Mamma Pina carved thin slices of horse meat for the luncheon carpaccio. Her son-in-law, award-winning Philadelphia chef Jeff Michaud, stirred an antique copper pot of bubbling polenta on the kitchen’s wood-burning stove.

“Go into my yard and pick some fresh figs,” Mamma Pina directed in Italian, handing me a basket. “We’ll make sorbet for dessert.” Fig sorbet I’d certainly try, but raw horsemeat? That’s where I drew the line.