Happy New Year!

magi, originally uploaded by sableye1.

I wish I had this view...

outside, originally uploaded by sableye1.

So, do you dare to follow the path?

allè, originally uploaded by sableye1.

BITTER-SWEET ORANGE AND CLOVE MOUSSE

I love the smell that surrounds you when you press whole small cloves (the spice) into oranges. I don’t know if this a typical Swedish thing to do or if you find it in other countries as well, but in Sweden you do this for Christmas, you make patterns with cloves on oranges that you use as decorations and when you do it, there is this wonderful fresh and pungent smell of cloves and orange that I go crazy for! I like it so much that years ago I had to invent a dessert with the same taste or at least almost the same taste. This year I was unfortunate because I have run out of clove in powder (or whatever it can be called, please someone-tell me the right name of it!!) so I just made it as a simple orange mousse with a slightly bitter aftertaste that balances the sweetness in a nice way. But I have just realized that I should have put whole cloves into the liquid when it is put to boil, well this just means that I have to make it again! What a pity!




BITTER-SWEET ORANGE AND CLOVE MOUSSE

2 tblsp butter
75-100 ml/0,3-0,42 cup sugar
The grated zest of 1 orange (eco)
The juice of 2 oranges
½ - ¾ tsp clove in powder
2 sheets of gelatine ( I have calculated and that is 5,5 g/ 0,2 oz of gelatine sheet)
200 ml/0,85 cup fresh cream

- Put the gelatine sheets in water and let them soak.
- Melt butter and sugar in a small pan.
- Add the orange zest, orange juice and the clove in powder and bring it to a boil.
- Filter the liquid and put the gelatine into the hot liquid. Stir until it has dissolved and leave to cool. Stir now and then.
- Whip the cream until it is hard and when the liquid is cold you carefully mix the whipped cream with it. It has to be completely blended before you put the mousse into small bowls.
- Leave it in the fridge for 3-4 hours.
- Serve it with chocolate flakes on top.

This morning

PASTA CON GAMBERETTI or PASTA WITH HOT SHRIMPS

It’s snowing here and the best thing is that the road is clean despite all the snow! So I can just enjoy the white blanket and feel the magic when it is snowing silently around us. Pics are coming up later today. It’s snowing in many parts of Italy right now and you can imagine the problems that it creates! I was sage enough to go and buy the most important things on Tuesday so now I can stay here without risking to remain down where the ‘village’ is. Last year we where isolated for days…

Here in Tuscany, you are supposed to eat pasta with shrimps and green peas in a cream sauce in connection with the New Year celebrations and I was going to do it yesterday but I realized that I wouldn’t be able to eat more rich food right now so I made this instead. I also made some fresh pasta which lead to that I promised myself to do that more often because it just too nice. I don’t know why I don’t do it more often because it does not take that long! Anyway, if you want you can eat this with rice instead.



PASTA CON GAMBERETTI or PASTA WITH HOT SHRIMPS
4 servings

400-500 g/14,1 -17,6 oz pasta
300 g/ 10,5 oz small shrimps, I used deep frozen ones that were already cooked so I just heated them up quickly to avoid that they got dry and rubbery.
500 g/ 17,6 oz cherry tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
1 dried peperoncino
1 tblsp chopped parsley
100-150 ml/ 0,42-0,63 cup dry white wine
Salt
Olive oil

- Fry the garlic, the crumbled peperoncino and the parsley in olive oil for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the white wine and reduce it a bit before you add the tomatoes.
- Let it simmer for about 10 minutes, if you use frozen shrimps you can add the water that they produce when thawing. Add salt and some sugar if needed.
- Just before the pasta (or rice) is ready, you add the shrimps and heat them up quickly.
- Mix it with the pasta (or rice) and serve.

profile

siluett, originally uploaded by sableye1.

sit down and rest

sitt o vila, originally uploaded by sableye1.

FAVE PICCANTI CON PANCETTA E POMODORI SECCHI or HOT BROAD BEANS WITH BACON AND SUN DRIED TOMATOES

I have had the best Christmas for years, a nice and relaxed atmosphere and good food. Something that seemed to be a serious trouble turned out to be very small and that was the best Christmas gift of all! But now we have a short respite before it’s New Year’s Eve and another important dinner, so I’d like to eat something that makes me feel healthy. Not that Italian Christmas food is particularly unhealthy but it is the enormous quantity of sweet things that I have managed to eat that makes me feel guilty. Yesterday I made this savoury and hot dish and it managed to keep me off the sweets for quite a while!



FAVE PICCANTI CON PANCETTA E POMODORI SECCHI or HOT BROAD BEANS WITH BACON AND SUN DRIED TOMATOES

500 g/ 1,1 lb fresh broad beans, I used frozen ones because we’re out of season here.
100 g/ 3,5 oz bacon, thick slices
1 whole sun dried tomato
1 dried peperoncino
Salt
Olive oil

- Dice the bacon, I use the meaty part, and fry it gently in very little olive oil together with the crumbled peperoncino until it is golden.
- Add the broad beans and let them fry for a minute before you add the chopped dried tomato and 2-3 dl water.
- Stir and let it simmer until the beans are very soft, add water if it dries up. Check the salt and eat!

25th of December 2005

I Wish...

Jul-Natale 2005 Beretta, originally uploaded by sableye1.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and to those who doesn't celebrate it I wish Happy Holidays!

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POLPETTONE CON SUGO or MEATLOAF WITH TOMATOSAUCE

Meatloaf. That word makes me think of the Seventies because I don’t think I have had one since then so I don’t really know why I suddenly felt the urge to make one. But there it was and I just had to succumb; it’s like when you suddenly feel that you need to eat a specific food, I always think that it’s my body sending me a message “I need this” so I eat whatever it is that I want to eat. Meatloaf is not a particularly common dish in Italy, at least not in the region where I live but I did find a recipe that I knew would suit me, one from Antonio Carlucci’s An Invitation to Italian Cooking. I knew because it is his mother’s recipe and I have a very strong faith in the cooking of Italian mothers, they rarely fail and how right I was! For once every member of my family agreed on that it was good, a rare event, and it was even nicer the day after so now I feel obliged to share this recipe with you!



POLPETTONE CON SUGO or MEATLOAF WITH TOMATOSAUCE

1 kg/35,3 oz minced meat
150 g/5,3 oz bread crumbs
60 g/2,1 oz freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 tblsp finely chopped parsley
4 eggs
1 onion
500 g/17,6 oz cherry tomatoes but ordinary tomatoes are obviously ok but the cherry ones are nicer right now as they taste more.
1 clove of garlic
Salt pepper
Butter
Olive oil

- Slice the onion and fry it and the garlic gently in some olive oil for 3-4 minutes before you add the coarsely chopped tomatoes. Add salt (and some sugar if needed) and let it cook for 10 minutes.
- Mix the meat with bread crumbs, parmesan, parsley, salt and pepper. Whip the eggs lightly and add it to the meat. Mix very well.
- Make a smooth loaf.
- Put some olive oil and a knob of butter in a pan that is wide enough to contain the loaf, when it is heated up you put the meatloaf carefully in the pan and brown it all around.
- Add the tomato sauce and let it simmer for an hour. Turn it around now and then so that it gets evenly cooked and be careful so that it does not burn.
- Serve it with the sauce.

blue sky

spret, originally uploaded by sableye1.

all alone in the middle of the wood

sko, originally uploaded by sableye1.

morning walk with the dog

MINESTRA DI PATATE E PORRO CON TALEGGIO E ERBA CIPOLLINA or POTATO AND LEEK SOUP WITH TALEGGIO CHEESE AND CHIVES

Freezing cold outside which means almost freezing cold indoors, well relatively so, there’s no ice on the water yet. So today I made a soup for lunch, a hot, filling soup to warm me up a bit. But I don’t really mind cold weather when it is dry, me and my dog had a great time on our walk this morning with leaves and stones crackling under our feet. And I counted nine roses and buds on my old Old Blush bush-that’s tenacity for you!





MINESTRA DI PATATE E PORRO CON TALEGGIO E ERBA CIPOLLINA or POTATO AND LEEK SOUP WITH TALEGGIO CHEESE AND CHIVES
2 servings

1 thin leek
1 stalk of celery
3 potatoes
1 tomato
1 pinch oregano
500 ml/2,1 cups stock
Taleggio cheese
Chives
Olive oil

- Slice the leek, the celery stalk and the potatoes and let the ‘sweat’ a bit in olive oil.
- After a couple of minutes it’s time to add the chopped tomato and a large pinch of oregano
- Stir and add the stock. Let it simmer for 20-30 minutes.
- Pour it into a blender and let it run until the soup is smooth. Check the salt.
- Heat it up again, it’s important that the soup is hot when you add the Taleggio cut into small dice, approx. 10, so that they melt a little. Sprinkle finely chopped chives over the soup and serve.

Is there any hope?

kvavd, originally uploaded by sableye1.

WEEKEND HERB BLOGGING # 11

This weekend I’m doing a flower for Weekend Herb Blogging # 11. A really common flower but this particular one needs to be honoured because she never gives up! Old Blush is her name and she is really an almost ideal rose bush because she flowers all year round, month after month, she never gives in but continues. And this is highly appreciated during the winter months because every time I pass, and I have to pass her often because she stands next to our gate, I see her pink buds and flowers and she makes me believe in a glorious future even though it’s raining and grey! I love roses (but I’m a lousy rose gardener) and when I arrived here I had a great time selecting roses to be planted; they all had to smell nicely and have a certain age, I think at one point there were 26 different varieties growing in the garden! But no one is as tough as Old Blush and this is my tribute to her!

drops

droppar, originally uploaded by sableye1.

GNOCCHI ALLA ROMANA

Gnocchi alla romana is a very soft and kind dish, it is exactly the right thing to eat when you feel that if the whole world is turning against you and you wish you could be a child again and have your parents protection. In other words, it is perfect comfort food!



GNOCCHI ALLA ROMANA

250 g/ 8,8 oz semolina flour
1 l (1000 ml)/4,22 cups milk
2 egg yolks
100-200 ml/ 0,42-0,85 cup grated parmesan cheese
a large knob of butter, melted
salt

- Cook the milk and the semolina flour until it has thickened and become like porridge.
- Add the egg yolks, a pat of butter and salt and stir well.
- Pour out the whole batch out on a flat surface, preferably on baking paper, and flatten it so that you have a large rectangle that is 1 cm high/thick.
- Cut out circles with a glass or a cookie cutter, grease the edges so that the semolina doesn’t stick on them. You can also do it the easy way and cut squares with a knife.
- Put the semolina circles into a buttered ovenproof dish, sprinkle the cheese over and pour melted butter over the whole.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven (200°C/390°F) until it is golden.
- Serve it warm.

dec 15, 2005

hostlund, originally uploaded by sableye1.

Lavanda

IM000596, originally uploaded by sableye1.

on the way

on the way, originally uploaded by sableye1.

DISASTER AND DISCOVERY

I like beans and I try to make my children eat some now and then but as they aren’t that enthusiastic about it, I try to disguise the beans so that they don’t really see what they are eating. Well, yesterday I made yet another attempt, I was going to do some kind of mashed bean ballss that I was going to fry. I boiled the beans, I boiled a potato and grated parmesan, added some other stuff and I made the bean balls. So I heated up the oil and started frying but when I was going to turn them around, I realized that there were no little bean balls no more. Nada, niente. They had disintegrated, ceased to be or maybe even teletransported themselves to a better world but the point was that I couldn’t find them anymore. A complete fiasco! And there I was, left with a lot of extra boiled Borlotti beans and nothing to eat. (I made something else for the children first of all and I’m sure they were silently singing ‘Rejoice’!) So I threw a red, ripe tomato into the blender and when it was smooth, I added some sambal oelek, salt and olive oil to it and I mixed it with some of the beans. I wasn’t that hopeful but it turned out to be surprisingly nice because the raw tomato gave the beans a fresher taste; here beans and tomato (fagioli all’uccelletto) are usually cooked together and although it is very nice, it can be a bit heavy sometimes. So although I really messed up our dinner, I discovered a new way to eat beans!

up or down?

vattentunna, originally uploaded by sableye1.

PASTA CON GORGONZOLA

It’s very windy here, the other day it blew so hard that I couldn’t keep my camera steady when I tried to take some photos! So it’s nice with some comfort food and if you like gorgonzola this is the best comfort food ever. I have a on/off relationship to that cheese, sometimes I just can’t stand the taste and sometimes I just love it whereas I can eat Taleggio anytime, it’s strong taste (and smell!!) never creates any problems with my taste buds. I wonder why. I think it’s good though because in this way I feel as if I rediscover it every time I like it!




PASTA CON GORGONZOLA
4 servings

400-500 gr pasta
200 gr gorgonzola cheese
1 carrot
1 stalk of celery
1 small onion or 12 cm leek
1-2 tblsp milk
Olive oil

- Cut the carrot, the celery and the onion into not too small pieces, I like it when you have to chew a little, if you don’t, you can always make smaller pieces.
- Fry them on low heat in some olive oil until they are soft.
- Take away the rind (thanks Paz, your comment made me realize that I used the wrong word!) from the gorgonzola, cut it into pieces and put them in a little pan together with the milk.
- Let the cheese melt and then you add the vegetables. Warm it up if needed before you mix it with the pasta.

brrrr

frostlandskap, originally uploaded by sableye1.

entrance

cypressrad, originally uploaded by sableye1.

INSALATA DI CAVOLFIORE, OLIVE, CAPPERI E PINOLI or SALAD WITH CAULIFLOWER, OLIVES, CAPERS AND ROASTED PINE NUTS

I have always liked vegetables, even when I was a kid and there are few of them that I don’t like, sometimes I don’t like the way they are prepared but on the whole I eat them braised, boiled or raw! But this is not the taste of everyone, I am aware of that especially as my oldest daughter happily would renounce both vegetables and fruit if she was allowed. I hope she will change her mind before she leaves home… One day she might make this cauliflower salad because the olives and the capers help ‘cover up’ the, in her opinion, bland taste of cauliflower that she doesn’t like. In my view they enhance it!




INSALATA DI CAVOLFIORE, OLIVE, CAPPERI E PINOLI or SALAD WITH CAULIFLOWER, OLIVES, CAPERS AND ROASTED PINE NUTS
2 servings

1 small head of cauliflower
15 olives, preferably un-pitted
1-2 tblsp capers
1 tblsp chopped parsley
2 tblsp pine nuts
1 hardboiled egg
Salt
Lemon juice
Olive oil

- Break the cauliflower head into smaller parts and steam them until ‘al dente’
- Boil the egg.
- While the cauliflower is being steamed and the egg is boiling you mix the olives (chopped or whole, just as you please), capers, chopped parsley, some lemon juice, salt and olive oil.
- Roast the pine nuts in a Teflon pan, obviously without any fat.
- Put the cauliflower in a bowl, divide into smaller parts if needed, and add the olive and capers mix when it is still warm. Let it cool down.
- Cut the egg into pieces and add that to the cauliflower together with the pine nuts. Stir well and serve.

astronomy

CROSTINI DI POLENTA FRITTA CON BACCALA’ or BACCALA’ ON CROSTINI OF FRIED POLENTA

Today I am fulfilling a request from Helen of Beyond Salmon who some time ago asked me for a recipe of Baccalà on crostini of fried polenta. (Baccalà is dried and salted cod) It has taken me some time but I didn’t find ‘de-salted’ baccalà fillets until last week. Of course I could have bought the normal, salted baccalà but I just didn’t feel like doing the “12 hour under running water” thing that one has to do! But here it is. I hade made the polenta two days before so I kept the left-over slab in the fridge because it needs some time to settle and become compact, otherwise it easily falls apart when you slice it.



CROSTINI DI POLENTA FRITTA CON BACCALA’ or BACCALA’ ON CROSTINI OF FRIED POLENTA

1 baccalà fillet, not too big
3 quite big, ripe tomatoes
1 dried peperoncino
1 clove of garlic
1 tblsp chopped parsley
salt
extra-virgin olive oil


- Chop the tomatoes and throw them into large frying pan where you have warmed some olive oil with the garlic cut into two or three pieces , the crumbled peperoncino and the parsley. Simmer slowly until the tomatoes are mushy.
- While it is simmering you take off the skin of the baccalà fillet, cut it into pieces, and add it to the tomato sauce when it has reached the right stage of mushiness.
- Let it cook on medium heat until the baccalà is ready and you can divide it into quite small pieces with fork or something like that.
- Put this aside for a while.
- Cut ½ cm/0,2 in thick slices of the polenta and fry these in quite a lot of olive oil. When they are crispy on the outside, it takes approx. 4-5 minutes, you let them drip off the excess oil on some kitchen towel paper.
- When you have finished frying, you warm up the baccalà and put some of it on each crostino.

anybody home?

anybody home, originally uploaded by sableye1.

what a lot of wine!

botte di vino, originally uploaded by sableye1.

WEEKEND HERB BLOGGING #10

This week I’m presenting the herb Nepitella or lesser Calamint! This herb grows along the roadside, well it grows all over the place actually, because when I cut the grass in my garden there are two places where it smells so nicely when I have passed! Nepitella smells like a minty oregano and it can be used in a variety of dishes but it is mainly used together with mushrooms! I have seen some recipes with artichokes fried with Nepitella and this is something I will have to try in the future!
It is a not an eye catching plant, I have problems finding it when it is not flowering but when it does, it has very delicate pale violet little flowers along the stem.
No recipe this week because I’m in a rush but I’m sure I will post something with Nepitella this week!
And don’t forget to visit Kalyn’s Kitchen to read the round up of the Weekend Herb Blogging later!

madonna

madonna, originally uploaded by sableye1.

Narnia?

utsikt, originally uploaded by sableye1.

CREMA AL CAFE’ CON CIOCCOLATA or COFFEE CREAM WITH CHOCOLATE ‘CHIPS’

This dessert taste a bit like Tiramisù says my oldest daughter and I can’t deny the truth of what she is saying, it does taste a bit like the famous Tiramisù but it’s miles lighter and much easier to eat a lot of!
The original recipe is from La cucina Siciliana av Maria Adele di Leo but I added the chocolate




CREMA AL CAFE’ CON CIOCCOLATA or COFFEE CREAM WITH CHOCLOATE ‘CHIPS’

3 egg yolks
50 ml/0,2 cup sugar
100 ml/0,42 cup very strong coffee
100 ml/0,42 cup milk
1 tsp flour
150 ml/0,63 cup fresh cream
30-40 g/1-1,4 oz coarsely grated dark chocolate

- Whip the egg yolks and the sugar until they turn pale yellow-white.
- Add coffee, milk and sift the flour into the egg mixture. Stir properly.
- Let it simmer on low heat until it thickens, stir all the time.
- Put it aside to cool.
- While it gets cold, you whip the cream and grate the chocolate into coarse chips and when the cream is cold, add the whipped cream and the chocolate ‘chips’. Save some so that you can sprinkle them over the cream when you serve it!