He taught me another saying to imply you're stupido, albeit in a friendly way - 'Hai la testa per dividere le orecchie' (you have the head to divide the ears). I wouldn't think it'd be an insult if someone told me that but the meaning sank in after 5 italiani minuti :) Last night the cuoca in me prepared an italian feast for Giovanni's housewarming dinner party in his spanking new cucina (my dream kitchen). We shopped for groceries to feed an army and picked up the marinated deboned leg of lamb before lugging them back and started cooking at 5.30pm. I was behind time and calmed down with a scigaretta and milo. Giovanni was my sous chef as we carried out the tedious prep work.
We cleaned the chunky aussie asparagus, colourful peppers, fat eggplant and zucchini which went under the grill soaking up all the lovely extra virgin olive oil after which I could tend to the warm squid salad, caprese and vongole, roping in more help as guests arrived at 7pm. The lamb finally went in at 7.50pm as we started on the antipasti. We practically drank the whole pot of vongole - fresh clams in white wine, flavoured with garlic, expensive roman tomatoes, basilico, coriander, lemon juice, salt and pepper. An hour later when we were done with the Pimms and appetisers, the lamb came out sizzling on a bed of patate, zucca, rosemary, whole red onions and garlic cloves. They thought it was too bloody when I insisted it was perfetto cosi - medium rare pink. G carved the meat while I added red wine to the meat jus to make a superb gravy. The ragazze were quite giggly brillissime when I showed them how to make the banana-cioccolato bombas wrapped in foil. A great night in!
No comments:
Post a Comment