The First Supper: Dinners in Gorizia

Dinners in Gorizia are provided by the lovely Grand Hotel Entourage, which is our place of residence for the duration of our stay. They take dinner very seriously in Italy, and even our study abroad group was pampered with a traditional four-course meal every night (except Fridays and Saturdays).

The first course, typically called the antipasti, is essentially an appetizer. We were usually given bread and veggies, though sometimes the kitchen went out on a limb and made french fries, possibly to cater to us American folk. Tonight was carrots, peas, and something along the lines of cabbage or onion… we weren’t sure which.

Carrots, peas, and ...?

Most of us passed on the… whatever it was. But the peas and carrots were good! Next was the primo pasti, which is typically a pasta dish that comes before the main protein. Tonight, as with most nights, we had a stuffed pasta. In fact, I don’t think I had any pasta dish that was not stuffed, except a select few gnocchi prospects. Common stuffings were cheeses, prosciutto, and mushrooms; tonight was of the second variety.

Stuffed and creamy tortellini.

As you can probably gather, the lighting in the dining room was less than stellar for photography, and the flash is a new technology for me.

The prosciutto center.

The tortellini was a solid pasta dish that became a pretty common staple during our dinners. I liked the cream sauce, and the filling was not so salty that it took over. It’s too bad that the only stuffed tortellinis you can get in America are the crazy-expensive designer kind on the special refrigerated shelves or the homemade kind that take 3 hours to make, or I would eat buckets of it.

If you want to check out the main course (hint: it’s pork) and dessert, head over to Sideways Sweets to catch the rest! Soon, you will be able to see pictures of my adventures beyond the culinary, so stay tuned.

Advertisements