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
When 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
knead and form two loaves (use a bit of flour to make this easier)
Let double and bake (180º) for about 20 minutes
YUMMY!!!
This is some of tomorrow’s breakfast
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FABULOUS.. off to steal some grapes and get them fermenting.
Can you also save mosto???
Hi Diva!
Yes, no problem saving the mosto: it keeps in a closed bottle for some weeks in the fridge and it freezes well (I make 270 gr plastic bags and freeze them).
As one of the departing guests of last week, I think we all owe a huge thank you to Giulia and her parents for making our holiday so memorable with a new gastronomic experience every evening. We also enjoyed the peace and breathtaking landscapes plus the changeable weather. On the way home, we began a discussion about whether to hold my 60th birthday party (next year)at the Locanda and try to fill the rooms with our scattered family – two of the four children live permanently in Dubai and one commutes there from London, while the youngest is at university. And the best kept secret about last week was that three of the guests are, or have been, heavily involved in local government in the U.K.and two have stood for Parliament. Luckily, we never got onto politics as we are not all in the same Party!
Dear Anonymous,
now I am CURIOUS!!!!!
Thank you so much for your nice words and we really hope to see you and your family next year for your B day (October is a very nice month at the Locanda and you can have white truffles if you like them!! ;))