Baking Therapy

With all of Italy in lockdown, and the whole family at home, I have been spending lots of time in the kitchen. My friend Sally calls it “stress baking”. My husband’s mamma Assunta made the best pies, and the poor man has been asking me for ages to make him one. With all this free time on my hands, it was finally to be his lucky day. I couldn’t find my mother-in-law’s recipe so I googled “crostata” and tried one I found on line. Later in the day, while I was browsing my instagram, low and behold, I discovered that Sally in the USA also decided it was a good day to bake a pie! When I saw her post on instagram, I couldn’t believe it. She was in the States, I was in Italy, and we both decided – without the other one knowing, to bake a pie! But wait it gets even weirder.  My pie turned out pretty well (not as good as my sweet mother-in-law’s) but I figured out while I was lying in bed last night, still thinking about that darn pie and the coincidence of it all, that Sally and I had actually used the same recipe. Ok, so maybe you can chalk that up to google suggestions, SEO, and what have you. But (wait for it) we both swapped the blackberry jam for apricot! Now how do you explain that exactly??? 

I don’t know why I find that so freaky, but I do. So here’s to Sally Pasquali Roberts and her pie. Sally has an amazing company, offering full service custom itinerary planning throughout Italy. She knows and loves Italy well (hence the stress baking), having lived here for years before returning to the US. You should check out Slice (not of pie), but of Tuscany. @Sliceoftuscany

I did find Assunta’s pie recipe this morning and since Pie #1 is nearly finished, I will practice Assunta’s recipe, and share it once I have it down pat. 

#silverlining #iorestoacasa #bakingtherapy #coronavirus #sliceoftuscany