An Italian Thanksgiving

Seth and I had been waiting for a couple weeks to see how Italians would pull-off Thanksgiving at I Tatti. The villa tries to observe both American and Italian holidays, so every year they host a big Thanksgiving lunch/dinner. We were fed alongside 61 other academics, their families, and the staff, with the guest of honor being Drew Faust, the president of Harvard.

The table settings
Stefano showing off the second turkey. There were two, for
a total of about 34kg (or 75lbs)!

It started off with zuppa di zucca (squash soup) followed by a fairly typical Thanksgiving dinner plate: turkey, chestnuts, mashed squash, cranberries FedExed from Cambridge, MA, and spinach (no mashed potatoes and gravy or stuffing--Atkins approved). The pink thing at 5 o'clock might be Zampone, a very delicious sausage made with pig's trotter/paw typically eaten at New Year's Day.

Then came the Italian flare. For the first time at an I Tatti Thanksgiving they passed around cinghiali (wild boar). Ironically, I had half-joked that they would be serving this in place of turkey, and I was delighted that they should happen to have this as an additional dish--I had been really keen to try it since we first arrived in Florence. It was almost indistinguishable from beef: dark, lean, tender, and very, very good. Those yellow triangles circling the plate are fried polenta.Lino, the director of I Tatti, giving his toast. President Faust is to the left, under the Virgin Mary.

Dessert consisted of apple cobbler with a scoop of vanilla gelato followed by Tuscan cantucci e vinsanto -- basically biscotti dipped in sweet, potent wine made at the villa. I always get so nervous at these I Tatti events--you never know who you meet and who you will have to make awkward conversation with (this is the hard part for me, though the bountiful red wine helps). At least everyone is really nice and I always end up having a good time.

The walk home provided one last treat--they finally lit up the lights near our apartment! We are going to enjoy taking walks downtown to see even more :o)

Through the lights you can see the carpenter (falegname) next door, peeking out at us over the "falegname" sign. Since reading Pinocchio I always get a little excited watching them work.

Though we got out of having to cook a single thing, we also don't have any leftovers to show for it. To remedy this, we are doing Thanksgiving dinner all over again for just the two of us--I'm roasting a tiny chicken tonight (and I do mean tiny--it's only a 2.5 pounder!) with some stuffing, winter squash with walnuts, gravy, rolls, and cherry preserves instead of cranberries. With the size of our oven being rather restrictive, last night I made up an apple cobbler and roasted, for the first time, a batch of chestnuts (a local favorite).

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Roasted chestnuts for tonight