settembre 6, 2011
I have been admiring Kulsum’s blog for months, in love with her Indian recipes, with that Middle Eastern hint that makes her tasty dishes even more interesting and appealing. How have I been able to meet Kulsum, born and brought up an Indian Bohra household in Kuwait? Twitter is the answer, and the reason I’m here today with a guest post regarding the Italian breakfast!
As a grown-up, my daily breakfast is now a cup of jasmine green tea with two slices of toasted bread and a translucent spread of home made jam, but as a child I adored the ciambellone, our home made and rustic ring cake, a classic of many Italian family breakfasts.
This is not a fancy cake, you won’t see this golden brown ring cake in a patisserie window next to glossy macarons and deep chocolate masterpieces. Tough, I assure you that you can find it on a morning breakfast table in many Italian houses, lovingly sliced by the caring hands of mothers for their sleepy children, or generously spread with home made fruit jam by hungry students ready to face a new day.
Follow me at Kulsum’s Journey Kitchen to read the recipe!
Posted in Autumn, Breakfast / Brunch, Cakes, Chocolate, Spring, Summer, Winter 
15 Comments »
settembre 5, 2011
A dish of pasta, a good deal of intense red and glossy tomato sauce, a generous sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top and some basil leaves, a charm to give that extra balsamic touch to turn a simple dish of pasta into a memorable dish of spaghetti, a dream come true for many foreigners passing through Italy. Someone will fall in love with the incredible food tasted in a hidden restaurant, someone with the white country roads, someone else with smiling deep brown eyes, another one with the magnificence of the ruins of ancient cultures, someone will eventually decide to stay. The others will go home bearing in their hearts a warm and happy feeling due most of the time to what they’ve seen or, more often, eaten and drunk.
Why foreign people are so fascinated by the Italian gastronomic culture, or rather, by the Italian food? Yes, let’s keep it simple, not grand theories and systems, but what will concretely be in the plate in front of their eyes, with that good smell that evokes many memories, all different but all equally comforting.
I have often asked this question: I found the answer a few weeks ago during a cooking class with some people from Los Angeles.
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Posted in Family recipes, Preserves, Summer, Vegetarian Recipes 46 Comments »
settembre 1, 2011
I am fond of hedgerows, they have always had a powerful appeal on me. They grow patiently along the roads, or between the fields, every year they change colours according to the seasons and offer a shelter to small animals. They stand there, casting a mysterious spell on what lies beneath, hidden from the view of common people. They scents of wood, of fresh green, of ancient people.
I love the Tuscan hedgerows, so irregular, they draw the boundaries between fields of wheat, fields of sunflowers and fields at rest, they are made of bushes and trees that stand out among the thorns. They represent home and safety, being the hedges that surround you and protect you, crowded with fireflies in the hot season.
(she’s my mum!)
I love the English hedgerows, unwinding along the country roads, shaded by leafy trees and revealing small cottages and green meadows where horses and cows graze. Those, to me, are the mysterious hedges that hide and give you hint on different stories and other possible endings.
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Posted in Baked Good, Desserts, Pies and Tarts, Summer 32 Comments »
agosto 29, 2011
When a month ago I took the first breath of the evening fresh air and looked at my four weeks of holidays unwinding in front of my eyes, I suddenly felt a child again, full of projects and ideas scribbled down on sheets of notebook paper. The time expanded and I could not see the end of my vacation beyond the map of my journey.
Then, in the twinkling, here I am again, back to the starting point. I am still not completely aware of what has happened between that first night of holidays and this morning, when I left my light dresses and my flip flops for a more appropriate business clothing.
If I had a magic wand, I would like to live again this past month, I would press rewind on a remote control and review a few scenes that made me laugh so much, or moved me to tears. I would savour again my thirtieth birthday cake or the evening green tea in London, the first beer in Germany with my sister Claudia or the sweet idleness of a few gifted days. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in About me, Drinks, Summer, Travel 45 Comments »
agosto 23, 2011
Last week I made a guest post for Flipkey, a travel website whose blog features local secrets that travelers might not know about. I wrote about one of the most typical Tuscan fresh pasta, pici… do you want to have a look, or better, a taste? Go to Flipkey blog to discover other interesting and unusual points of view over Tuscany!
So, we were talking about pici… this is a dish really rooted in my geographical area… or better, to be precise, time-honoured in Siena and in all the south part of the Siena area. I am talking about the beautiful Val d’Orcia and of all the wonderful small medieval villages that have remained unchanged for centuries.
A few years ago I made a Val d’Orcia tour with some friends and we stopped over in Bagno Vignoni for dinner. It is really the most enchanting village I have ever visited. The beautiful medieval square is filled with a huge swimming pool of thermal water. The four of us had pici as our pasta dish at a local restaurant: pici are big, thick, hand-made spaghetti, typical of the country tradition of homemade pasta. They are made just of flour and water. If you want to make fresh pasta, begin with pici, they are extremely easy to make! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in First course, Fresh Pasta, Tuscan Recipes 7 Comments »
Chickpea crêpes with rosemary mashed potatoes and bacon
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