A Day in Perugia.

     This past Friday, I went on a school field trip to the region of Umbria, which is just north of the region Rome is in (Lazio), to the beautiful town of Perugia. While in Perugia, we got to experience many yummy things including a cooking lesson, eating, as well as infamous chocolate from Perugia.
      We took a 2 hour bus to Umbria, and arrived at a Bed & Breakfast called Casale S. Bartolomeo just 20 minutes outside of Perugia. Upon getting there, we learned about the owner's life and the story of the B&B's creation. Him and his wife, along with their 2 young daughters, used to live in Rome. However, after the birth of their second daughter, they realized they were tired of the smog, traffic, hour-long drive to work, and their cramped apartment, so they went on to flip their lives upside down and move just outside of Perugia, in the middle of beautiful scenic landscape.

Side of the B&B with an old bike.

      After a tour of their beautiful B&B, we got to cooking. The man was and still is a chef, so his kitchen was fully stocked with supplies and utensils for cooking a fabulous meal. First, it was me and 2 of my roommate's jobs to cook the lasagna noodles, then set them out to dry. After that difficult task, we took to walking around, and looking at the great jobs that our classmates' were doing. Some were rolling meatballs, cutting up cheese for our appetizer, cutting up Speck (thicker cut of prosciutto), and others I did not see. Our final menu was as follows:

Appetizer:

- Dried Sausage

- Cheese

- Bread

Delicious appetizer.

1st Course:

- Polpette aromatiche agli spinaci

(Spinach Meatballs)

Meatballs before they were cooked.

Meatballs after they were cooked.

2nd Course:

- Lasagne al radicchio

(Radicchio, Spek, and beef lasagna)

- Bread and Olive Oil

My roommate Jorgi putting the pasta in to cook! 

My roommate Cindy setting the noodles out to dry.

Spinach for the meatballs, raddicchio for the lasagna.

All the ingredients for the delicious lasagna.

My roommates Melissa and Ashley cutting up the speck and cheese for the lasagna.

Speck=yum. Reminds me of bacon from home.  :)

The innards of the lasagna (minus the speck).

Assembly line production of lasagna.

Before the lasagna was popped in the oven!

Lasagna all cooked and ready to eat!

Beverage:

- Vino Rossa

(Red Wine, of course) 

Not pictured.

Dessert:

- Mousse al cioccolato

(Chocolate Mousse)

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy.

      The entire meal turned out great, especially with us making it ourselves! We felt very proud of ourselves for making such food masterpieces, that the food tasted that much better. the meatballs were covered in a red sauce, which complimented the soft, yummy spinach ball of flavor. The lasagna was a little to radicchio-y, but it was overall very delicious and extremely flavorful. We were surprised at the end of the mean when we were told that the owner's wife made us the chocolate mousse, which was utterly to die for. It was the perfect amount chocolaty and creamy, that was not too fluffy it would float away. A great surprise that was just as delicious as the rest of the meal was.
      After helping clean up, we said our "grazie"'s and our "ciao"'s, and headed back on the bus for the 30 minute ride to Perugia. While there, we were able to walk up the the main city center, which was beautiful, with many store-lined streets, and a great over-look of amazing scenery.  The most important shop, though, was Perugina. This fantastic chocolate shop had walls of chocolate, and enough to overwhelm even me. I ended up getting a Baccio bar (which Perugia is known for, the chocolate with nuts in it, much like the gelato also), raspberry chocolate bar, and a chocolate mousse bar. They all taste delicious! I have not yet finished all of them, but I am not sure how much longer they will last!

Music was being played in a park not too far from the main square.

Inside Perugina- chocolate galore!

Me with my chocolate in front of the shop!

      After the last of us made our difficult chocolate decisions, we piled on the bus for the 3 hour drive back to Rome!

Recipes/Ingredients:
(This is me sharing what I was given by the owner, and is the exact words of what he gave me. Sorry I don't have the steps for everything, as I was not there for every step of every part of the meal. Sorry!)

Lasagne al raxdicchio
250 gr lasagne noodles
200 gr smoked scamorza slice (beef)
80 gr Parmesan
3 heads/balls of radicchio
200 gr speck (prosciutto) slice
Cream, pepper, onion, butter, oil, salt
Besciamella sauce (50 gr butter, 50 gr flour, 500 gr milk; salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste)

Polpette aromatiche agli spinaci
Meat (Beef): 1.3 kg
Spinach: 1.3 kg
(cook spinach in a pot over the stove with some water)
tomato sauce 1.5 kg, prepared with fried onion, carrot and celery
bread: 7 slices (pancarre)
Eggs: 4
Nutmeg and salt to taste

Mousse al cioccolato
For 6 people
300 gr dark chocolate
6 eggs
Butter (just a bit)
Milk (just a bit, usually less than half a glass)
1. Melt the chocolate in a large saucepan with the butter and milk. When it becomes creamy, take it off the heat and let cool
2. Take two bowl; divide the eggs putting the yellow part in one and the white in the other.
3. Whisk the yellow part of the eggs in the first bowl
4. Add the melted chocolate to the eggs (chocolate must not be hot/warm)
5. Whip the egg whites until it looks like snow (a bit solid)
6. very slowly add the whipped egg whites to the yellow (already mixed withe chocolate), and mix using a wooden spoon, turning it on itself (as you would use a screwdriver turn off a screw)
7. When you finish mixing everything, put the mousse in the fridge. The longer the mousse stays in the fridge, the better it is (suggest prepare it the day before serving)

Hope you enjoyed!

xoxo Erica