Taste of Cortona #5: A taste of two pastas!

Penne with fresh tomato sauce shares a plate with fettuccine al funghi 

You gotta love the Italians: if one pasta with a fabulous sauce is good, then two of 'em must be better! I always love watching people new to "The Cortona Experience" as they realize the heaping pile of pasta they have just been served is going to be followed by a second one  of a different shape and sauce -- they just can't quite believe it. This happens often at special dinners at Tonino's -- and I'm glad it does! There are never enough days for me in my limited trips here to try every combination I fancy, so I always do my best to join the "clean plate club".  Not only is my tongue quite happy with the experience, but it is a lot of fun to try to decide which I like better ("I think definitely this fresh tomato sauce . . . no -- wait, this fresh fettuccine with the subtle hint of mushrooms . . . how DO they make it so creamy without tasting too heavy? . . . Hmmm, maybe I like the simplicity of the tomato sauce against the al dente of the penne. . .") My mind argues with itself as my taste buds dance with delight.


And this is JUST the second course!

A Taste of Cortona, Installment #4: Abundant , Ambrosial Blood Oranges!

Blood oranges on display outside a Cortona store

Blood oranges are as beautiful as they are delicious. I never saw or tasted one until I was well into adulthood, and "my first time" I was as entranced by their ruby-to-orange-back-to-ruby color as I was by their sweet tartness.  Here in Georgia they can be hard to find, but in Italy they are abundant.  I love strolling down Via Nazionale in Cortona and seeing the display of fresh fruits and vegetables lining the old stone walls; I especially love how the sunlight reflects off of the vivid hues of a box of blood oranges. I can't resist: I purchase one to take back to my room, where later I cut it open and sink my teeth into its juicy  flesh. I love that this a pleasure but not a guilty one. I love to lick the crimson droplets off of my lips. I love how this fruit is as much a feast for the eyes as for my tongue. It's as if I have bitten into the Italian sun and swallowed some of its unique warmth and purity.

The fruit is so red that my white shirt is tracked with scarlet stains -- a typically "Del" sort of souvenir of my Cortona visit!

I will attempt a painting of this photograph soon -- I look forward to capturing the vivid color in pure pigment. I know that as I am pushing and stroking the pigment onto the paper my  mouth will water as my mind recalls this bright taste of Cortona.

Bacon & Eggs Pizza: Inspired or Absurd?

Bacon and Eggs Pizza from FuFluns in Cortona, Italy.

OK, it is time for me to get back to telling you about my amazing meals in Cortona this past spring. (Thank goodness I have photos to remind me what they were!) I'm still having a hard time incorporating blogging into my life. (And I used to be such a good  multi-tasker! That talent seems to have been affected by my autoimmune disease.)


FuFluns is one of  my favorite places to eat in Cortona -- it is just down the Via from the main piazza, and you can always depend on it for a good meal. I especially like their pizzas: thin, crispy, tasty crusts, with perfect combination of toppings.


I had been staring at this offering for a number of visits, over a number of years. As you probably know by now, I am a complete bacon FREAK, and I love my fried eggs, too! So it seemed as if this menu item was calling me. Why did I resist for so long? I think because it seemed to be an item aimed at Americans or Brits, and I usually want something very Italian when in Italy. But on this particular visit I was with a young friend, one of the students in the spring semester of UGA's program, and she encouraged me to try it. Since I had a small kitchen back in my apartment that I could heat the leftovers for breakfast the next day I went for it.


And I'm glad I did-- it was wonderfully tasty! Like the best of American food with the best of Italian pizza: the bacon was definitely American bacon, thin and crispy-chewy. While the pizza was still very hot I broke the shimmering yoke and spread it across the hot cheese, where it cooked itself into the hot Italian cheese.  It was like having bacon, eggs and cheese toast all in one bite (but the toast was the best toast ever made!) 


It was even better for breakfast the next morning; toasting it in my apartment's oven brought the crust back to its crunchy goodness, crisped up the limp bacon, and warmed the eggs and cheese into a gooey-chewy morning delight.


This is so good that I am surprised we don't see it offered more often here in the States. I think Waffle House should invest in a wood-fired pizza oven!

A Taste of Cortona: Installment #1: Turkey is NOT just for Thanksgiving!



First night's antipasta: thinly sliced turkey,asparagus and carrots with some sort of Bechamel-type sauce. Incredible!

I just recently returned from Cortona, Italy, where I was privileged to lead a workshop on creating your own travel journal as part of your travel experience. This was one of the offerings of the University of Georgia's "Cortona Experience", an annual 10-day trip to Cortona, Italy that enables its participants to be immersed in this wonderful Tuscan Hill Town and its environs. The trip was truly a "Cortona Experience", jam-packed with excursions, demonstrations, cooking classes, wine tastings, and wonderful meal after wonderful meal.  I may post some of my journal entries and sketches later, but since I made an effort to record some of these wonderful meals, I thought I would do a series about the FOOD. . . because, after all, I'm all about good food!

The first installment is from our welcoming dinner at Tonino's Restaurant. If you've been to Cortona, you know where Tonino's is: right in Piazza Garibaldi, where you get off the bus (if you've arrived by bus!) If you were a student in the UGA Cortona Studies Program, Tonino's is where you had many a meal. . . but I can promise you, students were never served anything like this!

This was the "opening act" of an over-the-top meal, and it was my favorite course (as well as my cousin Leisa's favorite course.) Had I not been a glutton, I could have happily stopped here.

So simple, yet so sublimely good. Thinly sliced roast turkey (and when I say thin, I mean mandoline-thin!) along with just as thinly sliced asparagus and carrots (just a touch of carrots for color.) I had never seen asparagus sliced length-wise before; it was brilliant. Not only did it look great, but it let your tongue taste the tender greeness of the asparagus as a silky counterpart to the roasted saltiness of the turkey. The sauce was creamy and rich -- just enough of it to wrap everything up in a hedonistic flair. I'm not sure what it was, but it reminded me of Bechamel: not too cheesey, but just enough tang-to-sweetness ratio to make me have to control myself from licking the plate.

And like I said, this was just the first course! It epitomizes to me what is the essence of Italian cooking: emphasis on a few simple but QUALITY ingredients, put together in a pleasing way.

So, I shall savor this taste memory for a while!