When the dentist says white - Jerusalem Artichoke and Potato Soup With Pecorino and Mint

Last week or was it the one before that, time gets very hazy when I try to look back, I like to think it is because I live in the moment and not because my memory is going. The famous acceleration of time takes place when you become an adult or thereabouts really goes turbo when you have children, it is like sitting in one of those centrifugal cabins at a fun fair I think. Yes, very much like that, you loose control of time, well at lest if you are a normal person (and if you are normal and don't agree with what I am saying, please do not tell me - it will only make me feel even more inadequate) and suddenly you realize that you fully agree with those strange people who always were wishing that the day had more than 24 hours. Mmmm that is what children makes to you, it is really lucky for them that they give you more than that...

Anyway, I was trying to arrive at what actually happened in my (probably) recent past. so here we go: I had to repair one of my front teeth because I am apparently clenching my teeth a lot night time and small pieces are falling off here and there though that is probably information you would have been happy to live without but hey, you came here out of free will and today I am rambling like I haven't done for ages so.... My dentist, who is very small but very authoritative told me to only eat white food for six hours and who am I to disobey, I feel guilty as soon as I put my foot in a dentist's foyer so I just do as I am told. I went home to cook some lunch, white lunch that is and this was the whitest and softest I could come up with.  I can really recommend to either grate the pecorino cheese on the coarse side of the grater or just peeling off flakes with a potato peeler because you get these moments of cheese intensity that at least I really liked. And the mint gave it a freshness too.

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE AND POTATO SOUP WITH PECORINO AND MINT

3-4 servings

1 onion

150 g jerualem artichokes

150 g potatoes

500 ml vegetable stock or  water

 a bunch of mint leaves, the amount depends on the quality of the mint and on your own taste

3-4 tbsp roughly grated pecorino (or more)
salt
black pepper
extra-virgin olive oil

   Slice the onion and gently fry it in a pan. While it cooks, peel and slice the Jerusalem artichokes and the potatoes and add these to the onion.  Stir and cook for another two minutes.

   Add the vegetable stock (or water) and leave to simmer for 15 minutes.

   Tear mint leaves in pieces and add these to the soup before you run it in a mixer or food processor until smooth. Season to taste.

   Serve in bowls with pecorino.

Links on Sunday and photos too

I have a new Advent banner for Lucullian, I can't understand why I haven't changed it before though there are family members who cries for the old one but why always stick with the old, why not just move onwards?



But I don't want to stop my links on Sunday, I have some quite nice ones to share with you this week:

This is my favourite, Dear Photograph, I just love the idea and how people have caught up on it!
And here are a few nice ideas.
Just so that we remember how small we are.
Browse the collections, so much beauty in this world
and despite I dislike when people cut in books, this is pretty amazing.
and this is a a true artist!

The Colours Around Us

A feast or a treat? - Pear, Rosemary and Maple Syrup Compote on Cardamom Butter Fried Bread

 I just have to start off with telling you that the registrations for our third Plate To Page food photography and writing workshop are now open and that I would love to see you there but hurry up as there are only 12 spaces! Here is the preliminary program and here is where to register!

And now over to something completely different - pears. I'm neither pear shaped nor are my plans going pear shaped but I do like a good pear now and then, to be honest I prefer pears to apples when I bake or cook. And right now I am on a pear ride so you can expect to see more recipes with pears here in the near future.

When I grew up my mother used to tie a bottle or two to our pear tree with a small small pear inside so that she could fill it up with something nice and strong when the pear was mature. Now that tree grew very close to a hedge and there was a big foot path running next to it so I wonder what people thought about us really. It was definitely not an exuberant neighborhood, rather austere is how I remember it, at least in the foot path direction, so they really must have thought we were a crazy lot with bottles hanging in the trees. But who cares, my mother obviously didn't and I am happy she did what she did, it looked so nice and it was fun to see how the pears grew and became too big to ever slide out of the bottles.

 When I made this Pear, Rosemary and Maple Syrup Compote on Cardamom Fried Bread, I made far too little of it, I wish I hade made too much for once but ten, maybe it was enough and it just felt it was too little. So my advice to you is to make enough of it, no make a lot and maybe don't invite your friends for tea just that day...


PEAR, ROSEMARY AND MAPLE SYRUP COMPOTE ON CARDAMOM BUTTER FRIED BREAD
8 units

4 big sweet and mature pears
1 sprig of rosemary
8 tbsp maple syrup
4 slices of bread
good pinch ground cardamom

 Peel and cut pears into small pieces, put these in a small pan and add maple syrup. Crush the rosemary a bit and add that too. Leave to simmer until nice and syrupy, it takes at least 15-20 minutes on medium heat.

 Meanwhile, cut the bread slices in two or use a cookie cutter to cut out nice shapes. Melt the butter in a non-stick pan, add the cardamon, stir and then fry the bread until crispy.

  Spoon the pear compote on the bread and eat.

Three Doors, Two Windows

It's the small things that make a difference - Pasta With Meat and Fennel Ragu

I can understand, well sort of understand,  those of you who don't like fennel, it does have a very characteristic flavour raw and can get into a pretty sad state if cooked badly but when it is done well fennel can make your meal a special one! But don't worry, in this dish you just feel a faint echo of the fennel and I really think meat and tomatoes go so well with fennel and fennel seeds that I am now convincing myself that you all will love it! You will, won't you??

But I have a sentimental thing going on about fennel because my mother loved it and she passed that love along to me. Her obvious joy when she could find fresh fennel in Sweden decades ago and to cook and eat it was so pure that sometimes I wonder if it was that and not the fennel itself that made me fall in love with it. She used to serve it simply cooked with melted good butter and that is one of my favourite ways to eat it but it has to be on a good day, not a day when I miss her. But I have so many ways of eating fennel that I can safely eat it all week long without having to get beady eyed...

In this meat sauce or ragú, I have substituted the usual celery stick with fennel and added fennel seeds as well, they have a more rounded and sweeter flavour than the vegetable.

PASTA WITH MEAT AND FENNEL RAGÚ
4 servings

1 carrot
1 small fennel bulb
1 onion
1 tblsp fennel seeds
450 g/ 1 lb minced meat
750 ml/ 3,2 cups tomato sauce
400 g/ 0,9 lb pasta, preferably spagetti
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

 Chop or dice finely the carrot, onion and fennel bulb and then cook together with the fennel seeds in some olive oil in a pan on medium heat until they are soft and the onion is transparent.

 Increase the heat and add the minced meat and go on cooking, taking care to divide the meat carefully so you don't end up with big lumps.  Add salt. When the meat has browned slightly, add the tomato sauce and leave to simmer under a half closed lid for 40 minutes, adding water if it gets too dry.

 Cook the pasta while the meat sauce finish on the stove and when it is ready, mix the two wel and serve!

Going froufrou - Sweet Apple Bread With Almond Topping

Oh la la la, I'm going froufrou today! Sometimes I really don't know how to shoot something I have made for the blog, I know what to cook but my usual habit of thinking a bit beforehand about the setup for the photo doesn't always work and then I depend on finding something that triggers my imagination among my props. This time I found a tea cup lid in metal, you can see it in the background, that I bought recently together with Merisi when she visited me here in Pistoia and with that in my hand, I grabbed the two pinkish-red pieces of fabric, an old patterned plate and then a painted whitish board and suddenly realized I had gone completely froufrou!



And that is one of the wonderful, liberating things about food photography-the freedom of styles to use! I love that I am allowed to indulge in any possible style that I feel like trying out, my personal style is quite there anyway and though I lean towards a more minimalist approach as a person, it is so fun to be able to play around-it's a bit like playing in a doll's house if you understand what I mean. Now I try this and now I try that, moving around the pieces and colours to see what happens and having the best of times. Sometimes I do realize how lucky I am to work with what I do and today is one of those days! On the other hand, to someone else, my job could mean a nightmare so yet again: everything is relative. N.B. that I now restrained myself from starting a ramble about the jobs I would find deadly boring, take note and be grateful!

It's time to bake with apples, maybe even a bit late but no, it's never too late for an apple cake or, in this case, an apple bread. A sweet apple bread with almond topping and cinnamon too, in my humble opinion this is good comfort food!

SWEET APPLE BREAD WITH ALMOND TOPPING
 1 big one

75 g/2,6 oz butter
300 ml/ 1,3 cup milk
25 g/ 2,8 oz fresh yeast (this conversion table might help you)
80 g/ 2,8 oz sugar
600 g/ 21 oz AP flour
1 pinch of salt

topping:
4 apples, medium sized
4 + 4 tblsp sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
50 g/ 1,8 oz blanched almonds
50 g/ 1,8 oz butter, room temperature soft
1 egg

 Melt the butter in a small saucepan and then add the milk, warm to finger warm. While the butter melts, crumble the yeast and sprinkle the sugar over so the yeast starts melting on its own. Add a little of the milk to dissolve the yeast completely, done that add the rest of the milk and stir well.

 Start adding the flour, stirring all the time so that you have a smooth dough. Take it and and knead it on a flour dusted work space for 4-5 minutes. Add a little flour if the dough is too sticky.

 Put the dough in a greased bowl and let it rise for about 1 hour or until it has doubled.

 While the dough rests, peel the apples and cut them into thin strips or small dice. Put in a bowl. add 4 tblsp sugar and the cinnamon and mix it all.

 Put the rest of the ingredients for the topping, almonds, flour, sugar and butter, in a mixer and whizz until you have a crumbly mix.

  When the dough is ready, box it down lightly and either roll or push it out into a rectangle that is around 1,5 cm/ 0,6 in high. Now you can make a big one 30x35 cm/11,8x13,8 in on a baking sheet or you can make two smaller ones, the choice is yours.

 Whisk the egg and brush the dough with it, then spread out the apples over the surface and finsh with sprinkling the topping evenly over it all.

 Bake in a pre-heated oven (200°C/390°F) for 15- 20 minutes or until the apple bread is golden.

Hello Again Links on Sunday!

It's time for me to at least try to get back to my Sunday Links feature again,  I enjoy sharing things I like or that caught my eye during the week with you, maybe you like them too!

Beautiful leaves, I don't know how he makes them!

I love street artists!

Sometimes I wonder if they are real...

This is a really nice place especially for me with a past as a lecturer on the history of book illustration.

A lot of work but the result must be fantastic-it looks great too!

She is a lovely person and how she writes! Mona! and the Chef is not bad either...

 

Tuscan Peasant Cooking at its best - Eggs, Peas and Pancetta

 I often get asked if I'm interested in reviewing cookbooks but most of the time the food of the books is so different from what I cook and propose here on Lucullian that I decline. That was not the case when I was asked to review Pamela Sheldon John's new cookbook Cucina Povera-Tuscan Peasant Cooking, I got the email and I answered Yes please! within a minute. I knew she had been working on it and I was very curious to see what the cookbook was like, which approach she had taken and, obviously, what the photography was like! I had high expectations and I was not disappointed, quite the contrary. Pamela has written many cookbooks on Italian cooking and although I have not seen all of them, I think this is her best so far.

I have a penchant for older Italian women in the kitchen, they never disappoint me with their food and Cucina Povera is filled with recipes from old women who have scrimped and saved and cooked through the poor years of WWII and the hard years afterwards. The Tuscan cuisine is not a fancy one, it is quite rustic and very much based of basic staple food like bread, beans and vegetables grown in the own plot. Sure, they do eat a lot of meat too but if you take a look at what can be considered the signature dishes of Tuscany, it all boils down to dishes that are made from those ingredients. Tuscan food is comfort food and when you read Pamela's well researched introduction on you realize why food became a comfort during times when life was far from easy and food not that easy to find but in a  region based on basically an agrarian culture, Tuscans learnt how to cook up simple but deeply satisfying meals. And that is what you find in Cucina Povera, it is filled with wonderful recipes and stories she has collected from people she has met and the book is filled with superb photos by Andrea Wyner. This is not only a cookbook to use for good recipes, it is also a book to read and to enjoy visually and as you probably have gathered from what I have just written-I really recommend it!

 The recipe I have made was chosen for two reasons, the first was that I just couldn't resist the old lady that you can see in the above snapshot,  Marelia, she stole my heart. The second reason is that this is a typical example of what Cucina Povera is about, three simple ingredients that is cooked and transformed into a tasty and nutritious dish.

EGGS, PEAS AND PANCETTA or UOVA AI PISELLI ALLA MARELIA
serves 4

60 ml/ 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
c 60 g/ 2 oz pancetta, diced (I used a little more)
240 ml/ 1 cup water
c 500 g/ 1 pound fresh or frozen peas
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat an oven to 190°C/375°F. Lightly oil four 240ml/1 cup ramekins.

 In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, and sauté the onion and pancetta for 2to 3 minutes, or until softened but not browned. Add the water and bring to a boil.

 Add the peas, decrease the heat to a brisk simmer, and cook for 3 minutes.

 Drain the peas and divide them among the prepared ramekins. Make a well in the center of each cup of peas and crack an egg into the well. Season with salt and pepper to taste, cover with aluminio foil and place on a baking sheet.

 Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the egg white is set. Serve at once.

An Autumn treat to consider - Pumpkin Risotto with Mushrooms and Toasted Pine Nuts

Food obviously played an important role at the Plate To Page Tuscany Workshop and we did eat in between all the work. One of the dishes was this risotto that I am posting here on request. I used a pumpkin but winter squash is perfectly fine too and you can use any mushroom you can get your hands on (though not poisonous ones I hope).  I never used to cook with pumpkin or winter squash before moving to Italy but I am happy I do now, it does lend itself to so many different kinds of dishes and its sweetness often adds an extra flavour dimension. Not to talk about how nice it is to shoot, not that I got too carried away today because the rain is drizzling down and the light is grey and sad. And my oldest daughter left for Sweden again after 10 days at home. Not that we saw her that much but at least we knew she was here now and then. So please excuse my boring post and the uninspired photos, I'll work on a change of mood for the next post later this week. 

PUMPKIN  RISOTTO WITH MUSHROOMS AND TOASTED PINE NUTS
4 servings

500 g/ 17.64 oz Arborio or Carnaroli rice, I used Riso Gallo, kindly provided by one of our sponsors
400 g/ 14.1 oz of pumpkin cut into small dice
1 medium onion or ½ leek
 a splash of white wine, I used a Bisol Prosecco
Ca 2 l/ca 8 cups good chicken or vegetable stock
200 g/ 7 oz mushrooms, cut into pieces
4-6 tbls pine nuts

a good handful of parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Butter or extra-virgin olive oil if you want to be healthy

 Slice the onion thinly and dice the pumpkin.

 Braise the onion gently with a generous piece of butter in a casserole or pot with a thick bottom . When the onion is transparent, you add the pumpkin and continue to braise for 3-4 minutes on medium heat. Or longer if the pumpkin seems to require it.

 Add the rice and continue to braise for some minutes, stirring all the time so that every grain of it is covered in butter. Add a good splash of white wine, cook and let it evaporate a little.

 Begin to add the first couple a ladles of stock and then go on cooking, stirring all the time until it is time to add the next ladle of stock. And this is how you have to go on until the rice is cooked and the risotto is creamy but not runny or loose, adding ladle after ladle, always stirring.

 While you work on the risotto you need to cook the mushrooms until all the water has evaporated, salt and put them aside. Toast the pine nuts in a non-stick pan and put aside.

 When the risotto is ready, add the mushrooms, pine nuts and the parmesan and stir well. Check the salt and add a knob of butter. Let it rest for a couple of minutes and serve.

Plate To Page Tuscany image by image

 Almost a week after the in my eyes, wonderful Plate To Page Tuscany workshop, I think it is time I post some photo impressions. A few things to say before I leave you with the photos, the first is a big Thank You to our participants:
some of them at work


 Marta | Kate | Valentina | Lynn | Alexandra | Elizabeth | Hayley | 
Olivia | Heidi | Robin | Denise | Judith

a few of the sponsor products and setups for our shoots


and to our generous sponsors:
ZWILLING J.A. HENCKELS | Sunchowder’s Emporia | Taste of Home | Gourmelli | Smaromi |Peppadew International | Bisol Prosecco | Riso Gallo | Nielsen-Massey | 
TABASCO® | Matcha Factory 


and the second is that we have announced the next Plate To Pace venue here so now all you have to do is to keep your eyes open for when we open up for the registration!




  I suggest you to take a look at Meeta's and Jamie's blog posts about the P2P, Jeanne's is coming up soon, as well!