basta della pasta!

Okay, this is clearly not going to turn into a food blog, because after three days I'm already tired of writing about food. But, I'll talk about dinner, and that will be enough. Basta.

Each morning I start at the produce store. This is mostly because they're really nice and have proven the most patient with my limited Italian. First I insult them by asking, "what's good?" or at least, that's what I did until John explained that I was indicating they would sell something less than good. I should have figured it out because they always looked surprised and said, "tutto!" Anyway, now instead I ask what they recommend, or I just pick out whatever vegetable looks interesting. So far we've really liked fresh porcini mushrooms, these round little eggplants which are a lilac color, and of course, the tomatoes, which come in about six shapes and colors.

After produce, I check on the pasta store, because I can't quite figure out what their hours are. If it's open, we'll get fresh tagliatelle or pappardelle. You have to wait a bit for the women making the pasta in the back to finish their conversation before they realize you're there. If I were Italian, I would just start talking loudly, and they would talk back loudly, and we'd talk loudly as they came and helped me. But I'm a shy American, so I always wait a bit before timidly calling out, "buon giorno?" They're always very nice when they realize I'm there.

Then, it's back the other direction to the macelleria (butcher). Usually I walk in, get totally intimidated by all the cuts of meat I've never seen before, and walk back out. In fact, other than buying some prosciutto, some pre-cut pancetta and some parmigiano, I haven't quite gotten up the guts to buy any of the meat yet. They have some pre-rolled rotolini which I'd like to try. In any case, it's been so hot, John and I haven't really missed the meat. Still, one of these days we'll need to get some protein from a non-processed source.

Until then, great vegetables, good pasta, we're eating really well.