A pecorino cheese label from Pienza, Italy.So when they arrived, they had a bunch of goodies to share! First up was the pecorino cheese. They had enjoyed some fine pecorino and brought back two small ones to eat with us. The first was flavored with black pepper and the second was flavored with truffles. They were great -- the truffle one was my favorite.
Ken had stocked us up on French cheeses for their stay, so we had a terrific platter of cheese on the table every day during the week. There was goat's , cow's, and sheep's cheese, something for everybody.
The dried porcini mushroom box.They also brought a package of dried porcini mushrooms. They must have remembered that we like to have dried 'shrooms in the house for cooking. We usually buy mass quantities of dried mushrooms in Paris when we do a run to the Asian supermarket. Porcini are the Italian equivalent of French cèpes, and we're eager to taste them.
Pici pasta.And last, but not least, is the bag of pasta called pici that they brought. It's long strands of durum semolina, much thicker than spaghetti, and it looks just gorgeous. We're thinking up good ways to sauce it for a meal real soon. Stay tuned!
Walt
ReplyDeleteFunny coincidence, I did a term paper about the main square in Pienza for an architectural history class at RPI. One of the Renaissance popes came from there and spent a few Lire on sprucing up the quite small town.
Try a tomato-based wild pork (boar) sauce with the pici ... that's popular in the region.
My security code for this post is "scusi" which sounds like excuse me in Italian.
What wonderful treats! And the best---you have friends to share them with. That makes everything taste so much better. Most of our friends think we eat weird most of the time.
ReplyDeleteThat's good eating, yes? Two of my favorite things in the world are porcini and pecorino.
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