{"id":2248,"date":"2010-09-22T10:42:32","date_gmt":"2010-09-22T17:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marialiberati.com\/?p=2248"},"modified":"2010-09-22T10:42:32","modified_gmt":"2010-09-22T17:42:32","slug":"sunflowers-and-a-tuscan-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/2010\/09\/22\/sunflowers-and-a-tuscan-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunflowers and a Tuscan Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n“Every friend is to the other a sun, and a sunflower also. he attracts and follows”<\/em>
\nJean Paul Richter (German novelist and humorist 1763-1825<\/em>)
\ncopyright 2010 Maria Liberati\/art of living,PrimaMedia,Inc<\/strong>
\nThis phrase rang so true in my head spiraling along the winding curves of the hills of Chianti. Rows of sunflowers seemed to be bowing to the beautiful Tuscan sun, and they almost seemed to be smiling as a welcome to this beautiful region.
\nAlong Route 222 passing through the beauty that is Chianti, I begin to remember that\u00a0 here may have\u00a0 once passed DaVinci, Michelangelo, Giotto.. My eyes dance in the landscape of\u00a0 castles and villas and vineyards that in some way may have been touched by these artistic masters and I\u00a0 begin\u00a0 to feel as if I am in a colorful kaleidoscope..or\u00a0 in a living painting..for the scenery is too perfect to be real.
\nDriving through the Hills of Chianti part 1<\/a>
\nContinuing the drive along we almost become hypnotized with\u00a0 the vines that seem to decorate the hills. Well, for me it’s \u00a0a problem I’m only the\u00a0\u00a0 passenger, but Alfonso is driving and although he has been silent for over a half \u00a0hour, too dazzled to speak ,we quickly remember that we are going back to our castle in Radda in Chianti and have lost our way..\u201dAre you looking for Route 222? he mutters. \u201cYes, Yes\u201d I answer, just to appease him..I really had no idea where we were..but wanted to just continue riding along (what seemed to be) the endless hills..
\nLuckily when I regained my consciousness, we were really on Route 222 continuing back to Radda in Chianti\u2026passing through the little towns of Impruneta, Greve in Chianti and then Radda in Chianti..we both breathe a sigh of relief and decide that tonight we will go for a coffee and a passeggiatta in Radda in Chianti..a warm August night\u00a0 will make the perfect canvas for an evening walk.
\nDriving thorugh the Hills of Chianti Part 2<\/a>
\nAs we drove up the Piano D\u2019Albola (the plains of Albola)\u00a0 I tried to imagine how the nobility that once lived here entered the gates and the long drive up to the main house, but I could hear my stomach rumbling as I thought of the fresh porcini mushrooms we bought at the market today..a\u00a0pasta dish\u00a0with porcini mushrooms was definitely in order.
\nUnder castello D’Albola in the Original Cantina<\/a>
\nLunch for that day was a yummy\u00a0Penne ai Porcini\u00a0 ( a plate of penne pasta with porcini mushrooms),served with white wine from Castello D’Albola-produced here.\u00a0Since this dish includes fresh mint\u00a0the preparation included a mandatory\u00a0 walk outside\u00a0along the castle walls\u00a0to follow my nose and \u00a0pick fresh bunches of mint… it only calls for a \u00a0small handful but the\u00a0fragrance was so enticing I\u00a0picked a bit more and put \u00a0the remainder in a\u00a0 (makeshift vase) –\u00a0large \u00a0plastic water\u00a0bottle\u00a0cut in half-\u00a0with some fresh water- and used it as our table centerpiece..
\n\u00a0Penne ai Porcini (Penne Pasta with Porcini Mushrooms)<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>
\n1 lb of penne pasta<\/strong>
\n5 funghi porcini <\/strong>
\n1\/4 lb of pumpkin<\/strong>
\n1 scallion<\/strong>
\n1 handful of fresh mint chopped finely<\/strong>
\n2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil<\/strong>
\ndash of freshly ground black pepper<\/strong>
\nsalt to taste<\/strong>
\nChop scallion.\u00a0Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel and cut into slices. Take off sin of pumpkin and cut into small cubes.<\/strong>
\nPlace olive\u00a0oil in saute pan, place in scallions and saute over medium heat for 2 minutes, then place in mushrooms,saute. After 5 minutes place in cubed pumpkin. Saute for 10-15 minutes over low heat, stir gently. Add in salt, then add in chopped mint and toss, saute for\u00a02 minutes and remove from heat.<\/strong>
\nPlace penne in boiling water and cook as indicated on package directions till al dente. Drain and place into sauce, toss gently, grind black pepper on top and serve<\/strong>
\nFor more great recipes get your copy of the award winning The Basic Art of Italian Cooking : Holidays & Special Occasions-<\/a>2nd edition the book that was selected as the Best Italian cuisine Book in the USA by Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.<\/strong>
\nBe A Guest Writer and Share the Joy! <\/a>and your food memory<\/strong>
\nVisit\u00a0 me at OpenSky<\/a><\/strong>
\nOctober 3 see you in Sacramento, California at the Italian Cultural Center<\/strong>
\nOctober 12th- Lower Southampton Library in Feasterville, Pa<\/strong>
\nOtober 29-30 the Philadelphia Gourmet Food & Wine Show in the Valley Forge Convention Center<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 “Every friend is to the other a sun, and a sunflower also. he attracts and follows” Jean Paul Richter (German novelist and humorist 1763-1825) copyright 2010 Maria Liberati\/art of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1108,7,30,41,31,11,1117,655,32,39,232,1,25],"tags":[1130,1136,1022,1137,927,997,370,1114,1023,1138,101,102,1139,1140,1111],"class_list":["post-2248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-caro-diariodear-diary","category-chianti","category-cucina","category-cucina-povere","category-entertaining","category-la-dolce-vita","category-recipes","category-share-the-joy","category-slow-food","category-the-mediterranean-diet","category-travel-customs","category-tuscan","category-uncategorized","category-wine","tag-award-winning-author","tag-culinary-adventures","tag-easy-dinner-recipes","tag-easy-gourmet-recipes","tag-extra-virgin-olive-oil","tag-female-celebrity-chef-maria-liberati","tag-funghi-porcini","tag-gourmand-world-cookbook-award-winner","tag-gourmet-cookbook","tag-hills-of-chianti","tag-italian-cooking","tag-italy","tag-penne-pasta","tag-porcini-mushrooms","tag-sunflowers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}