A taste of Italy
On our first trip to Italy several years ago, we were fortunate to find a perfect place to stay for the day trips we planned, and to also be spoiled by some fabulous food. We rented a place outside a small town, Umbertide, which is owned by Jan Behrsin who lives in California. We found Jan's Italian rental property, Calboccia, on the web, and luckily for us, it exceeded expectations.
One highlight of staying at Calboccia was meeting Angela, who cooks for guests upon request. Her food is so amazing, that on a subsequent trip, we arranged to have Angela prepare dinners for our entire visit. While we've only been able to recreate a few of her recipes, one specialty of the area that we have tried to duplicate is porchetta. Without a whole pig to roast, our results are not quite the same, but this recipe from Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking (Chronicle Books 2002) is close enough until we get back to Umbertide on market day to stand in line for a porchetta sandwich, or maybe two. If you would like to read about the Italian experience, take a look at the full story.
This recipe takes some time to assemble and roast, but the results are excellent, especially when served on Ciabatta rolls. Any leftovers can be frozen.
