Wine tasting at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius

Last night we decided to take a USO trip to do a wine tasting.  After all passengers were picked up we headed toward the Cantina del Vesuvio (http://www.cantinadelvesuvio.it/?lang=en) where we would be tasting the wines that have been produced on this land at the very foot of the famous volcano since 1948. 

The location is nothing less than breathtaking with views of the bay of Naples below and Vesuvius above. The position is perfection for growing the fruits of the gods grapes and olives. 

We met the owner, Maurizio Russo, upon our arrival.  Although Maurizio does not speak English his hospitality and humor come through easily.  His love of this place, but who could blame him, and for the wine and oil produced here shows.

We enjoyed tasting 5 wines including famous Lacryma Christi.  "According to legend recognizing in the Gulf of Naples a patch of sky stolen by Lucifer, Christ began to cry, and where his tears fell there grew the vines of Lacryma Christi." (http://www.cantinadelvesuvio.it/?lang=en) and had a nice simple meal to enhance our tasting experience. 

It was a lovely evening and we made new friends even if they are leaving soon to go back to the US. 

Cin Cin!

Beer can chicken - Did you know?

It has been hot here and turning on the stove has not been high on my want to do list.  I decided that I would make beer can chicken on the grill for Dave and I for dinner along with a pasta salad that I had prepared earlier in the day. 

Much to my dismay after getting all of the prep work done I realized that my grill could not accomodate a chicken sitting upright.  Whatever shall I do? 

Did you know that you can lay the chicken down as if you were doing a regular roast chicken?  I didn't.  It worked great!  Will definately do that again!

The giant squash of Gricignano

Yesterday much to my joy my landlord Andrea appeared at my apartment door with a bag in hand.  Now, this is not an unusual occurence as my landlords are incredibly generous with not only their time and their enthusiasm for life but also with sharing from their garden.

We have, since we moved in, been the recipients of mountains of broccolini, salad greens of all kinds, potatoes, green beans, burtoli beans and tomatoes.  Now though, in late June and early July, is the season in Southern Italy for zucchini (zuccha).  For any of you that have lived where zucchini grows with abandon you know that using all the comes from even a couple of plants is a daunting effort.  Zucchini is given away by most gardeners and as Dave likes to say, "Don't drive with your window down or someone will throw some in".  The same is true here. so when Andrea handed me a large grocery bag full of zucchini blossoms I was glad to see it wasn't more of the full sized specimens.   How wrong I was I didn't know yet.

I was thinking my conversation, Andrea in rapid Neopaliatan and me trying to catch a word here and there,  had come to an end when suddenly Andrea turns around and produces, as if by magic, the largest zucchini I have ever seen.  I know it weighed at least 10 pounds.  I thought at first maybe, just maybe, it was a watermelon that just looked a bit like a zucchini; but no, it was indeed a zucchini of inordinate size and it was all ours.

Andrea left me open-mouthed holding this gargantuan goard not having a clue what to do to dispatch it.  Usually large zucchini are tough with very few redeeming qualities except that they are large.  I left it sitting on my kitchen table going to bed in the evening still not knowing what to do with it.



This morning I awoke, prepared my coffee and as I passed the green "elephant on the table" on the way to the balcony, patted it as if it were now one of my pets.  Upon my return into the kitchen the giant squash still sat taunting me with my lack of knowledge or enthusiasm to try to use the beast. 

After some time I could stand it no longer.  I brought out the cutting board and my large chefs knife and began hacking up the ridiculous thing.  I had decided that part of it would become relish.  I had found several references online for making relish and it seemed a reasonable choice.  About a quarter of the way through dicing the zucchini I knew it would make more relish than we could use or give away. 

By this time I had at least tasted the zucchini.  I was surprised at its good, sweet flavor and it was almost the color of an acorn squash inside.  So, to make a long story even longer I also made soup with it and saved a few pieces to tempura to have with our teriyaki steak tonight.

Zucchini and onion salted to be worked into relish tomorrow.

Zucchini soup preparations.