Lunch at Antonietta's

Antonietta is the mother of Manuele.  She is a fantastic cook, as are all of the Italian women of a certain age. For a Christmas present I unknowingly sent them a gift that ended up costing them 300E!  Antonietta still speaks to me.  So this is what happened.  I sent them a lovely box of cured meats from Peck in Milano.http://www.peck.it/la-salumeria/benvenuto/categoria-PCK.SAL/sid-1787222738/

It was a bunch of different salamis, prosciutto, etc.  It was in a beautiful box and looked oh so lovely.  When it arrived they were quite dazzled with the box and the meats inside...bello....then they of course decided to eat it.  Herein is the problem.  They didn't own a meat slicer.  At first Antonietta would take the meat down to the butcher and as a "piacere" favor ask him to slice it.  Eventually this got a bit tiresome, as you can imagine.  Antonietta decided she needed to buy her own meat slicer.  It cost 300E.  Beware of Americans bearing gifts I told her but I think it got lost in the translation! I told her next year I would try to think of a present that didn't cost her money.  She thought that would be a good idea.

So Antonietta is still speaking to me and invited us to lunch.  Here is a plate of cold cuts that were sliced with the wonderful slicer.  With this she also prepared torta al testo.  This is a classic Umbrian bread.

It is so delicious.  It was warm when we ate it with the cheese and meats.  After that we ate pasta carbonara.  Here are the ingredients... pancetta

And eggs

Undescribably delicious.  Buon appetito!