I’m pretty sure everyone is pretty familiar with Italian food, so not a lot of surprises here. Still, in the interest of the blog, we ate as much pizza, pasta, and desserts as we could!! What we (Grady) did NOT eat though was the very traditional Verona dish of horse stew! First of all, it sounded disgusting, but more importantly, Grady figured my mom might never speak to him again if he ate horse!
Gnocchi - . Potato-based variations of pasta which originated in northern Italy where potatoes thrived, making them a cheap and filling staple for peasants when grain was scarce. Mine was made with vegetables and some kind of light olive oil based sauce - definitely not the peasant version!
Pasta topped with Prosciutto - the tradition of dry-curing ham dates back thousands of years to the Roman Empire. Grady's was served over pasta with cheese. He definitely enjoyed it!
Involtini di melanzane - a classic Italian dish made of thinly sliced eggplant that is rolled around a cheese filling, then baked in tomato sauce. It is essentially a lighter, easier-to-assemble alternative to traditional eggplant parmesan.
Gubana - a traditional Italian sweet bread from northeastern Italy. It's spiral shaped and filled with nuts, dried fruits, and spices.
Risotto and Salamella Sausage - Risotto originated in the marshes of Northern Italy and Salamella is a coarsely ground pork sausage also Northern Italy. Grady is loving all the Italian food!
Cherries - I know, we have plenty of cherries at home! But cherry harvest is a really big deal here! Italian towns celebrate the harvest with multi-week festivals known as sagre. And the cherries were really yummy!
Chiusoni Galluresi pasta with Zucchini Flowers - We made this in our cooking class and it was so stinking good! The pasta is made with just semolina flour and water. The sauce was mostly just pecorino and cracked black pepper. We are definitely making this again when we get home!
Tiramisu - a no-bake dessert with layers of espresso-soaked ladyfingers and a cream made from mascarpone cheese, eggs, and sugar. It originated from the Veneto region of northeastern Italy and translates literally to "pick me up" for the energizing combination of caffeine and sugar. We made this in our cooking class and it was so easy and so delicious!
Affogato - Yummy dessert of high quality vanilla ice cream served with a shot of espresso on the side that you pour over the ice cream. You can eat most of it with a spoon, then drink whatever is fully melted. Really good!
Bruschetta - Everyone knows what bruschetta is... but we could hardly leave it off our photos of Italian foods!
Macaroons - Early almond and egg-white cookies were originally made in Venetian monasteries in the 8th century. In 1533 some Italian chic married the king of France and brought the macaroon recipe to France. And after that the French claimed macaroons as their own. Thieves!
Cannoli - Yet another Italian dessert that I'm pretty sure everyone is familiar with. We sacrificed ourselves and had one just for the sake of getting a picture for the blog!
Cicchetti - Venice's version of tapas or pintxos (which we had back in Segovia). They are bite-sized savory snacks, such as crostini topped with creamed cod, fried meatballs, or marinated seafood, traditionally enjoyed alongside a glass of wine or a spritz. We did some grazing through Venice!!