A Mediterranean Meal – Salmon, Asparagus, And Delicious Homemade Panzanella

Eliza and crew came down on Sunday to drop off the items Wende brought home from Italy for us and I opted to make yet another Mediterranean meal.  While I don’t usually think of salmon as a Mediterranean dish, it was on several Italian restaurant menus and I wanted a dish that goes with the Panzanella (tomato and bread salad) that I wanted to serve.  Even though we’ve made several Mediterranean Salmon dishes in the past, I did a little web search and found this recipe for Mediterranean Salmon on the “Cuisine With Me” blog and I liked it as I had the ingredients on hand.

Trip to Italy Day 23 –Early Lunch And Sorrento Cooking Class

Just as with the other kids visits, I arranged for a cooking class, at least one wine tasting, and a town visit or in this case, a town stay.  And for our first full day I was up at six am and ready to start my day.  Bev got up a couple of times and went back to bed and finally got up to stay along with Wende at 10:30 am.  About 11:30, Bev was ready to go get a little food so we went down to the Piazza Tasso (the main square) and ate at the Bar Ercolano.  One of her trip desires was to stay in town and walk down the street to eat at a cafe.

Trip to Italy Day 22 Con’t - Beautiful Sorrento

When getting into Sorrento (pop. 15000), we were told by the apartment hostess to come to the main square (Piazzo Tasso) and let Valeria know we were there, which we did.  Per our request, she had arranged for someone to help with the luggage and valet parking for the car and it all went well.  I took these shots of the busy square while awaiting pickup.

One Pot Spring Pasta Primavera

We interrupt our Italy trip at the three fourths point (with Sorrento to come) to say that we got home on May 11, after a 24 hour day, so I’ll be interspersing the trip with normal posts beginning with this one – can you believe it’s pasta – to use some of our asparagus.  The recipe for One Pot Spring Pasta Primavera is courtesy of the “Flavor Of The Moment” blog and I doubled it (as shown below) to use the full pound of pasta and asparagus and to have leftovers. 

Trip to Italy Day 21 & 22 - Orvieto To Rome Airport To Beautiful Sorrento

After a good nights sleep, on Saturday, mid-morning, our very nice hostess, and owner, Sabrina retrieved our car from the parking garage, helped us load up and sent us on our way.  This is a shot of the owner, Sabrina, on the right and her right hand girl, Rita.

Trip to Italy Day 20 - Orvieto - A Planning Mistake

When we decided to visit Orvieto, I didn’t plan on my being in recovery from a cold and Bev still having one plus a strained ankle so I believed we would be able to walk around some.  However, with those problems and the cramped accommodations, we decided to leave on Sat. afternoon rather than early Sun. morning and spend the night near the Rome airport so it would be more convenient to pick up Wende by 9am Sunday morning.  So, we ate the light Italian breakfast on Friday morning then just hung around the apartment on Friday as there was nothing to see or do within a short walk.  I already knew this from our friends but don’t visit the old walled hill towns unless you are willing and able to walk the hilly streets.

 This is from the table on the veranda where I’m sitting to type this in the unseasonably warm weather. 

Trip to Italy Day 18 & 19 - Our Last Day In Castellina And Heading To Orvieto

Day 18 was packing day for us and while I was pretty much well, Bev was still feeling a little rough – the silver lining was that we watched the complete Taylor Sheridan series “Landman” starring Billy Bob Thorton and much of “Tulsa King” starring Sylvester Stallone - so, we flew a few thousand miles and spent more than a few thousand dollars to watch shows we were unlikely to watch at home – duh.

Bev took a few pics around the farmhouse before we left.

Trip to Italy Day 16 & 17 - A Day In Castellina Then Goodbye

Since Rhett & Beth joined us after cruising across the Atlantic and spending time in France and England they were ready for an easy day before flying home so they just kicked around in Castellina for the day – they had been gone for 24 Days.  We made reservations for them at the Squarcialupi Taverne (Castellina’s best restaurant) while Beverly continued to convalesce and I stayed with her.  Unfortunately, our dream trip has turned into the trip from hell for her with a chest cold and a sprained ankle and she’s talking about wanting to just go home.

They ate on the taverne veranda overlooking the countryside - the black rooster on the bottle indicates good wine.

Trip to Italy Day 14 & 15 – Cooking Class In Volterra and Return to Florence

The plan for this day was to go to Agriturismo Biologico Diacceroni  near Volterra (75 minute drive) for a pasta and pizza cooking class but since Bev needed to stay off her sprained ankle, I stayed home with her and Rhett and Beth went to the class.  They both took the pasta class.  Here is a shot of the place that I borrowed from the web.

Trip to Italy Day 12 & 13 - So Long Siena and Kathy & Keith and Hello Montepulciano Wine Tasting

After spending most of the day in Siena and having lunch, Kathy and Keith hopped a bus for the Rome airport and Beverly, Rhett, and Beth came to the farmhouse.  With Bev and I still ailing, Beth and Rhett went into Castellina for supper at the I Grani di Squarchialupi (The Grains Of Squarchialupi) – a fresh pasta restaurant.  Their menu has the usual courses: Appetizers, pasta, main course with side dishes, and dessert and unless you are really hungry it's best to just share each course.

Trip to Italy Day 10 & 11 - Agriturismo (Farmhouse) Rocca and On To Siena

The morning of Apr. 22. Kathy, Bev, and Keith made a return trip to Rocca so Keith could meet them and try their wines since he missed our cooking class .  Then Kathy and Keith packed for home and along with Bev, they headed off to Siena to meet up with son Rhett and DIL Beth who were coming in from England.  Kathy and Keith would head for Rome and home after a couple days in Siena and Rhett and Beth would come back to the farmhouse in Castellina.  I was still too sick to go but they ended up with a really nice three BR apartment that overlooked Siena’s Piazza Del Campo ( main public square).  Overhead pic borrowed from the web. 

Trip to Italy Day 9 – Wine Tasting With Lunch And I Can’t Believe I Got Sick

This was one of our usual days with a light breakfast in the apartment then a wine tasting with lunch in yet another Tuscan Wine Region - San Gimignano – where white wines reign made from the Vernaccia grape vs. the Sangiovese grapes used in most Tuscan red wines.  The winery we chose was Il Colombaio Santa Chiara which is located about 3 miles south of the small town of San Gimignano.  The buildings of the winery were originally the San Donato Parish with its parsonage.  The winery was started by one man in the 1950's and now it is run by his three sons. 

A week or so before our trip to Italy, I got the Norovirus then Bev got it and just recovered a couple of days before we left for Italy and now I have a bad cold that has cost me the opportunity to participate in today’s wine tasting and the ability to go to the one city that I wanted to visit – Siena.