Portofino and a Ligurian Cooking Demonstration

This certainly was a food-themed cruise for us! Once again we were on an excursion that highlighted the cuisine of the area we were in. This time it was Liguria in the north of Italy. Our port stop was the tiny village of Portofino, less than 100 km away from the famed Cinque Terre and just as picturesque. 

But precisely because Portofino is a tiny village was why, almost as soon as we stepped off the tenders at the pier, we boarded a local ferry and headed to Santa Margherita Ligure (one of several Santa Margheritas in Italy, and not the one that produces the wine of the same name). Full sized tour buses would not get into Portofino, so we had to meet them in the somewhat larger town.

After a brief introduction to the town and a visit to its magnificently decorated church, we had a little free time (which seemed to be the case multiple times in every single tour all trip) to wander around before meeting the bus to go to Recco, the town where we had the cooking demonstration and lunch.

Santa Maria di Antiochia Church. For a tiny
town, this church packs quite a punch!

Another theme for this cruise could have been - balconies!
Everywhere we went there have been interesting and
ornate balconies and terraces decorated with
beautiful flowers and plants.

The area is quite spectacular, with cliffs and mountains rising from the sea, almost rivalling the Amalfi Coast. Here are a few photos from the drive between Santa Margherita Ligure and Recco:

Our cooking demonstration and lunch were held at the Ristorante Vitturin 1860, which dates back to that year and is the oldest restaurant in Recco. We don't know if has been the same family owning it since then, but the current owner and his son both run the restaurant now.

During the demonstration we learned how to make, and tasted, a wonderful fresh Pesto and a Walnut Sauce for pasta. Both of those will be coming out of our kitchen sometime soon! We were also shown how to make and shape Trofie, a tiny pasta made with a dough of only flour, water and salt, and how to fill and shape Pansotti, which look similar to tortellini but have a hole in the centre.

But the star of the show, and the main reason we came to Recco for the lunch, was the Focaccia di Recco col formaggio, which is made with stracchino cheese and is appellation controlled.  Like champagne can only come from the Champagne region, the only place that can use this name is Recco, although other towns can make a similar product. Unlike the focaccia we get here, this dough has no yeast and is rolled very thin, like pizza - but DON'T ever call it pizza! There are 2 layers of dough with the cheese dotted in between in clumps. This would be very hard to make at home because it calls for pizza oven temperatures of 300 deg C, almost 600 deg F. Maybe we'll try it in the barbecue!

The chef making Pesto, with our
tour guide doing the translation

The restaurant's owner making the
dough for the Trofie

Everyone trying to form the
Pansotti, with a filling of greens,
ricotta and parmesan cheeses.

The hard part - trying to roll the
Trofie. That seems to be a skill
that takes some time to master.

Filling the focaccia with the stracchino cheese.
It is a very young cow's milk cheese
 that has a bit of a grainy texture.

And now: Lunch!

The finished Focaccia di Recco col formaggio. This
huge thin bread can safely feed four if there's no main
course afterwards. In fact, a family of 3 (Dad, Mom and
young son) at another table ordered one just for them
and finished the whole thing!

Our pastas and sauces: on the left, the Trofie with diced potato,
green beans and the Pesto, a typical recipe; and on the right the
Pansotti with the Walnut Sauce. Absolutely delectable!

And for dessert, another version of the focaccia, this time with
Nutella in the middle and chocolate on top. Yummy!!

 After lunch, which didn't look like a lot in the pictures and on the plates, but was quite filling, we set off, back to Santa Margherita Ligure and, lo and behold, a little more free time. The weather hadn't changed much, still sunny and hot and sticky, and we also had nothing we wanted to do, so we found a bench in the shade by the seaside and watched the world go by. As all the tours finally came back, we boarded the ferry for the return to Portofino.

The small boat harbour

The Castello Brown, a 16th Century fortress

Boats, yachts and ships of all sizes sail the waters in the area.

Again, more spectacular scenery. The whole north coast of the Mediterranean is truly awesome, and because it is the cradle of Western civilization, with huge Eastern influences, it is all filled with history that is being uncovered more and more almost every time someone sticks a shovel in the ground. Our only issue has been that, because of the jam-packed itinerary, it has been very difficult to absorb a lot of what we've been seeing. In some respects, it's a good thing we do the blog so we can go back ourselves to see what we did; otherwise there would be a lot we wouldn't remember.

Tomorrow will be our last long day of touring, but we will see Florence and Pisa, so it will be worth the 10 hours!