Slimy bologna sandwich? Soggy pb&j? Anyone? Bueler? Didn’t think so.

Brown bag lunches may be a fixture of Americana but we’ve got a lot to learn from the Italians on the art of the gourmet bag lunch. In Arezzo I was packed five mind-blowing meals to take to my job as a teacher. The only indication that they weren’t from a nearby restaurant was the Tupperware.

The size of our Tuscan childrens’ lunch bags should have tipped us off that we’re in for something big. And we were: Proscuitto with melon, fresh mozzarella and vine-ripened tomatoes, farro salad, and zucchini stuffed with meat and cheese. Thanks Host Mom, Giulia!!

the gourmet Italian brown bag

zucchini stuffed with meat and cheese

Prosiutto and Melon

Fresh Mozzarella & Pomodorini with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Salt

I went from living on a farm, to having the ultimate farm-to-table experience in my Tuscan host family.  In addition to carbo-loading, I’m getting to taste a parade of organic veggies and locally grown fruit purchased at a discount by my host family and a group of others in Arezzo who are members of G.A.S.  Not as amusing an acronym as the F.A.R.T. factory I used to live near in Treviso, G.A.S. stands for Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale and its members join together to promote sustainable farming and local growers.

Yesterday, I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of two rickety crates on the kitchen table overflowing with fiori di zucchini (zucchini flowers).  I have a mild addiction to these yellow blossoms of magic (deep fried, clearly) and have never seen so many in one place before.

I heart zucchini flowers

And today, I saw this mysterious looking green stuff on the table.  I found out that it’s called agretti and to me, it tastes like spinach-flavored seaweed with an arugola bite.  In Tuscany it’s eaten with heavy hitting extra virgin olive oil and salt, to complement the unsalted Tuscan bread.

Agretti in Italian, Friar's Beard in English

This is the epicenter of freshness:

Inside my Tuscan Kitchen