Lunch on Lake Como

I had some fantastic adventures in Italy in April. That weeks feel a bit like a distant dream that I am now remembering in bits and pieces as I pour through photos. This meal was definitely a dream.

My friend Davide has a sister who lives on Lake Como with her husband and daughter. Giovanna is a beautiful, generous woman and her family opened their home to me for one of my final days in the country.

We started with red wine and large white platters piled high with a salad of mozzarella, tomato and arugula, fresh meats and cured salamis, a vegetable quiche and bread.

After we massacred those plates, Giovanna served our main course of lasagna. Now, this wasn’t American lasagna. In northern Italy, lasagna is made simply, with sheets of pasta, a ragu (in this case, beef), a little tomato paste and some fresh cheese. They don’t hide the pasta in mounds of tomato sauce. (Davide had made me his special lasagna when he was living in the States, but I had to tease him as his sister’s was a touch better. I wonder if it had something to do with actually eating it in Italy.)

Our next course was cheese.

Enough said there.

Dessert was a lovely strudel served with ice cream, whip cream and a sweet, sparkling moscato. This photo didn’t turn out so well. You’ll have to pardon me. The wine was flowing, as emphasized in said photo.

After lunch, my hosts walked me to the top of the house, out onto a roof deck, to show me their beautiful garden. I couldn’t take my eyes off the stunning lavender bushes, bushes I couldn’t see in New England until now. Oh, and they wanted to share their view as well.

The photos of their specific view didn’t turn out so well. But it looked something like this. You should have been there to hear me muttering, “Tough life.” Seriously, it was beautiful and they were beautiful and I can only hope to return with the husband very soon.