andiamotrips - campania, italy with karen phillips

Wikipedia :   Serendipity  means   a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful without looking for it.     It was about a month or so ago ish .  Sunday, just about noon.  I had just officially opened my Sunday ragu sugo season with sauce that I was more than proud of.  A sauce that I had started the evening before.  A sauce which had slow cooked off and on for a total of 8 hours so that it had become dark, thick, tirato, incazasso...  It was time to choose a wine.  Maybe something different than my usual favorites.  But it was a Sunday.  Not a good time to go vino hopping . Not a good time to drive out to a winery or some of the larger enoteca/wine shops in the are.  No, just enough time to stroll to a local wine shop and see what I could fine on the shelves. From the door I headed straight to the Campania section.  My eyes browsed over familiar bottles, familiar vintages...until I saw it ther

2013.  It wasn't just a year to visit some of Campania's amazing wineries and restaurants.  It was also a year of investigating a territory and stepping out of the box. A personal highlight for me came last summer.  A hot summer evening at La Sibilla Winery   was where I held my first photo exhibit along with four Campi Flegrei wineries and 9 enthusiastic examples of Falanghina dei Campi Flegrei. Snapshot of a Territory was born. I never would have imagined that submitting a recipe for a food blogger contest sponsored by Le Strade delle Mozzarella  would classify in the top 15 out of over 100 recipes submitted.  My  Calamarata 4 Stagione with Baby Squid, Clams and Mozzarella di Bufala Dop   was tasty enough to convince a panel of judges who invited me to spend a few days in Paestum last May. While in Paestum, I thought it would be neat to take my son David to visit a mozzarella factory.  The area is full of them, but one late morning, we headed to Caseificio Barl