CERBAIA ESTATE

This is the house we stayed in for two weeks. It is situated about 30 minutes south-west of Siena out in the countryside at the end of a dirt road. Probably the most isolated place we have visited since leaving NZ! We stayed in the ground and first floor, the owners live in the two top floors. The house is about 500 years old and is built around an even older Roman tower remnant. The outbuildings (stable, servants quarters etc) have all been converted into holiday apartments. It was like staying in a museum!!

Staying there was Fran's mum's idea, the house had been recommended to her by a friend. She organised the whole thing from NZ over a year ago - thank you Traude!! Staying in one place meant we were able to have some lazy relaxing days in between trips to various towns and cities in the region. During the second week some Italian friends of Traude's from Milan and Mirano joined us. It made for an interesting mix of Kiwis, Germans and Italians. There was a lot of competition in the kitchen, and we learnt a few new recipes. I have added some below. Italian life revolves around food and family so as you can imagine we ate pretty well......

The fields and forest behind the house, we saw a few wild deer and pigs

The old well in the courtyard

The pool

Back garden

Stables

Gateway

Our room

The family chapel next to the house

The huge chunk of meat we had for dinner one night - we ate left-overs for three days!

Left to right - Fran, Rob, Traude, Brigitte, Willi, Paul, Concetta, Bruno and Licia

Empties...we had a few of these.....

Group photo on our last day - Left to right Paul, Concetta, Licia, Bruno, Traude, Rob, Fran, Graham, Willi and Brigitte

Waving goodbye

WHAT WE ATE:

Italians eat virtually no breakfast and lunch, but go all out by usually having a 3-5 course main meal. It starts with antipasti (read nibbles), is followed by the pasta, the secondi (usually a meat dish), salad, the dolci (desert) and finally the coffee. We had a field day at the supermarket in Siena and at the outdoor markets, with Graham and I gladly volunteering to do most of the shops. The fresh produce was so much better than in the UK, and the cheese, meat and fish sections were fantastic. For antipasti we ate (amonst other things) melon with parma ham, sundried tomatoes, mozarella with tomatoes and basil, anchovies, marinated capsicum, olives, pickled onions all with lots of fresh bread. The marinated peppers are totally yum and really easy to make, so I've got the recipe for you here:

You need:

Several large peppers, the bigger the better (the italian ones were massive!)

Good quality olive oil

Salt

Garlic.

Put the peppers in the oven whole and cook for 20-40 minutes so they are cooked right through. Take them out, let them cool, gut them and then peel the skin off. Cut them into long slivers. Mix god helping of oil with salt and chopped raw garlic. Place peppers in a shallow dish and cover with the oil and garlic. Marinade overnight.

The pasta dishes were numerous and usually made by using fresh peeled tomatoes instead of the canned stuff. I think this only works with Italian varieties of tomatoes though, as the NZ type are more watery and acidic, whereas the Italian ones have a much milder flavour. My favourite combination was Brigitte's pasta with a gorgonzola and cream sauce. It was to die for. On a mission to find a good gorgonzola over here so I can try to re-create it...

Concetta made a great tasting chicken dish as a secondi, which, again, is actually really easy to make. She peeled and cubed potatoes and put them in a large baking dish with several handfuls of breadcrumbs. She made up some chicken stock and poured this over the top. She fried the chicken (legs, drumsticks and thighs in this case) in a pan first seperately and then placed these on top of the potatoes. Finally she chopped up a whole lot of flat leaf parsley and sprinkled these over the entire dish. What I can't remember is whether she put in garlic or onions, but I don't thinks so. She then put the whole thing in the oven until the potatoes were cooked. It tasted exceptionally good considering how easy it is to make.

Desserts were usually small or light which is a really good thing because you just physically can't eat that much food in one sitting. We ate a lot of melon as well as 'panforte' which is a Siena speciality. It is a small round, fairly thin spicy fruitcake which is quite hard and dense in consistency. It comes in a variety of flavours, including chocolate. Very morish....