Swedish for a Day

Stefan, Miranda, the Swedish couple, and me at Mexican Night

In my last post, I mentioned that our Swedish friends had left Cessole early and that our hosts had invited a group of their friends for a party surrounding a Swedish-style meal. We five Americans accepted the responsibility to press on with these plans. In fact, we gave our hosts most of the day off (and Pia was SO grateful!) while we cooked and tried to plan the evening. I didn't think the meal would end up being blog-worthy, but life never ceases to amaze me, and here I am blogging about it.

First of all, we had a wonderful Tuesday running the kitchen. We went to the garden to pick some fresh kale for Michelle's Swedish kale soup, which was a big hit with the Italians. We learned the the Swedes use a lot of heavy cream. It's actually called double cream, and it cannot be found in the US or in Italy due to its high fat content, so we settled for regular panne. Cream was used in both the potato-sardine dish that I made and in the kale soup. Both the apps (which were American: cheese-bacon-onion dip and artichoke dip) were heavy. I think the Swedish meatballs were made with lots of butter but no cream. The meatballs were dressed with a side of mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce. Pancakes with berry sauce served as the dessert, and our after-dinner drink was a warm Swedish wine called glub (gloob). After our dessert and dessert drink, we had caffe and cookies, of course. I was a big advocate for wine at this meal, considering my concern for everyone's digestive health. It just makes the whole evening more enjoyable and fluid, on so many levels. Also, Michelle recently told me that alcoholics have crystal clear arteries when they die, so I tend to drink a little more when we eat artery-clogging meals.

The onions make her so emotional.

Dessert Pancakes 

Our most lively guest was from Sicily. He and three others are affectionately known by us WWOOFers as "the workers" as they are in the process of restoring houses and stay at Tenuta for a few days at a time. Pia says that Italians in the south have the sun in their hearts, and this man was certainly bright and happy. He started off the evening by telling us that he wanted to "sing" us a song, so he stood up and began mouth-trumpeting our national anthem to welcome us. It was a little awkward when we didn't join in. Please enjoy this clip where he shares with us that we remind him of Billy Joel's Always a Woman.

We still don't know why we collectively remind him of a woman.

Plating is so important here.

Our host Mauro pours the rose for the aperitivo.

Miranda, Erica, Kayla, Pia, Michelle, and me

Our Sicilian friend also practiced slight-of-hand tricks. He said that this one in particular originated in Naples and that we should never go against Italians when it comes to card tricks. His comment reminded me of The Princess Bride.

Card tricks with the Sicilian

Overall, our dinner was well-received. I'm talking thunderous applause. Pia and Mauro have been happy for days, and that is something we can all celebrate!