Whoopsie daisy! I was so happy when I discovered I won the last Hay Hay it’s Donna Day event hosted by Mardi with my Strawberry Cheesecake pots! Since I truly admire Donna Hay and her simple and essential recipes, I’m really proud to be the hostess of the next HHDD event. My task is to choose a recipe, invite you all to recreate the chosen recipe and send them in to my by the end of the month. I will post a roundup on Monday the 5th of July and ask all the readers to vote on which interpretation they like best announcing a winner (and the next host/ess) on July 15th.

Rules of Entry:

1. Hay Hay it’s Donna Day is open to all food and wine bloggers.
2. Entries submitted for HHDD must be made specifically for the current round of this event, although photos may be submitted to photo competitions such as “Does My Blog Look Good In This.”
3. The host will select, make and post an original Donna Hay recipe without any changes. Participants may make that exact same recipe as is, or put their own spin on the same recipe by altering an ingredient or two, while remaining within the theme.
4. Entrants must include a link to the host (that’s me – en.julskitchen.com) and the facilitator (that’s Denise – www.chezus.com) in their entry post.
5. Entries can be made at any time once the event has been announced, but must be posted and emailed to me by the closing date, the end of the month.
6. The host then assembles all the entries together into a roundup (posted before the 5th of the month), from where the participants of the round vote to elect a new host for the following event (voting must be done before the 10th of the month).
7. Denise is going to try to keep this event going on a monthly bases, with an announcement of the new theme on the 15th of the month.
8. With your entry please include the following:

• The Name & URL of your blog
• Your Name
• Your Location
• Name of your recipe
• The URL or the permalink to your entry.
• A photo of your recipe if you have. You do not have to re-size it, but it should be less than 1MB.

Twitter: Follow HHDD on Twitter to keep up to date with all the latest.  Tweet about the event using #HHDD.

I decided to choose a soup. Why a soup? Mainly because I’ve browsed through all previous HHDD entries and there weren’t soups in the list, then because it’s getting colder and rainy outside, nothwithstanding the upcoming summer, so I was feeling like a soup, last but not least because I happened to find this delicious cup and I fell desperately in love with it!

It was utterly delicious! The fresh mint aroma is light and fits perfectly with pink pepper, ideal to create an aromatic blend, perfect either hot, warm or cold! And now, com’on!! Start thinking at this soup and send me your email by the end of the month!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Hay Hay it’s Donna Day: Pea and mint soup

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2. Green peas and asparagus soup, with a coconut hint
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Life has a different taste when you get home from work and there is still sun, light and a few hours to play a bit in the kitchen and with your camera. It ’s like entering another dimension and another life, made of genuine products, slow cooked soups, countryside walks and precious moments of reflection, soft talks with your sister while you’re shredding vegetables. You can smell wet grass, the  shadows lengthen and the pot mutters releasing all its fragrances.

You often ask me how this is possible, how to live a life like that – a life that I often feel to be on the boundary in between the life of the Tuscan countryside and the English one… well, these are just precious moments! I’m costantly in pursuit of this unstable and variable equilibrium searchng for it into few moments and gestures. Then, I try to buit a mental story around those precious moments, whose effects make me live for a while plunged into a dream that reconciles me with reality. So here’s my secret: I am a common employee for 90% of the time, with rhythms and moods and whims of a common clerk, but in the remaining 10% of the time I chase simple gestures, colors and natural flavors, true smells and deep feelings that, added all together, bring me to that life that I really desire.

The gesture that I chose this time to enter my dream life was that simple, mechanical and fun gesture of shelling fresh green peas to make a soup with crunchy vegetables and a remote Thai hint given by the coconut milk.

Ingredientg:

• fresh green peas, about 300 gr
• asparagus, 1 bunch
• potatoes, 2 medium
• coconut milk powder*, 5 tablespoons
• salt
• shallot, 1 thinly sliced
  
• mint, a few leaves
  
• extravirgin olive oil
  

Shell green peas and keep them apart. Clean the asparagus, removing the woody part of the stalks. Cut off the asparagus tips and put them aside. Trim asparagus stalks. Peel the potatoes and dice them. Finely slice a shallot.

Heat a few tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil in a nonstick heavy bottomed pan  and stew slowly shallots with a few tablespoons of water. Add diced potatoes slices of asparagus, cover with water, season with salt and cook for 10 minutes after it starts to boil. Blend the soup until smooth with an immersion mixer, adding hot water if you prefer the soup more liquid. Now add the coconut milk powder, mint leaves and season with salt again, if needed. Add the asparagus tips and fresh green peas and let simmer over low heat for about ten minutes.

(*) I used coconut milk powder that can be replaced with fresh or canned coconut milk, or even dried coconut in the lack of better!

Tasting moment. Serve hot or warm, you’ll feel the fragrance of fresh peas and asparagus, which happily crunch under your teeth, enhanced by the sweetness and soft aroma of coconut milk. All with very few calories, what can you ask more?!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Green peas and asparagus soup, with a coconut hint

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We say ‘come after the smoke of candles’ (refferred to the Mass) when you arrive very late on things that need to be made. It is a common say perfect for this occasion, since I’m posting my pictures of  Taste almost two weeks from that day, a really fun and interesting day, spent with great pleasure and shared with a few foodblogger friends – Carolina, Silvia, Aurelia e Francesca . But before telling you that Saturday with a selecion of images, smells and tastes, let me show you this fast and delicious recipe made to try wheat Matt pasta produced by Selezioni Monograno del Pastificio Felicetti.

In our noisy and laughing tour between exhibitors stands, we focused on Pastificio Felicetti stand – attracted by refined and elegant packaging. While we were there, a question naturally arose: what is Durum wheat Matt? I discovered with surprise that Durum wheat Matt is one of the best wheat in the world, is grown in Apulia and Sicily and makes excellent pasta, with the smell of fresh bread and a touch and taste a step above the others!

We left Taste with a 250gr pack of spaghetti for each of us, with a great desire to try it. As Silvia, I bought a pack of peperoni cruschi* – beautiful bright and red, and I decided to use them in the recipe, along with ricotta (white) and pistachio (green) for a delicious pasta, with an Italian look and taste!

::::: SPAGHETTI WITH RICOTTA CHEESE, PEPPERS AND PISTACHIOS :::::

Ingredients:

• organic ricotta cheese, 250 gr
• peperoni cruschi* – peppers typical from Lucania, sweet and red, essiccated and fried
• pistachios
• organic lemon peel
• salt and pepper
• spaghetti, 250 gr

While the pasta cooks in salted water, mix ricotta cheese with a ladleful of cooking water and season with salt, pepper and grated lemon peel. Crush the pistachios in a mortar to grind into crumbs – larger and smaller. Drain the pasta, season with ricotta, pistachios and then crumble over some crusco peppers to add a touch of color and a sweet and crunchy sensation.

And now … a gallery of photos to describe with pictures – more than words – the beautiful day spent at Taste!

Il Genovese snc, www.pesto.net, by Emanuela Nicora e Roberto Panizza… the best basil pesto ever tasted!

Le Saittole, www.lesaittole.com, with a wide selection of extra virgin olive oil and black kalamata olives, with an unusual and delicious blackberry aftertaste.

Fil di Fumo – Friul Trout, www.friultrota.it, excellent! To mention the great enthusiasm and passion of people who love to explain their products.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Taste this! Pasta with peppers and pistachios

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One recipe, two names: malfatti (badly made) in Siena, gnudi (naked) in Florence. The result is still guaranteed, whether you want to speak in the language of Tozzi* and feel yourself in the center of the world in the Piazza del Campo, or you want to use the spoken language of Pratolini**, and get lost in the streets of San Frediano. Malfatti, because their characteristic is to be irregular, different, home made and a bit lumpy. Gnudi because they are ultimately the filling for ravioli, without the external dress of home-made pasta!

However they are called, these dumplings of spinach and ricotta are characterized by the same easy execution and certainly by the same deliciousness: they are good and simple, their few ingredients remind us of family dinners, of women around a table who move their hands automatically and wisely, while the words fly and go to pay a visit – in a round of gossip and confidences – to neighbors and relatives.

Ingredients (serve 6):

• spinach, 500 gr previously boiled and squeezed
• fresh ricotta cheese, 500 gr
• eggs, 2
• salt and pepper
• grated Paresan cheese
• nutmeg
• flour

Whether fresh or frozen spinach, the important thing is that once boiled in salted water you drain them well and squeeze them with your hands (only when they are cold, be careful!). Leave them for a few hours in a colander. Sautée spinach in a pan with a splash of extra virgin olive oil and once cool chop them with a knife finely. Mix spinach with the same weight of fresh ricotta (I used an organic ricotta made with cow milk). Add at least 4 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese.

Season with salt and pepper, add grated nutmeg, then add 2 eggs to the mixture: mix well to form a soft mass. Now is time to put your hands in action!

Use plenty of flour to shape small balls with your hands – large more or less like hazelnuts – so that flour can make a protective film and prevent malfatti to melt into boiling water. Put them on a tray spaced from each other until you’ve finished.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook malfatti in batches. When they float to the surface  - very few minutes, sometimes it only takes one – lift them out a slotted spoon and season them to serve. They are excellent served with tomato sauce and grated cheese, or if you search for something more appetizing…

Try malfatti baked in the oven with grated smoked ricotta cheese (a delicious ricotta cheese from Calabria) and smoked Prague ham, cut into strips or cubes: the delicacy of malfatti suits beautifully with the smoked sensation of cottage cheese and smoked ham.

* Federigo Tozzi, Senese writer 1883 – 1929, is the author of famous works as with Con gli occhi chiusi (With closed eyes) or Tre Croci (Three Crosses).

** Vasco Pratolini, Florentine writer 1913 – 1991, is the author of famous novels (and very beautiful) as Cronache di poveri amanti (Chronicle of Poor Lovers), or Le ragazze di San Frediano (Girls of San Frediano).

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Granda Menna’s Kitchen: malfatti. Two recipes

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I have already told you that my big, noisy, lively and warm family comes – as regards my father branch – from Lucania, in the South of Italy: Grandpa Biagio, in fact, was born in Rapolla (PZ) and raised in Melfi, where still live many uncles, aunts and cousins. A branch of the family lives since many years here in the province of Siena, and I think I can adfirm, without doing an injustice to anyone, that Aunt Teresa is the most representative example of the cuisine from Melfi in Tuscany.

In the early decades of the twentieth century my family had a small restaurant, the Trattoria Giardino, in Melfi. The owner was Felice Scarpaleggia, the grandfather – and namesake – of my father. It was in the market square, just below the Bank of Naples, and often in my uncles stories you can find traces of memories of those times. The only concrete track that remains today are two dishes that still bear designed the logo of the restaurant, which are carefully preserved in the display case with the Chinese cups from my great-grandparents. To make the photos I had to make application on stamped paper, eh eh eh … Do you see the restaurant in the lower right of the picture?

::::: Sàgn’ a lu’ fuòrn’ :::::

Ingredients:

• fresh lasagne pasta, 300gr (pasta sheet, not made with eggs)
• smoked scamorza (a king of cheese, firm and savoury)
• grated ‘Pecorino’ cheese (sheep’s milk cheese)
• spicy sausage
• boiled eggs, 2
• burro

Tomato sauce ingredients:

• tomato sauce, 1 lt
• red onion, 1
• extravirgin olive oil
• salt
• basil
• braciolina (I mean a slice of veal to be cooked in tomato, wrapped in on itself and tied with twine, filled only with salt and rosemary or even with an omelette and ham)

Small meat balls:

• veal mince meat, 200 gr
• eggs, 2
• garlic, 1 clove
• breadcrumbs, 3 large tablespoons
• grated ‘Pecorino’ cheese, 3 large tablespoons
• parsley
• flour
• salt
• olive oli to fry

Let’s begin with tomato sauce: it will take about 3 hours so it’s good to take a whole afternoon of time and have patience! Chop finely onion and sautée  in extra virgin olive oil. Add meat and brown it on each side, then pour in the tomato sauce and cook over low heat for about two hours. Check frequently the tomato sauce: let it cook slowly, adding a bit of water to help cook – if needed.

Now is the time to make meatballs. Combine in a bowl mincemeat, garlic and chopped parsley, bread crumbs, cheese, salt, pepper and eggs. Mix well with a fork and shape small balls with your hands, slightly larger than a pea, flour them and fry in hot olive oil: remove them from the pan when they are golden and let them to dry on a sheet of towel paper.

At this point, about two hours have passed since the tomato sauce is cooking: remove the meat and add meatballs: let them simmer in the sauce for another hour. If you want, you can slice the meat andeat with pickles, says Aunt Teresa!

Now it’s time to make lasagna: pour a few tablespoons of tomato sauce and meatballs on the bottom of a baking dish, make one layer of pasta sheet, then sliced boiled eggs and more sauce and meatballs again. This time add the slices of spicy sausage, sauce and meatballs, lasagne sheet and sliced smoked scamorza. Keep on making layers with your ingredients. Usually they make 4 or 5 layers, at least! It should be pretty high and rich!

Cover with grated cheese, tomato sauce and meat balls and a few knobs of butter. Cook in hot oven at 200 °C for about 40 minutes, until top is golden, brown and crispy.

I find it hard to call this recipe a first course, given the rich harmony of flavors and ingredients, but actually during our family lunches, this is a first course, followed by second course and side dishes and desserts… so welcome once again in my family!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Rich Lasagne from the South of Italy

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As soon as I had the first bite, I was in love. This risotto is not included into the culinary traditions of my family: before last Sunday, nobody had ever heard of it, I must tell the truth!
The first time I tasted it was in the restaurant of a friend, Barbara – she propose it as extra menu dish to give me a try: I was fascinated from the richeness of flavors and from the way the taste of reed tripe was enhanced by the preparation and the rice. I had no idea of the recipe, so when I found myself with leftover reed tripe I tried to figure out a way to make this risotto, but in the end I discovered that my procedure does not differ much from the traditional recipe of Florence, where reed tripe is not only well known, but I would say celebrated, part of the culinary tradition of the city.

Let us see how to recycle the leftover reed tripe, or – changing perspective – how to make a slightly unusual risotto!

Ingredients for 4 people:

• reed tripe, about 500 gr
• celery, 2 stalks
• red onion, 1 (half for the stock and half for the risotto)
• carrots, 1
• ripe tomatoes, 2
• salt
• rice, 400 gr (a creamy rice to make risotto)
• extra virgin olive oil
• Parmesan cheese
• ground black pepper

As you can see, the ingredients are almost the same as last recipe for the making of reed tripe panino. Add all the ingredients in a pot of cold water: reed tripe – previously rinsed – celery, onion, carrot and tomatoes. Add a generous handful of salt.
When the water begins to boil, cook the reed tripe for about an hour, so that it becomes soft and gives all its flavor to the broth.

When an hour has passed, remove the pan from heat and drain well reed tripe, cut it into thin stripes of about 1 cm wide and 5 cm long.
I make risotto with extra virgin olive oil, but you can also follow the tradition and use the butter: cover the bottom of a nonstick skillet with extravirgin olive oil and then sautee the onion, chopped finely. Add reed tripe and rice and stir to toast and flavor the rice. Then cook the rice adding gradually reed tripe broth: remember to stir often, because doing so the rice will release its starch and become much more creamy, without the addition of ‘helping’ tricks!

Once cooked, add a few tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese and mix with conviction and strenght the risotto. Serve with a freshly ground black pepper.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: reed tripe risotto

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My aim today was to make a first course: choose a traditional recipe and make something new out of it. I decided to choose as starting point the most classic meat sauce, changing somthing on the way! First of all, the kind of meat: not veal nor pork, rabbit instead – white, light, Tuscan. Then, the cooking method: I decided to to use tomato as in the usual meat sauce. Finally, I cut rabbit with a sharp knife by hands, to have a rough and rustic sauce. My idea was to create a sauce similar for taste and look to a traditional meat dish we really appreciate in my family, pot roasted rabbit.

To give a special taste to this recipe, you need special ingredients to enrich the dish with deep taste and freshness… have a look in the following picture!

The dish would have been totally different without this excellent Garofalo pasta, an organic lemon and a good quality lard.

::::: PASTA WITH RABBIT MEAT SAUCE, LARD AND LEMON PEEL :::::

Ingredients:

• rabbit, 1/2
• rabbit liver, about 100 gr
• carrot, 1 medium
• celery, 1 stalk
• scallion, 1
• sage, about 10 leaves
• rosmary, 1 sprig
• extra virgin olive oil
• white wine, about 100 ml
• salt and pepper
• organic lemon
• lard

Bone the rabbit. I’m not able to bone anything, but armed with patience, meat scissors and a sharp knife I removed al the meat from the bone. Pay attention not to leave untrustworthy little bones hides into the meat. I obtained about 400 gr of rabbit meat and diced it thinly. Keep the liver entire: if your rabbit is without liver, you can buy it separately.

Chop carrot, scallion and celery thinly. Cover the bottom of a non stick pan with extra virgin olive oil and add the chopped vegetables, sage leaves and a sprig of rosmary. Rinse cut rabbit meat and liver under running water and put it into the pan, without draining it completely. You can turn on the fire just now. Season with salt and pepper.

After about 25 minutes, when the rabbit meat will be white and amost cooked, add white wine and let it evaporate, keeping on stirring and trying to crumble liver with a wooden spoon. After 10 more minutes – when the rabbit will be golden and the liver crumbled – the sause is ready.

Cook pasta in a largo potwith boiling salted water, according to packaging instructions. When it is cooked, drain well and season with rabbit sauce. Divide seasoned pasta into serving dishes, slice lard thinly and lay one slice over each dish, so that the heat of the pasta will melt it down. Grate lemon peel over the pasta and eat immediatly: it will give a fresh, gentel and unusual hint to the dish.  Give it a try!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Pasta with rabbit meat sauce, lard and lemon peel

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I’m proud to present you the first episode of the cooperation between Juls’ Kitchen – that’s me! – and Mettiamocilatesta.it, a project that will offer you from now on until February some good ideas for your lunch box, something that can feed and satisfy you, paying attention to ingredients’ quality and cooking process simplicity. This is our saying:

EAT QUALITY FOOD, EAT WITH CREATIVITY

Mettiamocilatesta.it – that means more or less use your brain – is a project that stress the mistake in cutting communication budget in this period of general crisis. We decided to cooperate to offer you lunch box of quality, creativity and healthy food! Let’s hit the first recipe!

::::: RICE WITH VEGETABLES :::::

Ingredients:

• Carnaroli rice, 80 – 100 gr
• zucchini, 1 medium
• carrot, 1 medium
• Parmigiano cheese
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• mint or lemon peel

Put a large pot of salted water to boil and add diced zucchini and carrot. When water boils add – after 10 minutes – rice and cook according to packaging instructions. Drain rice and vegetalbe and season with extra virgin olive oil and mint – fresh or dried – or grated lemon peel.

If you have a microwave oven in the office, you can add parmesan cheese and warm your rice at lunch time, bringing your lunch in a colourful Tupperware! If don’t have a microwave, let the rice cool in your lunch box and add parmesan when the rice is cold, then mix again! Your lunch is ready!

All you need now is a colourful tablecloth to cover your desk. You’ll have a balanced lunch: proteins from extra virgin olive oil and Parmesan cheese, vitamins and fibres form vegetables. Beside that, carrots and zucchini will flavour the rice without adding anything else. This is the proof that you can eat quality food if you just use your brain: less time, more quality!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Lunch box

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Bread soup, also known as black cabbage and beans soup, it’s one of the most popular dish in Tuscany, during cold months, it is an old recipe, typical of farmers of all times, one of those dishes you could make each and every single day for months!

It wasn’t so typical at home when my grandma was a child, as her dad didin’t liked it too much, but it was extremely appreciated by her mum and all her family. She used to make it with black cabbage, but she loved it with chard too, as the soup flavour gained sweetness and softness.

Making this soup has been a dive into the past, back to the end of the Nineteenth century, because this white and blue soup tureen belongs to Tommaso and Adele, my grandma’s grandparents, who inherited it when they left the house where they used to live with Tommaso’s brothers and sisiters and Maria and Giuseppe, the oldest ancestors we can reach in my grandma’s memories.

I’ve been witness of a powerful stream of consciousness, where pepole life were told through their objects and trasures, while my grandmother was making this dish.

This white and blue soup tureen was part of Tommaso and Adele treasure, together with a Chinese service that is still showing its past glory into my grandma cupboard.

While grandma was telling me stories about old houses built over Etruscan tombs used as cellar, of long trip to Livorno, on the coast, to visit the wonderful aunt Giulia, Tommaso’s sister, of farmers who used to change house and farm every few years, until they built the house where we are still living, in 1926, I was mesmerized by her hands, that were making this soup with experience.

::::: BREAD SOUP :::::

Ingredients:

• black cabbage, a bunch
  
• spring cabbage, a quarter of a cabbage ball
  
• savoy, a quarter of a cabbage ball
• carrotts, 2 medium
• potatoes, 3 medium
• previously boiled beans, with their cooking water, about 300 gr (dried beans weight)
• red onion, ½
• tomatoes, 3
• sliced stale bread
• extravirgin olive oil
• salt & pepper
• pork bone to flavour the soup, or 125 gr of diced bacon
  

First thing to do: boil your beans in a large pot with plentiful of water, so that you’ll be able to use bean cooking water to make your bread soup.

Chop finely onion and sautée it with olive oil in an large pot. If you don’t have a pork bone to let simmer in the soup, this is the moment to add diced bacon, to give a whip of taste to the soup. When the onion is golden, add carrots and potatoes, peeled and diced, the three kinds of cabbage, sliced into stripes not too thin (especially as regards black cabbage, it should remain visibile into the soup). Lately, add diced tomatoes.

Cover all the vegetable with beans cooking water, season with salt and pepper and let simmer for about 45 minutes, adding hot water if needed: it should remain quite watery.

Pass through a vegetable mill 2/3 of beans and add bean puree to the soup: let it simmer for other 30 minutes.

At the end, add leftover beans, check the flavour and add salt and pepper in needed, then remove form the heat.

Into a large soup tureen make a layer with stale bread slices, cover with some ladles of soup (vegetables and broth) and keep on going until you finish all the ingredients. Set aside for a few minutes and serve hot or warm.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: bread soup

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Good Morning and Happy Monday! The colour of my weekend was red! Red like my hair (I dyed my hair and now they’re like Julia Robert’s hair, a wonderful Tiziano Autumnal colour), red as my brand new car, a flaming red Kia Picanto, red as my bank account for the next 5 years…

Let’s hit now my weekend cooking experiments: as a good pupil I tried to get haed for next weeks, taking advantage of a quiet Sunday morning. The weather was wonderful, the sun warmed the air and tree colours were flaming creating and Autumnal and amazing vision. I was in search of the right ingredients to enrich a simple dish of spaghetti, when it came to mind! Nuts were the perfect ingredient, as I consider them autumnal and rich, perfect to enhance the magnificence of the day.

Ingredients (serve 4):

• hazelnuts to shell, 3 handfuls
• thinly ground almonds or almond flour, 3 full tablespoons
• cow ricotta cheese, 100 gr
• sage, 4 leaves
• garlic, 1 clove
• grated Parmesan cheese, 4 full tablespoons
• extra virgin olive oil, 4 tablespoons
• Salt & pepper
• spaghetti

Cook spaghetti in a large pot with salted boiling water, according to packaging instructions. In the meantime, shell hazelnuts and smash them in a mortar, leaving some crunchy bits. heat olive oil in a large pan with a clove of garlic and some sage leaves. When the garlic has given all its flavour to the olive oil and sage leaves are getting brown and crunchy, remove the garlic clove and add hazelnuts and almond flour and leave to toast and brown for a few minutes At this point, add ricotta cheese.

Add some spoonful of cooking water to mix ricotta cheese, season with salt and pepper and add spaghetti, once tossed. Add grated parmesan and serve wit some fresh black pepper.

Tasting moment! First of all, if you add cooking water instead of milk or cream is better, as the dish will result lighter, good thing both for your taste and your diet! Beside that, almond flour hugs and covers pasta, while hazelnuts chunks surprise at the bite and make a simple dish an interesting experience.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Rich pasta

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Good morning, good morning! And Good maniac monday too! Can I write a rapid post, can’t I? It’s such a frantic and happy period, lots of things to do, and I love doing things, being occupied with the things I love, and with my friends, too! On Sunday I organized a brunch for a friend’s Bday, it’s so amazing do what you like with your friends! I mean, cooking is great, but cooking for someone you care andseeing them happy for what you do, it’s glorious!

So, since I’m in a hurry and I got a cold, again, let’s warm the day with a velvety soup, with a warm and appetizing color, a soft and smooth consistency, a spicy and tempting flavour.

::::: CARROT SOUP :::::

Ingredients:

• medium carrots, 3
• red onion, 1/2
• granular broth, 1 tablespoon
• cumin
• salt
• extra virgin olive oil
• Greek yoghurt and chive to serve

Rinse carrots and peel them. Cut into small chunks and boil them into a pressure cooker for 15 minutes with a pinch of salt, a talbespoon of granular broth and a teaspoon of cumin.

In the meantime, pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a small non stick pot and stew thinly sliced onion for all the time carrots will cook into the pressure cooker, adding time after time some tablespoons of water, to avoid onion from buring and to cook it completely.

Remove carrots form the pressure cooker 15 minutes after it start to whistle, proceeding with caution! Add carrots to onion, let it cook for 2 minutes then mix all the ingredients with an immersion blender, adding cooking water according to the consistency you prefer. Season with salt and add a teaspoon of cumin. Serve hot with a tablespoon of Greek yoghurt and some chive.

Enjoy your soup, I must run to my English exam!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Carrot Soup

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In my family there are few strict rules that should be respected as law:

1. don’t oversleep in the morning;
2. during dinner, no cartoons! News channel or chat among us;
3. cook beans with sage, chickpeas with rosemary.

If you ask mum why beans & sage and chickpeas & rosemary, she will tell you it’s always been so! Granddad Remigio used to make this coupling, Grandma Menna still does so.

Tuscan people really love beans: in every restaurant, from posh ones to cheap ones, from genuine taverns to touristic places, you’ll find beans as side dish. Beans and pulses in general are easy to recycle in other dishes, so today I’ll show you a good way to use leftover beans. Next week, another solution!

::::: BEAN SOUP :::::

Ingredients:

• Beans
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Sage
• Tomato sauce
• Garlic
• Salt and pepper

I won’t give you quantities, as you can make this recipe by sight.

Puree boiled beans. You can use an electric blender or a classic vegetable mill: if you are making a soup for a child, it’s better if you use a vegetable mill as, doing so, you won’t incorporate air into the soup and you will avoid the risk to cause colics to this poor child. You can help yourself pureeing beans with some cooking water, according to the density you prefer.

Heat a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a saucepan with some sage leaves and a clove of garlic. When the garlic is golden and has given its flavor to the olive oil, pour in pureed beans into the pan and add 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce: your beans will be pretty pink!

Season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Let cook until beans will be flavored by olive oil and garlic and tomato will loose its raw taste. You can eat bean soup as it is, or you can boil short pasta in it, rice or spelt (I prefer spelt!).

If you have leftover bean soup, fill up plastic bottles (not to their maximum capacity, otherwise they will explode into the freezer) and freeze them. When you’ll feel like bean soup, thaw it and it will be ready to warm you during next autumnal evenings.

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Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: bean soup

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1. Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: beans ‘all’uccelletto’
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If Grandma were a dish, she would have been home made pasta, ravioli, actually!

Since I was young, Grandma used to make home made fresh pasta on holidays , she closed herself in her kitchen and she came out soon later with a wooden plate, lined with paper, dusted with semolina and full of spinach ravioli (fresh stuffed pasta, similar to dumplings).

I know, it’s strange, but if I think back at my mental shoot of those moments, the most lively detail is the tray: enourmous, strong, made by Grandad Biagio, a master with wood works.

The most popular Tuscan ravioli are those made in Maremma (a beautiful costal area located in the centre of Italy), made with a filling of ricotta cheese and spinach, sometimes with an hint of marjoram, with a wide sidewalk of pasta all around the soft heart. Grandma has always used spnach and nutmeg, they taste of Sunday, of a table layed with the best cutlery and dinner service and cloth napkins.

Ingrediens:

For the fresh homemade pasta:

• plain flour, 300 gr
• semolina flour, 200 gr
• eggs, 2
• a pinch of salt

For the filling:

• boiled spinach, 800 gr
• ricotta cheese, 400 gr
• egg, 1
• a pinch of salt
• grated nutmeg
• grated Parmesan, 4 tablespoons

Directions

For the filling:
Blend the spinach until you obtain a smooth cream. Add ricotta cheese, one egg, Parmesan and season with salt and grated nutmeg. It is supposed to be quite firm, so that it can keep its place inside the raviolo! Set aside.

For the fresh homemade pasta:
Sift the plain flour with the semolina flour, place it on a flat surface and make a well in the middle. Whisk eggs with a pinch of salt and pour them in the middle of the flour. Work flour and eggs with a fork, then start kneading the dough, pouring warm water little by little, untilthe dough gets soft, elastic and it doesn’t stick to your fingers anymore.

Now, to roll the dough you can use a classic rolling pin or the machine, with the handle or electric. We have a classic machine where you have to turn yourself the handle. It is a gift from my Grandad Biago for Grandma, it is 20 years old, but it is still brand new, as my Grandma cleans it with a little brush to remove each and every grain of flour from it every time she uses it.

The most important thing, either you’re using the rolling pin or the rolling machine, is to work it over and over again, rolling and stretching it as much as you can.

Make long thin stripes, 10 cm large. Lay them on a floured tablecloth.

Making ravioli:
You must be rapid! Otherwise the fresh pasta dries and then it’s hard to close ravioli. Keep in mind what you see in the picture! Place small spoonfull of filling onto the stripes. Cover them with another pasta stripe and press with your finger all around the filling, to seal it. Cut out ravioli with a cutter, leaving at least 2cm of pasta all around the filling.

Cooking them:
Bring a large pot of water to the boil, salt the water and pour a tablespoon of extravirgin olive oil in it: it will help you cooking ravioli, so that they won’t stick to eachother. Place a few ravioli per time into boiling water and after about 5 minutes, when they come afloat, remove them gently with a large pierced spoon and place them in a large deep plate.

Seasoning them:
My favourite one? Melt a knob of butter in a small pan with some sage leaves until they get crisp. Pour butter and sage leaves over the ravioli, sprinkle with a lot of grated Parmesan and serve hot.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: ravioli

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The tomato-bread soup (known as pappa al pomodoro) is one of the most famous and prepared dishes of our culinary tradition, with a large number of versions.

It used to be my grand-grandad favourite dish. When I was a child my grand-grandad Pietro was very old, he had a huge hand, in which my little child hand seemed to disappear. He was a bit confused, so he kept on searching for the cows in my house, where there used to be the stable before. I used to run after him, take his hand and bring him back to Grandma Marcella, saying “Where are you going Grandad? There are no more cows!” while shaking my head as a grown-up little woman.

One day Grandma Marcella left him at home: my mother’s task was to prepare lunch for Grandad Piero. He asked for pappa al pomodoro and my mother, newlywed bride, answered frankly: how can I make it? My grand-grandad answer is in the top ten of our family comic moments: “Listen to me, make some plain pasta, it’s better!”

As you’ll see, it’s not so hardo to prepare, following Grandma Marcella directions!

::::: PAPPA AL POMODORO :::::

Ingredients:

• stale Tuscan* bread, 200gr
• ripe florentine** tomatoes, 2
• garlic, 1 clove
• basil, a lot
• salt
• extravirgin olive oil
• (chili)

Break the bread into large pieces, put it in a large pot.

Blanch tomatoes in boiling water for 2 minutes, so that you can easily peel them. Deseed tomatoes, chop them and add them to the bread, togethr with garlic, basil leaves and salt. Cover with water.

There are various traditions: we use water, but you can use also light vegetable broth.

Let the soup simmer, stirring frequently so that the bread can become a mush. Let cook for about 30 minutes: it should be as in the picture above!

Set aside to cool and serve with some extra virgin olive oil and basil leaves. If you like it, you can add some chili.

* Tuscan bread is made without salt, this is the main characteristic of our bread.

** Tomato-bread soup is a dish that, with its semplicity, exalts tomato quality: we used florentine tomatoes, wonderful, with a red, firm and juicy pulp. They’re perfect in a salad or to make a sauce, not to mention pappa al pomodoro!

P.S. Just a remind! The poll for Gourmet Girl Magazine’s 2009 Summer Cupcake Crawl is now open! My Matcha and White Chocolate Cupcakes are waitinig for your kind support!! You can vote for me HERE!! You have time until 25 of July! THANK YOU!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: tomato-bread soup

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Breakfast is universally acknowledged as one of the main meals of the day: milk, coffee, fruit juices, cookies, brioches, and maybe yoghurt, home made jam and, why not, some pizza.

This is nowadays breakfast. In the past, when my grandma was a little child, it was totally different. They used to have panzanella (Tuscan bread salad) for breakfast. I love panzanella, because it’s refreshing, light and good, a summer dish… for lunch or dinner, not for breakfast!

Panzanella was summer breakfast, made with leftover bread. During the winter, they used to have polenta to start the day in a glorious way! It used to be audult people’s breakfast, grandma used to have milk instead – since they had a cow and a goat in the farm. Men who went to work in the fields at dawn made the panzanella in a lunch box and brought it with them in a basket. When breakfast time came, they used to eat the panzanella drinking some home made red wine.

Nowadays, panzanella is a refreshing first course to have in those first summer days.

Ingredients:

• stale Tuscan* bread, 300gr
• ripe tomatoes, 2
• Certaldo onion, 1
• basil, a lot
• salt
• extravirgin olive oil
• white vinegar

* Tuscan bread is made without salt, this is the main characteristic of our bread!

Break the bread into large pieces, put it in a large bowl and soak it with water, without dipping it into the water. They used to make panzanella with leftover home made baked bread: it had a very different and better flavour and took a lot of time to soak up.

Slice thinly the onion and drown it in cold water, to shade its strong taste. We used Certaldo onion, a round, sweet, juicy and light violet onion. Dice the tomatoes.

After 10 minutes, when the bread is soft, squeeze it, crumble it with your hands, put it in a large bowl and flavour with onion, tomato and basil, torn roughly with your hand.

Season with salt and plenty of extra virgin olive oil, then sprinkle with some white vinegar. In the past, as my grandma says, it used to be real wine vinegar, very good and light, as regards white vinegar. Don’t use the red one, or it will redden the bread! If you desire a very light vinegar, you can use also apple vinegar.

Set aside for half an hour, then it’s ready to be eaten!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: the “panzanella”

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::::: GREEN VELVETY SPICY SOUP :::::

Ingredients for 3 people:

• potato, 1 medium
  
• zucchini, 2 medium
  
• peas, 100 gr
• carrot, 1 medium
  
• white onion, 1/2
• extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon
• salt
• chive
• vegetable masala, 1 teaspoon (indian spices made from ccoriander, turmeric, cumin, mustard seeds, aniseed, fennel seeds, chilli, bay, curry leaves)

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a non stick pan and add the onion, thinly sliced.
Peel and cut into small chunks carrot, potatoes, zucchini and add them in the pan. Add the peas too. Add salt and spices. Cover with water and let simmer for about 20 minutes.
Remove from the heat and blend all the vegetales, adding a bit of water if you like it less firm.
Serve warm with a dollop of greek yoghut and some chive.
Good, really good, light, spicy. I had this soup for dinner and I wasn’t hungry till this morning (as it should be, but it doesn’t happen each and every time, isn’t it?!)

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Green velvet

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Ingredients (serves 4):

• quinoa, 300 gr
• peppers, 1 medium yellow and 1 medium red
• leek, 1
• shrimps without shells, 150gr (I used the frozen ones… sorry, nothing else in my kitchen!)
• turmeric powder, 1 tablespoon
• extravirgin olive oil
• salt

Soak the quinoa in advance, because it is covered with saponina, a foamy substance, and change the water 2 – 3 times.
Cook the quinoa in salted boiling water for 10 – 15 minutes, following the cooking instructions on the packaging.
In the meantime, heat a tablespoon of extravirgin olve oil in a non-stick pan and stew slowly the sliced leek, both green and white parts.
Add one or two tablespoons of water if the leek is getting too brown and dry, because it is supposed to be cooked slowly and get tender.
Then, add the sliced peppers and let them stew, using their own liquid. When they’re tender, add the shrimps and cook them all together for about 5 minutes. Season with salt.
Drain the quinoa and add it to the peppers.
Add a tablespoon of turmeric and toss the quinoa for a minute.
We enoyed the quinoa more the next day, cold or slightly warm, than the very evening. Luckly I had the chance to taste it!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Lost Quinoa

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A dinner to celebrate the simplicity and the mediterranean diet. You need just a few good things: pasta, tomato, extravirgin olive oil DOP and some mediterranean herbs as oregano and thyme.

TOMATO SAUCE WITH HERBS
Ingredients for 3 people:

• Pachino tomatoes, 20
• Garlic glove, 1
• Thyme, 1 teaspoon
• Oregano, 1 teaspoon
• Sodium bicarbonate, half teaspoon
• (rocket)
• Salt
• Extra virgin olive oil

Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a non stick saucepan with a garlic glove and sauté until it is slightly golden, then add chopped tomatoes, thyme, oregano, salt and a bit of sodium bicarbonate and cook until the tomatoes begin to melt. Serve the spaghetti with the tomato sauce and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.
You can add some fresh rocket at the end: it will exalt all the flavours.

(all you have at the end)

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Spaghetti mediterranei

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Ingrediens for 4 people:
basmati rice, 300gr
leek, 1 big (white and green parts)
shallot, 1 small
courgette, 1 small
savoy cabbage, 50 gr
egg, 1
cooked ham, 1 thick slice – 100 gr
peas, 100gr
extravirgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons
soy sauce, 3 tablespoons
salt, if necessary

Bring a stockpot of salted water to boil, put the rice in the boiling water and cook according to the indicated time on the packaging.
Slice the leek, the shallots, the courgette, the savoy cabbage and cut the cooked ham in little cubes. Heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan or in a wok and add the leek and the schallot finely sliced, then add the cabbage, the cooked ham and the peas (better if already cooked).
Lower the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the courgette is soft (but still a bit crunchy), adding at the end 3 tablespoons of soy sauce: season with salt only if necessary.
In the meantime, prepare an egg omelette, chop it and add it to the vegetables the wok.
Drain the basmati rice and add to the rest of the ingredients in the wok.
Sauté for a few minutes and serve immediately, drizzled with soy sauce.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Chinese Fried Rice

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