life and after photos

I'm sorry for being so absent but there are too many things going on right now, first of all I am finishing the long Christmas job in Milan this coming week, I have a few photos to do for a magazine this weekend and next weekend it's time for our second Plate To Page Food Photography and Writing Workshop with participant from all over the globe that takes place here in Tuscany not far from where I live so you can imagine (I hope) that blogging isn't that high up on my priority list right now. But the will is there, so many things to tell you and to ramble about, it's the time that is lacking.

With double feel-good factor - Creamy Green Pea and Sage Soup With Goat's Cheese Layer and Quail Eggs

Green is one of my favourite colours, it has a calming effect on me, green and a lot of space above my head are two great feel-good factors in my life. And so is soup so here I serve you a green soup, hoping that it will make you feel as good as it makes me feel.

Soup can be finger food to even if it sounds unlikely but if you serve finger food sized servings in small glasses or bowls, soup adapt with elegance to it all. So I propose this pea soup as finger food but you can of course serve it as lunch or dinner if you prefer that.

CREAMY GREEN PEA AND SAGE SOUP WITH GOAT'S CHEESE LAYER AND QUAIL EGG
6 servings

400 g/ 14,1 oz green peas, fresh or frozen
6-8 big sage leaves (or more), roughly chopped and 12 small ones to fry and decorate with
1 white onion or 2-3 shallots, chopped
800 ml/ 3,4 cups light stock or water
250 g/ 8,8 oz soft goat's cheese of the creamy and soft type
fresh cream or milk
6 quail eggs
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

 Gently cook the onion in some olive oil for a few minutes before adding the peas and the stock. Bring to the boil and then let the soup simmer half covered with a lid for maximum 15 minutes, I think I let mine cook for 10-12 because I wanted that fresh pea flavour you can't get from over cooked peas.

 While you wait I suggest you to cook the quail eggs briefly and also to fry the sage leafs in butter until they get really nice and crispy. When they cooler, shell the eggs and divide each in two. Mix the goat's cheese with some fresh cream or milk if it needs to bet smoother and softer. Check if it needs more salt but remember that the cheese is quite salt.

 Add the sage when there are 4 minutes left to cook and when it is ready, run the soup in a food processor or use a mixer, until it is smooth and creamy.

 Now take out the glasses or small bowls you are using and spoon some soup into each, about up to the half, then spoon a layer of goat's cheese into the glasses and then add more soup. T.op with a quail egg divided in two and two fried sage leaves

when the sun shines through...

Thank you so so much for your heartwarming and wonderful comments on my last post (well always actually) - reading them is like seeing the sun in these photos!

Six years of blogging - let's have some Thin Pork Rolls With Green Beans, Sesame Seeds and Parmesan

 Last Tuesday Lucullian chimed in 6 years of existence and although I had planned to celebrate it with a cake or something, it completely passed by without me remembering it at all. Though I think it is significant that I forgot it because I was busy shooting food for a magazine job because that is what my blogging has brought me, a complete change of my professional life. And to a certain extent the rest of my life. New friends, new profession. And all in six years, sometimes I wonder at how much things can change in only six years and I think that these six years have been the longest in my life but that doesn't depend on me blogging but on other things. The true reason is that both my parents died and that has been the so far hardest events in my life. And I know that these kind of things will occur more frequently as I grow older. If I don't die first of course. Anyway, hard as it has been, blogging has been a life saver in many ways because the response I have got from you who read my ramblings really helped me through bad times and good times. But because of sorrow being one of those things you can't share completely, it has been of great help to talk about it here and to feel how much many of you care and reached out to me.

 I can't say that my blogging always have been constant, the blogging mojo sometimes disappears completely and then it re-appears like now because lately I have been a pretty good blogger I think. Or sometimes I haven't had the time but you are patient with me and wait for these moments to pass. Sometimes I feel like a cork in the water, you push it down but it always pops up again-I wonder if I ever will manage to let go of blogging? I also have to say that I have been very fortunate, not only do I have the greatest readers there are, I have also have had the fortune to be chosen and nominated for lists and prizes (though I don't think I ever won but that is not the aim of my life anyway) throughout my blogging career, the last one is being included on Saveur's 55 Great Global Food Blogs list-all I can say is Thank You Saveur for being repeatedly nice to me! Now these lists are obviously not the truth or final in anyway as there are so many fantastic food blogs out there that it is virtually impossible to keep up with them all and to include even a a 1/100th of them so I feel very fortunate indeed to be considered.

So here I am still, tapping away on my keyboard and creating recipes that I take photos of to post on the world wide web. Looking at it that way, it sounds like a truly silly way to spend your time but I love it and I cannot but thank you all for being there and above all being so faithful (many of you) and above all being so generous and nice with me.  Love and Peace to all of you!



I do have a recipe for you, no cake though but in stead I serve you a real life saver when time is scarce and you want to make something a little more elaborate. These Thin Pork Rolls With Green Beans, Sesame Seeds and Parmesan are nothing new but still very good to remember now and then and they taste good too. So have a sip of wine and read on.






THIN PORK ROLLS WITH GREEN BEANS, SESAME SEEDS AND PARMESAN
4 servings

12 thin slices of pork loin
36 green beans or haricot vertes, cooked al dente
sesame seeds
4-6 tblsp freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

 Take the slices of meat and beat them even thinner with a flat meat beater. Then sprinkle parmesan cheese and sesame seeds evenly over each slice. The parmesan is salt it in itself so salt the meat just a little.

 Put three green beans at one end of each slice and roll them around the beans, fasten with a toothpick and fry gently all around in olive oil in a skillet or pan.

 Serve with a salad or something else you think is good.