Virtual Global Living: Pasta, Cheese and Dry Italian Sausage

Well, we have been here 10 days and already made the trip to Italy - Ventimiglia specifically for a day of shopping at the market for cheese, pasta, produce and more. This time, we took the "granny bag". What is a "granny bag" you ask? Well, when I was growing up I went food shopping with my mother and she had a metal shopping cart. We were able to stack 4-6 brown paper bags (half or three-quarter full) of groceries. Never saw these shopping carts again once I could drive - you now drive your groceries home...or when we lived in Manhattan you had someone else drive them home for you!
Anyway, come to France and not everyone has a car, a few small local mini-markets can delivery your groceries but for the most part, you take your "granny bag" and either walk home or you take the bus! This version of the shopping cart has a set of wheels, a kick stand and a canvas bag attached to the frame with a flap over the top - protects your groceries from sun, rain, wind and gawkers. While not as large as the US version, this little shopping cart does hold quite a bit - especially handy if the stuff you are buying is heavy! Ours is a black "granny bag" - a gift from our British neighbors when they moved away. For several past trips to Ventimiglia's market, I have suggested we take the "granny bag"... and the reply has been: "nah, we won't need it, we're not buying that much, we'll just take a shopping bag"...yeah right - on the last trip the shopping bag was laden down with hunks of cheeses, kilos of pasta and any other items we can fit into it. That trip was the deciding factor - the bag was so heavy we had to each carry a handle and every so often switch sides because your hand would be aching from the weight never mind the pull on your shoulder! Ah...the "granny bag"...I dreamt of it as we lugged that shopping bag - I know we're gonna love it!
On this trip we took our pliable cooler bag, inserted a few ice-packs and slipped the whole thing into the granny bag and off we went. First stop - a massive hunk of aged (24 mos) parmesano cheese. Price per pound? $7.50 Oh, a wheel of parmesano cheese dotted with black truffle...$15 Throw in some hot dry Sopressata sausage and grated cheese...that should do us for a couple of weeks. Next stop: pasta! Momma mia - almost 2 1/4 lbs of ravioli was only $15 and almost 2 1/4 lbs of fresh spaghetti was only $7. All that pasta will make 16 servings for an average of $2 per serving. Can you believe it? Strawberries are in and we could not resist a huge basket for only $4.50 - the sweet smell was incredible...we made up 3 portions of strawberries - it was too much to eat in one sitting and they were perfectly ripe and would not last for another 3 or 4 days in the fridge; we froze two portions. Wait 'til you see the photo of what one portion looks like! Oh, the soup greens: two bags for $5 - cooked it up, made 8 servings for about $1.25 each!
So, after looking at all the food and knowing what we had in "granny bag", we were hungry and needed to stop for lunch. We decided upon a restaurant we've walked by, and commented on, each time we passed it. Boy oh boy, was it good! This is definitely our stop for lunch each and every time: for $20 each we had some meal. First the chef sent out a wedge of egg/potato/parsley/basil torta. Then our starters: I have a huge plateful of grilled veggies, my husband had a vegetarian lasagne, we both had veal in white wine as the main meal and then we got dessert: I had chocolate gelato and while he had the Tiramisu - excellent from start to finish. Remember, the $20 included tax and tip...of course we always leave another 5-10% for service. Below is a picture of the restaurant because if and when you come to Italy or the Cote d'Azur, Ventimiglia should be one of your stops for the market and Restaurant Cuneo must be your lunch stop!
(www.ristorantecuneo.com)