April 2021 Newsletter

Flowers, cakes and walks...

Happy Spring from Umbria! Since Italy is in lockdown again (!) we decided the best and easiest place to be for the moment is Umbria. Actually, it was not a hard decision to make. This is the most gorgeous time of the year up here and I can’t believe the luck that this is the second year in a row that I get to enjoy it!!

Hey!!! If I put enough exclamation points at the end of each sentence will that make me forget that it’s also the second year in a row we don’t get to spend Easter in Bari with Nonna!!? That this is the second spring with no tours for Sophie and me!!? Here, let me add a few random exclamation points to show enthusiasm! and excitement!!!!

In all seriousness though, we are incredibly grateful to find ourselves in Umbria again. The photos of flowers may look familiar, but some things have changed since a year ago. First of all: I can’t believe how much cooking we did last year during lockdown! I mean, gold stars to us. This year we’re still eating well (extremely well) but there is definitely less focus on complicated recipes (Sophie has long since abandoned her sour dough starter) and more ‘no fuss dinner on the table in 45 minutes or less’ kind of meals.

Other slight changes:

-Our walks have gotten much longer (so less time in the kitchen)

-Cocktails only on the weekends

-Chips are - for the most part - not a part of our weekly shopping list

Our plan, if we really have one, is to stock up on as much produce as possible at the market and then cook through that as the week goes on. I’ve been getting very inventive with vegetables. Last week included fresh fave beans simmered with cubed salami, a wild asparagus frittata with local cheese and asparagus topped with hard boiled eggs. Also? Remember all that freezing I did last summer? We’ve been working our way through zucchini parmigiana, pomodori al riso and the last of the seemingly endless bags of minestrone. I mean thank god for frozen soup, am I right?

Although I went all out last year for every single holiday, this year I’ve toned things down a bit. Passover last year was a multi-course feast. This year? We had egg salad on matzo. I kid you not.

And since I made an entire ‘fake’ Easter lunch last week when Rai (the national TV station) came by to film, I’ve decided that for real Easter this Sunday we are getting take out from our local trattoria. Don’t worry. I haven’t gone completely mad. I’m still planning on baking this traditional Easter cake since I’m not a complete heathen.

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WHAT’S NEW

Since Sophie and I haven’t been able to hold real life tours for what seems like decades, we’ve been focusing on adding virtual market tours to our IGTV. I’ve filmed a tour of my favorite Campo dei Fiori in Rome and our local market in Monti, where we shop every day. And this week I’ll be posting a tour around our Saturday market here in Umbria. Sophie has a ton of fun virtual tours of our favorite Roman neighborhoods in her Instagram highlights.

I’ve also been incredibly busy with the premium version of this newsletter. I’ve published podcasts on Balsamico and Coffee as well as a few Sunday Lunch plans including this one for Easter. And if you subscribe there are also discount codes to some of my favorite producers in each months Q&A. So far we covered Olive Oil and Pasta (this month will be ceramics!) If you’d like the full experience and access to all of these posts, I’d love it if you subscribed:

Sophie would also like to thank you for the OVERWHELMING response to her new project of preparing Gift Boxes . She is currently working on getting orders out, which has been a bit challenging due to the current lockdown. The first ones should be going out later this month. Thank you!!! Much more about this coming soon.

In the meantime we are busy planning for when you are able to return. Our current lockdown is in place so that hopefully the country can be up and running and ready to welcome tourists by mid-summer. Vaccines here are starting to pick up speed, and there is talk of digital passports and covid flights that will make all this happen faster.

But for now Sophie and I are planning to travel all over Italy this summer - to Abruzzo, Puglia, Sicily, Parma and Campania - finalizing details for all of our upcoming tours. You can find the schedule for 2022 here, and I’m about to post dates for 2023 as well. Stay tuned…

WHAT I’M READING

Remember when I told you about Sophie’s new book? The publishing date was put off from spring 2020 since the publisher rightly decided to wait until travel restrictions changed. Well, it’s finally coming out!! The Sweetness of Doing Nothing: Live Life the Italian Way with Dolce Far Niente will be published in the UK on April 29. It comes out in Canada on June 22. We are waiting to hear when it will be available in the USA, but most likely some time this summer. I’ll keep you posted.

Loved this article about buying a house in Italy sight unseen from abroad! What bravery!!

Love this new project: This is Like Magic. Stories that are dedicated to finding elevated everyday moments. Which, let’s face it, we could all use at the moment.

Hurray for small miracles. Venice is finally banning those mega cruise ships.

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WHAT I’M WATCHING

We are a family that could watch Law & Order SVU every day. So the highlight of my year is that Stabler is back!! Can not wait for the new series Law and Order: Organized Crime. My life has meaning again.

I wish I could tell you that I watch a lot of movies, but these days my brain can mostly just handle TV shows (hence the Law & Order). I also binged Ted Lasso, which was the lightness I needed.

We do watch movies together at least on the weekends. Last week we watched Minari, which was beautiful. And the week before: Nomadland, which deserves every single award. Next up (trying to catch up on award nominated movies): Mank and Emma

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WHAT I’M EATING

I made this technicolor Easter Cake from Umbria and I think you should too.

Stuffing a leg of lamb was challenging, but worth it.

It’s asparagus season and we’ve been eating them like this and this and this and this.

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WHAT I’M DRINKING

As I may have mentioned, I’m trying to limit real cocktails (think Martinis and Negronis) to the weekend these days. It’s been a lot easier than you may think since I’ve recently rediscovered the wide world of Italian non-alcoholic aperitivi. They come in small serving size bottles, are delightfully fizzy and welcomely bitter. Here are a list of my favorites:

San Bitter Dry: This crystal clear drink is definitely for adults. Serve it on ice with a wedge of lime to brighten it up. ( a bit difficult to find outside of Italy)

Crodino: This is probably the best known of the non-alcoholic aperitivi. Bright orange, the bitter is tamed by citrus notes. If you like Aperol, then this is for you.

SanBitter Rosso: Bright red, this is the non-alcoholic spin on Campari Soda.

Both companies come out with variations and limited editions every so often, but for the most part I stick to the classics. They are definitely on the bitter side, so it’s not at all like having soda. Also, since the bottles are so small, the portion size makes you want to sip it slowly.

I’ve also banished potato chips. Sorry. I know. But what started out as some sort of comfort last year, was turning into some sort of obsession this year. Instead I use very small (cute!) bowls and fill them with a handful of nuts or olives.

FYI: The weekends are full of Martinis and Negronis. And also holidays.

AND FINALLY…..

Here we are, filmed by Rai, celebrating Easter a week ahead of time in Umbria. Since we have masks on, maybe you can’t hear all the mistakes I am making while simultaneously cooking and speaking Italian? If you would like, Sophie can point them all out for you.

Hope you have beautiful April, where ever you are! Can’t wait till you can join us here in Italy soon!

x,Elizabeth