Umbrian and Northumbria White Pasta

When we were in Umbria the owners of the villa had an evening of Umbrian food that we all went to as paying guests with the Belgian families in the 2 other nearly houses. All the courses were meaty and not very different from anything we’d had before, apart from the white pasta which had courgettes and spicy sausage in it as well as béchamel sauce. It was tasty so I made my own variation. I griddled the courgettes from the garden, fried sliced white onions, garlic and a couple of Cragside Cracker sausages, chopped up, from our local butcher. I added oregano. The lasagne and béchamel sauce were authentic. It was very tasty. This is a collage with mine top left and the original bottom right.

When I got home last night I heard a funny chirupping sound in the kitchen. It was more pronounced in the conservatory but Mr C could hear nothing and thought I was over-tired with my exciting 2 days at the festival. Today I recorded it on my phone, turned the volume up and held it to his ear. He could hear it then and found the culprit - the battery in my rowing machine was done and the noise stopped when he removed it. He has promised he’ll arrange for a hearing test when he gets home. At last!

We have spent the day working out milages, times and how we’ll see what we want and be back at the ferry in 31 days. Lofoten Islands is our aim but I think we’ve missed the boat as it seems over-popular now, a bit like NC500, a victim of its own marketing. Anyway the scenery does look spectacular if there’s no rain and fog. Of course we might get that a lot of the time and see little which is a risk with northern countries.