Umbrian fare to remember

Another in a series of articles about the local food group Forking Delicious. This time, the women journey to Italy for a cooking lesson - and a wedding.

UMBRIA, Italy - The trouble started at the airport in Rome, where the rental agency was out of cars with automatic transmissions.

As luck would have it, Renee Whyte, who is normally fearful about driving from her home in Hatboro, Pa., into Center City, turned out to be the only one in the entourage of seven who could drive a stick shift. So she found herself behind the wheel for a four-hour trek through the Italian countryside.

If the views on the way from Rome to the Umbria region were lovely, Renee was too tense to notice. In the final hour of the grueling journey, she and her fellow travelers were literally and figuratively in the dark - lost after sunset in mountainous terrain. And the last three miles were all uphill - on a precariously narrow, winding gravel road populated with porcupine and wild boar.

She arrived breathless, holding one hand over her heart for dramatic effect.

"I honestly never thought we'd make it," she said.

So began the long-awaited Italian adventure of Forking Delicious, the seven female foodies from Philadelphia and South Jersey who met online in 2005 and formed a cooking club.

From the start, the women - all in their 30s and 40s, some married, some not; some with culinary training, some self-taught - forged an intense bond.

Their passion for cookery brought them together monthly in one another's home to share a meal built around a particular theme. Their friendships intensified, and last year, Donna Russell had a great idea:

"Why don't we all go to Italy together!" she recalls saying to Min Kim, Renee Whyte, Lesu Ali, Kathy Simon and Dana Greene. (Forking Delicious has seven members in all, but the timing was bad for Tinamarie Fairfax, who had just closed on a new home.)

"We could start saving our money now," Donna said, "And then we could go and cook together for a whole week." So pragmatic, the idea of saving first and then spending. That's Donna.

Those words seemed to travel directly from her mouth to the other women's imaginations, and in short order they had rented a villa on a hilltop in Umbria, between Umbertide and the major city, Perugia. The villa came with both a pool and a pool boy.

It all sounded so dreamy that Donna decided to hold her long-awaited (14 years) wedding to Jim Kane there.

Then Min invited her parents; Lesu invited an old friend from the Navy; and Renee signed up her sister.

Soon, instead of the core six, 13 people were signed up to stay in the villa, with nearly a dozen other Friends of Forking Delicious in nearby houses.

They embarked Sept. 15 for a week of sightseeing, shopping, and one of the most difficult challenges a woman can face: sharing a kitchen.

Ah, Italy - land of the leisurely lunch and the evening promenade. A paradise where all the men are handsome and all the women wear stilettos, where the hills are alive with olives and figs and the espresso is never served in Styrofoam.

The allure of the hill towns is as old as an Etruscan tomb, with a romantic story line to boot: The protagonists escape to the Italian (or French) countryside, encounter culture shock, and discover their true callings/deepest desires. Think Under the Tuscan Sun, Enchanted April, A Year in Provence.

That, in part, is what the women of Forking Delicious were thinking. In conversations during the months before the trip, they said they envisioned spending time together talking and cooking up a storm.

But reality would intrude on their dreams.

Initially, the women thought they'd cater Donna's hilltop wedding themselves. When that proved too much, the three bakers in the group said that, at the very least, they'd make the cake. But they didn't account for the hilltop's altitude, which became evident early in the week when Donna made biscuits that failed to rise.

Then there was the time problem: Most of the group had never been to Italy and wanted time for sightseeing in the medieval cities of Orvieto, Cortona and Perugia. And there were the guests to attend to.

The villa was fabulous and the swimming pool was the glamorous infinity style. The pool "boy," however, turned out to be an elderly man.

With 13 people all cooking and eating at different times, the gourmet kitchen quickly became a mess. Empty bottles piled up, and flies were drawn to the platters of uncovered leftovers on the countertops. The vision of cooking together in the kitchen was not panning out.

Then, the same car-rental agency that had promised to reserve an automatic struck again: Renee's rental conked out on the wedding day - while she was shopping for cake ingredients. In the end, Dana barely salvaged a fruit tart to serve as the wedding cake.

The wedding had to be a ceremonial blessing because no one was able to navigate the labyrinth of required Italian paperwork.

And at the feast that followed, the chef made certain to roast one chicken for a guest with dietary restrictions. But that was not relayed to the waiters - so the one person who could eat only chicken got none.

But nothing marred the day for the happy couple, Donna and Jim. Their graciousness prevailed and was contagious: "Nothing bothered me," Donna said later. "I was just so happy and so grateful that everyone could be there."

And the group did come together for a cooking lesson with Elizabeth Wholey, who had rented the club the villas and who catered Donna's wedding, along with her business partner, Melchiorre Chessa.

Elizabeth, a graphic designer by trade, moved to Italy in 1990 for what she thought would be a year off. Now 62, she has no intention of leaving Umbria, where she manages rental properties and co-owns the catering service and cooking school called Amore Sapore.

Melchiorre, 56, is a former shepherd from Sardinia who delights in making his own honey, wine, olive oil, cheeses and cured meats.

Though they were raised continents apart, Elizabeth and Melchiorre share the classic Italian belief that happiness is a good meal shared.

They each exude the fearless optimism of scrappy survivors, and that made them ideal role models for the women of Forking Delicious, who dream of turning their part-time passions into consuming careers.

Elizabeth arrived at 3 p.m. on a Tuesday for the group's daylong cooking lesson, and handed out bib aprons: "Put these on," she told the women. "We're going to get messy."

Everybody dug in - peeling potatoes, cracking eggs, and filleting sardines, which, breaded and fried in oil, are an Umbrian specialty.

They worked until 10 p.m., eating (and drinking Prosecco) as they cooked: a frittura (the Italian equivalent of tempura) of zucchini blossoms and carrots; thick slices of zucchini hollowed out and filled with shrimp, and delicate rounds of mozzarella stuffed with fresh figs.

They made ravioli from scratch, with a lighter-than-air filling of mashed potatoes, mozzarella and pecorino cheese, and a rich tomato sauce they universally declared "the best ever."

Melchiorre roasted a duck seasoned with rosemary and fennel, while Lesu and Renee took on the somewhat icky task of filling sausage casings with properly seasoned pork.

When night came, Melchiorre sang an old Sardinian love song and circled the room with his hands behind his back in a classic Italian folk dance.

Renee raised her cup of limoncella:

"For a time it seemed as if this moment might not happen," Renee toasted. "Everyone seemed concerned with their own Italian fantasies and vacation expectations. But none of us would be at this place, in this way, without each other."

Makes 6 to 8 servings

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8 medium potatoes, peeled

2 to 3 quarts boiling water

Coarse salt

About 6 cups all-purpose flour (7 ounces per pound of potatoes), as needed

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Sauce, as desired (tomato, pesto or sage butter)

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1. Peel potatoes and cook in boiling, salted water until they can be pierced easily with a fork. Drain in a colander and quickly press them through a sieve or mash smooth.

2. Turn the hot potatoes onto a flat wooden surface and begin adding flour, mixing and kneading by hand. Use as little flour as possible and work quickly; if the potatoes cool, you will need more flour.

3. When well mixed, divide the potato dough in sections and roll by hand into several long ropes about 1/2 inch in diameter. With a sharp knife, slice the ropes into 3/4-inch pieces and sprinkle lightly with flour.

4. Bring a large pot of water with 1 tablespoon coarse salt to a boil. In batches, half at a time, cook the gnocchi until they are cooked tender and float to the surface. Stir gently with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking.

5. With a slotted spoon, lift, drain and transfer gnocchi, to warm platter smeared with sauce. Spoon more sauce over the gnocchi, sprinkle with grated cheese and serve.

Per serving (based on 8 without sauce):

570 calories, 18 grams protein, 116 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams sugar, 3 grams fat, 5 milligrams cholesterol, 70 milligrams sodium, 8 grams dietary fiber.

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Makes 6 to 8 servingsEndTextStartText

1/4 cup good quality olive oil

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 yellow onion, chopped

4 large carrots, shredded

1 bunch (a handful) Italian flat-leaf parsley, minced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/4 teaspoon pepperoncino (hot pepper flakes) optional

2 pounds ripe cherry or grape tomatoes

1 tablespoon coarse salt

1 quart tomato puree (preferably Pomi brand passata di pomodori)

1 cup water

1 cup white wine

1 cup grated Pecorino

Romano cheese

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1. In a large, heavy skillet (3 to 4 inches deep), heat the oil medium hot. Saute the celery, onion, parsley, garlic and carrot for two minutes.

2. Rinse and de-stem the tomatoes, place them on top of the vegetables in the pan. Add the salt. Cover, reduce the heat and let steam for 30 minutes .

3. Stir in the tomato puree. Cover and cook 15 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking. Add the water and wine. Cover and cook 15 minutes more or to desired thickness.

4. Uncover for the last few minutes, if necessary, to let some liquid evaporate. Set aside, covered, to keep warm until ready to serve. Serve with cooked pasta or as desired.

Per serving (based on 8):

158 calories, 4 grams protein, 21 grams carbohydrates, 12 grams sugar, 8 grams fat, 1 milligram cholesterol, 1,279 milligrams sodium, 5 grams dietary fiber.

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Makes about 16 servings

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Named for the 15th century painter Giovanni Bellini, this drink was created in Venice in 1948 by Giuseppi Cipriani of Harry's Bar, a haunt of Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles.

The original was made with fresh white peaches, pureed with a touch of raspberry or cherry juice to lend a pink glow. In winter, peach schnapps may replace peaches. Mix one part peach schnapps to three parts Prosecco.

The women of Forking Delicious are fans of this variation:

6 fresh ripe peaches, sliced and soaked for 24 hours in vodka to cover (1 to 2 cups)

1 quart (4 cups) pink grapefruit juice

1 bottle chilled Prosecco, Italian sparkling wine

1. Soak the peaches in vodka in the bottom of a large glass pitcher.

2. After 24 hours add the grapefruit juice. Chill.

3. When ready to serve, add the Prosecco. Serve.EndText