On Monday night we eat in a Nick was our cook. He said that he would surprise Sara and me with some kind of pasta dish. When he arrived to our apartment he had vegetables, cheese, olive oil and some other ingredients. First, he lightly fried a small piece of meat. Then, h
e sautéed red and green peppers until they turned almost black. Right after, he cut the meat into strips and mixed it up with the peppers. Separately, he made a cream and cheese sauce. This sauce was mixed with fresh pasta. At the end with ended up mixing the pasta with the sauce and the meat. It was a marvelous combination. We had wonderful time hanging out and cooking dinner.
On Tuesday n
ight, Rala invited Sara, Rachael, Erica and I to have dinner at her house. As we were getting comfortable in her house, we introduced ourselves to Erica, who arrived earlier that day. She was a little jetlagged and we were trying to keep her awake. Throughout the course of the conversations, Rala put to us
e her culinary skills. She prepared a three course meal of real Italian food. First, she prepared a pomodoro sauce with sautéed vegetables. In addition, she cooked gnocchi, which were obtained at that great ravioli store by Piazza Isolo. This was our primi piatti, gnocchi with pomodoro sauce and mozzarella. Another thing that Rala had on her pan was ground meat. This meat was in the form on meat ball. At the end they looked like hamburgers shaped l
ike balls. As contorno we had string beans. As people know by now, I do not eat vegetable, so I mixed the gnocchi with pomodoro with the meat balls. It was a great combination I must say. For desert we had a kind of corn meal with almonds cookie. We had a wonderful dinner, thank you Rala.
one. As soon as I arrived I had a Panini. I did not like it that much because it was reheated. Italians tend to reheat a lot of things. I am guessing that is due to the tourists, which come in masses, and demand food in huge quantities and little time. But later on, I have one of the best gnocchi dishes I had in Italy. The sauce was just right and on top of that it had mozzarella. What also helped was the atmosphere, it was very relaxing and in a way cool because it was in the center of the city, right across from the Duomo. It was a magnificent view. The next day we had breakfast at the hotel we were staying on and to my surprise, it was delicious. But the best part w
as the famous Florentine Steak. It was amazing; very juicy, well seasoned and gigantic. I accompanied with potatoes which were also very tasty. I would have to say though that the stake that I had at Isolla della Scala, at the Risotto Festival was much better. I am guessing that the difference is due to the freshness of the meat. In the country everything is better because is fresh. I imagine that in a city like Florence things are not as fresh. The other thing that I liked about Florence was the meat market. Even though we walked through it quickly, it was an amazing place to buy meats of any type, from salumi to fish. Florence was a great place, its history, especially its food history is something amazing and it shows how politics and economics change the way we eat.
