Summer frise

It’s summer time. The crickets chirp in the air and the scent of acacia trees fills the time that runs free. There's who's under the sun or in the sea...given that you are on holiday of course…
While napping in the quiet summer and riding the wave of memory, I was struck with the memory of the holidays I spent in Salento, when I was guest of one of my best friends and her family. Today’s recipe is a tribute to them, to the people of Salento, to that land and to that warmth. And, of course, to the food, which is so good as it's made by people who love and take care of each fruit of the tree. The strength of their olive trees, the stubbornness of those roots, and of the men and women who inhabit this beautiful and wild land, lie in the deliciousness and simplicity of the ingredients and recipes.
Today's recipe is called “Frisa”, a typical Salento bagel which seems to date from the centuries of the Crusades, and was very popular among local fishermen and sailors, because it wouldn’t go bad and once soaked into sea water it would gain taste, and fill the stomach.
The Frisa is a very ingenious dish, where you can play hard with your culinary imagination, mix smells and tastes, and stimulate your creativity and taste. It doesn’t take long to prepare them, they are fresh and you can eat them with your hands.

Today, I made the frise like this:
Ingredients:
2 Frise (possibly produced in Puglia, I wouldn’t trust English ones...)
500 g. Cherry tomatoes
a wisp of Gaeta black olives

4 basil leaves
100g Greek feta
oil, salt and pepper
Wash and cut the tomatoes into small pieces. Mash the olives slightly with a meat mallet (or with your fingers) to remove the kernels. Dice the feta cheese. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and season with salt, pepper and basil. Let rest for a few minutes.
Take the frise and pass them under the water. The more you hold them under the tap, the more they will get soft. If you have invited your grandmother Adelina to lunch, let it wet enough so that the consistency of the frisa will be compatible with her denture. If you prefer it crispy, a very fast pass will be enough.
Place the seasoned tomatoes on the Frisa.
At this point, the only things that are missing are lu mare and lu sole e lo ientu! ..which means, the sea, the sun and the wind

Cheap&Chic - Filled Paccheri

Today’s dish introduces the “cheap&chic" section into our recipe blog; little expenses and great impression!

Today’s recipe: paccheri filled with sardines and spiced provolone cheese is a brilliant example of cheapness and chicness: paccheri are a variety of short pasta which is typical of Naples (their shape is that of a large tube). The sardines aren’t expensive, and will surprise your guests with their taste and flavour. Filled paccheri is a very scenic and chic recipe, which will leave your guests astonished without affecting your wallet.

Sardines are a cheap but tasty fish that blend fabulously with the sweetness of the spicy provolone cheese, in a fun and original combination. It's not a blowout dish (6-7 paccheri per serving are more than sufficient) but it is a first class dish, suitable to surprise aunts, mothers-in-law, or bosses. Because of its strong taste, I suggest you follow it with a fresh salad placed in parmesan cheese baskets or a salad of sliced ​​fennels with olives and oranges.

Ingredients (3 servings):

300g of fresh sardines
250g spicy provolone cheese
parsley
1 garlic clove
30g pecorino cheese
20g breadcrumbs
olive oil, salt and pepper

Grate the provolone cheese into a bowl (use the larger holes of the grater). Wash and dry the parsley leaves (leave one third for later) and cut the garlic into small pieces. Then chop both on a cutting board. Meanwhile, clean the sardines: cut off the head, remove the entrails and split in two halves, remove the central bone and separate the threads, taking care to remove the bones. Place in a clean bowl as you clean them. Wash and dry them. Chop the sardine fillets in the bowl with the provolone cheese, add the chopped garlic and parsley, salt and pepper, and mix until well blended (if you like, you can add one tablespoon of very fine grated lemon zest).

Put the paccheri to cook in boiling salted water. Meanwhile, grate the pecorino cheese, mix it with bread crumbs and the remaining parsley. Drain the paccheri al dente (after 6 minutes). Place them on a clean kitchen rag and start filling them one by one with the sardines mixture.
Once filled, place them on a baking tray lined with bakery paper (wet and squeeze the paper; it will adhere better to the pan and will not burn during cooking). 

 

Cover with the mixture with cheese, breadcrumbs and parsley and finish off with a little olive oil.
Place in preheated to 200 ° C oven for at least 10 minutes, then check the cooking according to your tastes. Make sure that the filling doesn’t dry out too much. Serve on a plate, with a garniture of chopped tomatoes or lemon slices.

Dinner is ready!

Happy Birthday Eggplants

After a short absence from your screens, I’m back again with a new recipe that my mother had expressly made for me. For my birthday, my dear Mom outdid herself by challenging the suffocating heat and the sluggish summer. Very brave.

Here's how she surprised all the family with this alternative dish made of eggplants stuffed with couscous, orange flavoured chicken and chickpeas. The recipe is hers, so I'll be opening and closing quotes!

Ingredients:
4 round eggplants
vegetable broth
1 whole chicken breast
1 can of chickpeas
1 orange
tomatoes, shredded carrots (optional, to flavour the couscous)
thyme
oregano

"Wash and dry 4 eggplants. Cut them in half and remove all the flesh so as to form empty baskets.
Boil water in a large pot and dip the eggplants until cooked, drain and dry them. Preheat the oven to 

180 degrees and place the eggplants for 20 minutes for further drying. Cool completely.
Meanwhile, cut the remained eggplants into small round pieces (we would say “a funghetto” in Italian). Fry crushed garlic in a pan with 1 tablespoon of corn oil. Remove the garlic and cook the eggplants. Add salt, pepper and a pinch of oregano halfway through cooking. Once cooked (the eggplants must be soft) let cool.
Meanwhile, dice the chicken breast and leave to marinade with the juice of one orange, salt, pepper, a pinch of thyme and oregano, for at least 45 minutes. Drain and fry into a pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil until slightly browned.
Using a bowl mix the eggplants, the chicken, 1 can of chickpeas, 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley, salt, pepper and let rest in a refrigerator for about 1 hour. Add just enough couscous to make a soft dough, season with olive oil.
Using your hands and fingers, fill each eggplant basket with the mixture, and add pressure.

They are really tasty!
You can make the vegetable broth (celery, onion, tomatoes, carrots) yourself (it’s better than

stock cubes). Follow the package instructions to cook the couscous."
Thanks Mom!

:-D

Potatoes and green beans, a never-ending love story

Aside from easy malicious speculations (in Italian, the word “patata” refers to the tuberous, but it may have a different meaning in slang…) potatoes and beans are often the leading characters in my summer meals. Versatility and handiness are the main qualities of these ingredients.
The combination of these two elements is perfect, but for the best results you need to use some imagination. The recipe is fresh and easy, yet if you don’t add a bit of imagination the result will be very depressing...as often happens even in the best love stories. I recommend this recipe so as to avoid the relationship between our protagonists from flattening and still keep it interesting:

Ingredients:
3 large potatoes 0,5 kg green beans
4 or 5 sun-dried tomatoes
Black Gaeta olives
1 tin of tuna (160 g)

capers (optional) whole grain mustard

the juice of half a lemon
extra virgin olive oil

Place the potatoes in a pot with cold water and cook for about 40 minutes until the potatoes are tender (push a fork into one potato to verify). Meanwhile, boil a pot of water. Add a pinch of salt and cook the beans which you will have previously washed, cutting off the ends (we would say “capare” in Roman slang). After 15 minutes, drain them (they should be tender at that time) and cool them under the water (tip: cook the vegetables first, they will cool better and the house will be nice and fresh when your guests arrive). Chop the potatoes, cut the green beans with a pair of scissors and put all ingredients in a large bowl. Add the olives, the sun-dried tomatoes cut into pieces, the tuna and the capers. Put two teaspoons of whole grain mustard, lemon juice and olive oil in a glass. Whisk everything with a spoon. Dress your potato and green beans salad with this homemade vinaigrette. The dish is ready!
Try adding or substituting some of the ingredients: for example, to opt for a vegetarian variant switching the tuna for feta cheese. You can add boiled eggs, or substitute the beans with roman steamed courgettes or grilled eggplants, depending on what you have in the fridge :-) 

 

Spaghetti with tomato sauce and basil: a vibrant red evergreen

“Viva la pappa pappa, col popopopopopomodoro, viva la pappa pappa che è un capopopopopolavoro...”

Among all more or less complicated sauces or exotic tastes, there is no better revitalizer than spaghetti with tomato and basil (In Italian slang, we would say “m’arricrea”). Light, nice, and delicious, this first course can become king of your informal and relaxed dinners with friends.
 

Despite its simplicity, it requires two particular attentions:
1) the sauce must absolutely be homemade with genuine tomatoes
2) spaghetti must be of high quality, and above all cooked “al dente” (so do not distract when cooking the pasta, no manicure, vacuum or sudoku. I need you to concentrate!)

The preparation of the sauce is of course the biggest challenge (I trust your ability to deal with the pasta cooking process).

Ingredients:
2 kg red juicy tomatoes (plum tomatoes)
fresh basil
extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion
salt

Fill a large saucepan with abundant water and bring up to boil. In the meantime, wash the tomatoes carefully and slice a superficial X in the bottom end.

When the water boils, plunge the tomatoes and boil for 6 minutes. 

Drain, put the tomatoes under cold water, and peel away the skin starting from the X.

 

Cut out the stem, chop the tomatoes thickly and mash them with a masher until pureed. Then put the puree in a small pot (the so-called Italian “cuccuma”).

Peel the onion and cut it into very thin slices. Heat up a little bit of oil in a pot and fry the onion over low heat.

When ready, add the pureed tomatoes, and simmer over very low heat. When the sauce starts boiling, add the basil leaves. Cook AT LEAST 2 hours over very low heat till the sauce is reduced and all the water has evaporated, and add salt.

This recipe is very useful because you can cook the sauce whenever you like, freeze it (freezing is allowed in this case!), and it is ready if your friends suddenly appear to dinner!
Once you get used to the basic preparation of the sauce, let your imagination run wild! For example, add fried eggplants and salted ricotta for an amazing “Pasta alla norma”



Enjoy!

PS: If pasta is a religion for you, you might be an unaware follower of Pastafarianism

In the beginning there was the frozen food

Hi kitchen friends!

You all know the first post is always the hardest and this is no exception! The best to do to break the ice, is to start from the beginning, telling you something about myself. My story is the same as many of you: unstable work, not much money, but a strong passion for cooking (especially when you eat at the end! Yummy).

I’ve learned my way round the kitchen from an early age. I was driven by the desire to abandon the frozen and pre-cooked food my mother used to leave me for lunch (poor mum, how many times I must have complained, but I know you did your best!) I started cooking my first meals with questionable results at first, but you learn from your mistakes and as the motto says, “who endures wins”, I have persevered again and again, and have now become the reference point among family and friends when the mother-in-law invites herself to dinner.

Today, I want to start off this kitchen blog with three pearls of wisdom which inspire my life in the kitchen:

1. No frozen pre-packaged foods or sauces: with a little organization and self-initiative all your meals can be "homemade".
2. You do not need to be professional chefs to prepare tasty and delicious dishes (in Italian we would call these “manicaretti”). Cooking is a job for the brave, therefore, never be afraid.
3. The secret ingredient to make a meal unique and special is always the same: the enjoyment and love for the people you are cooking for. If your guests are a pain in the arse, then just buy a rotisserie chicken! (If you happen to be in Italy you will find excellent ones in shops called “rosticcerie”)

I will be posting my recipes and wait anxiously for your comments, suggestions and delicious variations which I hope will be many.
Hugs

Claudia

Pasta with rocket, almonds and sun-dried tomatoes pesto…a chopped temptation!

There seems to be no worse disappointment of the desolation of your fridge on a Tuesday when you missed the weekly Saturday meeting with the supermarket. But cheer up! Even if the discomfort at first tempts you to call the nearest pizza delivery, with a little imagination, you can build a supertasty pasta (besides, this will take less time than for the pizza delivery guy to arrive). This is my recipe for pasta with rocket pesto, almonds and dried tomatoes:
ingredients:
about 60g rocket
50g almonds
6 sun-dried tomatoes
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
200g short pasta (rigatoni or mezze maniche)extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Place the rocket, the sun-dried tomatoes, the almonds and the parmesan cheese in a mixer. Blend thoroughly and add the oil until the mixture becomes soft and creamy (some like it thicker, some thinner, stop blending according to your taste). Fill a large pot with cold water, bring it to boil, add salt and cook the pasta al dente. Then drain and add the pesto.
If you love ricotta cheese (and you're equipped) try this variation: before adding salt to the water, extract two tablespoons of the boiling water. Add 60g ricotta to the water and mix with a fork, until creamy, then add the pesto and season the pasta.

Buon appetito :-)

Veal escalopes Granma Style (with marsala sauce)

New recipe, new story. While writing this blog and thinking about the different meals I’d like to post, I’ve realized that taste and memory, life and food are strongly related. Every recipe that comes to my mind embodies an emotion, an anecdote, a person.

This post is no exception and it is inspired by the legendary Nonna Anna (my Granma), the master of cooking and life who has written my childhood history. This brings up the very deep emotions which still last when you grow up. With her cooking, Nonna held her family together, made us laugh, and offered us moments of conviviality and warmth. On those occasions, she would often cook veal escalopes with marsala sauce (so-called “scaloppine al marsala”). Whenever I cook them, Nonna Anna comes to my mind.
Nonna, a great master of the Roman cooking tradition, would cook them this way:
Ingredients:
4 veal escalopes (buy them at the butcher shop if you can)
flour
1 small piece of butter
1 small cup marsala (Variation: If you don’t have marsala wine, you can use white wine)

1 small cup water
salt & pepper

Dredge the veal in the flour, and shake off excess flour.
Melt a little piece of butter in a large and non-stick pan (slices mustn’t overlap). Saute the slices, turning once, over high heat.

When golden brown on both sides, turn the burner up and add one small cup of marsala. Add salt and pepper. Add one small cup of water and turn down the heat a little. When the liquid is slightly reduced and has become creamy, remove the slices without removing the cooking liquid. Wait two more minutes stirring the sauce with a wooden spoon so that it does not stick. When the sauce reaches the desired consistency, turn off, and pour the sauce over the meat. Et Voilà.

If marsala is left over, you can use it to season sliced peaches (adding a little bit of sugar).

Yum to all.

Great Classic

Some of the recipes that most caught my imagination and that are the cornerstones of my cooking belong to my childhood. This particular one reminds me of a dinner that my mother hosted for her boss twenty years ago. I was about six, and I can remember easily the preparation of that evening: mum was very tense and spent at least 4 days working in the kitchen (in Italian we would say “spignattando” in the kitchen). To play it safe, she decided the second course would be cold veal with tuna sauce (so-called Vitel Tonné), an easy to prepare dish, impressive and very fashionable in the eighties. The day of the dinner my mother was very proud of her work and when we finally sat down at the table everything went well. But she had not reckoned with the quantities: almost all of the 2 Kg fine piece of was veal left over and for a whole month it was dished up for lunch and dinner, with a consequent distaste for this great classic. Only many, many, many years later did I have the courage to repeat the experience!

However, despite my personal misadventure, veal in tuna sauce has the right qualities to be the first recipe for the "lunch with the mother-in-law" blog section. Here are some of the virtues that make it suitable for those little more formal occasions, where the aim is not to surprise with creativity, but to bring guests happily and joyfully to their coffee without disfiguring (usually mothers-in-law always cook well but criticize better). First of all, you can cook it the day before, because it is a cold dish. As it is a cold dish, it is suitable for the summer season. To cook it, you don’t need to turn on the oven. All good things when in very hot climates!

Ingredients:

1 kg lean veal roast
300g canned tuna in olive oil
1 onion
4 anchovies
salt
pepper
1 pint white wine
½ cup olive oil
2 lemons
Decoration: pickles, capers, black pitted olives
Place in a large saucepan that just fits the piece of lean veal, the shredded tuna (the recipe doesn’t say to drain it before, but I prefer to remove the oil from the tin and add a trickle of oil, just to avoid sticking), one onion cut into thin slices, washed boneless anchovies cut in small pieces, salt, pepper and white wine. Bring the pan over moderate heat, cover and cook the veal.

When the meat is cooked (stick a fork in it) turn off the flame and remove the meat. Let it cool on a cutting board. In the meantime, use the immersion blender to blend all that is left in the pan, adding the oil and lemon juice.

Cut the meat that you need into thin slices, pour the sauce, add the sliced ​​pickles, the rest of garniture and cover the meat. Let it stand for 24 hours (even less, however, the more it stands the more it is good) to let the flavour soak in.
Keep the bowl with the veal in the fridge, and cut it when you need it.

It can be kept several days (Yes, we know ..!!)
The advice is to accompany it with boiled green beans dressed with olive oil and lemon or a rocket and cherry tomatoes salad. It is also nice with oven cooked potatoes.
Some sauce may be left over. You can spread it on a sandwich with slices of tomato and capers or use it to dress a salad or boiled potatoes.