BBQ Roadtrip

• By Johanna Nuding+
• Posted in Italy, Travel
• On July 12, 2012
• 6 Comments.

On Saturday, I was invited to join Consuelo and two of her best girlfriends (amici) and their men for a BBQ.

Meet Cecelia, Monica and Consuelo!

Cecelia and her husband have a beautiful home and piece of land in Castel San Pietro about 30 minutes southeast of Bologna.  You know when your mind’s eye conjures up a vision of what to expect and then you’re completely blown away when you see whatever it is in person?  That’s what happened to me.

The historically beautiful old home, the garden, the fruit trees, the hospitality…it was beyond!

Cecelia gave us a tour of her giardino fantastico.  Notice that view!

We ate susini and apricots right off the tree.  What I found interesting, is that the pits fell right away from the fruit.  That doesn’t happen with pitted fruit that I buy at the supermercato.  The meat of the fruit is stuck like glue to the pit.  I guess if this is where you lived, you’d relax and let loose, too.   (Or maybe I just don’t know how in the hell to buy buona frutta.)

As we were walking through the grapes, I gasped when I saw this next image.  It spoke to me so I had to share with you.  I guess you could say, “I heard it through the grapevine.”  (I know…totally lame joke, but don’t you miss hearing me tell them?  And what about my “that’s what she said” jokes?  I KNOW you miss hearing those, too.)

And, here are the beautiful baby grapes (uva).  I drank some of Cecelia’s homemade vino during dinner from these viti.  Consuelo told me that she even helped stomp the grapes.  It sounds fun, but I understand it’s hard work.

By the way, it’s dry as hell here, too.  The ground cracks were deep!

I just realized I didn’t take any pictures of Cecelia’s home.  I’ll do it next time!  I think we’re going back in a few weeks.  This is the quaint, old church on the grounds.  It has the same facade.

And this is one of the adorable little gattini running around.

Now…the food pics!  I love how fresh everything is here. Delizioso!  Perfectly grilled bread for the bruschetta, lean and amazingly flavorful sausage, zucchini, patate and what the girls referred to as the poor man’s salad.  It was beans, tuna fish, onions and some seasoning.  It’s basically a different spin on what we do with tuna fish at home.  I thought it was great, personally.  For better or worse, richer or poorer, I’d eat that salad again.

Observation: The women did an outstanding job getting everything prepared for dinner and then the guys took over grilling and waited on their ladies hand and foot through the entire meal.  It was impressive to watch.  I don’t know if this is just the Italian culture or if Consuelo, Monica and Cecelia put these three guys through a rigorous training program.  I’ll keep you posted.  ;)

After we ate, we sat around and talked, played ping pong and a few games of memory.  Cecelia served up some afternoon caffe and then some delicious chocolate lava cake (which is one of my all-time favorites).  There will be a separate entry on drinking games in Italy vs. the US.  These people keep me on my toes!!  But here’s a shot of the ping pong setup.  It’s definitely the best back drop for the game I’ve ever seen!

Oh, and one last thing…this pic is for Shanda, Mon and Leslie.  :)