Wednesday 20 January 2010

Beautiful Bracciano





How lucky am I, to have a wonderful Italian boy living in Rome, who insists I visit on a regular basis! What a hardship! And this time we spend a glorious 3 days at the family house in Bracciano, a small town about 40km outside Rome, in the beautiful Italian countryside.

And obviously being in Italy meant having to eat copious amounts of pasta and bruschetta, but what I love is that the Italians will eat pasta with the minimum amount of sauce, unlike us English! So lunch one day was purely spaghetti with the grated rind and juice of a lemon picked fresh from the tree and a slurp of their own pressed olive oil - heaven!

As food writers we always say the simplest things are the best. So why then are we bombarded by dozens of 'celebrity chefs' travelling the world to show us all the complicated foods of each country? I didn't need a chef to show me how to make the tastiest bruschetta I've had in a long time - toast freshly sliced local bread over an open fire, rub with garlic and top with home-grown ripe chopped tomatoes and a sprinkling of olive oil. Eat infront of the aforementioned open fire with a bottle of smooth red wine and a gorgeous Italian by your side (maybe the last bit had something to do with my enjoyment?!).


Luckily for my body (it wasn't too sure about all those carbs when it's normally used to lots of veggies!), I was having to train most days - I have been talked into running the Paris half-marathon on Sunday March 7th, and this date appears to be looming up way too fast. But a training schedule has been set and no matter where I am it has to be stuck to (or I may die on the day!). And I have to admit that running in the Italian countryside beats the streets of London any day.


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