Thursday 3 April 2008

(Very belated) pics from Easter lunch with nonni

Caprese salad

I meant to post these Easter pictures up a while ago, but better late than never...

Hot cross buns Good FridayHot cross buns Good Friday

Every Good Friday, the family tradition is that Mum and Dad have an open house, and friends are invited over for a morning tea of Mum's fresh home-made hot cross buns. This year they were even more luscious than usual - the glazing over the top was genius!

Easter lunch

On Easter Sunday it was back at Mum and Dad's again for family lunch. Friends from London R&S were there, as were my Nonna and Nonno, Zia P, her partner M and cousin T.

Caprese saladProsciutto platter

First course was insalata caprese, marinated olives and San Daniele prosciutto (from our part of Italy - a real cut above the Australian stuff!).

Olive Toscano

Phillippa's Olive Toscano heated slightly in the oven was the perfect accompaniment. Check out Mum's copper pepper grinder in the background (half hidden behind the pewter salt shaker) - it's one of the family possessions that I most covet...

Easter poussin

The main course was stuffed roasted poussin, following Nigella's recipe. So teeny tiny!

Nonno's salad

The salad, as always, featured leaves from Nonno's garden...

Easter Lunch

I wish I knew Mum's secret - her roast potatoes are sensational. The other vegetable was creamy roasted fennel, made according to S's trusted recipe.

Crostoli and lime tart from ChimmeysEaster dessert

For dessert Nonna had made another batch of the world's best crostoli, and zia P brought a delicious tangy lime tart which she'd bought at Chimmys. I only just realised that we had insalata caprese and crostoli at the last big family lunch I wrote about... next time I'll ask Nonna to make something different to mix it up! :)

LimoncelloBirdie's cocktail

If you've never tried Limoncello before, be bloody careful the first time you come across it: it packs a kick like a mule. When I lived in Siena and would go out with friends to dinner, the owner of whatever trattoria we were dining in would inevitably come over at the end of our meal with a bottle and insist on pouring us each a chilled glass to have as a digestivo. If we'd been knocking back carafes of Chianti with our food, the glass of Limoncello was always what tipped us over the edge into full-blown drunkenness.

The cocktail on the right is the yummy creation of my sister Birdie, who recently completed her RSA. I'll find out what the ingredients are and update this post accordingly...
**Updated** ...in Birdie's own words... :)
the drink has:
ice and strawberries mixed in a blender
then you pour it in a glass
then you get half a lime (or lemon) and squeeze that
then you pour a fair slosh of grenadine in
then you pour a double shot of vodka
then you put the magic ingredient - 4 or 5 drops of tabasco sauce
and there you have your strawberry slut

Carte italiane

After we finished eating we put on some old Italian records and sat around playing cards, using the 40-card Carte Italiane (we play with the Triestine cards made by Modiano). The games we like playing with carte are Scopa if there are two players, Machiavelli if there are more. There's another card game Nonna and Nonno like to play which they simply call "Trick" - I'll have to find out from Mum what it's called in English if there is an English equivalent.

Nonna playing cards

Nonna playing cards. :)

Billionaire!

BILLIONAIRE!!

11 comments:

Sarah said...

Wow! What a spread!

xox Sarah

Cindy said...

Huh, I haven't seen Billionaire in years! I used to love that game. :-)

thanh7580 said...

The pepper grinder looks very cool Claire.

As for roast potatoes, I haven't tried it yet but a work mates wife gave me a recipe for a really good roast potatoe. She said the secret is to par boil them and then really shake them up to fluff them up and let them cool. Then drizzle on oil and put into a really hot oven. I will give this a try soon. If you try it out, let me know how it goes.

I must get round to trying my Limoncello. I bought it during summer but kept forgetting as its in the back of the cupboard.

Johanna GGG said...

What an amazing spread of food! I love my mum's roast potatoes too (thanh's method is a tried and true one).

Was pleased to see you are a fellow life on mars fan - didn't want to spoil it in my post but the undercover stuff was pretty weird wasn't it - and clever too - and what an ending! Made me never want to sit through a dull meeting again. I see David Bowie is on your list of favourite music so am sure you loved the music as much as I did too!

Jon! said...

Wow - who needs restaurant when you can eat like this. Looks amazing.

Good to see you again at BB2 & thanks for your lovely cheescake :)

purple goddess said...

Can your family adopt me?

I am available....

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claire said...

Thanks for your kind comments everyone! Will post another family lunch soon...

Anonymous said...

Ciao!
I crostoli...buonissimi!!!
Un saluto dal Friuli!!!
Mandi!

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Did you end up finding out if there was an English equivalent for the game "Trick"??

Thanks!

claire said...

Hi Anonymous, I'm afraid I never did. My grandparents don't know any other name for it, and it seems impossible to research on the internet... sorry!