Pizza and the Good Life

Hey, pizza lovers! Not that I haven’t perhaps dwelled enough on the famous bread-topped-with-stuff that people seem to enjoy almost worldwide, and talked enough maybe (well, I don’t think so, but am giving a “perhaps” to cloak my true intent. It’s what people do, but hey, I’m being honest about it) about the servers of said food here in the Upper Tiber Valley that I currently live in, cause I suppose some could say I have done the above. But, I’ve done it again, in another place, in an article on pizza I wrote for the Good Life Report. The article’s called Liberating Italian Pizza, and gives a splosh of pizza history (want to find out where the Margharita pizza came from? Now’s your chance), a splash of the interesting pizzas many pizzerias are now serving, and a splush of my favorite pizza (yes! What you’ve always wanted—to find out my current fav pie). What are you waiting for—go read the pizza article. And then go have a pizza.

Nestor’s Fridays: On Monday!

In the hopes of making your Monday’s tastier (and because I don’t want to get too far behind) here’s a look at our last visit into Nestor’s (one of the finest pizzerias in the land--and by land, I mean the whole gosh darn earth). At this visit, it was not only Nat and I but Mr. Shane (of the rabbit kidnapping and rabbit revenge), which means meat pizza! He had the aptly-named Crazy Boards (both apt in its combination, and cause he’s, well, crazy, and dances the boards), which had prosciutto, sausage, and cream:

He also had a salad (don’t faint), but it was pretty much all meat. Nat went old school and picked out one of our favorites from the first stop in to Nestor’s many years ago, the impossible-to-pronounce Rubasuocere. It has tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, béchamel sauce, porcini mushrooms, and walnuts, and is a lovely flavorful confusion:

I went a little simpler, with the Stracchino, a new favorite. It has (this first one I’ll be you expected) Stracchino cheese, mozzarella cheese, and roket (or radicchio):

The Stracchino cheese gets deliciously gooey, almost like a gourmet Velveeta, balanced out by the bittery roket. Yummy. And now get to work.

*See more Italian restaurants: Capponi, Nestor's,Nonna Gelsa, Le Capannine di Sommavilla, Calagrana, Trattoria Il Saraceno, L Enoteca Wine Club, Mastro Dante, Bar Fizz, Da Cesari, Calagrana Lunch, al Frantoio, La Balestra, Lo Strattoio, Mencuccio, Fiorintino

*See all Italian restaurants

Nestor’s Pizzeria Fridays: Hipstamatic

Now, I know I’ve put up a number of Nestor’s pizzeria pics and told a number of Nestor’s stories here on the Six Months blog, and I don’t want to overdo it (even though Nestor’s is worthy of each word of praise). But we were there recently, and, well, it was awesome. To make this post stand out from the rest, and to try to reduce Nestor’s overload, I took each picture with Nat’s iPhone using the “Hipstamatic” program (which lets you chose film, flash, and lenses from history). So, artsy pizza for everyone! I had the Perigina, a favorite from past visits to Italy and to Nestor’s, but one I hadn’t tried on for size yet this trip. It has asparagus strips, the traditional Nestor’s perfect crust, and (the key) an egg in the middle:

Nat had one of our regular top ten pizzas, the Venezina, which boasts onions on top of the traditional cheese and tempting tomato sauce (looking rather hip here with the Hipstamatic):

Nat’s mom and sister were with us, too, and while I didn’t get a Hipstamatic Nestor’s pic of mom’s pie, I did snap one of Christie’s sausage and onion item (which she seemed quite fond of, with sausage hearty and filling):

Another exquisite pizza evening at Nestor’s: this time in groovy coloring.


*See more Italian restaurants: Capponi, Nestor's,Nonna Gelsa, Le Capannine di Sommavilla, Calagrana, Trattoria Il Saraceno, L Enoteca Wine Club, Mastro Dante, Bar Fizz, Da Cesari, Calagrana Lunch, al Frantoio

*See all Italian restaurants

Three Days of Pizza: Day Two, Quattro Formaggi con Roket

For our second day of pizza I wanted to diverge a bit away from red sauce (represented with yesterday’s porcini pizza) and into a pure cheesy bliss. The below pie is from Nestor’s, taking their wonderful quattro formaggi  pizza and topping it with fresh (added after it’s taken out of the fire) roket, or arugula. The fresh greens (which deliver a bitter balance to the cheese) on top of the cheeses provide the best kind of culinary rollercoaster for your mouth:

Nestor’s Pizzeria Fridays: Quattro Formaggio and Radicchio, Veneziana Calzone

We had an exceptionally big day recently, hitting both the Arezzo Antique Market and the Citta di Castello Truffle Festival in one day (it was a big day!), and at the end of it we wanted to skip any lengthy dinner out, and certainly wanted to skip lengthy construction of a Cielo Chiaro Special, and decided to head to Nestor’s, instead. Nestor’s is always reliable (as you’ve probably picked up from past Nestor’s Pizzeria posts), and serves a very cold beer, making it the perfect topper to a big day. Before detailing particular pies though, I wanted to show off what makes all that pizza possible, the Nestor’s fire and oven. Sadly, I was taking the shot from across the room, and the first is serious, so the oven gets short shrift (but really, it’s that fire that makes all the difference):

Okay, on to the goods. We started with a Ensalata Aurora, which I should have pic’d up, cause it was bursting with greens, corn, toms, and fresh mozz. However, I ate it too fast. Sorry bout that. I also made another perhaps rapidly decided on turn: I had a calzone. And, I ordered one that is on the pizza menu, but not the short calzone menu, the Veneziana (which Nat had back here), cause I wanted to try a calzone, but was craving the delish onions on the Veneziana, as well as the parsley and other goodies. It was great (but I’m not sure adults every order calzones, as our friendly host did glance at me a bit askew):

Nat went for another classic, the Quattro formaggio with radicchio, where the oozing cheese is charmingly offset by the bitter red green:

Another amazing Nestor’s evening—my mouth is starting to water just thinking about it.

*All Nestor's Pizzeria

Nestor’s Pizzeria Fridays: Patate e Bianca, Ruboscuore

We hit Nestor’s Pizzeria and Bierreria last night (I know, I know, only two times in our first three weeks here—somewhat hard to imagine), and had some absolutely delicious pizzas. If you missed the first installment of Nestor’s Pizzeria Fridays, then go there now to learn a bit more about Nestor’s. If you don’t feel like clicking (cause you’re getting too hungry and don’t want to waste time), let just say that Nestor’s is the best pizza in the world, and one of the friendliest spots in Umbria for a meal. Last night, I had a new pizza for me, Patate e Bianca. Which means potato and white (as you could have, or did, guess), and which was a non-red-sauce pizza. It had big chunks of crisp potatoes, a couple pinches of fresh rosemary, and some freshly grated parmesan (as well as mozzarella underneath it all), with the reliably perfectly crisp Nestor’s crust:

Nat had one of our all-time favorite Nestor’s pies (and though I loved mine, I was awfully glad that she wanted to share), the Ruboscuore (by the way, I’m not 100% sure I’m spelling that right. Or even 50% sure. I need to write it down on our next trip). It’s a red sauce pizza, with giant chunks of wild mushrooms, béchamel sauce, mozz cheese, and walnuts. The mushroom taste on this pizza is so amazing and juicy:

Here’s to another night of the world’s best pizza (and, since we saved a bit, here’s to a lunch the next day of a slice of Nestor’s pizza topped with an egg—another favorite treat).

*All Nestor's Pizzeria

Nestor’s Pizzeria Fridays: 4 Formaggio & Radicchio

One of the reasons we originally fell in love with this particular area (there are many, many others, scenic and gastronomic and artistic and more) was due to a pizzeria we visited the last night of our original vacation here with Seattle pals Jeremy and Megan. It was and is called Pizzeria Nestor’s, or Nestor’s Pizzeria, and we sat outside (it was summer) and had what I believe is some of the finest, if not the finest, pizzas in the world. But the delicious pizzas weren’t the sole reason for loving Nestor’s so much: the family that owns it is also incredibly nice, friendly, and welcoming (even to Americans who stumble around the Italian language like they were afraid of it). Because of this combination, we’ve stopped into Nestor’s at least once, and sometimes twice, each time we’ve returned to the area. When moving here, having relatively close access to Nestor’s (if not living on its roof) was a main desirable—we wanted to be able to go at least once a week. We ended up 20 minutes away (or less, depending on who is driving and how badly they need to use the loo), which means we may not go every week, but plan on stopping in fairly regularly. And on Fridays, because that seems the right day, as Nestor’s is both pizzeria and birreria: a pizza and beer joint, which is a rarity here. I probably won’t post on the Fridays we visit, but will entitle all the Nestor’s posts the same, so you can follow our pizza adventures easily.

Our first stop there happened our first Friday here (the day after we arrived, or last Friday). I had, after much deliberation, a pizza I’d never tried before, the 4 Formaggio & Radicchio. And as I’d expected, it was delish, with cheese oozing all over the place--but not making the crust soggy--and lovingly bitter sparks of radicchio announcing themselves every other bite (and excuse the slightly blurry pic--I was shaking from excitement):

Nat had the Venezina, which was another new one for us, and also a masterpiece of choice ingredients (in her case, onion and parsley), crisp crust, and cheese. Knowing how to balance out the ingredients, so they each get to shine instead of amalgamating into one tasteless mess, is one reason real Italian pizza is so good:

Oh, I almost forgot (and I certainly don’t want to forget—there’s no need for getting any appetizers mad at me), we started with Bruschetta Verde, which again had that balance of taste and texture mentioned above: here it was salty pecorino, tart roket, toasted bread, and olive oil:

Salute Nestor’s!

Basics: We’re Moving to Italy and Taking the Dogs

After about 11 (A.J.) or 12 (Natalie) years of working hard at multiple jobs (which we did enjoy, by and large), Nat and I decided to move to Italy for an extended break, which we’re calling our pre-tirement, as we know we’ll have to work after this break. And this blog is about that pre-tirement (and we’ll talk more about the whole pre-tirement later, too), and about taking our two little 80 pound dogs with us to Italy, and about Italy and the Niccone Valley, which is where we’re staying, and a lot about Italian food and drink, which we love. But I thought the first post should just be about the basics. So, here they are.

Starting October 6th, we are staying at a house called Cielo Chiaro, which means “clear sky” and is owned by the people who run Amici Villas--they’re folks my wife and I have rented from every other trip we’ve had to Italy (5), a nice British couple that rent Italian villas and apartments owned by local Italians and themselves. So, they’ve been very helpful. And they have a dog, named Oscar, so know where the vets are, which is also important. The Niccone Valley is an area right on the border of Tuscany and Umbria, though maybe 1 or 2 miles over the mountains from houses/apts we’ve actually stayed at in the past (that area is called the Morra Valley—all these valleys due to it being a hilly and valley-y area). It’s probably 1 to 1-1/2 hours from Florence, depending on traffic, and maybe 30 minutes from Cortona. The closest little village is Lisciano Niccone, which we’re a mile or two from (our house is a bit rural).

The best pizza place in the world, Nestor’s Pizza, is about 20 or 30 minutes away, and you can read a bit about it on this blog (which is a blog by an English guy living right in the area we’ll be in—he even self-published a book of hikes in the area, a book we now own). I’ve also written more about the Morra valley and general area (on my booze-ier blog Spiked Punch), though we won’t be in San Leo Bastia (the village I mention), but a bit south.

As far as what we’ll be doing: well, spending a lot of time at Nestor’s. And the other various restaurants in the area. The market in Umbertide (mentioned in the Spiked Punch blog post I referenced above) is on Wednesdays, so we’ll be there for that every week (and will post about it here). The retro flea market is in Citta di Castello on the third Sunday of the month, so we’ll do that then (and post about it here). I suppose drinking Aperol, reading, and relaxing will fill in the time outside of those moments.

Also, the dogs will learn how to hunt truffles (in my mind) and boars (in theirs). And I’ll let you know how it goes. So, come back and see how our adventure progresses (and read some Italian poems, and get some Italian recipes, along the way).