Life's a Beach in Southern Italy!

One of the beautiful sunsets behind Sicily.

A local restaurant has it's own fishing boat. They go out
everyday and catch fresh fish to cook up.

  As I was going through my pictures of this past summer in Southern Italy, I found I had a lot that were taken at the beach, I wonder how that happened! Anyway I thought I'd share some of the things that went on at the beach, besides just the usual swimming and sun bathing.

This was some of their catch of the day.

Swordfish anyone?

Fishing boat or cruise ship, hmmm
how to choose? 

This is one of the many cruise ships that go by. They leave from
Messina in Sicily

Ok, try to look at how clear that water is! ( I know it's hard) You can see right through it
to the bottom.

We all live in a yellow sailboat.....so cute!

We couldn't decide if this was a private yacht or a cruise ship.
Either way, way cool!

This is a Super Scooper aircraft that skims down on the water to fill up,
then dumps it on land fires to extinqish them. It will go back and forth till
the fire's out.

Paddle boats in Scilla are fun too!

Sometimes it rain's right out of the blue, and look what we
 got afterwards.

Lots of Oliander trees in Southern Italy.

Sea foam, a natural bubble bath.

Just another day at the beach.

 Then there are the beautiful sunsets.

Enjoy!

Ah, che bella....

Ok, yeah , one day, everyone needs to go to Southern Italy. Add it to your bucket list!

Ci vediamo li, arrivaderci, a dopo.

Paglia e Fieno Pasta: One of Our Favorite Things!

Last Mother's Day, per "La Festa della Mamma", I decided to make my Mom a dinner of all her favorite things. 

So this was the menu:
Bruschetta for an antipasto, Piaglia e Fieno Pasta for the main dish and Tiramisu for dessert (That will be another blog). Accompanied by a nice, Italian, Pinot Grigio.

My Mom & I in Piazza Navona when I was pregnant with my eldest,
just over 24 years ago!

Mom had Paglia e Fieno for the first time when she came to visit me while I was living in Rome. We often went to a small family "trattoria" in the historical center, I can't remember the name and I probably couldn't even find it again, but we have some fond memories of the awesome food we ate there.  Paglia e Fieno literally translates to straw and hay, because of the two different colors of the pasta. One is a regular white pasta and the other in a green spinach pasta. It's mixed together in a cream sauce with ham & peas. E delizioso! I can see why it's my Mom's favorite. So that morning I got out my manual pasta making machine and we got to work.

My manual, hand cranked, pasta machine.

First I made the dough in my awesome Kitchen Aid mixer fitted with the dough hook. For the white pasta, I put in two cups all purpose flour, two eggs, a tablespoon olive oil and a dash or two of salt. Turn it on and let it mix into a round ball. If it's too dry add a few drops of water until it'a nice soft but firm dough. Do the same thing for the spinach pasta, but add in about half a box of frozen spinach that you have cooked and pressed all the water out of it. (I chopped it up real fine too, before I put it in.) 

Wrap both balls of dough in plastic wrap and let them sit for 10 - 15 minutes.

Sssssshhhhhh they're resting.... 

Now's the fun part! I always get someone to help me, because it can get awkward trying to crank and handle the pasta by yourself. When the boys were little they liked to help.You can get the whole family involved. Cut the balls of dough into quarters. Start feeding it through the  machine at the widest setting. My machine starts at 1 and goes to 7. As they start getting longer you can cut them in half, fold them up in thirds and roll them through the next smaller setting. We went all the way to 7 but should have stopped at 6 (the noodles were a little too thin). I'll have to remember that for next time! Once you have all the sheets made, switch the handle to the front of the machine and feed the sheet through the pasta cutter, to cut the noodles. Make the wider "tagliatelle" cut for the Paglia e Fieno. 

Nuccio and I had a system going. He cranked and I caught the pasta.
(I had to stop to take the pic.)

Once you've cut them, set them out on clean towels, dusted with flour, to dry.

All our pasta noodles waiting to be eaten.

 The freshly made pasta cooks up quickly in boiling salted water, about half the time of dry pasta. Maybe about 5 minutes. (You can buy this pasta, dry, at the supermarket, too). Look in the Italian section. Here's the recipe for the sauce, it's really fast to make and oh so yummy. Toss the pasta & the sauce together, top it with loads of parmigiano and you have one happy Mamma!

Two very happy and full Mamma's!

Buon Appetito!