Italian Dinner Party -- The Food

Friday Night's Dinner Party

was Italian.

Jim and I spent a month last year in Italy

From Tuscany to Venice to Rome

To Positano and Sorrento

And we ate

And I made notes

And I even attended a cooking school!

What we learned most about eating in Italy

is that they really like to eat seasonally.

And I tried to follow that meal when I chose the courses for the party.

It was a donation party

And our guests paid a nice sum for the party

So it needed to be nice --

We started with lemoncellotinis in the parlor

(My homemade lemoncello) 

And with the tunis

I served bruschetta -- with roasted cherry and plum tomatoes and basil and garlic

and a finishing of a sea salt

It's one of my favorite foods

Antipasti:

A fennel, orange and olive salad

Zuppa:

A winter squash soup from Gina Stipo

Primi:

A pasta with lemon and cream and Parmesan

Baked

Secondi:

A pork loin stuffed with ground pork and fennel and garlic, a cooked red onion (which was cooked under the pork), a creamy cheesy polenta with rosemary and roasted broccoli rabe.

There was dessert!

But I didn't get a picture of it!!!

It was berries served with a cannoli cream

and sprinkled with crushed amaretti cookies.

Served with the late harvest sevyal.

After we had espresso and walnut liqueur 

(which we hand carried home from Italy!)

It was a fun night!

We ate, we drank and we laughed!

There is nothing better than gathering friends around a table

and sharing food and friendship.