aprile 16, 2013

Well before dawn she packed her sack for a long day of mountain trekking: the proper shoes, a bottle of water, two sandwiches with cheese and walnuts made the evening before and a tin box with a dozen muffins dotted with chocolate chips. These things happen when a foodblogger packs for a walk.
When spring comes you can suddenly notice a burst of activity in our world, just as in Nature. While the trees are busy producing tender leaves that in a few days will explode in shady groves, we humans dust off the activities hung up in the cold winter months.
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Posted in Muffins and cupcakes
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aprile 10, 2013

News always scare me a little bit. Even more than a little bit to be honest. What is strange is that I also like the news, like a lot. I am always looking for something new, I hope that something will change, I hope to be surprised by new and unexpected things that give spice to life. And when they finally arrive, I am scared, I need time to get used to that.
I like to create my small personal routines that welcome in the morning and give me self-confidence during the day, so when something breaks the routine, well it makes me lose my balance. And that scares me. But on the other hand I am the first one aiming to break this balance – I try constantly even without realizing it – because this is what keeps you going and makes you discover other aspects of yourself and the outer world you would not know otherwise. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Meat
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aprile 3, 2013

It was not supposed to ba a blogpost, it should not even be a studied photo. It was a careless day with friends: it was warm, variable, with the blinding sun of the first spring days. We looked with concern at the heavy clouds running in the sky, we deserved at least a sunny day.
It was supposed to be an unpretentious crostata made with different leftover flour, an open jar of homemade blackberry jam and a bowl of strawberries left from a birthday cake. A humble cake to finish with something sweet a garden barbecue with Noa and Draco happily running in the background. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Cakes
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marzo 29, 2013

Let’s talk about tiramisu, this grey weather which was supposed to be a blooming spring is definitely calling for something decadent. A tiramisu – well dusted with cocoa powder and with an impressive mascarpone cream – is definitely one of the desserts that I just can not resist, I can surely list it among my favourite treats to indulge myself. Even though I have recently slightly changed my taste for sweets, turning into a love for wholesome cakes bursting with fruit, a cup of tiramisu is still one of the most immediate choices I make when I want to make me something special, to wrap my thoughts in a sweet numbness. A killing me softly kind of dessert.
Sunday will be Easter and I decided to celebrate with style and to surrender to my sweet tooth. With a sharp knife – warmed on the stove – I opened carefully the traditional chocolate Easter egg and filled it with lady fingers soaked in black coffee, thick layers of a velvety mascarpone cream, chips of dark chocolate to suprise your taste at every layer and a generous dusting of unsweetened cocoa powder to finish. Yes, a tiramisu enclosed in a chocolate egg. Call it decadent, call it a sensuous dream. I call it the perfect idea of tiramisu. Here you can find my recipe for our family tiramisu. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Desserts
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marzo 27, 2013

There are tears of joy, sorrow, disappointment, anger, crocodile tears and even chopped vegetable tears. These are traditional tears, a subtle alchemy given by chopped onions, wooden cutting board and a sharp knife. Before blenders there was this ancient ritual of hand-made battuto - vegetables minced by hand on a cutting board that year after year would slowly take a welcoming shape, becoming like a womb.
The battuto is a metaphor for life. You have many ingredients on a chopping board, they are colourful and with different textures, they seem not able to mingle into a single preparation, they tend to run away in each direction. Yet with patience, work, attention, care and even more patience to catch a runaway carrot, after a few minutes of work a heterogeneous collection of vegetables becomes a battuto made by the book, the starting point of many traditional recipes.
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Posted in Books, Vegetarian Recipes
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