April 13, 2015
OK, so the earth can sometimes be a dark and baleful place. But let us sweeten it in any way we can.
“Hello, Signora,” the roving vendor croaks. What do you need?”
This is what we’re eating now:
Take heart in the earth’s bounty!
Love to one and all.
Yum!!! Everything looks delicious. I learned the other day, how to roast the carciofi in the oven with garlic and olive oil. Brava, Jann!
Mmmmmm. And I’d love to learn to make them the Roman way–deep fried–they sort of taste like superb french fries. xxxx
Beautiful photos Jann , but am particularly taken with the carciofi.
Grazie Francesca
I adore fresh produce. Strawberries are my favourites.
Good to hear from you Loree.
Sorry that you got more than one of my e mails. My computer indicated that one didn’t go out, so I tried again. Sometimes I loath all electronics.
Not to worry, Chloe. As a technophobe myself, I welcome all computer glitches…
Sicilian wild strawberries. I don’t think there is any nicer dessert. Wish I were there as they must be in the markets about now.
I think it’s a little early, Chloe, but I’ve got an eye out for them– it’s a very short season.
Your photos are scrumptious!!! Do the Sicilian farmers grow asparagus??
Sandee, most of the asparagus eaten is Sicily is the wild variety–really skinny stalks that grow all over the fields in spring.
They are the most beautiful strawberries I’ve ever seen. Drooling …. xx
Wish you were here! You could have them with sweet cream.
Lovely.
I adore the onions that were just pulled out of the dirt!!
xxxxx KISS for you, JANN.
Yup, you can’t get fresher than those onions. xxxxkisses back to you, Kim.
One of the best meals I have had was while sitting on a rock on the shore between Ragusa Marina and Punta Secca, with my feet in the warm Met, eating a pile of artichokes grilled by a lady with an ancient BBQ device – on the footpath! She would not take payment. From memory, the leaves were stuffed with garlic, parsley, sale, pepe, – o, e olio, tanto! gnam gnam!
Well, that sounds crazy & interesting Barbara! A truly surreal Sicilian story. Thanks for commenting…
We have fresh strawberries (U-pick places) and NONE of them were as beautiful as those you pictured above! They taste wonderful, though! I don’t buy store-bought (here in US) tomatoes anymore. We buy from the Mennonites or grow our own. Nothing is as wonderful as a fresh home-grown tomato! A huge sliced tomato with our home-grown beef – ahhhhh! LOVE these pix.
Ciao Nan–thanks for your tasty comment. xxx
The wild, Sicilian strawberry hath no equal. Like perfume. We just had a wonderful meal with our daughter and her Sicilian husband. Rabbit, cooked only how it can be done by someone familiar with Sicilian cooking. So much better than chicken.
Chloe, I agree. The rabbit is often cooked with capers, onions, maybe tomatoes & so great. It’s pretty good cooked in wine the way they do it in Rome, too. Lots of American won’t eat bunny rabbits, but I’m not one of them.
when my son was little he ate a lot(so many that made him throw-up) strawberries now he hates them + great pictures. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
Peggy–isn’t that weird how that happens? Same thing happened with olives to me and my husband in Greece. We absolutely gorged on them they were so good, but now we’re wary when olives appear on our plate.
Your pictures make me so happy you’re back! Artichokes are my favorite food, especially those from Sicily.
Thanks, Bonnie; you’re so sweet. xxx
It is the artichokes that I would go after, stuffed with roasted potatoes and a slice of lamb.
Ah, can you cook me that for dinner, please??? Do you know how good the spring lamb is here now?
Ciao Jann, Italian’s are always trying to make you hungry, their life always includes the meal, and so there created that wonderful word “Mangiamo” which says it all. Thanks for those wonderful photo’s, and now I’m going to eat.
Live to eat is the motto. 🙂
I agree about the tomatoes, I can never get enough of Sicilian tomatoes, but I must confess to preferring English strawberries above all others. It’s the thing of being able to crush them on the roof of one’s mouth to release the wonderful strawberry smell. One can only do this because they are soft as strawberries should be, not hard and needing slicing.
I shall be in Sicily soon and I know exactly where to head for for my favourite bruscetta, but right here we are having very high temperatures so I’m enjoying my own lovely garden full of the scent of crocus, jasmine and mimosa.
Mari, never having had English strawberries, I cannot compare, but there’s pretty soft here too. The wild ones are best, though. Enjoy your lovely English garden!
Yummy gorgeous images. I will take them all! Yum!
Ciao Lucinda–come stai??
I can’t stand strawberries (it’s a texture thing!), but those fresh tomatoes look delicious — and I can only imagine what delightful pasta dishes could come out of a kitchen using them!
Well, Debbie, you’re the 1st person I know who hates strawberries. I thought they were like chocolate–loved by one and all! It’s funny about the texture thing–my husband has that about some foods–he doesn’t mind the taste but can’t tolerate the texture. xxxxx