It’s been a busy and intense week, Florek’s 45th birthday on Wednesday, our 8th wedding anniversary on Thursday and then a lot of prep for the birthday party I decided to throw for Florek, that was yesterday. It’s lovely to sit on the sofa now with a big mug of tea and rest, now all is done.

Izzie went for a sleepover to her friend’s on Thursday, which meant we were child free and could go and dine in a place that doesn’t have pizza margharita on the menu. I was lucky to book us a table in Osteria Da Pasquale; we’ve been there once before with Steve and Christina, I remember it being good, but can’t recall a single thing we have eaten back then. The dinner we had on Thursday was one of the best meals we’ve had in Italy so far. THAT good!

As soon as we sat down we were greeted with a glass of prosecco and a bag of delicious bread. We quite quickly decided what we wanted to eat, and so I started with scallops with Tropea onions, the dish that Dennis said was exquisite, Florex went for beef tartar, just perfect, not overseasoned, fresh and delicious.

Then I went for lamb, that day’s special, Florek had a beef fillet, cooked raw, super tender, according to him one of the best steaks ever. My lamb was super tender with a delicious sweet red wine sauce, my only complain was – I had wanted more of it!

The bread was excellent and so were 2 kinds of olive oil served with it, so good( local) that we ended up buying a bottle and I think we’ll open it this evening.

To finish with we had some lovely, wobbly pannacotta and some cannoli (Pasquale is Siciliano).

Only a glass of Bolgheri each, we were being good.

An excellent meal, I can’t wait to go back.