Fall Antipasti from Il Ghiottone Umbro

If you follow me along on Instagram then you’ve probably already drooled over the meals we’ve enjoyed at our friends Lisbeth and Thomas. Most people ask me if we’ve left the country since the setting and the food always looks so different from what I usually post. When I respond that no, we are not in Denmark, but in Umbria, the next questions is: can we eat at this restaurant too?

No, sorry, it’s not a restaurant. But it is a darling B&B and yes, you can stay there. And if you stay then THEN you can eat there (sorry, only open to guests). You can also take advantage of the fabulous food tours and cooking classes they organize. (again, for guests only).

A bit of background: Lisbeth and Thomas (both Danes) owned an Italian restaurant in Copenhagen for 12 years. When they’d had enough of that, they picked up and moved to Todi, opening the chicest place in town (and maybe Umbria) while bringing their own brand of Italian cooking with them.

Can’t get to Umbria to cook/eat with them? No problem. You can subscribe to their quarterly Kitchen Notes here. And to get you started, here are two of my favorite recipes from last Fall’s edition. Like many of their recipes they are beyond simple, easy to pull together, and use seasonal ingredients in new and surprising ways. For instance, both of these recipes pull seasonal fruit into savory dishes in a way that a traditional Italian never would.

Scamorza in Carozza with Pear

• 1 large ripe pear
• 
2 slices of smoked scamorza, about 1cm
• fine sea salt and black pepper
• flour for coating
• 1 egg
• fresh bread crumbs
• 
small handful of sage leaves
• sunflower oil for frying
• Cut the pear on each side of the stem, leaving you with 2 halves. Cut each half into 2 slices, discarding the end. Remove any seeds.
• Now sandwich a slice of scamorza between 2 slices of pear. Season with salt and pepper. Trim the cheese, so it gets the same shape as the pear – please do snack on the trimmings….
• Prepare your breading station. Place some flour in a plate and season. Crack the egg into a second plate and whisk together. Place the bread crumbs in a third plate. Chop most of the sage, but save a few leaves. Add chopped sage to the bread crumbs.
• Now take your “sandwich” and coat in the flour, then dip into the egg. Make sure it’s well coated. Then coat in the bread crumbs making sure it’s coated all over with bread crumbs. It might be a good idea to double coat the edges. Leave to set for 15 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 220c degrees.
• Shallow fry the sandwiches until golden and crisp, then place on a baking tray and finish in the oven for 8-10 minutes, so the cheese melts. In the meantime fry the last sage leaves until crisp.
Serve right away as a snack or as an antipasto with some bitter leaves.

For more delicious seasonal recipe inspiration you can subscribe to Kitchen Notes from Il Ghiottone Umbro.

And if you are coming to Italy, their B&B is a perfect place to stay to discover Umbria from. They also lead cooking classes and food tours.