Someone should make a movie about a girl who travels to Italy and learns how to cook from an amazing, olive-tree climbing Italian woman. What could be better than watching someone cook pasta and other delicious Italian food for 2 1/2 hours? Oh yeah. Eating it. But seriously. It's a sure hit. Target audience: 20-something to 50-something year old women. Or just women in general. The men are probably falling asleep even reading this...
Tonight's blog is especially for my mom, who taught me how to cook and who's kitchen remains the most fun to spend time in. There are four people staying at the B&B tonight, two couples, so we were in the kitchen preparing and eating for about 3 hours. The nights when there are guests are my absolute favorites, because those are the nights in the kitchen. I found out, incidentally, that the local tourist agency recommends La Gavina to people looking for a place to stay, and that's why Lorena and Sergio often have tourist groups who have not reserved rooms. It's a very nice surprise.
Today I learned two things: 1. You should never put salt into water before it's already boiling because it slows down the boil. Always add salt after the water is already boiling, before adding the pasta (or other foods, but what else is there?) 2. When you chop/crush garlic, do it on top of a little pool of salt. It helps the flavor. I'm not sure why because there were a few Italian words in there I didn't quite get, but I trust Lorena and that's what she showed me. Mom, you're probably nodding your head because you already knew these things... I've watched the cooking channel with you for 26 years, including Giada De Laurentiis in all of her cleavage's glory, but somehow I've missed these two critically important factoids!
So, tonight we made something called "pici"- which is basically just thick spaghetti, and bears a striking resemblance to soba noodles. Anyway, of course, very tasty. Lorena also made fried artichokes and potatoes (aka french fries but fried tempura-style). So good. And I made the bruschetta! Three kinds - pesto, mushroom, and traditional tomato/basil. Also dessert - the same one we had last time, which was delicious yet again.
Please note - it's not all so glam: I did spend an hour today shoveling chicken - um - waste... which we will use as fertilizer for the plants. In addition, Lorena has now lent me a pair of boots to wear while I'm
working near the olive trees so that when the snakes try to bite my feet I will be amply protected. So, let's review... the snakes, who I'm terrified of, will definitely be slithering around near my feet, but I don't have to worry about that anymore because now I have boots to protect me. Green boots. Those boots better be the boots of heros. They better release spikes on demand. I'll let you know how that goes after tomorrow. But anyway, the waste shoveling is definitely worth it when the pay-off is learning how to cook this way, and the snakes just... might be... I can't say more, lest I regret it. While I was walking today (I took a walk without getting tremendously lost! I only walked in the wrong direction for 10 minutes this time...) I was thinking about how maybe the snakes know that I've been saying all of these mean things about them, and maybe they're planning a retaliation. Sorry, snakes. Please don't eat me.
Anyway, basta pasta. Basta snakes. Now sleep. Tomorrow pasta, again.
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