soul food
Friday, August 28th, 2009somewhere near Altamura on the SouthEast Coast, Italy
We woke in mozarella di buffala country…..from Naples onwards we had seen billboards and shops advertising the cheese the region is famous for and we had resolved to try it. Surely one of the better decisions we have made on this excursion!
Here it is on last night’s ham-filled pasta:
And here’s the fruit-filled tart that finished off the dinner….well finished for most of us. The Men headed out for an iced coffee I’d told them about, but being unable to find it had to settle for a hot coffee and gelato. I got the iced version for them this morning!
Before leaving this morning we made sure we bought more mozarella, confident the five small balls would have no difficulty travelling cross-country in their little brine-filled package.
And so on the other side of the mountains, the buffalo milk delicacy topped our bow-shaped pasta salad, with a bunch of coriander (given in place of change when the shop we were purchasing from didn’t have the right coinage!), cherry tomatoes, cocktail onions, and finally bacon and zuchinni sauteed in garlic. Simple, but delicious. (Actually this was just a starter for the Two Big Boys….as I write they are eating their real dinner at the restaurant where we are staying – we can stay here for 10euros a van or if they pay only a little more for food we can stay for free. As the restaurant did not open until “8 or 8:30 or 9”, there was no way the kids’ stomachs would have lasted that long…besides, it would have then cost a lot more than 20euros!!! When we arrived I made enquiries about what the restaurant served…..I had to wait ten minutes while the chef decided what he would be cooking today!!!! The Men will be hoeing into a steak with wild mushroom sauce or veal or lamb if the chef hasn’t changed his mind!)
Before leaving this morning we also indulged in two huge bags of bread rolls. We had found a store selling rolls that were much less dry than all the breads we had encountered in the north. They were much more to our liking, but we didn’t know if they were peculiar to that bakery – and just in case they were, we bought enough for two days. We have since discovered all bread is more “cake-like” as opposed to “cardboard-like” in the whole of the south as it is made with semolina flour.
We have spent the past few days saying we can understand why people would cruise around the Mediterranean, avoiding the hideous driving and dreadful roads. Today we appreciated being our own tour guides. We left the crowds behind, the roads widened and even smoothed out a bit and we met relatively few cars in the wrong lane. We travelled through green like the past week or so, occasionally finding towns perched on hilltops.
“A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.” The cities in Italy do not hide in the valleys, they parade down from the top of peaks.
We came suddenly and unexpectedly to a Very Steep Hill, which we crawled up in first gear with heaters blasting to coax the vans into not overheating. At the top, the difference was dramatic. One side was green, the other brown. And when I say brown, I mean there was no colour other than brown. Obviously there is no moisture left in the clouds to drop on this side of the mountains!
Rob’s voice came through the walkie-talkie, “See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crops and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.”
As gardeners in Auckland, we have little need to wait patiently for rain…today this thought, which we recite frequently, came alive.
So barren. So dry. So brown. The colours all looked like a washed out watercolour painting. Even the sky was a pale powdery blue, just a hint of colour – such a contrast to the deep blue arc of Provence.
don’t worry about the multitasking madman driving and quoting passages and getting ready to turn lights on in the tunnel and photographing – all at the same time – all on a bridge….you can rest assured the barriers are high, the road was so steep we were crawling and there was no traffic – besides, as you can see, he is being very careful to stay far from the middle line!
rayres