Roman Weekend

I lived in Rome for five months and I will be the first to admit it was anything but perfect, but it was beautiful and it certainly had its high points. It was definitely one of those things where if you could have done it with the people you care about most in the world, it would have been an entirely different experience. From a culinary standpoint, I wish I had gone out to eat more, but let's be honest, I wasn't exactly rolling in money and I was finding good food on my own ;-).

I was a dipping into the local scene and hitting up the grocery stores and markets, which was often extremely nerve-racking (have you tried ordering meat from a butcher... IN ITALIAN?!?! Not an easy thing to do. I was basically a vegetarian while I was there and returned to the States with significantly better charades skills).

Rome was actually when I realized how much I loved clams... and nutella, LOTS and lots of nutella, not combined though. So, as an ode to my Roman life, I am making Linguine with White Clam Sauce and Crepes this weekend.

Now, crepes aren't strictly a Roman memory for me. I've been making them for years with my family. One of my favorite "comfort foods" is actually a sweet, (fresh) strawberry cream cheese filled crepe, topped with a fresh fruit compote and powdered sugar, which was my Dad's concoction that we perfected together. For the reason of those wonderful memories, I don't think I could make them without him with me, so I'll be having the classic nutella and banana filled crepes this time. A yummy snack that was readily available at a stand right in front of the Pantheon. They were gynormous and delicious and wonderful.

Buon appetito, ragazzi!