The  season has more or less come to an end....guests celebrating the new year have all checked out....and a beautiful zen kind of feeling descend upon Todi.....the weather can still have lots of sunny spells, the streets are more or less empty, misty mornings where you feel the sun just hiding above, long lunches with friends, long walks in the nature, short days with candles and the fire place at full blaze in the evening.....well doesn't that sound just perfect..??????

Well just to make it clear - it isn't always like this.....this is also the time of the year where we get down to serious business and manage to do all the heavy lifting.....this year so far the kitchen got a fresh coat of paint, the Small Room is right now getting a total makeover, more painting in the other guest rooms and next week we are starting to make a small berry garden at the back of the house with plenty of space to lounge around on comfy chairs while enjoying a chilled Umbrian vino and a sunny spell.....

This is also the months where we clean out the cupboards after a long season....you all probably know the feeling of all those half used bags of pasta, rice, beans and grains you have lying around....well January and February are the months where we cook and eat all those goodies hiding in the back......and must say - soup is a great way to cook with those leftovers and what is better on a cold winter day......

So the other day it was time to tackle that small bag of Risotto rice in the cupboard.....but to be honest the fridge was empty except for half a raddichio....so what to do.....well we went to the larder and grabbed a jar of preserved tomatoes, had an onion lying around together with a few cloves of garlic...and then on to the stove....

In summer time we really like to cook the traditional Pomodoro e Riso - a real classic, that a true italian will eat all summer...it can be eaten warm or cold...basically a tomato stuffed with rice, parmesan and herbs and then baked in the oven until really well done and the rice is beautifully cooked......
But the other day it was cold, and the season of tomatoes is still a few months out - hence the preserved tomatoes and the soupy idea.....

Serves 3-4

extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, fine sliced
3 sprigs of rosemary, leaves only
pinch of dried chili
400 g of tinned tomatoes, drained
150 g risotto rice, we used Carnaroli
700 ml water
sea salt and black pepper
splash of red wine vinegar
1/2 raddichio, shredded (optional) or other herbs

In a medium pan, heat the olive oil and saute the onion, garlic, rosemary and chili for 15 minutes on medium to low heat without taking any colour. Add the drained tomatoes and break them up with the back of a wooden spoon. Let the tomatoes cook down a little - adding salt at this stage helps to break them down as well. Add the rice and turn to coat them in the tomato. Pour in the water and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes until the rice is cooked - you still want a little bite to the rice....Stir every once in a while.....The soup is ready once the rice is cooked and has thickened the soup - if too thick loosen with a bit more water and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and a little vinegar.....stir in the raddichio if using and let it cook down a minute or so. Drizzle with olive oil when serving..

This is great served with some good toasted bruschetta with lots of olive oil - or do as we did.....had a piadina lying around and a little gorgonzola......so a tasty side for the soup...piadina with gorgonzola and some wild yellow mustard from the garden....a weed - and it grows like crazy...but luckily its really tasty as well......

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Traditions will have it - that we each year look through the recipe collection and try out a few new ideas for some christmas goodies - well this year is no exception.
Let's fill your kitchen with the wonderful scent of the holidays - heavy with spices and sugary perfumes - play some christmas jazz and turn on the oven.
We like to wish you all a very happy christmas - to all of you who stopped by Todi on your Umbrian holiday - once again thank you - we hope you had as good a time with us as we enjoyed looking after you. May all your wishes for your next Italian vacation come true and hopefully we will see you back here in Todi.
If you still haven't been with us in Todi - well then have a look at - www.ilghiottoneumbro.com - for a little holiday inspiration - the cooking calendar for 2018 is packed with great cooking stays from a long weekend in the Umbrian country side - to a full week of cooking fun.....
Once again -  all the best for the season to come - may your stocking be full of good food, vino, family, friends, loved ones, laughter and fun.....Now let's start baking...... 

​Ciambellini di vino

Every wine region in Italy always has one or even several traditional sweets, that include the local wine...here in Umbria we often serve these small ring shaped cookies after the dinner: They are ideal if you don't really have room for dessert - but just want a little something sweet before coffee. You traditionally dip the cookies into the same wine, that you made them with. Here in our region they are often made with passito from the Sagrantino grape. We also like to use Vin Santo or Marsala - and then you can play around with herbs and seasonings as well. This year we added fresh rosemary and some aniseed for a little extra kick.

About 20-25 cookies:

200 g all purpose flour
65 g caster sugar + extra to roll them in
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp ground aniseed
50 ml sunflower oil
75 ml vin santo

In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients, then pour in the oil and wine and mix well. Once the dough has come together, turn it out onto your work surface and give it a light knead. Cover with cling film and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 180c degrees.
Pour some sugar onto a small plate.
Take walnut size pieces of the dough and roll them into small robes. Gather the ends to form a ring. Turn the ring in the sugar and place on a baking sheet with baking paper.
Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes - rotating the sheet halfway to ensure even baking. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Holiday is over - or is it actually just starting.......well depends on how you look at it......the season in our little guest house is more or less over...just a few more guests checking in before we close after New Years....then a 2 month break - where we get to do all the stuff we don't get around to do during the season.....Less guests and cooking lessons gives us some free evenings in front of the computer, which hopefully should pay of in more posts on everyday life in Umbria and Italia - and a big news feed packed with delicious foods and recipes.....so let's start by saying......

HELLO - we are back from a BIG summer season - this year we added a 4th room and we have been blessed with guests from all over the world stopping in Todi for a few relaxing days in the Umbrian country side and our medieval town....

So let's start the season of blogging with the celebration of the New Olive Oil.....

Actually - this is  - as last year - there isn't really anything to celebrate. In a lot of areas - including Todi - the harvest is less the 50% of normal, due to bad weather when the trees were blooming and then a very dry and warm summer. This year we didn't harvest anything from our trees - but luckily we have friends around, who had a lot of olives - so we could get some good strong Umbrian new olive oil. It's a strange world - they live 25 km from us, and their trees were full of perfect and healthy olives, where ours were more or less empty.
But the quality this year is amazing - deep green colour and a strong grassy perfume with hint of tomato leaves and artichokes - the colour is just amazing - right now it looks like something you would pump into a car.
So what better way to taste and celebrate the new oil - then with some simple and tasty food - the oil have to take center place these first couple of weeks...so try and keep seasonings simple and not too strong - but let the oil give the spice and heat to the dish.....
Every year, when we get the new oil - we always look for new dishes from the rustic and simple Cucina Povera - where few ingredients will make the dish shine.....This year's new discovery is from Tuscany - but is could actually be from all over the middle part of bella Italia.....The classical Pasta e Patate....a dish everybody should learn how to cook - it's simple, easy, cheep and so tasty......and very often you have all the ingredients in your cupboard.....so no need for shopping...this is also the perfect dish to use up all your small leftover bags of dried pasta, you probably have hanging around in your cupboard - we have for sure.....the parmesan crust in the recipe will add lots of flavour to the soup - again an old trick - kind of a natural stock cube - so never waste your rind or crust from the parmesan.

Serves 2

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 sprigs of rosemary, leaves only
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 tbsp passata or tomato sauce
600 ml water
100 g short pasta
1 piece of parmesan crust
Sea salt and black pepper
garted parmesan to serve
a squeeze if lemon juice
lots of new olive oil or a strong flavoured oil e.g from Umbria or Tuscany

Pour oil into a medium pan and add onion, garlic and rosemary. Cook on low to medium heat from 15 minutes without taking colour - you just want to soften and sweeten the onions. Add potatoes and passata.  Stir to mix all the flavours, then pour in the water - you want it just to cover the potatoes.
Cook over medium heat from 10 minutes, then add the pasta and the parmesan crust. Season with a little salt and pepper. Cook the soup for about 10-15 minutes until the pasta is cooked and the potatoes are tender and starting to break down and thicken the soup. Stir once in a while.
Remove from the heat, fish out the parmesan crust, season with more salt and pepper and a little lemon juice. Ladle into soup bowls and generously drizzle the new olive oil over the soup......

It's no secret - these days it's hot here in bella Italia - a certain Lucifer - has been making sure average temperatures are 40+ these last 2 weeks - one of the worst heat waves in the last 60 years.
All over the internet - every blogger offers his or her solution to beat the heat - eating granita all day, iced coffee, cold brew, fruity iced teas and ice cream several times a day.......
Well our solution has been to hit the kitchen - we are blessed with an all year round cool kitchen - always 22c degrees - well we even sleep in the kitchen these days...... So with all this time in the kitchen, we have really gotten into a bunch a new dishes, redone some old ones and trying out old techniques in a new way. Like last weeks Strattu - the sun dried tomato paste - originally from Sicily - we had calculated for a drying period for 3-4 days - but with full sun and 43c degrees - all was done in 2 days........

5 kilos of sun ripened tomatoes, cooked and pureed - then laid out to dry in the Umbrian heat wave.....

and this was left after 2 days in the sun - 2 small jars - but are they packed with sun kissed flavour or what......we have been eating the Strattu - almost as a Marmite on grilled bruschetta, in summery pasta dishes, in stews and the good old classic CusCus from Sicily.

As the tomatoes are a sure hit - so are the aubergines - a true summer classic in the italian kitchen and in our little green kitchen in Todi. Right now they are just perfect - firm and full of flavour. Just begging to be baked, stewed or fried to soft surrender - yes - the key word to any preparation with aubergines is to cook them enough...a quick turn on the grill won't do them any good.....plenty of olive oil and a good 30-40 minutes in a hot oven - will give you tender and sweet aubergines, that you can season and marinate right away and eat or make into other tasty dishes.....
When buying aubergines look for firm and shiny ones with fresh looking tops. And they should feel heavy compared to their size. And another good tip is to look for male aubergines - they tend to have less seeds - look for the ones with a slightly pointed tip.
Well on the with cooking - this week's heat wave brought a new dish to the house - perfect crisp and spicy croquettes of baked aubergines - perfect as part of an antipasto or as a party snack......serve hem with a spicy chili mayo or a refreshing salsa verde with plenty of mint.

This recipe will give you about 20 croquettes - Bake your aubergines ahead of time so excess moisture can drip of. We even sometimes bake them the day before. You can even make these the night before and leave them in the refrigerator to firm up.

2 aubergines, you want about 400 g pure at the end
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
200 g potatoes
1 egg
50 g parmesan, finely grated
50 g bread crumbs + extra for coating
pinch of chili
green herbs - feel free to go overboard in the herb garden
sea salt and black pepper
sunflower oil for frying

Preheat your oven to 200c degrees.

Cut aubergines in half on the long side. Make small cuts into the aubergines, but don't cut through. Place slices of garlic in the slits, drizzle with olive oil and bake in preheated oven until tender, about 30-45 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
Once cool enough to handle, scrape out the flesh and place in a sieve set over a bowl. leave to drain for a few hours and overnight.
Cook potatoes with the peel in unsalted water until tender. Drain and peel, then crush with a fork - not too fine -  you still want lumps of soft potato. In a bowl add drained aubergines, potato, egg, parmesan, bread crumbs, chili and lots of chopped herbs and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. If the mixture seems very wet, add more bread crumbs.
Shape into croquette, about 4-5 cm long and coat in lots of bread crumbs. Place on a tray sprinkled with more bread crumbs and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour to firm up.
When you are ready to serve, heat about 4 cm of sun flower oil in a pan an shallow fry croquette until golden brown and crispy - you might want to do this in batches. Lift out of the oil and place on kitchen paper to remove excess oil. Keep fried ones warm and crisp in a 100c degrees hot oven.
Serve right away with lemon and a good spicy salsa.

Some people never learn from their mistakes - guess you can count on us, when it come to planting too many zucchini plants in the late spring.
You stand there at the nursery, looking at those tiny plants - thinking - let's get 3 or 4 types of zucchini - how much will they produce anyway? - Well - once in full production you need to be quite inventive or have a large recipe collection - because these plants will produce an abundance of veggies for you to pick more or less every day.
This year we settled for 3 types, the classical dark one, Il Fiorentino - pale green with sweet dense meat and then a yellow type for a bit of colour.

So as you might have guessed by now - our guests here at the guesthouse are more or less every day blessed with zucchini in some kind of form. After 8 years in Italy we can surprise you more or less everyday for a month or 2 with a new dish. Right now we baked them into cakes with lots of walnuts for breakfast, make fritters with local ricotta and mint, cook them into a sauce for pasta, soups, stuff them with meat or fish, deep fried, alla Scapece, sweet and sour, raw in salads, as a pickle, as involtini and in many many more ways.
One way to get ahead in the zucchini  game is to pick them while they are small - which is generally the rule - the smaller the better. We normally pick them, when they are about 10-15 cm, so you get a zucchine with firm, dense and sweet meat. This size makes them ideal raw in salads, so pick them small or ask your store to order small zucchini. Here are 2 very simple summer salads to get you started.

This is the classic - some call it zucchini carpaccio - we just call it zucchini salad.
Take your small zucchini and slice them really thin lengthwise with a vegetable peeler or on a mandolin. Place them in iced water for a few minutes to crisp them up. The drain and dry on a kitchen towel. Add to a large bowl together with shaved parmesan, lots of mint and lemon zest. Dress with your best olive oil and season with black pepper, sea salt and lemon juice. 
​Serve right away - so the zucchini stays crisp.

Next up is a salad where the old roman fish condiment "Colatura di Alici" adds an extra dimension to the salad. Colatura is kind of an Italian fish sauce. It's kind of a by product when making salted anchovies. All the juices, that are drawn out of the anchovies by the salt is collected and then aged for years in barrels. It has a very strong and particular flavour, maybe not for everyone - but we love it. Traditionally it's used in pasta dishes. Use it very sparingly, so a little goes a long way. It's also quite expensive - but it's true umami.
So for the salad. Again slice the zucchini lengthwise on the mandolin or with the peeler. Crisp up in iced water and drain thoroughly.
Add to a bowl together with thinly sliced green apples, chopped parsley and thinly sliced fresh red chili. Dress with olive oil and season with black pepper, sea salt and lemon juice.

This is summer cooking - BUON APPETITO

Finally we made it - last sunday we got our act together and drove out the San Terenziano - a small village 11 km from Todi. Yes - normally this place is VERY quite, but for 3 days in the 3rd weekend of May - this small town is turned into one of the busiest places in Umbria - and the reason.....

Yes - this is the beast - the one and only PORCHETTA - a true specialty here in Umbria - but you will find these whole roasted pigs all over central and southern Italy. Here in Todi saturday is the big porchetta day - several food trucks line the streets and from early morning people are stocking up on this specialty. Lately you see all these recipes called "porchetta" using different kind of cuts from the pig - which is useful, if you want to try this at home. Most people will have trouble fitting a whole pig into their domestic oven.
But the real thing is the Whole pig, deboned and then depending where you are, stuffed and seasoned with everything from wild fennel, garlic, rosemary, lemon and lots of salt and black pepper. Here in Todi we traditionally add the liver inside the "roast" to add even more flavour and massive amounts of black pepper.
Well lets get back to the "grande festa".....
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The Porchettiamo is probably one of the most well organized sagra's in the area - even the parking is all dress up and ready to play.
​

The festa is divided into 2 areas - the main piazza - Piazza della Porchetta - is where you will find all the different types of porchetta and the enoteca with Sagrantino wines - yes you need some strong wines to wash down all that pork. Most of the vendors or from Umbria - but there was also tasty pork from Abruzzo, le marche, Calabria and Lazio. Behind the castello od San Terenziano is a small walled garden with a more lounge feeling with more food trucks selling other types of street food from Italy.

When you enter the Piazza you change money is these great pink tokens - we called the piggy money - and use them to pay at the trucks - a panino was usually 2 piggy money.

First stop was at our local Todi butcher and his famous roasted pig - heavily seasoned with black pepper, rosemary and liver. Served in a rosetta bun with slices of both the lean and fatty meats, crispy pork skin and some of the roasted liver.....always a winner.... Bravo 4M

Next stop was from 2 restaurants - one from Perugia - our new favorite - Societa Anonima - they had made a kind of pulled pork and served it with a smokey sauce, crisp agretti and crumble from the crispy pig skin. The other was from Sardegna - with a cream of ricotta and lots of fried wild fennel tops.

Then back to Umbria and more precisely to Grutti, another town just outside Todi - here they are also very famous for their porchetta - but even more for the tradition of making the Cicotto.
Cicotto are all the bits and pieces that are left over, when making the porchetta, like the trotters, ears and tails, chopped up and cooked underneath the whole porchetta in all the fat. Served in small buns - well - you wont find a more porky flavour in the world - and if you love pork - well then you're in heaven.

Then we travel a bit further south to Calabria - here there is the tradition of shredding the roasted pig and serve it in rolls where the crumbs are removed. Then the crust is smeared with Ndjua - the strong chili sausage from Calabria, the porchetta is added and then topped with roasted sweet and sour veggies - this was maybe our favorite....

BASTA - no more pork - but still with some piggy money in the pocket - we headed to the Sicilian truck and had a panino stuffed with panelle - deep fried chickpea polenta - again with lots of rosemary and salt - all was down with a big glass of fresh and fruity red wine from our friend here in Todi - Filipo Pepucci and his Petroro red.......

Not a bad sunday morning.....the wether was great so we headed back to Todi for an ice cream, a coffee and a nap on the terrace.......see you next year San Terenziano.

The pizza scene in Rome owes a lot to the new master of pizza baking - Gabriele Bonci. Not all may agree with his philosophies, but we have to give the man some credit. He started out small, even though he is a big guy, in his small shop/pizza counter Pizzarium near the Vatican. 
The idea was to offer a denser and more focaccia like base and layered with various toppings. The base is made with sourdough and from the best flours from Molino Marino. 
Today he has taken Rome by storm and has several shops and bakeries around town including a stand in the new Mercato Centrale at Termini station. By the way - the perfect pit stop before you board the train to stock up on goodies for the trip.

The next thing is the "pizza al Contrario" - the upside-down pizza, where you bake the stuffing beneath the dough - giving a whole new sensation to the bread. As the pizza topping is baking its adding aromas and flavours to the dough, as well as steaming it lightly adding a new texture to the bake. The pizza is then inverted onto a cutting board before serving.
You can use any type of pizza dough and long-leavened bread dough - we always use our house sourdough, leavened for about 24 hours and with 3 turns. But is doesn't need to be this complicated, just make use to let the dough cold rise for at least 12 hours, adding even more flavour to the bread and a lighter texture.

We like to use onions for topping with tons of fresh herbs - this is not the place to be cheap. But fragrant veggie and herb will do the trick.

We like to serve this with some fresh crumbly goat's cheese and/or some sweet prosciutto - not too salty. Di Parma or San Daniele are good choices.

We use a heavy iron pizza tray - 27x34 cm.
​

Pizza al Contrario

300-400 g bread or pizza dough made with sourdough
semolina
4 white onions, sliced
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil + extra fro greasing the tray
1 handful fresh sage, leaves only
1 handful fresh rosemary, leaves only
1 handful fresh thyme, leaves only
pinch of dried chili, optional
sea salt and black pepper

Preheat your oven to 220c degrees.

Have your bread dough ready, it''s a good idea to place it on your work surface dusted heavily with semolina both underneath and on top.
Add onions and oil to a pan and place on the stove. Cook on low heat for about 20-25 minutes until onions are sweet and fragrant. But look out for them, you don't want them to colour or break down into a pulp. Halfway through cooking add the herbs and chili. Season with salt and pepper.

Once cooked add onions to the greased pizza tray and distribute evenly in the tray. Using your fingertips, carefully push and stretch the dough into the shape of your tray, taking care not to tear it.. Transfer the dough on top of the onions, gently stretching it a bit more id necessary to cover them. Let the dough rise at room temperature for about 25 minutes.
Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until golden and crisp. Remove from oven and invert onto a cutting board.
Place the whole thing on the table with a big knife, and let your guests help themselves.

​This makes also a great aperitivo snack.

Are you ready for some fresh spring produce in the kitchen - we sure are - and fortunately we are really blessed living in southern Europe, where the fresh new veggies are slightly faster to get to the markets.
The other day our organic weekly market even had big bunches of fat green asparagus grown right here in Umbria - just 10 km from Todi. Just pulled out of the soil in he morning - can you ask for any fresher!!!! 
For us asparagus is really this very seasonal vegetable - that we only eat in late spring early summer - would never dream of buying these imported almost luminescent asparagus, that you find in the shops outside of the real growing season.
But then when they are here - well then they are on the menu more or less all the time - in antipasti, primi, tarts, sides or mains - you name it - we have a recipe for it all. 
Umbria in general is also big on the wild asparagus - once the roses starts to bud in early spring - you will see all the order guys in town walking around in the forests and road sides looking for this delicacy - and it truly is - rich in asparagus flavour and just one of the first fresh produce after the winter galore of cabbage, greens and root veggies. The wild asparagus is great in a frittata, scrambled eggs or pasta - here in Todi we make a little twist on the classical Carbonara - add the wild asparagus - and suddenly it's called "alla Boscaiola".
​

So for todays little recipe - you really want to find those big fat green asparagus, as we will be roasting them in a hot oven, giving them a creamy texture and a little nutty flavour combined with some roasted garlic and herbs. The star of the dish is the rich kind of vinegrette made from "guanciale" air cured pork's cheek and good red wine vinegar.
We like these as an antipasto, piled onto a bruschetta with fresh sheep's milk ricotta or as a side for a good roast.

Asparagus al forno

big handful of green asparagus, about 600 g
3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
small handful of thyme, leaves only
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and black pepper
5 slices guanciale, cut into match sticks
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
small handful of parsley, chopped

Heat your oven to 220c degrees.

Peel the lower part of the asparagus, leave the tips intact. Rinse well and place in an oven proof dish. Add garlic and thyme and drizzle over the oil. Season with salt and pepper. Give it a good mix with your hands to make sure all asparagus is coated with the oil.
Place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes, shake the tray after 10 minutes.
Mean while heat a small pan and add the guanciale. Once it starts to brown and crisp up, remove from the heat and pour in the vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and add the parsley.
Pour over the roasted asparagus and serve right away.

​Yes - make sure to eat the seasons best produce......

Every winter we hit the kitchen to try out new recipes and develop new dishes for the season to come - because let's face it - once we hit Easter - there is no going back - a happy house full of joyful guests leaves very little time to research new recipes - a luxury problem - we fell very fortunate.
And this year one of the new items on the menu will be this delicious, moist and buttery "pull bread". Just perfect to bake of in the morning and fill the kitchen with the welcoming scent of freshly baked bread.
Start the recipe in the late morning the day before you want to bake the bread - don't worry, it's a matter of seconds.

Oat and syrup pull bread

This recipe makes 1 bread with 12 buns

Starter:
100 g water
1 tsp active dry yeast
100 g all-purpose flour

Dough:
80 g butter, diced
160 g full fat milk
1 tbsp unrefined cane sugar
100 g oats
2 tbsp dark syrup
2 tsp fine sea salt
1 egg
500 g all-purpose flour
3 tbsp melted butter

Start in the late morning the day before you want to bake. Pour water into a small bowl and sprinkle over yeast. Let it stand for a few minutes to dissolve and activate. Give it a stir and add flour. Mix well. Cover with a cloth and leave on your work surface for about 2 hours until the surface is full of small bubbles.

For the bread. War, milk in a small saucepan. Place butter in the bowl of your standing mixer, add warm milk and stir to melt the butter. Once melted add sugar, oats, syrup and salt, mix well and leave to cool a bit. Add egg and starter and give it a good stir. Add flour and place in the mixer with the dough hook attached. Mix for 5 minutes on low speed, scrape down the sides and mix for a further 5 minutes. Cover bowl with a cloth and leave to rise until double in size, about 4 hours. Butter and flour a 20 cm round baking tin.

Once dough has risen, pour onto your flour dusted work surface and knead it lightly. Divide dough into 12 pieces, about 90 g each, and knead/shape into small buns. Working with one at a time, press each bun into a rectangle. Brush with a little melted butter, then roll it up from the short side and press the edges/sides together to form a round bun. Place bun in the prepared tin, 3 in the middle and the rest around these.

Glaze bread with the rest of the butter and sprinkle with a some oats. Let the bread rise for 1 hour on the work surface, then cover with a cloth and place in the refrigerator overnight to rise.

When you are ready to bake, remove bread from the refrigerator one hour before.

Preheat oven to 180c degrees and bake for 45-50 minutes until golden and brown. Take bread out of the oven and carefully lift it out of the tin and leave to cool and a wire rack.

Place the whole bread on the table and let your guests pull/break the bread apart. Perfect still lukewarm with cold butter and strawberry jam.....

This recipe is taken from our cooking booklet - All About Breakfast - packed with all the breakfast favorites of our little B&B here in Todi - if you like to get started cooking and baking - then write to us and we will ship the booklet right to you. The price is € 13 + postage......

Whenever we find ourselves in bella Venezia - mostly in the winter time - we always seem to be skipping the lunch as we are full on all the delicious cicchetti, that some how end up in our way....
Cicchetti are tapas like morsels - enjoyed in many of the bars, enoteche and bacari in Venice. It is a very social way of eating - most places you are standing rubbing shoulders with the locals or fighting your way to the counter for that last piece of Baccala. These places are also where you will experience the local food of Venice - very often in small tasty bites. Cicchetti comes in many forms, some on a stick, some on some pieces of bread or it could be as small deep fried polpette....
The fully enjoy your cicchetti - you need an "ombra" - this is the local slang for a glass of vino - named after the shadow of Piazza San Marco's clock tower, that the wine sellers used to follow to keep the wine cool. And if you are a serious eater - well then you head out for a "giro d'ombra" - a kind of a pub crawl - where you visit a number of selected bacari - because each place is of course better at doing a specific cicchetti......and then there is the pronunciation -
 it's called.......( chi-KET-tee) - here is some of our favorites - and spaced out in most of the city - so you always have a place to go - if it gets too cold.......

Cicchetti spot numero 1:

Vino Vero

Cannaregio has also been our favorite area of Venezia - here you are off the beaten track - you often wonder the streets, calle or canals all by yourself - this is the area together with Castello, where most of the venetians actually live.....a great spot...
Vino Vero - real or true wine - is a new spot right in the middle of Fondamenta delle Misericordia - here you wouldn't ask for a Spritz - this place has a great number of organic/natural wines by the glass - and then there is the counter with the cichetti - at least 20-30 different types. Here the ciccheti takes it's form as a slice of dark bread - and then with various toppings - but all kind of traditional venetian dishes - but with a twist.
We had great Baccala mantecato, seppia cooked in red vine, raddichio in saor, cime di rapa e anchovies and then some really tasty polpette di bollito - deepfried breaded balls of braised beef.....
We are going back.....
www.vinovero.it

All'Arco - is one of the most classic cicchetti places in Venezia - situated just behind the Rialto market - it's only open during the day - come before 4pm - great place for a late morning drink and a snack - and by morning drink we mean VINO - or if you have forgotten all about lunch - we normally hit Arco - when we arrive - after 4 hours in the train you need a little pick me up - and boy do they deliver.....
All the food in made in house - as always - we enjoyed the baccala Mantecato, then a baccala as they do it in Vincenza, where they cook it with onions and anchovies, then the classic alice e burro - and the star of the show - small octopus still with the eggs inside - gently braised and then simply cut in half - and you eat it all - true Umami.......and to finish of the good local organic red from Veneto  and cicchetto with Roccoverano - goat cheese for Piemonte with fresh truffle.....
All'Arco
Calle de l'arco 436
San Polo

Al Merca is literally a hole in the wall - situated between the Rialto bridge and the market - in a great little square, which is peacefully quite considered it's just one street down from Rialto....
Here the specialty is small rolls stuffed with all the goodness you can imagine; baccala, shrimps, artichokes, raddichio, different cheeses, truffles, salumi and a very nice porchetta.....wine wise - there is a great selection of bio dynamic wines from the area - and they make a killer Spritz.....try and ask for one made with the local Select - like Campari - but less bitter.....
Next door is a great cheese shop - and a little bit further a great place for coffee....

​Al Merca
Campo bella Vienna

next stop on our little snacking tour of Venezia is back in Cannaregio - alla Vedova - this place has been around for ages - and a perfect pit stop on Strada Nova if you go this way from the station - just opposite the Ca d'Oro Vaporetto stop. A bit funny we are mentioning this place, as it is not our favorite - BUT - they have one thing going for them - the most amazing deep fried Polpette - these are a must try when in Venezia - this is not the most friendly and welcoming place - so just pop in and enjoy a glass of vino and a few fried polpette - we are still trying to get the recipe right - and it still needs some work - theirs are light and just the right proportions of salted meats from prosciutto and mortadella......
Alla Vedova 
Ca d'Oro 3912

it's very important to have a few well thought out watering holes in each part of bella Venezia - the Cantine del Vino gia Schiavi is in Dorsoduro - so perfect after a morning looking at the arts of Peggy Guggenheim and the Dogana......this is actually a wine shop with a great selection of wines from all over Italy - of course the best part is the wines from Veneto and Friuli - but this is also the place where you grab a few well thought cicchetti and glass of the house vino and out onto the quay side and enjoy the sunshine......we always go for the house Pinto Grigio - a very Bio style wine, even if it isn't meant to be - but is has a very nice almost rose colour - and then a plate of cicchetti - a great one is the Robiola and quince......and since the vino is just €1 per glass, you very often end up with a few.....

​Cantine vino gia Schiavi
Fondamenta Namilla
Dorsoduro

so last and final stop on our little cicchetti tour of bella Venezia - Al Prosecco is right on our favorite piazza/campo in Venezia - The beautiful and very local Campo San Giacomo dell'Orio in Santa Croce - very much of the beaten tourist track - here you will see kids playing in the afternoon and groups of fine venetian ladies and gentlemen enjoying a glass in the sun - even the small garden is communal and filled with tomato and zucchini plants. A great setting and it's just 5 minutes walk from the train station, so the perfect first pit stop as you get of the train.
This was actually our very first drink in Venice, when we first came here almost 20 years ago and it's still the first drink, as we jump of the train.....a great selection of - guess what - Prosecco - but not the standard type - but interesting organic types from small producers and bottle fermented. But this is also the place where you can get the € 1 glass of local vino and a great chat with the local craftsmen from the small workshops in the area..food wise there is a great selection of cicchetti or selections of local cheeses or salumi........
Enoteca Al Prosecco
Campo San Giacomo dell'Orio
Santa Croce