I was really looking forward to our lunch in Liguria, because that is the region of Pesto and I loooove anything with pesto. It was in a small trattoria where we first had a demonstration on all the dishes we were having for lunch and then we had a fantastic meal.



There was a large appetizer that consisted of different ''quiches'', which is the best way to describe them. It is a type of crust made of water, olive oil, flour 00, and salt and then let to rest, rolled and filled. There were four different kinds of fillings: eggplant, zucchini, onions, and rice with saffron. All the vegetables were first sauteed with herbs, olive oil, salt and, pepper.

Together with it, we were served some regional prosciutto, fried bread dough (my childhood favorite!), and something like a blini or small pancake with lots of pesto. I enjoyed watching the lady prepare the pesto in a hige pestle and mortar, because at home I usually make it with an immersion blender....





This is Genovese style baked ''cima'', which is a slice of veal in a shape of a pocket that is filled with various herbs, eggs, parmigiano reggiano, and pine nuts. It is stuffed like this, then sewed, baked, sliced thin, and served cold.



Another interesting dish we had were this little ravioli in a tomato and meat sauce, which were filled with Borage or starflower - the plant is hairy all over and leaves were used for this particular dish as a filling. Very unusual, but good.




I really enjoyed this red wine that was served and it was probably one of my favorite reds - Tolceto, Ciliegiolo and Sangiovese from 2008. Just so you know, we had SO many different wines so far that there's a big confusion in my head, but I still picked my favorites.



And of course we had a dessert which consisted of lemon sorbet, very dry chocolate cake, and my absolute favorite - ''Torta di miele'' which was a fantastic homestyle apple cake.



At the very end we had a tasting of different liquors (staring from left) - grappa, Erba Luiga (lemon verbena liquor, definitely my favorite), Limoncino as they call it there and claim they were the first ones who invented it, and famous amaretto.



Next time.....Tuscany! :)