Alfresco Lunch

     I've invited a few women over for lunch on Thursday -- a combination of British, American and Australian women, all smart and interesting, all expats who live around here. 

    That's a post in itself, or even a book, how they all have made their lives around this lake, but they might not like it and I wanted to tell you about the food anyway. (Sorry. I know.)   

     It is just so easy to do an alfresco lunch like that here.    

     It's the food, stupid. 

     It's all so fresh -- and tasty, and ripe. Cannot go wrong.

     That single, indisputable fact may be why Italy has to ultimately be home. Because food is just so important.

     What will I serve at my ladies lunch? Nothing that fancy. Nothing that hard. Yummy, nevertheless.  

     I may pick up some thinly sliced prosciutto crudo and serve it with a perfectly ripe melon and some juicy little bite-sized figs.

     Or a big tomato or two (at their prime, natch) with a  big old hunk of mozzarella di bufala drizzled with olive oil and basil.

     I could do bresaola, a thinly sliced cold cut, with rucola and fresh parmesan. 

    For a vegetable, I could pick up some french beans, thin and curly, in season of course, perfect not too cooked with just some olive oil and lemon. 

     A nice big salad with rucola, fresh parmesan and chick peas?  

     A few mussels, maybe?  

     A long piece of pizza bianca to go with it all -- freshly baked plain pizza with bits of salt on it from the bakery down the street. 

     A mouth-watering watermelon for dessert? A medley of berries with lemon and sugar?  

    Or some homemade fruit gelato? Melon? Kiwi? Lemon?

    Not sure. Will decide when I go to the grocery store Thursday morning.

    Mmmm.