The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pans Visits Italia

Last night was a night that I’d been looking forward to for a long time: another meeting of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pans! It was decided last time we met that the next meeting would be at my mom’s house, and the theme? None other than Italy!

Since I have about a billion pictures (big surprise, right?) I’ll keep the reading to a minimum and allow you to just look and drool… it was an amazing night full of laughter and liquor, friends and food, and I absolutely can’t wait for the next one!

I arrived at my mom’s early to, as always, a beautifully set table

While my 5 quart pot of bolognese sauce heated on the stove, I made a batch of creamy parmesan polenta to go with it.

My mom made us bellinis with prosecco and fresh peach puree as the other women started to arrive.

They were delicious! We had some olives and local mozzarella to munch on as everyone’s food heated up.

It was such fun to stand around and chat food with a bunch of people who love it as much as I do!

Emily arrived with the makings of limoncello sidecars…quite possibly the most delicious and potent drink I’ve ever had!

She also made little potato hors d’oeuvres full of marscapone cheese and a tapenade of olives, anchovies, garlic, and something else… they were delicious!

Amy arrived with her homemade orichiette, as well as enough dough and supplies to teach us all how to make them! It’s such a cool process! She’ll be posting instructions and a video soon on her blog, WorldPlates.

Her final product was a remarkable dish of orichiette with broccoli rabe, garlic, and fresh sardines

Liz brought a lovely caesar salad

Tina brought a remarkable ricotta bread, and these zucchini stuffed with prosciutto, salami, parmesan, garlic, and other lovely Italian yumminess. Apparently, she has a tool that can just core the entire zucchini whole!

Eo was there too, and she brought this wonderful chicken marsala with pancetta, mushrooms, and a sauce I could’ve drank with a spoon.

My bolognese, which happened to cook for about 6 hours on Wednesday, and another hour yesterday:

My mom also had a wild green salad with my grandma’s classic salad dressing on it.

The whole table with all the eats:

My plate (and I may have had seconds of a couple things)

Dessert was a huge pan of tiramisu that my mom made, which she claimed had no redeeming health qualities. We soon determined that the dark chocolate and dairy were definitely redeeming qualities! It. Was. AMAZING!

Why so good? Well, one reason was that the ladyfingers were soaked with a mixture of coffee and this stuff:

Patrón Café, the best after-dinner liquor ever. It’s coffee tequila… yeah. That’s right.

Amy also brought some of her homemade limoncello, which I mixed with some Pellegrino. Again, amazing.

We stayed way too late, ate too much, and drank too much… and it was wonderful! I’m so honored and happy to be part of this amazing group of women. Thank you all again for including me!

Happy Friday!

Technorati Tags: gourmet, Italian, supper club, traveling pans