You cannot be in Italy without making a charcuterie board. These are something I am very familiar with back home. Some nights it is just nice to make a charcuterie board for dinner and have a glass of wine. The majority of the contents on the board were purchased from the weekly market held on Saturdays in one of Cortona’s piazzas. We were able to purchase fresh pecorino (ewe’s milk), a pesto pecorino, parmesan, salami, and prosciutto all from one amazing stand. I loved all of it. The pesto pecorino tasted exactly like pesto and was so delicious. The only downside was that it would have cost extra to have the prosciutto sliced for us. So, we did it ourselves and it was too thick. After we prepared the board, we went out to a balcony at the Kehoe center to enjoy the food, weather, and views. Everything paired together so nicely. It was nice to have the fresh strawberries included in our board as well as the little roll-ups on the corners. I do not think we figured out what they were expecting they had chocolate in them and on the bottom. But that didn’t bother us because they tasted good and were something to have at the end that was not an overly sweet dessert.
The market was something impressive to experience. It was like a farmers’ market but with more than just food, kind of like a festival. There were people selling clothes, linens, and other food products. There was a stand selling candy, and I was really tempted to buy some. It is a weekly thing and is important to the community. It is especially nice because Italians often shop day to day for their food rather than buy in bulk as we do here in the states.
