Zafferana and Gambino Winery

This past weekend was a somewhat busy one for our family.  The kids both left on Thursday for sports trips.

Sammie traveled to Rome with the soccer team

And Tommy went to Venice with the baseball team

Thanks to the people who took and shared these photos on FB!

The kids got back at various times in the middle of the night Saturday or early morning Sunday.  Instead of spending time with our kids, who needed to do homework and would be cranky from lack of sleep, Mike and I took a trip through the base to Zafferana, a town up on Mt Etna, and to the Gambino winery.

 The bus dropped us off at the main square in Zafferana.  There were some little craft booths set up with some vendors.  We walked around a little bit, but on a Sunday morning, there wasn't a whole lot happening.

We did go into the cathedral.  Mass was over and there was only one person in there, so it didn't seem like we were intruding too much.

After walking around, we still had 45 minutes before getting back on the bus, so we got some breakfast.  Mike had his first gelato and brioche breakfast sandwich of the season.

The next stop was a monument to their patron saint.  It was built right where the lava had stopped when the  mountain erupted in 1993.  This was just a kilometer outside of town, so they were very thankful!  Zafferana is known for it's honey.  When we got on the bus we were told that we would get to go to a honey factory where we could taste and buy some honey.  However, I guess the guide only thought about doing that Sunday morning, so the family, who lives at the factory, was not home when she called.  Fortunately, there was a honey stand by the monument, so we got to do some tasting and purchasing.

Gambino Winery

Our final stop was the Gambino winery.  One good thing about not going to the honey factory was that we had time to do a brief tour of the winery.

The green door ahead is where they house the barrels.  Behind the windows to the left is the tasting room.  It overlooks the vineyards.

 After the tour, we went in and sat down.  Not only did we get to taste the wine, we had a great lunch, too!

 I think we tried 5 different wines, 1 white and 4 red.  We enjoyed them all, if you want some names to try, let me know.  After lunch Mike got a few bottles, and we headed back home.

Our Gambino wines

Yummy honey in lemon, orange, and strawberry!

Soccer

Most of the soccer season Sam has traveled with her team.  We only get 2 home games, and when she isn't at home, she has been in places like Florence, Naples, and Rome.  It is a tough schedule, but she is willing take it for the sake of the team.  I am pretty much just going to put up the pictures here from her first home game.  Sam is #13.....

Octopus and Squid

The April cooking class was all about seafood.  There are a lot of reasons I enjoy joining in on these classes, a day out, learning the Sicilian ways to cook food, and trying food that I might like but would never take a chance on and order off a menu.  This month covered all three. 

This is the restaurant that was kind enough to host our class.

This is the spread that greets you as you walk into the door.

Our mission this month was to learn how to make octopus salad, fried calamari and fried alici, which is essenitally the anchovy fish fresh, before it is put into cans.  None of which would I ever consider ordering for dinner.  I am not sure I would have paid for the class if I didn't know that in addition to what we make, we get a ton of other food.  I knew I would eat well if I liked the new seafood or not!

Up close and personal with the raw octopus

The squid....

and the alici

I don't have a lot of experience with cooking fish which is already cleaned and fileted, and I have no experience with prepping any kind of fish!  It was definitely a new experience....



We started with the octopus.  In case you are planning on cooking one, there is such a thing as too fresh.  These guys need to be really dead before you cook them or they will be tough and chewy.  To cook, you throw into some seasoned boiling water and let boil for 45 minutes.  When the come out, they look like this......

The good thing about the octopus, is that you eat everything, except the eyes and the beak

for the salad you chop it all up into cubes

then you add some lemon juice, olive oil and some seasoning.  That's it, octopus salad.  It was good, but definitely an acquired taste, mostly due to the texture.

 After we made our salad, we got a demonstration of cleaning the squid.

Our chef demonstrating how you snap the head.....

then yank out the insides.....

then pull out the bone....

peel the skin off....

then cut it into rings

We had the option to try this with a squid on our table.  I chose not to, but we had a couple people who did.  The main thing with squid is to not pop the ink sac while cleaning it.......

This is what it looks like if you pop the ink sac.  The good thing is that, while low quality, the ink is edible.











Finally we got to prep the alici.

The chef showed us how to snap off the head and pull out the guts, then run our finger down the center to get the bones out, or you can leave them in and just munch these tiny fish like corn on the cob around the bones.  To the right is the raw alici salad that they season with lemon and olive oil, allowing the acid in the lemon to cook it up.  We didn't eat this because it is illegal to sell in Italy due to some bacteria or something that  might be in in that can kill you.  Restaurants can serve this way if they flash freeze the fish first then thaw, but many choose just to not make the salad.




Finally we got to bread the squid and alici.......

 At last, it was time to eat!

grilled alici, OK, but too many bones, not enough meat.

pasta with mussels, clams, and tiny shrimp, YUM!

pasta with swordfish

fried alici, I didn't try....too much work and I didn't like it that much.

I think they said this was sorbet, but it tasted like granite to me.  It was mandarin orange and lemon, delicious!

 *BTW, all the dishes you see here are different patterns of Caleca.  I thought it was really neat that they had a variety of patterns.  I might have done that if I had thought of it, but I like my rainbow of colors.