I’ve had the privilege of doing a bit of travelling in my day – the two hemispheres and a few continents. I definitely have a list of my favorite places and near the top is Italy.
I grew up always knowing that my heritage on my mom’s side was purely Italian, via New Zealand. So whenever I find myself in Italy, I always wonder about the generations of my family – who they were, what they were like and where did they live.
On my most recent trip, I visited Rome. I have to say that the first couple of hours in that city had me wondering if I made the right choice. I can distinctly remember sitting in the back of the taxi, looking at the city, the crowds of people, the crazy drivers – thinking ‘oh no – this isn’t going to be fun’.
After getting off the plane from Prague and onto the train into the city we encountered many interesting situations – a man having a seizure on the train platform, a taxi driver that nearly ran 2 red lights and nearly missed rear-ending the car in front of us several times not to mention several poor pedestrians that almost met their end. When we finally got to the office to collect the keys to our little apartment we decided to walk to find it, after all it was only a 10 minute walk the hotelier said. Big mistake.
We were staying in a 16th century palace that was along the old Papal route from the Vatican into the city Via del Governo Vecchio which was just a few streets over from the Piazza Navona – famous for its Bernini fountain. The streets or shall I say alleys were a confusing labyrinth with no system or grid layout –gorgeous but not fun when it feels like you are stuck in a maze. Eventually, we found it after pulling our very large, very loud, very American roller bags over the centuries old cobble stones. I like to blend into the places I visit and let’s just say we stuck out – embarrassingly so.
After all of that drama, one look at the famous Trevi fountain, the Roman Forum and the ancient Coliseum the next day I was hooked. In addition to the ancient wonders, one of my favorite things that I did in Rome, and really anywhere I travel, was check out their grocery stores. I love to see what the locals have access to, what is in their baking supply isle, how they live.
What makes this very simple recipe so special is that grissini, Italian breadsticks originating in Turin, are served in the little café’s in Italy as table bread. When I found them in the market recently, it reminded me of all of my Roman adventures. So I bought some prosciutto and olives and had myself a little trip down memory lane.
Beautiful sea salt grissini.
Glorious salty, hammy prosciutto.
I served mine with olives. I served them to myself.
I only ate two. Promise.
The whole gang. Enjoy!
much love,
jess
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Prosciutto Wrapped Grissini
20 grissini
10 slices of prosciutto, sliced in half long ways
Slice the prosciutto in half on the long side to create a long strip. Place the end of a grissini on the end of the prosciutto and roll it up. Complete the remainder in the following manner.
Place on a serving dish with your favorite additions such as olives or cheese and serve immediately.
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