We went especially to buy fresh buffalo mozzarella but also found freshly hand-made pastas such as spinach and cheese filling and truffle and cheese filling in little "parcels" and all sorts of other goodies such as San Daniele prosciutto (even better than Parma prosciutto) and special salts with herbs or lemon and lavender. They only had the best of everything from Italy, including wines and other alcoholic drinks. The store is owned by Walter (yes, he is Italian) who is absolutely delightful. We bought some prosecco, the perfect Italian sparkling wine for making belinis and he told us how to make a belini with fresh peaches (a little lemon juice and sugar syrup with the juice sieved from fresh peaches in the glass and then add the prosecco), but wanted us to taste another similar aperitif. So he opened a chilled prosecco and a bottle of Apercol (rhubarb based spirit which is added to the prosecco - just a little, with a slice of orange) to give us a glassful each to taste. Another great find! A couple of other customers arrived, including Giorgio who owns Di Benedetto, a very good Italian restaurant in Bendinat (near Palma Nova) where we enjoyed a meal last year, so we all chatted about our lives while we enjoyed our drinks and sampled the prosciutto and salami. Walter also owns an Italian restaurant in Porte D'Andratx, Ma Luna, which will have to be on our list of new places to try.
We decided that a drive to Valldemossa for lunch would be a suitable activity for the rest of the day, hoping that the intermittent heavy rain in Palma would not be in the mountains. Not so lucky! We firstly ate our jamon baguettes while a shower went through Valldemossa but had not walked any further than to the monastery before an incredible deluge occurred. John and Christine sheltered under a tree with a beach umbrella protecting the top half of their bodies, but when the river of water began flowing over their feet they collected Greg from the entrance of the men's loo and me from an art gallery entrance and we waded through the streets to the car and headed for home. Unfortunately we did not have a chance to enjoy the beauty of Valldemossa on that occasion.
However, dinner made up for the crummy weather -
Pre-dinner drinks: prosecco with. Entree: slices of the BEST buffalo mozzarella (soft and creamy!) layered with slices of tomato (with plenty of flavour) and pieces of fresh basil, with a spoonful of my homemade pesto (made Genoese style with freshly grated pecorino as well as the Reggiano parmigiana) and drizzled with balsamic vinegar (aged for 30 years until it is like syrup). WOW! How can we get this buffalo mozzarella at home?
Main course: spinach/cheese filled pasta parcels with a tomato and basil sauce; truffle/cheese filled pasta parcels with a melted butter and parmagiana sauce; salad of baby cos and cherry tomatoes. WOW!
Wine: Pasoni Chianti Classico
Dessert: fresh figs, poached and brandied, with vanilla ice cream
Who needs to eat out?
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