The last week has been really busy, the house was full
Yesterday when most of the guests where gone I was sitting outside with Lennard and Marsha (wonderful returning guests from Holland) having a little liqueur and a chat. It was strange to see the house so empty and I was seriously missing the guests who had just left… and I thought: it’s because of guests like this weeks’ that I LOVE this job and this place. So a big THANK YOU to all the smiling guests (you know who you are) that make my job so nice and contribute in making the Locanda a warm place!

… back to huge amounts of fruit from the farm…
Uva americana (or uva fragola, Concord grapes in the US, I believe) is ready to be picked! We serve it for breakfast, make juice, jelly and I also use it for making Pane col mosto. Pane col mosto is a mildly sweet rich bread kneaded with fermented grape juice (not wine, just the juice when it starts bubbling).
For this recipe you need 270 gr “mosto” so you need 500 gr grapes approx, you squeeze them with your hands in a bowl, cover the bowl with a cloth and leave them there for two or three days. When it starts bubbling you filter the juice and this is more or less what you’ll obtain

mostoWhen you have the “mosto” you can start, you need:
500 gr flour
270 gr mosto
15 gr fresh yeast
2 tsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
100 gr sugar

50 gr raisins
50 gr almonds
50 gr walnuts
1 1/2 tsp anice seeds

Mix and knead the ingredients of the first group (make sure that the yeast doesn’t touch the salt before it’s mixed with the other ingredients).
Let rest until doubled.
Add the nuts and raisins

Pane-col-mosto-frutta-seccaknead and form two loaves (use a bit of flour to make this easier)

Pane-col-mosto-filoniLet double and bake (180º) for about 20 minutes

pane-col-mosto-cottoYUMMY!!!

This is some of tomorrow’s breakfast

pani