Ciao a tutti,
Spring has arrived! The hills in Tuscany are green and yellow. Its one of our favorite times in Italy with the countryside waking up after it's long winter nap.
We are looking forward to being in Italy this year. We'd love to share our little corner of Italy with you, if you're interested call Mary (972.342.8308) or email us. Good availability still for this fall! More info below! Buon Appetito!Gina and Mary
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Primavera & Piselli - Spring and Peas
We take fresh peas for granted. With sugar snap and snow pea pods in the produce section of any grocery store all year long, it's easy to do. Seeing peas all year long removes us from the fact that peas are a spring vegetable. What we should be seeing now, in April and May, are piles of fresh English pea pods. Sadly, they're difficult to find. I asked the produce manager at the local Kroger here and he looked at me with a puzzled expression and pointed out the packaged snow pea pods. They're nice too, but nothing says "spring" like a big crate of English peas. Unless it's the spring onions, sweet and juicy; the fresh garlic, with its soft, new skin and light flavor; or new arugula and lettuces! Spring means breaking away from heavy winter greens and going light, easy and fresh.
In Tuscany, fresh peas, in the form of the classic English pea pods which you have to shell, are available only in the spring and only for a short period of time. The arrival of English peas at the corner vegetable store or produce section means spring is in full swing and summer isn't far away! Once they're gone, you have to wait a whole year
to eat them again.
In Venice, they make a soupy risotto called risi e bisi, which uses both the fresh peas and the little green pods they come in. There is a tough membrane on the inside of the shell, protecting the peas, which is carefully peeled away to free the tender, sweet outer pea pod..... Click here to read more and get the recipes...
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