We started by meeting Gabriella the teacher and Lorenzo the translator at the pier in Viareggio. We were supposed to pick up our fish at the stalls set up by the small boat fishermen but the weather had been iffy and the boats had not gone out. The big boats sell all their fish at 2 o'clock in the morning at auction and then it is flown by plane from Pisa to Milan. The local shops and restaurant owners get second dibs at 4 am. The general public doesn't have access and has to make do with what the small boats bring in.
After following Gabriella to her home about 5 miles a way we sat in her garden and discussed food and menu.
We cooked, then ate.
These are some interesting crustations the big eyes are on their tails.
We made pickled eels
Stuffed mussels and cooked them in tomato sauce
Wrapped shrimp in "lardo" - special pork fat salted and aged in marble tubs and then fried.
Pasta with seafood(sorry no photo) and fried fishes
Here are the shrimps, mussels and eels.
And last but not least dessert! Goat's milk ricotta mixed with lemon peel, sugar and whipped cream, served with strawberries. Even though we were stuffed to the gills we ate it all. We even made it in camp. Yum.
After all that food and 3 bottles of wine and homemade lemoncello we had to go back and lie down.
I might make the eels if I can ever find any, and the pasta was really good too. The Italian Passata is different from our tomato sauce. I will have to try and find some when I get home.
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