Today, I wanted to share more about myself
and my life before I get to my recipe. I have
worked hard to establish a great network
here in Italy. I am very passionate about
Italy and of course I am passionate about
food! If I make a recommendation, it is based
on my very own personal experience at the
villa, market or restaurant. If you have
visited my Food For Love website, you will
see my motto: Eat Your Emotions!! I find food
to be a very emotional experience from the
initial inspiration of the dish, to the preparation,
the setting, the company...on to the very last bite.
So my wife Valeria and I went to Grosetto for
one night. We have been many times and thought
I'd share a few pictures from this trip.
I won't comment on each picture as a picture
speaks a thousand words.
Enjoy a day in my life and the recipe!
The restaurant: Gli Attortellatihttp://www.maremma-magazine.it/index.php?cmd=read&art=63
My beautiful wife...
Fish.
I saw a farmer and decided to stop and chat. She gave me fresh zucchini, tomatoes and basil
to take home. The fresh tomatoes and basil I
used in my Fabiolous Tuesday recipe!
Back in Rome - Candy with Ricotta Pesto and Fresh Tomatoes.
Fill the processor with fresh basil leaves.
Mix in the processor and add salt if desired.
Next combine fresh ricotta with the fresh pesto.
After preparing fresh dough (see my recipe)
Place the filling in the middle of the rectangle.
Fold the dough to make edges meet.
Press and seal.
Gather the ends to make "Candy" wrapper pasta.
Place fresh cut tomatoes in pan with EVOO.
Add the Candy and cook together.
Use remaining pesto as plate ornamentation!!
Sprinkle with parmesan.
Beautiful dish with fresh produce from 
See you next Fabiolous Tuesday!
Fill the processor with fresh basil leaves. Add fresh parmesan, pine nuts and EVOO.
Mix in the processor and add salt if desired.
Next combine fresh ricotta with the fresh pesto.
After preparing fresh dough (see my recipe)
cut into rectanglular pieces.
Place the filling in the middle of the rectangle.Swipe the sides with egg white
to hold the dough together.
Fold the dough to make edges meet.Press and seal.
Gather the ends to make "Candy" wrapper pasta.
Place fresh cut tomatoes in pan with EVOO.
Add the Candy and cook together.
Use remaining pesto as plate ornamentation!!Sprinkle with parmesan.
Beautiful dish with fresh produce from the Maremma region, delectable taste!! Enjoy!
See you next Fabiolous Tuesday! your Chef, Fabio
wow, these look so fresh and amazing. I love your detailed step by step photos. I usually have no patience for taking detailed pics, but I can see how they help :))
ReplyDeleteI think I've died and gone to heaven!! Your photos are stunning. Gorgeous work. How do I get invited to lunch? =)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! Your post and photos are absolutely incredible! The the "candy" idea.
ReplyDeleteWow, everything looks gorgeous. Your food always makes me hungry. Thanks Fabio.
ReplyDeleteSo adorable! brilliant and delicious I ma sure
ReplyDeleteOnce again Fabio, you make me glad to know you.
ReplyDeleteHow nice to see a picture of your sweet wife-now I have a better picture of your family.
I will have to try and make these "Candy"...it didn't make sense at first. I thought you took some kind of candy and put the pesto and tomatoes on it!
Is "candy" a term that they use for that shape in Italy or is it something you jokingly called it? Just wondering. :-)
I will one day meet you and your family there.
I would love to know more about your cooking school there so I can tell others.
Send it to: CookingUpAStorminCA@gmail.com
Just wonderful...Love the photos!
ReplyDeleteWhat fun. I miss being in Sicily. This looks yummy. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful pictures! And a beautiful dish! I wish I could make homemade pasta that is so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering what the candy was in this recipe! Great post; I really enjoyed it. :)
ReplyDeletereally cute and creative, oh yea, looks heavenly too!
ReplyDeleteBravo! Thanks for allowing me to live my Italian dreams through you!
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Swigs & Grinds
“Really? Do you really think we should do this? I mean, will we have enough?”
ReplyDelete“Yes, Katherine. We’ll be careful with our money each day of the trip, and then the final day we’ll splurge. We’ve wanted to take this trip for 10 years! I can’t believe you are considering cancelling.”
That was the conversation with my husband, Rob, which convinced me to keep our reservation for a day of cooking with Fabio followed by a night in his Noor Resort Guest House. And I was so grateful he convinced me to keep the reservation. After 13 days of hoofing it to train stations in Rome, Florence, and the Cinque Terre; teeny-tiny hotel rooms with open showers that require gymnastics to thoroughly wash your body without washing the entire bathroom; and cliché, overpriced food with the coperto (cover charge) to boot, it was a wise decision to have Fabio pick us up on the last day of our vacation.
Enter Fabio in his van to pick us up at our Rome hotel. Along the way we talk of reasons to do things one is passionate about rather than what makes sense, or makes money. We talk about freshness as a foundation for healthy cooking. We find ourselves at a quaint, rustic butcher’s shop in the country. We pick our eggs from the hen coop and select our chicken breast from the man who likely wrung its neck a little while before. We enter the Etruscan village of Mazzano Romano, population 75, and marvel at the bare-chested men who sunbathe outside the town’s singular café, sipping espresso and talking of football.
Then we enter the Noor Guest House. It’s décor is Tuscan in color and its use of the basic elements of architecture—iron, wood, glass, terracotta, and stone—remind us that the building has stood there for about 800 years. But it is distinctively contemporary: utilitarian, yet simultaneously warm and romantic. In the kitchen, we demand of flour that it become pasta, of vegetables that they become a sublime reminder of the bounty of the earth, of savory meat that it anchor us to our carnivorous instincts. Nothing is overcooked, overspiced, or overstated. He’s a chef, right? This is his art.
Then the night in our hotel. Imagine looking out at a balcony at a sea of trees so dense that the imagination is required to fill it with mythical creatures. Yet it waves ever so gently and disarmingly with the gentle breeze. It is the Treja Regional Park. Inside we stare at each other above the hot tub (which is in our room!) and sip of the intoxicating cocktail of love and luxury. The bed is perfectly firm, the night passes too quickly, and then you are leaving on a jet plane back to the endless sprawl of Los Angeles.
Really, we couldn’t afford not to have spent our day and night at Fabio’s cooking school and resort. If you have a chance, don’t pass it up.
Just the kind of pasta you would expect in Rome and Italian food to be. I can just taste it by looking at it but I know with those beautiful tomatoes you get only in Italy it would be hard to replicate this dish anywhere else.
ReplyDeletePatricia