Taverna Di Cecco (no known website) I am never sure what the restaurant owners are told on the phone when reservations are made by our new friends, but this guy was definitely told something about us reviewing restaurants on our blog because as we left he asked us to give him a good review. Well here it is! The restaurant is near the jousting stadium just this side of the bridge at Porta Maggiore. I had looked at this place several times when we walk to/from the train station, but could never make out just what kind of place it was. Lucky for us it is a tavern with incredible food, and the decor is reminiscent of Mideval times. Upon arrival we were directed up a steep set of steps to a private little tree-house sort of area just big enough for a table, two benches and a chair. We only had to traverse those steps twice during the evening but the waiter, waitress and owner that served us must be in really good shape as they were constantly running up and down them. When we sat down and ordered the water and wine, they brought antipasto. Larry and I assumed that at most we might order a pizza, but that would be it. We were not aware that Cinzia had ordered a “menu degustazione” which is a sampling of the typical dishes they have on the menu (what we’d call grazing). So the beautifully presented, loving made dishes just kept coming and the feast went something like this. House Rosso Piceno Antipasto: Prosciutto, homemade bread, tomato bruschetta Primi & Secondi: Carpaccio with parmesan and parsley Speck with fennel and lemon Potato leek soup with truffle Raviolis stuffed with ricotta and spinach in a butter cream sauce Timballo (what lasagna is called in Ascoli) made with crepes instead of pasta sheets, ground meat (I think pork), peas and besciamella Dolce: Plate with tasting of three desserts – panna cotta w/caramel, tiramisu, crepe filled with Nutella Vino cotto (traditional dessert wine of the area) with cantucci to dip in...

GRACE’S HALLOWEEN MENU Grace (who was born in Australia and has lived here for 30 years) and Cinzia had returned only the day before from a trip to Dublin, therefore, the Irish twist to this delicious menu. Proseco and wines Antipasto: Gaetana’s Dip – this was a layered dip with cream cheese, tomatoes, olives and other wonderful things. Some guests had brought three fresh sausages to spread on bread or crackers. One was plain, one was liver and one was very spicy. I tried the first two and they were wonderful. Primi: Pumpkin Soup with Fresh Herbed Scones (and Irish butter) Secondi: Guinness Stew with Boiled Potatoes (and Irish butter) Dolce: Irish Tea Brack – which is more of a bread than a cake and is made with tea, currents and raisins. This was also incredible the next morning toasted with butter or marscapone cheese. Chocolate Tart made by one of the guests and various candies. Caffe and British Tea ARLENE’S DINNER FOR SIX Lasagna is one of Larry’s favorite meals. When in Bologna the week before we had the most delicious Verde Lasagna Bolognese. They make their lasagna different from any I’ve ever had. First, there is just a small amount of tomato, bechamel sauce (besciamella in Italian), lots of ground meat, Parmesan cheese, and as many layers as you can get in the dish of very thin fresh pasta sheets. Never is there any garlic, ricotta or mozarella cheese found in this dish. Of course, there are as many recipes for the bolognese sauce as there are cooks but I used Marcella Hazan’s recipe that cooks a total of six hours. Okay I got impatient at five hours and figured the sauce was not going to benefit from another hour of cooking. I may have been wrong (but I don’t think so) because I made a test dish for our dinner that night and it was a bit bland. I needed to do an Ina Garten on it and ramp the flavor up a bit. So after reviewing several other recipes I decided to add some tomato paste and red wine and cook it down some more – and that worked. So in the future I will...

Caterina’s American Breakfast: I did the typical American thing, making dishes that required out-of-season fruits and vegetables. Blood orange juice Ina’s Garten’s roasted asparagus with scrambled eggs Bacon (pancetta affumicata) Ina’s chive biscuits Ina Garten’s fruit salad with wine and mint Caffe Our first party menu: For our first party menu I decided I wasn’t going to try and out-Italian the Italians with local dishes. Instead I decided to have a traditional American meal served in Italian courses. (Members of our Barefoot Contessa Supper Club should recognize, and even may have cooked, some of these recipes.) I started cooking dishes on Wednesday and had a delightful time in my new kitchen for three days. By spreading it out I didn’t have to make but three dishes each day, yet everything was fresh. Everyone seemed to appreciate it because when I put a new course on the buffet table there was a loud “Ahhhhhhh” and many took photographs. I finally had to tell them to stop photographing and start eating because the food was getting cold. Wines, beer, Coca Cola Antipasto: Ina Garten’s panfried onion dip with chips and veggies Ina’s roasted rosemary cashews Ina’s crostini with tuna tapenade Arlene’s deviled eggs Ed Mayes’ crostini neri Frances Mayes’ red peppers melted with balsamic vinegar Primi: Arlene’s baked beans Secondi: Hamburgers and Hot Dogs with all the fixings Contori: Ina’s blue cheese cole slaw Dolci: Ina’s hot apple crisp served with vanilla gelato from a local shop Digestivo: Lemoncello, Meletti & Averna liquors...

Update – Country House San Giorgio (click here to go to website) On the first really hot Sunday since we’ve been here (and it has continued) we were trying to think where to go that might be cooler and a great way to spend an afternoon.  Of course, we thought of Country House San Giorgio up in the hills outside of town.  We looked at the bus schedule and it said we’d get to their town about 1:15, so we emailed our landlord/Italian angel, Caterina, for reservations for 1:30.  She emailed back that she wasn’t sure the bus ran on Sunday and if 12:30 was okay her father, Peppe, would pick us up.  We hated to impose but we really wanted to spend the afternoon there, so we accepted their incredibly kind offer, again. When we arrived at 12:45 there were patrons already parking their cars.  We took “our table” in the garden and before long there were more than 40 of us to feed, which included a table of 20.  As before there were children of all ages and a dog, but being in the country there was lots of room to run around.  It was still hot, but not as hot as in the city.  We didn’t care because we didn’t have to lift a finger while the Frollo family and hunky Cesare worked really hard in the oppressive heat.  I don’t know if I mentioned before that they do not put the platters of food on the table until they have served everyone individually.  Daniela put on an impressive feast that day, which is why they are #4 on TripAdvisor.  They’d be higher if they were in the town. This is also the other restaurant that will not let you pay a penny over the tab. We started with cold bottles of water and a crisp local white wine.  The usual basket of bread was replaced by a beautiful handmade satchel of linen and tied with ribbon with rolls in it.  You never see butter on a table in Italy. Antipasto: Very thinly sliced beef (cured) w/pine nuts Black rice salad w/onion, carrots, zucchini, white raisins and pine nuts Ascoli mixed fried plate – stuffed olives,...

Update – Ristorante Piccolo Teatro (click here to go to website) This is the restaurant we went to our very first night in Ascoli that is literally a half block away (and was once owned by the Frollos).  We didn’t expect them to be open on Sunday night, but as we walked by the owner was standing in the door and invited us in even though it was only 7:45. I believe in this case that the husband is the in the kitchen and the wife takes care of the customers.  Maybe because of all the people in town for the Quintana, they were open, and they are very smart because when we left almost all the 30 seats were taken.  Piccolo Teatro is rated #3 on TripAdvisor for good reason. We only had two courses but they were fabulous.  I love giving you the Italian name of each dish from their menu because they are the longest item titles I’ve ever seen.  It’s not that we can read every word but enough to have an idea what it is and the rest is a surprise. First a cold bottle of water and a nice local vino rosso. Antipasto: I ordered:  Flan di pecorino di fossa di sogliano dop e fungi porcini freschi dai boschi della laga.  A flan of pecorino (sheep’s milk) cheese with a sauce of cream and porcini mushrooms. OMG! Larry ordered:  Millefoglie con cremosita al marscarpone e basilico, ratatouille di pomodorini e miele alla cannella.  Shards of puff pastry (a million leaves) with a marscarpone/basil cream and pieces of tomato flavored with honey and cinnamon between them.  Fabulous! Secondo: Both of us had:  Roast beef di vitellone marchigiano cotto all inglese con ruchetta e vellutata di tenera ascolana.  Wonderful choice for the end of a hot day.  Very thin slices of rare beef from the best white cows served slightly chilled, with arugula and what was like a creamy olive pesto. (Not like a tapenade, it was pulverized and mixed with cream or cheese.)  I’m out of adjectives! After our second bottle of cold water we left and walked the piazzas which were buzzing with activity until late in the...

Some of my foodie friends have asked “what have you cooked?” Well, the answer is nothing. Honestly, I have turned on a burner twice in five weeks. Once to cook scrambled eggs because we haven’t found anyone serving that kind of breakfast yet. The second time was to heat up some left over pasta that we were too full to eat that Peppe saved for us after Sunday pranza. (It was so cute. Caterina, who has traveled in the U.S., said when she handed it to us that she thought the American practice of “doggie bags” was a good one.) Sometimes I fix cappuccino and cereal or heat up a roll in the microwave for breakfast and make cheese, meat and fruit platters some evenings. The food is so good and the prices are so reasonable that we just go out. I know this can’t last but we haven’t made it to EVERY restaurant yet and we want to be able to give accurate first-hand recommendations to visitors. Plus I’m collecting data on new dishes to cook later. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. So this is also why I have not done a post on the farmer’s market. We are a large enough city that there are fresh food stands at the cloister every morning but more and a larger variety on Wednesday and Saturday market days. Plus you have all the Wal-Mart on wheels stands on those days. I have walked around and looked a the lovely produce but have only purchased tomatoes, fresh eggs (I know because the hen was in a crate next to the eggs), peaches and those luscious big green figs like my Aunt Fannie use to grow. Some of the ladies are quite aggressive and want you to buy from them. I have lied and told them I don’t have a kitchen (non cucina). Other qualifiers: Pasta – this is a country of pasta (many brands are produced in Marche) and they are all good and all cooked perfectly al dente with a variety of sauces are wonderful and endless. We have to eat one that is truly exceptional for it to stand out enough to warrant blog space. So...

Repeat Customers May we recommend, if you find yourself a stranieri in Italy, when you go to any establishment and the product is good and the service okay – return. Italians have a great memory for faces and I can’t remember ever not being recognized on the 2nd or 3rd visit to an establishment. By the 3rd visit, you are treated like royalty as they cherish repeat customers. Tipping There is no expectation to receive a tip in Italy as people are paid a living wage. However, in tourist areas they have been spoiled and are more than willing to take one. I mean, if you hand someone money, most people will take it. But beware of offending in non-tourist areas and restaurants serving mostly locals. We have actually had two restaurants refuse to take a penny more than the bill. One benefit of the no tipping approach, which is seen some places in the U.S., is that you get better service. One waiter may take your order, another may serve you, any waiter that passes your table will remove whatever items you are finished with, a different one may check to see if you want dessert, and yet another may bring your check. Whomever is available at the time is at your service. The Check Slow service is good service here. Outside the tourist area restaurants do not expect to turn their tables in an evening and Italians do not plan to leave their tables in less than two or three hours. Italians do not arrive for dinner until 8:30 PM earliest and it is quite common for them to arrive after 10 PM on a weeknight with small children. So in tourist areas a restaurant could have a sitting at 7:30 PM of tourists and another sitting of Italians at the same table at 10 PM if they played it right. You can spend all night in a restaurant and you will not get the check until you ask for it – it is considered impolite to rush the customers – and, hopefully, the longer customers stay the more courses they will order. Alcohol Alcohol is everywhere, and I mean everywhere. We went into a bookstore the...

Country House San Giorgio

By Larry & Arlene on Jul 16, 2013 in Food | 2 comments

Country House San Giorgio (click here to go to website) You may have heard me say before we left the U.S. that we were very excited that the landlord of our apartment for the first two months, the beautiful Caterina, worked with her parent’s in their restaurant. I had hoped it was close to the apartment but it actually is located up in the hills a fifteen minute ride out of town which would require a cab ride. We decided to have Sunday lunch (pranza Domenica) at Country House San Giorgio Ristorante. Several people we had met in the last two weeks knew Caterina and said her mother, Daniela, is an excellent chef and the restaurant outstanding. As often happens in Italy, when we emailed Caterina to make a reservation and ask how long it took by cab to get there, she sent her father, Peppe, to pick us up. We arrived at a beautifully restored stone house set in the middle of nature and surrounded by olive trees. The house is also a B&B with six double rooms available for rent. We arrived at opening time – 12:45 and were the first ones there. We got to meet all of the Frollo family as well as Cesare, the 30-something hunk of a co-owner (photo on the web site). The dining rooms are beautiful and decorated in antiques but we selected a table in the gardens as they day was gorgeous. As is typical of Italian restaurants, soon the garden tables were full of family groups with children of all ages. Each member of the group takes a turn at tending to the little ones so no one gets left out. One group was celebrating the 100th birthday of the family patriarch. From our perfect viewing location, we just enjoyed taking it all in while enjoying an incredible meal typical of the area. No menu, everyone eats the meal of the day. Chef Frollo has that wonderful ability to use just enough (quanto basta) ingredients in each dish to make it complex yet not overpower the main ingredient. – First water, bread and a nice crisp local white wine – Passerina. – Then the antipasto, each dish delivered just...

Ascoli has a few food specialties: Ascolana – Ascolan olives stuffed with meat and then lightly battered and fried. They are way better than they sound. Aribitta – grilled lamb on a stick Rosso Piceno – made from Multipulciano grapes. Fact: The town of Multipulciano in Tuscany, which is famous for it’s Vin Noblie, is actually made from Sangiovese grapes. Talk about staying open to change – Larry is unrecognizable by his eating habits. He is not just eating, but ordering vegetables. I had to point out to him after the first three days that, other than the salumi we purchased in the Saturday market, he had not eaten any meat – only pasta and vegetables. He said he’s eaten more olives in the last two weeks than in his whole life. We went to a fish (pesce) only restaurant one night and he not only ate the shrimp (gamberetti) but the steamed clams (vongole) in the shell and attacked the small lobsters (langostine) and then deboned his own dover sole entree. His mother, who wouldn’t touch anything from the sea, would have been horrified. But the new Larry is...

Ristorante Piccolo Teatro  (click here to go to website) We’ve been very lucky with food this first 10 days – and with no Rick Steves to guide us! We have only had one average meal (pizza) and many excellent ones. You might have heard me say that I did not know how we were ever going to get on the Italian meal schedule – dinner at 8:30 earliest. Well, we managed to stay up until 8:00 the first night and have eaten at 8 or 8:30 every night since. The trick is the afternoon aperitif (which always comes with a little bite of something) and then walking for a while after dinner. On our first night in town we were too tired to venture far so we stopped into a place literally in the next building around the corner – Piccolo Teatro. They sat us at a lovely little corner table by the door (our experience has been that if you do not have a reservation you often end up with the table by the door). This restaurant seats 20 people maximum and, off course, the menu was entirely in Italian – a good sign. Fortunately our owner/waitress understood a little English so we managed to order a bottle of local red wine made of Multipulciano grapes – excellent! Larry had an appetizer of a potato and cheese gratin and since I did not want an appitizer, I ate half of it – yum. Then Larry ordered spaghetti carbonara w/porchinni and I ordered a made-on-site pasta with a ragu of wild boar – both heavenly.  Yes, this is the food we came for.  (Description from menu: Spaghetti di Gragnano alla carbonara modificata con tartufo new estivo & Mafaldine con ragu di cinghiale.) Suddenly the wine hit me and I was honestly afraid I might do a face plant in my pasta because I could not keep my eyes open. So I went straight back to the apt and fell into bed while Larry walked over to see the Piazza del Popolo lighted at night and had his first...