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Page 2 of Fairs and Family ... and the last in this trip report!

Continued from of this section ...

As previously mentioned, Filippo has a restaurant. Although it was closed during our visit, we stopped by and got a tour. This is the patio of the restaurant, which has extensive outdoor seating. (It is open every day in the summer, and on weekends in the winter.) Filippo's expression is because his dog Giuppi is jumping up on Paul. As you can see, Paul was fine with it.

Filippo and Paul at Ciavarini's

A broader view of the patio. You can see the outdoor cooking area on the left.

Ciavarini Restaurant

We mentioned that at the fair, Filippo was selling bags of polenta cornmeal. He has a stone grinding meal to grind the corn. The method produces less heat and retains more of the flavor in the corn. This is not instant polenta; it takes a while to cook but is worth it. Inside the wooden casing are the grinding wheels.

stone mill for polenta

There were a couple old stones outside, so you can see what they look like.

old stones from the mill

The corn is fed into the funnel above the stones, and then released as the stones turn. The video below gives a quick demonstration.

link to video (49 seconds) 

We visited before the fair, and Cinzia is busy bagging up the polenta.

Cinzia bagging polenta

This short video shows Cinzia's co-worker sifting the cornmeal, so the big bits of hull are eliminated.

link to video (9 seconds)

A better view of Cinzia at work:

Cinzia filling polenta bags

We also had a lovely family dinner at Filippo's house (adjacent to the restaurant). Here is the cooking area, with bread he had made on the cutting block, piadini  warming on a plate, and if you look closely you might notice a chicken on a spit cooking in the fireplace.

Filippo's kitchen

Grazia Diotalevi, Paul's first cousin once removed, joined us. Here she is with Paul and a scarf from the New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Grazia and Paul

First we had cheese with piadini (the flat bread shown above). Here are Filippo, Gaia (Cinzia's younger daughter), and Federico (Grazia is behind Federico).  As mentioned way back on page 2 of this report, Filippo and Federico are brothers, and are Paul's 2nd cousins.

Filippo, Gaia, Federico

Another picture of Gaia, with Cinzia and Filippo.

Gaia, Cinzia, Filippo

And Cinzia's other daughter Melody, with Doni and Francesco.

Melody, Doni, Francesco

After the cheese course Filippo served pasta.

Filippo serving pasta

Because that isn't enough food, he then served Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina.

a plate of gnocchi

Then, for those who ate meat, came that chicken that had been roasting by the fire. Filippo only serves meat from an older animal, and since it would otherwise be tough he slow-cooks it. Grazia is getting some for her plate.

Grazia serving some chicken

There were also potatoes, baked mixed vegetables, and greens.

Doni and Francesco, with the secondo course

There were also some dolce, both homemade and purchased from a local shop.

desserts

After the meal, the brothers had fun playing some music. You can see Giulia (Federico's and Valentina's daughter) in the video. Federico is in a band, The Perticars

link to video (4 minutes)

 

We will end this report the same place we started, with Francesco and Doni. Some people go to Italy specifically for a cooking lesson. We had a private cooking lesson with Doni. We (specifically Paul) had tried making gnocchi before, but they didn't come out particularly well. So Doni showed us how to make nice, light gnocchi. Here are the Paul and Doni, getting ready for the lesson.

Paul and Doni

After the dough is made, Paul is rolling it into logs and cutting it.

Paul and Francesco

Doni shows the optional way of making ridges on the gnocchi; Doni says most gnocchi doesn't have the ridges, though.

Doni making gnocchi

The chefs with plates of gnocchi:

Paul and Doni with their gnocchi

And finally, Paul with a delicious dish of gnocchi:

Paul with his gnocchi

 

We hope you enjoyed this trip report. If you liked it half as much as we enjoyed putting it together, then you definitely did.

 

Updated July 2020