We’re settling in for dinner at a quaint little restaurant in Santa Margherita Ligure. If you’re lucky enough to have a little Italian grandmother – a “nonna” – the feeling in this restaurant might be similar to that of your nonna’s house. And so far, the only person we’ve seen working here is a lady who looks like she must certainly be somebody’s little Italian grandmother. It’s like we’re having dinner at Nonna’s house.
Aroma Therapy
The little lady has been on the go constantly, greeting and seating customers, delivering bread, water, and wine, and taking orders. She moves from table to table like a bee moving from flower to flower. She probably wouldn’t believe it, but for us, she’s tonight’s entertainment.
You’d like the aroma in here. More than “like.” Love. The aroma alone causes one to relax and feel at peace. It’s the original aroma therapy.
We started by having a caprese salad for an appetizer. They take tomato slices and mozzarella, drizzle some olive oil on top, sprinkle on some herbs or seasonings, and that’s that. In this case, the mozzarella was in little gobs instead of slices. It was extra good. I bet someone down the street or maybe in the next room made this mozzarella earlier today. I can taste it.
Our dinners showed up, and they were as good as the caprese. For our entrees, we had ordered linguini con gamberi and a local fish dish. The linguine con gamberi stole the show. This time, there weren’t three gigantic gamberi laying across the plate like there was at our lunch in Parma. Instead, there were quite a few good-sized gamberi mixed in with the pasta. The heads were still on for extra flavor, (and perhaps for a little crunch?)
Torta a Limone
We rarely order dessert. Not because we don’t like it. We’re just usually too stuffed by dessert time. But when your little Italian grandmother gives you a look that says, “you order dessert,” you order dessert. We ordered lemon torta to share.
“Torta” means “cake” in italian, so what we ordered was a piece of lemon cake. When it showed up it was one layer, square – about the size and shape of a thick sandwich. It had a criss-cross pattern on top. Something lemony was in the squares formed by the criss-crosses, under a dusting of powdered sugar.
It would have been easier just to provide a photo instead of dragging you through that lengthy description of the lemon torta. Unfortunately, by the time the thought occurred to me, it would have been a photo of a plate with some lemony crumbs on it. (I took the picture, anyway).
Oh boy, that was a very satisfying meal. Mamma mia. It’s a good thing we were walking back to the hotel. Santa Margherita Ligure is nice at night. All the hubbub settles down and it becomes a quiet little seaside town.
Italian Television
When we got to our room, it was still early, so we turned on television. We’d seen most of the Italian channels before. The shows on now sounded vaguely familiar…
“Ricardo! You donna leava nowa!” — Italian channel #1
“Maria! Donna leava! I lohva you!” — Italian channel #2
Yes, I definitely recall seeing these shows somewhere before. But then we stumbled on a channel we’d never seen before. It was the Italian equivalent of our Food Channel. This could be interesting. We tuned in.
A guy was preparing a pasta dish. (No surprise there). He worked in a TV kitchen that was made to look like it was his home kitchen. He was cooking while talking to the camera, just like in cooking shows we’re used to seeing.
You Gotta Make It!
Since he was making a pasta dish, guess what his first step was? Well, obviously, since he was making a pasta dish, the first step was to… go to the store and buy some pasta. No, no, no. This is Italy. You gotta MAKE the pasta!
Cooking shows on this channel were pretty good, and fun to watch. We watched a bunch of them. And every time someone made a pasta dish, the first step was to make the pasta.
I eventually conked out and probably dreamed of pasta. It had been a long day, but tomorrow would be an even longer day. We plan on catching the train at 9:00. (It will be running again tomorrow after today’s 24-hour strike). We’ll take the train to the southern-most village of the five Cinque Terre villages – Riomaggiore.
After visiting Riomaggiore, we’ll work our way back, stopping at other Cinque Terre villages along the way. Then, tomorrow night, we have a dinner reservation at a special restaurant up in the hills. It was recommended to us by a friend who grew up near here. Their specialty is some kind of special ravioli. Mmmm… ravioli. And do you know the first step in making ravioli? Of course you do!
To be continued…
Note: We’re in a restaurant called La Lampara in Santa Margherita Ligure.
