Marina Mercato

Friday's are mercato days in Marina di Massa.  While the mercato also has clothing, shoes and other products one half is dedicated to fresh foods, (certo questo mercato Italiano.)  There is another mercato in Forte dei Marmi that I also love (this is on Wednesdays.)  You can see it here: Mercato di Forte dei Marmi  This day while it was still chilly, the beautiful sun was shining making our walk quite wonderful.

Fresh produce for sale

Mmm....cheese

Fresh seafood caught right off the shores

Baccalá, cod that is salted and dried, I am not a fan, but the large flat pieces are impressive

My favorite treat, we always get a few potato fritters to eat as we stroll

The mountains where Carrara marble is found

Buono Natale

After Christmas lunch you are certain every Italian household will be playing Tombola

Here we are another Christmas in Italy at my mother-in-laws home.  In Tuscany for Christmas there is food you can always count on having at the table.  By now I know we will always have to start numerous crostini followed by homemade ravioli and then troppo dolce (a lot of dessert.)  My mother in law doesn't really make desserts, (and she really doesn't need to be bothered as she had received about 4-5 panettone alone,) but she makes everything else which is always excellent!  Here is just a taste of all the flavors we celebrated this Christmas.  Happy Holidays!

For the crostini primi we had mushroom pate, olive pate, onions agrodolce just to name a few

This is baccala, basically dried, salted cod that can be cooked in numerous ways; my sister-in-laws favorite

Cabbage, cipolle agrodolce and biological chick-peas (Italian version of organic)

I absolutely loved these little guys!  Don't worry, a post dedicated to making these to follow...

Homemade ravioli filled with spinach, ortica and ricotta