm so we will need to pull our fingers out, Jason like any good chef is well prepared and the big country barn style kitchen is by no means a commercial kitchen and it is surprising how we can turn out food to feed the masses from this space. The dining room is off to the the side of the kitchen, through a big stone archway and is on the other side of the house from our room and is also on the ground floor. Ashley is busy setting tables and attending to the other guests, the whole places has so much country atmosphere the kitchen has a big fire place on the far end with space to cook over the open flame and we prepare dinner on a large timber table in the middle of the kitchen.
          We are preparing and served a 7 course dinner for the other in house guests and any local droppins and us also. 7 courses may seam a lot but its all small serves and designed to be eaten over a long time with wine and good conversation. We have a cute little A frame black board at the entrance to the dining room announcing what is on offer for the night. Dinner in most good local places is the whim of the chef, what is in season and what they have prepared that day, it's a great way to eat, and no menu's just the board to entice you in.

An antipasto platter of prosciutto crudo ( local cured ham ) and a local salami

Bruschetta Crostini with new season double pealed fava beans ( broad beans ) and sweated tomatoes and peas with pancetta and parmesan shards.

Farrow salad with rocket, chickpeas and a olive oil and lemon dressing.

Sweated roasted capsicum rings warped around a paste of tuna, parsley, last years end of season preserved tomatoes, lemon and olive oil

Chard tart cooked in rustic short crust pastry cup and fill with chard spinach a pinch of chilli, cottage and parmesan cheese. Yum yum and all so fresh and light which has been a nice change to the heavy pasta and meat sauce over the past few weeks.

Followed by Lamb skewered on rosemary stalks cooked over the open fire the taste of the fire and rosemary really come through

A flat butter cake with rosemary and lavender with an orange glaze is a nice way to finish + express of course
The cake was prepared and it will be on the list to make later this week.

A digestive of cherry leaf or walnut liquor all home made top of the night.
I love this cooking school, we cook, they serve, we eat, they clean, heaven.

La Tavola Le Marche Cooking School

Translated " A Table in Marche " So this week its back to school, cooking school, and intensive week learning with a chef how great, or great!!! Will it be like old times with me sitting in the corner for not paying attention or disturbing the whole class! No it's better they give you a never ending glass of wine to start the day, now if they had done that when I was at school I may have paid more attention, or well maybe slept the afternoons away. But no sleeping Pete you have some learning to do, there will be plenty of time for that later, what like after 10 pm when it finally gets dark, the days are long and it's only spring. So the today we arrived at 2pm for checkin and are shown to our room. We are greeted by a very excited Ashley and her husband Jason. You may ask they don't sound like Italian names and you world be right they are a young couple in there early 30's who came to Italy for their honeymoon and fell in love with the whole Italian world. They went home after the honeymoon and studied Italian for 9 months and gave up their chef jobs in the U S. They could not afford to buy a house in the States but could start a new life in Italy and that was 7 years ago and today the run a very successful cooking La Tavola Marche great web site to check out. This place is like a grand old country house over 3 stories and dates back some 400 years with a enough space for 18 people when full. We have arrived at the beginning of the season so there are only a few other couple booked in over the week so the classes will be intermit and a few days will be one on one. The road in is a bit interesting, no, it was an italian crazy road not wide enough and bend after bend and as it has been a wet season till now, the dirt road with its big pot holes, dodge one get two, dodge two get one, get my drift! The car is now looking more like a rally car and in need a wash, but that won't be happening you now me I don't wash cars I just hire a clean one. They have a large pool and outdoor entertaining areas to cater for a full house + also for some locals that drop in for an occasion meal at nights or for Pizza night every Thursday. Our room is on ground level and it open directly out onto a stone paved area with our own little table, chairs and umbrella and surrounded by loads of pots with spring flowers in full bloom. The geranium here are so prettying and enjoy the longer and cooler spring than we have in Tamworth. We enter our room through our own small country kitchen with a small table covered in a cloth with a grape vine and it bunches of purple grapes, into our bed area, well it's tight either side of the bed just 300 mm either side as perhaps a queen bed was not designed to fit that space some 400 years ago when this room would have been for the animals to be housed in Marche's long cold snowy winters. But today it's just the perfect spot for these 2 traveller to kip down for a week. One small window to view the garden and the walls are 600 mm thick so the view is like looking through a tunnel and with the typical window shutter to keep out the morning light and the cold. I go into the bathroom and it is surprisingly big and with a toilet that makes me feel as if I,m 4, I have to jump up onto it, hmmm not sure how Sandy will cope may have to put a couple of bricks either side, it is the tallest and the biggest toilet I have ever seen and its like loads of toilets we have come across, don't have a seat as we would know, its not designed for comfort so not the place to sit and linger!!!! But it beats the squat toilet that was at the beach in Fano the other day! Back out from our room we look into the green treed hills and the big white fluffy clouds seam to move so fast here, as we are in the mountains the clouds are low over the mountains so it all just seams to rush by. At the top of the hill is an old roman ruins from a roman town in the 1100's so that will be a place to explore on a morning walk. So it off to the kitchen for our 1st class as what we are cook this afternoon is served to all the guests this evening, I'd better pay attention....

Where's Agatha Christy

Well we survived the drive and after about 80km as we headed again for the smaller country roads and 40 soon turned into 80 we found a great spot high on a wheat farm hill over looking the Adriatic and with the ocean colour changing from bright teal to all most black as the clouds above went over the ocean, we sat and enjoyed our pampadour picnic. We see a sign that pointed to "International Hotel" Port a Nova, what is a international hotel doing out here, no one is living out here so why build? Well the view of the Adriatic of course was her answer, wait till you get to your room. The owners turned up here 30 years ago and thought lets build a international hotel and they will come, hmmmm well they built but not sure how may came as helicopter would be a better way to get there. This place would make a great back drop for a Agatha Christy murder with its 1930,s setting. It was all in stone and some 30 rooms and terraced down 6 stories on the side of a hill over looking that amazing Adriatic. The tight corner and the steep hill I probably wouldn't attempt back home but I got an automatic hire car and now that car was starting to get wider and longer ever metre we drove..... We are taken to our room as I wanted to check it out before committing as it was not expensive and to my surprise given the cheep tarrif it was more than amazing, we opted for a balcony room as the sun was still up for another 5 hours so let's sit back with a G & T in hand and soak up the 1930. Each of the 4 rooms on our level had a balcony with stretch out some 10 m it was huge and the VIEW..... We dressed for dinner as on would do in the 30's and as the restaurant won't be open till 8.30 so respectable we have loads of time for a few more G & T's and to relax. Dinner was fantastic traditional Italian antipasto fredo, pasta with seafood and a main of grilled swordfish Sicilian style so tomatoes capers and just so yum yum So a good nights sleep will be need as we will head northwest about 60 km tomorrow in time for our week at school......