Terry and Maurice

Jerry had made reservations for the group for dinner at a place they had stumbled onto years ago, Gaspare Restaurant e Rifugio, a nondescript building high in the mountains above Giano dell’Umbria. We sat at an L-shaped table arranged along two of the stone walls and were immediately served pitchers of wine.  Opposite the door was a fireplace, maybe ten feet wide, on a hearth about two feet above the floor.  There was a roaring fire but it was obscured by two round discs propped against a metal frame in the front.  Pizza stones?  After a while a cook at the counter in front of the fireplace caught my attention when he lifted a circle of dough.  He wielded tongs to grab the heated discs (large stones) and laid them flat on the hearth then eased circles of dough onto them.  Two more flat stones were placed on top of the dough circles.  Then, with a long-handled shovel, the cook lifted burning coals from the fire and arranged them on top of the stones.  After a while he lifted the top rock for a progress check, shoveled more hot coals on top, and soon the flat bread was done.  The cook lifted the top rock, grabbed the bread with one hand and tossed it onto the counter, where a waitress quickly sliced it into little squares, dumped them into a basket and served it to us immediately with thin slices of salami, prosciutto crudo and pecorino cheese.  We split the bread and made everything into tasty little sandwiches.  Jerry warned us not to overdo it because there was more to come. Keep reading