After enjoying the wonderful sunshine in Montecatini’s Piazza, we strolled to the train station for our journey to Florence. We had been briefed that driving was restricted and parking difficult and we were quite ready to sit back and relax on this day trip.

The country side scenery was beautiful and the train so efficient -we were in Firenze station in no time. Centrally located, we walked from the station in the direction of the piazza with the throngs of other travellers.

Our main intent was for D to view Michelangelo’s David and we had asked for directions while still at our hotel base in Montecatini. Unfortunately, we were either misinformed or had misunderstood as we were told that David was at the Ufizzi Gallery.

We made our way there purchased a premium ticket so as not to have to wait in line, but we still had a short wait, had to go through a security check and D had to check his backpack (even though others were allowed to keep theirs if they wore them on their fronts).

We began to wind our way through the galleries in pursuit of David-the prize.

When we thought that we were coming to the end of the path, we asked a security guard if David was still ahead.

Boticelli- who I loved when studying art history at university.

I also studied the exquisite Bernini.

Even with our limited understanding of Italian, we could interpret that we were indeed in the wrong gallery.

We exited soon after but not until we had our photo taken on the terrace at the restaurant

and viewed the Rialto Bridge that I had visited some 40 years prior. After hiking over to Acadamea to see more line ups and required ticket purchases, D made the decision to give up on the goal.

The consolation prize was that we did get to view David’s replica by the Ufizzi

along with a gallery of other exquisite replicas.

By this time we were hungry and D found us a spot in the sunshine right on the piazza of the Duomo.

I indulged in Tuscan sausage, truffles and cream pasta

and D the fruitti de mare

along with our customary half carafe of house wine.

Soon after we hopped the train back to Montecatini.

Kath’s quote: “Even now I miss Italy dearly, I dream about it every night” – Eila Hiltunen

Love never fails.

I am not really sure why  a writer for the New York Times would give up hours upon hours of time with his family, at his own expense and want to volunteer in the kitchen of a number of stressful, hectic kitchens, with no apparent motive except to see if his culinary skills could stand up in a professional kitchen, but that is the premise of Bill Bulford’s “Heat”.  His sub-title states “{An amateur’s adventure as Kitchen slave. Line cook. Pasta-maker and apprentice to a Dante-quoting Butcher in Tuscany}”  The fascinating Mario Batali is a central figure in this recounting.  Perhaps you admire Mario’s accomplishments on Food TV and in the culinary world.  You may not after you read “Heat”, unless you are intrigued by the Chef Gordon Ramsay type and then I say read on.

I was impressed by Bulford’s ability to take a complicated recipe from a professional kitchen and describe the process with directions and imagery that I could clearly understand.  In this first excerpt, he does just that:

My advice: ignore the Babbo cookbook and begin roasting small pinches of garlic and chili flakes and medium pinches of the onion and pancetta in a hot pan with olive oil.  Hot oil accelerates the cooking process and the moment that everything gets soft you pour it away (holding back the contents with your tongs) and add a slap of butter and a splash of white wine, which stops the cooking.  This is Stage One-and you are left with the familiar buttery mush-but you’ve already added two things you’d never see in Italy: butter (seafood with butter-or any other dairy ingredient-verges on culinary blaspheme), and pancetta, because, according to Mario, pork and shellfish are an eternal combination found in many other places: in Portugal, in ameijoas na cataplana (clams and ham) or in Spain, in paella (chorizo and scallops); or in the United States, in the Italian American clams casino, even though none of these places happen to be in Italy.  (“Italians,” Mario says won’t mess with their fish. There are restaurants who won’t use lemon because they think it’s excessive.)

In Stage Two, you drop the pasta in boiling water and take your messy pan and fill it with big handfuls of clams and put it on the highest flame possible.  The objective is to cook them fast-they’ll start opening after three or four minutes, when you give the pan a swirl, mixing the shellfish juice with the buttery porky white wine emulsion.  At six minutes and thirty seconds, use your tongs to pull your noodles out and drop them into your pan-all that starchy pasta water slopping in with them is still a good thing; give  the pan another swirl; flip it; swirl again to ensure the pasta is evenly covered by the sauce.  If it looks dry, add another splash of pasta water; if too wet, pour off some it.  You then let the thing cook for another half minute or so, swirling, swirling, until the sauce streaks across the bottom of the pan, splash it with olive oil and sprinkle it with parsley: dinner.

Earlier, he describes the nugget that I am always on the search for: the mysterious connection between food and love.

Making food seemed to be something that everybody needed to do: not for the restaurant, but for the kitchen.  Here was the family meal, of course-bountifully served around four in the afternoon-but the food was almost always being made by someone at some time all day long.  The practice seemed to illustrate a principle I was always hearing referred to as “cooking with love.” A dish was a failure because it hadn’t been cooked with love. A dish was a success because the love was so obvious.  If you’re cooking with love, every plate is a unique event-you never allow yourself to forget that a person is waiting to eat it: your food, made with your hands, arranged with your fingers, tasted with your tongue.

If this is also a fascination of yours, you will enjoy “Heat”, but make sure that you read it after your dinner or you will be scouring your pantry for a can of clams and and pulling out your saute pans.

Kath’s quote: “Spaghetti is love.” Mario Batali

Love-that is all.

Excerpts from Heat, Bill Buford, Doubleday Canada, ISBN-13: 978-0-385-66256-7

The truth is, I truly can’t decide which is my favourite destination between Italy and Mexico and the food is the reason why.  How do you choose between the fresh sparkling taste of cilantro when paired with chilies, tomatoes and freshly squeezed lime and the earthy tones of rosemary, garlic and red wine which transforms a tomato into something else, indeed?  Thankfully, now a days, the world is truly our oyster, so why do I just have to have one favourite?

The first time I set foot on Isla Mujeres, I knew that the little island would always be a part of my life.  We have already booked a villa on the sea for the 2014 season, when we take the entire family including “Baby”, who will be born this summer.  Getting to Mexico can be fairly affordable, if you plan carefully and start researching airfares in advance.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you choose to travel at the last minute, there are often some tremendous deals.  But, we don’t roll that way.  My readers know that the anticipation of a trip for me, is often as satisfying as the trip itself.

Italy and the rest of Europe is a special treat.  We reserve overseas travel for significant birthdays and anniversaries.  With the exception of this fall, when we are taking time in October so that I can lead a blogging workshop in Tuscany.  The vacation package includes tutelage in the kitchen by Chef Enrico, whose ancient restored estate is where the participants will reside.  That is, when we are not touring the cities and towns of Tuscany or foraging for truffles in its forests.

But in the mean time, here is a more immediate reward.  If you are interested in one of four $100. Sobey’s gift cards, create and then share your own Sobeys West Pinboard.  Copy and paste your board  URL(s) in the comments section below. How the contest works: Anyone who creates a pinboard and repins 4 pins from http://pinterest.com/sobeys, using the keyword SobeysWest, is entered to win!  You have to reside in Manitoba and west to do so.

Here’s a link to my own pinboard: http://pinterest.com/foodmusings/dream-destinations-mexico-or-italy/

So, make a cuppa tea.  Sit back and let’s dream of where we want to travel next….happy pinning!

Kath’s quote: “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There  is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes  open.” – Jawaharial  Nehru

Love-that is all.