Eats in Italy: Part 3

While I do have more recipes planned they had to take a back seat this past week because my sister just had a baby, my first nephew!  He's a handsome and healthy boy and completely captured my attention for the past week.  So I'll get to work on new recipes now, but first I though I'd share yet another post of what I ate in Italy.

I'm a coffee drinker.  Occasionally I'll switch to tea in the morning when I feel a cold coming on, but I really enjoy coffee.  Well breakfast every morning in Italy was a cappuccino, some fruit, and some type of pastry.  My favorite was a croissant filled with chocolate and dusted with powdered sugar.  I'll give you the secret of how I actually lost 4 pounds while I was in Italy when I do my last Eats in Italy Post.

Two days after our spectacular meal at the vineyard we were whisked away to a medieval castle for lunch.  Castello della Serre is a medieval castle that has been beautiful restored and is now a luxury hotel.  We didn't stay there, but we ate there.  Oh yes, we ate there.  This meal was actually much more reasonably sized than any other meal we had, only three courses.  And it also stands out because the meal was entirely vegetarian.  Usually I had the same first course as every one and dessert was always the same, but I always had my own main course.  But not at the castle.  And you know what?  I didn't hear anyone complain that there was no meat on their plates.  The first course was marinated, roasted bell peppers and eggplant, and an eggplant parmesan.  Delicious!

The second course was really delicious and somewhat unexpected.  It looked kind of like a manicotti, pasta rolled up and stuffed with cheese and topped with tomato sauce.  But it wasn't pasta.  It was a crepe.  And inside was a filling of cheese and spinach.  It was wonderful, and as I stated before, I didn't hear anyone at the table whining about having a meatless meal.  

And finally, dessert.  Now, I'll tell you something about myself.  I think you all know by now that I'm a dessert person.  My sweet tooth rules my body.  But did you know my all time favorite dessert is tiramisu?  Well, it is.  And I knew that I had to have it at least once while I was in Italy.  And oh my goodness.  This tiramisu...words almost fail me.  It was the perfect tiramisu, every element was simply perfection.  I ate almost the whole thing with my eyes closed thinking "I'm at a stunning castle.  In Tuscany.  Eating tiramisu.  What did I do to deserve this?"  And I will think about that piece of tiramisu for a very long time.  

While I do have some ideas for new recipes planned I would really like to take some requests!  So if you have any requests or suggestions leave a comment or e-mail me at blakebakesfl (at) gmail (dot) com!