Out Of Order

Sorry, my friends, but it looks like our home computer decided to leave us, at least for a while and I won't therefore be able to update my blog until it comes home.
We took it to the "doctor" and it seems like that's where it's going to be for a while.
I'm still cooking though. Will tell you all about it as soon as "we" are in a better shape.
For my "so-called-students": please contact me by phone for booking your lessons, as I can only seldom check my email. Thank you.
Ciao ciao,
dani

Sometimes Cooking Can Wait

Yesterday my little man turned 3. I love you Nicholas, be happy.

I Am Stuffed!

Ravioli, tortellini, cappelletti…I love stuffed pasta. It offers a million possibilities for the filling, from the traditional to the most daring and experimental ones, and many possible shapes too. Plus it is fun to make. I did not say anything like “quick” or “practical”. I said fun. Actually, I must correct myself on the second one: if you decide you are going to spend an afternoon making ravioli and you make a good quantity and freeze what you do not eat right away, the day you will pop the bag out of the freezer and amaze your guests with your own homemade ravioli, ready in 5 minutes from freezer to plate, you will secretly tell yourself they’re “practical” too.

I recently had a cooking lesson with a group of ladies and we had a lot of fun making three different types:
· Some traditional “ravioli di magro” (ricotta cheese and spinach) with a light cherry tomato sauce
· Some filled with “salsiccia e mascarpone” (sausage and mascarpone cheese) topped with some “funghi al verde” ( sautéed mushroom with garlic and parsley)
· Tomato, mozzarella and basil inside, Mediterranean sauce made with shallot, capers, anchovies and pine nuts
I am not particularly fond of those with a sweet filling (some use pears, amarettos …) while I especially love those with seafood and/or vegetables. If I had to make my own hit list, it would see “scallop ravioli with brandy and pink pepper sauce” on top, but the very simple eggplant ravioli will follow right after.

A trip to Texarkana, TX - where everything meets everything: states, roads, people and even food

From the “visitors guide” of the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce site:

"Although many have contended for the honor, it's not known officially who gave Texarkana its name. One popular version credits a Colonel Gus Knobel (…) who marked the name "TEX-ARK-ANA" on a board and nailed it to a tree with the statement, "This is the name of a town which is to be built here." It was believed at the time that the Louisiana boundary was just a few miles to the south (actually it is only 25), and Colonel Knobel, in selecting the city's name, derived it from TEXas, ARKansas, and LouisiANA. "

Most of my husband’s family lives in this town in northern Texas with this particular name. I always love to go there, mainly because I sincerely love those people, but not only that. The atmosphere is great and this idea of a place where three states meet has always fascinated me, maybe because our own family is quite an interesting melting pot itself, so what better place to have us all merging together?





This side of the family can definitely cook and when I go there I always have a lot to learn. During this trip in particular we cooked one dinner together, a “tex-alian” dinner you might say, mixing what we know and what we like and the result was definitely satisfying for everybody, if you can measure that from that one sentence everybody would say as soon as they walked into the house: “Boy, it smells good in here!”





There were some perfectly smoked pork loins going hand in hand with broccoli and sausage farfalle pasta, traditional cornbread sitting by baked cauliflowers in béchamel sauce and much more. Of course I had to make my beloved Miscati












I know I might be boring repeating one more time that cooking basically means “love” to me: the love that you find, breath, smell and taste in a family kitchen where people are happy to be right where they are, among those few faces that really make a difference in their lives.

CAPRESE – The “Not-For-Everyone" Cake

Capri (that’s the root of the term “caprese”) is one of the beautiful islands of my Country. It’s a little jewel on the sea and it gave the name at least to a couple interesting dishes of the Italian traditional cuisine.

One is the refreshing, nutrient salad that everyone knows and that you can find in almost every Italian family dinner menu in the summertime, when everyone is just too tired or too hot to cook: tomato and fresh mozzarella, a few leaves of basil, olive oil.

The other, maybe less famous but certainly not less important or less interesting, is this intriguing sinful chocolate cake. It might not have the looks that some more renowned chocolate cakes have: no pretty icing, no rich filling, no attractive decoration, but I promise you it just tastes great. Like those precious things that you need to WANT to discover, looking beyond what’s obvious to everyone. And when you do you consider yourself very fortunate.
It’s a cake for true dark chocolate lovers. It does not contain any flour or baking powder whatsoever, and it melts in your mouth when you have a bite. It’s simply made of dark chocolate, almonds, eggs, butter and sugar.

Even the sugar is not one of the main ingredients, as there’s not much of it so what you get is a cake that is not particularly sweet. That probably does not fit the average American taste since, generally speaking, everything here is pretty sweet. But if you are into bitter chocolate I’m pretty sure you will love this.

Just add a spoon of semi-whipped cream to it, if you like, and that’s it. It’s a test: if you’re truly a part of the chocolate lovers club, you’ll appreciate it very much.

And I Have The Nerve To Tell People I Can Cook...

Have you ever had the feeling you are not sure whether to be proud or ashamed about something? Me, this is precisely how I feel when I serve this snack with the aperitif, at my dinners.

It’s called “ostriche finte” (guess you can translate it into something like “wannabe oysters”). They have very little of the oyster, maybe just a fishy memory that comes from the little piece of anchovy that’s on them, but that is how the Venetian nonna (grandma) who taught me how to make them called them and, of course, who am I to change their name, right?

All in all it’s only a bunch of poor, even “junk-food-like” ingredients, but the combination of them (strictly to be put in your mouth in one single bite, that’s the rule) creates a strange mix of taste and texture that is absolutely interesting and definitely pleasant.

Even my more sophisticated friends back in Italy (right Silvia?) had to admit that this strange appetizer is something worth munching on while waiting for dinner to start and she even promised me she was going to talk about them on her own blog. Talk about a hit with zero effort, here…

What’s the secret formula? Here, write it down, you’ll thank me for this:
· Potato chips
· Lemon (thinly sliced, zest on)
· Mayonnaise or soft butter
· Anchovies
What you do is cut the lemon slices into very small triangles and the anchovies in equally small pieces. You then put on top of each chip a drop of mayo or creamy butter, whatever you prefer, and using that as if it was glue, add a piece of lemon and a piece of anchovies to it. If you serve it on a nice plate it is EVEN going to look good!

Here is my "gourmet" appetizer for today. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Cheese, fruits & C.

I have never been particularly fond of mixing the sweet taste with other tastes like sour or salted. With one exception and that is when cheese is involved.
I love cheese with fresh fruits, honey or homemade preserves. Here are a few ideas from my experiments:

pears with taleggio cheese and walnuts
semi-hard tuscan pecorino cheese with an orange, onion and vinegar preserve (it's a friend's recipe, especially made to go with cheese)



sweet emmenthal with apricots or grapes or cherry tomatoes (I know that's not fruit, but maybe the "cherry" in the name counts?). Plus, the plate needed a touch of color ;-)



apricots with cream cheese and honey
kiwi with robiola cheese and pink pepper




Cute and tasty, aren't they?