Lunch with the cousins... this was my day yesterday, 24 March...
Ciao, it is really beautiful here today. I am in capris and a tshirt with the doors and windows open in my cute little apt Tre Palme. It is just about 150 steps up from la fontana, the little roundabout by the fortessa.
Cousin Rina (my mother's first cousin) picked me up at la fontana at 10 this morning, and I visited with her and Angelo for an hour or so before we ate. I kept thinking what a great use for Twitter... she is taking the marinate beef cutlets out and dredging them in flour before frying! She is patting out little "crescentini" to fry in the oil after the first is cooked! She is putting about 4 slices of salami on a crescentini and giving it to me saying mangia! I am being a little silly here, but this is exactly what it is like when I visit Rina and Angelo. We ate all the courses including home made beef ravioli that are made with local greens in the mix, and mixed with sugo--a dense, tomatoey meat sauce... yummy fried beefsteaks, artichoke fritatta, and breada foccacia. Then dolci (almond cake and fresh strawberries and kiwi, tossed with a maricino liquer), vino, prosecco, e cafe. I am working with cousin Caroline to get the recipes for the raviolo, and got the recipe for the ripieno (this is the meat and wild greens mix that goes inside the ravioli). Then Rina offered the recipe for the sfoglia (the pasta for the ravioli), and then for the sugo (saucd) per ravioli. I also spent some time putting names to faces for the family pictures for our grandmother's (Emilia Figari) 11 brothers and sisters, born in the late 1800s to the early 1900s.
I told Rina I would like to make a plan, a piano for my time here. We got as far as Sat. i am hiking the Cinque Terre tomorrow, then tomorrow I will go with them (in Angelo's car?) to Montallegro. It was funny because they were talking about going and eating qualcosa, and she kept saying "sporco" so I was laughing and asking que cosa sporco? and they started laughing and she said she doesn't like eating in restaurants because they are sporco. Too funny.
Rina and I walked through her garden and everything is so green, and flowers and buds, and everything covered with thick, long, green grass and weeds. She found so many greens that she told me she uses in the ravioli or other uses, and picked some lilies. She and I drove up to Foggia and to Elisa's and her father's graves and she changed the flowers for the lilies. They are both in the cemetery at the Foggia church--I hadn't been to that one. In 2003 she took us to the Montepegli church. There, we saw lots of Figaris and Aratas and Arditos (our family and Rose's) and at the Foggia cemetery today I saw lots of Costas.
Then we went to Elisa's house... I love that house and its rooms and terraces and trees and groves... I asked Rina about the land, where it goes, what the boundaries are, etc. She picked so many herbs--almost all of them that you need for ravioli. She picked some oranges for me (I already have a huge bag of leftovers from lunch, fresh eggs from her chickens, tomatoes, a whole, small cake, artichoke frittata, carne fritta, pane, prosecco:).
There is so much to say about this land, this beautiful but old home and orchards and farm where Rina and her sister Maria grew up. Elisa and her husband Giacomo Costa, their parents and relatives before them, all created a wonderful, fruitful paese that is now sitting still, until the next generation comes to work the land.
This is the sixth time I have visited this place... 1981, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2010, and now in 2011.
Ciao, tutti, here are some pictures from the day...
 |
| Rina and Angelo and the ravioli |
 |
| On Rina and Angelos' porch |
 |
| Rina and the ravioli press.... recipes on the table |
 |
| Elisa's house |
 |
| Elisa's house |
 |
| Elisa's house looking to al mare |
 |
| The herbs for ravioli |
 |
| Elisa's house |
 |
| The view from Elisa's house |
 |
| Elisa's house |
 |
| Elisa's house |
 |
| Air plants and the view from Elisa's house |
