Make my Day!

The weekend brought my most rewarding time here at Gusto al Borgo. The sun was shining and the temps were in the high 50’s to low 60’s. On Saturday, we all went to Paola’s garden about 500 meters down the hill and picked the rest of their winter vegetables. Mostly broccoletti, a green vegetable that is cooked like spinach. After cleaning and removing most of the spiders and bugs, she par-boiled it and then wraps it to be sautéed later with olive oil, chili pepper and garlic. Saturday evening, I brought Chris back with me and I made risotto with gorgonzola cheese and apples topped with walnuts, breast of turkey scaloppini in butter and wine sauce and some of the sauteed broccoletti.  I didn’t say anything about the spiders or bugs.


Sunday was even better weather. We had word that customers were coming because the day was so perfect. We had 5 different parties show up. It was like a real restaurant. We set up two tables outside for two couples. We made Salmon balls “fritto” with a blood orange sauce and deep fried fennel with pesto for starters. We put together a sausage and potato frittata with roasted garlic and thyme. Then chicken in a light tomato sauce with black olives and fresh rosemary. Next up was Cannelloni, one with sautéed mushroom and one with smoked cheese and prosciutto. Broccolini was also served. We ran out of chicken and had to make pork scaloppini with a wine and butter sauce. Topped it all off with a Zabaione, a frozen desert made with equal amounts of egg yokes, sugar and marsala wine wisked over heat to make a custard then whipped cream is folded in with crushed amoretto cookies, topped with a chocolate sauce. Then homemade Lemoncello, and of course every meal ends with caffe, strong with sugar. From 11:00 to 4:30 we were turning and burning. I got to taste the frittata, but that was it. Lucky for us, Paola had made and froze a lasagna with pumpkin in a white sauce for our family meal.

The topper was this; Franco makes his own red wine. It’s very strong with lots of sediment at the bottom. I had Chris bring a wine venturi and we presented it as a gift to Franco. I used it for our first table as Franco stood back and watched. It was great to see him use it for the customers afterwards. He would come back into the kitchen and tell me, “This is very special.” It made my day knowing Chris and I had brought something new to Casperia never seen before.

Oh, I heard something about a football game. Who won?