Benodust: Jerome sees the Holy See jan 22, 2014

My favorite pizza shop in Barcelona is called “La Formata.” They serve a roman style (square) pizza that I have come to favor. Very light crust (slow 72 hour rise), very tasty toppings that we in America would not normally think to use, cut to any size you request, and sold by weight. After a bit of research I discovered it was the chef, Gabriele Bonci, in Rome, Italy who inspired the owners of La Famata, and may have even trained them. This Roman style pizza has been around for generations. Gabriele Bonci has just taken it up twenty notches to appeal to a more sustainable, health conscious, foodie generation. His storefront in Rome is very small, fits maybe 10 people standing. The line is out the door. Turns out Senõr Bonci gives pizza lessons to those who sign up first.

Jerome decided to visit at the same time I was signed up for Bonci's class. O what ever will we do. sad solution: Lisa said he would have to go to Rome with me for the Bonci pizza course. bam!
off we went to Rome.
I have been lucky enough to have visited Rome a few times. It is one of my favorite cities. What’s not to like? During the day we saw the sights and at night we made pizza. how could it get better than that? We visited the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps (where I proposed to CB), a lot of very large, ornate churches, and of course Vatican City with St. Peters Cathedral, the Vatican museum, and the Sistine Chapel.

Jerome making a wish at Trevi fountain

interior of Colosseum, neither of us took a photo of the outside. go figure

Jerome in front Saint Peters square. if he looks troubled it's because he just found out that, hundreds of years after St Peters Cathiedral was built, another architect decided to put another facade on the front of it, partially covering up the famous dome. He's still trying to get his head around that one.

The Spanish steps, way up at the top left Cindy said "yes"

side view of St Perters square

St. Peters at night

inside St Peters Cathedral. famous Michelangelo sculpture "Pieta"

vatican museum

My mother arranged tickets for us to join Pope Frances’s weekly Wednesday visitation. We were lucky to be seated in a special section not 30 feet from the Pope. There where about 10,000 people in the general assembly. When the Pope showed up the place went crazy. This guy is a rock star. The people love him. It took over thirty minutes to drive the Pope Mobil around the crowd. He gave a nice talk, then blessed all of us, and our family and friends (if you are reading this you were probably blessed without knowing). Around the end it started raining and St. Peters Square became a field of color (umbrellas). I wish for a photo from above. It was a fantastic display.

Pope Francis

working the crowd

wish I had a picture of the whole square. this was fantastic in person

The pizza course was great fun. Two Americans, 14 Italians, and 30 pizzas. Gabriele Bonce is quite a well known character in the Roman pizza circles, and he is a regular on food shows in italy. he has been making pizzas for many years and is still coming up with new topping combinations. He decides most of the toppings on the fly, so even he did not know what he was planning to make. my favorite had a base of pureed chickpeas, topped with sliced artichoke, italian cauliflower, and prunes (yes prunes). several times the class came to a halt while he and his staff took pictures of one of his creations that they especially liked and wanted to replicate at his store. Another excellent one had a base of pureed salted rock cod, pickled broccoli and sweet onion.
The secret of course is in the ingredients. You have to start with the best to end up with the best. We made some great pizza. We will see if we can mimic this success in our own kitchens.