Eating Again - Dinner at Hotel Torretta in Montecatini Terme, Tuscany

I can't help reporting what we have been eating at our hotel. The food here is so good that unusually miserable weather in early summer does not bother us much - as long as we have excellent food and wine, everything else is secondary....

To be honest, the weather has not been too terrible - ok, it is not warm enough to sunbath but we are not here for that anyway. We are staying at a lovely hotel, eating a lovely food and I now have Benneton's great rain jacket and cardigan - shelter, food and clothes - Maslow's hierarchy of basic needs is now satisfied that I have nothing to complain.

We had wonderful lunch earlier - perfect risotto and panna cotta, but before you know it's time for dinner. Feels like we are constantly eating - and in a sense, yes we are!

The dinner started with a bowl of minestrone soup - it is lovely with lots of sprinkles of parmesan cheese and black peppers.  I really love this soup but I had to forgo this so that I can eat the next two courses of my favourites. So this is the photo of what my husband had and I stole a few soup spoonfuls for quick tastes to remind me how great the soup is.

Next is spaghetti with tomato and basil sauce - just a simple dish but I just love the way the chef at the hotel makes - this is really delicious, and I am not kidding!  Tomato sauce is so sweet but not too sharp, hint of basil but not over-powering and of course, the spaghetti is perfect al dante.  I really need to try to make tomato sauce like this when I go home.

The Secondi is swordfish steak with herb sauce. This is another of my favourite to eat at this hotel for dinner. I don't eat swordfish back home at all but I really like it here.

After the main course, the dessert trolly comes out! Today's special is Sponge case with candied fruits, cream and ice cream (the pink one on the right), which is what my husband had while I had coffee ice cream with biscuit and hot chocolate sauce (the one in the front). The one in the left is baked apple, I think...

Sponge cake with cream and ice cream with candied fruits. This is a bit like Sicilian cassata minus marzipan and green colouring...?

Coffee flavoured ice cream with home made biscuit with warm chocolate sauce .... Mmmmmm

We then retired to the lounge area and asked Olaf (I hope I have spelt his name right...?) in my broken Italian for cafe macchiato (for my husband) and tea with milk.

You see, it is very difficult not to eat in Italy as food is so good and especially in this hotel the food is REALLY good. Can't wait what is for dinner tomorrow .... can you?

That's all forks!

Lazy Cook

When I came home from work, I was so hungry and wanted to make something quick. So I made Spaghetti with tomato and tuna for my husband and me.
I bought this blue plate at local market when we went to Bardolino (Lake Garda) in Italy for family holiday about 6 - 7 years ago. It features langoustine, scallop and prawns around the rim of the plate and every time I make this spaghetti, I use this plate reminiscing of wonderful food we had there.
I only bought 2 plates - I wish I bought more.

This is very easy to make and takes less than 20 minutes, so suitable for a lazy cook like me!

The following receipt for the sauce is for 2 - 3 people.  You need:

200 - 240g spaghetti or penne
1 1/2 tbs flat parsley - chopped
1 small - medium sized red chili, de-seeded and finely chopped
1 small clove of garlic, chopped
1 ts fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
400 - 500g  passata (or 1 tin of chopped tomato)
1 - 2 ts capers
black olives - optional
1 tin of tuna steak, drained and flaked
rock salt and pepper
olive oil

While you are boiling the water for spaghetti, you chopped all these ingredients, fry parsley, chill, garlic and ginger with olive oil in a pan for a few minutes.  (This has such a lovely smell!!!) Then tip in passata into the pan and cook for 3 - 5 minutes. You then add tuna, capers and olives into the pan and cook further 5 minutes and then simmer for another 5 minutes or until the spaghetti is ready. Add pinch of rock salt and pepper to the sauce to season.
Make sure you stop cooking the spaghetti just before the point of al dante and toss with the sauce. Divide between 2 - 3 plates and serve.  Keep some sauce to spoon over the individual servings and drizzle a little bit of olive oil.

I wonder what others are eating now for dinner....???