Today we finally got to meet up with our cousin Claudia!
But first, Cappuccino e Cornetto. Finally, back to my Cafe, and I think they missed me because he made a heart shape with the foam in my cappuccino (Frankie and Claudia think he has a crush on me).
Claudia, Fabrizio, and his son Elias picked us up at our flat and took us to their home in Signa, which is a lovely little suburb of Florence. Their home is gorgeous, and we were treated to a grand tour before lunch.
One thing that's really cool about many of the kitchens in Italy is that the refrigerator is built in to the cabinets. It makes the kitchen so nice not to have a fridge sticking out like a sore thumb.
Claudia has a beautiful kitchen with a hidden fridge, but really the whole home is just lovely. In her bathrooms, she's added glitter to the paint and now I know what I'm doing next weekend when I get home...
We started lunch by being treated to more new oil. Man, a girl could get used to that. I wish I could accurately capture what it tastes like, it's just more flavorful than any olive oil I've ever had. It definitely tastes like olives, but it's more than that... Almost earthy. Anyhow, it's so so good and we got to have it twice, so you should be jealous.
For primi (first course), we had fettuccine with a mushroom sauce, which was both creamy and mushroomy and super tasty.
For secondi, Fabrizio grilled bistecca, and it was cooked perfectly! It was crispy on the outside, and warm but super rare on the inside and it was delicious! We had roasted potatoes with it, and they were also cooked perfectly- golden brown and just the right amount of crispy. Yum!
For dessert, Claudia made a Tuscan specialty called Castagnaccio (chestnut cake). It's made from chestnut flour, so it's got almost a gelatinous texture rather than a cake or bread texture. The rest is pretty simple- water, raisins, pine nuts, walnuts, salt, and (of all things) rosemary. So there's no sugar added, just the natural sweetness of the ingredients, which makes the perfect light dessert to balance out the richness of the bistecca and potatoes. It was delightful!
After lunch we sat and visited for a few hours, and then they brought us home to rest (still taking it easy so we don't get sick again). We had such a wonderful time with them, and they left us with a gift of a bottle of the local chianti wine!
After a rest, we headed out for dinner. We went to Ristorante Buca Dell'Orafo, and it did not disappoint.
Buca Dell'Orafo means Hole of the Goldsmith, and that's pretty accurate. It's very near the Ponte Vecchio, which for hundreds of years has been a one-stop shop for gold jewelry, and this area is where historically the artisans made the jewelry. To get to the restaurant you walk under a bridge between two buildings (which I've since learned are part of the same 900-year-old palace. This happened with some frequency here. People wanted to expand their palaces but rather than tearing down the building next door, they just connected the two. Since there was a street in between, they couldn't do it at street level, so they built a connection above like a bridge. Pretty handy.).
To enter, you go through a very small entryway, down about 5 or 6 stairs, push very hard on a door that feels like it's going to fall off its hinges any time (but as it turned out is really quite sturdy), and into a little cellar room that fits about 35 people at most. We couldn't figure out how to make reservations online, so we took a shot that we'd be able to get a table. At first it seemed like we wouldn't, but the lady who helped me open the door had a conversation with a couple of other people who were across the room (in different directions) while we stood in the tiny doorway waiting.
I can only imagine what the scene looked like to an outside observer... A very tall 20-something Florentine woman with a commanding presence standing below (there's about 2 more steps down into the restaurant after you go through the door) two American tourists in single file (did I mention the stairwell is narrow) yelling over a crowd of about 15 diners to two different points in the room, discussing with a guy who looks like Harry Connick, Jr. and another young woman whether or not they can squeeze two more in for tonight (and likely taking bets on how long we'd stick around after seeing the menu).
Luckily they ruled in our favor and we were allowed through the door and pointed to a table against the wall. This place is adorable. There are some walls that have been plastered over, but a couple of walls are just the original, exposed stone. One of these has a little cave in it, which is probably where the troll lives.
The menu is all in Italian, and there's a lot of offal on it. Typically, I'm all for trying something new, but the lady who let us in the door ended up being our server, and she was kind of scary so I decided it was better not to risk her wrath if I didn't like it and go with a safe bet.
I should clarify that she was not remotely mean, and actually quite accommodating. She spoke English pretty well, and was a good, attentive server. There's no tangible reason I can give as to why she was also kind of terrifying, other than to tell you she had a presence about her that you knew you should not mess with her. She very clearly was in charge, and ran the room, and the other two servers obediently followed her lead, but she didn't seem to be mean or anything- even to them. She just really gave the impression that she was not to be trifled with and given that she was at least 5'10", possibly more, I just thought it best to not make any waves. Through the course of the dinner, I also began to feel a sort of affinity towards her, similar to a coach /player dynamic-- like she had a tough exterior but you knew if you let her down it would break both your hearts. This may seem a bit melodramatic, and it is, but Frankie got a similar impression/vibe, so I am not completely crazy.
We started with an appetizer of finocchio (pronounced like Pinocchio, but with an f) sausage and prosciutto crudo. I'm not sure if I've talked about finocchio sausage yet. Finocchio is fennel, so it's basically a salami-type sausage made with fennel. If you like fennel, this is delicious and really adds a unique flavor to the sausage. This finocchio was hands down the best we've had here. It was so moist and delicious, and the fennel taste was prominent but not overpowering. Anyone who knows how much Frankie loves prosciutto will understand how good it was when I tell you he said the prosciutto was fine, but the finocchio was better.
For our main course, Frankie ordered the pasta with chickpeas, and I ordered the roasted pork and cauliflower.
Oh. My. Goodness.
Hands down one of the best meals I've had here. The pork was so tender I could cut it with a fork (even though I was given a huge scary knife to use with it), and the cauliflower was roasted with garlic cloves and was a little crispy but also tender and it all just complimented each other so perfectly.
Thankfully, they gave me plenty, so I was able to share half of it with Frankie, because his dish- while very tasty- turned out to be different from what we expected. It was more like a soup of ground chickpeas with some lasagna-type pasta in it. But the soup was just chickpeas, water, and spices so while it was good, it wasn't enough to fill him.
When I told him I was full, we swapped dishes. He was only about 3/4 of the way done with the soup, and I really was quite full, so I took a few bites of it but no more. After he cleaned my plate, he was full and his was cold. I swapped the plates back, so when our server returned to clear them, it was he who got the disappointed, almost heartbroken look from her (hehe). He was not pleased about that but was very sweet not to throw me under the bus and tell her he's the reason why my plate was clean, and I'm the reason why his plate wasn't. That's true love y'all.
We ordered Vin Santo e Cantucci for dessert, because we were pretty full and that's typically small and light. Not this time…
Vin Santo is traditionally served in a cordial glass, so you only get about a shot or at the most two. Since Cantucci are meant to be dipped into the Vin Santo (like Oreos in milk, but way way better. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Oreos in milk, so when you hear me say this is sooo much better, know that it is from a place of love), you're typically given 3-4 at most (otherwise you'd have more cookie than wine, and who wants that? Not me...).
When ours arrived, we had two rocks glasses (so about 8 ounces) filled about 2/3 of the way, and 8-10 cookies each. Given that he'd already taken the hit for the meal, Frankie was not about to help me out of this one... So what to do? I can't let coach and the team down, but how on earth am I going to finish this?
Well, my mind went back to some advice Maurizio gave me last Sunday during the marathon dinner - "piano, piano" (go slowly). So, I did. I dunked a little, bit a little, sipped a little, rested. Dunk a little, bite a little, sip a little, rest. For the next 30 minutes that was my mantra, and I was able to drink all the wine and eat all but two of the cookies. Go team!
Coach wasn't a bit upset, and even caught herself as she brought us the check and asked if we wanted coffee first. So, I don't think either of us were cut from the team, and I might even get to start in the next game (not Frankie though. He didn't finish his dinner... )!
The violin player was back at the Uffizi on the way home, so we stopped to listen for a bit. She's really very good!
Comments