I'm Still Stuck in Italy and the Trains aren't Running

The most recent issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller focuses on Italy, which is where I started yesterday morning. There's been a recurring theme of late - Provence, Tuscany, Vespa's, and it'll continue tonight because I have that Italian Summer Truffle to consider; and right at this moment I'm listening to Patricia Kass. I'm not sure what put me in this mood - it probably has something to do with the weather; the really crisp fall days, sun shining, leaves pretty much all gone, and ice crusting the bird bath... it's really my favorite season. All it really needs is the faint smell of burning wood and leaves wafting across the back yard and I could easily have been transported to a Tuscan farmhouse.... ok, the sound of police sirens in the background and the thump of Eminem kind of ruins it a bit, but you get the idea.

All of this to inspire last night's antipasto. It wasn't really an antipasto in the true sense because it was our main meal, but it was a terrific mix of antipasto-like samplers which went wonderfully together, accompanied by a chianti.

• - green and black olive tapenade;
• - artichoke salad;
• - lemon-garlic shrimp;
• - fennel, pecorini and salami crostini; and,
• - roasted red peppers and tomatoes

One of my favorites was the Roasted Red Peppers and Tomatoes (click on link or see My Recipes). It's one of those really simple side dishes that is great as an antipasto, tapa, or as a side dish on a main course. I'm sure I can't lay claim to inventing it but I've certainly adopted it as mine.

So tonight we'll see what we can do with all of the other rustic ingrediants that I picked up in the market yesterday... then we'll leave this damn country and head somewhere else, a man can only take so much of the Tuscan pace ...