Last time we were in the Liguria region of northern Italy we happened upon a magical agri-tourismo farm tucked away in the hills. This time we headed straight for it!
Agritourismo is an Italian initiative to promote camping and B&B stays at small-scale farms, where high quality food production supports the Slow Food movement. There can be no better, more charming example of how it should be done than the Nardi family at Ca du Chittu.
Ca du chittu
Ca du Chittu translates to “the house of people who get up early in the morning and work hard”, and Ennio, Donatella and Mattia certainly live up to their name.
The Nardi Family
They have been hosting campers and lodgers at their farm in Liguria for more than thirty years. We came across them five years ago by accident and could not resist a return visit. The couple in the apartment next to ours had last visited the farm 10 years ago, when the apartments were still stables.
The draw is not just the beautiful hillside location,
Ca du Chittu valley
or the delightful stables turned into apartments,
The rooms are all named after the former, four-legged inhabitants of the stable block
More happy painted stables
The artwork on the end wall
The gas meter box even gets a make-over
or the simple camping among the orchards. It’s the family food!
The entire menu is a zero kilometres meal – everything that is on the plate was created from the raw ingredients raised and cultivated in the fields around the farmhouse.
Good gourd – look at the size of them
Everything grows in abundance
Delicious grapes hang off the vine
The planning, prepping and planting goes on all year
Everything from the pork to the grappa was grown within sight of the kitchen counter and the family table. The orchard has more than 500 trees, and the family work to cultivate old apple varieties almost lost in the region.
Hundreds of varieties flourish
The orchard glows with ripening fruit
Chickens rule the roost at Duck Lake
Not quite accurate
No need to guess who’s in charge
With all this bounty, it is hardly surprising that the family feasts are so good!
We tried our best to note the food, the wine, the vinyl records playing in the background.
Menu notes
Not surprisingly the scribbled notes became more animated as the evening wore on and I am sorry to say I was so wrapped up in the food, I didn’t take a single photo! But here’s the menu in printed form to give you a small taste of our grand feast.
First Course
Lightly battered (like tempura) chunks of bread with herbs
Mini Roma tomatoes in pesto sauce
Finely sliced pork fat washed repeatedly in salt and aged in rosemary, thyme and other herbs
Served with a Bisson Golfo del Tigullio Ciliegiolo Rosé wine
Second Course
Tagliatelle pasta made with chestnut flour and drenched in pesto sauce
Served with a Bisson Golfo del Tigullio Bianchetta U Pastine White wine
Third Course
Oven baked roast pork ribs
Green garden salad
A vegetable cake (like an omelette) with herbs and veggies
I forgot to write down the red wine…
Final Course
Fresh raspberries and strawberries in their juice…and the smell was intoxicating (at least I think it was the smell!)
Then followed a tray of homemade grappa. We had the Elixir di Rose, liquor al arancia, Il Quore al cafe and Grappa di Bomber Harris!!!
All to the cool tunes of Eric Clapton, Nina Simone, Tracy Chapman and the Doors to name just a few we can remember.
Thank you Nardi family for such a delicious and delightful visit. We are happy to say that Ennio, Donatella and Mattia are coming to Australia this summer and have accepted our invitation to dinner at Lovett Bay. Enio is keen to try local foods especially kangaroo and crocodile – so if you have some good recipes please let us know, we have big shoes to fill!
