Continued from the Fairs part 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.
A broader view of the patio. You can see the outdoor cooking area on the left.
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.
There were a couple old stones outside, so you can see what they look like.
The corn is fed into the funnel above the stones, and then released as the stones turn. The video below gives a quick demonstration.
We visited before the fair, and Cinzia is busy bagging up the polenta.
This short video shows Cinzia's co-worker sifting the cornmeal, so the big bits of hull are eliminated.
A better view of Cinzia at work:
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.
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.
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.
Another picture of Gaia, with Cinzia and Filippo.
And Cinzia's other daughter Melody, with Doni and Francesco.
After the cheese course Filippo served pasta.
Because that isn't enough food, he then served Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina.
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.
There were also potatoes, baked mixed vegetables, and greens.
There were also some dolce, both homemade and purchased from a local shop.
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.
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.
After the dough is made, Paul is rolling it into logs and cutting it.
Doni shows the optional way of making ridges on the gnocchi; Doni says most gnocchi doesn't have the ridges, though.
The chefs with plates of gnocchi:
And finally, Paul with a delicious dish of 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