Before she arrived, though, we had a turkey conundrum: you see, the ovens here can almost fit a chicken. A turkey MIGHT go in if chopped into bits, but otherwise, no dice.
I was talking to Michael about having two chickens. I had a VERY unhappy Michael. And then, one day, he had the brainwave: outsourcing. We were at Il Capestio picking up their amazing rolls and saw a roasted chicken that they had available for sale. Hmmm. Upon being asked about turkeys, they figured they could do us a turkey.
Of course, we had the all-important question: were we supplying the turkey or were they? Pretty easy, actually...if THEY would take that on, so much the better. They know several local suppliers, so they were happy to oblige. In fact, if I wanted to, I could SEE the turkey before purchasing. A quick phone call to Luciano down in PonteRio. Yes, he had a 7 kg turkey, no problem.
We weren't sure how big a turkey we really needed, but they assured us that anything up to about 22 kg (yes, that is 50 POUNDS) was possible. The extra-large sounded a little ridiculous to us, but as we were talking about this, it dawned on me: these turkeys were on the hoof!
Too funny. I burst into laughter as I explained that American turkeys come shrink-wrapped with their innards in little paper bags. They found it just as funny as I did.
Jim and I went to see our reserved turkey one afternoon at dusk. After a little trouble finding Luciano, we emerged from the car to find a bewildered farmer looking at us. I explained that we were there to inspect the turkey. Ah, yes, the turkey. Well, about that...he thought that rather than a 7 kg turkey, it was more like a 5 kg turkey. You have to figure on a KILO of feathers, then the innards. This means that the remaining turkey does not offer much meat. However, he offered to let us see the turkey, and we traipsed off to the turkey hutch. During the day, they frolic in the fields, but the little guys had already gone to bed.
We peered into a dark pen, as he was pointing to an indeterminate blob. Since we obviously couldn't see it, he pulled out the turkey by the feet. It was remarkably tranquil under this treatment. Having massaged its chest, it was abundantly clear that this turkey was waaaay too small, even if it would continue to grow in the intervening week and a half.
Text to Lolita at Il Capestio: "We have a turkey emergency!!!"
Not having heard back, we stopped by there the next time we were in the area. No problem: the replacement turkey has been found. This time, it's 12 kilos. Lolita even posted "before" and "after" photos on her Facebook page:
The deal was that we would bring the stuffing for them to put into the turkey (that way we could enjoy Sharon's amazing secret recipe) at noon today. We made our way down carrying the LARGE pot that I use only occasionally, and found a huge crowd.
After waiting a little while, I heard "psst!" and saw Ferdinando gesturing my direction. You have to understand that the mother-daughter-son trio is enjoying this whole episode as much as we are, so we have been laughing about the whole turkey thing. Particularly after I asked for a picture of our turkey before its final dispatch.
The deal was that we had to go outside, then around the side of the building to the kitchen entrance. There we found Francesca (mom) with a cleaver and our turkey!!! She consulted with us as to which parts we wanted for the gravy (feet? head?) and whacked off the requested bits. Stuffing the turkey expertly, having previously rubbed the interior with salt and who knows what herbs, we had a delightful chat about methods of cooking and so on.
The embroidery began.
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| Francesca and turkey |
So, we are expecting an amazing roast turkey tomorrow, which will probably come zooming up in the passenger seat of Lolita's Smartcar. I still don't know how much this bird will cost, but I'm not worried.Love,
Alexandra
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