Ferragosto

Oh, we dined with such guiltless pleasure last night at La Spiga's Ferragosto event. It was a sweltering hot evening (by Seattle's standards), so we were thankful for the big round table on the airy back patio.

Previously, I had asked Sabrina, chef and co-owner of La Spiga, why food in Italy just tastes better than here in the US. “It’s a trio of things,” she said. “One, it’s the ingredients. When you cut corners you can tell. Two, preparation. In Italy there’s a big focus on digestability.” Onions, garlic and bell peppers are hard to digest, so there is more preparation and care in making these items easier to digest. And, three, “the mind-set in general. Food and cooking," she says, "is very important to the culture. It’s the love of food and sitting around the table and enjoying a leisurely meal.” Here in the U.S, everything is about convenience: grabbing something quick or rushing home from work to feed the kids and put them to bed. It’s just not in our long history to sit, appreciate and savor the meal.

It smelled of Italy last night, and I was looking forward to my first bite. Our first stop along the path of gluttony was a simple, tasty assortment of assaggini (little tastes), such as buttery green olives, creamy pâté, bocconcini, pepperonatta, and fried flat bread.

Grabbing our glasses of wine we moved on to stations of porcini and truffle orechiette pasta, hand-crafted salami, imported cheeses, grilled sausage and lamb skewers, among a bevi of other toothsome delights.

The piatto principale: porchetta (whole roasted pig). Sous chef Jonathan Langley artfully stuffed the roughly-80-pound pig with toasted fennel seed, sage, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. To top it off, he shoved in a pork shoulder for good measure and roasted it for 14 hours. It was tender, juicy and herbaceously delicious.

At La Spiga, one could tell that each offering was prepared with love and care, just like in Italy. And we sat around our large round table and leisurely enjoyed every bite.