Last year, if someone told me I would be spending the 4th of July abroad, I would have laughed. Although last year Ram and I fell asleep before the fireworks started, but I digress....
This year we spent the 4th with a bang in Bellagio on Lake Como, Italy. We fell in love with this small town, population 3,000 (sans George Clooney, more on that later). With the sun beating down on us, our first stop was for gelato, and boy was it tasty. Thereafter, our carb-o-cide binge began (starving myself before this trip was an excellent idea). Day in and day out we had pasta, rissotto, and pizza. Of course the meal would not be complete without dessert and wine.
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| Chef Luigi |
We also took a cooking class with Chef Luigi at Salice Blu. Chef Luigi gained experience at a michelin rated restaurant which he left in 2005 to return to Bellagio to take over his family restaurant. At the age of 28 he's received many notable mentions for his creative cooking style. So it was a no brainer that we wanted to take his cooking class. The first thing we did upon arrival at the restaurant was go to the Chef's private garden around the corner. We picked our fresh herbs for our pasta: thyme, parsley, and even lavender. The class had 12 people so we were divided into 3 work stations. Each station made a different flavor of pasta spinach, saffron yellow (ours), and beet root. Later we combined the flavors to make tricolor pasta (Ram's favorite) which mirrored the colors of the Italian flag. In addition, we made fresh gnocchi and chocolate souffles for dessert. It took about an hour for Chef Luigi to get the pasta dough the right thickness and consistency after we rolled it as thin as we could with rolling pins. I admired his patience while feeding the machine one foot of dough at a time. As much as I liked the final product, I don't see myself going through all that effort for house guests anytime soon but I have the recipes just in case;) Here's a preview:
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| The tricolor pasta |
We capped our last night in Bellagio with a boat tour around Lake Como. The Lake is 1200 feet deep, making it the deepest lake in Europe. The Lake is in the shape of an upside down "Y" and Bellagio is located at the fork, just before it splits. We cruised by all the neighboring cities and the gorgeous villas. It is now my mission to one day own a villa on Lake Como, hopefully in the city of Laglio where I can be neighbors with Clooney. Unfortunately, there were no Clooney sightings on this trip:( Our stay in Lake Como was way too short, and I can't wait to go back to experience some of the other larger cities on the lake!
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