Every time we went into a restaurant we were greeted with "Prego, prego! Buongiorno." I recognize "prego" as a brand of pasta sauce and had no idea what they were saying. I got the buongiorno part but I had to Google prego. It means "Welcome!" Always good to know. I'll never look at that jar of Prego on the grocer's shelf in the same way. But let's talk about the food.
I have always loved Italian food. But I've grown accustomed to the American version of Italian food. (Well why wouldn't I? I have lived in America all my life.) When you go to an Italian restaurant in the United States, what do they serve you first? Garlic bread? Or maybe a rustic bread with olive oil and herbs for dipping? We were in Italy for ten days. The closest thing I saw to garlic bread was on a a platter of assorted bruschetta. Most of the bread was unsalted and no olive oil was offered with it. You didn't even get a bread plate. It's different there.
Don't get me wrong. The food in Italy was wonderful. The wine was even better. But it's different from the Americanized version of Italian food. Pastas are local. In Spoleto, the local pasta is strangozzi. It's wider and flatter than spaghetti, but not as flat as fettucine. One way of serving it there is "Spoletina", the local variation of tomato sauce. Another way is "tartufo", the local truffle sauce. Then there are combinations of mushrooms, tomatoes, truffles and other ingredients. The point is that spaghetti is not always on the menu. Neither are lasagne or ravioli. But in Spoleto, strangozzi is always on the menu and so is "Spoletina". The cuisines of some cities have made their way into our culture - "Florentine" or "Bolognese" for example. "Spoletino", not so much.
The pizza is wonderful. It's thin crust - not greasy. No stuffed crust, no thick crust and no deep dish. But it's not what they serve in the US. There is no "super deluxe". It only comes in one size. It is intended to be a meal for one, maybe two if they are light eaters. You order the combination of toppings you want. Additional toppings are not an option. When it arrives at your table, you have to cut it yourself. The toppings are not so thick that you can't fold it over, as everyone does. I think that this is how pizza was meant to be. (Although I question the sanity of boiled potato as a pizza topping. That actually was an option in one ristorante!) In the US, we've super-sized our pizzas, as we do with so many things. That's not to say that when I get home, I'll not want to have my "super deluxe" pizza loaded with toppings from time to time. I certainly will.
In addition to a wide variety of cured meats, such as salumi and prosciutto, a wide variety of cooked meats have been offered. More beef than chicken, but almost always pork and lamb. (As a general rule, Mark and I don't eat beef outside the US.) I tried a chicken dish and found it a bit stringy. I suspect it was free range chicken, as it had been slow cooked. It was very tender, and quite tasty, but the texture was a bit stringy. All the pork was excellent. While I typically don't eat much lamb, Mark does, and reported that it was all excellent. Since he is a much more adventurous eater than I am, he also tried the pigeon and the wild boar and pronounced them both very good.
Most of the restaurants offered a fixed price menu. It is a fantastic value if you can eat that much. We did it one night. We had a flaky pastry (savory rather than sweet) with a cheese sauce/filling, a bit of risotto, strangozzi with tartufo for me, pigeon and pasta for Mark, roast pork loin with an herb crust and orange sauce, and chocolate cake, followed by assorted biscotti. It included water (sparkling or naturale) and two glasses of vino. A meal 1ike that would have cost us well over $100 at home. We ended up asking for most of it to be boxed up so we could have it for lunch the next day. I don't think they're accustomed to people asking for boxes. They managed to wrap up (not box) the pork but left out the strangozzi tartufo - which was absolutely the best. I was so disappointed. But I bought some truffles to bring home, and a cookbook. Now if I can find some of that Montefalco Sagrantino...
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