Back home to a winter warmer…

Smoked pork shank

Do you think it is normal to spend hours staring at a variety of meats, cheeses, vegetables, canapés ,spices , sandwiches and cakes ????? actually the list is long, in fact in London the list of food possibilities is endless !!!!!!
At the start ,I was a little shocked to see cherries, melons and watermelons in February … .. . Vegetables already cleaned and packaged ,  fruit peeled and sliced , in one shop even an area exclusively for picnics with beautiful dishes all ready to be taken outside and eaten ,  to be accompanied by chilled mini bottles of  champagne …. Amazing , considering the weather !!!. But the extraordinary thing , is the high quality of a large proportion of the products , FRESH, NO preservatives, NO dyes … ..
In some places small plots of land were being used by local inhabitants to grow their winter veg. In short , it seems that in the city you can eat whatever you want whenever you want it.

Now I’m back home I’ll just have to forget that metropolitan paradise and start to plan a few recipes with the seasonal produces available to me in  Orvieto . Secretly , I’m quite pleased .

sunrise from our window

All those options were putting my head in a spin.  Especially picnicking in February. So , I decided to cook a real winter warmer. Smoked pork shank ,roasted…. buonissimo.

By the way…of course,  during my brake I couldn’t resist doing a bit of cloths shopping too….. All in all ,a perfect trip.

Serves 2
900 grams Smoked pork shank
3 cloves of garlic
2 branches of rosemary
½ cup white wine
Evo oil
Salt and pepper
Here’s how:
In an oven proof pan, cook gently the garlic and rosemary in Evo oil for a minute over a gas ring, add the smoked pork shank, a pinch of salt and pepper and cook on all sides until it becomes very crispy outside. Add the wine. When the wine begins to boil , cover the pan completely with aluminum foil  (even two layers). Put the pan in a preheated oven at 200 degrees. Bake for 1 hour and 30.  Remove aluminum foil and sprinkle the cooking liquid over the meat. Bake for 30 minutes until the liquid has evaporated by almost 90%.