Reminiscing of Tuscany

A couple summers ago, we had a glorious trip to Tuscany/Umbria with friends. One such friend is our guest this week for dinner… Trish! We decided on a Tuscan themed menu. Somehow, sitting under the pergola in the yard, with the vines overhead, I was reminded of our Italian farmhouse. Plus the heat was similar….

We started with some bubbly and Crostini with Goat Cheese, fig jam and fresh figs.

When your produce guy basically slaps a fig from your hand and leads you to the good figs, you know they’re going to be good. It was also fortuitous that we had Shawn’s homemade fig jam in the fridge. Why have we not made this more often?

After a bit of a catch up, we moved to the table and shared Tuscan Kale and Bean Soup (this time we did get a picture with the new bowls.)

We had a huge revelation, when we learned that you can cook dried beans in the Insta Pot, without soaking them, in a hour. Life got so much simpler. Using fresh kale from the garden, elevated this dish. It was just hearty goodness.

For our main we had some favorites, plus a dish we have been wanting to make for some time. We had zucchini fritters, marinated mushrooms, tuscan bean salad, caprese salad and butternut squash pie.

We paired this with a whole roasted cauliflower with whipped goat cheese.

Can you tell we’re kinda proud of the cauliflower? The table looked beautiful and the flavours were vibrant. Most of the herbs picked mere metres from the table. We may not be in Italy, but we could indeed remember a time when we could travel. But today we reminisce and reconnect and although we are still physical distancing, I might not have been able to resist one of Trish’s famous hugs.