@brittarnhild
"You must come back to our house together with us, you see we have a very special surprise for you." Barbara was smiling when she invited me to have dinner with her and Mauro and their two girls. I had already had dinner with them, and afterwards we went out in their boat to explore the laguna. It was easy to acept. Of course I wanted to have dinner with them. I have eaten in Mauro and Barbara´s home many times now, and I love their fresh, traditional Italian cooking.
Back in their house Mauro started the night´s soup while Barbara prepared the dessert. While cutting the vegetables Mauro asked me if I remembered the glass jar Terje and I had brought with us last year. A jar filled with Terje´s homemade black currant marmelade. Oh yes, I remembered, and could tell them that the jar was an old one, from Terje´s mother, originally used for some kind of medicine.
"I have saved the jar" Mauro told me, "and now I will make something special to fill the jar. Something you can take back to Norway."
A pot. Some boiling water. Some herbs. Dried tomatoes which Mauro had bought at the Rialto market that same morning.
Pure virgin olive oil in the jar.......if I lived in Italy I would buy this oil!!!!!
The tomatoes were out in the jar, and Mauro´s special "sundried tomatoes in a Norwegian glass jar" was finished.
The lid was not quite tight, but Mauro wrapped it up for me in a completely safe packet. Not one drop was spilt when I arrived home a couple of days later.
Yesterday Terje and I had dinner out in the garden. Mauro´s "sundried tomatoes in a Norwegian glass jar" was perfect with the pasta :-)
