Yesterday Rita invited us over for the early afternoon main meal. She had many leftovers from Christmas and we were more than happy to help her "manage" them. She began our meal with a few antipasti: baked eggplant in olive oil, an olive tapenade and another kind of tapenade on crackers, and the wonderful peperoni con bagna caoda. Next we had cappelletti in broda (a lovely capon broth); we'd helped her make hundreds of little cappelletti the night before the night before Christmas as they are a holiday ritual for her and she had many people in her exended family to feed on Christmas eve. (Kim managed to form the filling into little balls and Rachel and Rita made the cute little stuffed caps). Next Rita served a capon salad with fruit and nuts followed by a capon that she had stuffed with a mixture of pork and bread crumbs, accompanied by delicious roasted potatoes. When the bird was carved, the breast included a beautiful layer of the pork which just melted in our mouths. Naturally each course was accompanied by wine and bread so how could we possibly fit dessert into this picture? Easily- especially when it's a yummy chocolate cake served with a flute of champagne. (Is it any wonder that in Italy one would need a rest between the hours of 1:30 and 3:30?)
The three of us decided against resting. We chose to take a walk instead. We walked to a bridge that we had only seen from the train in the distance. It has huge spotlights on the side which, according to Rita, either makes it look like the Brooklyn Bridge at night or the bridge itself is compared to the Brooklyn Bridge- something was being said about the BB that we couldn't understand. We couldn't see any resemblance so once again we're sure we misunderstood. It was too light outside for the lights to be on so we really don't know. We will explore one of these evenings soon and see what we will discover. What we could see- and they were beautiful- were the mountains in the distance backlit by the sun. Stunning.
It was very cold out and despite being bundled up we were chilled upon arriving home. Rita told us that we now needed to have "vin brulee." We said you mean like creme brulee but with wine?? She laughed ( we are very amusing to her we're sure) and within a few minutes, watching her at the stove, we realized vin brulee is hot spiced wine. And indeed it did the trick- we were now warm inside and out.
1 comment:
And those were just the leftovers? Not exactly cold pizza - but maybe Rita could have turned even that into something wonderful before your eyes. She sounds like the Patron Saint of the Italian kitchen.
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