Eating (and Drinking) in Montalcino

Paul and I were super excited about heading over to Montalcino while we were in the Tuscany region. We thought the small town sounded like a nice break from the bustle of the cities we'd be touring, and we were super jazzed about tasting some fun wines. Paul's favorite wine of all times -- Brunello di Montalcino -- is from this area. 


We headed out from Florence in our rental car early on Saturday morning, and drove through rain and increasing fog the entire time. As we neared Montalcino, it was super difficult to see much of anything, and the town itself was completely engulfed in fog. We got lost for a while (which is somewhat hard to do in a town that is about a mile long), but eventually found our hotel. 


Since it was raining heavily and foggy, we grabbed lunch and hit up a wine shop to do a little tasting. 

Assorted pecorino cheeses

Diving right in with the Brunello wine

What was left of my boar ragu pasta

Tasting some wines at a local shop in town

After the weather cleared up a bit, we headed back out to try and visit a winery or two, but all the places we stopped by were closed. We hadn't made any appointments ahead of time, which I believe is the protocol there (vs. just stopping in at places like you do in Napa or Sonoma). We instead found an 8th century abbey, and took a short break from eating and drinking. 


After a quick nap, we headed back out into the rain to find a place for dinner. We stopped at Taverna del Grappolo Blu. 

Crostini with pate, melted pecorino, and pesto

Chopped veal in a balsamic sauce -- it doesn't look that appetizing, but it was amazing!

Cinghiale and mashed potatoes

Some grappa (for Paul) and a lemon and pine nut tart dessert. Yum.

Even though it rained most of our short stay there, it was still a great little trip. Life could  have been worse, no? 

View from our hotel balcony

Venice

Venice is well-known for it's seafood, and we certainly took advantage of that! I tried to eat seafood at every meal, if at all possible. 


The photos below are from a lunch at a small, casual restaurant and from a more fancy dinner place, Osteria Oliva Nera. Oliva Nera was recommended to us, but we figured we'd never find it -- as we forgot to look it up before we got to Venice and had no internet service. We were walking around for dinner, turned a corner -- and there it was. We were very fortunate to have stumbled upon it, as it was a great recommendation!

Paul's lunchtime pasta with squid ink. Delicious. 

My lunchtime pasta with mussels and shrimp

Dinner appetizer: fried zucchini flowers with a little cheese on the inside. Paul now loves zucchini flowers.

Homemade olives at Oliva Nera...I don't even like olives that much, and I ate all of them.

Paul's perfectly cooked whitefish.

My rabbit gnocchi. Out of control. 

Semifreddo for dessert, with assorted berries. Absolutely divine. 

There may or may not have been a few free shots of limoncello and orangecello. And we left with a small bottle of their homemade olive oil, which I am saving for some stressful time where I just need to transport myself back to Italy via food. 

Gelato!

Yes, Paul does look like he's giving a new report from Piazza San Stefano using his cone as a microphone. I'll let it slide since he's taking the photo. 

Siena

We spent a day and a half or so in Siena while on our Italy vacation. In addition to strolling around town, we sampled some delicious food -- including a local specialty, panforte. The slice we picked up had nuts and figs. It was sweet, chewy and quite tasty.


We also had started picking up tomatoes, bread, basil and cheese as we traveled around to snack on in between meals. We tried some pecorino fresco early on (I think in Rome? We bought a lot of cheese!), and were hooked. It's a great soft and tangy cheese, aged much less than regular pecorino. I'm on the hunt for it, so if anyone knows where to find it -- please do share!

Risotto with a soft, mild cheese and zucchini

Paul's mushroom gnocchi

The infamous panforte

Some delicious cheese we tasted in a shop, and bought immediately (see below)

Our late afternoon snack!

Florence: Round 2

We spent two days in Florence, then left to go Montalcino and Siena, before returning to Florence for one last night. We stumbled on a cute, small restaurant that evening, and were really impressed with the homey, rustic food we were served. Paul had ordered a ribollita the first night we were in Florence, and I had been itching to get a plate of it myself.  Lucky me -- they had some on the menu. I'm now hooked on ribollita and can't wait to make it again!

Delicious cheese tortelli

Ribollita! Warm, hearty...it was everything I hoped for and more.

Homemade tiramisu

Food in Florence

While Florence wasn't first on our trip, I think it was when we realized we hadn't been taking photos of all the delicious food we were eating! Hence, it comes first in the Italy posts. 

We had a great meal on our second night in Florence. Paul and I spent a lot of time on vacation wandering around, trying to find someplace to eat or grab a glass of wine. We had been strolling around Florence, and came across Cibreo. The restaurant was full, and they were only able to seat us if we shared a table with another group. We were hungry, and the food looked great -- so we went for it. 

We ended up both ordering first and second courses...and a dessert. The sides were "a surprise!" (i.e. picked by the kitchen staff to accompany our second course). Enjoy!

Paul's first: it was a thick, stew that tasted just like minestrone. Delish!

My first: polenta with olive oil and freshly grated Parmsean.

Paul's main: guanciale

Paul's side: a broccoli mousse

My main: a cuttlefish dish, with a sauce made from squid ink (I assumed so, because of the color)

My side: a beet salad! It's like they knew I was coming.

The remains of our dessert. I think it was panna cotta?

My Life for the Last Week

Yup. This has been my life (along with soups, stews and overcooked pasta) for the last week or so after having dental surgery. I feel bad that I was so energized after returning from Italy, only to fall flat on my face and not really cook anything since we've been back. I'm hoping that I'll be back to eating real food within the next couple days and can get back to cooking!


In the meantime, I'll try to update with Italy food photos amid my ice packs. 

Riobollita

I've been dying to make our own version of ribollita after having it while we were in Italy. This week ended up being perfect for it, as I'm on a temporary soft food diet while some dental work heals. 

Lots of people had comments on the ingredients, what should be included, excluded, etc. I made the recipe as listed, but instead of adding in bread crumbs, I added some Italian bread (about 2 - 3 thick slices), ripped into big pieces. I added them in at the end, and it helped thicken everything up into more of a stew. 

I topped it with a little freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Totally delicious...even if I was gumming down everything. I think you could mix up and add some other vegetables (I'm envisioning squash) if you wanted, maybe cutting down a little on the cannellini beans.