La Grande Bouffe

At 12.30 today Des and Susan kindly picked us up from Monash to take us out to Warrandyte, in the beautiful countryside outside Melbourne, at the invitation of the artist Tommaso Durante and his wonderful wife Mariella. Tommaso emailed in February to invite us to his home whilst we are visiting Melbourne for Impact, and offered to cook us an Italian feast.

And what an amazing feast it was! Over five hours we ate oysters from Tasmania with Sicilian Santagostino wine, smoked salmon from Tasmania, anchovies from Sicily, salt cod soup “Audrey” with Norwegian salt cod, Harmonium Nero D'avola from Sicily, pasta with aubergines, tomato sauce and mozzarella, giant prawns from Queensland with tomato and chilli, artichokes baked in olive oil, Pecorino cheese from Sicily, then the finest Italian cake with organic lemons and rum, with custard sauce and preserved lemons. We had an amazing time in wonderful company with the Durantes, Des, Susan and Robert. Grazie mille Tommaso and Mariella for a wonderful afternoon!