Monday, April 12, 2010

Spain Trip Part 4: Spanish-Italian Fusion in the Countryside

Part 1: Brussels Layover
Part 2: Calçots Somewhere in Catalonia
Part 3: The House of Garlic Mayonnaise

Worked into a gastronomic furor by my string of scores, I boarded a train and traveled an hour north of Barcelona to the village of Seva, to visit my friend and former music student, Andrea Grimaldi. Andrea is an Italian immigrant, and is renowned among his generation of musicians in the area for his incredible cooking prowess. And even he pales in comparison to legendary Mama Grimaldi. I'll never forget the time I was lucky enough to fly into Barcelona shortly after Andrea had returned from his family home outside Rome, and he made me some veal parmigiana his mother had shipped off with him. It was so good, it hurt.

Here's what Andrea cooked:

Vongole:


...and, eventually, spaghetti alle vongole:

This is a traditional Catalan appetizer of escalibada, a medley of roast pepper and eggplant. Andrea can't help but turn it into something more resembling antipasto:



"Gambas" are usually translated as shrimp or prawns, but, really, they're sort of right in between:

Bread from Andrea's self-built wood burning oven:

Pears cooked in muscat wine:

I had a chance to take in some art:




That's the artist, on the right (Andrea's son, Pascal):


Continue to Part 5: Barcelona Holdouts

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