Mojitos are a refreshing cocktail made with mint, lime, rum and sparkling water or tonic.
Mojitos
Savory Fig & Feta Tart with Caramelized Onions
As you know from my last post, my fig tree is busting with fruit so in a attempt to keep up with its bounty I have been making this Savory Fig & Feta Tart. I serve it as the antipasta course alongside an Arugula salad. It is an elegant dish made with a pie crust or puff pastry as its base topped with fig jam and caramelized onions that are finished in balsamic vinegar. Then it is sprinkled with crumbled feta cheese and fresh sliced figs. It was beautiful and a big hit!
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Homemade Fig Jam
It’s mid September and the current “fruit of the Season” here in Italy is figs! We have a large fig tree on our property and I have been walking past the fig tree for months eyeing the dangling figs, I reach up and squeeze one hoping it would be ripe but the waiting continued. Finally it is fig season and they are ripe and ready for harvesting.
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Mexican Seven Layer Bean Dip
All summer long this was my “beach day” staple. Every “Fun Friday” we packed up the beach bag, sun umbrella, sunscreen, water socks, sunglasses and volleyball and headed out to the beach to soak up some rays with the rest of the Italians. Into my cooler went a couple of Peroni (beers), waters, Shrimp Cabbage Dip and Mexican Seven Layer bean dip. It was just so easy to prepare, pack and eat on the beach.
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Our Roadtrip to Calabria, Last Stop: Monasterace, Bivongi and Stilo
I loved our stay in Tropea and snorkeling in the clear turquoise water of Capo Vaticano, but it’s time to go and continue the adventure. Next on our itinerary is Monasterace, an ancient seaside city about two hours from Tropea straight across the instep, from the top to the bottom of the sole. We decided to take the mountain pass and we were not disappointed. It was so surprising to start our climb and leave behind the tired roads of the coastal area of Calabria and enter into a totally different world.
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Our Road Trip in Calabria, next stop: Tropea
The time has come to depart Crotone for our next destination of Tropea. This region of Calabria is called the “Coast of the Gods” because it is white sand beaches, turquoise waters and volcanic rock. There is a beach in Zambrone called Paradiso del Sub that we spent a delightful day lying in the white sand of the free beach, swimming in the warm turquoise water and snorkeling along the rugged volcanic coastline.
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Our Road Trip in Calabria, First Stop: Crotone
We crossed from the Puglia region at the heal of the boot to Calabria at the “toe”. Our first stop was to visit some friends in Crotone, an unassuming city in the “instep” of the boot. Our impression of all beach towns in Italy is that they are a little rough around the edges. Aside from the beautiful cities of Amalfi and the Cinque Terra, or our beautiful beach cities of Sperlonga and Gaeta, which still look “picture perfect” Italian. From the beaches just south of Rome all the way down to Calabria, the beachside cities are less than ideal looking.
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Alberobello, the beautiful conical houses in Pulgia, Italy
We continue our journey down into southern Italy, we say “goodbye” to the surprisingly beautiful and ancient city of Matera in the region of Basilicata and make our way to Alberobello in Pulgia. I had heard about Alberobello, the small city with the “picture perfect” Trulli houses with conical roofs and wanted to see it for myself.
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The Ancient Cave City of Matera
Ever since our move further south in Italy I have been looking forward to exploring the Southern regions of Italy. I have only been as far south as the Amalfi Coast and now I’m ready to explore further. The perfect opportunity came when a friend invited Jeff to give a talk and to stay with him in Calabria.
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Wild Boar, Cows on the Loose and Rabbit Stew
It’s mid August and my vegetable garden is rewarding my earlier summer efforts with copious amounts of cucumber, tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, green beans, eggplant, basil and parsley. I asked my neighbor down the hill how her garden was doing and she told me the Cinghiale got her garden! Cinghiale (pronounced: Chen-gall-aye) are wild boars that roam the forests using their snouts to forage for grubs in the soft soil, “The Cinghiale destroyed your garden?!” I gasp while asking increduolously. “The Cinghiale are around here?” “Si”, she responds with eyes wide open “A BIG one with nine babies!” “What?!?” I start thinking about my garden just up the hill from her, I imagine a enormous wild boar with big tusks rummaging through my garden followed by her nine babies. I ask her if the wild boar can be hunted because I also started to imagine a big bowl of steaming pasta in a rich Cinghiale Ragu. “No” she replies, the season for boar is closed but in the fall it will reopen.
