Pizza, Pasta, and more Carbohydrates - Rome

First, I must apologize for the lack of posts by RD'lite. I have not been doing much cooking at home and have not been inspired to cook or blog - until I got an opportunity to travel!

I was lucky enough to visit Italy for 10 days in May. In typical RD fashion, I took pictures of (almost) everything I ate. There are way too many pictures and meals for just one blog post, so I have decided to blog the major cities separately. This first picture is not of food, but of the coliseum which was one of my favorite sights in Rome. I didn't know until I got home, but It's one of the seven (and I think now 8) wonders of the world - Thank you Boyfriend!
Now on to the food... In Italy they begin dinner with an appetizer - usually antipasti, followed by a small pasta dish, and then a main entree (usually meat and potatoes). The salad comes after the main course and then dessert to finish. There is always bread, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar on the table, and the bread basket is rarely empty. Yes, you read that correctly, that's a whole lot of carbohydrates! Pasta, potatoes, and bread in one meal - I have no idea how the Italians are so skinny. During the entire meal, they serve copious amounts of delicious wine which is also super cheap (<>

Bruschetta is one of my favorite appetizers and who knew it could get even better?! I didn't know that bruschetta came with anything other than tomatoes, and maybe some cheese. Artichokes were in season during my visit, and the Italians sure cooked them every which way. They even put it on bruschetta - so delicious!
For the second course I had the most wonderful gnocchi I have ever tasted. It was so light and not too filling. Just absolutely perfect with the bolognese sauce! Unfortunately, Italian food is not as photogenic as it is tasty. I was so full after my appetizer and pasta dish that I couldn't order a main course also. Come to think of it, I don't think I got past the pasta part at any meal.
AHHH probably one of my favorite parts of being in Italy - the WINE! This bottle is only half of a liter of the house wine. They literally poor the wine out of the barrel upon ordering it - so cool. I also found it funny that in America, we have special glasses for different types of wine. In Italy, they pour the wine into water glasses. They also give you a glass that's really used for water, but it's much smaller than the one that's meant for wine.
During my trip, a typical brunch for me was a salami and cheese sandwich or slice of pizza. They had these delicious sandwiches all over the streets in little snack cafes for about 3.50 euros. The pizza I speak of is not your typical slice of NYC pizza, but more like a little personal pizza - so cute.
I visited an outdoor market in the middle of Rome that looked much like the farmer's markets in the US. The market was bustling with both locals and tourists, and there were only a few foods I didn't recognize.
These tiny artichokes were in season, and I have never seen such small artichokes before. Restaurants fry the whole thing and it can be eaten with a fork and knife rather than each leaf individually. A much more civilized way of eating artichokes if you ask me.
Still not sure what these red and white pods are... if anyone knows, please let me know! They look so cool though. I have to assume they are some type of bean though.

These were the biggest beets I have ever seen! Don't they look delicious?
More artichokes - never seen them on stems in Safeway...
This last picture of fruits and veggies in a store front was taken in Siena. A very cute hill town. This picture is such a dietitian's dream - check out all those colorful fruits. I was very surprised how available fresh fruits and vegetables are on the streets and in markets, yet how uncommon they are as part of a meal.

Much more revelations about Italians, Italian food, and pictures to come in my post about Florence - Stay tuned!

Florence Favorites

At last I have a minute to sit down and write about the food in Florence. It has been so long now that I hope I have not forgotten all the details.





This first picture is a delicious bread and tomato soup. I was expecting something more like an onion soup with a piece of bread in it, but what I got was quite different. The soup is mostly tomatoes and olive oil with what tasted like the inside of a french roll soaking up all of the yummy juices. The taste was wonderful, and I loved the consistency, but I have a feeling soggy bread is not a consistency that most people enjoy.


Like all other meals in Italy, this one too was filled with carbohydrates.


The next course was a beef and asparagus roll (much like a meatball with asparagus in it) accompanied by potatoes and of course a marinara sauce. My brother and his friend ordered a ginormous steak that had to be shared. The thing must have been like 2 lbs. The funniest part was that the waiter brought out the steak to the table raw so the boys could check the quality. Like they would have known what they were looking at one way or another! There were tables of people all over the restaurants sharing these huge steaks and literally gnawing on the bones to make sure they got every since bite of meat... gross!
Brother and I visited Pisa for the day so I could bravely climb the leaning tower. During the 2 hour wait before I could go up, we enjoyed some pizza on a side street. My pizza had olives, onions, and artichoke hearts. I ordered a 'personal size' pizza, but it was still way too much for me to eat in one sitting. Not the prettiest pizza I have ever seen, but very tasty. Of course, I found the food market in the middle of the city and had a field day taking pictures of all the crazy foods I discovered. While Italian food is based on carbs, they also incorporate some wacky parts of animals...
The picture above is of what I assumed to be cripe... Since I don't know Italian, it was very difficult for me to decipher what they were actually selling. The stuff (I can't even call it food) looked like that I imagine the adipose tissue under human skin to look like - YUCK! I guess it's lining of stomach or intestines or something. Whatever it is, it does not look appetizing to me!
Sun dried tomatoes - not my favorite food, and I always pick them out of whatever I eat because I just don't like the consistency, but they do add great taste to almost any dish!

Check out all of those fresh lettuces. I don't think I would even know where to begin making a salad with all of those options!

This next picture depicts my favorite part of the market - watching them make pasta!

The machines they use look exactly like the ones I had as a child to 'make pasta' out of play dough. Too funny. Spaghetti anyone?
WARNING: these next pictures depict items I would NEVER consider to be food and you could not pay me all the money in the world to eat them. Again, due to my lack of Italian skills, I'm not totally sure what they are, but I did take human anatomy so I can take a guess...
Hooves, or brain?
Tongue and more minced meat?

Definitely some liver, and not sure what else... But it doesn't look very appetizing to me.

Ahhhhh. Much better, back to the carbohydrates! PASTA!!! How amazing does the fresh spaghetti and ravioli look? This was at the store front of the previous pictures where they were making it. Looks very different than the packaged crap we get in our grocery stores.

Since Italians have such great pasta and bread, it's no wonder they also have delicious pastries! All sorts of cookies with jelly, chocolate, and nuts. I could have eaten these all day!

More cookies - YUM

And just in case you were enjoying the pasta and cookie pictures too much and getting hungry... back to the meat!

I guess you can tell that the chicken is fresh since it still has its head, feathers, and legs. And for the LAST meat picture... hanging, drying meat. As much as I love salami, I'm not a fan of the thought of meat hanging to try out for ages... But hey, who does like aged, dried meats?

The produce in the market looked fabulous - so fresh and plump.
There were also large stands of dried fruits and nuts. It's like the bin candy stores we have here, but will fiber filled naturally sweetened fruit rather than high-fructose corn syrup filled candy! I got a big bag to take with me for my long day of adventures around the city.
I think this is a jelly dried fruit salad. And of course, Italian wine - so good and so cheap!
Like every market I've been to anywhere in the world, this one had beautiful flowers!

I loved the coffee in Florence. You literally walk up to a bar and order your coffee. The only thing I knew how to get was a cappuccino- and I had no idea how to order non fat milk - so I was drinking regular cappuccinos daily. They were small, wonderful, and only 1 Euro. People stand at the bar, drink their coffee / cappuccino quickly and then leave - very different than the Starbucks we have here. Come to think of it, I did not see one Starbucks in Italy - their coffee must not be good enough for Italians...
Bags of nuts and grains looks so healthy and much more appetizing to me than the meats and 'other' parts of animals.

ahhhh the gelato. I discovered pink grapefruit gelato and I think I died and went to heaven. It has to be the most wonderful and refreshing sweet I have ever tasted. I mixed it with the yogurt flavor and I just could not get enough. It was too hot while I was in Italy to have any type of chocolate or nutty flavored gelato, so I just stuck to my yogurt & grapefruit. I did try tiramisu one time and it was equally wonderful, just not as refreshing as my concoction! I ate gelato at least once and sometimes twice every day I was there - It's amazing I didn't come back 15lbs heavier!
More cookies! These butter cookies were dipped in chocolate, or filled with apricot jam (my favorite) and super crunchy - cheap too! I got all of these for less than $0.50 US.
Last but not least - my risotto. All other nights I enjoyed pizza or pasta, so on my last day in Florence I insisted on finding some risotto. This is risotto with mushrooms. I was surprised that Italians don't make risotto with tons of cheese like we do in America. I actually don't think it had any cheese - mother goose approved! I enjoyed every bite and it was a fabulous way to end my food adventures in Italy!
I loved all of the food in Italy and plan to visit again for more eating and wine drinking! Ciao!