Food, Part Something....

 “The passion of the Italian or the Italian-American population is endless for food and lore and everything about it.” ~ Mario Batali

I swear it's bound to happen sometime, and today was the day for Group #2. They are  finally tired of pasta and pizza. (I tell you, there are a thousand kinds of pasta (and pizza), and everyone has the same ones.

I guess the whole thing started earlier when we went to Ravenna and had lunch at a little café I know from my other times there.  We all had salads or a  piadina (a typical sandwich of the Emilia Romagna region).  A piada is an Italian flatbread, and mine (above) included proscuitto, pancetta, swiss chard, and buffala mozzarella cheese. One of the others had a veggie piadina (zucchini, eggplant, and peppers) on a multigrain piada (photo below).

 "Can we go out to dinner tonight?" one of the group asked me tonight.  We've been eating in most nights, and the monotonous cured meats are getting to us.

"Of course," I agreed. "What are you craving?"

"Meat and potatoes," she said.  That sounded good to me, but finding them is not an easy thing in Bologna.  Luckily, Group #1 and I had tried Regina Margherita last week, and I remembered that they not only served meat, but that the food was good.  And, contrary to most Italian restaurants, they include a small salad, potatoes, and grilled vegetables with the meat dishes.  So, we went.

 Our orders included scaloppina, bistecca, some kind of mixed fish appetizer, and pasta with tuna. The steaks came out first, and I swear that they weighed about a pound each (See the photo.). Both people who ordered them said they were great.  Two of us ordered the scaloppina—one veal and one pork—and both of us loved the dish.  I could have it again tomorrow. Nancy, who ordered fish, said hers was good and offered me a taste of the tuna and pasta.  I shook my head.

"Thanks, but I don't eat any fish."

"It's tuna fish," she chided me. "You ate it growing up all the time."

"Yeh," I responded, "But I got sick on it when I was pregnant, and I haven't had it since.

"Try it. It's been ages since you had Jason."   I realized that, my dear friend, but it won't change my mind.

"Nope," I finally answered.  "I cant deny you your dinner."  I can be so magnanimous when it comes to fish.

As a side note, there was no lasagna on the menu, nor was there tagliatelle bolognese.  The restaurant is Napolitano (from the Naples area), and lasagna and bolognese are dishes from this area. 

Tomorrow, the blog's going to hell in a hand basket.  Stay tuned....