A good day cooking!

 Roasting garlic, making pasta,  drinking wine! It was a good day!

The traditional Italian meal has multiple courses.  Which may make you groan at the thoughts of all that food!  The good thing is each course is a small portion so it never seems like an overwhelming amount of food.

Antipasto - We think of it as a platter of certain foods, but it is the Italian's way of luring you into the meal and can be as elaborate or as simple as you would like.

Primi - Is the first course, in which Pasta is the star.  You could serve pizza, but really this where Pasta is meant to be savoured.

Secondi with Contorni- the Main meal, meat or fish with a side of some kind - beans, grains, vegetables you name it.

Dolci - Dessert - fruit, simple cakes, gelato Yum!

From The Tuscan Sun Cookbook my menu included:

Antipasto

Baked Olives with Citrus Peel & Garlic

Roasted Garlic with Bruschetta

Primo

Potato Ravioli with Zucchini, Speck and Pecorino

Secondi with Contorni

Short Ribs Tuscan Style

Roasted Asparagus

Dolci

Peaches with Almond Cream

There was a lot of firsts with this menu, simple ones but still firsts!

Despite how easy it is I have never roasted garlic before.  Slice off the top of a head of garlic, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, wrap in foil and roast in the oven for about 45 minutes!  The results are creamy caramelized goodness to spread over Bruschetta.  Funny thing we think of Bruschetta as the tomato topping over toasted bread, but really Bruschetta is the bread itself; toasted, spread with olive oil, you can eat as is or top with a variety of things.

While in Italy we spent an afternoon with a Nonna making pasta.  I have made pasta a couple of times since returning, each time with a different recipe, but I think I finally found the recipe that works for me.  A nice workable dough to turn into ravioli - another first! Making ravioli!  Up until now I have just made spaghetti or linguini noodles.  (PS: Speck is a smoked prosciutto, but you can use bacon).

I have cooked regular ribs and I have eaten short ribs, but I have not cooked short ribs before.  This slow roasted recipe makes a very flavourful dish with the meat practically falling off the bone; and with the short ribs there is actually some meat to savour, unlike regular ribs sometimes.

Tasty fresh peaches are still available there now, so that influenced my choice for dessert.  The almond cream contains mascarpone cheese,  which we often associate with a dessert item.  Our tour guide in Italy said fresh mascarpone cheese was one of his favourite breakfast foods!  This dish was a lush way to enjoy sweet fresh peaches.

I am so glad there are leftovers so I can enjoy the meal all again!