A week in Amalfi coast and Naples

[heidih]

Oh my goodness - that oven is a work of art!

[shain]

Morning in Cetara.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snacking on a sfogliatelle.

This is the version with pastry cream filling. The pastry was good, but the filling too sugary.

 

Edited September 29, 2019 by shain (log)

[shain]

Lunch in the lovely town of Cava de' Tirreni.

Perfectly cooked pasta with clams and porcini mushrooms for me. Another pairing I wasn't aware of, and turns out to work well.

Paccheri with ragu bolognese.

We also had some white wine, which was a bit too acidic to me, but it did manage to get me more than light headed surprisingly quickly

Dessert was a strange combo of chocolate mousse cake and rum baba, with caramel sauce. As if I needed more booze.

 

 

Followed by a walk around in the quiet town.

 

 

 

[Shelby]

Gorgeous.

[heidih]

I spoke with  several people in late 50's early 60's last week about where to retire. You give  us grand inspiration.

Edited September 29, 2019 by heidih (log)

[shain]

A visit to Herculaneum.

Very impressive, but I won't attempt to summarize it with pictures.

Followed by a short visit to the nearby marina (have I made it obvious already that like marinas? ).

 

 

Dinner.

Caparese.

Fish balls with potatoes and smoked cheese, on the house. The fish balls I've been told where OK, but I didn't like the potatoes.

Trofie with shrimp, arugula, sun dried tomatoes.

Fritto.

 

[KennethT]

It looks like the shrimp were fried shell-on.... were you able to eat the shells?

[shain]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

It looks like the shrimp were fried shell-on.... were you able to eat the shells?

 

Most of it, I removed the back shell (which I did regardless in order to devein them), along with the legs and tails.

[Smithy]

Were the quince growing at the Herculaneum? If so, what was the connection? If not, where were they growing? 

[shain]

11 hours ago, Smithy said:

Were the quince growing at the Herculaneum? If so, what was the connection? If not, where were they growing? 

 

Yes, they were. It was a small orchard of quinces. I'm no expert on Roman city planning, and there was no signage, but I don't believe that their location was an orchard originally, perhaps it was a garden. The choice of tree makes sense, though. Romans did cultivate quince trees. 

[shain]

The last destination on our trip - the charming cacophony which is Naples.

 

 

 

After a long morning and a long drive, we found ourselves quite hungry.

Pasta in zucchini sauce and shrimps and pasta a-la puttanesca. Far from the best pasta we had, but I'll give them credit for being surprisingly cheap, and too large for us to finish (had to leave room for dessert!).

 

 

 

Walking around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sfogliatelle at Scaturchio. Very good! actually ended up being my favorite among all (four) we tried on the trip.

The rum baba was not my thing.

 

 

 

 

[HungryChris]

Beautifully done, great presentation, as always. Thanks, @shain!!

HC

[JoNorvelleWalker]

12 hours ago, shain said:

The last destination on our trip - the charming cacophony which is Naples.

 

So sick I got in Naples.  They don't wash the glassware.

 

[shain]

2 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

So sick I got in Naples.  They don't wash the glassware.

 

 

Most low-end places in the city served beverages in disposable cups. I guess it's a small improvement in this front, though not great for the environment... 

[heidih]

Wow the colors in Naples. Great photos. Reminds me of old areas in Mexico like Guanajuato city. 

[shain]

Naples knows how to be pretty when she wants to.

 

a

 

Pizza #1 - Di Matteo.

Flavorful dough. Very bright tomato sauce, even a bit too acidic, but tasty still. The mozzarella was also quite good.

Also had a frittatina - fried macaroni with cheese, capers and a center filling of meat. I sampled from the meatless outer crust, and it was quite good (not greasy, but it does taste like it's bad for you ). 

 

 

Freshly made cannoli for dessert, too sweet sadly.

 

Edited October 3, 2019 by shain (log)

[heidih]

My first Italian pizza was in Naples. Just a street type vendor - a square of dough and bit of tomato. Coming from the US the simplicity and no cheese was confusing but after walking and walking for hours it tasted like heaven and shifted my perspective.  Again - fabulously heart lifting images

[Kim Shook]

I'm sitting over here in my pizza desert (good pizza desert, that is - plenty of rubbish pizza) dying.  

 

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us.  I depend on eGullet folks to show me things that surprise and delight me and you are not failing!

[shain]

A market tour.

 

 

Pizza at Sorbillo. We had a Margratia, and a white pizza with arugula, tomatoes, mozzarella and prosciutto. I failed to take a picture of the latter, so here's one found online.

They were excellent. Tender crust, the sauce more cooked than Di Matteo's. Very smoky from the wood fired oven.

 

 

Sfogliatelle. Flaky and buttery, with the traditional filling of ricotta and candied orange.

Choux pastry with pastry cream. I'm not a fan of choux pastry, so no comment on it.

 

 

[heidih]

OMG the little anchovy or whatever- fried - squeeze of lemon - sublime 

[shain]

A tour of Naples underground and a visit to the local university's human anatomy museum. Both were incredibly interesting.

Followed by some more walk around the city.

 

 

 

 

Lunch.

Roasted pumpkin, grilled toast, beans, mint, olive oil. Very flavorful. One of the best pumpkins I had, delicious fruity olive oil.

Grilled sausage with wilted spinach, dressed with balsamic vinegar and parmesan.

Wine. Fig tart and caffè macchiato.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 6, 2019 by shain (log)

[shain]

Time to wrap up

 

 

A walk around Naples coast. We stumbled upon what wound up being a pizza making event/competition area. Sadly, it wasn't active this time of day  

There were pits as far as one could see, a stall for seemingly every pizzeria around Naples.

 

 

Having an early flight to catch, we headed back towards the hotel for dinner.

Pizzeria da Michele has a bit of tourist spot reputation, but I found it to be really good. Somewhat rustic in shape; the crust tender, flavorful and charred; the sauce and cheese both good.

 

 

 

Another sfogliatelle for dessert. This one with a filling of almond and hazelnut paste (rather than ricotta), flavored with candied orange.

 

 

Thanks for following through.

[Kim Shook]

Thank YOU!  I've been sharing these posts with Mr. Kim and you have whetted our appetites in more ways than one.  If there is any possible way, I think we may someday try to follow in your footsteps.  

[KennethT]

Yes, thank you very much for allowing us to come along!

[Anna N]

Thanks so much. I learn a great deal from your mini travel blogs.

Edited October 7, 2019 by Anna N
Verb tense (log)