The Yellow Pumpkin

Well, I'm quite happy to say that our trip to La Zucca Gialla (map) with Henry and Roz was a smashing success. It's a little restaurant off the Piazza Navona. After meeting up at Trajan's Column, near the Angelicum, we arrived at The Yellow Squash around 7:30pm, making us some of their first evening customers (don't try eating dinner at a restaurant in Rome before about 7:15 - you won't have much luck).

The restaurant was true to its name. While it had a fairly standard assortment of Italian dishes, it had various pumpkin ones scattered throughout, and the ones we had were very good. I had ravioli with pumpkin sauce (think of a thick, savory pumpkin soup), and Kevin, Roz, and I all had a dish of either pork or veal cutlets (can't remember) with pumpkin sauce served in a lacy "bowl" made out of parmesan cheese. Very reasonable prices; great food. Definitely recommend it.

And, for the record, despite various Roman news articles with blurbs about Halloween, pumpkins don't seem to be associated with October 31 in Rome - or at least not enough to bring crowds into La Zucca Gialla. The restaurant seemed to be doing good business - I'd just be surprised if they were any busier than any other Wednesday night in October.

It was great to see Henry and Roz and catch up with them a bit - we got to hear anecdotes from their wanderings 'round Italy. It's also just fun to see familiar faces this far away from home.

Kevin and I took it easy yesterday - no classes due to All Saints' Day. We slept in, went to Mass here in Santa Marinella, stopped at the discount grocery store (our main store) conveniently located next to the church, came home, napped, ate lunch, and generally just hung around the house. I made bread in the evening - it's wonderful to have an oven! I'm still getting used to the flours here, though. Flour in Italy comes in different grades of fineness - type "00" is used for pasta and is finer than the type "0" flour that's better for baking. I found this out the hard way last year when I made pancakes with "00" flour and they turned out comparatively flat and gummy. Well, the last time I tried to get flour, the store I was at was out of type "0" flour, so I grabbed a bag labelled gran duro, which said that it was good for bread . . . and I didn't read any farther than that. Turns out that it's good for "rustic" breads - it's an unbleached flour a little coarser than type "0." The bread I made yesterday turned out fine - it's just a yellow loaf and a little more dry than it might have been (could also be due to getting used to the baking times for this particular oven). Poor Kevin - I'll just have to practice. (grin)