A Gourmands tour of Italy Part 1

Sorry again for the long gaps in posting, but this time I had a fairly good excuse. My charming bride and I just returned from a 11 day vacation in Italy. I love Mediterranean food. Whether it is Lebanese, Greek, Italian, or whatever. So I was really looking forward to this trip. I thought I would share a couple of my favorite meals. We first traveled to the town of Vernazza. It's in the Cinque Terre region - 5 towns all within 6 or 7 miles of each other in the Italian riviera. It was pretty rugged and each town was nestled along the coastline. This is a picture I snapped on the long hike we took from village to village. Very picturesque.
The Liguria region of Italy (of which Vernazza is a part) is famous for 'inventing' pesto. I am a recent convert to the joys of a well put together pesto, becoming one last year in fact when my niece Emma made fresh pesto at the beach. The guidebooks we had all mentioned pesto from the area as the best in the world, so when we got there the first meal I had was pesto over trofie pasta - a regional hand made pasta that is perfect for capturing a bit of pesto with each bite.

How was it? To borrow a phrase from a friend - "It changed my life." I was a new man from the first bite. It was a revelation, and in the top two meals I had in Italy (a bit more on that later). Served with crusty bread and the local (and very good) local wine it was a good way to end a long day of traveling. We were pretty beat from the long flights and layovers so it was dinner and directly to bed.

I took this meal as a challenge. My goal? To master the art of pesto. If I can recreate one meal I had in Italy, it will be this one. I shall devote my summer and all my skills honed through the ages to eat a plate of pasta this good whenever I wish.