October rose

This was blooming in the warm shade this early October afternoon...

Church and Flag

There was even a giraffa flag at the gateway
to the basilica of San Francesco--
the contrada was really leaving their mark today.

Giraffe Territory

The contrada Giraffa won the palio this last August.
Their flags are still flying all over their neighborhood.
As I walked through these streets this afternoon
(on my way to my own church services)
they were preparing for some kind of neighborhood party--
they were setting up DJs and decorations
and lots of tables in the piazza in front of the big church.
The flags looked gorgeous in the afternoon sun.

Making Fresh Pasta

Making fresh pasta is not hard,
but it does take some time.
After mixing the dough and dividing it into balls
it is left to rest and rise for 10 minutes,
and then it is flattened into sheets.
First it is patted into a flattish square,
and then fed through the rollers of the pasta machine:

It has to go through ten times.
Each time the rollers are re-set from 10 to 9 to 8 and so on down to 1,
making the distance between the rollers smaller,
and the pasta is rolled out in thinner and thinner sheets.

After that, the pasta can be cut--
in rounds with filling in between, for ravioli,
or in long strips for fettucine.
We folded the pasta sheets and then cut them.

Here are the fresh pasta 'heaps' of linguine
ready to go into the boiling salted water.
It cooks for 3 minutes, and then gets taken out and put in the sauce.

Nando, our chef instructor,
says to always put the pasta in the sauce
(not the sauce on the pasta)
because this way the pasta absorbs the sauce flavors better.
Today's pasta was green with pureed parsley,
and the sauce was a clam and sauteed vegetable sauce....
YUM!

Four Course Lunch #2

What was for lunch today?
We started with bruschetta:

Next we had fresh homemade linguine pasta
with clam sauce
(this was my absolute favorite,
I could have eaten another plate full!)

Then we had fish.
I don't know what the name of the fish is in English;
it was a Mediterranean fish,
white and firm and mild.
The sauce over it was called 'aqua pazza'
(literally, 'crazy water')
because there was some red chili pepper in it.
Apparently it's a Neapolitan dish.

Dessert was lemon cream
topped with berry sauce.

I want to have a dinner party when I get home
and try to make some of these things again--
if I can get a pasta maker!

Street Performers

I like street performers and artists and musicians.
They cheer up my world!

Pork Sandwich

At a roast meat stall,
an entire pig had been stuffed and roasted.
The cute young man there cut me some slices
and put them on a roll,
and I took it home for lunch--
on my cute new tablecloth that I bought at the market.