gennaio 18, 2011
Once in a while I feel like Greece, I feel one of those cravings deeply rooted in your stomach that makes you leaf through a written and bookmarked guide, daydreaming. How many times have I been to Greece? Well, let’s see, not counting that time when I came close to it but then I gave up because I couldn’t find a travel mate… more or less… never! Yes, I reckon it sounds a bit weird, but Your Honour and members of the Jury, this love has its good reasons, and if you grant me a little time I can explain you my good reasons!
First of all, I studied Ancient Greek at high school for 5 years. There was the aorist, the perfect and all those hypothetical periods not easy to understand, the Rocci dictionary that made me lose sleep, sense and diopters, irregular verbs and the metric… but along with these terrible threats there were poetry, drama, myth, beauty, culture, humor, deep passions, timeless art and philosophy. This caused a spark of curiosity that crept into my heart and into my head, I became curious to finally see and live that land that had so influenced my teenage years.
This is the noble, dignified and dignifying reason. Then there’s another one… I just feel like Toula Portokalos, but really so much! For those who do not remember Toula, she is the star of My Big fat Greek wedding.
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Posted in Autumn, Desserts, Pies and Tarts, Spring, Summer, Winter 
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gennaio 13, 2011
I believe that 2011 will be the year of the first times, I can feel it! On January the 1st I got up early (early given the dinner and party the night before), and I made my first ragù, the well renowned Italian meat sauce, with my grandma. I can see the scandal in your eyes: how can it be possible? you have been blogging for almost two years now, you hold your own Tuscan cooking classes and you dare say you have never made a meat sauce before? Candidly I will answer: no! No, because, in my opinion, the meat sauce is something that requires the dedication of a Sunday morning or of a holiday, it requires you to get up early and it necessitates your total attention.
They are mum or grandma who make ragù. I generally enter the kitchen and the meat sauce is already there, simmering on the stove. A pot partially covered, a mystery to me until a few days ago. Thanks to the time I had as a gift for Christmas (time, precious time, one of the most beautiful gifts, a little time for me and my passions), I decided it was the right moment to learn how to make our family meat sauce.
This is not the Bolognese sauce by the book… this is just the sauce I feel mine, the sauce of my mum, of my grandma and of those who sit at table with us. Now I’ll tell you how to make it step by step, as my grandma did with me in that wonderful morning!
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Posted in Autumn, Family recipes, Meat, Tuscan Recipes, Winter 16 Comments »
gennaio 10, 2011
1 – Buy a strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo). 2 - Revel myself in its good and fun fruit. 3 – Call it by its English name, strawberry tree, because it makes me happy and because I want to make friends with it.
These are my New Year’s resolutions. Everything happened in an instant. A dear family friend, Maura, gave me a jar of home-made strawberry tree jam. I tasted a spoonful, then another. Then I asked her where she had found those delicious berries. The next day I was happily picking arbutus berries in her garden and the very same day I was making jam. While bustling in the kitchen, I realized that I was falling in love with that sweet and grainy berries, beautifully fading from yellow to scarlet.
The arbutus, strawberry tree in English, seems a fairy tree or, better, the tree of snack baskets from The Wizard of Oz… it is, in itself, a magical tree because during autumn and winter it brings proudly on its branches at the very same time the leaves, the white flowers, which symbolize the hospitality, and the colorful and sweetish fruit.
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Posted in Preserves, Winter 30 Comments »
gennaio 6, 2011
This date is written in red on the calendar like every other holiday… yet it is not a common one! January the 6th is red, vivid among the first days of the year, the last day of a joyful carousel of many other jolly numbers as red as candy apples… but there’s something more behind its holiday appearance. December the 25th is a full holiday,with a sense in itself. January the 1st, again, is another holiday that makes sense on itself, standing at the beginning of the calendar, waiting for other red numbers to join the party. But what about January the 6th? What about La Befana (as we call this day)? The 6th is meant to be the last in line, the one that turns off the lights and closes the door.
And then, the silence.
Sadness? Absolutely not! A joyful holiday season is finished, this year more homely and warm than usual, but we’re ready to live another season just as good! Have you noticed that the days are getting longer bit by bit? The light is regaining its kingdom, the air smells of novelty, such as my diary with only a few appointments marked, New Year’s resolutions begin to come true… or maybe not… The important thing is that today starts a cycle that will lead us to talk about strawberries, ice cream and picnic blankets in the blink of an eye!
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Posted in Baked Good, Cookies, Desserts, Tuscan Recipes, Winter 17 Comments »
gennaio 3, 2011
A yawn, the smell of coffee coming from the kitchen, my eyes opening slowly on the new day and the new year begins. No fireworks, pin-wheels and spangles, this new year begins quiet, slow, curious, reflective and happy. This brand new year makes its first steps with sunny days and a new dress for Juls’ Kitchen, tailored again by Kia‘s magical hands in her haute couture tailor’s shop, a brighter and easier dress. I don’t know if it will be the final design, or whether it will evolve again, but I know that this dress it’s me, it is the 2011 Giulia, and it is a great achievement for me!
I’ve been thinking about the recipe that would have opened the 2011 and the new blog design and I finally chose the recipe that has had the leading role in my Christmas lunch and New Year’s Eve dinner, Cappelletti (fresh home-made pasta filled with a meat mixture typical of Emilia Romagna). I tasted the real Caplèt (how they call cappelletti in Emilia Romagna) years ago at Valli’s, one of my best friends, and since then I’ve dreamt of making them again. In our daily email exchange she kept telling us of the epic deeds of thousands of folded (and eaten) cappelletti, of the heavenly cappelletti filling scent that follows her from home to office, of the festive meals based on dishes full of cappelletti… I could not wait any longer, I had to have that recipe!
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Posted in Autumn, First course, Fresh Pasta, Spring, Summer, Winter 24 Comments »
Fishballs with milk mayonnaise
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