Recco & the Ligurian Mountains
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
The night we arrived in Recco, which perhaps has less charm than any other city along the Riviera, we ate a local specialty, focaccia con formaggio; then a course of fried zucchini, mushrooms and eggplant; then stuffed vegetables; flat pasta circles with marjoram and pine nuts; and pansotti alla noci (cheese and chard stuffed pasta with walnut sauce).
The next morning we set out for a tour of the mountains.
It is autumn, and tree leaves were colorful in green, red and gold.
The forest floor was covered with fallen leaves.
Varese Ligure is a small, medieval city in the mountains. Today was the once–a–week market day. This is a vendor of shoes.
The forest has a good number of hunters stalking their game—prized porcini mushrooms—which grow under the fallen leaves. Lunch in the medieval city of Varese Ligure was the daily special: porcini in four courses—raw as a salad; fried; roasted; and stewed with potatoes and end–of–season tomatoes.
Back in beautiful Recco our dinner consisted of grilled salt cod with pancetta; another foccacia col formaggio; taglierini with sauce of capers and hen; and, of course, pansotti alla salsa di noci.
Liguria is a mountainous region, and away from the coast, the roads are narrow and have little traffic.
Next—Albenga, a city on the coast towards the French border, for lunch.
