Trip To Italy A Culinary Treat

By Joanne Chaconis, RD

I have been absent from this blog site for a while. One reason is that I have lacked any creative ideas and the other reason is that I recently spent eight days vacationing in Italy.

Aside from the many ancient sites and beautiful natural landscapes I witnessed, a high point of this trip was sampling the foods. I visited many regions and cities – Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples and Capri, to name a few. All offered an abundance of foods to try. Every meal included one to two courses of fresh pastas, each served in a light red or white sauce. The pasta was thin, a true melt-in-your mouth feel. Prosciutto was served most nights, either with melon or fresh bread. I decided that too much of a good thing was not always good and I soon tired of it.

Main entrée choices always included fish, and the calamari in Venice was delightful, gently breaded and fried. Prior to that Venetian lunch I had not had calamari in 20 years and it was definitely worth that two decade wait.

The salmon served our last night in Rome was seared perfectly. Meat dishes always included a choice of veal. Since I never cook that at home, I always opted for it and was never disappointed with that decision. Desserts were fantastic and included the second best tiramisu that I ever tasted. My friend, Patty Sonsiadek from Fords, N.J., makes the best, hands down.

Earlier I mentioned prosciutto and “too much of a good thing.” That wasn’t the case with the wines. The red wines were light and complemented many meals!
I couldn’t help but notice that despite the abundance of good food and wine that seemed to be prevalent everywhere, there did not seem to be much obesity among the population. Many people seemed to get their exercise by walking a lot (with gasoline over $8 a gallon, I guess that’s a good reason).

My trip was wonderful. A smorgasbord for the mind, eyes and, of course, stomach!

Caio!