During our visit to Spoleto, our hotel clerk recommended the Cantina de’ Corvi, a wonderful place to eat.
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We went for lunch and liked it so much, we returned for dinner. Can’t have too much of a good thing!
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Meet Ciro and Marianna – the owners of this new restaurant.
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Marianna is the chef, and quite a skilled one at that. Turns out they are from Naples, the native home of most of my ancestors. Marianna’s love of cooking recipes passed down from her grandmother, as well as Ciro’s appreciation of her home cooking, led them to open the restaurant in early 2015.
For lunch, we started with stuffed peppers and eggplant. Delicious.
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Then we each had pasta pomodoro. Why is it that fresh tomatoes at home never quite taste like these in Italy?
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We kidded a lot with Ciro, he asking us to correct his English and we asking the same of him of our Italian. Ciro, ricordi: “Is there something else you would like?”
Their menu boasts of food from the land and sea, so in addition to pasta, they have quite a selection of beef and seafood.
Our conversation turned to baccala, that awful looking salted fish I see at the market.
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I made a face and Len told Ciro that as kids, they would all feign illness when his grandmother announced baccala was for dinner.
Ciro said he had felt the same, and for years, his wife asked him to try her baccala. When he finally did, they put it on the menu. Ciro convinced Len to try it for dinner – no obligation if he didn’t like it. I was still skeptical.
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Well, as you might guess, it was delicious. Even I tasted it and agreed.
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My dinner was spaghetti con vongole, one of my favorite dishes in Italy.
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Both dishes, as is the case with great recipes from Napoli, include those incredible tomatoes.
For dessert, we shared a slice of ricotta and pear cake – light and not too sweet.
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We’ll definitely return to Spoleto, not only for its history and beauty, but also to spend more time with our new friends, Ciro and Marianna. If you go, please tell them Giuditta sent you. And by the way, I gave Don Matteo their card, so you might just bump into him as well!
Ciao,
Judy
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