— Dan Marek

Well, I grew up eating a dish called Penta, not panna cotta, but panag GTA with AG. And it is essentially ave a heavy vegetable soup with lots and lots of greens in it. And when it is served, it is served with, excuse me, it is served with toasted bread on top, and then the bread gets all mushy and then you stir it together, but the crust stays crusty. So, uh, a the dish brought back a lot of childhood memories, but it was a dish that my grandparents stopped making once they believed that they had made it in America because Panag GTA is considered, uh, from the umbrella of Chibo Poveda. And, uh, they wanted to be assimilated as, uh, more as Americans and fit into what Americans ate. Even though I will tell you that up until I was about 30 years old, I called white bread American brand because that's what we grew up calling it in my house. And my grandparents never bought, uh, American bread. I'll send you some pictures, Dan, of the ones that I have recreated here at home. And also a very, very simple red sauce made with onions, fresh tomatoes, cut them in quarters because when you cut them in quarters, they break down quicker and more easily and will render more flavor. And then about a cup of passata, which is, um, uncooked tomatoes. And so, uh, and fresh oregano, um, delicious. And I will also just add to this, that here we are now eating in season and doing all kinds of wonderful things. And in, at the farm that I stayed at, the basil was out of season. So what they next would either be fresh parsley, flat as we know it, or mint and, um, they like to use fresh even though they had harvested some of the oregano to use. And I will tell you that my second best dish, Dan, I've made this one too, is Zika, is pumpkin and roasted pumpkin covered with cinnamon and oregano, and the flavors were absolutely delicious. So, um, it was a wonderful learning experience, but I would say Panag gta and I actually have had it several nights in a row because it's that good. So, uh, this, thank you, Dan, for your question. And, um, I had a great time. It was a wonderful, wonderful learning experience in so many ways. It was really, uh, it was, it was, um, deeply touching for me. And I would, I would, uh, text, um, chef Fran and tell her what I ate for breakfast or lunch and what I had taken in. And, you know, going to, um, a pottery mill of an 85 year old potter who made these, uh, incredible terracotta pots. Uh, because terracotta is, uh, the, the soil in Pulia is, uh, almost red because of its iron content. Anyway, I could go on for, for too long of a time.