Hello Italian Food Forever Friends!

Time is just flying by here in Umbria and we'll be leaving next week after we pick our olives. After carefully checking the weather yesterday, we decided to go ahead and pick this weekend to get them to our local mill on Saturday evening. It is difficult to say if we have more or less olives on our trees than last year until we have them picked, but we do have help this year so things should move quickly. After all the recent rain we've had it will be a very muddy experience!

Though we really are too busy at this moment to enjoy Umbria in the fall as much as I'd like, we are trying to squeeze in a few of the fall festivals like the one in Pietralunga this past weekend. This festival and market celebrated Umbrian Truffles & Potatoes though lots of other food items including roasted chestnuts (shown in the photo) were sold. The chocolate festival in Perugia also begins this weekend so I am hoping to head there on Sunday. If you ever get a chance to visit Umbria in the fall, the chocolate festival is well worth a visit!

Pizza Bianca With Fresh Figs, Prosciutto & Arugula
My fig season here in Umbria is way too short for my liking, but when figs are ripe and ready I spend a lot of time finding ways to use them in my recipes. Last month I was home alone one evening and craving pizza, and after looking through the refrigerator I realized my options were somewhat limited until I spied the big, fat figs I had just picked that day. I already had prosciutto and a couple of varieties of cheese in the refrigerator, so I picked some wild arugula from our garden and made this pizza. Get The Recipe......

Cinnamon Roasted Pear or Apple Compote
With the arrival of fall, it is time to start to embrace the season's finest and put the memories of summer's sweet stone fruit behind us. Fall brings us a myriad of apple varieties, some best for eating, while others are perfect for baked sweets. I am a Granny Smith girl myself when I want to snack on a crisp, juicy apple, and although they also are great for baking. Most apples are great for eating, but some are better when baked. Look for starchy, crisp apples that will hold their shape when baked. Get The Recipe......

Fall Pear & Fig Salad
If you have been following my recent recipe postings, you'll probably realize that I have just experienced our yearly fig explosion and though it is a short season, when the figs ripen, they do so quickly and all at once. So……I canned fig jam and fig and apple tart filling to use next year, I made fig tarts, fig cake, fig bread, fig pizza, and LOTS of fig salads. The great thing about a fresh fig, is that there is little work to prepare it before eating. Simply trim off the stem, slice open and enjoy! Get The Recipe......

Umbrian Truffle Festival in Pietralunga & Fresh Pasta with White Truffles
If it's fall there must be truffles, and every fall here in Umbria truffle markets begin to pop up across the region. We recently went to Pietralunga for their festival to celebrate Umbrian Truffles & Potatoes. This is a market we try and visit each year as a number of our favorite Umbrian truffle companies are there selling their wares along with other local products such as artisan cheese, breads, and cured meats. I've included a few photos below of Pietralunga which is a very pretty, small town in northern Umbria. Read More & Get The Recipe......