Wild Mushroom Tortellini with spring peas in Gorgonzola sauce

Espresso under the trees

The Italians say and sing Tanti Auguri, which literally translates to many wishes.  We sing Tanti Auguri a Te or Happy Birthday to you.  Buon Compleanno is the actual translation but really is not frequently used.  However you say it today is my birthday and I’ve been given the gift of a gorgeous day.  We are fortunate to have lovely crabappletrees in front of our Caffe Graziani www.caffegraziani.com.  They usually bloom in early May but this season thanks to some 90 weather in early April they are in full bloom, just for my birthday.  Giovanni prepared me some exquisite Tortellini filled with Wild Mushrooms and spring peas in a Gorgonzola cream sauce.  A quick espresso under these fragrant blossoms and life is good.

Giancarlo, Giacomo and Giovanni with the harvest

     As a child growing up, figs were a dried fruit eaten with nuts after a large holiday meal. Those were always happy occasions and I liked the figs well-enough
     Then I met GIOVANNI. The first time he took me to his home, Piglio(FR) a small village southeast of Rome he took a detour to the vineyard. Driving down the dirt road through the vineyards was an entirely new experience for this city girl. The grapevines were lush & green with the fruit just beginning to ripen. Then we got to the fig trees. Juicy green figs as large as pears. The trees were weighed down with the abundance of the fruit. We filled two sackfulls & ate some on the way back to the car. Back at the house we cleaned them & enjoyed them with prosciutto & fresh cheeses.
     A few years later when I was living in Rome, my sister Nancy & cousin Linda visited me and Giovanni brought us all to Piglio. Before reaching the “paese” we stopped to pick figs. It was nearly dusk when we arrived and the mosquitos were as abundant as the figs. But that didn’t deter us from our quest. The figs were again fablous, oozing sweet nectar & ripe for the picking. What a feast.

     Now fast forward about 15years while visiting Piglio with our sons ages 13 and 18 at the time, urbanites like their mom. It was their first visit to Italy in the warm summer season. Giacomo said, I don’t like figs, foolish child. Then he tried one warm from the tree. I think he ate a dozen right there. We filled a basket and ate figs for days.
Giovanni bought a case this week and while the black California variety doesn’t compare to the those ripe green beauties we’ve harvested in Piglio I never eat a fresh fig that all those yummy memories don’t come rushing back. 

Figs ripe for the picking

buon appetito!

Phrase for today
a presto (see you soon/or until next time)

pmg