Mare!

Everything is so fresh here and so delicious. Like the spaghetti with clams and mussels that Piera cooked the other day. By the way...not sure I should be indulging in all this seafood but baby Noah seems to appreciate it so...no guilt! A little garlic, parsley and good olive oil can do wonders. I love how food is honest and uncomplicated here. We had dinner at a friend's house yesterday. Prosciutto and melon, "bis" di gnocchi (gnocchi served with two different sauces, ragù and pesto) and boiled asparagus with salt, oil and balsamic glaze. Now...how simple is that!!! Let's take the fuss away from food and focus on fresh, simple ingredients! I love how you can revisit tradition with a personal twist. His ragù had no oil in the soffritto and he added capers and taggiasche olives ( a typical quality of this region) to the meat. It was yummy! I'd like to experiment on these little detours from traditional regional recipes...

In cucina con la Piera

Piera is Nico's Mom and Noah's proud grandma to be! She is a lovely lady who loves to talk. She talks to flowers, seagulls and televisions among other things. But most importantly she is an amazing cook. She makes cooking seem so effortless and when you ask her how she manages her answer is simple: "Oh dear, I've been doing this for fifty years!" Men in Italy didn't know how to cook when she was young. Some, like her husband Franco, never learned. I am jealously trying to steal all her secrets... and want to share the extraordinary result of our afternoons in the kitchen. Will post the full recipes once I have masterized them myself! 

I muscoli, (literally muscles but actually mussels!) are a very common fresh produce of this area. They are traditionally prepared "ripieni", stuffed with bread soaked in milk, mortadella, garlic, parsley, egg and a bit of parmesan and cooked in a white wine, garlic, herbs and tomato sauce. 

Cleaning them is tough and not for the squeamish or faint hearted! They come from the sea, not from the frozen department in Waitrose! They need to be rinsed and left on a tray to release their juices that can then be used to add flavour to the sauce. The most important bit is to delicately break their "nerve" so they don't open when they are cooking. 

Of course the " ripieno", the filling is very important and fresh ingredients are the key! And you need a bit of patience to stuff them one by one...

But in the end...it will all be worth it!

Festa!

So many things have changed since I last posted. We have moved back to Italy and there are only a few weeks to go until the baby is born. I am enjoying a few weeks of Sun, food and sleeping bliss before the many sleepless nights to come! Today is mother's day in Italy so we celebrated with some "pasticcini", traditional sweets that are usually eaten on special occasions or bought when invited to someone's house. Loving Italy but have to stop eating. No, seriously. Nico's Mom is an excellent cook and the fact that I eat like a man encourages her to cook even more... Soon I'll be sharing some of the things she has been cooking over the past few days...

Polpettone vegetariano

Back to cooking after such a long time! So many things all happening at once and didn't really fancy cooking much, really... Yesterday I finally felt like experimenting and getting dirty in the kitchen again! I suspect Baby is a bit carnivorous and felt like I needed something wholesome and vegetarian after a string of greasychinese-burger-bacon cravings! I started looking for veggie and nut loaf recipes but decided to trust my culinary instinct, making up my own recipe and taking the risk. This is it!


Polpettone vegetariano (serves 4)

Milk as needed
A glass of fine breadcrumbs
A bag of beluga lentils ( I used the Merchant Gourmet  ready to eat ones)
400 grams of chopped carrots and suede (the ready diced Sainsbury's version can do in case of serious laziness)
2 shallots
Some Grated parmesan
Dried sage and rosemary
One egg
Salt and pepper as needed
Olive Oil as needed
Chopped hazelnuts
Sunflower seeds

Chop the shallots and cook with some extra virgin olive oil in a pan until golden. Add the carrots and suede, dried herbs, salt and pepper and cook for 20 minutes or until tender adding some water if needed.


In the meantime soak the breadcrumbs in a little milk ( THE Secret to all delicious meatballs and loafs), add the lentils, an egg, some parmesan, the vegetables, some hazelnuts and sunflower seeds. Shape this mixture into a loaf, sprinkle with some sunflower seeds and cook at 180 degrees in the oven for about 50 minutes. I served it with mash and an artichoke and white wine sauce which added a little tangy twist. Lesson learned, trust your guts and follow your own recipes!

Crespelle ai funghi e carciofi alla romana

I'm back! Been working and travelling A LOT and also been super tired... Had a day off on Wednesday and rather than spending it on the couch reading Grazia like any sensible pregnant woman would do I decided to do some cooking instead. I discovered three very important things:

1. Cleaning artichokes is a pain in the ass and makes your hands look like a miner's.

2. I can have blue cheese if it's cooked.

3. Shitake mushrooms are beautiful.

Therefore I decided to make carciofi alla romana and crespelle funghi e zola. That's braised artichokes stuffed with garlic, mint and parsley and mushroom filled salty crêpes cooked in the  oven with a blue cheese and béchamel sauce. I used Portobello and shitake mushrooms. Forgive me but I am too lazy to write the actual recipe so here is a little visual diary of my afternoon in the kitchen.

Kale and bacon risotto with cheddar and herbs nest

I'm back after my Parisian break (work not pleasure unfortunately) and after having od'd on steak and mustard thought it was time for a bit of yummy carbs. After my orange cravings I am now obsessed with everything green... therefore the kale which is also really good for you, or so it seems! I bough my veggies from Chapel market and bacon was also from a local farmer so added some extra goodness to the risotto. I topped it off with a cheddar and herbs crunchy nest, very spectacular and sooo easy to make.

Ingredients (serves 3)

2 large glasses of Arborio or Carnaroli rice
Half a large onion
4 bunches of Kale
4 slices of bacon
50 g. of butter
Freshly grated Parmesan as needed
Extra virgin oil as needed
Salt and pepper as needed
Half a pack of grated cheddar
A Spoonful of dried Sage and Rosemary
A vegetable stock pot

Rinse and chop the Kale, chop half of a large onion and cook in a pan with some olive oil until it turns golden.

Add the kale and cook it adding some salt an pepper until it releases some of the water. Add the chopped bacon and cook with the vegetables for a few minutes. Add the rice and some more olive oil and toast it slightly. In the meantime bring some water to boil and pour it in another pan with the vegetable stock pot, stir and leave it to simmer on a slow fire. Pour some stock in the pan with the rice, kale and bacon until the risotto is completely covered and stir continously. In the meantime mix some grated cheddar with the herbs in a bowl.  Pour some oil in a frying pan and grease the pan, absorbing the oil in excess with a paper towel. Cheese is fat enough so you don't need the extra grease, that will weigh your nests down and you want them to be extra crispy! Place some of the cheddar and herbs mixture in a pan and press it with a spoon in the shape of a disc. Cook turning it on both sides until crispy and golden and leave to cool on a paper towel. Risotto cooks in about 18-20 minutes, keep on stirring it adding a bit of stock so it doesn't stick to the pan. The last 5 minutes or so stop adding stock and add the butter and some grated parmesan. This will give it the creamy texture we call "mantecato". Sprinkle the risotto with some more parmesan and serve with the cheddar and herbs nest.

Sweet potato and endive "sformato" with tangy carrot salad

I have a craving for all things orange and citrusy lately... Baby seems to love vitamin C and I find orange foods particularly joyful to the eye too! I love oven cooked vegetables so decided to make a "sformato", a savoury veggie bake. I used sweet potato and endive, which have a very contrasting taste and mozzarella and cheddar, again loving the contrast... mozzarella is delicate while cheddar is salty and quite strong flavoured. As a side I made some grated carrots with an olive oil, lemon juice, teriyaki sauce and toasted sesame seeds dressing.

Ingredients (serves 4)

For the "sformato"
3 medium sized sweet potatoes
3 medium sized endives
2 mozzarella balls
Half a pack of grated cheddar
Extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper as needed
A table spoon of parmesan
A sprinkle of dried sage

For the salad
3 big carrots grated
Two tablespoons of sesame seeds
A lemon
Extra virgin oil as needed
A tablespoon of teriyaki sauce

Rinse and peel the sweet potatoes, cut them in slices of about an inch. Bring some salted water to boil and simmer the potatoes for 5 or 6 minutes until tender. Rinse and divide the endives in 4 parts and cook for 5-10 minutes in a pan with some oil and a pinch of salt and pepper until golden and crunchy.

Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees, oil a baking tray and start layering your veggies starting with the sweet potatoes, and adding some mozzarella and cheddar between layers. You should have 4 layers in total. Cover your last layer of endive with a sprinkle of parmesan, the dried sage and some black pepper and cook in the oven for 25 minutes.

In the meantime rinse, peel and grate the carrots. Mix the olive oil, lemon juice, teriyaki sauce and the sesame seeds that you have toasted in a pan and add to to the carrots.

Serve with a smile!

Stuffed peppers with quinoa, feta, sweet potato and squash

Happy New Year! I wanted to start the year with something colourful and fresh.
This is easy peasy, cheap and yummy. Think I got a bit carried away with the yoghurt though...
The little guest star in the dish is a Primavera quiche with courgettes, spinach and asparagus.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

For the stuffed peppers
4 small red peppers
1 pack of Red and White quinoa (the microwaveable version from The Merchant is perfect)
1 small shallot
Extra Virgin Oil, salt and pepper as needed
1 sweet potato
Half a medium sized squash
Half a pack of feta cheese
Some Greek Yoghurt

For the quiche
A roll of puff pastry
A bunch of asparagus
A big courgette
450 grams of spinach
1 egg
Two tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese
The other half pack of feta cheese
Extra virgin Oil, salt and pepper as needed

Chop the shallot, put some oil in a pan and cook the shallot until it turns golden. Add the sweet potato and squash that you have cut in small dices, season with salt and pepper and cook adding some water until they become tender but still have a bit of crunch.
In the meantime cook the quinoa for 1 minute in the microwave ( not any more or the pouch will explode! Quinoa can get messy...)
Let it cool. Add the feta cubes and mix in the veggies. You can add some more salt, pepper and extra virgin oil.

 Wash the red peppers, cut off the top (but keep it on the side, you will need it to cover the peppers) and empty the pepper of the seeds and the white bit (does it actually have a name in English?). Stuff the peppers with the quinoa, feta, sweet potato and squash mixture and cover them with their little cap (Cute!).

Heat the oven at 180 degrees, place the stuffed peppers in a baking tray that you have previously oiled so they don't stick to it. Cook for 45 minutes.
You can prepare them in advance and then warm them up and add some Greek Yoghurt before serving.

The quiche is even easier to make... Chop the veggies and place in a pan with some olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and cook until they become tender but remain crunchy, no one likes a soggy vegetable!

Bring some water to boil, add some salt and boil the spinach for 5 or 6 minutes.
Drain the spinach. When they have cooled down squeeze them well until they release all the water and chop. Once the veggies have cooled down mix them in a bowl with the spinach, an egg, some grated parmesan, a pinch of salt and pepper and some crumbled feta. Heat the oven at 180 degrees. Place the roll of puff pastry in a baking tray that you have covered in butter so it doesn't stick (Alternatively you can use some baking paper). Poke the pastry with a fork, this will release the juices of the veggies so the quiche remains nice and dry. Fill the pastry with the mixture and then fold both ends until you form a nice rectangular quiche. Make a cut on both sides of the pastry, it will cook better and look nicer too.
Cook in the oven for 25 minutes and serve with the peppers.