"SPRINGTIME ITALIAN DINNER" Cooking Class

Thursday, May 6th
6:00 pm
Springtime Italian Dinner


The good weather is here and it’s time to lighten up our dinner, using more good vegetables, more fresh herbs, less of the bad fats and lighter cooking styles.
Are you up for the challenge? If so, please join me for my next group class where I will share a few ideas with you, according to the usual “Dani-style”: tasty but easy! New friends are welcome, so please share the news!

MINESTRONE

I might have mentioned this before but I am going to say it again. I LOOOOOOOVE SOUPS!

Minestrone is no exception to the rule: yummy comfort food! Even now that I make it any time of the year and not just in the Summer like I used to do back at home.

I know: here in the U.S. most people feel that soups are mainly a winter (or at least cold-weather) dish, but if you think of it, what's more "in season" in the summertime than all the wonderful vegetables that make a good Minestrone? Plus, if you eat it lukewarm or even cold it's so refreshing too!

When people ask me if I can give them the recipe for my minestrone I always smile. It is against the concept of Minestrone itself to call for a recipe! Let me explain: ideally you go to the garden in your backyard during a summer evening, pick whatever is ripe and ready on that particular day/time, bring it inside and the next morning you dice every single vegetable, chop, mince, add cold water and salt and boil until cooked. Then you adjust with salt and pepper, add your favorite shape of noodle and cook it (I often skip this step, though: I like mine better without pasta). Then pour it in your bowl, drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive oil and gulp it down, enjoying every spoonful of it!

Whether there is a little more carrot or a little less celery, more beans or less zucchini it is not for you to decide: it's the garden! So don't let anybody fool you with the "perfect recipe" for Minestrone! Just use your senses and do in the produce section of your favorite supermarket (or favorite farmers' market, Shylah ;-) ) what my grandma used to do in her own garden and simply pick what you think looks, smell, taste at its best! THAT will be the perfect Minestrone!

Sugo Finto (Fake Sauce)

I love this name. It's a confession. It's a "don't tell me I did not warn you". This is a traditional Tuscan sauce that was basically invented to smell, taste and satisfy your palate and your belly the way a ragu' would, without the shadow of a piece of meat in the pot. That’s why the definition of "finto", "fake", was given.

This was back in the days when meat was a treat, an "upgrade" of the meal that we could not often afford. Veggies and herbs, even lots of them like you can find in here, in order to give this sauce the same texture a good ragu' has, were grown in the garden in the backyard, so those were never really a problem instead.

It takes the same basic steps to make this "sugo", the same attention, time and dedication that a good meat sauce would require. Cheaper, though, like I stated above. I would not be so sure to affirm the same, nowadays, when you need to rob a jewelry store before stopping by a farmers' market.

Funny though how so often the best ideas came out of poverty and hunger. In the Italian cuisine it happened all the time!

Happy Holidays!

With my son's smile I wish each and one of you, Cucinamore's friends, plenty of good things, inside and outside your kitchens!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Daniela

FLAVORS OF WINTER -Tuesday, December 15th - 6:00 pm

(Prosecco and Truffle Risotto)



Are you working on your menus for those special dinners during the Holidays?
Could you use a little help to make them deliciously different but still as simple as they can be?
Join me for this group class where I will share a few ideas with you, according to the usual “Dani-style”: tasty but easy!

This is what we are going to prepare together for our “festive” class.

See you there!



Mortadella and Pistacchi Mousse

Prosecco and Truffle Risotto

Rosa di Parma
(Hand-rolled tenderloin with Prosciutto and Parmigiano )

Sicilian “Fennel and Orange” Salad





(Rosa di Parma)

An Italian Touch to our Thanksgiving

How can you fit lasagne in a Thanksgiving dinner? I found a way!

I made my friend Michele's "Lasagne Zucca e Porri" (Pumkin and Leeks), a classic on the table of my "Cooker.net" circle of italian friends.

Color, aroma and taste were perfectly tuned with the big day: an orange and gold dish, warm and tasty, with a touch of spice from the nutmeg in the béchamel sauce.

I was happy I got a chance to contribute to the meal, remaining in my culinary territory but still without disrupting the traditional atmosphere.

Home Sweet Home

I went home.

Finally back to my beloved Italy after almost two years.

Food wise I will sum it all up by saying I put on about 5 pounds in 20 days. I guess that can crazily be considered a good sign among us weirdoes ;-)
I will have chances in my next posts to talk about this or that dish, this or that ingredient I stumbled upon during this trip, but today I want to share with you a wonderful experience I made, instead, that does not involve cooking for once.

I got to spend a whole long weekend in Tuscany, at my friend Betta's place, harvesting olives for the new oil of the season.

There is something about doing this work, those simple gestures, no mechanic help, just your hands and the tree, that gives you some sort of unnatural inner peace. Why "unnatural"? Well, we all live in a frantic world, we are all running around in our lives hardly ever finding time to stop. So at the beginning it feels strange to be there with your thoughts, busy hands and free mind, in a place and situation where time seems to have stopped and you feel like you have eternity in your hands.

Am I exaggerating? I don't know. I can only say that it's exactly the way I felt.

Figure I wasn't even alone: there were a bunch of funny friends on the hills with me, needless to say. We laughed, talked, sang and had a great time. But then there were those pauses where everyone seemed to be in their own world. I think it was therapeutic for us all. The newbies and the experts. And God only knows we can all use some good therapy sometimes ;-)

It's been great and I defintely recommend it to all of you. If you ever have a chance to go to Italy during the late fall/early winter let me know: I can hook you up with Betta. She always appreciates a couple extra hands for the job. You won't regret the hard work.

So now I'm back, people. See you around, my friends. But before you go, please check this out and let me know what you think: OLIVIADI 2009 - MARCO D'ELIA