Anna, the lovely lady who lives next door, has given me 2 bowls full of veggies from their garden. The day before we had lunch together in our place, just to thank them for being so lovely to us from day 1. Nadia and Cristian came too, as did Anna’s husband, Francesco, largely responsible for growing all this fantastic produce.

The big tomatoes are on the windowsill for the colour to develop, but the little, sweet datterini were not kept waiting. I turned them into a lovely tomato sauce, spiked with a bit of chili, with lots of onions and garlic and a touch of fresh mint too. We had it with penne, a bit of aubergines and crispy guanciale completed the picture.

With our apetitivo we had some bruschettas, the best ones were those with stracciatella and datterini, the others with Anna’s aubergines, panfried with shallots and garlic. We devoured them with a glass of Santa Cristina bianco.

Next spring I will attempt growing some veggies, the neighbours and Steve set the bar really high!