Italian Goodies

Our friends from California, who spent last week here, were in Italy during the week just before. They spent some time in Florence and some time in a smaller town called Pienza.

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!