fantastic Vegetarian, Italian Menu with Southern California Twists

The days I spent in Italy were always warm days, I can never remember a cold day.
Even when it rained the air was "washed" yet remained warm.
The only time I got to feel a cool breeze around Italy was from the deck of one of the yachts I was working on .
It rained the day I visited the Coliseum, but that didn't stop me enjoying the sheer power and grandeur of the place, it also cut down on the lines to get in.
The visit to the Vatican was quite different, there were lines queuing for everything;
as most of my Party ( the rest of the crew from one of the yachts) wanted to "do the regular tourist places", I trudged along, but really enjoyed it more when I was away from the ship & shopping in local markets around Rome, Portofino and Pisa; here one really saw and felt "the Nature" of the place.
Language is never a barrier, when you can just hold up some vegetables or fish, and hand over the money.
Italian Markets seemed to have less variety than the French in fresh fruit and vegetables, but more variety in grains, legumes and obviously, pasta.
I have never seen so many  fresh and dried pasta's in my life, than in those local markets; and although the names of the cheeses differ, some of the best, hard cheeses, are from Italy.
Italian varieties of fish and shellfish were similar to French but there were some strange ones, that I wasn't familiar with even with the different languages.
I was amazed to see they even had pasta shops and stalls that only sold own made pasta ( this was in the mid 70's before "artisan restaurants became all the rage").

The island of Sardinia, Porto Cervo ( Italy) was then (1978) poorly stocked with any variety of fresh vegetables; one time I had to  go shopping and I was protected by the armed, Aga Khan's guards.
(Sardinia in those days was a place where kidnapping's were common and, at that time, I was working for some very wealthy Kuwaitis)
They cleared out every shop I wanted to enter and when I did enter I was not allowed to talk to the shop keeper, just point to what I wanted and the guards did the negotiating, and I left, escorted back to the yacht. The supplies later would be shipped to the large yacht anchored off shore.
That afternoon we headed south to Bay of the Fox ( where they shot the James Bond movie with car under water) and we had a barbecue on the beach where the guest's  flew over on the yacht's 6 man helicopter!

I have been very lucky, working on/in PRIVATE yachts,  planes, villas, estates, and Palaces, world wide, long before any terrorist alerts, and well before paparazi were invented.
I had opportunities  that are, sadly not around today, so much for progress.
More to this and other tales will be related in my book.

I am  reminded of these great trips to warm and heady Italy, as I am featuring
 Italian inspired dishes on Monday's menu
 


Appetizers:
Eggplant rolls with basil pesto

Caponato ..cooked eggplant, celery, red onions with grape tomatoes , green olives and capers

Soups:
A wonderful deep vegetable broth ( made with roasted vegetables) with artichokes and fresh green beans 

Ribolata..tomatoes-Tuscan kale, white kidney beans ( cannellini), cabbage


Entrees
A baked eggplant Parmesan   (with a California twist)..the eggplants are baked not fried for the layers ( less oily), and as well as mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, the center is sour cream..so the whole thing is delightfully creamy.


Whole wheat gnocchi with the following:
Alla Norma..tomato, eggplant, basil sauce

Walnut Pesto...parsley, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, garlic olive oil, capers, and lots of baby spinach (again the California twist)

Sides:
Baked polenta with thyme and cheese ( baked at home with olive oil)

Steamed green beans with cannellini beans and toasted pine nuts

No desserts with this menu

Just my own sour dough bread with own grown sprouts  & green olives

baby spinach air drying

Fresh green beans and Italian Parsley

"Globe" Basil air drying

Brown onions, red onions, red  bell peppers, garlic

Eggplants..always buy hard ones, they are freshest;  & zucchini (always buy the darkest green, and hard that you can find)

Some enterprising holiday company should arrange just  local shopping trips, if you want to taste the real Country.; the only drawback is that you cannot bring it all home fresh.