-Week 3- |
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BERGAMO...BEST FOCACCIA-SPECK WITH GORGONZOLA DOLCE AND WALNUTS
About a thirty-minute train ride north from Milano brought us to this quaint, and again picturesque, town of Bergamo. It was here that all I thought I knew about foccaccia was abruptly shattered and rebuilt with the best I have ever had.
My foccaccia dreams became reality. Now that I have been sufficiently cliche with word choice I can continue. As we walked along (at an incline since the medieval town is set atop a hill) we peered into shops and bakeries admiring the personality that all Italian cities inevitably personify. Lo and behold, we stumbled into a little shop on the ground level of a charming, yet quite large, brick building. Inside these brick walls existed more types of foccaccia than I could ever imagine. Foccaccia with smoked mozzarella and sausage. Foccaccia with eggplant and roasted peppers and zucchini. Foccaccia with proscuitto and sage. Really this could continue for far too long. We settled on a large piece with a layer of 'speck' (smoked proscuitto), a generous sprinkling of 'gorgonzola dolce' and topped with 'noci' (walnuts). The combination was breathtaking (and the stench of the cheese was bad-breath-making). Each of the ingredients complimented each other so wonderfully that each bite was near-perfection. The smokiness of the proscuitto and the nuttiness of the walnuts allowed the cheese to reach the palette in a wave of increasing intensity with the first two ingredients guiding each other in order to allow the gorgonzola to finish and become the most intense at the end. We completed the feast with a little pastry made of polenta and honey which is a traditional treat of Bergamo. Bellisimo...
EASTER IN NAPOLI...
POMPEII...SFOGLIATELLE, ALL THINGS FRIED
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