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Thanksgiving in Venice with Shannon
Dec. 1st, 2003 10:48 amThanksgiving is probably the most important holiday in my family. Christmas certainly dominated my attention when I was young, but as the children (my sister and me) aged, the irritating commercialism of modern Christmas became more and more aggravating, and Thanksgiving really emerged as our favorite time. After all, it’s about the food! We have wonderful traditions. A turkey recipe that’s been used by the family for three generations (or is it four, counting the my nieces and nephews consuming the bounty), now trips to Arizona and Memphis to visit said nieces and nephews, margaritas and hot tubs in the Arizona November, and all the other goodness that Thanksgiving is supposed to bring to families.
So this year, being in Venice, was a little hard on me in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. On the other hand, my girlfriend, Shannon, was finally going to be visiting me here, arriving on T-giving day itself. So perhaps it was the least traditional thanksgiving meal ever, but if you take what we’ve cooked over the last four days together, it’s definitely a yummy feast.
I greeted her, brilliantly, with Gorgonzola Dolce. I say brilliantly because it turns out to be among her favorite cheeses in the world, and quite difficult to get in America. She currently works in a gourmet cheese (and other good gourmet products) shop, the best in the Twin Cities in fact, and has learned a lot about cheese since the last time I saw her. I bought a little ‘dolce’ to have in the fridge as a snack for when she arrived because it happens to be among my favorite cheeses in the world too. So melty and sweet, but with the delicious ‘blue’ decay in the middle, and not as salty as a harder roqueforte. I know, I know, we both have the same favorite cheese. It’s adorable ….
So our Thanksgiving meal consisted of three meals, largely because we’d get full before I’d cook everything I had to cook, and put parts of it off. The first meal featured sicilian tiger shrimp, first just fried, peeled, and eaten, and then mashed into a pasta sauce. I added onion, wine, porcini mushroom and truffle paste, and lots and lots of schie, the delicious little local shrimp. It went on gorgonzola (see a theme here) and hazelnut fresh tortellinis, and that was thanksgiving dinner.
More fresh pasta/fresh shrimp meals followed. Our ‘real’ Thanksgiving meal, last night, consisted of a boned chicken, stuffed with some sort of sausage. We steamed it in onion, wine, shallot, garlic, herbs and such for a little over an hour, and are going to turn the leftovers (about half) into soup tomorrow. Tonight we dine at La Zucca with some other American friends who live here for the Autumn.
The weather has been spectacular, which is nice given that rain, rain, and more rain was predicted for the week, and it was raining when I picked her up at the airport. But the ‘sirocco’ came, the south-east (I think) wind that makes the water high, but also sometimes brings warm Mediterranean air up into the North Adriatic. The sky cleared. The Dolomites were visible from the lagoon. Friday-Sunday featured nearly no clouds at all, just perfect blue sky, and we took advantage of the balmy weather to explore the lagoon a little bit. I’ve now had a lot of different guests here, and while I definitely wanted to hit Venice’s highlights with Shannon, I also wanted to see some new sights.
The phrase the ‘orto di Venezia,’ Venice’s garden, refers to two semi-litoral islands just to the northeast of the city, La Vignole and Sant’Erasmo. Together, their landmass almost equals that of Venice, but they are completely rural, with small numbers of houses congregated around the ferry stops. So we took said ferry out to Sant’Erasmo, and took the half hour walk from one ferry stop to the next, through a delightful little farming community. Artichokes seem to be the next crop about to emerge. Farmers in tiny little trucks (like fisherprice wagons with motors. Three wheelers) and motorscooters periodically drove by, and we utterly failed to meet any of them (though not for lack of trying). I got a ‘city slicker’ vibe off the locals, who presumably have chosen to live on these islands for a reason. On our way back to Venice, around 5:00 or so, the sun set behind the city, turning her into a shadow of steeples and slate roofs, details indistinguishable, and about as beautiful as anything I’ve seen in my life. Of course, yesterday, coming back from collecting shells on the beaches of the Lido, the sun was setting behind the Church of Santa Maria Salute, San Giorgio Maggiore, and Saint Mark’s square. Ah, Venice …
We’re going to spend the day today in Treviso, supposedly one of the most beautiful little towns (about 100,000 people) in Italy.
So this year, being in Venice, was a little hard on me in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. On the other hand, my girlfriend, Shannon, was finally going to be visiting me here, arriving on T-giving day itself. So perhaps it was the least traditional thanksgiving meal ever, but if you take what we’ve cooked over the last four days together, it’s definitely a yummy feast.
I greeted her, brilliantly, with Gorgonzola Dolce. I say brilliantly because it turns out to be among her favorite cheeses in the world, and quite difficult to get in America. She currently works in a gourmet cheese (and other good gourmet products) shop, the best in the Twin Cities in fact, and has learned a lot about cheese since the last time I saw her. I bought a little ‘dolce’ to have in the fridge as a snack for when she arrived because it happens to be among my favorite cheeses in the world too. So melty and sweet, but with the delicious ‘blue’ decay in the middle, and not as salty as a harder roqueforte. I know, I know, we both have the same favorite cheese. It’s adorable ….
So our Thanksgiving meal consisted of three meals, largely because we’d get full before I’d cook everything I had to cook, and put parts of it off. The first meal featured sicilian tiger shrimp, first just fried, peeled, and eaten, and then mashed into a pasta sauce. I added onion, wine, porcini mushroom and truffle paste, and lots and lots of schie, the delicious little local shrimp. It went on gorgonzola (see a theme here) and hazelnut fresh tortellinis, and that was thanksgiving dinner.
More fresh pasta/fresh shrimp meals followed. Our ‘real’ Thanksgiving meal, last night, consisted of a boned chicken, stuffed with some sort of sausage. We steamed it in onion, wine, shallot, garlic, herbs and such for a little over an hour, and are going to turn the leftovers (about half) into soup tomorrow. Tonight we dine at La Zucca with some other American friends who live here for the Autumn.
The weather has been spectacular, which is nice given that rain, rain, and more rain was predicted for the week, and it was raining when I picked her up at the airport. But the ‘sirocco’ came, the south-east (I think) wind that makes the water high, but also sometimes brings warm Mediterranean air up into the North Adriatic. The sky cleared. The Dolomites were visible from the lagoon. Friday-Sunday featured nearly no clouds at all, just perfect blue sky, and we took advantage of the balmy weather to explore the lagoon a little bit. I’ve now had a lot of different guests here, and while I definitely wanted to hit Venice’s highlights with Shannon, I also wanted to see some new sights.
The phrase the ‘orto di Venezia,’ Venice’s garden, refers to two semi-litoral islands just to the northeast of the city, La Vignole and Sant’Erasmo. Together, their landmass almost equals that of Venice, but they are completely rural, with small numbers of houses congregated around the ferry stops. So we took said ferry out to Sant’Erasmo, and took the half hour walk from one ferry stop to the next, through a delightful little farming community. Artichokes seem to be the next crop about to emerge. Farmers in tiny little trucks (like fisherprice wagons with motors. Three wheelers) and motorscooters periodically drove by, and we utterly failed to meet any of them (though not for lack of trying). I got a ‘city slicker’ vibe off the locals, who presumably have chosen to live on these islands for a reason. On our way back to Venice, around 5:00 or so, the sun set behind the city, turning her into a shadow of steeples and slate roofs, details indistinguishable, and about as beautiful as anything I’ve seen in my life. Of course, yesterday, coming back from collecting shells on the beaches of the Lido, the sun was setting behind the Church of Santa Maria Salute, San Giorgio Maggiore, and Saint Mark’s square. Ah, Venice …
We’re going to spend the day today in Treviso, supposedly one of the most beautiful little towns (about 100,000 people) in Italy.
