TRAVEL: Sextantio Albergo Diffuso, S.Stefano di Sessanio, Abruzzo

I absolutely HATE hotels, so being "creative" with holiday accommodation, we've stayed in unusual choices from vintage steam railway carriages to huts on Zanzibar beach. But for our "luna di miele" I wanted something really special, so we stayed in, yes, a former ghost village. The obvious choice, I know.

Abruzzo, post-war, is formerly one of the poorest areas of Italy with whole villages being abandoned as people went in search of a better life. One of these crumbling villages was San Stefano di Sessanio. It now features a very interesting concept, the diffusion hotel, with rooms being scattered around the village in various buildings, with beautiful, rustic dilapidation surrounding them.





These buildings have been lovingly and sensitively restored, yet the essence and style (and blackened walls from centuries of soot) from that abandoned time retained, just with the addition of luxury bathrooms, hidden electricity and beautiful touches like handmade rosemary soap, hand blown modern glass lamps, ceramics from Castelli, saffron-dyed bedspreads and hand stuffed mattresses. Everything, as you may have guessed, is either an antique find or made by hand using long-forgotten methods and techniques.





The hotel features a communal cantina and Liquorificio in different buildings in the village. It also has a fantastic restaurant with only a set daily menu with no choices based on the historic Abruzzo cucina-povera ("cooking of the poor" or peasant cooking). Whereas the poor of that time would have been lucky with one plate of food, the meal offered follows the classic antipasto, soup, pasta primo, meat secondo and a dessert all with wine and liqueurs (50 euros). 50% of all the produce used in the kitchen is grown by the hotel, with a view to making it 100% self-sufficient in the near future. San Stefano di Sessano is famous for its tiny brown lentils, chickpeas and saffron, their USP being the mineral-rich mountain spring waters that naturally feed the crops, so it's a fantastic place for food.

Before we dig into the food, let's firstly have a look at the interior of the restaurant. At night it's really dark and moody with flickering amber candles. Amazing and hopelessly romantic! All of the plates are made and painted locally which was a nice touch.



The antipasto was a taster plate of little bits and pieces; a rather good zucchini omelette, a little roast potato, fresh (not the usual dried) pecorino... Gave me lots of ideas on how to spice up my antipasto at home from the usual items.



Minestra: Although not much to look at, especially with the dark lighting - hence the flash, this was an incredible dish of grano (much like farro) in red wine with lots of pecorino, some speck I believe, and a deep, intense stock. Gorgeous texture and rich flavour.



Pasta: Fettucini with ragu. Mr. Graphic Foodie commented on how al dente the pasta had been on this trip. Yup and I loved it. There was no Michelin* starred wafer-like nonsense with this plate of pasta. This was like my mum makes it. Thick, heavy and richly coated in sauce.



Secondo: These sausages were made by a local chap and we were very lucky indeed to sample them as he only delivers to the hotel every few weeks. They look like your average banger but the texture and flavour was very, very Italian as you will find them typically much denser, heavier and simply spiced. Oven roasting coarse sausages like this brings out the best in them. The roast potatoes with rosemary, swimming in glossy olive oil was the perfect accompaniment.



Italians are not famous for their desserts and in a cucina-povera, very few families would have had the luxury of a dessert. This nut tart however, was lovely and surprisingly light.

**Update** The chef on the night, Rosella Madonna, after seeing this post, has informed me via email that the nut tart was a recipe of her grandmothers, written on 23rd July 1914. Isn't that sweet?



The home-brewed liquors were brought out at the end of the meal, a common occurrence in this neck of the woods, my own family home-brew lots and just a few shots will render your legs useless. These ones luckily were rather more refined and were all the classic liquors of the region:



Genziana (the gold one): My dad swears by a shot of this after a really heavy meal to "aid" digestion. Made with the roots of a local herb.

Ratafia (the almost black one): A cherry liquor made with the fruit and leaves of the tree. A hit with the ladies - it's the local version of sherry.

Ortica (the green one): Made with stinging nettles and tastes like it too. Yerk.

The only one I didn't try (as I had to navigate the crumbling cobbles back to the room!) was the reddish one that I believe was Rosa Canina. This is made with rose hips.

So as you can see the restaurant is well worth seeking out, even if not staying at the hotel.



Breakfast is an event in itself. In yet another building, a banquet table awaits you lined with home baked crostatas, lingue di gatti, pastries, cakes, home made yoghurt, savoury pies, cured meats all served by the sweetest Italian woman you will ever meet in your life. Local honey, preserves and freshly baked bread are all laid out on your tables.







When you leave, as you hand back your 7 inch iron room key, they even give you a bottle of their olive oil. This is a real foodie paradise.

It is worth mentioning that sadly, the iconic tower in the top picture had fallen down in the recent L'Aquila earthquakes and we saw a lot of heartbreaking damage in the village and surrounding areas as well as the temporary accommodation chalets for local people whose homes have been destroyed. Abruzzo has never been like the manicured tourist areas of Italy but rugged and breathtakingly beautiful. The real deal. Although parts are now scaffolded up and restoration is in progress, the beauty of the region still shines through. The damage may still put off visitors but this area could do with as much money as possible from tourism. I say go and support it and see and taste what Italy is really about.

Sextantio Albergo Diffuso
Via Principe Umberto

67020 Santo Stefano di Sessanio AQ, Italia

Get Directions

www.sextantio.it

*Although saying that, the head chef, Niko Romito, does own the Michelin starred Ristorante Reale in nearby Rivisondoli.

EVENT: The Experimental Food Society Spectacular

Fancy dining on butter and chocolate sculptures, jelly towers, cake and bread art or food landscapes, all whilst being entertained alongside a night of food related performance?

The Experimental Food Society Spectacular will run on Saturday 25th September 2010 as a daytime exhibition from 11am-5pm, £5, culminating in a banquet finale 7.30pm -1.00am, £75 where you can feast on the exhibited food arts.



The Experimental Food Society was founded "to front the UK’s most talented culinary creatives, showcasing a troupe of ground-breaking gourmet artists that demonstrate there is more to life than just swallowing." Indeed. Pushing food boundaries further than your wildest dreams (and possibly nightmares) the annual spectacular showcases the culinary industry's latest experiments.

If this pushes your buttons you may be interested in my Food Art post.



Experimental Food Society Spectacular
Saturday 25 September
The Brickhouse, 152C Brickhouse, London E1 6RU
Tickets available from The Experimental Food Society

REVIEW: Boho Gelato, Brighton

Brighton has a beach, a disposition for pleasure and the sun (ok, so not the sun). The only other thing missing is some decent gelato and, as London is seeing gelaterias popping up willy-nilly, Brighton hasn't had so much as a sniff of the action. That is until now. The beginning of July saw Boho Gelato opening in the Pool Valley area in Brighton (not a valley at all, a coach station) to the rejoice of the Brightonians.



There are 24 daily-changing flavours including some familiars (pistachio, vanilla...) and some not so familiars (avocado, carrot cake, brown bread, black sesame, pink champagne…). A massive USP is that the gelato here is made using local Sussex non-homogenised milk in a state-of-the-art vertical gelato machine.

The other USP is the infectiously enthusiastic (like really, really so) owner, Seb Cole, who fell in love with gelato on frequent business trips to Rome in his previous employment working for an Italian printer. His original plan was to open a pizza al taglio (heck - Brighton needs one of those too!) but his sweet tooth and love of flavour creations brought him to gelato. And jolly happy I am that he did.



The current house favourite is the amarena cherry, but with little tastings happily offered, I can imagine people will go for the braver flavours. Seb has also created flavours for local restaurants (a local thai restaurant has lemongrass and a poppy seed flavour on order) and will craft flavours for special Brighton events. Bespoke gelato can also be created for enjoying at home with a minimum order of 3.5 litres (I think from memory). Now that would be a brilliant birthday gift for a special someone (read me), no?



Whilst I was there, an unusual liquorice flavour was just coming out of the machine. I love liquorice so this was right up my street and worth waiting for. The texture was so soft, silky and smooth, having just been prepared, it was absolute heaven and just the right amount of sweetness to balance the bitterness of the liquorice.

I also sampled the avocado flavour which was surprisingly light and would make a delicious twist on the classic prawn cocktail for a starter. You can get the gelato to take away in handy polystyrene containers so excellent for dinner parties (or just gorging on at home). The brown bread flavour was very comforting and, as Seb suggested, could be converted to a perfect autumnal flavour with plum or apple, forming a kind of iced crumble, proving that gelato is not just for summer!



Also worth a mention is the branding and the design of all the cups, which have been designed to match certain flavours (and you know I love that sort of attention to detail). The interior, with just a few tables and chairs, has been nicely considered and would attract adults and children alike.

Pool Valley was formerly a bit of a crummy area but today you'll find a fashion boutique, an exclusive handmade shoe shop and (an old favourite of mine) The Mock Turtle tea rooms. Boho Gelato, with its colourful facade brings the street up yet another notch.

Hope to see them next year on Brighton beach with a mobile gelato unit. Until then, they'll be seeing my face a lot!

EVENT: Brighton and Hove food festival

This year's Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival, running from 1st September until the 7th October, is set to be a real winner. With a whopping 110 events, classes, markets and dining experiences, we have been truly spoilt rotten.

Here is my pick of the listings, but every time I look at it I see another 3 things I want to attend! Full events can be seen at www.brightonfoodfestival.com



Brighton's favourite vegetarian restaurant, Terre á Terre, are hosting a Pop Up on Brighton Pier on Monday 20 September which will be very cool, and includes a ride on the dodgems! Book at pier@terreaterre.co.uk, price tbc.



Another pop up will be held in a beautiful central garden on the 3rd September, £25pp for 3-course meal with coffee. www.gardenhousebrighton.co.uk



Hotel Du Vin are proving quite a few wine tasting nights but my favourite event of theirs has to be the Cigar Dinner on the 10th September which is a 3 course meal that not only has wines to match but also cigars for each course. Champagne and whiskey is also included. Pip-pip! £75pp.



Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th September is set to be a very busy weekend with the Big Sussex Market and Live Food Stage taking place. Best bit is that the cuddly bear that is Antonio Carluccio may be giving a mushroom talk which I'm hoping to catch, although I am already booked on the L'Inferno d'amour: Wood fired bread baking workshop where we will learn how to make an array of breads but will also chop and build the fire too. Handy knowledge for my proposed garden pizza oven! £120 for 2 days www.communitychef.org.uk.



You can convert your home into a restaurant for the evening with Open House Dining. Apparently a lot of diners have booked spaces and more would-be chefs are required!



The very cool Moshi Moshi will be offering tutored sake tasting on 5th September, £35pp including zensai tapas and other sushi and sashimi platters.

Or how about the Regency Banquet (shown at the top), where you dress up in Regency costume before devouring Regency period food based on the menus of the famous chef, Careme. Although not held in the Brighton Pavillion this year, it is still set to be a real highlight. Saturday 11th September, £65pp.



Pick of the drinks is a Vintage Cocktail Night, inspired by the silver screen with a 14 piece big band held at the beautiful Brighton ballroom (formerly the Hanbury Ballroom) on Friday 24th September, £10 entry.



The Hanover Beer Festival, Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd October, which will be more of a happy hangover I feel.



I also quite fancy the Taste of Sussex menu at the Restaurant at Drakes, £40pp for a 4 course taster meal, highlighting the best of Sussex produce. Sunday lunchtime only on 26th September.

See you there!

Fork cable management

I know!!! This is probably the coolest little bit of product design I have seen lately, such a smile in the mind. Essential for any food blogger out there.

And it has heart too. Every purchase of this items provides one meal for a child in hunger via Save the Children.



Fork and cream sauce cable management $13 USD plus $4 shipping available from Lufdesign.

My wedding cake wreck!

Italians are not famous for their cakes. Pastries maybe, but cakes, no way. Italian wedding cakes tend to be a dull flat sponge cake, covered with cream and little else. Sometimes they are decorated with fruit or other strange things but I have yet to look at a cake and go "wow". That was until my wedding, where "wow" was one of many, many, many short words I uttered when I saw my cake:



My exploding head is just out of shot. To give you an idea of what I actually asked for, the picture below is what I tentatively showed the baker for "inspiration" who waved his hands above his head shouting "no problem!"



I should have known it was going to be a disaster from the increasingly odd phone calls I received leading up to the day in which the last one I was found repeatedly screaming "Make it like the photo, just make it LIKE THE PHOTO" down my mobile in a supermarket car park in Italy.

I mean, it was even freaking red on the inside like the armadillo cake in Steel Magnolias, who the bejeezus mentioned red sponge at any point?! Luckily this was the only food hitch and I did see the funny side of it (normally I would have launched it at the baker's head). The cake had apparently totally collapsed before being brought out and this was the frantic efforts of the entire kitchen staff and the "Manuel" type hotel owner. You can just see the edge beginning to blow.

I am totally posting this on Cake Wrecks.

In other cake disaster news, we ordered a one for Mr. Graphic Foodie's aunt while we were still in Italy, her name is Ruth. I even wrote R-U-T-H in capital letters for the baker so there was absolutely no chance of anything going wrong.



Rutu. Flipping marvelous.

The big (eating) day: An Abruzzo wedding menu

So we did it. We are married and it was fantastic, emotional, uplifting, exhilarating all all sorts of words like that from beginning to end. We all walked to the church together (apart from Mr. Graphic Foodie who was waiting in the church alone), we had buckets of rice thrown at us (found rice in all sorts of places, I tell ya), sawed logs (yup), threw money from balconies, traipsed through the pine forests (collecting grasshoppers under my dress - eek), fished some of our guests out of the swimming pool, danced like it was 1999 until were carried out of the reception on people's shoulders at silly o'hour the following morning.

But the main thing was we ate. A lot. As I was off duty from blogging for the day, I was so chuffed looking round and seeing friends and family taking shots of the food for the blog! You guys know me so well!

So really, I'd thought I'd share with you the typical eating at a big fat Abruzzo Italian wedding. Take a deep breath...



Before the wedding, people meet at the bride's house and get to eat a load of pastries.





All the women in the village make a tray or two which sounds like a lovely thing to do, but what it really is is an unofficial and highly competitive bake-off where they try and outdo one another. There can be only one winner. We had about 40 trays of pastries and cakes of all description.

Hence why we all need to walk to the church.



After the church ceremony, we go to the groom's "house" and do the same thing!

Then we head to the reception where we had bellini's and canapes. Sadly I didn't get to sample any but I did spy deep-fried, breaded olives - my favourite! All of the food, with just a few exceptions, had been sourced locally and is typical of the Abruzzo region, with quite a few of my beloved peasant dishes featuring.



The antipasto arrived in 3 separate parts, earning wide-eyed looks from our British friends who squeakily demanded to know if each of the 9 courses were 3 courses in themselves.





The cured meats are famous around here for a reason, and the hand carved prosciutto was a nice touch in addition to the machine sliced stuff because you have to have TWO different cuts of it for a decent antipasto. There was also a separate plate of bresola.

Not much to look at but I loved this baked artichoke the best:



The below was not a meatball but an unusual cheese and maize dumpling, served with a stuffed mushroom:



This was a mixture of fried lamb offal (Curatella di Agnello) in sauce to finish off the "starter". Delicious!



It 'aint no wedding without wedding soup. Our regional version is made with veal and pork meatballs in a hearty stock with just egg as its companion (they call this Straciatella). Always goes down a storm here, as it's ram-packed with flavour.



Kicking off the pasta courses was a nice lasagna primavera with spring vegetables, mushrooms and more pork and veal.



Spaghetti a la chitarra is made using a contraption like guitar strings (hence "chitarra") where the pasta is pushed through, creating square edge spaghetti. Always served with a classic meat ragu.



This Veal with a white wine sauce is a favourite dish of mine. We had loads of grilled vegetables with this one.





Lamb "scottadito" means lamb "burn your fingers" as it is so delicious that people can't wait for it to come off the grill, resulting in burned fingers! Wherever you go in Abruzzo, you will not be far from somewhere serving lamb like this. The roast potatoes dripping in olive oil and scented with rosemary were to die for. Squeeze of lemon juice and all is good with the world.



As I knew I wouldn't get a pretty tiered wedding cake in Italy, I constructed a sort-of tiered cake with local cheeses, the base being a half meter wide Parmigiano, the middle containing my favourite Pecorino cheese and a Caciocavallo. The rest of the cheese was brought out separately on trays as to make it all into a "cake" would have been like the leaning tower of freaking Pisa.



The five vegetarians were really well catered for I thought (tricky in this meat loving neck of the woods), and had replacement dishes for all the meat, not that they were needed. This would be a post in itself but artichoke pasta, risottos and grilled scamorza cheese were provided.



We waddled outside for the (disaster) wedding cake which will be a whole post of its own. Let's say it wasn't tiered but there was almost tears. I think I'm swearing in the picture below.




You have to have fruit to "end" the meal and the venue owner insisted on "Lui e Lei" pineapple. As I gave him zero input on the menu so far, I let him have this one. It turned out to be a whole quarter of pineapple per person, cut into slices and zig-zagged, hence "His and Her" (no I still don't get it either.)



A lot of arm-flaying, leg-kicking dancing ensued but people were kept topped up throughout the evening with about 10 meters of village-lady pastries and a 45kg porchetta spiced pig.





I had sensibly ordered a 20kg pig but my family, thinking everyone would die starving, changed it to this beast. Amazingly all that remained the day after was this, which I found in a box in the kitchen. Lovely:



Big love to Dave, Jyoff, Kate and Katharina for the pics of the food. And thanks to all our family and friends who came from England (and Singapore, Kenya and Tanzania) and coped with us arm-flaying, loud and emotional Italians. I was particularly proud of all of you for getting through this meal, you impressed my family no end!



Lastly, thanks to Mr. Graphic Foodie (shown above in the middle, being made to saw a log in the church garden in the blistering heat (surprise!) to prove his masculinity or something). You eat like no other and really are my best friend. And you're also pretty good at sawing logs in half it seems - you never fail to surprise me.