Using garlic again - glorious anchovy spaghetti

Tonight, I made anchovy spaghetti - salty, savoury, incredibly pungent and fishy (but in a totally delicious way).

The long and short of it is, you take pasta (the long ones go best, not the short type) and you have anchovies and make it chock full of minced garlic. I had it for the first time at Big D's Grill when he was in the Bedok coffee shop in Singapore and loved it to bits, and then suffered terribly for the enduring garlic after taste. Nonetheless, recently I begain craving for it, and decided to try making it tonight.

Found a super simple recipe from allrecipes.com, and modified it from what I remember from the Big D version and the feedback from the readers on the site.

One seemingly obvious lesson I took away from the classes at CIA is that you have to taste, taste, taste your food during the cooking process - I used to have the rather odd habit of barely tasting my food as I cooked and hoped for the best at the end. Crazy, I know. These days, I follow the recipe proportions to some extend but rely on my tastebuds and personal preferences to add and subtract appropriately.

First, I added a generous handful of chopped and crushed chili padi, and instead of minced garlic, I used 4-5 largeish cloves which I smashed with a knife (if they were oversmashed I'd discard them and start with a fresh clove - don't want to risk toooo much bits of garlic scattered everywhere). Instead of water, I used chicken stock. Also added some tinned diced tomatos (sans water) that I had leftover from the chicken jambalaya the other night.

When the garlic and chili padi came together with a dash of olive oil in a delicious and nose tickling aroma, it made me cough uncontrollably, but that soon passed. Then, threw in anchovies including some of the oil it came in, and chopped parsley. I wasn't sure how salty the anchovies will end up (during the cooking process, the anchovies get broken up into quite tiny minced pieces), so I added them gradually as I went along. Finally, the tomatoes, and the chicken stock, and simmered for around ten minutes. When it tasted a tad too salty and didn't have enough of the chili kick, I added more chili and a little water, as well as a lot more fresh parsley than the original recipe called for.

Then, after a bit more simmering, I ensured I removed the garlic pieces (which had softened considerably) as I felt it had given up enough of the garlic flavour and then added the cooked spaghetti and tossed it over medium heat to ensure it's evenly distributed before serving immediately.

I loved it!!!!! and would cook it again in a heartbeat!! Enjoyed it lot more than the Big D version because it only had a touch of garlic and I guess, because I couldn't believe I made something so delicious with my own hands - possibly a biased opinion of course.  J said it was delicious but grumbled that there wasn't any meat - apparently anchovies is not counted as... perhaps the next time round I will toss in some boiled shrimp or serve it together with a separately done piece of chicken or steak.

And I still have some of the anchovy left - considering cooking this again in the next couple of days while J is travelling, and I may try it without garlic this time just to experiment with the outcome.

Onward to Tuscany! San Donato in Poggio - the nights of pizza and more pizza

I'd planned the next few days to be in the rolling hills of Tuscany, which should be a nice, quiet respite from the more bustling cities of Venice and Bologna. 


The drive to our next stop in San Donato, a little walled medieval town between Siena and Florence was about two hours away from Bologna and I figured we can whiz through lunch (skip it) to compensate for the rigorous eating in the last week and have an early dinner instead.

San Donato is a tiny medieval village perched on a hillock, in the heart of the Chianti region, where the Chianti wine originates.

We arrived at the Palazzo Malaspina in the late afternoon. This little B and B I’d randomly chanced across on the internet received very good ratings for its intimate comfort and good breakfast - as suspected, we were the only guests, and the owner Maria was not even around, so her assistant Mary showed us the room and then left us. We got the entire property to ourselves, which was very nice in a way, but it also meant that if you need something... well. Like the various heaters which were working earlier in the evening just stopped working as the night went on and we couldn’t do anything except shiver and write Maria an email (apparently she is in New York, how lovely for her) 

The property itself was charming, with five rooms and a dining room with chaise lounges, the main door opens into an expansive welcome area and up the stairs were the five rooms. 

Anyway - onward to dinner. Predictably, we were starving, and hoped that La Toppa, right next door to the property, was as delicious as described in various reviews. 

Antica Trattoria La Toppa

Italian meals tend to begin generally around 8pm, so we were the first in the restaurant when we walked in at 7pm. The main waiter person wasn’t even dressed in his long sleeved dinner gear yet, but gallantly seated us and took our drink orders. 

La Toppa has received raves from its diners, and it’s meant to be one of the few eateries in the Michelin book in the area - anticipation was high. The menu was in Italian, English and German - clearly, the establishment was used to non-local guests. 

Primi Piatti

 - Ravioli tartufati (ricotta and truffle filled ravioli in a nicely pungent creamy, truffle sauce) 

 - Pappardelle all’anatra (long ribbon shaped pasta in duck ragu, tomato based) 

Secondi Piatti

- Coniglio e pollo in forno con patate (roast rabbit and chicken with home fries) 

- Cinghiale alla cacciatora (wild boar in a stew) 

Dolci

- Zuppa inglese (english trifle in many layers) 

- Apple cake (special of the day)

Pretty good meal, we both agreed the pasta dishes were a lot better than the secondis - this has been a trend for the meals we’ve had in Italy so far - it could be a combination of being a lot hungrier before eating the pasta, or perhaps because the meats so far have been not outstanding - except for the grilled squid and eel we had the last night in Venice, which was Spectacular. I love shovelling mouthfuls of pasta into my waiting mouth though, feeling the texture and chew.

The pappardelle shaped pasta was interesting for me, as I’ve not had this shape of pasta before, and it went perfectly with the chunks of duck. It was my first taste of rabbit - and it wasn’t tender like I imagined, and tasted really of chicken. The fries that came with it were nicely salted. The wild boar was very tender, tasted like beef, and the sauce was thick and savoury - but perhaps because it tasted like beef stew, which I’ve had a lot of generally, it wasn’t unexpected enough, though still tasty.

Dessert was so-so. The nice waiter guy offered to provide a smaller portion of both so that we could have more variety - the apple cake was fresh and nice but somehow... I miss the large creamy american-style sponge cakes. And the Zuppa inglese, wasn’t soupy at all, but was a layered sponge and cream concoction that was ok but not outstanding. We haven’t had much luck with dessert in Italy so far.... 

Breakfast at hotel - Palazzo Malaspina

It was just the two of us, that hasn’t changed. Marie put out a spread of breads, hams, cheese, the hard italian bread that puzzles us (frustini??) and croissants. I requested for scrambled eggs and she cheerfully made them for us. There was also a freshly baked cake on a cake stand, like what was described in teh reviews - I was somewhat mollified.

The cake was flourless chocolate and seriously delicious - dare I say the best dessert (J agrees as well) on this Italian jaunt of ours. I had a large slice, which went super well with hot black tea. The scrambled eggs were a bit too chopped up but quite tasty - and Hot! The asian in me finds comfort in a hot breakfast - congee, eggs, the likes, especially when it’s chilly, and could never quite get into cereal with milk. 

There were three kinds of jam and Mari explained that she learned to make them, as well as the delicious chocolate cake, from Maria, the owner of the property. Plum, fig and marmalade - so good but too bad we had already had the croissant with the proscuitto and cheese and the tasteless white bread could not be improved even with the most amazing jam. 

 Il Canniccio

On the second day, we had a quick gander through The Mall - the popular outlet mall for Italian labels near Florence. The Mall was a 45 minute drive from our hotel, and I was on a casual hunt for a pair of Tods ballet pumps if they were in the right colour. I am a little mad about this particular style of ballet pumps, I only like the one style, with a small silver buckle, across, and they come in a large variety of leathers and colours depending on the seasons. I’d found a really good plain black pair at the outlet in New York, as well as a pair that was oddly for sale in a metallic sheen in a Tods in Amsterdam. Otherwise, even at full retail (about 230-250 euros in Europe), the pumps are really good value as the studs offer good support for the feet and make walking a breeze. I have worn out two pairs in the last two years walking literally kilometers in them, without hurting even very slightly. In winter, I wear them with legwarmers over my skinny jeans. Thus, I make it a point to look for them in Tods stores (Europe offers best value - in Singapore they’re close to 600 singapore dollars) and in outlets.

Alas, only strange colours in Tods at the Mall, so I didn’t get anything.

We drove away and saw a sign for this restaurant, and there were many cars parked in the premises, which we took as a good sign. It turned out to be Trip Advisor recommended (with the decal) and we got a table for two, despite the rapidly filling up restaurant. 

However, I think we need to avoid pasta with wild boar or duck ragu for the rest of the trip... somehow we ended up with that again, nearly ordered the truffle pasta but didn’t want anything creamy (I asked the waitress and she said it was creamy - then I saw the table next to us with it and it wasn’t creamy - oh well). We were conservative and only had two pasta plates with an artichoke and shaved parmesan-reggiano cheese in olive oil to share, and passed on dessert...somehow, dessert revolves around apple cake, panna cotta, tiramisu, creme caramel, no matter what the restaurant. And I’m not hot about all of these, though perhaps should try the panna cotta at some point. The pasta was good, but like I said, we need to not order these anymore!

May need to stop eating for a day or two to be able to properly appreciate pasta again... we really have been eating to excess. 

Centina Il Canniccio n. 68 - 50066 Reggello (Firenze). 055 863274

Glorious pizzas at La Taverna di Ciccino Pizzeria

Many of the reviews on Trip Advisor on the Palazzo Malaspina mention how great this pizza place is - we haven’t really had pizza on this trip, and J is quite a pizza fan - so at seven on the dot, we took the 30 second walk across the little piazza to this place.

They fresh bake the pizzas when you order them, using this interesting dough making device the makes the crust very thin, and then baking them in the cavernous oven immediately. Italian pizzas tend to feature a thin, crispy crust that breaks easily when bent or bitten, and the selection at this place was wide indeed. 

About 30 pizza types to choose from, from the basic Margherita (tomato sauce and mozzarella) and 4 Formaggi (4 cheeses) to regional specialty pizzas like the Salsiccia (mortadella sausage). I went for the Boscaiola Tartufata (ham with mushroom and truffle) and J had the Salsiccia. 

Look at our cleaned plates!

The pizzas were Huge and both arrived freshly baked from the oven, steaming hot and oh my! super delicious - about 12” in diameter each. Perfect fodder for the chilly night at 5 degrees out. For the Boscaiola Tartufata pizza, the truffle flavour was present but subtle, with little flecks of the actual black pieces, and together with the generous slices of ham, all the ingredients were beautifully melded together into a delicious mess. The sausage one was also delicious, with lots of cheese and sausage chunks. 


Pizza Rustina was the basic tomato and mozzeralla base, with proscuitto, parmesan, fresh rucola. The other pizza was with smoked ham and cheese. 

And prices were good too - from 5 euros per giant pizza (one size only) to 8 euros for the truffle one. The coke J had at 4.5 euros seemed pretty pricey by comparison! There was a single sweet dessert pizza made with marscapone and nutella which we gobbled up on the last night. 

Well - actually we had three dinners in a row at this place - it was that good. And also because it was super convenient to come home in the evening in the pitch dark, freshen up, and stumble across the courtyard in ten seconds to this informal, homely place and order up a couple of delicious pizzas. 

La Taverna di Ciccino Pizzeria
Via del giglio, 19 - san donato
50028 - Tavarnelle val di pesa (FI)

tel: 055.8072307

Gelato - Gelateria I’Antica Delizia at Castellina in Chianti

Finally, gelato again! Mary recommended this place in a town about 15 minutes’ drive from where we are, saying that during summer, queues snake around the block. We found it without difficulty and I modestly went for the piccolo (smallest size) cone, which lets me choose two flavours - Nocciolo (hazelnut) and Nutella. It was delicious. Oh and by the way, despite the claims about gelato being low fat and healthy.... erm. Healthy, yes - fresh milk and ingredients etc - low fat... erm. Most fabulous tasting things rarely are.

Tuscany was gorgeous and restful as we had hoped. We spend the four days we were there generally driving and ambling around, making a couple of stops in Siena and Pisa and in medieval cities including San Gimignano, enjoying the endless views of clear blue skies and fluffy clouds, the hills and the houses hotted amongst the hills, with the occasional stop by a cafe for a biscuit or two and a hot beverage. 


Nothing very much. Just very very restful. And very very lovely.