Cucina della Terra and Dinner at Julio's

One of the well known secrets of the Italian foodies is that truck stops in Italy often have the best food.  I had learned this by watching Lydia's Table on PBS and hoped I would get an opportunity to eat at one of these humble truck stops and experience the great food that tourists rarely find.  Little did I know that my visit to Cucina della Terra, a small cooking school in Castiglione del Lago, Umbria, would yield such an experience.

One of my co-workers, Gerri Sarnataro, owns Cucina della Terra.  Gerri is a pastry chef and teaches the Professional Pastry Program at I.C.E. as well as offering many of her specialty classes in Italian cuisine through the recreational division of I.C.E.  Gerri and her partner Jack happen to be in Umbria at the same time as I am, so we agree to meet up at the school so she can show me around and give me a tour of the village of Castiglione del Lago.  Afterward, we planned to have dinner together before I had to return to Siena. 

When I arrive at Cucina della Terra I am ushered into an amazing teaching kitchen.  It is long and rectangle with beautiful ovens and stoves lining the back wall and wrapping around one corner.  There are 3 long stainless steel tables through the center and the counters are marble topped.  Off the kitchen there is another room for dish washing and refrigeration.  The entire wall opposite the stoves is glass windows and doors that open up the space even more to a grape vine covered pergola.  There is also an outdoor grill and wood burning oven where grilling classes take place and dining al fresco in the summer.  Finally, there is a long trestle table in the kitchen, especially made for the school, so that Gerri and all of her students can sit down together and eat and enjoy the results of their labor.  As a chef instructor I recognize all of Gerri's hard work, passion, love and effort that went into creating this amazing space.  Of course, I should mention that her partner Jack is also pretty amazing and deserves a lot of credit for helping Gerri realize this wonderful dream and bring it into reality.  You can find Gerri's cooking school at www.cucinadellaterra.com. 

After the tour of the school, they took me into town where all of the shops had re-opened after the mid-day closure.  Ok, so when I say that everyone in the village knows Gerri and Jack, I am not kidding.  Everywhere we went the villagers were excited to welcome them back and greet them with kisses.  They introduced me around and told me who had the best wild boar sausage and who sold the best olive oil and who grows the tastiest beans or sells the freshest eggs.  I was offered many samples and had to sadly refuse wine where there was no spitoon as I still had about an hours drive back to Siena that night.  Castiglione del Lago, which sits on Lake Trasimeno, is a small hill town village or commune as they are called.  And when I return someday, all I need to do is tell the villagers I am a friend of Geraldina and Jack's and I know I will be treated like family.

After our visit to the village we decide it is time for dinner, only one problem, it is only 6pm.  In Italy most restaurants do not re-open for dinner until 7pm.  So early supper is a challenge.  Gerri and Jack decide to drive me around and show me the surrounding area.  We drove towards Cortona, which is very close by, and I told them about La Bucaccia, which we considered, but Jack had is heart set on something else.......the truck stop restaurant!  I vote for the truck stop as we drive around killing 30 minutes until it opens. 

Next entry I will tell you all about dinner at Julio's.

Ahhhh, Cortona.......

Cortona is a small hill town.  Now, I know that all of the Tuscan and Umbrian hill towns are small, but Cortona is really little. It sits on the top of a hill like jewelry adorning the landscape. For that matter it sparkles at night with the lights visible from miles away in Castiglione del Lago, which is to the south in Umbria. Cortona, however, is in Tuscany and part of the Arezzo sub-region. It is one of the few D.O.C.'s that allow producers to make wine using 100% French grapes. And it is the syrah (French for shiraz) that thrives and grows so well here. I especially love a wine called Bramasole by Antinori's La Braccesca label ($55). I'll never forget the first time I tasted it. I was teaching a Tuscan wine class at I.C.E. and it was not the wine I ordered. I had ordered a less expensive label (around $20) from the same producer. Yet my beverage manager, and dear friend Mark, sent me this wine and I never found out why. Was the other label was out of stock or was there was just a misunderstanding about the order? All I know is that I was supposed to taste this wine and the mix up was a blessing, indeed. Who knew the Italians could grow and produce syrah as well as the French or the Australians?

So, as I am flying to Rome the passenger sitting next asks me questions about my trip. His name is Max, he's Italian, a physicist and has lived in the USA for 20 years, currently in Connecticut. Rome is where he is from, so he was visiting family on his way to advise on nuclear energy somewhere in Eastern Europe. Anyway, when he heard me mention Cortona he said I had to go to a specific restaurant called La Bucaccia (Via Ghibeluna 17, Cortona 52044). He told me he knew the owner and that it was a special place I would love. I stored the info in my handy leased blackberry and when I got to Cortona, I went in search of Max's recommendation. I found it quite easily as I climbed up the street toward the centro. The owner or manager, I still am not sure, welcomed me into the little stone walled, timber beamed, old world comfort zone known as La Bucaccia. There was only one other couple in the restaurant when I arrived and the expressions on their faces told me that they felt lucky to be there, as if just anticipating the meal was part of the fun. I didn't want to eat too much at lunch because I had to drive on to Siena that afternoon and I could only have one glass of wine, but I wanted to sample several of my favorites from the menu. The Bramasole was on the wine list (42 euros) but, alas, I had no one to share it with.  I ordered the chicken liver crostini which came in a little pot placed over a candle to keep it warm. and bread to spread it on. Wow! It was amazing and because the livers had been cooked in wine they were especially rich and comforting. I succumbed to a glass of the locally grown and produced Sangiovese, the predominate Tuscan grape.  It was the wine he had opened that day and not yesterday. Being really picky, I won't drink wine opened yesterday. My next course was a panzanella salad with fresh tomatoes, herbs, red onion, celery and bread crumbs tossed in a vinaigrette, then molded into a tall cylinder on the center of the plate. It was heaven, refreshing and fragrant with tomatoes and basil. It's presentation was as elegant as the livers were rustic. I asked for some fresh black pepper for the panzanella and the wife of the owner/manager who was the server did not want to give me any. She said it would ruin it because of the contrast with the gentle flavor of the olive oil. Having told her that I like the contrast, she agreed to give me a single turn of the mill and I must admit that the pepper only made a great salad perfect. Finally, I had a side of Tuscan beans cooked with rosemary.  They were neither al dente nor mushy. Served in a rustic clay pot, the beans solidified the La Bucaccia comfort zone experience. The wine paired with every dish even the salad, I took a picture of the label, but it is lost in the sea of photos taken so far. It was 100% Sangiovese grown locally in the Cortona D.O.C. in 2007.

As a town Cortona has a lovely duomo, specialty food shops with wild boar sausages and cured hams. There were many wine shops, of course. My mistake was not buying any wine while I was there. There were impressive quantities of half bottles. I should have picked one up as I have not come across any since. I have resisted buying wine because you cannot travel with it any more as a carry-on. And it is too heavy to check. Someday though, I will return to Cortona and La Bucaccia for a Tuscan comfort food fix.