Minestrone soup

Published by Lucina, on 7 agosto 2014 in English Recipes, Soup and vegetarian. 1 Comment

lovely minestrone soup

Is this possible? Have I never blogged minestrone before? Unthinkable! Absurd! (to use one of the lines from the excellent musical The Fiddler on the roof). Well….in truth I don’t know why I have never done it until now as I LOVE minestrone and I often make it. I tend to make a huge batch of it, then either eat it for days on end or freeze some of it. To an Italian person minestrone will not sound all that exciting. After all it is pretty basic stuff . Still, we are here to share what we eat and, as I mentioned, minestrone is a welcome, frequent guest at my table. Plus my English friends will approve, I am sure. I know: summer is not exactly the right season to blog soups BUT , let’s face it, from what Candida has been saying, WHAT SUMMER? The weather in Italy has been very much minestrone weather so far, I’d say. Coming back to this queen of soups. The only minus point compared to other soups is that it is rather faffy to make as you have to neatly chop all your vegetables into bite size pieces  instead of chucking them  in the pot, boiling and liquidizing them. In other words, making minestrone is a labour of love: it takes time and patience. But you will be rewarded at the end. Trust me! Basically the more vegetables you put in the better. Always remember to include some potatoes and onions and some borlotti beans or similar, to give it body. Continue reading ‘Minestrone soup’

Patate Hasselback

Published by Candida, on 2 agosto 2014 in Chiacchiere/Chatting, Cucina regionale, Ricette in Italiano, vegetables and vegetarian. 1 Comment Tags: , .

Mi lancio nei luoghi comuni. Il tempo è impazzito, non ci sono più le stagioni di una volta… E infatti Laura a Bruxelles mi guarda dallo schermo Skype in canottiera mentre io le rispondo con una bella felpetta a maniche lunghe. Lucina in Inghilterra sceglie dal florilegio del blog tutte le ricette rinfrescanti e io penso a qualche bel piattino caldo per le fresche serate di questa mezz’estate con l’ombrello. Il cielo ha più di 50 sfumature di grigio e la programmata gita in montagna da fare col sole dovrà aspettare, mi sa, dicembre. Ecco dunque questo piatto tradizionale per niente estivo ma che noi abbiamo gradito. Ok, molto burro, ma per una volta… (ahi, mi sa che anche la prossima ricetta che posterò non sarà molto light…). Ah, dimenticavo: pare che Hasselback fosse un ristorante svedese (quindi ecco una ricetta degna di entrare nelle tradizioni di famiglia). E la foto? C’era, c’era ma l’ho cancellata per sbaglio! Continue reading ‘Patate Hasselback’

Verdurine fritte in pastella

Published by Lucina, on 28 luglio 2014 in English Recipes, vegetables, vegetarian and Verdure. 1 Comment
verdurine fritte in pastella

Once again I resort to the Italian title which sounds a lot nicer than its English equivalent. Basically these are vegetable strips fried in a light batter. The novelty is that they include courgettes’ flowers (in the picture they are the blobby things in the  bottom right corner). Oh yes! These are a delicacy in Italy and something I have always wanted to try making. You can stuff them, fry them or indeed use them in other recipes. The only problem was they don’t sell the flowers here in the UK (they do in Italy). So imagine my delight when the courgette I planted  and  nurtured this year started growing like mad and producing lots of courgettes as well as flowers! I have never seen anything as big as this plant! It has basically taken over my mini vegetable patch (which I created in an old whisky barrel). Every day I look and another couple of courgettes have sprung up. Unbelievable! Do they all grow as fast as that? Anyway I had 4 flowers to use today so I decided it would be a bit of a waste to make the batter just to fry them, hence the idea of adding other vegetables. I used courgettes (of course), carrots and asparagus. Of course you can try other vegetables too. Peppers would be very nice for example, as well as aubergines or cauliflower. The recipe for the batter, which I thought was very light, came from the Giallo Zafferano website. By the way: you must eat them as soon as you have cooked them or they lose their crunchiness. Needless to say the diet will start tomorrow…ha ha 😉 Continue reading ‘Verdurine fritte in pastella’

Tzatziki

Published by Candida, on 23 luglio 2014 in Antipasti, sfizi, finger food..., Cucina regionale, Ricette in Italiano, vegetables and vegetarian. 5 Comments Tags: , , .

Si scriverà poi così? Se si va su Wikipedia c’è da perdere la testa nelle giravolte che fa questo nome a seconda del fazzoletto di terra in cui mangiano questo piatto: un po’ dappertutto nei Balcani, divisi da confini arcigni ma uniti da tante cose in comune, tra queste il cibo.

In questo periodo mi ci sono affezionata e  anche se non fa tanto caldo mi vien sempre voglia di farlo. Oggi me lo sono perfino portata in treno accompagnato da 4 felafel e un pezzo di pane (chissà i susseguiosi vicini della Freccia – in ritardo – cosa avranno pensato). Continue reading ‘Tzatziki’

Il limoncello

Published by Candida, on 16 luglio 2014 in Cucina regionale and Ricette in Italiano. 0 Comments Tags: , .

qui tocca anche a noi poveri la nostra parte di ricchezza
ed è l’odore dei limoni.
Vedi, in questi silenzi in cui le cose
s’abbandonano e sembrano vicine
a tradire il loro ultimo segreto,
talora ci si aspetta
di scoprire uno sbaglio di Natura,
il punto morto del mondo, l’anello che non tiene,
il filo da disbrogliare che finalmente ci metta
nel mezzo di una verità.

Montale, I limoni

  Non potevo non provarci, a fare il limoncello, visto che la mia sorellina mi ha portato dei bei limoni profumati dal Ponente ligure. Per la ricetta ho gironzellato per internet e alla fine sono arrivata a questa mia versione adattata. Ho cercato di ottenere un liquore non stucchevole, non troppo dolce e con un certo carattere (è un po’ fortino, in effetti, ma mi dicono che deve essere così). La base della ricetta l’ho desunta dal sito ufficiale del Limoncello di Sorrento. Continue reading ‘Il limoncello’

The fabulous grissini torinesi

Published by Lucina, on 11 luglio 2014 in Antipasti, sfizi, finger food..., bread and English Recipes. 1 Comment Tags: .

grissini torinesi

I couldn’t believe how easy these grissini were to make! For the English audience not familiar with the Italian terminology grissini are none other than bread sticks (well…you can see from the picture). I have always loved grissini, particularly the hand made variety from Turin. This is partly because they are objectively gorgeous and partly because they bring back memories of my childhood. My grandparents were Torinesi born and bred and and lived in Turin all their lives. There were always these really long and knobbly grissini on their table. What a treat!  I used to scoff them by the handful. The truth is that once you start eating them there is no stopping you. They are utterly addictive.  Great to have with dips. I followed the recipe from the Sorelle Simili’s book Pane e roba dolce. They vanished in a flash, proof they were indeed truly yummy. Once again I enlisted the help of my 10 years old nephew Ale. While he was here visiting he took a real liking to messing about in the kitchen with me. Every day his first question would be ” And what are we going to bake TODAY, auntie?” Bless him!!! By the way: I am going to disappear for a while. It’s holiday time! Back to the Dolomites. Yes!! Continue reading ‘The fabulous grissini torinesi’

Biscotti: al pistacchio o alle arachidi? Doppia ricetta!

Published by Candida, on 6 luglio 2014 in biscuits, Dolci and Ricette in Italiano. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Oggi ricetta double-face. Guardala di qua: è pistacchio, mettici il burro di arachidi è nocciolina! Sono biscotti che vengono sempre bene, l’unico problema è che la quantità di burro che non permette di abusarne. Non sono precisamente i biscotti da dieta quotidiana. Ahi, bisogna fare uno studio, sul biscotto ideale da colazione. Gustoso senza intasarti le arterie! Continue reading ‘Biscotti: al pistacchio o alle arachidi? Doppia ricetta!’

Ciambella bicolore

Published by Lucina, on 1 luglio 2014 in cakes and English Recipes. 1 Comment Tags: , , .
ciambella bicolore

This is a simple cake ideal to have with a nice cup of tea. It’s half  chocolate sponge and half plain sponge. I have left the Italian name (which means double colour cake) because I made it  with the precious help of my eleven year old Italian nephew Ale, who has come to visit me in England. You can see his big thumb up in the photo. Just like his aunt, Ale is already very interested in experimenting in the kitchen. He is particularly interested in baking bread and I have used him as slave labour to knead the dough in the past few days. I think it’s very important to encourage boys as well as girls to cook. Definitely a skill which will come in useful later on in life Bravo Ale!!! By the way the recipe comes from the blog Zenzero e limone. Enjoy! Continue reading ‘Ciambella bicolore’

Vellutata di zucchine alla nocciola

Published by Candida, on 27 giugno 2014 in Primi, Ricette in Italiano, Soup and vegetarian. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Eh! solo Lucina deve postare cibo salutare? Eh no. Ecco qua per rimediare (anche per le prossime ricette che saranno dolci) una zuppetta veloce e davvero buona. Il sapore delle zucchine sta benissimo con le nocciole e così ho fatto questo esperimento. Continue reading ‘Vellutata di zucchine alla nocciola’

Linguine with fennel, rocket and lemon

Published by Lucina, on 22 giugno 2014 in English Recipes, pasta and vegetarian. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

fettuccine with fennel, rocket and lemon

Pasta is such a versatile dish. There must be thousands of different recipes out there waiting to be made and yet we always end up making the same old, same old. But last night I was determined to find a new one to add to my repertoire. And this is what I found, which I’m now sharing with you. It’s in the Veg book by Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall (great collection of vegetarian recipes, by the way!). It’s really fresh tasting, thanks to the lemon zest and incredibly quick and easy to make. I was impressed and will certainly make it again. Of course you can use any pasta you like. I believe good old Hugh uses tagliatelle. Continue reading ‘Linguine with fennel, rocket and lemon’