A bit Psycho!

Homemade Ravioli filled with a jelly pecorino cheese and served with broad beans, drops of honey and a crunchy corn pastry

In the middle of last week I discovered that a big and important exhibition / display  was to be held at the weekend in a village near us. This was to be a gathering of the most famous and experienced master butchers in the area who would explain and demonstrate the secret of pork meat cutting and also advise on which cuts are best for the different cooking techniques. Two  whole intense days where the pig was to be the absolute star! Lots of chopping, cooking on open fires…..great I thought we MUST NOT miss this!
So with great excitement I read and re-read the program and finely decided that the Sunday would be the best day to go, thinking that MAYBE two days of chopping and BBQ would be a bit excessive especially when after e-mailing Nicks mum about this exciting weekend event her very quick (and funny )  response was:  “What with you chopping up all these defenseless little animals, should I be a bit worried about the safety of my son, and should he be sleeping with the light on “
So yes perhaps, one day would be enough after all.

Sunday arrived accompanied by  bright sunshine, Nick and I drove to this pretty village in Umbria. But when we arrived, we were surprised at how quiet everything was. Only a few people had turned out, three lonely musicians were playing trumpets  and a massive BBQ had only bruschette waiting  to be cooked …….. in short, something was not quite right.
After speaking with one of the locals, it turned out that I had picked the (bloody) wrong  day! Yes, all the great fun had actually happened the day before. The reason for this was that an Italian TV Channel had  decided to film the live event for a 10 minute TV show . So during this 10 minutes of fame EVERYTHING had happened: Large containers of polenta, a BIG porchetta 2 meters long (stuffed pork) slowly cooked on a fire and served with hundreds of sausages cooked on the BBQ, plenty of vegetables and all the master butchers in front of the cameras giving advice on cutting techniques ……in short it apparently had been fantastic. Fantastico, the local lady  kept repeating to me.” Everyone in the village had been eating, drinking and dancing “ she told us “you have come on the wrong day “  Ok so I got it wrong, very wrong , after the big Saturday event had reached and surpassed all expectations, on Sunday it  was a bit like an old Italian saying …. just  there to bite the bones!! or as I believe the English would say “after the lord mayors show………………..”
While being teased by Nick during the journey home, I realized that perhaps I had been too blinded (or as we say in Italy: avere gli occhi coperti di prosciutto, meaning: having prosciutto ham covering your eyes- just to stay in the theme!) by my  strange obsession with meat cutting. I did not see or consider how the arrival of TV cameras could ,quite rightly ,be such a big event in a small village like that.
Then on  the way back we came upon a lovely little scene again  involving animals .

A small herd of sheep had decided to graze on the stretch of road we were travelling on. Among them was a sweet little lamb who  attracted our attention.

He was adorable, probably born a few hours before and still uncertain on his legs. Mamma mia, was this perhaps a sign from above?  Maybe I do  need a little break from all this meat chopping?
So to reassure Nick, his mum and possibly  those of you who are thinking that lately I have been a little bit “ psycho “about all this meat chopping, I just want to say that (a) of course, I did not touch the baby lamb and ( b )when we finely got back home I cooked a very nice vegetarian dish!!

I prepared homemade ravioli filled with a jelly pecorino cheese and served with  broad beans, drops of honey and a  crunchy corn pastry .It was very green and very tasty.

In fact although butchery is a very important skill in my chosen profession I have decided to “ hang up my butchers knives “just for a short (very short )  while.

So I hope you have enjoyed this little story from the Umbrian hills and will join us next time to see what`s  going on here…..ciao a tutti.

NICK, FOR GOODNESS SAKE TURN OFF THAT LIGHT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!