Cooking Lesson with Franca in Assisi ~ La Fontanella

There is no sincerer love

than the love of food.

~George Bernard Shaw

For my birthday last year, my sister got me a cooking lesson with Franca, in Assisi! So, on a chilly, December morning, after my birthday, I got up and went over to La Fontanella to go grocery shopping, with Franca. Then we got cooking!

Before shopping she asked if I liked ravioli. Woohoo! Just so you know, ravioli is one of my favorite foods on the planet!

Franca in her kitchen at Fonanella ...

Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian;
wine and tarragon make it French.
sour cream makes it Russian;
lemon and cinnamon make it Greek.
Soy sauce makes it Chinese;
garlic makes it good.
~Alice May Brock

There is such skill and artistry involved in making pasta. It always feels like you are watching a true artist at work, when you watch someone who really knows what they are doing!

Draining spinach for the ravioli ...

Adding ricotta and egg ... (the white was whipped separately before going in!)

This, below, is one of my favorite photos of the whole trip! :)

This I found to be quite meditative. Ignore my hangnail ... I'd been on the road for a while! Franca said I was doing a good job putting the raviolis together but I really think it was the gold glitter nail polish doing the magic. ;)

Franca took this of me ...

Food should be fun.
~Thomas Keller

A tomato based sauce ... but not for the ravioli!

 

For the Americans complaining about the size of their McMansion kitchens ... You only need a little space to create a lot of magic!

But it's sure nice to have a view!

Making tagliatelle with the extra dough ...

And this sauce ... Oh my goodness! The red you see is fresh pomegranate! There also some balsamic ... mmmm...

Dried herbs in the kitchen, she brought in from outside the door ...

Juniper berries ...

After we did all the prep work, I invited a couple of friends to dinner (Mauro, a very cool guy who'd driven my parents and I around the Rieti Valley two years prior, and my new friend Nick who I'd met at my hotel, during breakfast.)

In the meantime, (before going back for dinner) I walked around Assisi in the rain, and went to a couple of little churches, I'd visited before. That evening, I returned to help put it all together, though I must admit, I was doing a lot of picture taking! (I guess that goes without saying!)

Looking out the kitchen door ...

After I left Franca had used more of our leftover ingredients to make spinach gnocchi!



Potatoes, drizzled with olive oil, as a "contorno"- a side, to go with the meat!



We all eat 
and it would be a sad waste of opportunity
to eat badly.
~Anna Thoma

Remember the red tomato sauce? How about adding cream? Yum!

And for the Ravioli ... melted butter and sage. (To be topped later with Parmiggiano-Reggiano)

We actually finished with this, as our secondo, and I'm sorry I didn't get a better shot of the poultry, with the pomegranate sauce! We dug in and started eating and then I realized! Wait! A photo! Then it was gone. At least I got this one shot. We were dipping our bread in the sauce ... It looked like it had been licked clean!

Franca with Nicholas, above, and with me, below. Not sure why we didn't get a shot of Mauro!

And now ... I have to show you the ravioli and gnocchi.
Words cannot express. You just have to imagine. 
And now my mouth is watering and I want to go back!

La Fontanella

Via Bernardo da

Quintavalle 7

06081 Assisi, Italy

lafontanellaf@libero.it

For more about Franca and La Fontanella, click here!

Life is a combination 
of magic and pasta.
~Federico Fellini

Blessings and light!
Thanks for visiting!
And thank you Franca!

More Christmas Festa in Assisi!

The fullness of joy

is to behold God in everything.

~from Meditations with Julian of Norwich by Brendan Doyle

I woke up on the morning of December 8th, and opened my shutters, to look out my window. Birds went flying off the rooftops, and the morning sun hit the billowing white smoke, as it left the chimney stacks. It was cool, crisp and beautiful.

Down in the breakfast room, I had my muesli, yogurt and cappuccino, and headed out to see what the Christmas Festa would have in store. Anne had emailed a list of the "goings on" and there was something about musicians on that timeline, and I didn't want to miss it!

When I got down to the square, I saw this little Nutella crepe cart and had to take a picture for my friend Marlene, who eats Nutella like it's her job. As I recall, her husband told me years ago, he found her in bed one night, asleep with a banana in one hand and jar of Nutella in other.

I headed back in the tent and bought several ornaments, for family members, that I had spied the night before, as well as a couple of hand carved, olive wood, cooking spoons.

I also found a couple of musicians and decided to follow them ... running out ahead to get a good shot! (Trying not to make too much of a spectacle of myself!)

They headed down from Piazza Commune, toward the Basilica of Saint Claire.

Looking toward the right, in the photo below, would be the Piazza of Santa Chiara and the basilica itself.

What I found there, was a little train for the kids ...

And a whole other huge tent! This photo, below, was taken at different time of day, but I wanted you to get an idea of the size of the tent. I am standing on the steps of the basilica looking back up toward the middle of town, (Piazza Commune) and on the hill, you can see the Rocca Maggiore, where I'd been at the bonfire the evening before.

Inside the tent ... Instead of ornaments, trinkets etc., I found food!!! All sorts of local Umbrian foods!

My favorite booth! It had all sorts of truffle items, or "tartuffo," in Italian. I ended up with truffle cheese to take to my friend, Vincenzo, that I would be staying with in Genoa.

Christmas music played and I explored the decorations, in the tent. They were all food and beverage related ... and so cute and creative!

I also picked up some boar sausage for Vincenzo. Funny, I don't really eat pork in the states but when I go to Italy, I eat things that oink, like my friend Marlene eats Nutella. 

(Well, maybe boars don't exactly oink ... )

The wine tree ...

Loved the pasta tree! So cute!

At one point, "All I want for Christmas, is You" came on in the tent, (You know, the song from the movie Love Actually?) and this 4 year old girl, with little brown ringlets, started dancing ... and got all these teenagers dancing with her! It was so sweet and joyful, and it really felt Christmas!

From joy I came,

For joy I live,

and in Thy sacred joy

I shall melt again.

~Paramahansa Yogananda

Outside the tent, Christmas trees, with handmade decorations ...

And from Piazza Santa Chiara, one of the best views from Assisi ...

Cutest bank and ATM you'll ever see ...

I decided to head back to the hotel wi-fi, to find out if I'd heard from any of my new friends. We'd been told about a concert down the hill, at Santa Maria degli Angeli, in the afternoon. It would be a singing Franciscan monk! I thought, this was definitely another thing that could not miss!

On the way to my hotel, I stopped at "Oggetti Assisi." 

My friend Caroline and her family had been to Assisi in October, and before I left for my trip, she handed me an envelope with a business card and some Euros, from her and her mom. "Go buy a scarf, at this little shop! We thought of you when we were there!" So thoughtful! 

The shop was darling, and the scarves were on sale! I must have tried on 10 of them! Poor guy had to refold them but anyway, I told him it was a birthday present from my friends who'd come in, from the States, in October. "Your birthday!!! Happy Birthday." He was adorable and maybe in his late 20s? Cute.

Anyway, he was very happy about my birthday and happier, I'm sure, about my friend recommending the place, and he gave me an even better deal! So, I got two scarves for myself and then I picked one out for my sister!

They are a silk and cotton blend ... light and wonderful. The two, above, are the ones I picked for myself. Below, is one of the ceramic ornaments I bought. Cute, huh? I got one for each of my nieces. Love the angel's blissed-out expression.

I checked my email and Edna, my new flight attendant friend. She had planned to head out for work that morning, but decided to stick around one more day, to go the concert. I dumped my goodies at the hotel and headed down through town to meet her at Franca's restaurant, and then Franca would take us down to the concert!

On my way through town ...

Joy is an intermezzo of gratitude

that interrupts

the routine motion of life.

~Lewis B. Smedes 

in How Cant it Be All Right When Everthing is All Wrong?

Love all the sandals. Being so cold, though, I wan't in that mode. Plus, I had gotten a pair of sandals on my last trip to Assisi,  that my Mom calls my "monk sandals" or "Francis shoes." Aren't they great?

The photo everyone takes in Assisi ...

I finally headed to La Fontanella, where I had been the night before.

Home of 

Bernardo Quintavalle

And then I realized, in the light of day, that Fontanella is right next to the residence of Bernardo Quintavalle! O.K., there is a really good chance you don't know who that is. I didn't, until reading a few biographies of Saint Francis of Assisi. 

Bernardo Quintavalle, was one of Francis' closest companions, who'd gave up a wealthy, privileged life in 1209 (he gave all his money to the poor) to become one of his first followers.  Bernardo died peacefully, as Francis had predicted, in ca. 1245, 15 years after Francis. He is buried in the right transept of the lower Basilica of San Francesco.

Here is Edna, bundled and ready for the concert!

Here is the La Fontanella's patio, where it's definitely too cold to hang out in December. At least while I was there. I'm not sure why I didn't get a shot of the view, but I guess I will have to go back in the spring! ;)

Next up ... off to see the singing monk! And then ... the big tree lighting at the Basilica Saint Francis! 

Joy is the infallible sign

of the presence of God.

~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Blessings and light!