Today is Thursday. I wish I were at La Tavola Marche, a wonderful agriturismo and cooking school in Le Marche, one of Italy’s least known regions – and, as it happens, a wonderful place to have pizza in Italy.
You see, every Thursday, Ashley and Jason Bartner organizes pizza night at their agriturismo. And it doesn’t hurt to have a chef in charge, a chef with years of experience working at top notch restaurants in New York and San Francisco.
Jason believes in the slow food movement, in cooking with the seasons and keeping it simple. You won’t find pizzas with everything here. Instead, each pizza has just a few ingredients, all fresh from the local meat and cheese market and from the garden.
While Jason cooks the pizzas in a wood-fired oven outdoors, we sit at a large table with other guests, friends and neighbours. On a lovely June evening, we counted five nationalities around the table: Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway and the USA were all represented, a miniature UN we were.
But enough about us. This is about pizza. Pizza in Italy! And wine. And dessert. Then it’s about more wine and yummy liqueurs, just to digest it all, you understand.
Sadly, I don’t have any photos of cooked pizzas. Each vanishes almost as soon as it is brought to the table: roasted pepperoni, salami, melt-in-your-mouth prosciutto.
You’re vegetarian, you say? Fear not. My favourite of the evening: potato pizza! Also known as pizza biancha, white pizza. It’s incredibly delicious. And very simple: thinly sliced potatoes, ricotta cheese, arugula lettuce, olive oil, salt and pepper. That’s it.
Another favourite is onion pizza, almost as simple.
Then there’s wine: yummy house wines!
For dolce, sweet, there’s tiramisu. Normally, I don’t like tiramisu. Yet this one I ate so quickly I forgot to take a photo. Instead, dear reader, I’ll share the recipe with you. Straight from the horse’s mouth – or rather, from Jason’s magical kitchen, here’s the world’s best tiramisu.
Ashley serves home made digestivo made from nuts and berries growing around the house. My fave is nocino, walnut liqueur. Others prefer brugnolino, plum. Of course, you can never go wrong with limoncello.
The 95 % alcohol used for soaking fruits and nuts can be bought at the hardware store. Same place you can buy chickens.
Early morning at La Tavola Marche
Disclosure: I was a guest of La Tavola Marche. However any opinion expressed is of course entirely, yummily, delectably my own.
Serenity, good food and international company??? How, did you say, can I get there? BTW, the only good thing which happened to me in Naples was the onion pizza. I love it.
Oh my god, this sounds too divine for words!
This looks so inviting!
Thanks guys. It was a wonderful evening!
You know, when I went to Italy, THIS is what I was expecting. I didn’t get it. Got rude waiters, overpriced food and very very small hotel rooms.
Tell me, Sophie, how do you get this experience? It sounds like the most fabulous day.
@Barbara – Easily available at La Tavola Marche 🙂
Sounds and looks really tempting.
I’m green with envy!
That is just the style of pizza I love. Looks delicious! I would love to attend this pizza night.
Believe it or not, the only pizza I eat is homemade. I don’t like pizza from the stores because they are too greasy. Pizza made by hand tastes to much better. These look delicious!
Pizza night at La Tavola Marche looks wonderful. Love the idea of the mini U.N. — how fun and interesting. Delicious photos.
What a wonderful discovery – theat house and land looks so inviting. I’m going to attempt a pizza biancha right now.
@Louise – Do make one! It’s surprisingly easy – even for someone like me who is seriuosly challengeed in the kitchen 🙂
Now this looks perfect! The last picture is so inviting. I used to prefer pizzas piled high but recently have become more a fan of the minimalist pizzas. You can really taste everything more clearly.
You had me at pizza. Damn it. Now I am hungry again.
Those pizzas look AMAZING! YUM!!
~Becca
Love this article and the atmosphere it conveys! Love the pizza (potato pizza sounds too yummy), love that beautiful house, and not least, I adore the fact that you can buy spirits and chickens at the hardware store… so quirky, so very Italian…
I’d love to do this. And I really like the pizzas with only a few ingredients, so you can really savour their taste. Yummy pictures!
This is like something out of a movie! Amazing!
You are killing me! This looks so amazing. I’m already full from lunch and yet I want to eat again. I’m trying very hard not to look up the next flight to Italy. Never mind that the baby is sleeping and my hubby was on a red eye to meet us out east this week and is passed out. They can stay here. I’m going to get that pizza!!!
Just gorgeous! I love the agriturismos of Italy. It brings the local food movement to life!
Can’t. stop. salivating!
The best meal I’ve ever had was a margarita pizza in some hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Naples, Italy. The next day I tried to go back and couldn’t find it… and the next day as well. Before I die I HAVE to find that place again. The grim reaper is just going to have to wait.
This is too good to be true. This is getting bookmarked for sure and put at the top of the travel list. Yum.
I love the slow food movement 🙂
This place looks perfect – can I get the onion pizza home delivered?
That’s a wonderful post. Just watching at the photos, I feel hungry and wish I could be there right now. I’ve been just once to the Italian countryside, in Tuscany. That was 2 years ago. We rented a small farmhouse through http://www.holidayrentalweb.com but sadly we had no chance to participate in making pizzas. Instead there was plenty of wine to enjoy.
@Emilia – wine’s just as good 🙂
I love Italy, and my next trip needs to be something slow and easy like that. Yum!
Here from R We There Yet Mom? Thanks for sharing those fab pix.
That looks like a wonderful set up for a nice pizza dinner.
This sounds like the best night ever! ah, now I want pizza!
This sounds like my idea of a perfect evening and I’m very curious about the potato pizza.
always love italian pizzas with pastas….
mouth watering pics………
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I love pizza – these look so fresh! Ingredients really make it…
These pizzas look just sooo yummie! What a great discovery you have made, I absolutely love it all!
I am soooo jealous! The food, the drinks, the location, the atmosphere blends so well. It almost appears you’ve stepped into Italian heaven. If I could have pizza any way, it would be cooked in a wood burning oven, eaten outdoors, with some good wine. You got it all in one place. Lucky, Sophie.
That sounds amazing. I miss Italian food so much. I spent 2 months in florence and really crave a pizza!!
i can’t WAIT to go visit ashley and jason. what an incredible place (and food!)
Thanks for your comments, everyone 🙂
I had the best potato and rosemary pizza when I was in Italy. A unique combination that tastes fantastic!
What a delicious looking pizza! I love the shots of it being made. Unfortunately in Korea the pizza here tastes like cardboard pie 😛
@Nomadic Samuel – probably best to stick to kimchi in Korea, eh? 🙂
Maybe everyone already knows this–but my favorite pizza shop will sell you a ball of dough for about $3. I can make really delicious and cheap! pizza at home. My favorite is topped with fresh sliced tomatoes, arugula and fresh mozzarella. Couldn’t be easier.
Sounds yummy 🙂
very very wonderfull pizza for my eyes 🙂 , compliments for great photo
Thanks 🙂
I am viewing your pictures just a little before lunch time. Exceedingly cruel! ;o)
Congrats on making the “100 Reasons To Travel” list by Trip Logic – http://goo.gl/7yH6Q. As a fairly new blogger, I was pleased to make the list as well (# 16).
If you have a moment, check out my admittedly quirky travel blog at http://www.travelbyterry.com. It’s a fun read, or meant to be at least. ;0)
Sorry for the late reply – and discovery of that great list. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Even as a vegan, those look delicious!
Really gorgeous pizzas they were. As a vegan, could you eat the potato pizza, I wonder? Perhaps one without the ricotta cheese?