For my second, slightly more substantial lunch, I ate a wonderful meal that my roommate Lorenzo made for about 10 of his friends as well as my other two roommates and me. A Sunday meal eaten together is a fundamental part of Italian life. While usually eaten at home, if you're a 12 hour train ride from home, as my roommates are, why not bring the meal to wherever you are? Lorenzo made a really great meal and it was a lot of fun to get to enjoy it with his friends. We sat for almost three hours over the meal, something that rarely occurs in the U.S. but which is one of my favorite parts of Italian life. Here is a picture of the scene:
We started with papardelle with ragu. One of Lorenzo's friends asked where the recipe came from. The answer: from his mother, of course. It was delicious.
Next, breaded chicken cutlets (they make delicious breaded cutlets here, I don't know why they are so much better than back home) and a simple salad, as well as some french fries.
For dessert, there was a gorgeous chocolate cake that one of his friends brought (that I did not participate in) as well as tiramisu that Lorenzo made. This tiramisu was fantastic, made with a coffee liquor that was perfect. This was Lorenzo's first time making tiramisu, and it was one of the best I've ever had. It's like cooking is in these people's DNA.
After eating the meal with Lorenzo and his friends, which I really enjoyed a lot, I didn't need much of a dinner seeing that we didn't finish until 5pm. I had some pieces of parmigiano, digestives (this addictive cookie-cracker thing) and apple slices.
