Bread & Gnudi
This morning we had a bread making class. Our instructor talked about how food is different all over the country and that unification is a myth, but everyone eats bread. He told us lots of interesting things, like how dry yeast is very common here, the opposite of at home. He also said some strange things. For example, he said people in Tuscany don’t really eat beef and that it’s all just for tourists, which isn’t really true. I think he is American. He showed us how to make Tigelle, a type of bread from Emilia cooked on the stovetop. I feel like this lesson could have been a bit more interactive. I still don’t know how to make bread, but it was fun.
We had a few hours of free time and I wanted to spend some time outside so I took some photos of the scenery from our balcony and some butterflies with my telephoto lens. I also bought two bottles of wine (Pichius & Virginio) and a bottle of olive oil to bring home.
Next, we had a lecture about slow tourism and the slow food movement. It was an interesting topic, but the lecturer didn’t really grab my attention, and the lecture was very long. We then got into groups to explore slow tourism destinations. My group looked at Torre Guaceto in Puglia, a nature preserve and marine protected area offering many outdoor recreation activities such as hiking and biking.
After the lectures I started making gnudi for dinner for myself, Kaitlin and Jackson, to use up some leftover ricotta.
Gnudi: traditional Tuscan dumplings, similar to gnocchi, made with spinach, ricotta, parmigian, flour, and egg.
My dough was very sticky so I kept adding more flour and ended up adding too much so my Gnudi was very dense and just tasted like flour. Austin tried to save it, and we fried it with pesto and Kaitlin’s garlic butter. It didn’t turn out great. Everyone else tried it and said it was good, but I think they were just being nice.
After dinner we went to Jacks bar, and Jack gave us some shots for free. Nathan told him that he’s a bartender at home, and he let him pour the shots! After hanging out in town for a bit I headed to bed.