Antonelli San Marco Archives

In Umbria, the green heart of Italy, my husband Matt and I took a cooking class with Wendy Aulsebrook at the Antonelli San Marco winery. We learned how to hand-roll fresh pasta dough, flip a frittata without making a mess, and how easy it is to roast a delicious chicken. We brought Wendy’s cookbook of Umbrian recipes and techniques home with us.

Italians eat frittate all day long, warm when freshly cooked, then at room temperature. Since we’ve returned from Umbria, I make frittate weekly, using any leftover vegetables and herbs I have on hand. It’s an easy dinner when nothing else is thawed, and a treat for breakfast. Every time I put my plastic cutting board on the frittata pan, flip it over, and slide the frittata cleanly back in the pan, I think of Wendy, our cooking class, and Umbria.

A few weeks ago, I looked through Wendy’s cookbook for a dessert recipe. Crostata di Filomena, (Filomena’s Jam Tart) looked not-terribly-difficult. After mixing flour, eggs, olive oil, vanilla, baking powder, lemon zest, and sugar by hand to make dough, I kneaded the mess until it became a mass. I rolled it on my pastry board for what felt like a good workout, and then stretched the dough in my tart pan. I spooned organic blueberry jam from Costco atop the crust. Matt helped me roll out and cut the decoration strips for the top. Thirty minutes later, I took the tart out of the oven and tried a tiny slice to make sure we could serve it to our company.

Filomena’s Jam Tart was half-eaten by the time I thought to take a picture of it. It was crisp, flavorful, all natural, and not too sweet. The leftovers did not last long. If we had not taken Wendy’s class, I might have seen a recipe like this and thought it was too much effort. Who knew there was a right way to roll dough? Well, probably many people. But I was not one of them until we traveled to Umbria and took a cooking class.

I wear my Antonelli souvenir apron when I cook, but the memento that means more to me is my old towel that Wendy taught us to hang from our apron strings, or the emails I still exchange with her. I dry my hands on the towel and think of the sun setting over the vineyards. My favorite keepsakes are things I have learned because I’ve traveled, the imprint my journeys have made on my personality, and the friends I’ve made along the way.

Wendy’s Onion frittata recipe:

2 small white onions
6 eggs, preferably organic free-range
2 Tablespoons (40 g) freshly grated Parmesan cheese. (Please do not use the green can.)
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon (20 ml) Extra Virgin Olive Oil

(Can substitute onions for vegetables such as: tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, potatoes, asparagus, peas, artichokes)

Prepare ingredients:
Peel onions, slice in half lengthwise and then slice finely.
Break eggs into a medium-sized bowl and beat with a fork for 1 minute.
Add parmesan, salt and pepper; beat.

Cook frittata:
Heat olive oil in a 9” or 24 cm pan.
Fry the onions over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon. Then add enough water just to cover the base of the pan. This ensures the onions are well cooked and prevents them from burning.
Continue to sauté until the onions are soft and golden, about 5-10 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and add the beaten eggs.
Return pan to heat and cook over a medium heat stirring gently with a wooden spoon for 5-6 minutes, or until set. (I use a small spatula.)
Loosen the frittata from pan by running a spatula around its edge.

Remove pan from heat, place a large flat plate or flat lid over pan, and hold the two together firmly and turn over in one swift movement.

Return pan to heat; slide frittata into pan so that the cooked side remains uppermost. Cook for a further 5 minutes.

To serve: Transfer the frittata onto a serving plate and serve either hot or at room temperature.

Frittata with aromatic herbs: substitute the onion with 1 clove or garlic, peeled and finely sliced, and 1 sprig each of the following herbs: basil, parsley, thyme, and marjoram. Wash, dry, and finely chop the leaves of the herbs. Add garlic and herbs to the beaten eggs.
Cook according to recipe above.

Buon appetito!

If you drive two hours northwest from Rome you’ll find rolling hills striped with grapevines, delicious local cuisine, medieval hilltop towns, Renaissance art, and no tourists in the off-season. You’re not in Tuscany, but it’s southern neighbor, Umbria, Italy’s green heart.

Landlocked in the center of Italy, Umbria is a region of scattered jewels rather than one giant gemstone. The region’s capital, Perugia, has a rich artistic and cultural heritage. Assisi is the burial place of St. Francis and a pilgrimage town. In March, my husband Matt and I went to the countryside near Montefalco to relax, drink wine, cook Umbrian food, and make chocolate.

Travelers, especially Americans, overlook this idyllic Italy. Indeed, after the 2016 earthquakes that struck Amatrice (a two-hour drive from Montefalco) and Norcia (a one-hour drive), even Italian tourists avoided the area. Almost all of Italy is a seismic risk at some level. Before leaving, we registered with the State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, just in case.

We rented a house for a week at Casale Satriano in the vineyards of the Antonelli San Marco winery. Views of grapevines, olive groves, and rolling hills greeted us at every turn. Distant hilltop towns defined by their towers surrounded us. Only birdsong and the occasional tractor broke the silence. A resident cat adopted us and brushed up against my leg each evening when the sun cast a golden glow over the valley at sunset.

Montefalco was an easy five-minute drive. We parked outside the city walls and walked up to the charming piazza fronted by restaurants and shops that offered olive oil and wine tastings. At Oro Rosso, we shared a local lasagna to start followed by turkey for Matt, and pigeon with guinea fowl for me, all homemade, all fresh local ingredients. The wine, of course, was excellent, and all were reasonably priced.

Corks threaded on strings hung from the doorway to La Scimmia, the local bar a quarter-mile walk up from our apartment. Wine for sale lined one wall, snacks on another. One gentleman sliced cheese and meat for sandwiches and made coffees. He insisted on sampling us a tasty cheese platter to try with our espressos. The wine by the glass was excellent and I thought I mistranslated the price we paid for it all. No, it really was that inexpensive.

Antonelli San Marco, Cucina in Cantina, Montefalco, Umbria

Australian Wendy Aulsebrook runs Antonelli San Marco’s Cucina in Cantina program. We met Wendy and her associate Leonella our first evening, having reserved a wine dinner. Luckily we were the only guests this time of year. Over salumi made from the winery’s free-range pigs, then homemade farro pasta from local organic wheat, Wendy recommended restaurants and wine bars in neighboring villages to try.

Once nearly extinct, winemakers in Montefalco revived the indigenous Sagrantino grape in the 1970s. By 1992, Sagrantino di Montefalco wine had acquired the highest government quality ranking of DOCG. The dark, full-bodied red is made with 100% Sagrantino grapes and ages well. Area producers also make white wines from the local grapes Grechetto and Trebbiano Spoletino, and blend Sagrantino with Sangiovese to make Montefalco Rosso.

The next day we lunched at Wendy-recommended Osteria Antiche Sere in Bevagna, a beautiful medieval riverside town. After a walk through Bevagna, we drove to Spello, an ancient walled village with views over the plain. We ended up at Drinking Wine, a wine bar Wendy liked. In the middle of the day, off-season, we had it to ourselves.

L’Alchimista in Montefalco became our favorite restaurant. Too cold to eat dinner on the piazza, we ate indoors, which quickly packed with locals. Not only were we the only Americans, we were the only tourists. Fresh butter and wild sage ravioli was our highlight, although Matt loved his hand-chopped hamburger. We returned for lunch and ordered the ravioli again, it was that good.

We were given a souvenir apron with our cooking class and I use it often. It has long ties that Wendy taught us to cinch in the front to tuck a towel into so you can always dry your hands. We learned how to make an onion frittata, (without burning the onions) and fresh pasta. Rosemary focaccia’s dents are from pressing it out with fingertips. The best roasted chicken I’ve had, zucchini sauce for the pasta, red wine cookies, panna cotta, and potatoes with vegetables rounded out our meal. Paired with fantastic Antonelli wines, of course!

In Spoleto, an ancient hill town known for its Romanesque architecture and arts festival, we encountered tourists for the first time. Spoleto is a larger city with historic sights galore. We were on a mission to find a scolapasta, a pasta colander basket Wendy and Leonella had used. We trudged up steep narrow lanes amid dozens of small souvenir shops, none of which had a scolapasta. We found one instead in a tiny store outside Montefalco’s city walls.

We received another apron at the chocolate-making class we took at the Perugina factory’s Chocolate School near Perugia. For three hours we made chocolate truffles and bars (and a huge mess) at our stations in the kitchen. The chef spoke Italian but we understood enough to leave with 36 truffles each and two kilos of chocolate bars. Afterwards, we toured the factory and stocked up on my favorite Baci chocolate kisses at their shop.

The Paolo Bea family has roots in Montefalco that date back to the 1500s. Today, under Giampiero Bea’s direction, they make highly-esteemed natural wines “by observing and listening to nature.” They use only indigenous yeasts; they don’t use any chemicals or additives, and don’t accelerate the winemaking process. Their respect for nature extends to the cantina— Giampiero designed their beautiful new winery to let air circulate through the building. As a small producer reliant on the weather, their production is limited—each bottle is numbered. But their wines are worth seeking out, much like Umbria.

Tag: Antonelli San Marco

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