Saturday morning and after a week of immersion French we decided to go to Italy to buy some food. A great way to practice the improved language skills!
 |
| San Remo |
It had been a busy week. As well as learning French and buying a kitchen, the roof had leaked during torrential rain, the brand new mattress had been soaked and there had been a few challenges along the way. A day off sounded appealing.
 |
| Wandering around the streets |
We set off and an hour and a half later, arrived in San Remo. We eventually found parking after dealing with the chaotic Italian drivers and so wandered around the market.
 |
| Away from the traffic |
We spoke a strange hybrid of French, Spanish, Italian and English but it all seemed to work and we shopped with remarkable success.
 |
| Market, San Remo |
 |
| Pesto |
After the market we stopped for lunch enjoying fresh pasta and people watching as the afternoon sky darkened and rain suddenly poured down again.
 |
| The darkening sky… |
We headed back to France, stopping on the way to buy flour as I’d had a strange compulsion to make fresh pasta. Surely it couldn’t be that hard!
 |
| Farine de blé… flour of wheat |
Arriving home we were pleased to discover the roof had held and so the mattress was dry, hurray!
We unpacked our goods and Letad made a delicious tricolour salad with basil, tomato and incredible fresh mozzarella. A little pesto and olive oil drizzled over the top, a crunch of salt and a crack of black pepper and the sublime flavours were released.
 |
| Letad’s Sublime Tricolour Salad |
In the meantime I had made the dough for the pasta. I ignored the six egg Jamie Oliver recipe as it sounded far too eggy and so found another recipe I liked the sound of. Two eggs, both with double yolks as luck would have it, a cup of flour, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of olive oil.
 |
| Making the dough |
I added the egg gradually to the flour having made a well in the middle and gently folded it all together with a fork. I added the salt and oil and then pressed the loose dough together to form a ball. Then the kneading began. I gave it a good knead for at least ten minutes, I put a bit of muscle into it until the dough was smooth but fairly stiff, then the dough rested for half an hour.
 |
| Kneaded |
 |
| Rested |
Cutting it in half, I floured the table and began rolling out the pasta dough with a rolling pin, a purist, no pasta machine for me!
 |
| Roll it, roll it, roll it… |
Turning and rolling, the dough became thinner and thinner until it was about a millimeter thick and I cut it into wide ribbons.
 |
| Pappardelle? Home style |
I gave each ribbon another quick roll just in case and then the experimental pasta was dropped into boiling salted water to cook.
 |
| After cooking… |
 |
| The end result… delicious |
Well, at the risk of sounding immodest, it was delicious and compared with the meal of perfection in Portofino, a pretty good comparison!
Definitely to be repeated. Yum.
all about gem 