A Meal Made in Heaven

A great meal is the nectar of the gods. It’s heavenly. Sometimes it’s better than sex. I love writing books about chefs and cooks. Such fun.

All four of my grandparents were from the Abruzzo region of Italy. My grandmothers and my Italian mother-in-law were terrific cooks. However, of all the wonderful meals I’ve eaten through the years, one stands out above the rest.

In 2006, my husband and I traveled to Abruzzo, Italy, to join a tour run by my Australian cousin, Luciana. A cousin from Arizona joined us. Luciana had just started her tour company, and this was the maiden tour.

As we traveled through mountainous, wildly beautiful Abruzzo, we ate the most scrumptious food every day. Luciana had arranged the meals and the elegant wines to complement them. We ate at several agrituristicas, farms that grow and serve organic foods and are subsidized by the Italian government in an effort to bring more tourism into the lesser-known regions of Italy.

One such agrituristica, Ill Nespolo, was run by a husband and wife, Maria Angela, from the province of Calabria, and Gabriele, from Abruzzo. Here’s the menu for that meal:

Antipasto consisting of home-made sausage, cheeses with honey and saffron, marinated vegetables, bruschetta with olive paste.

Primo(First Course)-Gnocchi al pomodoro-gnocchi alle verdue

(Gnocchi with tomato sauce and with green vegetable sauce)

Secondo(Second Course)-Petto di tacchino con arancia e rucola (turkey breast with orange and rocket. Rocket is similar to arugula)

Dolce(Dessert)-Home-made biscotti with honey

All served with local Abruzzese wines.

Our hosts provided us with a surprise dish--saffron gnocchi with fresh-shaved truffle. Oh. My. God. That was the best food, hands down, I’ve ever eaten. Ever. In my life.

All the food we ate on that trip was incredible, delicious, wonderful. And the wines were exquisite. But nothing compared to the heavenly delight of saffron gnocchi with fresh-shaved truffle. During the meal, my husband whispered that he might have to divorce me and marry Maria Angela because she cooked like an angel. Couldn’t blame him. I wanted to marry her myself. Our group went nuts over all the food at that meal, but especially the saffron gnocchi. There wasn’t a scrap left of anything when we were done. To this day, I can’t eat gnocchi because nothing will ever be as good as the dish I ate at Ill Nespolo.

Food is more than eating. It’s companionship and memories. I have the most marvelous memories of that trip and of the meals shared with family and new friends. I can’t think of that meal and the others without remembering Luciana and what a great host and tour guide she was. I got to spend more time with my cousin Kevin from Arizona, whom my husband and I traveled with to Australia a few years earlier; the friendship of the others in our group, all Australian, warmed me. As a group, we grew close, sharing some rough times, like when our van got stuck in road ruts in the Abruzzo wilderness. Or when we hiked one of Italy’s national parks on a scorching hot day. Or visited medieval monasteries carved into the sides of mountains. All the memories are bound together with the food we ate.

That trip, and the food, connected me to generations of my family who are as much a part of that region as the stark mountains and hillside villages.

Here are pictures of the gnocchi, the truffle being shaved, and our group. I’m second from left in the turquoise top, holding a glass, conversing with the man next to me.

My romantic suspense, Murder, Mi Amore, is set almost entirely in Italy. Every setting is authentic, based on places we visited and stayed during that 2006 trip. The meals I mention in that book are actual meals we ate. My very first published book, from Avalon Books, A Catered Affair,(reissued under the title A Catered Romance) featured a caterer heroine. Lots of food references in that book. My most current foodie book is Capri Nights, set on the Isle of Capri.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Abruzzo region of Italy or taking a trip there, check out Luciana’s website: https://www.touringabruzzo.com/

Check out all my books at: www.caramarsi.com

Buy Murder, Mi Amore:

https://books2read.com/u/3J8XpP

Danger. Deception. Desire.

Murder, jewel thieves and terrorists intrude on an American woman's Roman holiday; can she trust the sexy, mysterious Italian man who comes to her aid?

Buy A Catered Romance:

https://books2read.com/u/3nY826

Delicious. Hot. Sensuous.

There's more than business brewing between two old high school flames...

Stubbornly self-reliant Mary Beth Kendrick needs financial backing to keep her catering business cooking. A looming corporate buyout forces her to accept help from Tom Sackett, the man who broke her heart and left her with no appetite for love. 

Buy Capri Nights:

https://books2read.com/u/3L9z51

Sensual. Sumptuous. Sizzling.

Love under an Italian sky.

A San Francisco sous chef discovers she might have bitten off more than she can chew when a scrumptious Italian man stirs up a recipe for romance on the delicious Isle of Capri.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes - A Christmas Eve Tradition

The Feast of the Seven Fishes

For many of you, the Feast of the Seven Fishes may not ring a bell . . . particularly as a Christmas tradition . . . but for some of Italian heritage, it may bring back fond memories of Christmas Eves Past. Before I lived in Italy, I’d never heard of this Christmas Eve tradition (even though my mother was a quarter Italian). Only after I married a Sicilian did I learn about this particular celebration.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes (Festa Dei Sette Pesci), also known as The Vigil (La Vigilia or Il Cenone di Vigilia), is a tradition believed by most to have originated in Southern Italy and was not celebrated in other parts of Italy. It is a feast to commemorate the wait for the midnight birth of the baby Jesus. In my husband’s home town of Messina, Sicily, after the feast (which lasts for hours) everyone plays cards until it is time for midnight mass. Then there is a long procession and everyone walks to the local church following a status of the Madonna. After mass, some people would play cards for the rest of the night. Not me.

Symbolism

Eating seafood on Christmas Eve originates from the Roman Catholic tradition of not eating meat or milk products on Fridays and specific holy days. Because no meat or butter could be used on such days, observant Catholics would eat fish, typically fried in oil.

The number seven stands for the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church and the seven days of creation. In Biblical numerology, seven is a number of perfection. Another explanation is the traditional Biblical number for divinity is three, and for Earth is four, and the combination of these numbers, seven, represents God on Earth, or Jesus Christ. Finally, it could refer to Mary and Joseph's seven days of travel to reach Bethlehem.

Today, it is a feast that typically consists of seven different seafood dishes (mostly shell fish) and pasta. Some Italian American families celebrate with 9, 11, or 13 different seafood dishes, but the tradition is seven.

Typical Menus

The fish southern Italians are known for is baccalà (salted cod fish), a simple fish used extensively by the impoverished regions of Southern Italy. Fried smelts, calamari, and other types of seafood have been incorporated into the Christmas Eve dinner over the years. The menu varies depending on the family, but here are some of the favorite typical dishes.

* Fried calamari (squid)...............* Scungilli (sliced conche)

* Baccalà (cod)..................................* Scampi (shrimp)

* Mussels.............................................. * Clams

,

* Lobster stuffed with crab........* Seafood salad

* Seafood Risotto

Tanti Auguri a Tutti! Buon Natale!

Sense-ible

A few nights ago a friend and I were filling our tummies with glorious Italian food. Antipasti, a trio of mushrooms, cheese and herbs in a puff pastry. Long, thick strands of fresh, pungent parmesan cheese. Warm breads. Entrees of seafood linguini with plum-sized sundried tomatoes and spinach fettucine in a divinely deadly cream sauce. (Okay, I'll pause so you can wipe up the drool or run off for a snack). In between oohs and aahs I said, wouldn't it be horrible if we couldn't taste any of this? Imagine if we had no sense of taste, were either born without it or had somehow lost it. Sure, we'd fill up, but with little or no palatable pleasure. How miserable would that be, to eat delicious foods and not taste a single morsel? We agreed that would be terrible, not being able to enjoy food flavors, but also agreed that if we had never possessed the ability to taste we wouldn't know what we'd be missing. So I asked my friend, If you had to give up one of your senses, which one would it be?

Hearing, he answered. Yes, there would be no more music but he at least he knew what it sounds like, having lived as a hearing person his entire life. All the other senses he wouldn't want to be without. For me the answer was sight. Yes, loss of the sense of taste, touch, smell or hearing would be traumatic. No more tasting great food, no feeling silky kitty fur or smelling a loaf of French bread fresh out of the oven or experience the thrill of a Beethoven symphony. Losing those abilities after years of knowing them would be devastating, but at least I've known them. I have millions of wonderful memories because of those four senses.

But to lose my sight would be the most devastating to me. To not see the ocean, or wildlife, reading my classical piano music, seeing movies, sunrises, family and zillions of other visual pleasures would be so difficult, BUT at least I have the memory of what all those look like. Books, however, I would miss the most. All the books I couldn't read, unless I wanted to learn Braille, which I positively would. That could take more years than I have coming to me. And writing my own books - the challenge there would be immense. Not impossible, not these days with all the amazing electronics we have for computers, and again, I absolutely would go that route if I had no sight. But I would so miss reading words with my eyes, admiring book covers, writing and editing and judging writing contests.

(One of the things I had to add to my I'm Thankful For list on Thanksgiving - having all my senses intact and in working order!)

This conversation led me to thinking up so many character ideas, one of the things I love about What If and If You questions. Like a sterno can under a cold serving tray, they get a simmer going and then its up to me to get it to a boil.

So, how about you? If You had to give up one of your senses, which one would it be?