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Italy Revisited


It's been six months since we returned from our Italy trip and today I took a little "Italian field trip" with my sister-in-law, Jennifer.  Three days ago she returned from a fabulous business trip to Italy.  Jennifer is a hair dresser with her own business and she was traveling with four other colleagues touring hair product factories and learning more about hair products made in Italy.  She also did lots of shopping and eating.  Hearing about her adventures and stories brought back memories of our trip to Italy in September.  Today, we both got an "Italian fix" here at home.  



She loved the food and coffee in Italy (of course!) so our first stop was Bakery Nouveau for some coffee and pastries. Even though Bakery Nouveau is French and not Italian, it was our first stop because they have the best coffee around and their bakery items are rated #1 in Seattle.  




We shared each other's pastry choices with our coffee while we planned our next stops ahead.





Down the block from Bakery Nouveau is our neighborhood Italian deli called Pellegrini Italian Market.  Bruce and I have stopped in there for lunch during the summer and they are known for their quality Italian homemade breads and pastries


as well as their pre-made Italian dishes, fresh or frozen for take-out. We sampled some of their deli items like their house cured olives that were delicious



and their carrot salad which didn't look like much but the oil and vinegar dressing that they were marinated in was rich with garlic and very spicy tasting.  




It was seasoned with a lot of garlic and herbs and both Jennifer and I immediately bought some to take home. The seasonings and garlic were so strong that after I got home, Bruce and I actually ate it as an appetizer instead of a salad. I also bought some of their pesto and pasta salad to take home and it was perfect, very fresh pesto. This deli reminded me of Pasta & Co. except a lot smaller but their recipes were just as tasty. (But they don't have a cookbook like Pasta & Co) I learned that Mr. Pellegrini was the chef at La Rustica for the first ten years of it's twenty or so years that it's been one of the best Italian restaurants in the city. Nick and Lauren love La Rustica, too, and it's turned out to be one of our favorite places to go.   



I'm glad that the Pellegrini family have this deli so they can share all their family recipes with us. After our Italian deli experience, we headed to downtown Seattle to the infamous DeLaurenti Italian Market at the Pike Place Market. It's been there as long as I can remember. Apparently, it's officially been there since the end of World War II and is now run by the son of the founder, Pete DeLaurenti, who passed away in 1996. This place is almost overwhelming because it is so full of endless Italian products, including any kind of cheese or prosciutto you could ever want.


I was most impressed with their Italian chocolate Easter eggs on displayed along with some Italian cakes.  
I ended up buying two flavors of ravioli for dinner tonight, some smoked mozzarella cheese ravioli and some butternut squash ravioli.  


And they did not disappoint. 


All and all, we had a successful day getting our "Italian fix".  And the best part...neither one of us went home empty-handed.





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