Slow again

Mileto, Calabria, May 28, 2010 —

WE DECIDE WHERE TO spend the night, on these long drives, by deciding where to eat, and we decide where to eat, in Italy, by consulting Osterie d'Italia, the Slow Food guide to restaurants specializing in regional, relatively simple, authetic cuisine. So tonight we got off the autostrada, which is being rebuilt and thus restricted to a single lane of traffic, at Mileta, driving several miles through very beautifully farmed rolling countryside to a curious town I won't write about here.

Instead let's eat. There was no menu, and the Calabrese-accented Italian wasn't easy to keep up with, but consulting the book I realize we had:

'nduja: piquant white soft sausage, very like a boudin blanc, encased together with a thick, peppery tomato sauce in a pastry wrapper, then deep-fried

Antipasto: ricotta, fagioli, favoline, salume, formaggio, eggplant, peppers

fileja: strozzapreti-like pasta, formed and torn by hand, in (as requested) a simple sauce of onion and fresh tomato with basil

Deep-fried baccalà (Lindsey) and

Salsiccie in ragù (me): little pork sausage links in a deep, delicous soffritto of onion, shredded carrot (!), peppers, and porcini

Lettuce salad; oven-fried potatoes

Gelato: chocolate and vanilla, with hazelnuts

Prosecco from the tap; white and red local wines, very good, in carafe

Il Normanno, via Real Badia 37, Mileto; tel. +39 0963.336398