Piove Piove Piove

Sunday morning, another rain filled day! It has rained almost everyday since we got here, of course everyone says the weather was beautiful up until we got here. We had a wonderful dinner last night at Sergio Mottura's estate. While preparing the meal, we tried some bruschetta with the freshly pressed Olive Oil. The oil was delicious, very peppery, spicy, and a bit frizzante because of how recently it was pressed. We started the meal with "Strochetti" a very tasty chicken broth with a mixture of eggs, parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs mixed in. The next course was a Bucatini al'Amatriciana, classic dish from outside of Rome, made exactly how we make it at Tomasso with Guanciale, Peperoncini, White Wine, and Tomatoes. For the main course, we had roasted Duck. The Duck was raised here by Allesandra Mottura, who recently became a vegetarian after having to kill the Ducks for dinner. They were stuffed with sauteed organs, potatoes, fresh rosemary, dried black olives, and fennel seed, roasted and served with rosemary roasted potatoes. Finally we had seared cauliflower cooked with white wine and red wine vinegar. For Dolci, we had Sergio's favorite, pureed chestnuts (first of the season) cooked in milk with some sugar and vanilla, covered with whipped cream and cocoa powder. With the Muffo sweet wine, it was a perfect pairing. We are waiting to hear from the people of Pacina winery in Siena, which is hopefully our next stop. Until then, we are going to enjoy the small towns in the area of Civatell d'Agliano and see where our day will leave us. Ci Vediamo Dopo.